| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| BaftaBaby |
Posted - 02/07/2007 : 13:51:18
It's been interesting reading all the hoo-hah about spoilers, and heaven forfend I should come down on one side or the other. I watch films for very different reasons, but plot is never one of them. Most pro critics already know the plot before they enter the preview theatre; then they can concentrate on:
The Story; The Direction; The Acting; The Music; The Editing; The Photography; The Other Tech credits; Anything unusual or exciting or trivial or remarkable that they can use in their review.
SO HERE's THE DEAL
Just pick a film, any film that you haven't seen and know little or nothing about. It can be something from the current crop or an oldie, classic or legend of doom. Then read everything you can find about the plot. Then watch the film.
If you never do this, it will be a new experience for you. If it's any good you may want to see it again or you may find that without the burden of following the plot you're more aware of The Story and all the elements that went into telling it.
And if the film sucks, I wonder how you'll feel about it knowing you can tell why it didn't fulfil its premise and its promise.
Anyone game for this? 
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| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| ChocolateLady |
Posted - 02/26/2007 : 06:08:09
quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
quote:
Originally posted by ChocolateLady
I think I've done one for you - after reading and reading and reading about the movie The Queen, we finally saw it yesterday. I've published my review in two places:
http://members.dooyoo.co.uk/dvd-title-q/the-queen-dvd/1046976/
and
http://www.helium.com/tm/180837/action-movie-queen-covers
Good for you, CL! You haven't said, exactly, but it sounds like knowing the film's mechanics had the effect of freeing you to concentrate on how all the elements came together to produce the whole. Yes?
Knowing what was going to happen (they wouldn't totally change history) certainly let me concentrate on the characters and their relationships, yes. By the way, is Mrs. Blair really that bitchy?
quote:
May I be so bold as to offer a slight tip on constructing your reviews? Instead of merely stating what you feel, it would bring more personality into your review if you sometimes phrased those feelings with similes and metaphors. Appropriate, of course, and without overdoing it. And, also you might drop in an example of something -- e.g. you mentioned laughing out loud: you can even quote a line or two. In short, more instances of the comment you made about Charles's ears, which personalize the review for your readers.
Yes, please - this sounds like good advice! Much appreciated.
quote:
But, that said, I thought the review provided an honest experience, which is very welcome.
I hope you had fun with this, and thanks for taking the challenge.
I didn't actually write it for your challenge but then after I posted it on the sites, I realized that it fit your challenge quite well.
I want to try this again, however. I'll let you know if I succeed.
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| BaftaBaby |
Posted - 02/25/2007 : 15:08:00
quote:
Originally posted by ChocolateLady
I think I've done one for you - after reading and reading and reading about the movie The Queen, we finally saw it yesterday. I've published my review in two places:
http://members.dooyoo.co.uk/dvd-title-q/the-queen-dvd/1046976/
and
http://www.helium.com/tm/180837/action-movie-queen-covers
Good for you, CL! You haven't said, exactly, but it sounds like knowing the film's mechanics had the effect of freeing you to concentrate on how all the elements came together to produce the whole. Yes?
May I be so bold as to offer a slight tip on constructing your reviews? Instead of merely stating what you feel, it would bring more personality into your review if you sometimes phrased those feelings with similes and metaphors. Appropriate, of course, and without overdoing it. And, also you might drop in an example of something -- e.g. you mentioned laughing out loud: you can even quote a line or two. In short, more instances of the comment you made about Charles's ears, which personalize the review for your readers.
But, that said, I thought the review provided an honest experience, which is very welcome.
I hope you had fun with this, and thanks for taking the challenge.
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| ChocolateLady |
Posted - 02/25/2007 : 12:02:21
I think I've done one for you - after reading and reading and reading about the movie The Queen, we finally saw it yesterday. I've published my review in two places:
http://members.dooyoo.co.uk/dvd-title-q/the-queen-dvd/1046976/
and
http://www.helium.com/tm/180837/action-movie-queen-covers
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| Sean |
Posted - 02/20/2007 : 23:53:33
quote:
Originally posted by Whippersnapper
That's a spoiler for Titanic!  |
| randall |
Posted - 02/20/2007 : 23:25:53
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| Whippersnapper. |
Posted - 02/20/2007 : 21:50:49
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| Demisemicenturian |
Posted - 02/20/2007 : 19:58:36
quote:
Originally posted by Whippersnapper
Sal who chooses to spend his time watching any kind of dross rather than the no.1 British film of all time
This is a weird thing to say. I fully intended to see it when I got the chance. However, I have never happened to see it listed in the television schedule. (I am sure it has been on in my adulthood, but I do not spend my time scouring the T.V. listings.) I do not have much money and therefore do not buy many D.V.D.s. Further, as I have said, I think it is quite reasonable to spread out classic films over one's lifetime. For example, I only watched It's a Wonderful Life for the first time on Christmas Day. Had I felt compelled to watch this when I was younger, that would have lost me that opportunity, wouldn't it?
quote:
Sal must assume that any of my posts may contain spoilers and therefore I recommend he does not bother reading them.
