Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (120fps version)

[agcohn]

Saw Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk over the weekend at the Cinerama Dome in 120fps, and I must say that it was painfully bad, both in terms of the film and the technical aspects of the frame-rate. The film was odd to begin with, and the frame-rate made it even worse, killing any and all dramatic gravitas there might have been. The whole thing looked strange and cheap, like behind-the-scenes footage of the actors, instead of the actual footage. The frame-rate made the performances all feel fake and staged.

The only scenes that even remotely worked were the war scenes, and there was only one shot in the entire film that I felt might have benefited from the frame-rate: a shot of soldier bleeding out on the ground, in which the flow of the blood did appear more real than anything I've seen before in a film.

Otherwise, it was quite painful to watch, both in terms of the failure to connect to the actors or the story, but also in eye-strain.

 

[aly324]

The story is a lot about how society creates myths and dramas from humble memories, glorify war, and create heroes from individuals, how these myths can invade and replace subjective experiences and truths.

The eerie surreality of 4K 120P helps to enhance these themes, and in fact is integral to these themes. Ang Lee was already going for something like this with Life of Pi, whose ending subverts the believability of the whole story. Billy Lynn was a fuller expression of it.

So I think the "killing" of "the dramatic gravitas" and the stagedness was very much purposeful.

I rather liked Billy Lynn, but regardless of our subjective judgment I think we can recognize at least Ang Lee was doing *something* more meaningful and thoughtful with the technology--at least he's trying to create a new cinematic language for expressive and dare I say even philosophical purposes.