Which horror situation would be the scariest to be in this thread?
Being chased by Jack Torrance in a snowy maze in "The Shining" or being chased by Michael Myers in the first Halloween
I’ve been fascinated by Hal Ashby since learning about him and watching “Harold and Maude”. There’s a pureness to that film and the rest of his filmography (that I’ve watched). But while “The Last Detail” and “Shampoo” were great movies, they didn’t hit me as much as “Harold and Maude”. I watched “Coming Home” earlier this morning and it hit me like a brick wall.
From Letterboxd:
“I’m sitting here struggling how to phrase the emotion, tenderness, bitterness, and genius that’s tied into this thing. I had high expectations for this, waiting all weekend for the perfect time to watch this, and it still blew me away. The characterization, the little things that make you go “woah” (like that pan to Bruce Dern asleep in the bed. That says so many things in so little time). The music adds an extra dimension to the whole thing, whether it’s Time Has Come Today by the Chamber Brothers and the impending sense of dread that it establishes or the brilliant ending with Once I was from the equally tragic Tim Buckley, a punctuation at the end of the movie that adds so much to what the hell this movie is trying to say.
I haven’t seen Being There, but to this is probably Ashby’s best movie after Harold and Maude. William Hal Ashby. A god and saint amongst men. Only a man with that much compassion for the human condition could produce something so emotionally resonant as this. I can’t even begin to imagine what it must’ve been like for those represented onscreen to see someone finally make an accurate depiction of what it was like to go to Vietnam, get taken apart, then half hasardly put back together again, thrown head first back into society when you’re still in a place that no one should ever wish upon their own worst enemy.
Long story short, Hal Ashby, I love you. Jane Fonda, I love you. Jon Voight, some of the stuff you say nowadays man...idk, but gosh darn it I love you too! Because you and the rest of the cast and crew came together to make such a brilliant piece of art, soothing to the heart and soul but still venomous with the injustice of reality. A wonderful movie here, ladies and gentlemen. Believe me.
I wanted to know if anyone had any thoughts on the movie or Hal Ashby in general.
As one can probably guess from the title of this post, I recently bought a DVD of Drunken Master, and loved the film. I got it because I'm a huge fan of Dragon Ball, and creator Akira Toriyama said that it served as the inspiration for the series, as well as the template for the early portion of the series- that is, it has the same blend of martial arts action and goofy comedy as early Dragon Ball (Hunt for the Dragon Balls arc to Red Ribbon Army arc).
I also listened to the commentary by martial arts cinema scholars Ric Meyers and Jeff Yang, and loved it as well. It has a lot of interesting information both about Jackie Chan films and Hong Kong martial arts cinema in general. I'd already intended to check out more of Jackie Chan's work since Toriyama is a huge fan of him and his work served as seminal influence on Dragon Ball, but what I heard in the commentary track intrigued me and made me want to dip my toes into the world of martial arts cinema in general.
However, as a newcomer to these types of films there are a number of questions about where to start, as well as which films would serve as the best starting points as well as which films are best saved for when one has a deeper knowledge of and appreciation for martial arts cinema. Obviously two martial arts stars to check out are Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee, since they're the most popular and iconic martial arts stars both in the West and worldwide. However, there are questions about where to start with their work. For Jackie Chan, is the best next step Police Story (1985), which is often regarded as his best film and is even viewed as such by Chan himself, or one of his other films? And regarding Bruce Lee, is the best place to start his iconic Enter the Dragon (1973), or his earlier films that made him a star? And that's not even getting into martial arts stars who aren't as well-known as Chan or Lee, or which may not be all that well-known to people who aren't aficionados of martial arts cinema. Which ones are the best ones to start with, and which films of theirs are the best starting points? Which ones are the best ones, as seminal or essential as Chan or Lee? And as far as important and seminal films in the genre, which ones are the best ones for newcomers and which ones would benefit from being viewed when they're more familiar with the genre?
What I'm looking for is some kind of starting point for these films, as well as some kind of basic roadmap to them. The world of these films looks fr
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