MovieChat Forums > CalvinJarrett
CalvinJarrett (475)
Posts
Parallels to Network
Companion piece - Woman of the Hour
Sad
My favorite combinations of shots of all time
Saw it, not that good
If Susan were a contestant on The Bachelor, she'd be that drunk girl who gets cut on the first night.
The girl that shags Bobby
Enough dialogue?
Wouldn't there be ...
Romance tacked on
View all posts >
Replies
I was three when The Changeling premiered, so, naturally, I did not see it in theaters. However, it was one of those movies that constantly aired on TV in the '80's. I don't believe they needed to edit out any coarse language and there was no need to censor blood and gore. Still, it was utterly terrifying - at least to an 8 - 10-year-old boy, like myself.
My father had seen it (likely in 1980), and he warned me not to watch it when it aired on our local channels. One night, while my babysitter was likely on the phone with her boyfriend, I started watching it. I didn't even make it all the way through, but that seance, the bouncing rubber ball, and the flashbacks of the murder of a child really scared the hell out of me. I didn't want to turn out the lights, I had bad dreams, and my dad, while sympathetic, did say, "I told you so."
Haha, MovieFanGal, it appears the last comment on this thread was from 14 years ago from Fargo_North! So when I left my post, I didn't think I was going to hear back from anyone for a very long time. Seeing one three minutes later, I had to see if you were Fargo_North or one of the other posters from a decade(s) ago! That would be like something out of Burnt Offerings if no matter how much time went by the original poster(s) responded as soon as a new reply was entered!
I happen to agree with the idea that it's silly to assume you wouldn't make the same mistakes if you were the people in the film. That's pretentious. A little suspension of belief is important because we might behave very similar to Karen Black and Oliver Reed in reality. However, I REALLY think ... I mean I REALLY think I know myself enough ... to know that the second Eileen Eckert told me or my wife that her aged mother lives upstairs and that we would be responsible for placing three meals a day in her sitting room for her to eat unseen, I'd be out of there. Reed is suspicious and wants to sack the whole idea. In reality, the idea would be sacked, but then there would be no movie!
Your words: "Hitchcock pitched Anthony Perkins to change his careeer," really are profound, roger1. I am not too familiar with Anthony Perkins' career before 1960, but after 1960, the rest of his career seemed to be etched in 'Norman Bates-esque' roles. Pretty Poison (1968), Play it as it Lays (1972), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Mahogany (1975), maybe The Black Hole (1979) (but I don't remember enough of it), and certainly Psycho II (198_?). There may be some others I have missed between '60 and '68, and certainly some I am not familiar with post Psycho II. But I don't know that any other actor has ever been so affected by a single role than Anthony Perkins was by Norman Bates. Interestingly, Though Hitchcock went on to make many more films after 1960 up until his final movie Family Plot in 1976, I am not aware of him casting Anthony Perkins in any of those films over those next 16 years. I wonder if Hitch realized that he had typecast Perkins so indelibly that the audience would think, "What's Norman Bates doing there? I thought he would still be in that asylum."
Hi roger1, I think you made a lot of good points (as you often do in regards to Psycho), however, your paragraph beginning with "Marion's first risk ... ," raises some questions.
You mention a gun and pepper spray. Even if she were so armed, would it be reasonable for her to take a gun or pepper spray in the shower. She would have had to have 'read the script,' and known that there was a peep hole and that someone at the motel would break into her private room with a butcher's knife. I could see her having pepper spray or a revolver for the night spent in her car, but even if she slept with one or the other under her pillow, would she have taken that into the shower?
I don't think she should have thought to have gotten in her car and driven to Sam 15 miles away. Despite "Mother's" ugly rant, it would be unreasonable to think that an old woman would attack her in her hotel room. Also, Marion's exchange with Norman did not leave her feeling unsettled. Rather, Norman (unwittingly) convinced her to do the right thing and return to Phoenix to give back what was left of the money. She was planning to drive back the very next morning, not continue on to Sam's with the cash. She may have thought Norman was an odd young man, but he did not appear to her as a psycho killer. If anything he appealed to her better angels, and she was going to do something positive as a result of her brief interaction with him.
You are not the only one, lccmj. Shivers is my favorite Cronenberg film. Rabid is great too - mainly because it is very similar in theme to Shivers. The production values work for the film. As you mention in your original post (from 16 years ago), Cronenberg was making a statement about the direction society was headed in the 1970's. He recognized that 'free love' was not free and that there would be a hefty price to pay. It may not have come in the form of humand becoming sexual zombies, but we certainly had AIDS by the time the '80's rolled around. Cronenberg was very prescient.
No. That's the easy answer. People should search out interviews on Mary Tyler Moore in which she discussed this role. She was always surprised when people asked her how she could play such a "bitch." In her eyes, Beth was not a bitch or even a bad mother. She was damaged. She had limitations. I think Mary's interpretation of the character she played was the correct one.
Having grown up on the North Shore of Chicago not so long after Ordinary People was made, I met many mothers like Beth. She's not the "worst mother ever." She was jolted out of her perfect life through gut-wrenching tragedy. Some people can adapt after these sorts of calamities occur (i.e., Calvin); others take longer to deal with their grief (i.e., Conrad). Still, others may never adapt or evolve after these horrific events (i.e., Beth). It doesn't make them 'bad' people, only 'ordinary' people.
Of all the characters in film I could have chosen for my moviechat screen name, you can see why I chose the one I did!
Hell, she was sexy in the late 2010's when she was on a short-lived TV series called 9JKL. Absolutely, she was attractive during the era you're talking about when she was on Alice and had a role in The Muppets Take Manhattan.
She will be sorely missed, and I give her a lot of credit for working right up until the end. She had brain cancer (or some degenerative disease of the brain). Still, she was working during this battle and her skill as an actress/comedienne never faltered
How could you include Greta Thunberg among that list? If she could even be considered a celebrity, it is for purely humanitarian purposes. She's not an entertainer. If anything she has used her youth (not looks or sex appeal) to raise awareness of the dire condition of our environment. Her height is completely incidental.
View all replies >