(shrug) I saw it on VHS in a high school classroom on a 32" TV, and it still stands out as an amazing movie-watching experience. So may be better on the big screen, but definitely has more to it than largeness.
I know I'm a bad poet, but I'm a good man. All I ask is that... is that you try to see me—
William ,'Conversations with Dead People'
Buffista Movies 6: lies and videotape
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
Gris - Apr 04, 2008 8:11:39 am PDT #4819 of 10000
Hey. New board.
erikaj - Apr 04, 2008 9:12:08 am PDT #4820 of 10000
Always Anti-fascist!
I hate when people say stuff like that. Whether it's true or not. It's so "Check it. I'm a cineaste and I'm deep. And I have the secret handshake,"
Jessica - Apr 04, 2008 9:14:15 am PDT #4821 of 10000
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
I think if you see Ran first on video, it would be fine, as long as it's on a decent-sized TV. But having seen it on the big screen, I have no desire at all to ever watch it on a smaller one, because the experience would be so much less.
erikaj - Apr 04, 2008 9:20:26 am PDT #4822 of 10000
Always Anti-fascist!
I don't know anything about the film in question, actually. Just a little overstocked on Those Guys. It's completely fine to say "Oh! You should see it on the big screen,"although, living in a cowtown and no longer being in college, I don't know when I would.
brenda m - Apr 04, 2008 9:21:13 am PDT #4823 of 10000
If you're going through hell/keep on going/don't slow down/keep your fear from showing/you might be gone/'fore the devil even knows you're there
I hate when people say stuff like that. Whether it's true or not. It's so "Check it. I'm a cineaste and I'm deep. And I have the secret handshake,"
What Erika said. And really, even leaving that aside, the fact that this:
One of my friend's from High School refused to loan me Ran on video because he said it absolutely had to be seen on the big screen fro the first time.
is so often followed by this:
I still haven't seen it.
makes me bristle.
Hayden - Apr 04, 2008 9:34:39 am PDT #4824 of 10000
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."
I think Jessica's right. Watch it, but watch it on the largest screen available for god's sake. You know how people look at Jackson Pollack reprints measured in inches in books and think they know what he's about? Seeing a real, live Pollack is a little like looking into the mind of a god - maybe a minor household deity, yes, but maybe more - and it's completely impossible to appreciate the scale and scope of his original work when it's small and 2-dimensional. Ran is like this.
Sue - Apr 04, 2008 9:37:40 am PDT #4825 of 10000
hip deep in pie
I don't know anything about the film in question, actually. Just a little overstocked on Those Guys. It's completely fine to say "Oh! You should see it on the big screen,"although, living in a cowtown and no longer being in college, I don't know when I would.
But, the thing is, that it's sometimes an absolute fact. For example, I had to watch Felllini's Satyricon for a film class, and on video it came across as a huge boring incomprehensible piece of crap. Then I saw it on a big screen and was like, "Whoa, this movie is total genius." So I bought it on DVD, where it turned back into an boring incomprehensible piece of crap.
is so often followed by this:
I still haven't seen it.
Brenda, don't assume that's the reason I still haven't seen it. It's not.
Matt the Bruins fan - Apr 04, 2008 9:53:09 am PDT #4826 of 10000
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand
To this day I'm glad I waited to watch Casablanca until it was playing in an actual theatre. Even though I'd had it on videotape since 1987.
Steph L. - Apr 04, 2008 9:55:10 am PDT #4827 of 10000
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine
See, I understand that there are a lot of movies that would be better viewed (especially for the first time) on the big screen, but if I waited until they made a return appearance to an actual theatre, there would be a shitload of movies that I would never see.
TV screen = better than no screen.
§ ita § - Apr 04, 2008 10:12:49 am PDT #4828 of 10000
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
TV screen = better than no screen.
Unless it makes you never want to see the movie again, and leaves you with a dislike for it, though.
I've been assured that I'll like 2001, but I've already given it two hours of my life--I'm not likely to gamble another two hours plus effort and cost do try it again. I'll try another movie instead, or just take a nap.