rogerebert.com :: Letters

My kids are waiting anxiously for better movies

From Shaun Strohmer, Minneapolis, MN:

My kids, ages 6 and 10, were very much looking forward to "Where the Wild Things Are." I can't say whether my kids constitute a significant demographic. But they have always disliked slam-bam animation. Finding Miyazaki's movies was a godsend -- otherwise what modern animation could they watch (some Pixar excepted?). They love "The Secret of Roan Inish." They have seen "Mary Poppins" more times than is decent. They wouldn't see "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" because they were so disappointed with the film adaptation of the beautiful book "The Tale of Despereaux." My friends have children just like this. As you might guess, we have some money. We have some leisure time. We organize a lot of our leisure time around our kids. We rarely take our kids to movies, because so many kids' movies are so awful. It may be true that there are a lot of kids who have gone to so many overstimulating, seizure-inducing kids' movies that they can't sit still for a slower one, but it is also true that there are kids of actual ticket-buying filmgoers who are waiting anxiously for a decent movie. Don't write us off!

Another queasy victim of Shakycam

From Tom Puchniak, Montreal:

Can I suggest you add one more category to film ratings? In addition to things like “language, nudity, violence, sexual situations” etc. it would be a great service to people like me -- who get literally nauseous when watching shaky camera work on a large screen -- if you would include “hand held camera work” or “shaky camera work” in the rating. I have had to walk out of too many films in recent years because the director believes that waving and jerking the camera around constantly gives a sense of immediacy and a documentary feel to a film. Firstly, this is bogus. Most documentary cameramen try to keep the camera steady so the viewer can actually see what is happening on screen. Secondly, the human eye compensates when we run or move around, so that the image does not shake or jiggle. Yet this gimmick is increasingly used by Hollywood film makers and I’ve had to make an early exit to films like “District 9", “The Hurt Locker”, “Once”, and “Syriana”, because of it. Maybe I’m just getting old (I am) but I simply cannot watch films made this way in a cinema with a large screen. And with rare exception, in my opinion it adds nothing to the impact of the film. I would sure like to know if a film features it before buying my ticket.

I was there, it's my story, and you're wrong

From Marvin A. Wayne, M.D., Bellingham, Washington:

Mr Ebert, in 1971 I served as a trauma surgeon at the 24th Evacuation Hospital in Long Binh Vietnam. It is my life, not Chris McIntyre's, that the movie "21 and a Wake-Up" is based on. I believe your understanding of this movie is deeply flawed. The 24th was at Long Binh, the largest military base ever built outside of the United States. We were one of the last major hospital serving the Vietnam War. The scenes that so disturb you in the movie are based so very much on fact. I can put real names on most of the characters in this movie. We lived, we loved, we tried to save lives and we partied. We had PXs, banks, clubs, and much of what the "World" we had left might provide, all be it in a war zone. However, what we did the most, was, in the chaos of the War, try to save lives. I wish to honor that by this movie. The claims you make that it looked nothing like Vietnam are wrong. The movie, indeed, did look, and was the Vietnam I knew in 1971. The Vietnamese were intelligent and articulate people. Much as you see in the movie. They were also a people in internal conflict, brother against brother.

He's damned united behind Brian Clough

From Mike Biglin, copy editor, Boston Herald sports:

Was really looking forward to you getting around to reviewing "The Damned United," as I am a full-fledged Derby County supporter (Brits always say to me: I've never met a Derby fan who's not from Derby! I'm a born-and-raised Philly guy - don't hold that against me!) and one of the few and the proud who knew all about the wonder of Ol' Big 'Ead well before this movie arrived.

The Coens are Seriously wrong

From Daniel Quiles, Chicago:

SpoilersAfter a screening of the Coen Brothers' "A Serious Man," I heard some of my fellow moviegoers lamenting the film's portrayal of suburban Minnesotan Jews circa 1967. This is a concern echoed by, among others, Ella Taylor at The Village Voice: that the grotesqueries on hand somehow amount to “Ugly Jew” stereotypes. I would have to disagree with these assessments. As a Jew who grew up in suburban New Jersey, I found the portrayal of middle-class ethnic self-enclosure here hilariously familiar, warts and all. In the character of the protagonist's son, Danny Gopnik, I saw a gesture in the vein of Fellini's Amarcord: a dreamlike reflection on the filmmakers' childhoods in which certain features of a milieu are exaggerated or defamiliarized, but lovingly so. This dimension of recollection is set alongside a structure that should be familiar to any follower of the Coen Brothers' best films: a naïve or innocent character (think Marge from "Fargo") is brought face to face with inexplicable acts of human cruelty. And it is precisely this signature approach that I have realized I have a problem with.

A crew member on how "Fame" went wrong

From Name Withheld, Los Angeles:

The movie had such a good vibe in the early stages before we actually started to shoot it. In fact, it had such good energy going on, that it was a pity it ended up being cut-up/chop-chopped and as you said, 'sanitized'. There were a lot of scenes that unfortunately did not make the final cut. These scenes showed stories about true friendship, love, passion, relationships, sexuality, disappointments and successes in detail thru character development. Though the locked version was 'tamed down' because of the PG rating, a DVD directors cut would probably show the actual stories of the 10 different characters.

It seemed that Mr. Tancharoen forgot (maybe intentionally?) that he had 10 characters to develop. It appeared that there was concentration on one, Ms. Panabaker (and how could her character pass such a rigid audition?), Mr. Book, Mr. Pennie, Ms. Naughton (who sang very well) and Ms. Payne. Whatever happened to Mr. Iacono, Mr. McGill, Ms. Perez de Tagle, Ms. Flores (what character did she portray?) and Mr. Perez? What are their life stories or experiences?

"The Lord of the 9"

From Emily Isaacs, Rock Hill, IL:

Now, I'll admit that it's been a long time since I last saw or read "The Lord of the Rings" stories, so perhaps my comparison here is slightly off, but upon viewing the latest Tim Burton film "9," I couldn't help but notice a lots of similarities. The nine creations of the Scientist have to go on an epic journey to save the world. In "The Lord of the Rings" there are nine members to the Fellowship of the Ring and they go on an epic journey to save the world. Nine (the character) bears a strong resemblance to Frodo Baggins and is voiced by Elijah Wood, who also played Frodo in the Jackson version of the Lord of the Rings films. This seems just a little bit too convenient. Nine wakes up and finds himself bestowed with an object that he discovers has the power to bring to life an evil referred to as “the Brain.” In the Lord of the Rings, the mere existence of the Ring allows Sauron to waken, and in "9," Nine awakens the evil by placing the talisman in it. Also interesting to note about the Brain is that its signature feature seems to be its glowing red eye, which was also the signature feature of Sauron in the Lord of the Rings.