Correct me if I'm wrong!?

[kyla]

Hi Guys!
I was watching 'Lolita' the other night.I was really grossed out!So much in fact that I had to switch the channel.My girlfriends were all on about how it's such a  ''classic'',and how everyone should see it at least once.I can safely say that my idea of a classic would border more on the lines of ''Pulp Ficton'' or ''Rocky''.The most disturbing part I think is the fact that it's a true story.
So I decided to have a game of online poker instead.Now that's the way I like to but an end to my weekend when I'm dying of a hangover
What movies would you describe as  true ''classics''?Am I wrong in thinking Lolita is gross?

[Sirharles]

Your not wrong in thinking that "Lolita" is gross.  It's horrific, however it is still considered a classic because at bad as it is now, imagine when it came out in 1967.  Shocking!  People didn't talk about the nasty secrets that their neighbors did back then.  It was shot beautifully and well acted.  That is also what makes it a "classic".  Kubrick was great a making people sit down and just stare at the screen with their mouths gaping open.  Even "Eyes Wide Shut" would have been great if it didn't have *shudder* Cruise and Kidman in it.

Pulp Fiction and Rocky are great movies.  But if you want true "classics" go back to the originals.  Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, Das Boat! 

[nacho]

The most disturbing part I think is the fact that it's a true story.

You mean Lolita?  It's not a true story.  Humbert Humbert and his prison remembrances are all just fabrication.  But, yeah, sure, the theme is questionable.  Though come on!  Dominique Swain in the 97 version was just wonderful in that cringe-worthy way.  Neither movie is really a classic, despite 1962's Kubrick-Sellers collaboration.  The book isn't a classic, either.  Sshh.  The only reason it stands out is because it's OMG fucks a 12 year old! in the 50's.  It would hardly be shocking today, and Nabokov wouldn't be able to hold a candle to anyone. 

Classics are tough, though.  It's easy to pull the Casablanca's out of the hat but, really, we all know it's Big Trouble in Little China and Carpenter's remake of The Thing.

Red Dawn.  Princess Bride.  The first Die Hard.   Star Trek II.  KHHHAAAANNN!!!

Oh, and, Chinatown.  And Murder, My Sweet with Dick Powell in as Marlowe.  He outshines Bogart's Marlow by miles, and both the book and the movie are direct inspiration for the Max Payne dream sequences which almost ruined that game.

Strangers on a Train, North by Northwest...

Oh, well, there are far too many classics.

[Sirharles]

The most disturbing part I think is the fact that it's a true story.

Oh, well, there are far too many classics.

Well yes of course, I didn't even go into the western genre.  Ahh Princess Bride that takes me back. "..Anybody want a peanut?"

[nacho]

Oh!  classic westerns.  Okay... The Eastwood collection, of course.  Though it's all about the pale rider duo of ghost stories -- High Plains Drifter, followed by the more sugary Pale Rider.  Then a sort of equal-standing lump of his spaghetti westerns -- the Leone trilogy (though it's really all just about The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, no?).  Those all time high-brow classics -- High Noon, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance -- and that enjoyable third tier occupied by movies like Open Range.  I'd even step down into the lower levels and call Quigley Down Under a classic.

[Sirharles]

Anything with Laura San Giacomo is alright in my book.  Rwooorww.  Yes, of course the Eastwood collection.  But don't forget Hondo, Big Jake and of course my favorite just because its hilarious "The War Wagon"  The Duke and Kurt Douglas pretty much fucking with each other the whole time.
I have to agree about Open Range, not well received, but very good.  Much better than Unforgiven which should not have won the Oscar.  Don't get me wrong I'm a huge Eastwood fan but it wasn't Oscar worthy.

[nacho]

Unforgiven was a throwaway movie... Now I'll upset you -- I don't like the John Wayne westerns.

[Sirharles]

Must Kill!  Must Kill!  Well how about Kevin Costners Wyatt Earp, what did you think of that?

[fajwat]

I didn't like Costner's Earp.  Partly because my girlfriend at the time loved it.  Partly because Costner is a pretty boy who doesn't belong in a Western.

"John Wayne was a fag." -- that movie that quote comes from is a classic IMNSHO.

[nacho]

Oh, fajwat... We return to Open Range.  Watch that before you denounce Costner in westerns.

I didn't like Earp, either.  Because...uh...Costner's a pretty boy who doesn't belong in westerns.

[Sirharles]

I actually really liked his Wyatt Earp, certainly better than Kurt Russell in Tombstone.  How about Silverado?  A young Costner with Danny Glover, Scott Glen, Jeff Goldblum..good stuff.

I didn't like Costner's Earp.  Partly because my girlfriend at the time loved it.  Partly because Costner is a pretty boy who doesn't belong in a Western.

What about Eastwood, in his hayday of westerns he was a huges sex symbol and I don't think anyone can argue that he doesn't belong in westerns.

[nacho]

Silverado was fun.

Eastwood was a different sort of sex symbol.  He started out on Rawhide, became an instant sex symbol, and just continued in the genre.  Costner started out as a lovey-dovey, moody type. 

That said, yes, Earp is better than Tombstone.

[Sirharles]

Well, I will never compare Eastwoods westerns to Costners but the point the Fajwat was making was the Costner was too pretty for westerns.  Eastwood was just as pretty and now I feel oddly gay for talking about this.

[nacho]

See, I don't think Eastwood was as pretty as Costner, in the traditional sense.  He was always a squinty-eyed, wiry hothead who played trigger-happy (though lovable) psychos.

Rowdy Yates on Rawhide was an honorable man but, Jesus, it's also the first time we see the rapid-fire revolver routine.  Thanks, Rowdy, I know it was a bad guy and all...but 97 bullets to the forehead followed by compulsive masturbation?  Relax, psycho.

Fag.

[fajwat]

I'm going to avoid the beauty contest by pointing out there's a difference between being pretty and being a pretty boy.  You can be an ugly pretty boy who doesn't belong in westerns, and you can be  a guy with a pretty face who does belong in westerns.