Posted by Tim at dialup-209.245.232.52.dallas1.level3.net on January 19, 2000 at 00:09:13:
In Reply to: And what is that "grand statement," pray tell posted by B. Buster on January 18, 2000 at 11:25:46:
:
: : Part of what makes it exciting is that it's unashamedly trying to make a grand statement. You don't get a lot of that these days.
: Could someone please tell me what that "grand statement" is? The only statement I picked up on was that fathers shouldn't treat their kids like shit. Hell, I could have got that from Oprah Winfrey if I wanted to.
: b. buster
ok, i dont know what the grand statement is either, but i think Darth Mabel hit it on the head when he said "Which also means that when it fails for a viewer, it fails spectacularly. I think, though, for some folks ( I'll admit I'm one ), it's an exhilirating experience". It reminds me a lot of Apocalypse Now, which has to be one of the most self-indulgent films ever made, and it's either a masterpiece or a disaster, depending on who you talk to. Coppola put everything he had onto the celluloid, and i think PTA did the same thing. This total lack of restraint may have hurt both films. Perhaps Coppola, when he was focused on the story, such as in the first two godfather films, or in the Conversation, instead of making some grand statement that not even he could ever put into words, was a better filmmaker. So maybe PTA's self-indulgence got the better of him here. I personally loved it, just like i loved Apocalypse Now. I like when somebody with tremendous talent puts his heart into a film. When a director has that much talent, i'd much rather see him go overboard in expressing the love of his craft then to hold back, and be afraid of people calling him self-important or a show-off. Francois Truffaut said, "I demand that a film express either the joy of making cinema or the agony of making cinema. I am not at all interested in anything in between." I think each of Paul Thomas Anderson's film do this, and that's why i love them.
Tim