95th Academy Awards (OSCAR NIGHT): You're all feckin' boring!

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

1 hour ago, polishgenius said:

Fistful of Dollars got absolutely crucified in the press on release.

To be fair, I'm not sure it would have mattered if he had. Fistful of Dollars wasn't made in the American system, I'm not sure it had American money involved, and I'm not sure it was really made for Americans either, at the time. Leone didn't need to care about American studio rules (since I'm assuming that's what they were). 

I'd imagine a good bit of it was plain old American chauvinism. What business does a European director, filming in Europe with primarily European cast and crew doing messing around with a distinctly American genre? Pfft. I bet he doesn't even drive a Chevy.

His films were also somewhat more gritty than most westerns of the time if I'm not mistaken. I wonder if they had any expectations that these films would play in the United States at all.  

[Tywin et al.]

5 hours ago, polishgenius said:

To be fair, I'm not sure it would have mattered if he had. Fistful of Dollars wasn't made in the American system, I'm not sure it had American money involved, and I'm not sure it was really made for Americans either, at the time. Leone didn't need to care about American studio rules (since I'm assuming that's what they were). 

We'll never know, but I believe other Westerns that were made outside of the US tended to follow the rules. I obviously haven't seen every Western from the 60's, but the violence and graphic nature of it in Leone's films always stood apart to me. 

[dbunting]

I finally watched Everything Everywhere etc yesterday. Have to say I didn't like it. It was just too frantic for me. English to subtitles to English all in the same sentence. Too many everywheres for me!  I thought JLC did fine, I rarely know an award winning performance when I see it but I do think the lead woman did great.

[TheLastWolf]

Peckinpah'd like to haffa word about the apparent violence in Leone's films

[Arakasi]

I think having seen this that Hsu should have won instead of Curtis but the other two wins were for sure well deserved. (Yeoh and Quan)

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

2 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

Peckinpah'd like to haffa word about the apparent violence in Leone's films

Note: The Dollars Trilogy and Once Upon a Time... In the West all predate The Wild Bunch. 

[Spockydog]

 

[TheLastWolf]

6 hours ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

Note: The Dollars Trilogy and Once Upon a Time... In the West all predate The Wild Bunch. 

Agreed. But Leone's films had relatively more realism compared to, say, High Noon. Not more gore or violence but the way they dropped dead more convincingly. And it was grittier. But Peckinpah defined violence for masters of the (can't say genre) type like Scorsese and Tarantino. 

Edited March 22 by TheLastWolf

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

2 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

Agreed. But Leone's films had relatively more realism compared to, say, High Noon. Not more gore or violence but the way they dropped dead more convincingly. And it was grittier. But Peckinpah defined violence for masters of the (can't say genre) type like Scorsese and Tarantino. 

I dunno. When TGTBTU came out in '66, the scenes involving Tuco getting getting interrogated and bloody, emaciated civil war soldiers must have been something of a revelation. Come to think of it, that might be the first film that did any business in America that didn't romanticize the American Civil War, at all.  And the movie starts off with Angel Eyes gunning down a whole family. 

Plus Tuco punches a priest. I bet they never saw that before either. That's got to be worth, like, 20 severed limbs. 

[TheLastWolf]

34 minutes ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

I dunno. When TGTBTU came out in '66, the scenes involving Tuco getting getting interrogated and bloody, emaciated civil war soldiers must have been something of a revelation. Come to think of it, that might be the first film that did any business in America that didn't romanticize the American Civil War, at all.  And the movie starts off with Angel Eyes gunning down a whole family. 

Plus Tuco punches a priest. I bet they never saw that before either. That's got to be worth, like, 20 severed limbs. 

Coming to think of the age it came out, what you say makes perfect sense. It tore down what was held kinda taboo with nonchalance. 

[Mladen]

18 hours ago, Arakasi said:

I think having seen this that Hsu should have won instead of Curtis but the other two wins were for sure well deserved. (Yeoh and Quan)

When it comes to "Oscar-deserving" performances, one must understand there are two dimension to that story - having a performance that is deserving of an Oscar and of course, being the best in the lineup. And while I can concur that Yeoh is having the performance that any other year would be undeniable for all awards, what Blanchett has done in TAR is simply another level. I have no doubts that in 10-20 years we will be wondering how in God's name she lost for that performance. But, as Lydia said, time is everything. Moment matters and this one simply wasn't hers. 

[Winterfell is Burning]

On 3/21/2023 at 11:51 PM, TheLastWolf said:

Agreed. But Leone's films had relatively more realism compared to, say, High Noon. Not more gore or violence but the way they dropped dead more convincingly. And it was grittier. But Peckinpah defined violence for masters of the (can't say genre) type like Scorsese and Tarantino. 

Should be noticed that even High Noon was heavily criticized by conservatives at the time as anti-American and was also a lot darker than most westerns at the time. And while it did win Oscars, it didn't win Best Picture. 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]