Penn: "I just woke up one day and thought, gee, I can see the ending. Not the benign, lyrical thing I had thought, but something spastic and balletic. It has to do something extraordinary, something that makes them into a legend."
The NYTimes obit also notes his role as advisor to JFK in the 1960 debates (parts one and two), which may have had as much influence on the political landscape as Bonnie & Clyde did on the cinematic one. posted by yiftach at 4:41 PM on September 29, 2010
Although [Night Moves] approaches the crime thriller with at least as much originality as other Penn films did other genres, it does so in such an unobtrusive manner as to render the feat all but invisible. (Its aim, it seems, is not so much to "renew" the genre as to make us forget it existed.) ...
... Most of the time, the story line seems to meander aimlessly, taking in extraneous material, doubling back, going round in circles (the aimlessness is deceptive, a smoke screen obfuscating the complex, rigorous organization of an exceptionally well-structured script). The "mystery" aspect of the plot is dealt with in the most peculiar, topsy-turvy manner, withholding not the solution of the problem but the problem itself until the very end, when, in a dazzling visual tour de force, both are conjured up almost simultaneously. ...
Night Moves is a somber picture. ... characters who strike us as real people rather than just cogs in the machinery of a mystery plot makes the quality of despair in Penn's film particularly intense and affecting. ...
Yet the film does not leave one with a feeling of despondency. It is too full of creative energy, too swarming with sensory stimulation, too alive with a sense of anticipation and discovery. posted by Joe Beese at 6:08 PM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
always thought of him as one of those guys, like pollack, who made movies that were so good you couldn't tell how good they were. i.e., people didn't really appreciate the skill involved in his work, precisely because it was so clean. posted by lodurr at 7:17 AM on September 30, 2010
... and congestive heart disease is not a good way to go. i hope there's some comfort for friends & family in it being over. posted by lodurr at 7:19 AM on September 30, 2010
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posted by brundlefly at 12:56 PM on September 29, 2010