comment #1

Patrick says ...

I've seen the trailer several times now on one of
my HD-networks. Each time I can't get over how
HORRID Sean Penn IS and how bland the overall
piece appears to be. This has 'The Human Stain'
written all over it. Put a bunch of big names
together with a famous piece of writing, but in
the end nothing works. I can't wait for this to
bomb.

comment #2

Kristopher Tapley says ...

What a defeatist attitude. Why would anyone WANT something to bomb, unless they have personal disregard for people involved in the project or something.

comment #3

Mike Gebert says ...

I'd be happy to be surprised and for this to turn out to be good, but if there's anything that spells deadly bore on the screen, it's a slice of serious Americana set in that 30s where the light is golden, the cars are museum pieces, and the people are all dressed for a Dorothea Lange photograph. Think of real movies from the 30s-- smart comedies like My Man Godfrey and Theodora Goes Wild, zippy cynical pre-Codes like Baby Face, Heroes For Sale, Female... Then look at Seabiscuit, Cinderella Man, The Road to Perdition, hell, even King Kong... where'd they get the idea the Depression was so damn sober and dull?

comment #4

Anonymous says ...

I just watched the trailer for the first time.
Is Sean Penn doing an Al Pacino impersonation?
Hey, but you know it's going to be good because it has eight award winning/nominated actors in it.
Looks like it was directed by Rob Reiner.
Who is Steve Zaillian again and why was he given so much money to make a movie?
I agree with Mike Gebert, about that cliched Golden Light thing that is supposed to signify "the past."
Is Sean Penn doing an impersonation of Al Pacino impersonating Bono.
And yes I have a defeatist attitude. I want movies to bomb because I am jealous of movie stars and I wish I was rich and famous and James Gandolfini gave my mother a golden shower.

comment #5

Anonymous says ...

zzzzzzzzzzzzzz ....

comment #6

Pedro says ...

If this was really the nuts would they have pulled it, re-edited it, and then sat on it for 9 months, bypassing Cannes along the way?

I don't THINK so.

The fact is Zallian is a mediocre director at best, and this material is out of his league. I mean, look at A Civil Action. Most filmmakers could have put that one across in their sleep, and in his hands it barely had an emotional pulse.

comment #7

BL says ...

Mr. Gelbart:

Um, I think you have things turned around, the Dorthea Lange photos (not to mention Walker Evans among many others) are the REALITY - the movies like "My Man Godfrey" are the fantasy-

WHOOPS, come to think of it, "My Man Godfrey" has a lengthy sequence about impoverished down-and-out victims of the depressiont, hmmm...nothing very escapist about THAT.

And have you even SEEN "Heroes for Sale". That film is remarkably grim and 'sober', as are many other Warner's pictures of the 30's like "Wild Boys of the Road"

Honest to god, man, maybe consider WATCHING the movies before you cite them as examples of something that they are NOT.

As for the whole golden light thing, "Bonnie and Clyde" seems to set that up as a convention and it has stuck. I don't mind - though it would be cooler if they were shot in black and white.

As for Sean Penn. That guy isn't bad, but he is incredibly overrated. His wife is really a lot better actor - too bad she doesn't seem to get handed the same kind of golden opportunities her husband does.

comment #8

Larry says ...

Heroes For Sale and Wild Boys Of The Road are delirious films that really move, unlike borefests such as Seabiscuit, Cinderella Man and The Road to Perdition

comment #9

Mike Gebert says ...

"Mr. Gelbart"

Believe me, I wish I had his royalties...

Yeah, I know Dorothea Lange was real. I was referring, somewhat unclearly perhaps, to the studied look of movies like Seabiscuit, where you know that the art director is so closely copying historical models like Lange. That's when the effort to evoke the period becomes inert and dramatically deadly.

As for the other movies, I don't know where you got the idea that I was saying these movies have to be "escapism." I was saying they needed pace, they needed humor, they needed rawness, they needed verve. People struggled to stay alive during the Depression, they were more awake, not less, more cunning, not dulled, more cynical, not as reverent as the extras in The Ten Commandment. A movie like Heroes For Sale is most certainly lively, even a little crazy, in a way that a decorous snoozefest like Seabiscuit can't imagine.

