MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: PORK CHOP HILL (1959)

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It's a bit like seeing Rembrandts & Titians in a book reproduction, or from posters with iffy color values, no texture or weight to the surface and the wrong dimensions . . . all while snacking on chips & soda. (Oops! You get that at your local cinema,too.)
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Wednesday, May 28, 2008

PORK CHOP HILL (1959)

One of the few Korean War pics was both comeback vehicle & last hurrah for Lewis Milestone, who had little control on his last films (OCEANS 11; MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY). Since the film is one big battle scene, it plays into Milestone’s strong suit, but rather like the war itself, it’s hard to get too enthused. Gregory Peck displays his fine slow burn tantrum, but the real kick comes in watching Rip Torn, Martin Landau, Robert Blake, George Peppard, Norman Fell, Harry Guardino, Woody Strode, etc. in dewy days. And whatever happened to George Shibata, who stands out in the atypical multi-racial cast.

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A last thought before we go.

Well, enough from me. But before we sign off, here's a great quote from Emile Zola's L'OEUVRE (THE MASTERPIECE), which is about painting rather than the yet to be invented medium of film, but which points a fine critical eye toward the whole idea of art criticism. It's a good, if chilly, thought to keep in mind, especially when you surf the net.

"Has it ever struck you that posterity may not be the fair, impartial judge we like to think it is?

"Suppose the artist's paradise turned out to be as nonexistent as the Catholics, and future generations prove just as misguided as the present one and persisted in liking pretty pretty dabbling better than honest to goodness painting. There are some accepted masterpieces for which I myself wouldn't give a twopenny damn.

"Classical training has given us a wrong view of everything and forces us to acclaim as geniuses a lot of fellows who are no more than well-balanced, facile painters, while what we might really prefer is the work of more emancipated but less even artists known only to an initiated few. Immortality at present depends entirely on the average, middle-class mind and is reserved only for the names that have been most forcibly impressed upon us while we were still unable to defend ourselves...

"Perhaps that's the sort of thing that's best left unsaid. It's certainly the sort of thing that gives me the shudders!"- Emile Zola

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Wednesday, May 28, 2008

PORK CHOP HILL (1959)

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A last thought before we go.

DROP ME A LINE