The Criterion Collection

[Knaldskalle]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

I can now cross The Devil's Backbone off my list.

Picked up a brand-new sealed copy on the Criterion seller's thread for $15 today.

I honestly can't imagine owning so many films that I have a couple dozen, unopened Criterions for sale that I've never even watched.

...that amazes me.

Good for you! I take it you noticed the spine number on that particular release.

[Edward J Grug III]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

I can now cross The Devil's Backbone off my list.

Picked up a brand-new sealed copy on the Criterion seller's thread for $15 today.

Quick, everyone! Time to start suggesting more essential purchases for the sale for Ray to add to his list!

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by Edward J Grug III

Quick, everyone! Time to start suggesting more essential purchases for the sale for Ray to add to his list!

You shut your MOUTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by Knaldskalle

Good for you! I take it you noticed the spine number on that particular release.

What about the spine number?

[Knaldskalle]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

What about the spine number?

You'll see when you get it.

[D2Girls]

Ray, I know someone highly recommended the thin blue line, but I would advise against blind buying it. I suppose I found it irritating to say the least... The whole concept of capital punishment bothers me. Anyways... Watch the movie man in wire. Now that is a documentary...

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by D2Girls

Ray, I know someone highly recommended the thin blue line, but I would advise against blind buying it. I suppose I found it irritating to say the least... The whole concept of capital punishment bothers me. Anyways... Watch the movie man in wire. Now that is a documentary...

If you're trying to talk me out of buying something, then please...tell me more.

[D2Girls]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

If you're trying to talk me out of buying something, then please...tell me more.

Well for starters I think the only truly impressive thing about the thin blue line and the reason it's so highly regarded is for the atmosphere. The music and such. The subject matter is like I said about capital punishment... Personally I didn't find the movie nearly as dramatic as man on wire. I know I keep comparing the two but seriously... Man on wire is so much better. Made me actually cry at parts.

I honestly found the documentaries the smartest guys in the room and awaking sleeping beauty to be more engaging.

[Edward J Grug III]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

What about the spine number?

Or, if you don't want to figure it out for yourself:

[Show spoiler]Devil's Backbone

Spine #666

Another word for backbone? Spine

The devil's number? 666

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by D2Girls

Well for starters I think the only truly impressive thing about the thin blue line and the reason it's so highly regarded is for the atmosphere. The music and such. The subject matter is like I said about capital punishment... Personally I didn't find the movie nearly as dramatic as man on wire. I know I keep comparing the two but seriously... Man on wire is so much better. Made me actually cry at parts.

I honestly found the documentaries the smartest guys in the room and awaking sleeping beauty to be more engaging.

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by D2Girls

Ray, I know someone highly recommended the thin blue line, but I would advise against blind buying it. I suppose I found it irritating to say the least... The whole concept of capital punishment bothers me. Anyways... Watch the movie man in wire. Now that is a documentary...

I am not advocating for him to blind buy it, as I know with any film, there is still a chance he might not like it.

While I liked Man on Wire, I personally didn't find it nearly as good as The Thin Blue Line.

Also you should stay away from Herzog's Into The Abyss, which is a great documentary about capital punishment, the concept also bothers me a bit, but that doesn't stop it from happening, or from enjoying (well this is not the right word, but you get the idea) great movies about it, but I understand how something like that could affect the replay value for someone, in which case it is better just to use Netflix.

Anyway I just discovered the seller/trading Criterion thread thanks to Ray, so In the end if you don't like it, you can probably sell it easily for $15 or something like that if you are on the US.

[pedromvu]

BTW, for anyone interested in these OOP titles, this seems like a great opportunity:

Léon Morin, Priest(sealed) and Howards End(sealed) for $30 each:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=2239

[DaBargainHunta]

Originally Posted by D2Girls

Well for starters I think the only truly impressive thing about the thin blue line and the reason it's so highly regarded is for the atmosphere. The music and such. The subject matter is like I said about capital punishment... Personally I didn't find the movie nearly as dramatic as man on wire. I know I keep comparing the two but seriously... Man on wire is so much better. Made me actually cry at parts.

I honestly found the documentaries the smartest guys in the room and awaking sleeping beauty to be more engaging.

I have not seen Man on Wire, and you're certainly allowed to dislike The Thin Blue Line, but comparing a movie from 1988 that was revolutionary and pioneering (The Thin Blue Line) to something that came 20 years later (Man on Wire) seems like really faulty logic to me.

