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What Is The Last Film You Watched? (Older Films)


Mr. Breathmask

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Not among my favorite musicals, but great nonetheless with some catchy songs.
If it were me though, I probably would have given the best picture Oscar to Funny Girl or The Lion in Winter.
(haven't seen Romeo and Juliet)

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MV5BMzMzOTg0YTAtZTAxYy00MGFjLThmNDktZWQ4

 

I'm halfway through, but honestly, can't go on (although I will).

I persuaded myself to watch this again, so as not to have any unwatched blu-rays in my collection, but it's a mess of a film, one of the worst films by a major film director I've ever seen.

It doesn't help that I'm not much of a fan of comedies.

It is not saved by the John Williams score either. (I could watch Heartbeeps over this, any day)

Anyway, I'll try to finish it, but it's a chore for me...

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This film would've ended any other director's career. It's what happens when you become so successful that you can literally do whatever you want. It's what happened to Lucas when he made the prequels. Less is more, and it's evident in the case of 1941. It has some great scenes and an over-the-top JW score, but as you said, overall the movie is a mess. Luckily the industry - and Lucas - gave Spielberg another shot and he made Raiders under budget and under schedule. Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, the screenwriters got another chance, too and went on to make a certain time-travelling sci-fi comedy. 

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4 minutes ago, Davis said:

This film would've ended any other director's career.

I was thinking the exact same thing! How people in the industry gave Spielberg another chance, it's beyond me!

(of course I'm glad they did, because he made afterwards among my favorite films of all time!)

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It is not that bad, I quite enjoy it. It is no masterpiece but it is entertaining (I like comedies). And I dont like the ide that one bad film = cancel. Especially a brilliant director as Spielberg who did do Jaws and Close Encounters 

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Spielberg made four great films in a row before 1941: 

Duel, The Sugarland Express, Jaws and Close Encounters. He and George Lucas were already the kings of Hollywood in the second half of the 70s. That’s why Spielberg’s career survived the box office flop of 1941. And he immediately got back on the success train afterwards thanks to the help of his pal Lucas who gave him Indiana Jones (originally Indiana Smith) as a sort of a consolation price for the failure of 1941. The rest is film history.

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Thing is, 1941 was not a box office flop. It made $95 million off a $35 million budget. It's just that it was such a comedown from his last two and also the production and critical reception overshadowed everything that the whole thing was perceived as a disaster. People put it in this box of giant follies by major directors but it was never close to Heaven's Gate ($3.5 million gross off a $44 million budget) or One From the Heart ($0.64 million gross off a $26 million budget.) 

 

Also even though Jaws and CE3K were hugely profitable, they still contributed to a wariness of Spielberg in the industry that he couldn't really be trusted because they also had troublesome productions. I remember in the McBride biography that Lucas and Spielberg had to pitch Raiders to several studios and couldn't get enough interest. Once it was ready to go, I know Spielberg has said he felt a lot of pressure to be efficient and responsible on Raiders, not just for his own sake but this time he would be creating problems for George. It seemingly affected his whole M.O. after that, ever since he's been known as the guy who gets amazing things done underschedule and underbudget. He didn't direct a movie that cost as much as 1941 until Last Crusade. 

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6 hours ago, mrbellamy said:

It seemingly affected his whole M.O. after that, ever since he's been known as the guy who gets amazing things done underschedule and underbudget.

I also read somewhere that while he was good with actors, he didn't treat his crews very well until KK put her foot down for them during ET. I guess maybe a leftover from the TV days where he worked with many crews under a lot of time pressure? But that could've helped "fix" his reputation and make productions go more smoothly too.

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11 hours ago, mrbellamy said:

Thing is, 1941 was not a box office flop.

Only a critical flop, yes. People went to see it because of the success of Jaws and CE3K. 

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26 minutes ago, Davis said:

Only a critical flop, yes. People went to see it because of the success of Jaws and CE3K. 

 

While I did went to see CE3K, I don't remember that I watched 1941 in the theater. I do remember a newspaper article that described it as the first failure from wunderkind Spielberg. 

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.

1 hour ago, Davis said:

Only a critical flop, yes. People went to see it because of the success of Jaws and CE3K. 

Ah, if that was after Jaws, it makes sense that 1941 didn´t ended Spielberg´s career.

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Was 7/10, but after rewatching it's 6/10.

 

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Was 7/10, and after rewatching, it's still 7/10. Sadly, because JWFan & Co hated it (for being too DC), there will be no sequel. 

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John Frankenheimer has done some exceptional films that I've seen (The Manchurian Candidate, Seconds), some very good ones (Black Sunday, The French Connection II), but this is not one of them.

Set at Christmas time, it feels like a long TV episode of Miami Vice or I don't know what cop TV series...

 

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