This Movie Is Just My Style

C

combatentropy

Veteran
What movie do you keep coming back to? What movie would you play in the background when there's nothing else on? Which movie resonates with you most? Don't overthink it.

Mine is Presumed Innocent, which somewhat surprises me. I think it's good if yours somewhat surprises you. I guess it is because of the minimalism of Gordon Willis's style. Pakula is a director who concentrates on the actors and lets the D.P. control the look. Great music by John Williams. Don't get me wrong, it's not how I would have adapted the the novel, in so many ways, but it's serene.
 
Last edited:
Trying not to overthink it, but your question is very unclear - to me (maybe clear to others). Namely this part "What movie would you play in the background when there's nothing else on?" Huh? I mean, I don't play movies in the background - what I play in the background is music, but not film. There are many movies I come back to, but none that I put in the background while I putter about doing something else... that's not what a movie experience is to me (not judging, just reporting my take). Background is stuff that's meant not to be paid full attention to. Brian Eno's concept of background music - ambient music - is what I think of, and on the visual side, his 77 million paintings which is a painting on a large monitor that keeps changing, a painting you're supposed to treat the same way you'd treat ambient music, without paying full attention.

So, if I take out the "in the background" part - which I can't make heads or tails of - then any number of movies. For me it's more something else - I keep coming back to specific scenes and sequences in movies much more than whole movies, although there are movies I keep coming back to as well. If I had to estimate, I'd say I may watch a specific sequence 20 times for every time that I'd watch a whole movie. But I don't know if that qualifies, so I'll leave it at that. Good topic though!
 
How about, is there a movie you have played once or twice when you're bored or can't fall asleep?

I don't get bored, ever, so that's not an issue (the same way some folks never get headaches), but sure there are movies I come back to, when it's quiet around and I feel like watching a film, but those are not necessarily masterpieces, instead, kind of films to just watch. And those are often films by Rohmer, especially "Claire's Knee", "Chloe in the Afternoon" and "Pauline At The Beach". There are a few others - it's when I'm not "studying" a movie, just experiencing it, without obligation or aim.
 
Something I find interesting about your choice is the radical change that was made from the book. Don’t read further if you don’t want a spoiler reveal on this 29-year old movie or the 32-year old book it’s based upon.

In the movie, near the end Rusty (Harrison Ford) finds the murder weapon in his workshop and realizes that his wife had committed the crime and tried to frame him. But she had purposefully done it poorly because she knew he was a brilliant lawyer and would find a way to make sure he wouldn’t be convicted. He forgives her jealous murderous act and they keep their secret, the end.

In the book, we the reader discover in the last few pages that Rusty figures out that it was his wife, but had done so more than 100 pages ago. He was an unreliable narrator (the book is written from his point of view) and he had been keeping this information from the reader since about page 100, in hindsight the end of the first act. This makes the reader want to go back and reread and re-evaluate everything they’d read. Rusty had not been protecting himself, he’d been protecting his wife while still trying to save himself from conviction.

It’s a HUGE difference. I think the filmmakers felt that they didn’t want to make Harrison Ford starring character a dishonest one. They may have also feared confusing the audience. As it is, the movie is a solid procedural and its straightforwardness makes it that easy watch described in the original post above. But the twist of the unreliable narrator reveal made the book one of the best of the 80s.
 
Last edited:
ROT13-encoded spoilers to Presumed Innocent:

Gunaxf, Zvgpu. V arire svavfurq gur obbx ohg ernq lbhe fcbvyref naljnl. Gung vf n dhvgr n ybbc-gur-ybbc!

Zl znva qvfnccbvagzrag jnf va fbzr bs gur pnfgvat. Oevna Qraarul naq Cnhy Jvasvryq ner tbbq npgbef, ohg V unq n uneq gvzr oryvrivat gurl unq n eryngvbafuvc jvgu ure. Avpb naq Gbzzl pnzr npebff nf irezva. Va gur abiry Avpb jnf unaqfbzr naq punezvat, naq V sryg gung vg jbhyq unir orra zber vagrerfgvat vs obgu jrer cynhfvoyr fhfcrpgf.
 
Not exactly what the OP is asking, but along the lines... Tombstone and Gladiator. If I’m flipping through the channels on the sat and I run across one of them, it’s staying there.
 
movies to have on in the background..........so many days years ago half watching Groundhog Day, Starship Troopers, Mars Attacks, When Harry met Sally, they were always on weekend TV and I only had a few channels. I did have a VHS of Lynch's Dune that was also in heavy rotation. Not my picks just what was offered!
 
Since I managed a video department at a chain store in the late 1980s and had a wall of 300 TVs showing video every day of my working life for two years, no, I cannot ever put on video wallpaper and not "watch it". When I watch a movie or TV show, I am 100% engrossed and concentrating. Other than that, I would like to nuke all televisions and computer screens, I was very much like
Alex in "A Clockwork Orange" being forced to watch video a terribly unhealthy amount for months on end. Coincidentally, one of my regular customers was Macolm McDowell. I think the universe was trying to tell me something.
 
One movie I have to come back to over and over again is "In Bruges." Just an amazing payoff on all the little funny bits. Also any guy ritchie gangster film.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top