Althouse: "I'm sure I'm not the only one who read this and thought of one of the greatest movies ever made."

May 28, 2011

"I'm sure I'm not the only one who read this and thought of one of the greatest movies ever made."

Yeah, I did too. And thanks for posting that 36-year-old trailer. I haven't gone to the movies in many months. I never see that there's anything coming out that I'm even slightly moved to think about seeing.* I thought maybe it was that I am getting old, and I no longer feel the way film needs you to feel to work as film. But seeing that old trailer now... I don't think it is me. It's the pictures that got small.

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* Not a fiction movie anyway. I do care very much about seeing "Cave of Forgotten Dreams," and I will see this documentary about Bill Cunningham.

44 comments:

windbag said...: It is astounding how much weight we give to the softest of sciences. Guilt and freedom hang in the balance, tipped by the feelings the expert has about the accused.

Most baby-boomers would be reminded of that famous movie. I'm also reminded of Klinger; what a great spin-off series they could have made if he had ever successfully got his Section 8 and was incarcerated instead of discharged, eh?; 5/28/11, 10:45 AM
bagoh20 said...: I got to get my mad tagging skills back. I'm gonna be famous...in 10,000 years.

You know those cave painting were done by the kids hiding out with their weed and mead.; 5/28/11, 10:46 AM
SteveR said...: One of my favorite movies. I don't go that often but its more an issue of time and convenience these days. Netflix works out on line.; 5/28/11, 10:47 AM
Sumbunnyluvsu said...: It was a joy to see the documentary about Bill Cunningham. I am urging everyone I know to see this so that they can get to know a true gentleman, patriot, and fashion fanatic.; 5/28/11, 10:48 AM
edutcher said...: I know what she means about not going to the movies.

But, to me, a movie is just a movie. I have never gotten the whole "film" thing.

PS Is Ann confessing she's Norma Desmond? It's Madison that's slipped in it's grandeur?; 5/28/11, 11:04 AM
Fred4Pres said...: Is there a real life "Chief" give Tony his out?; 5/28/11, 11:05 AM
Fred4Pres said...: There is a very sick pathology in some of the people who work at mental hospitals and social workers.; 5/28/11, 11:07 AM
Fred4Pres said...: Talking about great movies and netflix, I watched Dog Day Afternoon again the other day. That movie holds up well. It is a great snapshot on the seventies. And to deal with the gay marriage issues back then is interesting today.; 5/28/11, 11:10 AM
Lucius said...: The article linked at the link is fascinating, though reasonably speaking any reader will anticipate the spins of its argument.

The psychopath diagnostician Hare is a rather scary-sounding fellow. Gives them shocks and everything.

I love Milos Forman (love Jack Nicholson too) but "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" can hardly count as 'one of the greatest movies ever made'. Rousing and all, but more than a tad obvious isn't it? Eh, middlebrow.; 5/28/11, 11:13 AM
ricpic said...: There's a movie called Tree Of Life that's just come out and might be interesting. It was directed by Terence Malik or Malick, this generation's ultimate art director and it's either full of meaning or full of pomposity depending on which review you read. But the reviewers are in general agreement that Brad Pitt does a very good acting job in the film.; 5/28/11, 11:15 AM
rhhardin said...: You could think instead of Goffman's Asylums, a great read in sociology.

Goffman works by irony.; 5/28/11, 11:17 AM
deborah said...: I think, if anything, movies have become better. More gripping, emotional, or something. I seldom watch movies and haven't seen most of them because of the requied drain on emotions. I just don't want to be sucked in.; 5/28/11, 11:35 AM
deborah said...: Lucius, let's just say it's a damn good movie.; 5/28/11, 11:37 AM
Lucius said...: @Deborah: 'Damn good movie' is fine by me. But it ain't no "Rebecca"!

But I think movies have gotten worse overall. Less (authentically) emotional. Maybe you're thinking of a Paul Thomas Anderson or something like that, but I'm not on board. Most of what still counts as artistically ambitious in Hollywood is an attempt to rehash Altman or Scorsese. Which, frankly, aren't the ones I'd most like to rehash.; 5/28/11, 11:46 AM
Peter V. Bella said...: You are not getting old. The movies are just getting worse.; 5/28/11, 12:09 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: No mention of The Snake Pit?; 5/28/11, 12:30 PM
Fred4Pres said...: There are more movies, most are not so good to poor, but there are good movies still being made.; 5/28/11, 12:36 PM
G Joubert said...: Lucius @11:13:

"One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" can hardly count as 'one of the greatest movies ever made'. Rousing and all, but more than a tad obvious isn't it? Eh, middlebrow.

