Hi folks,
-
OIF-Retread — 9 years ago(January 19, 2017 01:11 AM)
out of curiosity, what do you find puzzling about "
Castle Keep (1969)
"? it is a rather strange movie, but one of my favorites.
i was just wondering if maybe you had some insight on something i had missed.
"I'll do the masterminding around here."
-Sgt. Stryker, "Sands of Iwo Jima" -
MikeF-6 — 9 years ago(January 19, 2017 07:01 PM)
There were just some strange happenings that gave what might have been a straight-forward war movie a kind of mystical sheen. There is the eagle's cry that Peter Falk kept hearing and the voice over telling
how the men in the forward foxhole were getting to safety when the camera showed that they had been killed.
Finally, the escape of the final two survivors is presented as something of a transcendence. I guess the "puzzling" aspects are not as strong as in some of the other films listed, but it is, as you say, "a rather strange movie."
mf
I know that, in spite of the poets, youth is not the happiest season" -
OIF-Retread — 9 years ago(January 22, 2017 10:59 AM)
yeah, he eagle's cry was interesting. i assumed it was some kind of forewarning of doom. i'll have to rewatch it and see who else hears it. the scene with Amberjack, Rossi, and Clearboy is my favorite; the narrator happily telling of their miraculous escape, and then harshly cutting away to Benjamin saying all three are dead. i think it is because the narrator is Benjamin reading from the book he will write. in his book he has written a happy fictional ending rather than the truth.
"I'll do the masterminding around here."
-Sgt. Stryker, "Sands of Iwo Jima" -
Franco_Zed — 9 years ago(January 19, 2017 05:26 PM)
"more questions than answers"
I might be interpreting this different from what you meant.
The following films have some amount of
unsolved mystery or unexplained events.
I think of them as films that are a puzzle to solve, but they are also open to interpretation, so there is no clear answer to the puzzle.
Mulholland Falls
Donnie Darko
Twelve Monkeys
Brazil
Total Recall
I Know Who Killed Me
eXistenZ
Dark Corners (2006, Thora Birch) It's not very good, but it is definitely strange.
Movies that leave out crucial information either about
huge events that happened before
the story starts or about
how it ends
(open-ended).
Last Night (1998, Sandra Oh)
28 Days Later
Seeking a Friend For the End of the World
Cabin in the Woods
Inception
K-Pax
Limbo (1999, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, David Strathairn)
I haven't seen the films you listed, and I didn't read your spoilers, but I think some of the films above might be what you're looking for.
Hate leads to anger.
Anger leads to the Dark Side.
This is a Haiku. -
sprendlinger — 9 years ago(January 19, 2017 11:39 PM)
Hello Franco_Zed,
you're right, these movies are just what I meant (I know only about one third of those movies you listed, though; but the plot descriptions on imdb and from other sources indicate these movies could be interesting; perhaps I should try and check out the others too ;-).
As to movies in general, I must admit I don't know much about those which have been made during the last, say, 10 or 12 years I prefer the older "classics"
One really fascinating movie which doesn't solve the mysteries which it presents but
does
give some hints where the truth might be is
Contact- do you know that one?
(Spoiler warning:) It's fantastic that they just don't tell us exactly what has happened to the main character during her trip in space; we are "fed" with some tips and hints but nothing more. So, in the end you don't know what was real and what was just illusion
Kind regards
sprendlinger
- do you know that one?
-
Franco_Zed — 9 years ago(January 20, 2017 12:23 AM)
I love Contact. That's a great example of a movie with unsolved mysteries and an open ending. I liked the novel too.
I hope you enjoy some new movies.
Hate leads to anger.
Anger leads to the Dark Side.
This is a Haiku. -
sprendlinger — 9 years ago(January 20, 2017 01:20 AM)
Hello again, Franco_Zed
thanks for the quick reply!
Some other movies came to my mind where there are unsolved questions / where the end is open to speculation:
(again, I should insert a spoiler warning - but I'm sure you know all 3 of them)
1)
Omega Man- we don't get to know whether Charlton Heston's character makes it, in the end, to a place where there are no mutants and which hasn't been devastated by the catastrophe (and we aren't informed either what exactly was the nature of the catastrophe; I think there are some hints that an experiment with biological warfare got out of control)
On the contrary there's
Road to Perdition
(I think this is from the early 1990ies) where a group of people having survived a war (possibly nuclear bombing included) makes a journey full of dangers, heading westward through the U.S. and, in this case, they finally reach an area where there is clean water and food absolutely unrealistic but I liked the computer tricks, e.g. the giant mutated scorpions in the desert, etc.
- One very scary movie is
The Day After
- I think the horrible consequences of nuclear war hadn't been portrayed so drastically before BUT there are some details which make me suspect they wanted to leave some dimmed rays of hope, towards the end of the movie:
a) When the Army showed up and the surviving farmers met (in the open air, instead of a sheletered room, imagine that!), one of the officers said something to the effect that the polluted earth should be removed some inches (or rather, one foot?) deep - whereupon one of the farmers sarcastically retorts, in a low voice: "Well, and the soil gone, what is left?" (i.e. barren ground! but nevertheless, there IS some "administration" still working, there's not an
absolute
chaos, as depicted in many other post-apocalyptic movies; and some efforts to provide help are shown. Does that mean they wanted to imply, if we hold out long enough we could survive even
that
?
b) The other detail, pointing the same way, is when one of the doctors at the hospital reads the radiation level (by exposing himself to the fall-out, when walking around on the hospital roof - how useless is
that
!) and I am almost sure that the second time he does that, the level is to be said significantly lower than when he checked it the first time. Again, that sounds like, hold out long enough and the Army, National Guard, Red Cross, whoever is going to get us out of that mess Really strange, indeed!
Kind regards
sprendlinger
- we don't get to know whether Charlton Heston's character makes it, in the end, to a place where there are no mutants and which hasn't been devastated by the catastrophe (and we aren't informed either what exactly was the nature of the catastrophe; I think there are some hints that an experiment with biological warfare got out of control)
-
Franco_Zed — 9 years ago(January 20, 2017 02:34 PM)
Hi. Guess what? I haven't seen those movies.
It appears that we are watching different movies from each other.
I definitely like movies that are off the beaten path. Where nothing is really explained, or you can't tell whether an actor is playing 2 different characters or not. Or there's a big twist or 2, like in Sixth Sense.
Right now I'm rewatching the TV series, Orphan Black, season 4. Have you seen Orphan Black? I would recommend it to anyone who likes weird stuff.
Hate leads to anger.
Anger leads to the Dark Side.
This is a Haiku. -
eolloe — 9 years ago(January 20, 2017 03:16 PM)
Omega Man - we don't get to know whether Charlton Heston's character makes it, in the end, to a place where there are no mutants and which hasn't been devastated by the catastrophe
Sprendlinger, it's clearly time you rewatched The Omega Man. -
sprendlinger — 9 years ago(January 23, 2017 06:49 AM)
Hello eolloe,
you're right - now I think I remember C. Heston's character dies shortly before the movie ends, after he had been wounded by one of the mutants (?) - but the others start their journey hmmm - I really can't remember
Anyway, Omega Man is a movie which doesn't give us a final solution (and of course that's better than a Disney-esque (pseudo-)Happy End!
Kind regards
sprendlinger