I'm not say THOMAS CROWN is landmark McQueen, though in the
larger sense, it probably is. McQueen is not out of his
element in my opinion. He plays a self-made man, the type of
autocratic sociopath that commits this kind of crime. The
sociopath born to wealth is much less likely to commit an
egocentric crime like this because such people have little to
prove to themselves or to the world. The life-long wealthy
sociopath is more likely to murder wives, mistresses or
business partners believing their luck will hold. And more
often than not, they're correct! Thomas Crown is portrayed as
a man who's made a fortune through his own intelligence. Now
he needs to prove he's smarter than the entire Boston police
force. The movie was made in 1969. The Boston Strangler was
still a subject of discussion. Whitey Bulger was becoming
famous as an enforcer with the Winter Hill Gang, and George
V. Higgins first novels about the dark side of Boston had
just been published. I thought the split screens of the
robbery were a fast way of showing several povs at once. The
thing is, I can imagine and robbery going down like that. It
was realistic. Showing the robbery from the pov of the
frightened delivery man, I thought, was very suspenseful. He
was the guy
"everyman" could identify with.
The cat and mouse complexities of the remake were completely
unbelievable to me. When you try to pull off something like
that, something is bound to go wrong. I know that from
experience. The newer movie asks me for too much suspension
of belief. Beautiful sets, beautiful people, but the
original's the better movie. It's not perfect, but it's a
good caper film while the new one descends into the realm of
silliness.
Patrick King
---
BaxDeal@aol.com wrote:
>
> In a message dated 2/17/08 2:20:12 PM,
>
abrasax93@yahoo.com writes:
>
>
> > You've got to elaborate on your opinion here!
In
> what
> > way was the remake of THOMAS CROWN better?
The
> robbery
> > was inferior. It was not shot as well, it was
not
> cast
> > as well, and was implausable to execute.
The
> > characterizations were improbable. The
whole
> > pretentious artsy-fartsy ending was just
awful.
> The
> > original was straight-forward. It's rough
edges
> very
> > realistic with regard to this type of
crime.
> >
>
> I pretty much feel the exact opposite. I'm a
big
> McQueen fan, as most
> people here probably are. but he's stilted
here
> and out of his element as this
> character. the capers depicted on split
screen
> have zero suspense. the chess
> motif had to have been cliché¬ even back in 68.
(I
> think it was 68). my
> quibble with the remake is that Rene Russo is
trying
> way too hard to be a
> "character"
>
> John Lau
>
>
> **************
> Ideas to please picky eaters. Watch video on
AOL
> Living.
>
>
(
http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-campos-duffy/2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598)
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have
been
> removed]
>
>
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