MovieChat Forums > Grand Canyon (1992) Discussion > One of the great movies of 'our generati...

One of the great movies of 'our generation'...

posted 17 years ago by istageon
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Every so often each generation has a particular movie that they can relate to in their lives (i.e. like the generation previous to mine did with "The Big Chill"). This is our generations movie for people that were in their 20's heading into their 30's during the 1990's. For me this is one of the most brilliant performances of Steve Martin's career. I am not diminishing what the rest of the cast's performance in ace's either. There are a lot of great quotes in this great film as well. Everything is top notch. There is one quote, that has really stood out with me in this movie and probably always will, and I have to occasionally watch this movie to gain new perspective on it, every so often. But the quote is, Steve Martin's Character "Davis" saying, "That's part of your problem: you haven't seen enough movies. All of life's riddles are answered in the movies." This quote really changed my perspective on movies in general. I always loved film before, but this quote solidified my love for the medium and, now I simply adore movies. A lot of them especially nowadays are not so good and, sometimes just sometimes you get some that are really special to you in your own way. If anything I have stated here in my own opinion rings true here please feel free to respond. I want to hear your opinions whether they are positive or negative.

[–] breadman8 17 years ago

When the teen (Sisto) was going to summercamp, I believe there is a line about his being 15 and after that parents have little substantive input.
That thought smacked me across the face, as I had two sons at home, one of who was just 15. After that I made it a point to get all the travel and funtimes together I could. Sure enough by 17, I was a minor character in their scheme of things. Close call.
The basketball montage/contrasts in the opening were topnotch. The scene where Klein is bewildered after the neighbors heartattack following an earthquake preceded by the slicing of his finger during an argument with his wife, was a classic. Life spinning faster than he/we can respond/control/reorder it.

[–] GMan9727 17 years ago

I totally agree with this remark. Some movies, at least the ones that tell a realistic story or connect to us on an emotional level, can somehow show us how beautiful, unfair and complicated life really is, and we can somehow learn from the mistakes we make as a human race. Grand Canyon is my kind of film, a story with all these smaller stories woven through it, where every character is in a way connected with everybody else, they just don't know it, it might be through some distant friend or relative, but there's a connection. And I love how Lawrence Kasdan handled this in a subtle manner, in this movie the actors portray flesh and blood characters with their own motivations and flaws, not some one-dimensional persons you don't care for. But this is also due to the stellar performances by the whole ensemble cast. I love this movie and I will continue to do so until I die!

And I agree movies are not of the same high quality they where 10+ years ago...
But once in a while a great one comes out.