Maybe by today's standards, but at the time the film was made, and particularly at the time the underlying Ken Kesey novel was published, it was quite ground-breaking. Maybe, just maybe, the reason it seems obvious and middlebrow now is precisely because of itself, what it explored, its notoriety, its success.; 5/28/11, 12:38 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "You are not getting old. The movies are just getting worse."

Well, I am getting old. In fact, I am old. But the pictures still went bad.; 5/28/11, 12:43 PM
Trooper York said...: Movies are passe. The time for movies has come and gone.

It's all about reality television.

Get with the program.; 5/28/11, 12:51 PM
Trooper York said...: They are filming Men in Black 3 on Court St. this labor day weekend. I spoke to one of the location people and he told me they have already spent 500 million and the end is no where in site. Now I don't know if I believe that but they are wasting a lot of money.

They paid every store on Court St. $400 to keep their lights on overnight as they filmed a chase scene. They took away all the city garbage cans and changed all the street signs and the "Walk/Don't walk" signs. They have 3 douchenozzles with walkie talkies on every corner. They are wasting more money than you can possibly believe.; 5/28/11, 12:54 PM
Trooper York said...: Wait a minute. It is Memorial Day weekend. I must still be drunk. Sorry.; 5/28/11, 12:55 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: If the electric shock test really worked, it seems better to go back to that than to rely on a subjective questionnaire. They could at least give people in that unit the option of undergoing alternate tests.; 5/28/11, 12:57 PM
deborah said...: I don't remember if I've ever seen Rebecca, or just clips, but it struck me as rather melodramatic.

By better movies, I am in large part referring to slicker editing, better film quality, better period-piece costumes, or whatever.

For example, compare Pride and Prejudice, the old one, with the new multi-dvd one or the one starring that annoying British actress who ruins it with her mugging for the camera. Or the excellent Emma.

Also movies like Spy Game(?), the middle eastern intrigue with Redford, Pitt, and Crowe. And please do not think I'm dissing movies like Bullett with the marvelous chase scene. It's just that the current film industry is technically more sophisticated, and the directors, too, I guess.

Now I haven't seen the original 3:10 to Yuma, but I thought the new one was well done. And of course some movies it is criminal to remake, such as Falk and Arkin's In-laws. lol; 5/28/11, 1:23 PM
Teri said...: If you read the whole original article, linked at the link, you find out what Tony was in for:

"There was also a description of the crime he committed in 1997. The victim was a homeless alcoholic called Graham who apparently made "an inappropriate comment" about the 10-year-old daughter of one of Tony's friends; something to do with the length of her dress. Tony told him to shut up. Graham threw a punch. Tony retaliated by kicking him. Graham fell over. And that would have been it – Tony later said – had Graham stayed silent. But Graham said, "Is that all you've got?"

Tony "flipped". He kicked Graham seven or eight times in the stomach and groin, returning later to kick him again."

I think he's in the right place.

Oh, and I liked "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" too. Wouldn't call it the greatest movie ever, but it's good.; 5/28/11, 1:24 PM
Michael K said...: "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" destroyed the treatment of psychotics. It was followed fairly closely by the closing of inpatient mental hospitals and the beginning of the "homeless" problem. I worked in a long term psych hospital in 1961. It was the summer before I began medical school. I learned a lot but nothing that would cause me to praise the movie.; 5/28/11, 2:00 PM
Quaestor said...: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is "one of the greatest movies ever made" if and only if your list of great movies is very long.; 5/28/11, 3:06 PM
Penny said...: "If you don't take their money, they can't tell you what to do."

Two thumbs up for Bill Cunningham.; 5/28/11, 4:16 PM
SteveR said...: The thing about movies, like any form of art, is the only opinion about what makes it great that matters, is my own. I have my own hang ups and history.; 5/28/11, 4:22 PM
Mickey said...: Someone at work asked me to donate money toward her participation in a run/walk for charity. "Oh yeah, no problem. What's the charity?"

National Alliance on Mental Illness

"Oh, hell no."; 5/28/11, 4:35 PM
Seeing Red said...: Not only the movies r smaller, but the actors as well.; 5/28/11, 4:39 PM
Ron said...: I like Shock Corridor (from Sam Fuller!) as a film depiction of this even more than Cuckoo's Nest.; 5/28/11, 4:50 PM
Foobarista said...: I've become a big fan of Pixar animations these days. I figure if you're going to make movies with too much CGI, why not go whole-hog and watch animations?

