The thread where you embarass yourself with movies you've never seen

Started by Pas, April 28, 2010, 12:17:01 PM

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Jeremy Blackman

Quote from: classical gas on July 19, 2014, 10:24:26 AM
I'm not embarrassed about this, but I have never seen Crash, and yet I still tell people that it sucks.  Is that okay?  I've read about it and seen the reviews and sample dialogue and a few scenes.  That's enough, isn't it?  Or should I just watch it so I can confidently tell people that it sucks?

ps--I usually don't prejudge movies like this, but I made an exception for this one.

edit--2004 Crash, not the other one.

Yes, you are absolutely allowed to do that in this case.

wilberfan

Recently encountered Quentin's essay on Once Upon a Time in the West, and realized I'd never seen it!  I thought, given the run-up to his "...Hollywood" next month, perhaps I should assign myself the homework of getting around to it.  Found it online, but then noticed that the New Bev was running it this weekend--and with QT's personal print.  Perfect opportunity!  Sold-out, but I juuuuust made the cutoff and got inside.

For whatever reason I never saw it back in the day.  And didn't really know a lot about it other than it's status as a game-changer.  Nothing against Westerns as a genre--I've seen all the classics and enjoyed them--but I guess I wasn't into the spaghetti sub-genre at the time (I was in high school), and never got around to it as an adult.

I'm a little chagrined to admit that I was disappointed.   

Smiled thru the famous opening sequence (loved Elam and the Fly bit), but it started dragging for me about 20 minutes in.  I remember gritting my teeth to avoid looking at my watch, but finally did and we were only 2 hours in.

I could see intellectually why many consider it a classic, but I was never emotionally engaged or enthralled at any point.  Bronson was such a cipher, that there was not much to root for there.  (Maybe that was the point?)  I think I connected with Robard's character the most--and I did like Fonda's casting-against-type.   Not a lot of plot, and Leone took his damn sweet time with what little there was.

By the end I felt every single one of the 165 minutes.  I kept thinking, "Sergio, baby, you could cut at least an hour out of this...", but then, of course, it wouldn't be the epic that so many people love. 

Not sorry I went--good for the ol' Cinema Education--but at this point I don't think I'll have the urge to see it again, for example.  And I enjoyed the Sergio Leone Primer that the guy next to me offered when I asked what it was about Leone that made him so popular.  I stayed up rather later than I should have reading about the film.  Which reminds me that there are some OUATW docs on Youtube that I'm going to check out.