I knew there would be tons of 'what's so good about this' threads
Every *beep* board for every *beep* movie has them.
IMDB: I can always count on you.
Yep, one thing you can rely on here at imdb is that, no matter what masterpiece you might be talking about, there'll be some cretin who thinks that because their tiny mind couldn't appreciate it, it must be the movie's fault and not a result of their own witlessness.
"Reality is the new fiction they say, truth is truer these days, truth is man-made"
While it's annoying that many can't see the difference between personal taste and actual quality and choose to express their opinions in a loud and obnoxious manner, appreciation is entirely subjective at the end of the day and not everyone will or can enjoy the same things.
Mean Streets is an odd one for me personally; I first saw it more than twenty years ago, was completely blown away by it and is probably the one movie that got me seriously into cinema. Although of historical interest today, it doesn't shine as brightly as it once did IMO (in the way that Taxi Driver and Raging Bull still do) and it's not too difficult to see why a younger, modern audience isn't able to percieve it's strengths.
The Mean Streets board seems to have a disproportionate number of the cretins you've mentioned, Flanders. Maybe because the actor/director pairing draws in Twitter-era mob movie neophytes? Who think the world is interested in their personal disappointment? And who misconstrue said disappointment as legitimate recognition of a film's true worth?
At least roegcamel's around here, doing battle and keeping the faith.
Yet it's also possible for intelligent people to disagree about the merits of a film. For instance, I love Mean Streets and many other Scorsese films, but hated Raging Bull. There is near-unanimous love for RB among cinephiles and critics, but there is a notable exception: Pauline Kael. Does that make her a cretin? I think not.
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See a list of my favourite films here: http://www.flickchart.com/slackerinc
I imagine that Kael expressed her divergence with rather more eloquence than the majority of Mean Streets' detractors on this board.
Reality is the new fiction they say, truth is truer these days, truth is man-madeshare
Here's what she said:
PAULINE KAEL, THE NEW YORKER: "I know. I'm supposed to be responding to a powerful, ironic realism, but I just feel trapped. Jake says, 'You dumb f...' and Joe says, 'You dumb f…,' and they repeat it and repeat it. And I think, 'What am I doing here watching these two dumb f….?' "
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See a list of my favourite films here: http://www.flickchart.com/slackerinc
Haha, I stand corrected.
Reality is the new fiction they say, truth is truer these days, truth is man-madeshare
LOL! I wondered which side of the ledger you'd score that. I love that assessment though.
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See a list of my favourite films here: http://www.flickchart.com/slackerinc