CaptColdgrip

ok…the tommy gun scene-what can i say? INCREDIBLE!  Albert Finney played a perfect Leo, even though he was only cast two days before they started shooting, and after seeing this amazing scene, i just had to see what he had to say about this film.  one great quote i found was, “It seemed like a comic strip, in a sense, when I first read it,” he recalls. “The casualness of the violence amused me a great deal. But it’s extremely rich stuff. There’s an awful lot of craftsmanship in there, and thinking through and chipping away at a piece of marble for some time to get this essence.”  Also, of the Coen brothers, which I found as completely adding to their genius, “Filmmaking can become an ordeal…What’s great about these guys [the Coen brothers] is that they’ll throw new things in on the fourth or sixth take. Then while they’re editing they will play with form the same way that they played with words in preparing the script.”  I’m very interested in how films are actually made, and how such an unbelievable amount of work and precision is necessary, so this quote simply amazed me.

i like how the bowler hat has gained such meaning in this adaptation.  the loss of the hat was present in the novel, but the coen brothers seemed to make the bowler hat represent friendship and the deep sense of lacking that results with the loss of it.  i also like how this film takes the dream aspect from the novel, yet changes it to follow with this bowler hat symbolism.  when the hat falls of in the woods, we see how tom wants to keep his friends close, protect them, and further, his fear of losing them.  it’s just so interesting to me that such a simple object like something that sits on top of your hair, protects you from rain and used to be worn by almost every man can be transformed into such a symbolic part of a story.

i was sick today, so i couldnt make it to class so im very sorry to have missed the discussion on the first readings in the text. i just wanted to say that already this class is taking an effect on how i watch films. i had taken a film class in highschool with a great teacher, and i am an english major, so i always scrutinize films as well as texts, but since this class has begun its gotten worse (or better?). i just watched one of my favorite movies again, Ravenous, about cannibals who gain power from those they eat, and simple things like camera angles, shadows, camera cuts, and placement of characters found new meaning in a movie i imagined i knew by heart. it happened again when i watched Stand By Me for the first time…i feel like im in for a surprise now, even when i watch my favorites.

i really enjoyed this class discussion while watching scenes from yojimbo.  my favorite point that was illuminated was when he was crawling along the shadow, as if on the line between life and death.  after that i hadnt even imagined the part about the leaf throwing.  i had figured that his restoration in a temple after getting out of a coffin meant a lot, but i didn’t catch the stepping away from gambling into the realm of talent and skill.  i love all the clint eastwood westerns, and own them all so i don’t know how i didnt catch the parallel for that scene.  i look forward to next class and hope that reading the new text will help with analysis of the films we have viewed thus far.

i dont even know where to begin.  i ADORE this movie!  i knew from the start i would-my favorite part of the entire film (besides his amazing line about having to kill quite a few more men before he dies) was the music, and with the intro of the mountains and our hero with that odd but amazing music, i knew i was in for a treat.  i really like the parallel about gambling and the glass key that we began to discuss in class. i feel that in their own ways, both main characters are very alike in manner, personality and lifestyle.

i had noticed a lot of the sexuality upon my first viewing, but i imagined it was mostly just me at first…especially the scene with jeff-i couldn’t believe it at first, bc i had noticed the lyrics, then how ed is filmed as he walks in, and how jeff gazes at him.  after that i assume everyone noticed the language, but i hadn’tnoticed that painting, which was just one more touch to complete an extremely sexually charged and blatant scene.

Unfortunately I didn’t like what they did to Hammett’s ending, but it did seem to fit this production of the story’s tone better.  I have a feeling the regular movie-goer at the time it came out would have been very upset if Madvig and Ned ended their friendship, with Madvid just walking out to leave Ned staring at an open door.  As we neared the end, I was very curious as to what would happen.  I just couldn’t picture this film ending as the book did.  And I felt they would change it to make it happy, even more so when Ed went to arrest Janet, and the father simply confessed.  I didn’t like that change, but knew it the second Ed said Janet was guilty.

I love Jeff. William Bendix was absolutely perfect for the role. I had only seen him in Hitchcock’s “Lifeboat” previously (and liked him then), but Jeff’s character seemed to be written for him in this film. I love how funny everything is, and think it’s odd how audiences have changed. I’m sure when this came out people took the tough and dramatic acting very seriously. I thought it was hysterical how they made Ned even more of a lady killer, especially the part with the nurse. I also really appreciated the subtle and even more so, the not-so subtle sexuality. It was extremely amusing.

At first, trying to picture Alan Ladd as “Ed” was really difficult for me.  I was kind of distracted in the beginning for that reason, but slowly they began to blend for me.  Ladd did seem perfect for the part, and soon I stopped imagining him riding off into the distance with a little boy calling “Shane!”  I liked the representations of the other characters as well, even though they changed a lot (Madvig got a lot younger and suddenly had a sister).   I like the filming so far, and the music as well.  I’m looking forward to continuing it.

I was just looking through The Glass Key again and remembered I was intrigued about Ned’s whistling Little Lost Lady twice that I can find again. All I could find with a search engine was that an episode of The First Nighter, which was a radio broadcast from 1930-1953 was entitled Little Lost Lady. These episodes were based on Day Keene’s novels, which were hard-boiled detective stories as well. One of the beginning lines of one of his works was, “In the beginning God created heaven and earth. In the beginning there were no Sputniks or Explorers. In the beginning Kurt Renner had no intention of killing Kelcey Anders. The thought never entered his mind. He merely intended to use him.”  The only other time i could find Little Lost Lady was that it was the name of a novel written by Alaska in 1940. Nell Shipman took parts from this story and added them into his film The Naked North (another novel written by Alaska).

Anyway, my point is that I’m curious if anyone else knows anything about the tune Ned whistles once after dealing with Opal, and once right before seeing Janet. If not, does anyone think that he made this title up to make a point about the story, that it meant nothing at all, or something completely different altogether?