❀ night moves [ gene hackman, arthur penn, jailbait melanie griffith - 1975 ]

how fucking great is this movie? it's completely unnerving and unpleasant, to be sure, but brilliant. one of the great mindfuck endings of any hollywood movie.

is it even possible or desirable to try to piece together the conspiracy implied by the ending? or is it deliberately nonsensical -- like a möbius strip of paranoia?

it is so fucking great! i kind of think that piecing together the conspiracy thing is possible, but maybe not something i want to do? definitely an ending where I went: "WHAAAA? NOOOO! YESSSS!" [i know, i should be a film critic]

Shadowy, puzzling conspiracies were par for the course in '74/75: Night Moves, Chinatown, The Parallax View, The Conversation, etc. (They dreamed up a really good one in All the President's Men a year later.) I think I understand the basics of Night Moves as well as any of the others, though I can't recall them right now. Probably more famous than the film itself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Lj98whhL00&feature=related

is it even possible or desirable to try to piece together the conspiracy implied by the ending? or is it deliberately nonsensical -- like a möbius strip of paranoia?

kind of impossible to avoid SPOILERS here, so...

haven't seen it in years, but remember it being great. LOVE that overhead shot of the circling boat at the end. i remember thinking that the point is that there wasn't really anything there for him to find, just a bunch of suggestive fragments that seemed to add up because he wanted them to. would love to see it again.

ive never seen it! is it out?

I was surprised when I read Kael's tepid review. The movie's got atmosphere, convincing supporting cast, and Hackman in top form.

@s1ocki, [urlhttp://www.amazon.com/Night-Moves-Gene-Hackman/dp/B0009GX1CE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341618674&sr=8-1&keywords=night+moves+dvd=]yes it is.[/url]

Shit

i remember the woman in the florida keys sequence being convincingly suntanned and leathery. i think this is on netflix instant? or at least it was.

also, yeah -- Rohmer zing! Did Eric ever respond?!

the fame of the Rohmer zing has surpassed the movie's

it's really famous? why?

i mean, i hadn't heard of it before i saw the movie. i think i just took note because i had just seen my night at maud's for the first time.

cretins took it as proof of their prejudices

rohmer is kind of like watching paint dry though. beautiful, thought provoking french paint.

the best kind

xp no he's not, Rohmer's great. If you ask me, they're usually pretty exciting. Not that Collectioneuse and a couple others didn't make me itchy and a little annoyed at the characters, but he makes great little chamber pieces. I like how much he does with just a few characters. Like The Aviator's Wife! That's like three people and it's really exciting. He also makes me want to live in France in a way that a lot of French movies don't.

And Astrea and Celadon is super sexy. He also made oddball movies like Perceval, which is all shot on a soundstage with fake grass and fields and castles that are the wrong size. It's a cool movie. Kind of draws you into its rhythm like good verse. I love Rohmer. I've seen 14 or 15 of his movies. I haven't seen Night Moves. I think I'll try to see it.

While we're on Arthur Penn: should I see Missouri Breaks y/n? I think Walgreens has a dvd of it for $4.

Y. My challops:Brando's last scene in it better than his last one in Apocalypse Now.

missouri breaks is pretty awful, there are some OK scenes though.

I wrote a bit about The Missouri Breaks on the RIP thread last year:

Arthur Penn - RIP

I'd internalized the idea many years ago that it was a debacle--not sure why; I don't think it was anything I'd specifically read--but when I finally saw it, I didn't think that was true at all. Having said that, I got 20 minutes into Four Friends last night, and I'm probably going to bail.

it's been probably 12 years since i've seen it, but i thought MB was ok. Nicholson, Brando and Penn have certainly all done worse.

re; rohmer, i was kidding (and a little drunk last night). i love that guy.

saw this again last night. this movie is so amazing. i suspect the ending can be figured out, probably most likely the stunt coordinator pal of Hackman's was orchestrating the whole smuggling thing. but i don't think it's meant to be a mystery that's then cleanly solved either.

i mean, was the daughter murdered, and if so why? her knowledge of the smuggling operation? i'm not sure. there's a lot there, it's more interesting bc it's so enigmatic.

