Quote:
Originally Posted by Not A Speck Of Cereal
Wow. This is definitely a desert island film for me. It had a lot more going for it than just superb acting.
The screenplay was great, casting was perfect (of course, it always seems that way in retrospect for the films you love), editing was great, they did an excellent job placing you in the era (sets, props, dialog), prison life details, lighting and music, editing--aw man. To me, it's just a very well done film.
Speck
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The story is good, but not especially original, there were so many things that are in every prison movie; a person with specific skills who doesn't belong there, starts out on the bottom and earns his place with his skills, a prisoner that can get hold of everything, a corrupt warden and a sadistic guard, etc..
What I really liked was to hear the story told from Red, he was a very special character, that dragged you in. I also agree on the sets, props and music, it was very well placed, and was very believable.
There are several other things with the movie that are good, but since "asked" I thought I'd write what I don't like..
First of all, I think the supporting characters are extremely under-developed, especially the violent captain. I know it's told from Red's perspective, but I still think it would have been a better directorial effect to further develop the secondary-characters. I would also have liked to learn more about the warden, even though I understand why he did what he did..
Second (and it's really hard to explain this without sounding racist) I feel it detracts somewhat from the reality that there isn't a
single racist in the whole prison, either among the prisoners or the guards, in America in the 1940-1950ties.
It's really refreshing to see an actor like Morgan freeman not being hired because of his colour, I've seen him in way to many movies, where it just seems like he's been hired because he's black, but still, I think you can't completely ignore the fact that he's coloured, when you have a prison movie set in the early 1950ties in America, even if it is in the North states. (I also thought there where very few coloured people in the prison at all, especially when they started the sixty - seventies..)
A more personal complaint I had, was that I felt the ending was way to light opposed to the darkness of the rest of the film. for me it would have been better if
Spoiler:he hanged himself, and the last thing we saw was Red finding the box under the tree.
I also had a different storyline in my head;
Spoiler:even though Andy was innocent, he still blamed himself partly for the crime, and he had also thought about killing her himself. So even if he wanted the real murderer caught, he still wanted to punish himself, so he had hid his pistol under the tree, and refused to tell anybody about it, and that's what Red found.. I don't really know what made me think of that, but I'm still kinda partial to my ending.. I think it would continue with Red delivering the pistol to the police, and getting Andy pardoned (even though he's dead) and then killing himself, probably in the same way Brook did, but I'm not so sure about this. 
But I'm a very negative and pessimistic person, so this is probably just because I don't like happy endings, and I didn't like Andy that much..
But it's still a very well done film, as you said, and that's a big reason for why I gave it such a high score in the first place..
The Godfather Part II
3 - 247 left
Somewhat more long-drawn than the first, but I really liked the looks on Vito's childhood. A thing that irritated me was that it was sometimes a bit confusing at first to distinguish the two parallel stories, and I still can' remember who half the people are (I had the same problem in the first film, but to a lesser degree). I also felt that the bi-roles where a bit under-developed. I also liked Michaels change and how he was made into something worse that what he always dreaded..
8/10
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
4 down - 246 left
Oh, God I hate westerns!
I really can't see why this one deserves top ten. Yes, I'm biased towards westerns, but the actors don't act very well, the score is good and memorable, but way overused, and gets very irritating, when they play the theme music
every time something "surprising" happens. The sound effects are horrible and way to loud, and the "artistic" filming is extremely irritating.
4/10
