Movie Talks Archives

Posted by: bigred760 at February 14, 2006, 7:56 pm

Topic: King Kong!! WOW! (Reviews) Forum: JoBlo

Quote: Originally Posted by wildandhairy Hi again. This is sure more fun than working. Isn't it though? Quote: Willis H. O'Brien ("Obie") was the stop motion specialist who led the team that created the visuals in Kong Kong 1933. He had done one prior feature, a silent version of the Conan Doyle novel, The Lost World. There is an excellent restoration of that film on DVD, but it is mostly for affectionadoes like myself--compared even with the first King Kong, the effects are still relatively clunky. O'Brien did a lot of the animation himself--I'm sure you know what stop motion is--with a very solid team of professionals to help him build models, sets, etc. Two of O'Brien's early tricks, to make his work seem more real, was to include actual water as often as possible (seen frequently in The Lost World as a river running in the foreground as two dinos try to kill each other). Real water lent credibility. He also, second, tried to combine actual live actors into scenes with stop motion animation. Also, he did things like put air bladders into the models, so their stomachs could be inflated and deflated, as if they were breathing. The mix of actors and the dinosaurs and Kong are probably the coolest thing in the original King Kong, for me anyway. Although it is a bit obvious, it's still impressive how they managed to create those scenes. And the water trick is a smart idea; I don't remember it in King Kong but I can picture how it would work. Quote: Regarding violence, you're right. I also enjoy stylized violence. By that I refer to films like The Wild Bunch, as opposed to A Clockwork Orange. It's a shame that Peckinpah never really was able to pull of another film as good as The Wild Bunch after it came out (still really like Ride The High Country, and even the Cable Hogue movie has its charms). In part I think Peckinpah was caught up in the expectations The Wild Bunch created. This led to Bring Me The Head of Alfred Garcia, and sorry, but I find most of that film tough to watch, mostly cause it ain't very good. Similarly to his CIA movie with Robert Duvall or the Weekend movie, which was full of unfulfilled promise. I think Peckinpah was trying to top the glory that The Wild Bunch brought him through the violence of the movie. He came out with works like Straw Dogs, The Getaway, and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. While all were good movies, I don't think they came close to the classic because The Wild Bunch was more than just the violence. You had the classic western story of the aging gunfighter(s), the subplot of redemption (Pike's), and the fact that every person in the movie was a villain - so-to-speak. All of those contributing to the symbolism and the mythology of the western. The introduction of all this new, bloody violence just made it much better. Quote: I like some of Ted Post's work, he did some fine early Clint Eastwood. And of course, it would take an entire new thread to talk about Verhoeven and films like Robocop and Total Recall. Verhoeven is closest to inheriting the Peckinpah mantle of all current directors, I should suggest. However, even Peckinpah would not have made Showgirls. Although I suspect he did make some showgirls, but that is another story. I like Hang 'Em High, but that's probably all I know of Ted Post's work. Not that big a fan of Verhoeven's, but have to give him credit for the first two movies you mentioned - definite classics, Robocop more than Total Recall. Speaking of Eastwood, the stylized violence and all the discussion about it in Unforgiven is one of the many, many, MANY reasons it is my all-time favorite movie. I love westerns, freakin' love em, and this - to me - was the genre's high point. -Will never be topped.

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