[bwdowiak]

With respect to the opinion expressed by d2girls, I'd take it with a grain of salt as The Thin Blue Line is NOT about capital punishment. It is a documentary that details a murder investigation with interview access to major players on both sides of the law.

[shadedpain4]

Originally Posted by pedromvu

I am not advocating for him to blind buy it

I advocate blind buying any Criterion that looks interesting at the B&N sale. It's virtually risk free. For the price you are paying (especially in store with membership and/or coupons), you can almost always get at least as much back if you don't like it and decide to sell it when there isn't a sale on.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by DaBargainHunta

I have not seen Man on Wire, and you're certainly allowed to dislike The Thin Blue Line, but comparing a movie from 1988 that was revolutionary and pioneering (The Thin Blue Line) to something that came 20 years later (Man on Wire) seems like really faulty logic to me.

I liked a few of Marsh's docs including Man On Wire, but if I recall correctly, I think it has been said that Marsh models a lot of his doc style filmmaking after what Morris did/does. In fact, the reenactments and how they are handled in MoW seem to owe a lot to TTBL.

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by DaBargainHunta

I have not seen Man on Wire, and you're certainly allowed to dislike The Thin Blue Line, but comparing a movie from 1988 that was revolutionary and pioneering (The Thin Blue Line) to something that came 20 years later (Man on Wire) seems like really faulty logic to me.

I don't think that really matters, the only way I would say it really matters is if there is some kind of technology inherent to the medium that is missing, for example, silent films, although I do love some of them as much as any other movie regardless of when it was released.

Or maybe you are referring specifically to documentaries? I haven't seen many old documentaries, so I don't really know much of their evolution.

[DaBargainHunta]

Originally Posted by pedromvu

I don't think that really matters, the only way I would say it really matters is if there is some kind of technology inherent to the medium that is missing, for example, silent films, although I do love some of them as much as any other movie regardless of when it was released.

Or maybe you are referring specifically to documentaries? I haven't seen many old documentaries, so I don't really know much of their evolution.

Yeah, I mean documentaries specifically. From what I understand, The Thin Blue Line was the first of its kind in many ways. But feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. One thing I do know for sure is

[Show spoiler]it affected the outcome of the case it covered

.

[jmclick]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

How is it (In Cold Blood) middling?

The photography, the acting, the dialogue and the editing are all outstanding imo.

...and that last shot is one of the most powerful last shots in movie history.

I couldn't agree more. And I don't fault the film for not being a doggedly faithful adaptation of the book. Many of what I consider to be among the greatest films ever made deviate significantly from the novels on which they were based.

One example that comes instantly to mind is John Ford's stunning and almost universally revered adaptation of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. The book ended with a bit of unforgettable symbolism

[Show spoiler]as Rosasharn, whose baby had died in childbirth, suckled a starving stranger to her swollen breast

; the film ended with an unforgettable speech

[Show spoiler]as Ma Joad movingly paid tribute to the strength and perseverance of the common man

. I hold both the book and the film in the highest possible esteem; one is a (yes, I'm going to deliberately and appropriately, I think, use the "m" word) masterpiece of American literature, while the other is a masterpiece of American cinema.

I feel the same way about the two incarnations of In Cold Blood.

[RojD]

Originally Posted by DaBargainHunta

I have not seen Man on Wire, and you're certainly allowed to dislike The Thin Blue Line, but comparing a movie from 1988 that was revolutionary and pioneering (The Thin Blue Line) to something that came 20 years later (Man on Wire) seems like really faulty logic to me.

These are two really different documentaries that are after two really different things. And both are outstanding in their own ways.

Zemekis reduces Man on Wire to an adventure film, but that wasn't at all the way I saw or responded to the original movie. MoW is really about the creative process of a performance artist, and to be honest, I was incredibly moved when Phillipe finally completed his work. True confession: I actually cried at the climax of the film, and I think it was a response to beauty and not to sentimentality. I think this is one of the very best documentaries around.

Don't get me wrong. Thin Blue Line is an amazing documentary, and one I'd recommend even as a blind buy. I think almost anyone who's willing to sit though it would be touched, and deeply. But touched in a different way from how Man on Wire affects you. My response to Thin Blue Line was more intellectual and sentimental, but I was completely sucked into an aesthetic response to the subject of Man on Wire. It was the actual creation of the performance/art that moved me.

And I can't say I responded strongly to the cinema of either.