As is common for me when I need movies to watch, I like to go to the ol' internet and find lists...Top 10 Movies every Guy Should See, or The 30 Movies that mention Elastic Waistbands, etc.
So, I found a list and was intrigued by two movies. First, American Psycho starring Christian Bale. Bale plays Patrick Bateman, who works on Wall Street in the late 80's. He is a pretty typical schmuck, as movies from that time period tend to depict...except that he is a murderous psychopath behind his mask of "normality". I thought the movie was very well shot, but I was very confused at how the film played out. I was left with quite a large question mark over my head as to the resolution of the film, and there seem to be a lot of people who agree with that assessment on the interwebs. Overall, it failed to resonate with me but I plan on reading the book to see if I can gain further clarity.
The second movie I watched was Taxi Driver, a "masterpiece" starring Robert DeNiro and directed by Martin Scorsece. I have noticed that there seems to be a time period of movies that I don't get, and this falls squarely into that time perieod. This movie is considered to be one of the greatest of all time, and personally, I thought it was prettty awful. Maybe I don't "get" older movies, but they tend to fall very flat for me. I watched Chinatown a few months ago, and can't remember being more bored with a film...until I saw Taxi Driver. The only interesting part of the movie for me was trying desperately to remember Harvey Keitel's name. Other than that, I only watched the rest of the film because I was sure that at some point there would be a point to the movie. Maybe I am wrong...maybe there is something that I missed that was critical to tying the film together, but whatever it was, I missed it big time. I was confused the whole time as to what the hell was going on, and there really wasn't much of a plot to latch on to. Was he going to kill Palentine? Was he trying to date Betsy? Was he trying to save Iris? Who knows? I would love to talk to someone who "gets" this movie and have them explain it to me, and why I am so wrong, because lord knows I am not going to come to that realization on my own.
Can one of you help?
2 comments:
Dude. Bret Easton Ellis is a psychopath. The book is 50 times more graphic than the film. There were parts of it that left me wide-eyed and "holy. shit."
I'm a huge fan of the film, but the book left me a little shocked that someone who isn't in jail or a mental institution could come up with stuff like that.
Enjoy!
No, sorry Taxi Driver left me shaking my head as well. Years after the first attempt I tried again still blaming myself for being dumb and having no taste. It was awful. I did not last 20 minutes.
I think it is supposedly a great movie because so many people who supposedly know great movies says it is.
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