9/10
Finally got around to watching this the other day; it definitely delivered. Probably one of the best depictions of male friendship on screen that I've ever seen...both Hoffmann and Voight are incredible, especially Voight. I'd never really cared for him (or seen much of his stuff) but in this movie he conveys an amazing amount of emotion, even when he isn't saying anything.
7/10
I wanted to see this before I saw the 2010 version, but things didn't work out that way. I wonder if my opinion would be the same if I had? Because watching the original last night made me appreciate the Coens' film (which I found good, but underwhelming) that much more. Rare is the remake that improves upon the original in virtually every facet, but the Coens did it. The only thing I thought the original did better was to not make Mattie quite so standoffish and independent from the get-go - we get a sense that those qualities are already inside her but are drawn out by the events in the course of the film.
John Wayne's Cogburn was slightly unexpected, as he's played as more of a jokey, doddering figure compared to Jeff Bridges' more darkly comic and tragic one. I'd heard Wayne's Oscar for this role was more of a token gesture by the Academy to reward a career rather than this particular performance, and I could definitely see truth in that watching the movie.
That said the 1969 version is still good entertainment, but on the whole the Coens' is the far superior film.
8/10
Really spellbinding movie about one bored and alienated man's sleepless night. He cooks a gourmet meal, plays around with his sleeping wife, seduces his maid, makes art and finds a gun that may have belonged to John Dillinger. On its surface a pretty boring movie where not a whole lot happens, but I found it pretty captivating.
4/10
Fantasia's doing a whole feature on Japanese "pink" (read: blue) movies from the 60's and 70's and 1969's Blue Film Woman was the first they were showing. It was certainly...different. I can't possibly fathom this film actually arousing anybody, and not just because of the conservativeness of the sex scenes (some kissing, female breasts, awkward writhing for 2 minutes = sex, apparently). But also the context. The movie is about a girl who turns to prostitution to repay a debt incurred by her parents (who die early in the movie). As such, most of the sex is awkward, unerotic, and at worst, disturbing - at one point before her death the mother is raped by the semi-retarded, reclusive son of her creditor. Yeah. I'm hopefully going to make it out to a few other of these pink movies before the month is out so at least I'll have a basis to compare the sexuality and eroticism between them but this one's pretty far down there.
The movie itself was poorly directed with mostly handheld camera work, although the oversaturated 60's colors were a fun touch. The acting is bad and the Japanese-dub-over-Japanese-speaking-actors is unmatched almost to the point of comedy. The music is pretty good though, and there are some intentionally funny moments in the script (well, one).
