What film did you watch last night?

[swee'pea99]

This isn't having a dig, but wouldn't the same criticism be made of much of Shakespear? Obviously my Titus Andronicus comment was a bit of a dig as that one is a bit of a lurid exploitation-movie so ti speak,as it were, but Julius Caeser, Macbeth, Dick 3, or Lear are all bleak and violent.

Can't quite see how Dead Men's Shoes is portraying the sad and lost drug dealer characters as normal. Or how the film is intended to titillate - unless any film whith dark serious themes is by definition tillitiation

A 7.7 on IMDB also suggests that to write it off as just a nasty titillation movie may be a bit wide of the mark.

 

[Haitch]

a nasty titillation movie

So the scene where a plastic bag is put over the man's head (forget his name) and he is shot through the skull, or the scene where the second victim is shot through the back of the head with an air rifle, or the scene where the guy gets stabbed in the lungs after being promised several times that nothing would happen to him, or the scene where the guy gets whacked over the head with an axe (in the replay!), or the scene where the ex-soldier reveals he has been carrying a dead body about in a suitcase, or the many similar scenes in which the lone wolf takes the law into his own hands and seeks bloody retaliation against overwhelming odds (heard this trope before?) were serious, thoughtful considerations of dark themes and not just stuck in to excite the viewer's interest and approval. And let us not fool ourselves, without those scenes there would have been no film.

7.7 on IMDB or not, Dead Man's Shoes is not Shakespeare.

 

[swee'pea99]

So the scene where a plastic bag is put over the man's head (forget his name) and he is shot through the skull, or the scene where the second victim is shot through the back of the head with an air rifle, or the scene where the guy gets stabbed in the lungs after being promised several times that nothing would happen to him, or the scene where the guy gets whacked over the head with an axe (in the replay!), or the scene where the ex-soldier reveals he has been carrying a dead body about in a suitcase, or the many similar scenes in which the lone wolf takes the law into his own hands and seeks bloody retaliation against overwhelming odds (heard this trope before?) were serious, thoughtful considerations of dark themes and not just stuck in to excite the viewer's interest and approval. And let us not fool ourselves, without those scenes there would have been no film.

7.& on IMDB or not, Dead Man's Shoes is not Shakespeare.

Like I say, I haven't seen it for years. Nor is IMDB infallible. But it is quite reliable on the whole, and 7.7 suggests there's quite a lot of folk out there who see quite a lot more/different in the movie than you clearly do.

 

[Profpointy]

Fair enough.

I appreciate DMS is not to your taste, which is perfectly fair enough. But do you see every violent or dark/serious themed film as being mere titillation? Are there le any such films you'd see as having merit, even if you don't like them ?

 

[Profpointy]

7.7 on IMDB or not, Dead Man's Shoes is not Shakespeare.

but no children are murdered and fed to their father in a pie: that is Shakespeare

 

[Haitch]

I appreciate DMS is not to your taste, which is perfectly fair enough. But do you see every violent or dark/serious themed film as being mere titillation? Are there le any such films you'd see as having merit, even if you don't like them ?

Yeah, I get all that and I don't particularly like violence or portrayals of it and there might be films out there (and plays!) that deal with it appropriately, but I wouldn't go out of my way to find them.

ETA:

Now, DMS with a screenplay by Shakespeare and directed by Peter Hall might be worth looking out for but I wouldn't bother with Titus Andronicus directed by Shane Meadows.

 

[Haitch]

there's quite a lot of folk out there who see quite a lot more/different in the movie than you clearly do.

Agreed.

 

[Haitch]

but no children are murdered and fed to their father in a pie: that is Shakespeare

Grannies being eaten by wolves in Little Red Riding Hood do not make DMS a good film.

 

[Profpointy]

Yeah, I get all that and I don't particularly like violence or portrayals of it and there might be films out there (and plays!) that deal with it appropriately, but I wouldn't go out of my way to find them.

Interestingly I tend not to like violent films either, but one or two I've found rather compelling, despite the violence. DMS obviously, but also Pulp Fiction where the exploitation/ titillation criticism could be more justified albeit that film still has merit. I also have a soft spot for the new Judge Dredd film which captures the ghastly future portrayed in 2000AD comic rather well, despite it being an almost contunuous 90 minute shootout. The arguably exploitative violence of say, The Wild Bunch is more tricky. Yes it is "art", but is it just titillation, or necessary to the plot / message? Dunno, but it's for me, uncomfortable viewing yet is saying something as well.

 

[Drago]

Cliffhanger.

Witty one liners, improbable violence, John Lithgow as the best bad guy in film history, and a SII LWB Land Rover with safari roof.

10/10. Utter bliss.

 

[EltonFrog]

Dead Mans Shoes - the violence, the drug use, the language didn't bother me. It was just a bad film poorly executed.

 

[swee'pea99]

Moonlight. It's ok, but if it's seen as Oscar-worthy in two years, never mind ten, I'll eat my shoes. Some fine acting, and a grimly compelling portrayal of an alien culture, but a script that's serviceable at best, a total absence of any kind of story, engaging narrative, or structure of any kind beyond basic chronology, I have to say I was left baffled by the plaudits it's received, let alone an Oscar. I'd give it 6/10.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Someone told me about this series of shorts
Very amusing, & well dead-panned

I like this

 

[welsh dragon]

We watched Anaconda. What a load of b******s.

 

[MontyVeda]

Dead Mans Shoes - the violence, the drug use, the language didn't bother me. It was just a bad film poorly executed.

You've watched it again since Tuesday?

I didn't think much of The Hateful Eight but I'm not in a hurry to watch it again, although I might because I was either missing something or it really was Tarantino's emperors new clothes movie.