re: Shakespeare in Love

I hated on SIL for years without ever having seen it. When I finally sat down to watch it I couldn't believe how snarky I had been. It was a great movie.

For me its a movie that suffered from repeated viewings. If i only saw it once, i think it would have been better, because the action scenes and especially the open were so intense. Except I always hated the "current day" scenes.

ETA: i feel the same way about the old lady scenes in Titanic, drives me bats

quote:

---

I wasnt bashing

---

That wasn't directed at you, someone else popped in for a drive by posting and left apparently.

If SPR had won BP, i wouldn't have a problem with that, its the type of movie that usually does win stuff like that.

I think SIL was highly original and also unfairly hated upon. I did see both before the Oscars that year, a rarity for me even back then I think i saw all 5 movies that were nominated, or at least 4 of the 5.

I agree there is a difference between bashing and criticism and largely I was giving you shite.

There are problems with SPR, as there are problems with every film, but it is also one of the best films to have been made in the last 20 years.

The only thing about the opening and ending scenes that was not good, imo, was the actor who was supposed to be Matt Damon. Old dude didn't do very well.

But there are so many memorable scenes outside of that and even outside of the first 20 minutes, it's not really even funny.

When Vin Diesel is trying to get the note to his father to his buddy while shot and bleeding to death under sniper fire.

When Giovanni Ribisi exclaims "OH GOD! MY LIVER!"

Opum letting the Nazi run up the stairs because he's too paralyzed with fear (even thinking about it makes my blood boil).

Matt Damon having bullets sprayed all around him as he sits in a fetal position screaming while we see and hear through Hanks' POV.

The acting is superb. Hanks is fantastic. Damon is great. Even the bit parts, like Paul Giamatti are great. There was no real lull in the film and it was terrifically paced, with a unique (as you said) faded film approach that gave the movie an authentic feel. Everything about SPR felt real, even if you don't think the mission itself seemed real (me personally, I could see it happening).

At the end of the day, to me, SPR holds up even after multiple viewings like Braveheart and other action films that have a real heart to them.

In other words, you're entitled to your opinion, but SPR is a far superior to 98% of the films created in the past 20 years, maybe more. It has nothing to do with the WWII setting or the D-Day Invasion, and everything to do with its mechanics, with the superb acting, directing, and story that presented memorable character after memorable character seamlessly and effortlessly, right down to the German soldier they capture and have dig the graves.

I agree with just about everything you said about SPR, I don't get what the hell they are talking about.

quote:

---

I largely agree.

---

i third this motion

Opum's character actually gets to everything I dislike about the film. He's the effete intellectual who is too big of a pussy to actually fight for his country, unlike the true Americans who are salt of the earth. It's just offensive. Like, World War I didn't crank out a high amount of great poets who fought with valor in that war.

It's just lazy. It's picking on the weak, nerdy kid in the audience, telling him that while these more virile men have bravery and courage, you're just a weak coward because you went to college.

The WWII cottage industry of the "Greatest Generation" is essentially the Baby Boomers growing up and realizing what jackasses they were to their parents, so they better apologize before they die. Since I'm not the one with daddy issues, I'm not really interested in the haliography. But Opum represents the Baby Boomers, who dodged the draft and went to college and are less of a man than those heroes who fought the Nazis. It is the ultimate in Spielberg wallowing in self-pity and talking about what a loser and a coward he is.

Opum is not only unnecessary as a character, he's downright offensive, as if one can't be both brave and intellectual. But he's in the film because after the Normandy Beach sequence, this is not a film so much about WWII, but about Baby Boomers feeling guilty about disrespecting their fathers. Which reaches its apex at the coda scene, which is cringe-inducingly terrible. Opum takes me out of the film almost entirely.

Hell, I think Affliction was the best movie from that year, and it didn't even get nominated for Best Picture (though James Coburn won for Supporting Actor).

quote:

---

Opum is not only unnecessary as a character, he's downright offensive, as if one can't be both brave and intellectual.

---

This is where you lose me. I think you are wrong for two reasons:

1. As Captain Miller clearly shows, one CAN be both brave and an intellectual at the same time. He was obviously college educated, like Upham, and was also a school teacher. If that doesn't scream "intellectual" then I don't know what else does.

2. Upham is an essential character in the film as he is the one who helps flesh out the character of John H. Miller. They both identify with each other as they are both intellectuals and they seem to form some kind of bond that isn't present with the other men in the squad.

Upham was a non-combatant, having not held a rifle since basic training. The only reason he was pulled into the mission is because the translators Miller had in his company had been killed. Because he wasn't one of them, and because the guy had not seen a lick of action, the veteran guys in the squad were destined to pick on him.

Despite his weak and cowardly nature, Upham becomes the moral compass of Miller's unit on their quest to find Ryan. In fact…I would argue Upham is most instrumental in making the key part of the story happen. After Wade is killed in their assault on the German machine gun position everyone, including Miller, wanted to execute the German POW on the spot. Upham was able to change Miller's mind and the German soldier is set free. As we all know, this same German soldier goes on to be the one who fires the fatal shot that kills Captain John H. Miller.

My favorite scene of the movie is the one where Upham, having listened to Mellish getting killed from the confines of the stairwell, stares up at the offending German. Upham has a clear shot at this guy. The German has no rifle, just his bayonet, and is completely and utterly defenseless. Upham, however, breaks down into tears as he finds himself unable to take the man's life and allows the German soldier to pass him on the stairwell to continue the fight against his comrades in arms.