This past week I’ve been doing something that I don’t give myself a lot of time to do recently. I’ve been revisiting some classic films, and mostly films I love.
I’ve put myself on a mission to “educate” my younger brother as to the genius of certain films and filmmakers that whenever I ask him “have you seen this yet?” he just responds with a shrug and “I’ll get to that eventually”. I don’t blame him, I’m the same way. There’re still a lot of classics that people discuss that I’ve yet to see, but I feel that I try to trudge through the collection a lot more determined than he does.
So, in the past week we’ve seen: Brazil, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb and Blazing Saddles (all films I believe in the next few weeks you may be seeing full blown reviews for). There are some of these films that I’ve not seen for over five years now.
It’s amazing how certain things pop out to you at different times in your age. I didn’t see how masterfully Brazil was devveloped from start to finish, not just as a style of substance kind of project, but with a deeper meaning. I still have yet to sit through the much hated Love Conquers All cut of the film, and probably never will, but I can just imagine how frustrating it must’ve been for Gilliam to spend all of his time working so hard to put his views on society into such a satirical manner on screen for us all the enjoy and have it butchered by studio executives who just didn’t think “people would get it” or some other bullshit excuse. Where would we be if it weren’t for visioneries such as Gilliam who’s willing to step out there and take the chance and show us his point of view for us to decide whether it is relevant or not? It’s lovely.
Dr. Strangelove is a film that I had issues with the first time I watched it, as I do with most Kubrick films, but revisiting this film as an adult I was able to see, now knowing what I now know about America during the 60s, how plausible this ridiculous alternate path that America could’ve taken if there was just one general was a little too crazy.
Blazing Saddles is a film I hold close to my heart. It’s one of my favourite comedies of all time. I don’t think I can go two years without revisiting this movie. I always wonder watching it how much different (i.e. more amazing) it would’ve been if Richard Pryor and John Waybe were really playing the lead roles of Bart and the Waco Kid (which was Brooks‘ initial hopes for casting).
I tend to revisit films whenever something is on. "Eastern Promises" was a film I liked but through repeated viewings, I liked it even more. I also revisited the last "Indiana Jones" where I suddenly realized how wrong I was about that film. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars out based on pure nostalgia. When I watched it again, I realized that the flaws that I noticed in the film were even bigger and there was more for me to dislike. I wish I had my money back about that film. I'm ashamed at the review I wrote about that film years ago.
As for that "Love Conquers All" version of "Brazil", it is terrible. It takes all of the quirky elements of the film out along with the fantasy sequences. There's more about that version in my review: http://thevoid99.blogspot.com/2010/09/brazil-crit…