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steve · 4555 days ago · link · · parent · post: Hubski Film Club - 12 Angry Men and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead...... thoughts?
12 Angry Men - This was a great film. If I have a complaint, it is that it was made according to a set of rules, spoken or unspoken. In older films, actors did not give lines over one another unless it was to invoke conflict - e.g., a blatant interruption. I'm kinda speaking out of my ass, but it seems like this was a tradition in theater which film inherited and didn't begin to change until the 60s & 70s when Altman and his contemporaries began layering conversations in a much more natural way. So when I watch an old film, I have to kind of reset my expectations, and be patient, knowing that each character has his/her turn speaking, and will only be cut across when some one has to interrupt, and the interruption is very deliberate.
That being said, I was completely enthralled and enjoyed every moment of the film. The acting, while classical, and a little staged, and a little sterile, was powerful, direct, and clean. The fact that I could watch twelve men in a room - the SAME room for 90 minutes and be interested the whole time - is saying something. BtDKYD - I need more time to reflect on it. I watched it a few months ago, and frankly, I love me som Philip Seymour Hoffman. I will watch laundry detergent commercials if he is in them. I think he is amazing. He's a completely despicable scumbag in this film - but he nails it. More on this film later.