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Post by therealcomicman117 on Jul 9, 2024 6:07:49 GMT
Kevin Costner's newest western is certainly a spectacle in terms of scope,, though the digital is distracting, but as a narrative, it feels like it's trying to chew off a whole lot more than it can offer. It has, if anything the complete inverse problem these 3 hour movies are usually accused of being. Still, I enjoyed it overall. www.dansden.net/reviews/s6y68dkz753srcxmdac59r4nmp6nkc
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Jul 9, 2024 15:17:27 GMT
I'm waiting for Part II so I can watch them together.
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Post by Martin Stett on Jul 9, 2024 23:19:20 GMT
This movie is three hours long, and nothing happens.
I really, really like it.
It's long, and nothing connects, and there is practically zero narrative momentum to actually push anything forward. The whole of the wagon train plot can be summed up as "they move from point A to... a little bit closer to point B."
This movie is three hours of worldbuilding, creating an environment for its characters to live in. None of the characters are pushing forward a traditional A-to-B-to-C narrative, they're just living in this world. And the movie does a great job of showing the world, this picture of the western frontier and how all these different peoples view it.
I'm not sure what to rate this as a movie, because it isn't one. It's an installment in a larger story, and the strength of the whole saga will determine the strength of individual installments. At the moment, this is fantastic stuff. (Although the digital look is ugly - I can only imagine how breathtaking this would be on proper film.)
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Post by JangoB on Jul 16, 2024 21:06:41 GMT
Me loving this is almost as predictable as the thing flopping at the box office. Of course it goddamn flopped, being this beautifully old-fashioned (right down to the lush, never-stops-and-you-don't-want-it-to orchestral score) and even downright lyrical at times. This isn't what the modern audiences want, or are used to, and the project is all the better for it. Well, for me anyway. I couldn't get enough of luxuriating in Costner's unhurried depiction of these people's everyday lives, so much so that pretty much the only real flaw I found in the film is that it ended. Or maybe 'stopped' is the better word... But I knew what I was in for so I was prepared for that. I only wish Costner found a way to sculpt that ending a little bit better, so that it would have more of a sense of closure for this particular chapter, like the LOTR movies managed to do. But that's about the only gripe I have.
I'm also a bit surprised to see negative comments about the digital photography... I dunno guys, the movie looked quite fantastic on my TV. This ain't some grey, washed-out mush we often see these days - the vistas are spectacular, the colors pop (can't remember when I last saw yellow leaves look this yellow) and I believe the nighttime scenes give a pretty good impression of how it would actually look like being out in those open spaces after dark.
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Post by Martin Stett on Jul 16, 2024 22:00:00 GMT
Me loving this is almost as predictable as the thing flopping at the box office. Of course it goddamn flopped, being this beautifully old-fashioned (right down to the lush, never-stops-and-you-don't-want-it-to orchestral score) and even downright lyrical at times. This isn't what the modern audiences want, or are used to, and the project is all the better for it. Well, for me anyway. I couldn't get enough of luxuriating in Costner's unhurried depiction of these people's everyday lives, so much so that pretty much the only real flaw I found in the film is that it ended. Or maybe 'stopped' is the better word... But I knew what I was in for so I was prepared for that. I only wish Costner found a way to sculpt that ending a little bit better, so that it would have more of a sense of closure for this particular chapter, like the LOTR movies managed to do. But that's about the only gripe I have. I'm also a bit surprised to see negative comments about the digital photography... I dunno guys, the movie looked quite fantastic on my TV. This ain't some grey, washed-out mush we often see these days - the vistas are spectacular, the colors pop (can't remember when I last saw yellow leaves look this yellow) and I believe the nighttime scenes give a pretty good impression of how it would actually look like being out in those open spaces after dark. "Ugly" was too strong a word in my comment. Rather, I think this would have looked MUCH BETTER on film.
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Post by stephen on Jul 19, 2024 1:41:09 GMT
I am a huge sucker for Westerns and I was really jazzed to see this. And true to my expectations, this feels very much like Costner's ode to How the West Was Won -- if Tarantino was allowed to do 70mm for The Hateful Eight (the absolute wrong Western to break out that format), then the Cost should've been allowed to resurrect Cinerama. Because there are some truly lovely vistas that I think would've been absolutely transcendent in that style.
The problem is, I do agree that the structure of the storytelling kind of undercuts this as a complete film, much like Dune: Part One feels incomplete by design, to the point that I can't really accurately convey how I feel about this as a single outing because it is entirely about setting up dominoes to fall in future films. There's a few through-lines that I quite enjoyed for their relative completeness, primarily the story of Scott Haze's scalphunting party which really evoked the grim harshness of the era. (Obviously I will be happy to see anything that is tangentially thematically connected to Blood Meridian.) But the bulk of the film is all set-up, and while I am intrigued, I am also left unsatisfied. This is akin to making a grand five-star meal and allowing me to walk through the kitchen as it's being prepared, but not allowed to sample anything.
Lovely costumes, though, and full props for allowing Michael Rooker to do that Irish accent in the grand tradition of Kevin Conway.
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Post by TylerDeneuve on Jul 19, 2024 13:48:55 GMT
Lovely costumes, though... Was this a nod to... ![](https://i.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExYmFnOHZ4YzRia3hmamdjYzU0dTRnaHhrY2gwcmV4YjAwbmNpejZ1cCZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/g6Tf0tYe9XbnYZgK6B/giphy.gif) ?
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Post by stephen on Jul 19, 2024 13:52:20 GMT
Lovely costumes, though... Was this a nod to... ![](https://i.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExYmFnOHZ4YzRia3hmamdjYzU0dTRnaHhrY2gwcmV4YjAwbmNpejZ1cCZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/g6Tf0tYe9XbnYZgK6B/giphy.gif) ? I don't get the reference. I will say, Abbey Lee does have a pretty sweet dress in this that would be the envy of Joanie Stubbs.
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Post by mhynson27 on Jul 19, 2024 14:02:47 GMT
"Great gowns. Beautiful gowns" is ICONIC. For shame Stephen, for shame ![:P](//storage.proboards.com/6692321/images/cA8ED42py2XIGMrRQ1mH.gif)
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Post by stephen on Jul 19, 2024 15:00:32 GMT
"Great gowns. Beautiful gowns" is ICONIC. For shame Stephen, for shame ![:P](//storage.proboards.com/6692321/images/cA8ED42py2XIGMrRQ1mH.gif) ![](https://media.tenor.com/3VAv7e3bwasAAAAe/king-of-the-hill-jpeg.png)
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Post by quetee on Jul 19, 2024 19:46:13 GMT
I mean it is shameful not to know what that means. Haha. I love saying it.
RIP to the Queen of Shade.
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Post by TylerDeneuve on Jul 19, 2024 19:53:50 GMT
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