LOTR trilogy mention in newspaper film column

[Magpie]

Okay... mildly interesting for a Saturday morning. Our newspaper (Minneapolis St. Paul StarTribune) has a movie column where readers can ask questions and get them answered by Alan Smithee. I don't actually like this guy much. He doesn't review movies as much as sarcastically respond to other people's comments and questions about movies. He's a elevated form of the common IMDB forum poster.

In today's column, the reader said they taught at a small community/technical college and he wanted to have a film festival. He polled other instructors about what movies they thought the students should see before leaving school and came up with this list (If they ever went to imdb, they'd know that students aren't necessarily interested in what their teachers think):

• "The Mission,"
  
• "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"
  
• "Schindler's List,"
  
• "Duck Soup,"
  
• "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life,"
  
• "Rear Window,"
  
• "Twelve Angry Men,"
  
• "Saving Private Ryan,"
  
• "The Wizard of Oz"
  
• "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"

I thought it was an interesting range of movies. Apparently the students weren't interested as attendance was so low the festival was canceled midway through. The reader wondered what Mr. Smithee would suggest.

He came up with:

• "Hard Candy" (2005): Before she made "Juno," Ellen Page performed admirably in a hard-hitting revenge drama involving a pedophile (Patrick Wilson). It's tough as nails and can spark a lively post-screening discussion.

• "Monster's Ball" (2001): Not because it's an important and interesting movie (which it is), but because you will market it by playing up the facts that the Heath Ledger co-stars and that it's directed by Marc Forster, whose latest film is the upcoming James Bond thriller "Quantum of Solace."

• "Eraserhead" (1977): College is the time of life to watch David Lynch. And this is the definitive Lynchian mind-blower.

• "Napoleon Dynamite" (2004): Don't forget to hold a "Tina, come get some ham!" eating contest.

• "The Descent" (2006): Who cares that it's only two years old? It's a fine horror film. Take a hint from William Castle's playbook. Require moviegoers to chain one leg to a chair and make promotional signs that read, "So much scarier than 'Saw' you will cut your foot off to get out alive!"

• "Go" (1999): The marketing plan: "See Katie Holmes before she was abducted!"

• "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" (2001), "Two Towers" (2002) and "The Return of the King" (2003): Be smart. Show the extended versions. Do it in a marathon. Anybody who makes it all the way through all three films gets an A in the college course of their choice.

• "Suicide Club" (2002): Every festival needs a foreign film. This cult favorite from Japan begins with 54 giggling teenage schoolgirls jumping in unison toward a speeding subway train. Blood, gore and smart filmmaking ensue.

I was a little surprised at LOTR's inclusion in there. I think Mr. Smithee prides himself in being the kind of snarky personality that feels they know more than the most and are a bit above the common folk. LOTR is such a popular movie to admit liking (although.. he doesn't actually say he likes it, I suppose). I think it's also amusingly ironic that today's column is entitled, "Film fest must not be a snoozer". People who want to get a rise of the LOTR fans at imdb love to say they can't watch without falling asleep. Actually, when I was doing my multiple viewings in the theater, I always chose a time to sleep. I couldn't stay awake in that dark theater for that length of time so I just picked a scene I wasn't overly fond of and let myself doze. I figured the sound of action would wake me up when things started happening. I also loved sleeping to the sound of the EE commentaries. I would come home from a stressful day at work (teaching at inner city school), put on an EE, lay down and sleep. It was like the sound of surf to me.

The full article is HERE. You may need to register but if so, and you want to read more, do a search for the column title (re: snoozing) and you'll probably find another newspaper offereing it online.

 

[dernwyn]

LOL! That's the nom-de-plume used by directors or writers when their movie has been so badly cut up by the studios, that they refuse to have their names put on it!

 

[Magpie]

Is that 'I'm anonymous on the internet so I can be as snarky as I want" factor that makes him chose that name?

The snarkiness doesn't come through in this week's column but it's there in other weeks.

 

[N.E. Brigand]

Neither provides the right sampling of films that college "students should see before leaving school", in my opinion, though the first list is better. All but one film on Smithee's list is less than ten years old, though he may be right that his selection is easier to market (if that's the point). The instructors' list, meanwhile, includes no foreign films, two films by the same director, and The Mission, which is no importance whatsoever. Well, the music is good.

 

[greendragon]

That's what my mum always called The Mission soundtrack. Usually the phrase went with the words, 'Oh no not those bloody...' added at the beginning... []

I didn't understand that film at all when I saw it at the cinema. I think I was eleven and I just didn't get why these people were behaving so badly to each other. I was, however, hugely struck by the image of Jeremy Irons and his followers marching forward holding the cross high and singing hymns, before being obliterated by their attackers. It seemed so horrific that anyone could coldly attack people in prayer; and at that age I still felt like the cross should always be held as sacred, and it shocked me to see the violence against it in that scene. So, I think the film has something to offer in striking images and impressive cinematography (including those amazing scenes of the Iguazu falls). But I'd have to see the film again to see if it made any really valid points about indigenous peoples and missionary christianity.

 

[Magpie]

He really doesn't, IMO, offer anything useful for me as a movie viewer. There was the conversation about reviewers and critics and Roeper and Ebert on the movie board. Even if I don't agree with reviewers in that vein, I can usually get something from them that I can use to determine what I might think or whether I'd want to see a movie or not. (similar to Silverlode's comments)

This Alan Smithee guy is just annoying to me. I really wish the Strib didn't waste paper on him.

 

[Freya Baggins]

about the A in the collage course of their choice made me laugh. Pretty interesting article. *nods*