O.K., this will stop you spoilering things for me, although as is clear from what Sean has said, other people will also be negatively affected by this. Also, the only reasonable practice you can adopt with regard to that policy and me is to ensure that you never respond to any comment of mine, as it would clearly not be fair to do so when you have said that I am not to read it. |
| Demisemicenturian |
Posted - 02/20/2007 : 19:48:55
quote:
Originally posted by Se�n
Not everyone agrees with your "It's an old movie so who cares about spoilers" position. I recall a thread a year ago where I thoughtlessly mentioned a major spoiler about Planet of the Apes (the Heston version) and promptly went to bed.
I only saw this a couple of years ago and it had been half-spoilered for me shortly beforehand. (The spoiler was the key spoiler of the film but I came across it somewhat ambiguously.)
quote:
IMO there aren't too many movies around that are capable of being massively spoiled (i.e, that contain serious plot twists)
Yes, this is exactly the same as I think. The endings of most films are not spoilers any more than other small details are. |
| Demisemicenturian |
Posted - 02/20/2007 : 19:44:41
quote:
Originally posted by Shiv
My job involves working with Aboriginal people who do not want to lose their ancient languages. Those languages were and still are oral and what is being lost is not just 'language' as a verbalised and structured mechanism of expressing meaning - but all those elements of storytelling you mention and the cultural and moral teachings contained in them. In this environment I see proof of the observation that film is a progression from the storytelling of old.
I won't sidetrack things into a linguistic discussion again, but I am particularly fascinated(/troubled) by language extinction, so keep up the good work.  I had a friend who lived with Warlpiri speakers and he made me aware of the issue that once languages are lost, knowledge such as of medicinal plants may easily be lost too.  |
| Demisemicenturian |
Posted - 02/20/2007 : 19:40:10
quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
The six standard plot archetypes:
Man versus Man
Man versus Society
Man versus Self
Man versus Nature
Man versus Supernatural
Man versus The Machine
Thanks for all that. Very interesting. This therefore just comes down to nomenclature. I don't have any problem in accepting that all stories may be made up of these. (I can also accept that conversely some may not, but cannot think of any examples.) However, to me, much more specific story points (even than your kick-offs/situations) are just plot too. I realise that the plot cannot just be every detail of the story, but I would interpret it as including reference to all progressions of the story. I'm just as interested in this as in other features of films. Thus, even with the added interest of comparison, I am less interested in adaptations of novels I've read than other films (at least in the abstract - having chosen to read the novel means that I am likely to be more interested than average in the genre concerned).
It is completely fine for people to be more interested in all the other aspects, but I think that that leaning in some people has contributed towards the rise of spoilers. They really did not use to be a problem here. |
| Demisemicenturian |
Posted - 02/20/2007 : 19:25:02
quote:
Originally posted by BiggerBoat
Seriously Sal, if you love this site so much, why do you try to ruin it? So many decent threads turn into a swamp of pedantry with you dominating the boards and picking apart every tiny detail. It's dull and no one wants to read it. You said in a thread recently that you get lonely because no one else shares your views. Have you ever considered the possibility that it's not everyone else who is wrong??
I know that you said that you didn't want answers, but since that equates to saying that you want the last word, and since I happen to want to answer, I'm going to. I am not at all troubled if you do not want to read my answers: please feel free to stop now if so.
Anyone can skip past any post of mine that they want to; this does not really cause them any inconvenience.
Sure, on here, because of the subject matter, I am often interested in details. I would in fact say that people are on the wrong film site if they are not.
No, I certainly did not say that I was lonely. That is an odd assumption for you to jump to and spread around. I said something like it would be nice to have friends with whom I have a lot in common. (By this I meant who shared my moral outlook, something that I never ever talk about here - in case you imagined that I feel the need to press my general opinions on people.) I am not lonely with the many friends I have got. They just have different views which, while fine, are sometimes a bit wearing - as it is me who has to go along with the consequences of their views and never vice versa.
The things I talk about here are only because they are relevant and because it is in fact other people who like to state their opinions as facts without supporting them in any way. I rarely get into these sorts of arguments in real life, because in conversations, people tend not to make wild statements and then develop their points from there before anyone can respond. |
| BiggerBoat |
Posted - 02/15/2007 : 01:54:39
quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
quote:
Originally posted by BiggerBoat
Good work Baffy, although I hope there was plenty of cutting and pasting amongst all that. I'm going to scour this list as it may help with my latest project - I'm writing a sit-com with a friend of mine and neither of us have got any experience in the field whatsoever. The more tips I can get, the better.
