The Wild Bunch

[maggie2]

I've started a project of watching all of the films on the AFI top 100 list, because I'm the weird sort of person who loves ticking off items on a list.  Sometimes it's labor.  Sometimes it's a lot of fun.  My last effort -- The Wild Bunch, a violent western by Sam Peckinpah -- was mostly labor.  Until the last half hour when it was smashingly brilliant and made the whole thing worthwhile.   I once dated a very brilliant guy whose policy is to decide within the first ten minutes if it's worth staying for a movie, and leaving if the answer is no.   There are many times when that's the right policy. Maybe even most of the time.   But you do miss some spectacular stuff doing things that way, and I guess for me it's worth paying the price of sitting through some unredeemable schlock to not miss those pieces.that only come together in a mad audacious rush at the end.  

Comments

[local-max.livejournal.com]

A post after my own heart. This might be sad, but I've seen 99 of the AFI's 100 (their recent list)--I still haven't convinced myself to try Intolerance.

I remember really enjoying The Wild Bunch, but I was about 14 at the time. But yes, that ending. Holy smokes.

And I agree about the season eight connection. And I think there's a LOT of Whedonian precedent for "those pieces.that only come together in a mad audacious rush at the end"--like "Innocence" for season two, or "Man on the Street" for season one of Dollhouse (or, for a lesser example the "blood" montage at the end of "The Gift").

[2maggie2.livejournal.com]

I slogged through Intolerance (on the theory that one should get the labor out of the way as quickly as possible). That *was* labor. I can see it as important in terms of constructing cinematic language. But it's also on there as a cheat. The real film is Birth of a Nation, which I also slogged through because I have to do both versions of the list. It's appalling, of course. But it's an actual story.

The ending to The Wild Bunch still has me pretty blown away. I couldn't believe how quickly I came to care about a bunch of characters who I had been pretty sure I was going to forget the minute the credits rolled.

[local-max.livejournal.com]

Oh, Birth of a Nation is amazing--terrible, unconscionable, but it's a real movie and surprisingly exciting.

I'm doing both lists as well. I haven't managed to watch Dances with Wolves either. It doesn't help that a few years ago for Christmas I got the "extended edition" on DVD, where Costner has added an extra 1.5 hours onto the movie. I...don't really want to watch that, but I don't really want to rent a movie I own, either. (What a problem, I know.)

Worst labour on either list: The Jazz Singer. It took a lot of breaks to get through it and it's about 80 minutes. If it had some kind of cinematic merit (that I could see) besides proving to Hollywood etc. that sound films are possible/profitable it might have been easier to manage.

[hazel75.livejournal.com]

Does your extended version have the theatrical release on it as well? My dad got me Star Trek: The Motion Picture, well, more than a few years ago (it was VHS), and it was the extended release. How painful. Luckily on DVD, a lot of times they'll have both versions though...