Say hello, too, my little friend.
July 31, 2006 10:12 AM Subscribe
Scarface. No, not that one. Or even that one. Fish [previously] and his roommates remake a classic film. Only problem is, they've never seen it. Well, two of them haven't. Revisionist filmmaking never knew what hit it.
I'd love to figure out a way to recut The Natural so that it ends the way the Malamud novel does.
Stand by for derail....
Barry Levinson's movie treatment is what I described to a friend as "The Official Movie of the 1984 Republican Convention" (we were both in Dallas that summer, as were Reagan & Co.), ending with a triumphal climax that's beautiful but too good to sustain suspension of disbelief (and a brief Hallmark-eque coda). As written, it was intended as a contemporary American baseball-based version of Greek tragedy: Roy Hobbs, wanting to be the best that had ever been despite the heroic flaw of hubris, strikes out. The overblown feel-good movie ending was more about "it's morning again in America" than Sophocles, and it changed the meaning utterly from a satisfying if downbeat cautionary drama to a gauzy fantasy about redemption. Caleb Deschanel's cinematography, Levinson's direction, Randy Newman's score and some brilliant casting and acting saved it, but it wound up being a flawed overachiever in its own right. (Of course, 99% of people who went to see it probably never even knew it was based on a novel or who the hell Malamud was, and some deliberate references to Greek tragedy went way over their heads, I'm sure -- the "Homer" thing turned into a joke.)
Come to think of it, I'd also have cast Nick Nolte or even Gary Busey as Hobbs. Robert Redford can be an appropriately subtle actor for a Malumud-based screenplay, but he didn't seem brash and working-class enough; too much Jay Gatsby hangover for me, I guess. Also, weirdly, there appears not to be a single black person visible in the entire movie.
posted by pax digita at 11:43 AM on July 31, 2006
Stand by for derail....
Barry Levinson's movie treatment is what I described to a friend as "The Official Movie of the 1984 Republican Convention" (we were both in Dallas that summer, as were Reagan & Co.), ending with a triumphal climax that's beautiful but too good to sustain suspension of disbelief (and a brief Hallmark-eque coda). As written, it was intended as a contemporary American baseball-based version of Greek tragedy: Roy Hobbs, wanting to be the best that had ever been despite the heroic flaw of hubris, strikes out. The overblown feel-good movie ending was more about "it's morning again in America" than Sophocles, and it changed the meaning utterly from a satisfying if downbeat cautionary drama to a gauzy fantasy about redemption. Caleb Deschanel's cinematography, Levinson's direction, Randy Newman's score and some brilliant casting and acting saved it, but it wound up being a flawed overachiever in its own right. (Of course, 99% of people who went to see it probably never even knew it was based on a novel or who the hell Malamud was, and some deliberate references to Greek tragedy went way over their heads, I'm sure -- the "Homer" thing turned into a joke.)
Come to think of it, I'd also have cast Nick Nolte or even Gary Busey as Hobbs. Robert Redford can be an appropriately subtle actor for a Malumud-based screenplay, but he didn't seem brash and working-class enough; too much Jay Gatsby hangover for me, I guess. Also, weirdly, there appears not to be a single black person visible in the entire movie.
posted by pax digita at 11:43 AM on July 31, 2006
This was magical! I had a little trouble following the plot as it stands right now but very magical Scarface! In retrospect, it looks here like English isn't my first language. It is, actually (not that there's anything bad about learning English as a second language) but I'm just saying.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 7:25 PM on July 31, 2006
posted by OverlappingElvis at 7:25 PM on July 31, 2006
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posted by Eideteker at 10:28 AM on July 31, 2006