(no subject)

[ellen_datlow]

Last night I watched Heaven's Gate the 1980 Michael Cimino movie disaster that broke the bank and United Artists as a film production company. It's ambitious, engaging, and way too long. It runs to 3 1/2 hours and should have been 2 hour 45 minutes at the most. The bulk of the story takes place in 1890 (with an introductory Harvard graduation set in 1870 that should have been cut to five minutes, rather than the 25-30 minutes). Cattle barons are angry at the influx of immigrants coming to their country in Wyoming. Sam Waterston is EVIL. Kris Kristofferson is Sheriff (he was the Harvard grad) who is basically a fence sitter upholding "law" but not very engaged in anything or anyone. Christopher Walken plays a mercenary hired by the barons to punish the immigrant cattle thieves (who, with their families are trying to make a go of farming and are starving to death). Isabelle Huppert is madam of the local brothel and lover of both Kristofferson and Walken. Jeff Bridges plays a friend of the Sheriff who keeps a bar and entertainment emporium (I think that's what it is) and is on the side of the immigrants.
John Hurt is a totally extraneous character who was a friend of Kristofferson's at Harvard and is now semi-part of the cattle baron scene. A total drunk, he adds nothing to the plot whatsoever.
There is a good movie buried in the 3 1/2 hours--I don't recall this kind of attention paid to the western immigrant experience in old westerns. It always was cattlemen vs homesteaders, but it never showed the mix of immigrants who made up the homesteaders. There are wonderful scenes of this very mixed batch of desperate families communicating in their diverse languages with each other.
I also like the triangle of Huppert, Kristofferson, and Walken. Nice interactions among the three of them.

Then I watched Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightly, Brenda Blethyn, an adorable Matthew Macfadyen as Mr. Darcy, and Donald Sutherland. It was a lovely version.

Now, on to working on my taxes and reading and editing.

Comments

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Turns out that while watching P&P last night I thought that the plot seemed sooo familiar--had a recently seen another version? Your comment just made me realize that it was Sense and Sensibility with Emma and Kate that I just saw a few weeks ago...and much of their plot IS the same. I guess it shows that some writers really do only write one book over and over again ;-) I still loved it.

[amysisson.livejournal.com]

You might enjoy Bride and Prejudice, an unabashedly Bollywood version. It even keeps many of the names (Darcy, etc.), but in true Bollywood fashion, they break into song and dance every so often. And they go from five sisters to four, but other than that it stays pretty much the same.