Heaven’s Gate restored by Criterion…

Good news, Everyone!  Well, for some of us, that is…

Finally, The Criterion Collection, one of the greatest boutique labels ever, are releasing a newly restored version of Michael Cimino’s much maligned film Heaven’s Gate.  I had heard that there were rumors of such a thing for a while now, but the announcement was made official today (or yesterday, rather).  We will be seeing a Bluray and DVD in November of this year.

Now, is Heaven’s Gate a misunderstood masterpiece?  I wouldn’t go so far as to call it that, but I will say that I really dig the film quite a bit.  And I realized this again recently as I watched it on Netflix streaming.  The cinematography is gorgeous and the production design is impeccable.  Add to that a fantastic cast and a really bizarre screenplay and you have one of the most fascinating westerns ever made.  Sure, it sank United Artists studios when it famously flopped in 1980, but there was a shit ton of negative press surrounding the film and I think a lot of the critics were bandwagon jumping without giving the film a fair shot.

But it is a reallybizarre epic.  All the better, I say…

Thoughts on The Dark Knight Rises… (Spoilers within)

I’m warning you ahead of time…if you haven’t seen The Dark Knight Rises then stop reading…if only because you won’t understand what in hell I’m talking about.

 

What I dug:

1. Tom Hardy’s Bane.  Wasn’t the Joker and didn’t have to be.  Also, loved the fact that Selina Kyle actually killed him.

2. Anne Hathaway’s Selina Kyle.  Didn’t think I was going to like her in the role.  Ate my words.  Top notch performance of a great character.  Was really hoping that Bruce Wayne would rethink his budding relationship with Miranda Tate and get with the Catwoman…which actually happened.

3. The set pieces/ action scenes.  Well done.  Fight with Bane, awesome.  Bane’s opening escape from the plane, incredible.  The climactic chase through Gotham was the best of the series, I think.

4. Bane & Miranda Tate’s backstory.  Loved how that came together.  Totally had me fooled.

5. Bruce Wayne’s happy ending.  When I thought they killed him off, I was excited that they had the balls to do it.  Then, when they revealed him living out his days abroad, I was actually quite satisfied.

6. John Blake’s real name being Robin.  Nice touch.

 

What I didn’t:

1. Using New York City as Gotham.  I didn’t mind the stuff they shot in Pittsburgh, but I think that they should have kept Chicago as Gotham.  I realize that there were probably some plot points that necessitated using the Big Apple, but it just looks so undeniably New York-ish that I couldn’t buy into it.

2. Bruce Wayne’s rising to redemption…again!  The prison was a cool idea, but I could’ve gotten the backstory another way.  Having Bruce have to re-train and climb out of that pit just got tedious.

3. The first big chase sequence that goes from day to night abnormally fast.  Yeah, not exactly sure what happened there.

So, there you go.  More likes than dislikes.  I personally think that The Dark Knight is the overall best film of this trilogy, even though there are elements in each film that surpass things in the others.  But whatever.  Well done, Mr. Nolan and company.

In case you missed this…

The trailer for my sophomore feature film, the psychological horror thriller DARK OF WINTER.

Anti- or Pro-metheus?

My wife and I managed to get out and finally see Prometheus today.  If you are unaware, the film is director Ridley Scott’s first foray into the science fiction genre since Blade Runner in 1982.  It is also a prequel of sorts to the first sci-fi film Mr. Scott directed, Alien.

I’m not going to spoil anything in here, but needless to say there were a lot of questions raised by the end of the picture.  Now, the immediate reaction is to blame it all on sloppy screenwriting, which may be the case.  However, with news of a longer cut coming out on DVD in the near future and interviews with Scott himself saying that the film is based on other historical ideas and concepts about humanity’s inception, it makes me wonder whether or not the film is actually a lot smarter than it initially appears to be.

I can understand this line of thinking as I tried to do something similar with Dark of Winter, in that we leave a lot open to interpretation.  We don’t spell everything out and treat the audience like morons.  We give them room to think, theorize, and draw conclusions.  All the information is there; it’s up to the individual to use it.

Needless to say, after thinking about this for most of the evening, I’m actually anxious to see Prometheus again.  Perhaps, by delving deeper into the rabbit hole, so to speak, more shall be revealed to me.  I’d like to think that is the case and I would gladly take that over shitty screenwriting.

Double the fun…

…oh, yeah…who’s the big idiot today?

That’s right…I am!

Or rather, I’m the big idiot a week ago, because I wrote a new post but never published it.

I could blame it on technology, but I won’t.  I know, taking the responsibility for my failure…how incredibly un-American of me.

I jest…or do I?

So, then, tonight the world gets two posts on the HWIC blog.  Happy Father’s day to your Dad.

You can go read about the prologue to the film below, or you can stay here and listen to me ramble.

I recently finished the first draft to the screenplay which will no doubt be our next film: Swing Lowe Sweet Chariote, adapted from the novel by Stella Hall.  It’s my first official book adaptation, and it was an extremely interesting experience.  Usually I run on whatever my brain comes up with, or suggestions from friends and colleagues.   But this was something else entirely.  Everything was laid out for me already, but I had to pick, choose, and disseminate all of that information to convert it to another medium.  It was easy and difficult at the same time.  Obviously I can’t make a 4 hour film out of the book by including everything (well, I could, but who would want to watch it?!) so I had to decide what went and what stayed.  What bits were most important to further plot and character arcs and what could be thrown out.  What’s nice is having access to all those ideas.  It’s almost like having unlimited fuel to inform the script.  I could use anything or nothing and, in some cases, I attempted to distill things into new ideas of my own that would keep the same tone and feeling of the book.  I didn’t do this often but it was something I had to resort to occasionally to solve problems.

Would I do it again?  Sure!  Why not?

 

DARK OF WINTER: SPECIAL SCREENINGS

DARK OF WINTER: SPECIAL SCREENINGS

Saturday- March 31st at 8pm and Sunday- April 1st at 2:30pm

ICON 31  Stonybrook University

Star Kyle Jason and Writer/ Director David C. Snyder in attendance!

 For those that will be around…

The Trailer is up!

www.DarkofWinterMovie.com

Head on over to the site and check out the trailer for our latest, a psychological horror thriller that will bend minds in half and back again!

Sign up for exclusive updates and get a free download of songs from the soundtrack.  Sweet deal, free stuff.

Oh, and let us know what you think of the trailer!

DarkofWinterMovie.com

A ward.

Got something in the mail yesterday.

I gotta hand it to the 48 Hour Film Project crew…it’s a lot nicer than I expected it to be.

Now all I need is a mantle where I can place it next to the BEST FEATURE award we won for The Quiet Arrangement.  By the way, that seems like pathetic bragging to me…two awards, no mantle.

Weird.

Nice.

By the way, if you’d like to see the film that got us that honor, you can do so right here…

Dirty Work

On set, DARK OF WINTER

Photo by Maura Snyder

Inside the House

Kyle Jason as John French in DARK OF WINTER