I am enjoying this discussion.
I always feel the need to defend War of the Worlds (Spielberg's). I think it
is a better and more interesting film than most people give it credit for. I
firmly believe that the entire film is a dream (e.g. Invaders from Mars)- Tom
Cruise's dream. He falls asleep and then everything starts happening. The
entire film is an exaggerated nightmare- his worst nightmare- his parental
abilities are tested to the extreme. The very beginning of the film lays out
the fact that he is a questionable parent at best. Then, throughout the
nightmare, he is faced with parents' worst fears realized (best e.g. is the
scene where Cruise is simultaneously dealing with strangers trying to take his
daughter and his son being pulled inexplicably towards the military- both
primal parental fears). By film's end he proves his parental prowess and in
one of the most maligned scenes in the film (the last scene) he hand delivers
his children back to his wife safe with his judgmental in-laws ther!
e to lay witness. To me this was absolutely Spielberg's intent. Throughout,
the film works more in the realm of dream logic (e.g. Cruise's car is the ONLY
one that works).
If you are still reading, I also find myself defending Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut
for one very specific and unique reason: I firmly believe that the film is one
big cosmic joke- a black comedy -that even the critics, as far as I could tell,
missed entirely. In the simplest of terms it is a story of a husband who get's
so jealous about his wife having an imaginary tryst that he spends the rest of
the film trying to get laid and he CAN'T! Mr.Tom-universal-sex-symbol-Cruise
cannot get laid! And the most exaggerated case in point is that he ends up
going to a super deluxe orgy and he STILL can't get laid. I think Kubrick
threw a curve ball at us before he died. A very funny curve ball.
Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com
___________________________________________________________________
How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List
Send a message addressed to: [email protected]
In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L
The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
