Comments | tsmaster: Treadmill Theater: Trudging Through the Classics #9

tsmaster

Treadmill Theater: Trudging Through the Classics #9 - Sunrise (part 2)

May 06, 2010 08:50

So, the last we left our story, our farmer and his wife were getting their picture taken.

Next thing you know, they're at an amusement park. Like you do, right after you have your picture taken. The farmer was throwing balls at targets, but instead of dunking a clown, pigs were involved. Seriously, pigs. One of them got loose, causing all sorts of ( Read more... )

Comments 8

johncomic May 6 2010, 16:27:34 UTC

“it could be the best movie from 1927 that I've seen”

Cuz you haven't seen It yet...

tsmaster May 6 2010, 16:35:01 UTC

There you go, putting movies in my NetFlix queue.

And, to cleanse the palate, I've also added Whip It, which ties in lexicographically to the Clara Bow pic, and has Drew Barrymore in the director's chair, instead of just in my head.

johncomic May 6 2010, 18:31:47 UTC

I'm not saying It is a great film by any means, although it does of course have the wonderful weirdness I see in all silents... but man, Clara Bow! Anything with Clara Bow in it is worth it cuz she's Clara Bow! Yowza! It probably has more Clara Bow in it than any other film, though, and it's easiest to find...

tsmaster May 6 2010, 23:04:39 UTC

Now, I won't say I'm familiar with Clara Bow's work, but the name's familiar, and this is another one of the desired outcomes of this project - there are people and movies that I've felt I've had only a passing knowledge of - never having seen Easy Rider until recently, for instance.

Now, Clara Bow is a little more obscure than Dennis Hopper, but still in the realm of "I should be more aware of her work".

And "The It Girl", that by itself is a meme that's come and gone, and maybe come back. So I should see it for that piece of cultural relevance.

Hm, now I want to go on a pronoun binge.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047573/

scoreboard May 6 2010, 16:42:25 UTC

Supposedly, you should also pick up Intolerance, which Griffith made after catching hell in certain circles for The Klansman^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^HThe Birth Of A Nation.

tsmaster May 6 2010, 16:54:12 UTC

Turns out, I watched that last May. That only gave me more hesitation to watch Birth of a Nation.

Coming up soon here on my queue are DVDs of MacGyver, Airwolf, and Greatest American Hero. I may not enjoy watching them again, but I won't enjoy them on a whole different level.

Um.... rechercher May 6 2010, 17:08:51 UTC

Did you watch a different movie than the one on IMDB? Was everything symbolic or were you just having fun?

If none of the above, I really think you ought to post on IMDB. I'm just...wow. The movie you describe has no plot coherence and the movie in IMDB everyone gushes over. So what am I not getting?

Re: Um.... tsmaster May 6 2010, 18:13:31 UTC

All evidence suggests that I was watching the 1927 Murnau silent film. But one thing that my "best movies" project has shown me is that the stuff I enjoy in films isn't the same as what the film authorities use to evaluate good film.

Some of the comments (probably on NetFlix) suggest that plot wasn't the point of Sunrise, which I guess is OK, but without plot, I'm left without much to grab onto. What else do we have? Sex? Violence? There's suggested infidelity, and the farmer nearly kills his wife, but that's not enough.

Some people write about the achievement in cinematography, but that's really hard for me to appreciate from my vantage point of digital spaceships and Tom Hankses.

Maybe I'm an outlier, and most reasonable people could sit down and enjoy Sunrise. Or maybe you have to be a fan of German Expressionism already to get in the door.

I suspect that if most people are going to appreciate Sunrise, they're going to find it important, like johncomic suggested. As opposed to, say, entertaining.