From Elsewhere…

#08 – Will Hunting, GOOD WILL HUNTING

“Why shouldn’t I work for the NSA? That’s a tough one, but I’ll give it a shot. Say I’m working at NSA. Somebody puts a code on my desk, something nobody else can break. So I take a shot at it and maybe I break it. And I’m real happy with myself because I did my job well. But maybe that code was the location of some rebel army in North Africa or the Middle East. Once they have that location, they bomb the village where the rebels were hiding and 1,500 people I never had a problem with get killed. Now the politicians are saying, ‘Send in the marines to secure the area’ because they don’t give a shit. It won’t be their kid over there, getting shot. Just like it wasn’t them when their number was called because they were pulling a tour in the National Guard. It’ll be some guy from Southie taking shrapnel in the ass. And he comes home to find that the plant he used to work at got exported to the country he just got back from. And the guy who put the shrapnel in his ass got his old job, because he’ll work for 15 cents a day and no bathroom breaks. Meanwhile my buddy from Southie realizes the only reason he was over there was so we could install a government that would sell us oil at a good price. And of course the oil companies used the skirmish to scare up oil prices so they could turn a quick buck. A cute little ancillary benefit for them but it ain’t helping my buddy at 250 a gallon. And naturally they’re taking their sweet time bringing the oil back and maybe even took the liberty of hiring an alcoholic skipper who likes to drink martinis and play slalom with the icebergs, and it ain’t too long until he hits one, spills the oil and kills all the sea life in the North Atlantic. So my buddy’s out of work and he can’t afford to drive, so he’s got to walk to the job interviews, which sucks because the shrapnel in his ass is giving him chronic hemorrhoids. And meanwhile he’s starving because every time he tries to get a bite to eat the only blue plate special they’re serving is North Atlantic scrod with Quaker State. So what do I think? I’m holding out for something better. Why not just shoot my buddy, take his job and give it to his sworn enemy, hike up gas prices, bomb a village, club a baby seal, hit the hash pipe and join the National Guard? I could be elected president.”

Read the rest of the list, including the comments, at Alternative Reel.com

#03 – THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST

“I am here to set fire to the world!” Martin Scorsese directed this adaption of Nikos Kazantzakis’ controversial 1953 novel that is notable for the scandal it caused as well as for its bizarre casting that included Willem Dafoe as Jesus, Barbara Hershey as Mary Magdalene, Harvey Keitel as Judas Iscariot, David Bowie as Pontius Pilate and Harry Dean Stanton as Paul. Numerous religious leaders throughout the United States organized protests against The Last Temptation of Christ (many of whom didn’t bother to make an effort to watch the film!) and several Southern cities such as Savannah, Georgia, banned the film. In addition, Blockbuster Video initially refused to carry the title in its stores. Scorsese was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for his efforts (Barry Levinson ended up winning the award for Rain Man).

Read the rest of the list at The Tin Drum

The Art of the Title Sequence

Incredible website dedicated to cataloging and evaluation the title sequences used in films.  Absolutely astonishing in its precision and in bringing to light an element of the cinematic medium not often noticed by, or paid attention to, by viewers or critics.

Here are some examples I could find, but I’m sure there must be more. Post ‘em in the comments and I’ll add them. Bonus points for supercuts with the most clips, the shortest clips, and in additional genres (sports? politics?).

Film

Glengarry Glen Ross – Obscenity Count
Requiem for a Dream, montage of every drug montage (meta!)
The Big Lebowski, every “fuck”
Casino, every “fuck”
The Big Lebowski, Every “dude”
True Romance, every kill from the finale
True Romance, every “fuck”
Rushmore, handjob references (thx, Matt)

I think most of these are hilarious, but the Requiem for a Dream one is actually impressive because I always thought those scene sequences were so beautifully created that seeing all of them is sublime.

Read the rest at Fanboy Supercuts, Obsessive Video Montages

10. Lady in White (1988)

Falling neatly into the nobody-saw-it category of remakes is Frank LaLoggia‘s Lady in White, an unusual little ghost story that originally starred Lukas Haas and Len Cariou. The movie barely made a dent in the slasher-crazy world of ’80s horror movies, but it’s the kind of alternative to what the genre is currently doing that could really make an impact in the ’00s. Think about all the buzz that The Orphanage built at the end of last year (not enough if you ask us) and how tired people are of the same-old-slash-old when it comes to the torture porn genre. We could all use a good ghost story to wash the taste of The Hitcher and Hills Have Eyes 2 out of our collective mouths. And Lady in White is a solid, old-fashioned, hair-on-the-back-of-your-neck supernatural tale that starred Haas as a kid who gets locked in school closet during Halloween of 1962 and sees something unusual in the classroom that leads him to the murderer of a young girl. Lady in White was something that not a lot of ghost stories were or are to this day – scary. Lukas Haas would later appear in My Chemical Romance’s video for “Welcome to the Black Parade” because two members of the band were fans of the scary flick. If someone could recreate the same atmospheric chills as the original in a remake, it could inspire a whole new generation of Screamo fans.

I saw Lady in White when I was perhaps ten years old and it was one of the more effective horror movies in terms of actually scaring me.  That wasn’t just because I was so young, but more because it is such a believable tale and because its horror relies more upon the psychological usage similar to that of The Shining rather than a gore fest similar to that of A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Read the rest of the list at The Deadbolt Feature