Ordinary People is incredibly effective in Hutton's scenes with Sutherland. And incredibly campy whenever Mary Tyler Moore pushes french toast down the garbage disposal. It gets my vote.
― ephendophile (Eric H.), Monday, 18 July 2011 03:05 (1 year ago) Permalink
― ephendophile (Eric H.), Monday, 18 July 2011 03:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
Let's not forget: Hutton is smokin' hot in this too.
― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 18 July 2011 03:10 (1 year ago) Permalink
and naturally Sutherland was the only major cast member not to get an Oscar nom.
Woulda tried to find some room for one of Hutton's two bitches in supporting actor too.
― ephendophile (Eric H.), Monday, 18 July 2011 03:12 (1 year ago) Permalink
They named the virile son Buck!
― ephendophile (Eric H.), Monday, 18 July 2011 03:13 (1 year ago) Permalink
I love this movie.
NOW NOW I WILL ASSURE YOU THAT IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT
― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 18 July 2011 03:17 (1 year ago) Permalink
― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 18 July 2011 03:18 (1 year ago) Permalink
BARK BARK BARK (RUFF RUFF RUFF?)
― ephendophile (Eric H.), Monday, 18 July 2011 03:25 (1 year ago) Permalink
I have never seen Ordinary People. I will never see Ordinary People.
Just having read the reviews when the movie was first released convinced me that this is precisely the sort of drama I most loathe, wherein maladjusted people and their maladjusted children expose their maladjusted souls for two hours in a nice suburban house filled with Ethan Allen furniture.
I voted for A River Runs Through It, which at least had the decency to be based on a well-written novella.
― Aimless, Monday, 18 July 2011 04:14 (1 year ago) Permalink
What a boring run of films. With his fame he could have directed almost anything he wanted, and these were the projects he chose.
― Zelda Zonk, Monday, 18 July 2011 06:34 (1 year ago) Permalink
OP is far better than American Beauty and The Ice Storm.
― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 18 July 2011 12:15 (1 year ago) Permalink
And Raging Bull.
― ephendophile (Eric H.), Monday, 18 July 2011 12:28 (1 year ago) Permalink
Yep.
― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 18 July 2011 12:30 (1 year ago) Permalink
I remember talking to Scorsese backstage, just before the 1980 Academy Awards, when he was really worried about losing to Ordinary People: "Don't think about that. I mean, he's a fuckin’ middleweight, you're a heavyweight. It’s impossible, it'll never happen, so why go crazy thinking about it? It’s not normal." In the end, he was right.
Allowing again that I'm going by memories across 30 years, I'd take American Beauty and The Ice Storm in a minute, and would take [i]The Squid and the Whale[i] ahead of all of them.
― clemenza, Monday, 18 July 2011 13:17 (1 year ago) Permalink
whoa, you chilled with marty?
― ＤＥＨＵＭＡＮＩＺＥ ＹＯＵＲＳＥＬＦ ＡＮＤ ＦＡＣＥ ＴＯ ＢＬＯＯＤＳＨＥＤ (Princess TamTam), Monday, 18 July 2011 14:14 (1 year ago) Permalink
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Thursday, 21 July 2011 23:01 (1 year ago) Permalink
Sutherland rocks the house in Ordinary People. i bloody love Sutherland.
― piscesx, Friday, 22 July 2011 03:00 (1 year ago) Permalink
also just *how much* was Good Will Hunting ripped off from OP?! i mean i like GWH plenty but sheesh...
― piscesx, Friday, 22 July 2011 03:02 (1 year ago) Permalink
Timothy Hutton would have kicked Matt Damon's ass in that baaa-hr scene involving knowledge of Howard Zinn.
― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 22 July 2011 03:04 (1 year ago) Permalink
Fiennes and Scofield's chocolate cake scene is a beauty.
― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 22 July 2011 03:07 (1 year ago) Permalink
blew his wad early
― joyless shithead (Dr Morbius), Friday, 22 July 2011 03:14 (1 year ago) Permalink
"Fiennes and Scofield's chocolate cake scene is a beauty./Blew his wad early."-Frederick Seidel
― bernerrrrr! berrrrrnowwww.... (Eazy), Friday, 22 July 2011 03:18 (1 year ago) Permalink
"if you look around the table and you can't tell who the sucker is, it's you"
― piscesx, Friday, 22 July 2011 20:10 (1 year ago) Permalink
all that stuff about the Reuben sandwich
― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 22 July 2011 20:28 (1 year ago) Permalink
very well done
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Friday, 22 July 2011 23:01 (1 year ago) Permalink
Off topic, but did Redford dye his hair? I always assumed he was a natural blond, but I just watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and he appeared to have some serious highlights going on.
