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Good Movies / Bad Scenes

Frayed Knot Dec 03 2016 05:04 PM

I recently re-saw A SOLDIER'S STORY (1984) for the first time in a number of years. For those not familiar: a WWII era saga set on a black army base in the deep south. Part of the plot has to do with this particular base having one of the finest baseball teams in the stateside army. In one scene while playing against a white team one of the batters (a young Denzel Washington who got like eighth billing in this) bunted back to the pitcher which is where all hell breaks loose movie-wise. The pitcher, who had just thrown the ball righty, suddenly fields and fires the ball to 2nd base lefty and with the number on his uniform reversed. And the play at 2nd is made by a fielder with his number reversed and the runner sliding back into the bag from the opposite direction. Now obviously this was a case of bad editing as the image is simply reversed ... but how the hell does this make it to the final cut?!? The mistake is so blatant that it's not like they needed a baseball geek on site to suss it out. Good flick otherwise with some fine performances -- Adolph Caesar in particular -- although one with an oddity of having several of the lead actors die quite young within a few years of the film's release. Adolph Caesar - heart attack, 1986 at age 52 Harold Rollins - AIDS-related lymphoma at age 46 in 1996 Larry Riley - AIDS-related renal failure at age 29 in 1992 Trey Wilson - cerebral hemorrhage, 1989 at age 40 I'm usually not one for jinxes, but I hope Denzel has his life insurance paid up.

MFS62 Dec 04 2016 02:30 PM Re: Good Movies / Bad Scenes

In Braveheart - during the first major battle scene, Mel Gibson (ptui) is shown running into battle carrying a sword. Then, he's shown without his sword, pumping his fists as he runs. Then he has his sword in hand again as the battle begins. I'm not sure if that's bad editing or an oversight by the continuity person. Later

Benjamin Grimm Dec 05 2016 04:41 PM Re: Good Movies / Bad Scenes

Has anyone been following the recent news about Last Tango in Paris ? I haven't seen the movie, so I'm not familiar with the scene in question, but from my understanding Marlon Brando raped (or otherwise sexually assaulted) an actress on camera. They didn't tell her what was going to be done to her because they wanted her reaction to be genuine.

Edgy MD Dec 05 2016 06:11 PM Re: Good Movies / Bad Scenes

I wouldn't be surprised. That era was thick with that sort of insanity (which isn't to say that other eras weren't). Brando's most famous crapped-out scene is the great scene with Rod Steiger in the back of the car in On the Waterfront, in which Steiger gets out, and then they show an outside shot of him exiting on the wrong side, as if Charley got a second idea while opening his door, shut it, and then climbed over Terry and got out on the other side. It just strikes me now that Steiger ends the scene by giving Brando a gun and saying, "You're gonna need it," which parallels him playing Jud in Oklahoma! and menacingly telling Gordon MacRae's Curly not to gamble away his gun, because "You're gonna need it." Steiger was very concerned with people being adequately armed.

Vic Sage Dec 05 2016 09:59 PM Re: Good Movies / Bad Scenes

Has anyone been following the recent news about Last Tango in Paris ? I haven't seen the movie, so I'm not familiar with the scene in question, but from my understanding Marlon Brando raped (or otherwise sexually assaulted) an actress on camera. They didn't tell her what was going to be done to her because they wanted her reaction to be genuine. according to the actress: "that scene wasn’t in the original script. The truth is it was Marlon who came up with the idea. … They only told me about it before we had to film the scene and I was so angry. I should have called my agent or had my lawyer come to the set because you can’t force someone to do something that isn't in the script, but at the time, I didn’t know that. Marlon said to me, “Maria, don't worry, it’s just a movie,” but during the scene, even though what Marlon was doing wasn't real, I was crying real tears. I felt humiliated and to be honest, I felt a little raped, both by Marlon and by Bertolucci. After the scene, Marlon didn't console me or apologize. Thankfully, there was just one take." But that quote is over 5 years old. There is no new story here. But Bertolucci has been asked about it recently and he explained: "Several years ago at the Cinemathèque Francaise someone asked me for details on the famous butter scene. I specified, but perhaps I was not clear, that I decided with Marlon Brando not to inform Maria that we would have used butter. We wanted her spontaneous reaction to that improper use [of the butter]. That is where the misunderstanding lies. Somebody thought, and thinks, that Maria had not been informed about the violence on her. That is false!" the statement continued. "Maria knew everything because she had read the script, where it was all described. The only novelty was the idea of the butter. And that, as I learned many years later, offended Maria. Not the violence that she is subjected to in the scene, which was written in the screenplay."