"sheer Genius" . This is utter crap, only remembered because at the time, people would walk over burning coals to see Williams-whose 15 minutes are , thankfully, long over.
shareIts great and you have no taste.
shareI thought it was genius at first, because I assumed it was satire. How could you not laugh during the sniper scene, Garp's death sequence, the constant shots of the waves after Walt's death (we get it already, move on.), that's not to mention the still shot close-up on Walt durring the crash, and Lithgow in general (especially at the funeral).
The whole thing was just saturated with cliché scenes, it was beautiful.
I think this movie was basically made at a certain time. It is a product of an era when people were far less averse to what we would now call cliche. You can take almost anything of that time period and say the same. The Cosby Show, for example, almost seems like a satire of family life, so hokey and sentimental is its basic, incurably oversimplified formula.
Most of the people who defend the film as great do so for their own sentimental reasons, the most common one being that they saw it when it first came out, often as children. I watched it for the first time yesterday and while there was much I liked about it, it really just struck me as not having done the book justice.
John Irving novels are so often poor source material for films, I find, because they often cover the entire lives of his characters, spanning several decades. That is very hard to do effectively with films, due to having to cast someone who can play different ages. I never bought Glenn Close as Robin Williams' mother, they were just too close together in age. 4 years is absurd. 12 years in Indiana Jones (between Sean Connery and Harrison Ford) was something I never questioned. Helen Holm was really the only character I thought was well-cast. It just didn't capture the mood of the book and it didn't seem to be the World According to Garp.
But a lot was done well. The creepy game of death Garp plays with his kids, with little Walt, who will be killed for real in a later scene, complaining that he "never gets to die", John Lithgow's surprisingly human portrayal of the transsexual Roberta Muldoon, the tactful and different way they show Walt's death, the raw and indirect way everyone suffers from it, and the genuinely heartfelt moments like Garp's joy at discovering Helen being pregnant with Duncan, and the matter-of-fact, off-the-wall way Jenny explains her off-center points of view on things. It is definitely not a film without its charms, but it is hardly a classic.
I'd like to see a remake done, with a really competent director.
"I think this movie was basically made at a certain time. It is a product of an era when people were far less averse to what we would now call cliche. You can take almost anything of that time period and say the same. The Cosby Show, for example, almost seems like a satire of family life, so hokey and sentimental is its basic, incurably oversimplified formula."
Everything else you stated, I agree with. This paragraph, however, is remarkably stupid.
The reason you can call these movies "cliche," is because they ORIGINATED a lot of these so-called "cliches" (which, at the time, were often NOT ACTUALLY cliches), and modern movies are copying them endlessly, to the point where people like yourself are getting sick of them. However, if you were to actually PAY ATTENTION to these old pieces of media, and not be the kind of guy who goes, "Let's say everything in the past sucks, for no reason other than to be hipster!", you would see that there's a great deal of context given to these things, which flesh them out far more than any modern imitators ever have, and ever will.
Now, it is indeed true that REAL cliches were abundant in the old movie industry. But the same is even more true when looking at modern movies. So I find it hilarious that you came in this thread to put down old movies, when clearly you have so little awareness that you can't even see how modern movies are loaded to the brim with millions more cliches.
Btw, The Cosby Show is a sitcom, you blithering buffoon. It's not meant to be deep or richly textured. It's a friggin' comedy show aimed at families. It takes cliches, and turns them into sentimental moral lessons for children and teenagers. Just as ALL sitcoms have done since the friggin' format was originated, into the modern era.
Ultimately, this paragraph almost ruined your entire post from the get-go. Next time, don't say ridiculous, stupid things right before saying fairly intelligent things.
P.S. - George Roy Hill was a very competent director. He just didn't do good on this one. However, I do agree with you that a remake should be done.
Maybe, either you enjoy the theater of the absurd or you don't? One of my favorite scenes was the piano part. One moment, it's high drama...then the piano player is saved...then the piano comes crashing down. That's what Irving does for me, bringing out contradictory emotions in close succession or even simultaneously.
A lot of the things that happened felt very unrealistic. Garp's wife's motives about sleeping with a student was stupid. She didn't seem to have any problems with Garp(well not shown in the viewers eyes). That sniper in the tree was just so *beep* ing funny. As if you would notice a someone up there. Especially a tree that has no leaves to cover yourself. It was fairly entertaining but no way is this a serious drama.
I realize this is a very old thread but still found it too hysterical not to respond. Particularly this:
"sheer Genius" . This is utter crap, only remembered because at the time, people would walk over burning coals to see Williams-whose 15 minutes are , thankfully, long over.
Where can I get a copy of YOUR movie? I'd love to see what a real movie is.
~~~"Who do you think you're dealing with? Guess again."~~~