Posted by Isis at d5050.dialup.cornell.edu on August 16, 2000 at 14:18:46:
In Reply to: Re: Cheers Chiusano!! And the others. Except....... posted by BethAB on August 16, 2000 at 13:43:35:
Why in the world would anyone work for free? Where did you get this information?
I know little of Benny's politics other than that he's rumored to be liberal; I don't see why an epic picture about the onslaught of war would appeal to his personal sensibilities so much that he'd make the pic for nada but cheesecake from the catering table.
And telling someone that their opinion of someone's acting range is "wrong" is silly. At least give us something more to go on, a proper argument to the contrary. Affleck has successfully (IMO) played bad boys, good boys, jerky jocks, sensitive artists, and one tormented ex-angel. Honestly, I haven't yet seen him do the sophisticated leading man-of-the-world thing, and that's what the character of Jack Ryan calls for. More than charm, he needs to have a certain suavity and world-weariness that I'm not sure ANY actor of Ben's age could pull off. Should they choose to do a prequel, Mr. Affleck is certainly one of the finest young actors around and would probably have the willingness and the balls to throw himself into a major motion picture that already carries all these expectations.
As for success, listen, I don't begrudge Affleck or any other successful entertainer a damn thing. If their business is entertainment, they're certainly entitled to make whatever choices they like in order to appeal to mass audiences. However, I will simply point out that entertainment and art may overlap but are not synonymous, and that if one chooses entertainment rather than art as one's career that one should not expect to receive the (perhaps undeserved) respect that an artist does.
That is not to say that big-budget flicks can't be both visually gorgeous and emotionally meaningful, but I'm certainly not going to keep my mouth shut when a person whom I see as a talented artist makes choices that are, shall we say, less than worthy of them -- *cough, cough* Reindeer Games, ahem, *cough*, I seem to have something stuck in my throat, excuse me, ech, Forces of Nature, *cough cough*, it's loosening up now, aaaahhh, ARMAGEDDON! *thundering noise as Isis hucks up a lung*.
Of course, we can all go piss on our indie respect, as I'm quite certain if we were offered the same temptations we would all take them.
-- Isis
A friend of the devil is a friend of mine.
: Do you hope that Affleck is not going to play Ryan because you think he couldn't pull it off or becuase you think he'd be selling out?
: First of all if it's the former your wrong. Second of all I don't know why we have to begrudge actors/filmakeres/etc. their success. This is an attitude that many of the indie fan base subscribes to that I just don't understand. Good movies can be large budget and even if they aren't if actors want to do that in order to subsidizes there other ventures that are good so be it or even if they are just out for the all mighty dollar what-the-fuck difference does it make if they are good at what they do and the provide entertainment to someone. If someone enjoys a film then it was worth making that film.
: Now Aflleck is not out for the allmighty dollar (he's doing Pearl Harbor for free and he worked for scale in Dogma even though he can now command a prety hefty fee). So it could be that he makes the larger budget action type flicks for the money so that he then has the liberty to do other projects that are closer to his heart for little or no pay. Or it could just be that he wants the variety and is eager to learn about how all different types of films get made (which he has actually said in refernce to his role in Armageddon [aside: which is a much better movie that I think even he gives it credit for]).
: Sorry for going on so much, but I'm passionate about films and filmmaking and it relaly bothers me when I think people are getting on their high indi horse and bashing big budget flicks which may not even really be what you were doing. I guess I am just as touchy as the next guy when it comes to my pet peves.
: -Beth
: : With reference to my Lee/Actor debate yesterday, I'd like to express my thanks to the aforementioned Chiusano for pointing out to 'Bigredknob' that I actually refered to him/her as 'Bigredknob'.
: : Did this person actually think that I agreed with his/her Lee bashing?
: : Obviously a BiggerRedderKnob than first thought.
: : And to the other guys who replied, thanks for the input, but some of you also seemed to think that I was bashing Lee. Not the case, just putting a point about actors/stars across.
: : Is Affleck still penciled as the next Jack Ryan, by the way?
: : Ooh, I hope not.
: : Cheers then
: : Silas