jamesnightshade

Excellent all-around--the superb acting is the high point--Alexander Beyer and Hannelore Elsner particularly good, and of course Malcolm McDowell is good. The cinematography and production design are gorgeous, and the historical realism is dense and exciting (best Napoleon you'll ever see). Costumes are excellent and rich, and the direction is skillful (wonderful close-ups of the actors, the directors really gave them a chance to shine). Music is beautiful. A really outstanding, well-made piece, a great tale with a wonderful cast of villains and delightfully honorable, upstanding characters, with many exciting contests and backstabbing among them. Though admittedly the narrative has to move along at a brisk pace, and much is left out of the story, this is true of any long tale like this one brought to the screen. Much fun to watch over a few nights.

Outstanding film, with excellent performances from Thomas and Borgnine. The film captures the intensity and poignancy of the novel very nicely, and the overall restraint and artistry are commendable (the use of English is a bit distracting and less-than realistic). The editing and production design are excellent, and you will see shades of Spielberg's filmography of Saving Private Ryan in the battle scenes and explosions. All filmed in a ruddy gray/black/red-tinged, muddy mess that captures the grim environments of the battlefields very well. You'll be surprised that Richard Thomas never went much farther in film when you see his performance, very emotive but low-key.

I watched this film with my girlfriend, on video at home, long after it had come out. We were stunned by the end of the movie, and felt creeping dread in our apartment. We had trouble turning off the lights and sleeping comfortably. The premise of the movie is good enough, an easygoing group of college students investigating local lore, and finding themselves spun into a web of horror in what should be perfectly normal conditions, having fun, shooting an amateur documentary in the outdoors. It's strangely disconcerting that the"witch" in the movie is never quite seen or explained, and overlaps with a murderer in the small town from many years ago. We aren't completely sure about the source of the psychological terrorism inflicted on the students in the woods. It is at once creepily unreal, witch-like, metaphysical, while also realistic, with links to a psychotic murderer from long ago. The imagery in the movie is justly famous. It begins with a simple pile or rocks, nothing more, but oh so suggestive. The vaguely heard children's laughter and cries as the students' tent is molested is an excellent use of sound in the film. The wooden icons they encounter hanging from the trees as the pressure mounts on them will make your spine tingle. The children's hand prints in the horror-classic dilapidated house in the climax are frightening. I've heard viewers complain that the students confusion and the fact that they find themselves going in circles as they try to find their way out of the woods is unbelievable. I disagree. That type of confusion and inability to find your way out of a terrifying maelstrom is exactly what a "witch" would inflict on its victims, exactly what can happen during psychological terror and trauma--like being unable to escape from a terrifying dream. The end of this movie, the heated terror as the surviving students chase a chimera (their captured friend's terrified screams), and their entrapment in the basement (referring back to the tale of the town murderer, told earlier in the film), the final, bleak music after the camera falls, is chilling to the bone. Justly praised. I am pretty sure that true horror aficionados all love this film. I did.

One of the great all-time classics. Bonnie and Clyde launched the 70s revolution in realistic, penetrating, psychological, ironic, modern filmmaking--3-4 years before the revolution arrived. It was first and it was best. There would be no Godfather, and everything that came after, without Bonnie and Clyde. The cinematography, as we all know, would be worth the price of admission, and continually reflects the dusty, barren existence (and, essentially, intellects and ambitions) of the characters. The realistic details throughout the movie are astonishing--the tourist courts and other buildings, the accents (listen to Beatty and Dunaway's use of double negatives, and other details), the sharecropper and lost Okies, the signs outside of stores, etc. Some say the film was romanticized--and of course it was--but the story still follows the key points of the Barrow gang's reign of terror and downfall (note CM Moss's reference to "the armory" that the gang had attacked to obtain more weapons. That really happened.). Although the scene-making in the movie is out of this world (look again at the ghostly dreamscape of the Parker family reunion--genius!), the movie may be most pleasing at the level of characterization. From the little guys--such as Gene Wilder's incredible few minutes on film--to the main characters--only a few years later Gene Hackman would receive his richly deserved Best Actor statuette--what most excites in this movie is the characterization and interaction. Can't beat it, enjoy it again and again.