Disqus - Latest Comments for Campaspe

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Serpico and 25th Hour

Campaspe — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:47:28 -0000

Well, I am fading and am going to sign off a bit early. Thanks all for this great run at Wednesday Night at the Movies. It's been fun!

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Serpico and 25th Hour

Campaspe — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:46:01 -0000

No, but I want to despite the reviews. Summer of Sam got pretty bad reviews and I liked that one.

I just connect with Lee as a filmmaker. I think he knows his film history but uses it in a really intelligent, seamless way. It isn't like "ooh, now spot THIS cool reference!"

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Serpico and 25th Hour

Campaspe — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:38:56 -0000

Hi Tony, thanks for the vote. I also mentioned Carlito's Way up a bit too. I think Pacino's as talented as he ever was but he has some tricks he falls back on in certain circumstances. Like Scent of a Woman -- not too many people sticking up for that Oscar-winner. Hard to believe it's the same actor as in Serpico. He shouts on occasion in Serpico but he has many, many moments that are played entirely with looks and gestures.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Serpico and 25th Hour

Campaspe — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:33:48 -0000

that's one key difference between the two movies -- one is almost obsessively realistic, the other one emphatically not.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Serpico and 25th Hour

Campaspe — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:30:36 -0000

oy vey. I wish I could forget Dick Tracy.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Serpico and 25th Hour

Campaspe — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:30:07 -0000

Haven't seen Cruising, was always put off by that one. I think he's quite good in Scarface although I have never thawed out toward the movie for reasons I guess I could post about sometime.

But he was good in Glengarry, also Carlito's Way and I know Mr. C liked him in Donnie Brasco, which I haven't seen. Even his performance in GIII has it moments. The old Pacino is certain still there, he just needs a director who can still get it out of him.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Serpico and 25th Hour

Campaspe — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:26:32 -0000

Battery Park? I am not sure what you can see from there. Maybe the Brooklyn.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Serpico and 25th Hour

Campaspe — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:17:38 -0000

I confess to having forgotten the shot...

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Serpico and 25th Hour

Campaspe — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:16:49 -0000

Well, Pacino did a number of great movies after Serpico. It was sort of the opposite problem. Williams never became a big star (I just looked at his IMDB filmography and I'm damned if I know what the man was doing for about three years after Pince of the City, when he should have been red-hot and capitalizing on that performance).

Pacino, on the other hand, became HUGE and I think eventually he was able to indulge his worst habits as a actor to the point where they became ingrained. He's still capable of great stuff, it's a matter of telling him not to substitute volume for emotion, for one thing ...

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Serpico and 25th Hour

Campaspe — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:12:49 -0000

Yeah, his father obviously thinks Monty has some character qualities that he just doesn't. Monty's best attributes are an ability to retain friends, kindness to animals and enough self-knowledge to be self-loathing. He also has nerve, which he shows in the confrontation with the mobster. Beyond that he's an unappealing character for sure.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Serpico and 25th Hour

Campaspe — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:06:17 -0000

He goes to prison. I don't think it's a vote thing, they drive past the point where the father says he could peel off and Norton could escape. Lee doesn't telegraph it at all which is why I think some people regard it as open-ended. But it's really not.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Serpico and 25th Hour

Campaspe — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:04:47 -0000

HI Tom! that was me last week. Something going around. 25th Hour is available for Netflix instant viewing if you are inclined. Excellent movie.

I agree, Serpico is almost like a sociological document in addition to being a movie. You get such a detailed view of that side of the city. I love his Greenwich Village apartment too.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Serpico and 25th Hour

Campaspe — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:03:02 -0000

Most of 25th Hour is night, but the sunshine on the drive to the prison is also wan and pallid.

There was an amusing thread on IMDB of people asking whether the final dream sequence was real, and the New Yorkers pointing out with varying degrees of impatience that noooo, you see, they drove PAST the bridge ...

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Serpico and 25th Hour

Campaspe — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:59:26 -0000

Monty could have used some more charisma from Norton, it would have made you wonder less why his friends bothered at all.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Serpico and 25th Hour

Campaspe — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:55:10 -0000

Monty isn't likable, I honestly couldn't stand him either. But the movie caught me up anyway, with its fatalistic viewpoint and the way Monty, though a creep, is working at trying to not be such a creep.

It suddenly occurs to me that nearly all the movies in this series have someone who's trying to become more of a human being... or should be.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Serpico and 25th Hour

Campaspe — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:48:35 -0000

He is also in my favorite scene, the one played with PSH in front of the window overlooking Ground Zero. Although it was a little disorienting to me because they were obviously in the World Financial Center, which isn't a residential building and never has been.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Serpico and 25th Hour

Campaspe — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:46:21 -0000

Everybody did. Is there any consensus on what the heck happened to his career?

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Serpico and 25th Hour

Campaspe — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:42:14 -0000

In some ways Pepper's character is also more interesting than Monty, who also kvetches a lot (and with far less justification than Serpico).

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Serpico and 25th Hour

Campaspe — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:41:09 -0000

25th Hour is more of a moody character piece that anything else I have seen from Lee. Perhaps that owes something to the novel it's based on, but I think it was also linked to the decision to use the 9/11 dialogue and imagery. New Yorkers are acutely sensitive to anything remotely exploitative of that day, and I thought Lee integrated it perfectly and gave the story more resonance than perhaps it had originally had.

Some of The Verdict has the same quietly despairing tone as 25th Hour.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Serpico and 25th Hour

Campaspe — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:35:30 -0000

Lee deserves a lot of the criticism he gets for women characters. Not his strong suit. Doesn't seem to know how to direct women to rich performances. Frequently his actresses are all surface when they're working with him.

Of course I don't think I've seen Dawson in anything else, maybe she's always wanting.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Serpico and 25th Hour

Campaspe — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:29:54 -0000

ha, and now when I was researching Serpico, I came across a lot of dismissive comparisons to POTC. I definitely think it's regarded as a run-up to the later movie now and most critics review it for Pacino's performance. I do think it's a visually very rich and interesting movie, though.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Serpico and 25th Hour

Campaspe — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:28:30 -0000

It's more that Lee and Lumet are paired as New York filmmakers in my head. Lee has often cited Lumet as a favorite, particularly Dog Day Afternoon. They share a social conscience married to a desire to make movies that work well as suspense thrillers. These two movies did strike me as having definite thematic similarities--city in crisis, corruption, persistence. Although Norton and Pacino injured in the cars were strikingly similar shots. There is also a great deal of each protagonist dealing with people he doesn't feel he can trust--loyalty and betrayal are also major threads.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Serpico and 25th Hour

Campaspe — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:23:06 -0000

Possibly. It didn't do well at the box office, did it? I don't remember.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Serpico and 25th Hour

Campaspe — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:22:20 -0000

My favorite scene in Serpico: Pacino and his new partner in the Bronx. Serpico has just seen his partner repeatedly flush some hapless gambler's head in the toilet for a $300 past due bribe. They go back to the guy's apartment (hideous decor, really amazing choices there) and the partner is offering to hang onto Frank's share. The partner obviously doesn't trust Serpico, but what's marvelous is Pacino's quiet, monosyllabic playing. Pacino's body isn't tense, he is just concentrating on his business, but his loathing for the cop is so apparent it's like a third actor sharing the room with them.

Re: Wednesday Night at the Movies: Serpico and 25th Hour

Campaspe — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:17:32 -0000

Right, I rewatched a bit and kept fighting off the feeling that the wrong guy was going to jail.