Bonnie and Clyde is probably responsible for the golden light thing, but it just has a touch of it by comparison, it's not drowned in maple syrup. Plenty of 70s movies set in the era manage to authentically evoke the rawness of the period-- Walter Hill's Hard Times, Milius' Dillinger, Aldrich's Emperor of the North, etc. Even The Sting feels more real than anything made recently about the decade.

comment #10

Chuck says ...

I'm loving this thread:

Sean Penn overrated? Check.

Most Oscar caliber period films overrated bores? Check. A really underrated period movie is Steven Soderbergh's "King of the Hill", this is still probably my favorite thing he's directed (though it would be a photo finish between this and The Limey.)

Though I do like "A Civil Action", don't love it, but liked it, I thought its more sedate atomsphere actually dialed down alot of the annoying cliches of the "slickster lawyer finds heart by defending seemingly hopeless victim against blah, blah, blah." I also though "Searching for Bobby Fischer" was pretty good as well. So me and Zallian are pretty cool, I'm sure he'll be glad to hear that.

comment #11

Mike Gebert says ...

Yeah, I exempted King of the Hill because, even though it has a touch of that, or maybe even two or three touches, it's so minutely realistic and credible in its picture of how a kid survived mentally and physically in those circumstances that it transcends the Depression-syrup genre. Benefits of staying close to the book, I guess.

Incidentally, in the Superman Returns thread I made an offhand (and fairly obscure) comment about how, if you didn't like SR, you probably wouldn't like Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, either. (There was something oddly reminiscent of Carousel to me in the way Supe comes back from the heavens and peers in on how his child is being raised by someone else.) Well, guess what it's just been announced that Hugh Jackman is going to star in....

comment #12

Chuck says ...

Jackman's projects have been really exciting lately, The Prestige, The Fountain, he's even managed to fit in the Woody Allen movie that seems obligatory at a certain time in a star's career, it looks like he has taste and is going to be around for a while.

comment #13

lesterg says ...

Hasn't Jeff made almost this exact same post at least 3-4 times already?

I think it's clear at this point that the film is damaged goods. Just come out and say it (and stop beating around the bush).

comment #14

Patrick says ...

'King of the Hill' was one of the best films
released in 1993, which is still the best year
for cinema in the last 30 or so. 'A Civil Action'
was much better than I thought it would be, and
'Searching for Bobby Fisher' is another strong
flick. Back off of attacking Mr. Zallian! 'All
the King's Men' is just a terrible misfire based
on bad casting and a weak script.

comment #15

NYCBusybody says ...

I think Sean Penn is a very good dramatic actor, but he's become humorless, or nearly humorless (unfortunate, because he was so good as Spicoli). To me, he simply isn't a "great" (subjective, of course) actor because he just exudes a one-dimensional dourness; he's the best in the world at that, don't get me wrong, but he's too dour - it overtakes his performances at the expense of a more nuanced touch.

comment #16

Chuck says ...

I agree, NYCBusybody, about Sean Penn, he's enourmously talented, but I think the label of GREAT AMERICAN ACTOR has limited him like it has many others in the past. Alot of his most interesting stuff for me is his supporting work, creepy in "The Game", the only thing worth watching in "Carlito's Way", Spicoli of course. And look at his early work, "At Close Range", "Bad Boys", "Colors", these films are of varying quality but he was electric in them. I haven't even mentioned what is by far his best performance to date, "Casualties of War."

comment #17

Haiku Harry says ...

As the moon hides in

daylight, Sean's genius and skill

comment #18

Pedro says ...

All the talent in
the world can't help old Sean now
three words: I Am Sam

comment #19

Hopscotch says ...

It would be pretty hard, okay I'll say it Impossible to find a single great screen actor who hasn't given a hammy or over the top performance in some movie or another during his/her career. That stuff happens to everyone. No one is bullet proof.

comment #20

Haiku Harry says ...

Got a nom for Sam;
that must be proof of greatness.
Voters never err.

comment #21

Bill Peschel says ...

Two words decimate
Haiku Harry's contention:
Marisa Tomei

comment #22

Haiku Harry says ...

"Vinny" was funny
but Judy Davis will die
knowing she was best.

comment #23

Haiku Harry says ...

Re: Bill's nice poem:
Irony is hard to do
using so few words.