She stole my post!
Well, last night when Heidi started blogging I said 'Don't say everything; leave something for me to comment on'. Did she? Did she hell.
So, my thoughts on Ben Hur: far too long, very much 'of its time' (i.e. the fifties, not AD30) in terms of acting and directing style for epics, and as Heidi said, very weird. It would have been fine if it finished after the podrace, sorry, chariot race (saw George Lucas' influences throughout, by the way), which was the natural conclusion. But no, they had to blather on for about an hour dealing with how Jesus gets in there. Controversial I know, but I think the film would have been better without him! Well, without their version of him anyway (just avoided the lightning strike there!). That said, there were some very effective scenes, the chariot race and the galley battle being the standouts for me. That's probably because something was actually moving on screen at the time...
Cold Mountain: in total, a much more engaging film than I expected. In parts, a portrait of how depraved and vicious humans can be when under the pressure of war (and like Heidi said, not gratuitous but definitely unflinching and upsetting). In other parts, a vision of how people can really help, love and change one another when under similar pressure. Zellweger was fantastic, Jude and Nicole good too, but their parts weren't as fun.
Now I must get back to work. BTW, who left comments that were deleted?
So, my thoughts on Ben Hur: far too long, very much 'of its time' (i.e. the fifties, not AD30) in terms of acting and directing style for epics, and as Heidi said, very weird. It would have been fine if it finished after the podrace, sorry, chariot race (saw George Lucas' influences throughout, by the way), which was the natural conclusion. But no, they had to blather on for about an hour dealing with how Jesus gets in there. Controversial I know, but I think the film would have been better without him! Well, without their version of him anyway (just avoided the lightning strike there!). That said, there were some very effective scenes, the chariot race and the galley battle being the standouts for me. That's probably because something was actually moving on screen at the time...
Cold Mountain: in total, a much more engaging film than I expected. In parts, a portrait of how depraved and vicious humans can be when under the pressure of war (and like Heidi said, not gratuitous but definitely unflinching and upsetting). In other parts, a vision of how people can really help, love and change one another when under similar pressure. Zellweger was fantastic, Jude and Nicole good too, but their parts weren't as fun.
Now I must get back to work. BTW, who left comments that were deleted?
posted by Mr Thomas @ 12:29 pm
3 Comments:
At 2:18 pm ,
Sarah said...
Judging by the time of posting, Nikki?! You can only delete comments that you yourself have made. Blogger does sometimes do funny things and duplicate ...
At 8:27 pm ,
Nikki Mayfield said...
Yes it was me - sorry Mark. There was a problem with my connection to Blogger and it published the same thing 3 times, so rather than having it remain there and clutter things I opted for mysterious removal. (not so mysterious now though eh?)
At 11:15 pm ,
Alana said...
Hmm, haven't seen either. Ben Hur sounds like one of those films that Ben says "we really should atch it - it's a classic" and then afterwards I think about the time I've wasted that I'll never get back!
Re: Cold Mountain - I saw the previews at the pictures and swung wildly between not wanting to watch it and thinking that it might be quite interestin to see Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger in those types of roles (and if not there's always a bit of eye candy with Jude Law - lol!).
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