― Virginia Plain, Monday, 25 July 2011 02:27 (1 year ago) Permalink
Great scene:
― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 30 July 2011 12:39 (1 year ago) Permalink
oh i never saw this poll. quiz show is the film i have watched more than any other, i think. i love it deeply.
― jed_, Saturday, 30 July 2011 12:42 (1 year ago) Permalink
Yeah, I really liked Quiz Show.
― ladies love draculas like children love stray dogs (ENBB), Saturday, 30 July 2011 12:44 (1 year ago) Permalink
jeezus, talk about middlebrow filmmaking. (has it over Out of Africa in casting Brit actors as Americans for snob inoculation)
― you call it trollin' i call it steamrollin' (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 30 July 2011 12:57 (1 year ago) Permalink
More convincing accents. And brows.
― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 30 July 2011 13:01 (1 year ago) Permalink
Damn, had I seen this poll I would have put Quiz Show up there. One of my most-watched comfort movies, especially for the scene Alfred posted. A great screenplay. Lots of crisscrossing ideas about class, ethnicity, privilege, success and family - the corrupting effect of TV is the ostensible theme but probably the least interesting and perceptive of the lot.
Sneering at middlebrow just for being middlebrow, even when it's done well, is a bore.
― Strictly vote-splitting (DL), Saturday, 30 July 2011 14:10 (1 year ago) Permalink
I did like Ordinary People, when I was 12. At the time, Robert Redford's assistant was the daughter of my grandfather's wife. Also, below is Judith Guest's house - it's six blocks from my mom's. A book like Ordinary People could only be written in a place like Edina, where this is.
― murdoch most foul (suzy), Saturday, 30 July 2011 16:08 (1 year ago) Permalink
ARGH. [Insert pine-obscured Tudorbethan stockbroker's house HERE]
― murdoch most foul (suzy), Saturday, 30 July 2011 16:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
Scofield was so good in both this and The Crucible.
― third-generation stripper (Eric H.), Saturday, 30 July 2011 16:17 (1 year ago) Permalink
A River Runs Through It has two great natural assets, the Montana landscape and Pitt. Otherwise you better love fly fishing and Presbyterian sermons.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Norman Maclean as a kid!
― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Monday, 14 May 2012 11:49 (1 year ago) Permalink
“…it's earnest, it means to improve people, and it lasts a lifetime.”
It’s not fair to quote Kael to put down Ordinary People--she was even tougher on Raging Bull. But I watched it again for the first time in 32 years, trying to keep an open mind, and I was as indifferent this time as I was then. And just as adamant that it should never have won Best Picture.
I’ve been reading 1973 Nervous Breakdown, which spends a lot of time on the Louds, and The Exorcist, and lots else as manifestations of the disintegration of the family, and I was able to see it as very much a ‘70s film, how it and Kramer vs. Kramer and An Unmarried Woman belong to the end of that cycle. So that was interesting. But it does move at a snail’s pace, and people are constantly explaining things. Even when they can’t find the words, the camera stays there until they do, and then they explain. Or else you’re telegraphed an accidental revelation, like when Hutton lets loose with his Freudian slip in Hirsch’s office. The only performers I liked were Elizabeth McGovern and Mary Tyler Moore. Thought the film was kind of cruel to her.
I’ve seen Raging Bull so many times that I promised myself not to watch it again for the rest of my life. But if I can step back to the effect it had on me many years ago, to me it’s not even close as to which is the better film. Melvin and Howard would have been a much better choice in 1980--it wasn’t even nominated. Coal Miner’s Daughter would have been a better choice. Probably The Elephant Man, too. Haven’t seen Tess.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 1 August 2012 04:21 (9 months ago) Permalink
I promised myself not to watch it again for the rest of my life
Me too.
― Eric H., Wednesday, 1 August 2012 04:22 (9 months ago) Permalink
I realize we mean the complete opposite. There are certain films where I just cross a line and have to say, "Enough."
― clemenza, Wednesday, 1 August 2012 04:25 (9 months ago) Permalink