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Originally Posted by batreleaser
'gangs of new york' had potential to be his best film, great story, amazing sets, beautiful costumes, sharp editing, ridiculous battle scenes, and, DANIEL DAY LEWIS. DDL is the best actor alive, he makes movies that would be otherwise weak, amazing (the ballad of jack and rose, last of the mohicans, my left shoe, in the name of the father, etc...). but it dissapointed for a variety of reasons. first, the studio chopped the shit out of this film, it should have been way more brutal and violent, actually, scorcese's most violent film, but in the wake of 9/11, they made scorcese get rid of a lot of the gore. also, cameron diaz was totally miscast, she was abysmal. dicaprio, was also horrible (though this was the film when he started to show promise, he was excellent in the aviator and especially the departed, scorcese has made him the great actor he should have always been), and the scenes between the two were almost embarassing. the scenes between dicaprio and day-lewis, were funny because day-lewis completley up staged him every time, that said, its still a good movie.
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I pretty much agree with everything you say about GoNY. Although I actually think Di Caprio made a very good job of what was a very difficult role to play. DDL steals every scene but it's sort of made easy for him with a character like Bill. Di Caprio's character gave him far less space to move around and I think he did real well in the circumstances. I definitely agree though that he really came into his own in The Departed: a film I'm not entirely convinced by (Jack Nicholson is dreadful) but Di Caprio really is fantastic in it.
Cameron Diaz was definitely miscast and there's clearly no chemistry between her and Di Caprio. Her character just seems to have no real purpose in the film, to the point where it becomes rather like an extended cameo.
I do think the film works a lot better in the cinema though. It has a grandeur about it which makes details less evident than they are when watching at home.
I didn't know that the studio toned down the violence post 9/11, interesting.
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Originally Posted by MellySingsDoom
John Carpenter
The Thing (sheer genius)
Assault On Precinct 13
Dark Star
Halloween
The Fog
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That'd be my top five for Carpenter as well - although I might put Assault at the top.
The Thing has a bleakness about it which is simply awesome. Definitely his darkest film. I just think Assault is about as close to perfection as he ever got. Supposedly it had a modest critical reception in the US when it was released but when French critics saw it, they immediately deemed Carpenter a genius. I can see what they meant. It's just perfect in the same way that Spielberg's Duel is perfect.
There are moments in The Fog which are the match of anything he's ever done, but I feel that the film sort of runs out of puff in the last half an hour. Brilliant but anybody else's standards though.
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Originally Posted by batreleaser
i do love 'mean streets', but i love it more as a film that gave a glimpse of how brilliant scorcese was, but i dont feel it is nearly the best representation of his talent. also, there was too much keitel and not enough deniro. to me, it wasnt untill 'taxi driver' that scorcese proved he was gonna be one of the best ever.
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The more I think about Mean Streets the more i just love it. From the opening shot of Keitel in bed to the climax with the mafio boss watching The Big Heat on TV, I just can't fault it. In many ways it's a sort of antidote to the Godfather: little upstarts, doing pointless deals in cheap-shit restaurants and tiny dive bars instead of big-wigs flexing political muscle in large mansions. you can see how it informed almost everything Scorsese has done since, but IMO, he's never matched it. An absolutely amazing film. And Keitel is just a revelation in it. Probably my favourite character in any film.
"You don't fuck with the infinite." Brilliance.