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June 1994

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Subject:
From:
Denise Bryson <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 14 Jun 1994 13:52:08 CDT
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i'm not necessarily trying to badmouth speilberg
>here, but what i am doing is trying to point out that the red coat CHOICE
>(because even if it is in the book, spielberg made the choice to include
>it in the film...
>i doubt if the book                                                    k
>portrays itself in black and white, yet another questionable choice
>spielberg made) is about the filmmaker, not really about schindler.
 an even more important question perhaps is whether
>a film like this is even appropriate... should a film be made
>about the holocaust?  there are two sides.  in one sense we must not
>denis
>[log in to unmask]
 
*sigh*
Can I take this discussion a bit further?  Is ANY film EVER
'appropriate?'  Should ANY film ever be made?  There are two sides....
 
and about that color/black&white thing...I must have missed the thread
about this when the film first came out, but I do know that when I saw
the film, I couldn't imagine how it would have turned out in color.
Not that this automatically makes it a good choice, but isn't EVERY
choice of EVERY filmmaker "questionable?"  Although you say you're not
intending to bash Spielberg here, it certainly feels like a case of
damning with faint praise.Words like "questionable" seem to be a
bit meaningless nowadays, when academics are "problematizing" the
existence of everything under the sun and "putting into question"
every single assumption ever made.  And I'm ONE of them....*sigh*
 
Biopics are, by their nature, full of holes.  If they weren't, they'd
last exactly as long as the life of the subject lasted.  We can
argue to death each individual deletion in a postmodern feeding frenzy,
but (silly, traditional me) I'm still the kind of film-viewer/assessor
who'd rather deal with what's THERE than what ISN'T.
 
The Red Coat (and the child's viewpoint) are, indeed, devices that
may not have worked as well as they could have.  Still, SL is the
kind of film that most on this list would have LOVED to make.  Some
of the criticisms being leveled at it sure sound like sour grapes....
but, that's just my gut-level theory...ah, well, it's questionable.
 
___________________________________________________________________
º Denise M. Bryson, Northeast Missouri State University            º
º Division of Language and Literature                              º
º Kirksville, Missouri  63501                                      º
º                                                                  º
º [log in to unmask]                       º
º                                                                  º
º "You keep using that word....I do not think it means what you    º
º  think it means."  -- Inigo Montoya --                           º
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