It kinda seems like when people say a piece of art has a "point" they actually mean that whatever it has to say can be boiled down to a short phrase that would fit on a bumper sticker. Thus making bumper stickers the only form of art that doesn't waste your time.
Inside Llewyn Davis just stabbed me in the heart. I think it may have been saying "someone else's life is bleaker than yours and they're being more of an asshole about it." I didn't have a bleak life at the time I watched it, but I did know a little bit about having one. One of my favorite movies of all time.
I loved O Brother, as did my then-toddler (she loved the music and would get very upset every time she saw the scene where the KKK guy tries to interrupt the Soggy Bottom Boys).
I think I am one of the few who loved Ladykillers. It helps that I lived in the deep south for awhile.
The Ladykillers is one of two that don't work for me -- Burn After Reading is the other. Though I grew up largely in the south and have spent most of my adulthood in DC, so...go figure!
lol my kids loved it-i used to have it playing in the background a lot and they loved the music. They also didn’t pay a ton of attention to it but liked what they noticed. They were like 5 and under. Maybe later too. If i had time i’d fast forward john goodman smashing their faces with a stick. Anyway it’s good to see i wasn’t the only parent
I thought Barton Fink’s other message was “Studio executives are assholes, especially ones as brilliantly portrayed by Michael Lerner”; for Hail, Caesar! it was “there really were Communists at work in Hollywood.”
I think a movie can have more than one message. It's just a shame that they can't have more than one Michael Lerner.
One thing I love about Hail, Caesar! is that they make fun of Hollywood communists. That's a real type of person -- I'm in the WGA, I've met the modern-day version of those guys! And yes, the writers of that era had a First Amendment right to believe whatever they wanted, and yes, McCarthy persecuted them in a paranoid and awful way...but there were communists! And they spout confused nonsense just like in the movie! Which absolutely deserves to be mocked but never is.
🤣. You know what's funny, that Dalton Trumbo movie with Heisenberg in it, is very well made and entertaining on it's own terms. But boy, it really does skirt the problem that they really were advocating a terrible thing that killed a bunch of people. At one point, his young daughter is asking what communism is and he implies it's something innocuous like "give unto others" or " share and share alike."
No man, it isn't.😬
The character played by Louie CK kind of alludes to the hypocrisy of Limousine Communists but it's very underplayed. Which is fine, to me the point is, free speech protects dumb and wrong speech as well, but it's not like the Hollywood Ten were Right is some larger sense.
Jeff, just a heads up, if you don't happen to share my opinion that A Serious Man is a tragically underrated near masterpiece, I will likely come to believe you are an anti-art dilettante who possibly hates Jews.
In my own likely ignorant personal opinion I think a lot of folks think way too much about movies and other entertainment. In general I watch a movie to be entertained. I rarely think much about what I just saw other than, “I enjoyed that” (mostly) or, on rare occasions, “That was weird.”
Occasionally a movie or show will beat you over the head with its message. And on occasion one will fuck up the message somewhat hilariously.
I recall walking out of a theater after seeing The China Syndrome arguing with friends that, [spoiler alert] after all the shenanigans the fictional bad guys pulled, the nuclear reactor STILL DIDN’T MELT DOWN.
I was shouted down. Such is the fate of a reasonable man in today’s (well, several decades ago) society.
It kinda seems like when people say a piece of art has a "point" they actually mean that whatever it has to say can be boiled down to a short phrase that would fit on a bumper sticker. Thus making bumper stickers the only form of art that doesn't waste your time.
Inside Llewyn Davis just stabbed me in the heart. I think it may have been saying "someone else's life is bleaker than yours and they're being more of an asshole about it." I didn't have a bleak life at the time I watched it, but I did know a little bit about having one. One of my favorite movies of all time.
My other favorite is Burn after Reading. I love the emotional spectrum from sad hopelessness to funny hopelessness.
I still don't know why I couldn't get into Burn After Reading. I've watched it three times...nothin'. One of the big mysteries of my life.
oh brother is the best
Agreed! But it's one of the eight that -- for me, anyway -- doesn't have a message. And that's fine! Movies without messages can still be really good!
i actually never thought about their messages before, yes i agree that it doesn’t appear that oh brother had any message
I loved O Brother, as did my then-toddler (she loved the music and would get very upset every time she saw the scene where the KKK guy tries to interrupt the Soggy Bottom Boys).
I think I am one of the few who loved Ladykillers. It helps that I lived in the deep south for awhile.
The Ladykillers is one of two that don't work for me -- Burn After Reading is the other. Though I grew up largely in the south and have spent most of my adulthood in DC, so...go figure!
lol my kids loved it-i used to have it playing in the background a lot and they loved the music. They also didn’t pay a ton of attention to it but liked what they noticed. They were like 5 and under. Maybe later too. If i had time i’d fast forward john goodman smashing their faces with a stick. Anyway it’s good to see i wasn’t the only parent
I thought Barton Fink’s other message was “Studio executives are assholes, especially ones as brilliantly portrayed by Michael Lerner”; for Hail, Caesar! it was “there really were Communists at work in Hollywood.”
I think a movie can have more than one message. It's just a shame that they can't have more than one Michael Lerner.
One thing I love about Hail, Caesar! is that they make fun of Hollywood communists. That's a real type of person -- I'm in the WGA, I've met the modern-day version of those guys! And yes, the writers of that era had a First Amendment right to believe whatever they wanted, and yes, McCarthy persecuted them in a paranoid and awful way...but there were communists! And they spout confused nonsense just like in the movie! Which absolutely deserves to be mocked but never is.
Edward Dmytryk’s book Odd Man Out: A Memoir of the Hollywood Ten (he was one of them till he wasn’t ) lays out the issues with unsparing nuance.
Going on my reading list, too -- thanks!
Adding this title to my to-be-read list, thanks
🤣. You know what's funny, that Dalton Trumbo movie with Heisenberg in it, is very well made and entertaining on it's own terms. But boy, it really does skirt the problem that they really were advocating a terrible thing that killed a bunch of people. At one point, his young daughter is asking what communism is and he implies it's something innocuous like "give unto others" or " share and share alike."
No man, it isn't.😬
The character played by Louie CK kind of alludes to the hypocrisy of Limousine Communists but it's very underplayed. Which is fine, to me the point is, free speech protects dumb and wrong speech as well, but it's not like the Hollywood Ten were Right is some larger sense.
But Raising Arizona!
Jeff, just a heads up, if you don't happen to share my opinion that A Serious Man is a tragically underrated near masterpiece, I will likely come to believe you are an anti-art dilettante who possibly hates Jews.
No pressure. 🤣🤣
As it happens, I do share that opinion. This blog was almost called "The Goy's Teeth".
Whew😁
Great start to my day. Thanks Maurer. This one was awesome. Look forward to part two and three.
In my own likely ignorant personal opinion I think a lot of folks think way too much about movies and other entertainment. In general I watch a movie to be entertained. I rarely think much about what I just saw other than, “I enjoyed that” (mostly) or, on rare occasions, “That was weird.”
Occasionally a movie or show will beat you over the head with its message. And on occasion one will fuck up the message somewhat hilariously.
I recall walking out of a theater after seeing The China Syndrome arguing with friends that, [spoiler alert] after all the shenanigans the fictional bad guys pulled, the nuclear reactor STILL DIDN’T MELT DOWN.
I was shouted down. Such is the fate of a reasonable man in today’s (well, several decades ago) society.