Most movies are either pretentious dreck, hyper-CGI "extravaganzas", or "art" movies made by people who think oversexed, overdrugged unattractive people with bizarre problems are somehow interesting.; 5/28/11, 4:50 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Ha! - Jon Ronson wrote one of the greatest NewAge expose's of all time - The Men Who Stare At Goats - which became a lousy George Cloony/Jeff Bridges vehicle. (It was not only a bad movie, but - being a Hollywood/George Cloony project - reset the story so it connected to George W. Bush and Iraq, the lying bastards.)

I'll just add that, considering the "Goats" story, I still don't think many understand what I'm getting at, regarding the all-pervasive nature of NewAge on society. I mean, come on:

I know about the corporate bullshit, and the political bullshit, but the United States Military - and as deep as what Ronson documents?

I swear, most people have no clue how much NewAge manipulation has been happening out there,...

BTW - it's now taken me 16 tries to post this comment. Each time, it claims I didn't match the word verification. I've reloaded the page. I've went away, and then come back and tried it. I've made another window, went to Ann's page, and then tried - nothing.

Blogger sucks.; 5/28/11, 7:26 PM
William said...: There's a moving article in this week's New Yorker, titled "God Knows Where I Am" by Rachel Aviv. It details the sad story of a psychotic woman who refused treatment for her illness and signed out of the hospital. Apparently the law now holds that such patients can refuse treatment. Moreover,under rights of privacy, their relatives do not have to be notified of such patients' condition or discharge. The woman subsequently holed up in an abandoned building and starved herself to death. It's not an inspiring story of liberation and freedom and will not become a major motion picture....I think the expanded rights of psychotics has a lot to do with the Cuckoo Nest movie. It's a fine movie and, if you were a certain age at the time, it shaped your opinions on mental illness. I don't know enough about psychosis and mental hospitals to judge, but my guess is that the movie got a lot of things wrong....Hard case make bad law. So do good movies.; 5/28/11, 9:18 PM
Luther said...: 'The cave...' was worth seeing. I would recommend it to anyone.

As, you know, anything depicting or displaying art from 37,000 years ago is worth seeing.

Though it didn't quite live up to the drama of the trailer. As really, it could have been a long YouTube with the same effect.; 5/28/11, 9:35 PM
tim maguire said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/28/11, 10:01 PM
tim maguire said...: I saw Cave of Forgotten Dreams last weekend. I really don't get the rave reviews. It was too long, repetitive, boring and very badly scripted. Too much irrelevant junk and the 3-D was mostly a distracting gimmick.

It's not a movie, it's a mediocre National Geographic special. Save your money and watch it on netflix.; 5/28/11, 10:03 PM
Luther said...: Disagree, Tim Maquire. The 3D was a stunning effect, at times. Certainly more than a 2D effect would have offered.

The art of these ancient men, or women, is well better seen on a large screen versus an in home screen.

It wasn't Hollywood, that's for sure, so, each to his own, I guess.; 5/28/11, 10:24 PM
Anonymous said...: I saw Tree of Life today, ricpic. It's everything people say it is. Good and bad.

But I would recommend it. It's sort of...amazing. Maybe where movies need to go in the 21st century.; 5/28/11, 10:26 PM
Michael K said...: The National Alliance may be the parents' group that is trying to restore commitment for psychotics who are unable to care for themselves; ie don't take their meds.

If that is the group, they are on the right side.; 5/28/11, 10:42 PM
Milwaukee said...: For those old enough to catch the reference, to refer to somebody as "Nurse Cratchit" like is a real slam.

Ann, for all her fake conservatism, isn't that bad. She does a good job with this branch of the asylum.; 5/28/11, 10:58 PM
Harry said...: "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was an enjoyable movie, with great performances, but the underlying premise was unsound--that significant numbers of patients in mental hospitals were not really crazy, rather it is society that's crazy. That idea as very fashionable in the late 60's and 70's and probably contributed to the deinstitutionalization of a lot of people who belonged in institutions.

As far as the English psychopath, they had a very interesting program on that case on "This American Life." It started out making you feel there had been a gross miscarriage of justice, but near the end, when they revealed what this guy had done and why, it suddenly did not seem so clear.; 5/28/11, 11:32 PM
HT said...: Mickey said...

Someone at work asked me to donate money toward her participation in a run/walk for charity. "Oh yeah, no problem. What's the charity?"

National Alliance on Mental Illness

"Oh, hell no."

5/28/11 4:35 PM

____

Bless you Mickey.; 5/29/11, 5:59 AM