Gone Baby Gone

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  • #31
    Re: Downer?

    Originally posted by roscoegino View Post
    Her reasoning seemed implausible (as Ed Harris's masked gunman in the bar bit).

    (MORE SPOILS)

    wow. i'm surprised you thought that was an implausible story beat.

    i mean, I thought it was very clever of him. he didn't want the guy to talk, so he pretends to rob the bar and execute the faucker.

    but of course, like every scene...it doesn't go as planned.

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    • #32
      Re: Gone Baby Gone

      Originally posted by pwrmyth View Post
      I can't remember a time when the major studio releases for fall were so damned depressing.

      Rendition, GBG, The Trade and their ilk are fighting a major uphill battle. When John Q. Public says that Hollywood is out of synch with what he wants, I think he means that the news is down enough these days and the last thing he wants is to pay $11 for more reasons to pull the trigger.

      This doesn't seem like a mystery to me. The films individually may be great, but no one wants to go on that ride. Not now anyway.
      This reasoning doesn't make any sense. If people just want to see happy films, then why are they flocking to these torture porn flicks?

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      • #33
        Re: Downer?

        Originally posted by santino2699 View Post
        (MORE SPOILS)














        wow. i'm surprised you thought that was an implausible story beat.

        i mean, I thought it was very clever of him. he didn't want the guy to talk, so he pretends to rob the bar and execute the faucker.

        but of course, like every scene...it doesn't go as planned.

        SPOILS







        I didn't believe Ed either. I knew who he was the moment I saw him.
        "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."
        -Maya Angelou

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        • #34
          Re: Gone Baby Gone

          Originally posted by Pencey View Post
          This reasoning doesn't make any sense. If people just want to see happy films, then why are they flocking to these torture porn flicks?
          It's not that happy things have to happen in the film, it's the level of identification that is created for the characters, and then what happens to them.

          In torture porn, we're usually introduced to a group of deeply-flawed, vapid, and yet physically enviable youngsters. We don't really empathize or identify with these folks, we just ogle their breasts and biceps from a convenient vicarious distance. Then when they start getting offed, we "get off".

          In dramas however, we're manipulated to identify deeply with certain characters, and THEN they are threatened (physically or emotionally) and (if the manipulation has been effective) we really feel their pain.

          That's why we cry when Wallace gets his guts pulled out in Braveheart, but we just squirm when someone gets disemboweled in a TP flick. We're only responding vicerally, but not emotionally. We've been held at an emotional distance, which makes the violence emotionally palatable.

          I'd challenge anyone to make a film that was marketed as a drama, and played as a drama, with a hero who's layered and sympathetic (think Tom Hanks) who "saves the cat" and wins our hearts, and THEN someone takes a drill to his knees (out of nowhere, late in the film). And he doesn't survive. He suffers the fate of a "horror character", but he's not intro'd as a horror character. Rather, he's developed as a drama character.

          People would walk out. It would be an outrage. It would be the flop of all flops. Even lovers of horror would feel cheated - because they'd actually feel it on an emotional level (which horror audiences aren't looking for - they want a viceral ride).

          Everyone would complain that the filmmaker blew it, muddling his genres. But the fact would be that the comfortable distance from the unthinkable would have been breached, and audiences won't tolerate that.

          If torture porn movies were dramas in which the (highly sympathetic) characters end up getting tortured, they wouldn't make a dime.

          Just my ten cents.
          Last edited by CutteRug; 10-29-2007, 04:31 PM.
          "I've got vision up the butt, so just go with it!" - Dewey Finn, School of Rock

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          • #35
            Re: Gone Baby Gone

            Interesting point, cutterug...

            Good post..

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            • #36
              Re: Gone Baby Gone

              Originally posted by Kevan View Post
              Interesting point, cutterug...

              Good post..
              Muchas Gracias.
              "I've got vision up the butt, so just go with it!" - Dewey Finn, School of Rock

              Comment


              • #37
                Re: Downer?

                Originally posted by WriteByNight View Post
                I didn't believe Ed either. I knew who he was the moment I saw him.
                I'm confused by this wbn.

                I don't think anyone's arguing that we didn't know it was Ed from the beginning.

                The original comment was that his characters choice wasn't plausible.

                Of course we all knew it was him, but that still was a clever choice for his character to make. He wore the mask so that no one else would be able to describe him when he blew all those other guys (that knew it was him) away.

                again...a plausible choice for the character and story. At least, that's my argument.

                s

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                • #38
                  Re: Gone Baby Gone

                  I think the real issue here is that we've turned into a nation of pansies.

                  Back in the 1970's no one was walking out of great films like Cuckoos Nest or The Conversation or Godfather 2 or Clockwork Orange saying "That was a downer. I need a hug. Does anyone have a Prozac? I feel yucky."

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                  • #39
                    Re: Gone Baby Gone

                    Originally posted by kintnerboy View Post
                    I think the real issue here is that we've turned into a nation of pansies.

                    Back in the 1970's no one was walking out of great films like Cuckoos Nest or The Conversation or Godfather 2 or Clockwork Orange saying "That was a downer. I need a hug. Does anyone have a Prozac? I feel yucky."
                    No ****.

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