Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: Get Carter

From: Cristoforo ( Cristoforo@mediaone.net)
Date: 11 Oct 2000


I agree with Juri that the original "Get Carter" is not a movie that would likely get made today by a major studio. Why? Because executives are in a constant state of "musical chairs". Everyone is afraid of losing their jobs and sticking your neck out is a great way to lose it if your gamble doesn't pay off. Throw in the escalating cost of bringing a movie to the theatre and most execs will opt to play it safe and revert to formula. Two of the biggest rules: have a sympathetic hero and have an upbeat ending. The original "Get Carter" has neither. Although I agree with Kevin that the below films are good or great, all have sympathetic (if marginal) heros and in the end, the good guys always win. Even Payback, as I recall reading here, supposedly went back for reshoots because Gibson and/or the studio felt that Porter/Parker wasn't likable enough.

Brad

> >The original is a great film, something the big studios just couldn't do
> >nowadays.
>
> with all due respect, I beg to differ, Juri. I think a lot depends on
> how you define "big" studios, and "nowadays." Recent HB-ish films,
> say, post-Pulp fiction, worth watching include, just off the top of
> my head, Twilight, Payback, Jackie Brown, The Zero Effect, Copland,
> L.A. Confidential, and the Coen Bros. one about the bowling doofus
> turned temporary private dick with Jeff Bridges.
>
> Yeah, not everyone here likes all of 'em, and some of them (arguably)
> suffer in comparison to the source material or the original film
> version, or fail to re-invent the wheel, but generally, I'd contend
> that they're all relatively well-done, honest, non-stupid films that
> demand a little intelligence on the part of the viewer. And they were
> all done by relatively big studios, as far as I know.

--
# To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to
# majordomo@icomm.ca.  This will not work for the digest version.
# The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 11 Oct 2000 EDT