Day: May 7, 2005

Pony pics

In honor of Derby Day, I thought I might ask everyone what their favorite horse racing films are (and Michael, I’m not referring to replays of yesterday’s races at Saratoga). Kubrick’s The Killing (1956), The Marx Bros.’ A Day at the Races are obvious choices. I may be a sucker for long-shot, “triumph of the human spirit” race films like Seabiscuit (which I’m not including here), but The Black Stallion (1979) is an absolutely gorgeous film–it was shot by Caleb Deschanel, who also shot The Right Stuff. The director lets the images do the storytelling–I don’t remember there being much dialogue (Mickey Rooney gives a thankfully restrained performance). The early scenes when the boy discovers the stallion in the ship’s stables are very simple, very poetic.

Here are some obscure racing films I’m interested in:
Continue reading Pony pics

kingdom of heaven

we watched this last night. i went in expecting to dislike it–the previews and reviews mostly made it seem like a whitewashing of the crusades and i thought its politics would offend me. to my surprise i quite liked it. in a way this is scott’s “anti-gladiator”. that film was far more stirring cinematically and narratively–i enjoyed it tremendously in the theater–and it wasn’t until i thought about it later that i realized that i found its “strength and honor” politics quite repellent. “kingdom of heaven” on the other hand doesn’t provide the visceral jolts or narrative releases that “gladiator” does–there’s no great revenge or other motivational plot and the action sequences are often confusing (as in “blackhawk down” i had trouble keeping track of people during the fighting)–but it is a more thoughtful film.

(some spoilers ahead)
Continue reading kingdom of heaven