Jennifer Warren is legitimately A+ in her supporting role. everyone is good and you can tell most of them were given some free rein with their parts. but she really ran with it, never seen a performance quite like it tbh.

ok I last saw this film 20+ years ago after reading similar responses to those on this thread. At the time I thought "what's the big deal" but I was much dumber then. Sounds like I'm due for a rewatch.

This movie's ending often comes to mind when I think of Florida.

Classic obv.

Ellen Moseby: (of a football game) Who's winning?
Harry Moseby: Nobody. One side is just losing slower than the other.

Tom Iverson: I want that kid the hell out of here. You see, I... I get pretty foolish with her, and I... Well, you've seen her. God, there ought to be a law!
Harry Moseby: There is.

GREAT one, due for a re-watch over here. Is it streaming anywhere?

i think it had been streaming on Amazon but not anymore. the blu ray was just released last week though!

That "losing slowly" quote was resurrected in The Wire, then was used on a poster that seemed to imply that Prezbo came up with it:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwiq6fPlvOvVAhXBShQKHSE7B4EQjRwIBw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Fpin%2F142285669450797130%2F&psig=AFQjCNE0TpmKHEwHUqDE2zHbYpLU7SCpfw&ust=1503513059751642

i don't have a blu ray player :(

i'm probably going to buy it...though my rewatch was from a library dvd.

this is one of those movies that feels like it was adapted from a great '70s noir novel, but Alan Sharp was just a great screenwriter. He also wrote The Hired Hand and Ulzana's Raid!

Yeah, really interesting screenwriter - Scottish, married to Beryl Bainbridge for a time!

i've said this elsewhere but you can file it under that whole subgenre of creepy '70s burnout art, just like these stories of lost dudes caught in some web, traveling around, surrounded by death. file it alongside the album Tonight's the Night and the novel The Last Good Kiss. there are probably some other works that fit alongside that. Maybe something like Who'll Stop the Rain, though that's a little more on the nose than these other works. I think the sloppiness and rambling nature of Night Moves and those others is part of these subgenre.

Just bought the Blu-Ray of this, watched it last night. I also recently bought Blu-Rays of Who'll Stop the Rain and Cutter's Way, both of which fit with this one, vibe-wise.

Watched this last night and loved it. I went in with no expectations at all (apart from the cast and director) and loved the feeling, alongside Hackman, of falling further and further into the mess and confusion. I kept thinking the thematic nods to The Conversation must have been deliberate - even to the point that it could be seen as a companion piece: paranoia, the weird framing devices (particularly the conversations through windows and those odd distorting patches, through which the camera views oncoming cars etc), the final scene feeling like an almost direct analogue of Hackman adrift in the wreck of his apartment.

The script almost teetered on overly-mannered/stylized at times maybe? The over-coded references to the Kennedys, the wholly weird conversation about Elizabeth Warren's nipples (she is incredible throughout). The scene where Hackman and his wife almost reconcile and Hackman talks about finding his father in Baltimore is utterly magnificent.

Aside: I wish I could wear a shirt like Gene Hackman wears a shirt (the combover, less so).

Elizabeth Warren's nipples

The name of my new podcast is...

Night Moves is on Criterion this month. I had never seen it. Still sorting through it, but holy crap what a great movie. Original post otm.

Alan Sharp was an unbelievably talented screenwriter. He also authored Ulzana’s Raid for Robert Aldrich in 1972, which is one of the great revisionist westerns. I certainly like it more than The Hired Hand and The Missouri Breaks (although it’s probably neck and neck with China 9, Liberty 37)

Surely the significance of the ending is that Harry's wife was involved in the smuggling ring somehow?

Great movie, recently rewatched during a bout of insomnia. Night Moves and Cutter’s Way are my comfort movies precisely because of their strange ambiguity. Add payday to the list and you have a solid trilogy of morally murky 70s sadness. Love it.

I think I never such a weirder scene than the one just after they find the plane in the ocean – when they are all drinking and dancing, and Hackman's look is just of wtf is going on? Love it

ugh 'never seen such a weirder scene'

also want to see this after reading more about the movie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Parsons