My best tip for you:
Get hold of the Victoria Wood scripts - they're published by Methuen I think. Just do it!
Really? I never liked her, but that could be because she was getting big (on TV) when I was just reaching adolescense and I wanted my women to look like Daisy Duke and not like my frumpy Aunt. She also spoke about stuff I couldn't really relate to back then, so maybe I should give her a chance. When I've seen her on compilation comedy shows over thelast few years I have found her a lot more accessible so I'll do that Baffy, I'll check her out. Cheers |
| BaftaBaby |
Posted - 02/14/2007 : 22:50:39
quote:
Originally posted by BiggerBoat
Good work Baffy, although I hope there was plenty of cutting and pasting amongst all that. I'm going to scour this list as it may help with my latest project - I'm writing a sit-com with a friend of mine and neither of us have got any experience in the field whatsoever. The more tips I can get, the better.
My best tip for you:
Get hold of the Victoria Wood scripts - they're published by Methuen I think. Just do it!
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| BiggerBoat |
Posted - 02/14/2007 : 21:22:56
Good work Baffy, although I hope there was plenty of cutting and pasting amongst all that. I'm going to scour this list as it may help with my latest project - I'm writing a sit-com with a friend of mine and neither of us have got any experience in the field whatsoever. The more tips I can get, the better. |
| Whippersnapper. |
Posted - 02/14/2007 : 19:31:01
quote:
Originally posted by Se�n
quote:
Originally posted by Whippersnapper
If you weren't so ignorant you would realise that given Orson Welles was heavily billed as the star of the film, and his character was supposed to have died before the film started in shady, contradictory and disputed circumstances, anyone with half a brain would be very aware his character was probably not really dead at all.
True, but his appearance in the movie may well have been in a flashback near the end of the movie (i.e., once the mystery was 'solved') in order to show the viewer the sequence of events, a not-uncommon occurrence in movies.
I actually saw this movie for the first time only a few months ago, at the time I saw it was not aware of the 'spoiler', and was also not aware of the character played by Orson. I liked watching it that way. I'm kind of glad I didn't read this thread first. 
The fact that you've seen this movie doesn't mean that everyone has. How about a 17 year old fwfrer? It takes a lifetime to see the world's good movies, and people won't necessarily start with the best of the classics. I'm 39 and have yet to see 1984 even though I see about 250 movies per year. Haven't seen Double Indemnity either, although that will change tonight as it just arrived in the post (netflix).
Not everyone agrees with your "It's an old movie so who cares about spoilers" position. I recall a thread a year ago where I thoughtlessly mentioned a major spoiler about Planet of the Apes (the Heston version) and promptly went to bed. Randall posted and asked me to remove the spoiler pronto before other participants in the thread saw it (there were some who had not seen the movie). Benj then did the right thing and stepped in and removed the spoiler from my post while I was asleep.
IMO there aren't too many movies around that are capable of being massively spoiled (i.e, that contain serious plot twists), but The Third Man is one of them, along with The Sixth Sense, POTA etc. So, I don't think it's terribly hard to provide the occasional spoiler warning when it's appropriate, it's standard procedure on movie websites. IMDb has a reporting system for spoiler reviews or posts (for occasions when the poster doesn't provide a warning). Upon report the post is deleted, as is the account of those guilty of regular transgressions.
"Planet Of The Apes" is certainly a prime example of a film which would be devalued by being told the spoiler you allude to. It is not obvious, largely because up to then the film did not seem to be making too many political points, and its that shift of emphasis which makes it such a surprise. So much so that I'm considering PMing it to Sal in the near future. 
"The Third Man" really does not compare, because it is telegraphed scene by scene and, if you were surprised by it then I'm surprised at you. Even so, you'll note that I didn't say a word about the plot until after you had seen it.
OK, so if there was someone who has not seen the film, not having had the opportunity to do so - unlike Sal who chooses to spend his time watching any kind of dross rather than the no.1 British film of all time, and therefore gets zero sympathy from me - sees the spoiler. They intend to se the film and are incapable of putting this plot information out of their mind, try though they might. And when they see the film they're enjoyment is greatly diminished by this knowledge, being unable to derive much pleasure out of the rest of the production. OK, yes, this rare person would be affected, but theres no many of 'em around here and theres a lot more people who might enjoy discussing plot devices from old films which many many people have already seen.
And for the avoidance of problems in the future:
Sal must assume that any of my posts may contain spoilers and therefore I recommend he does not bother reading them.
Anyhow, this topic is rich coming from you. Your "The Emperors Hike Back" put me off seeing "The March Of The Penguins." I wanted to watch it and not know where they were going! You spoilt it for me!
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