A Masterpiece: One of the Great Films of the 1960s
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cranly — 19 years ago(October 27, 2006 12:07 PM)
Actually, Kael greeted the film with something less than complete approbation, as reflected in the following quote from her original review:
"Richardson and his scenarist, Charles Wood, seem to shrink everything they touch. This epic has so little feeling for the courage that went with the idiocies of the past that it diminishes itself along with its targets. And at the end what should be the military debacle is instead a debacle of staging-you can't figure out what went wrong or who is responsible." -
heckles — 17 years ago(July 31, 2008 08:58 AM)
I bought a copy. I love the 1800's dialogue ("Had me Cherrybums out today, that always gets me randified") and I can't watch the Punch-like cartoons too many times ("The Russians! THE RUSSIANS!").
It should be noted as bad as the Charge was, worse was to come. The sufferings of the British Army during the winter of 1854-1855 was comparable to that of Washington's at Valley Forge, with the addition that the soldiers were very far from home, and fighting for an obscure geopolitical goal rather than national independence.
N.B. You're right on target about Pauline Kael. Her condescending tone, her obvious desire to suck the enjoyment out of any movie more 'popcorn' than Last Tango in ParisI gave up on her long ago.
4
WWDDD What would Don Draper do? -
gnolti — 17 years ago(February 23, 2009 04:31 AM)
Surprisingly good film. I was unaware of or had forgotten Kael's take, because I agree it should have a wider audience. And although these things are subjective, I think this is arguably one of the most convincing representations of the period visually, dialogically, atmospherically on celluloid.
There, daddy, do I get a gold star?