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July 1994

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Subject:
From:
Abigail Miriam Feder <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 23 Jul 1994 06:58:20 -0700
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I too enjoyed True Lies, but not without a lot of reservations, many of which
 have been mentioned on this list, such as the cruelty of the interrogation
 scene and Arnie's stalking of his wife. Also some other points I haven't heard
 mentioned, like Tia Carreres's character getting slapped by the villain and
 taking it because she's being paid. While this may have established him as a
 nasty bastard, it was also completely inconsistent with what little else we
 were told about her character. Finally, a small moment that made a big impact
 on me: Charlton Heston's first line was to dismiss an African-American woman
 from their high level meeting "That will be all Francis" or some such. What
 was the point? She existed in the film only to be dismissed. We don't know if
 she was a secretary or an accountant or an assassin and there was no point in
 her having any screen time at all except to dismiss her.
 
My point? The pleasure so this film -- the adventure, the things blowing up,
 Jaime Lee and Arnie finding each other again, she becoming an adventurous
 person, Tom Arnold's surprisingly funny performance -- were not dependent on
 any of those scenes I found so unnecessary, painful and offensive. It could
 have been a fun movie without so summarily dismissing the women.
 
>
> Denise Bryson has made a good point about True Lies. It's a fun
> movie!!!! Sure you can analyze it to death with all those non-aesthetic
> factors such as the director's life or actor's life or even tie it in with
> current events such as the idiotic O.J.Simpson case. But, please remeber
> that this is Hollywood glitz at its finest. So basically it is in a
> different class of film - the popular art rather than the fine.
 
And about OJ. When I saw TL, during the scene in which Helen is lying to Harry
 bout how she spent her lunch hour and the camera pans in on his face as her
 voice gets lost in the menacing non-diegetic music, someone in the audience
 yelled "OJ!" and a bunch of people laughed. I was nearly sick to my stomach.
 
        --Abby
> It is true that Cameron's films contain certain common threads
> which could possibly be brought into a discussion about "what it all
> means". It's Hollywood though!!
> Jim is one of my favorite Hollywood directors because when I go
> to see his films I'm not going to give a damn about a social or political
> statement (although he has attemted these as well as Hollywood can do it)
> I can expect a thrill a minute technical feast for the eyes. And this
> film was no exeception. The FX were outstanding. Digital Domain has
> established itself along with powerhouse ILM.
> No socio-political arguement against this movie will keep me from
> liking it. In fact, I'm going again.
> _____________________________________________________________________________
> ||
> || Action! _ ) __| \ |
> || ,;\|/;, / _ \ _| . |
> {{{{{{{{{) -| ___/ ___| _\_|
> |~~~~~~~~| _/' | | _ _ | | _
> | ( O ) | ',.... |) |' |_| | (/_ @ (| | | (| \/ . |) (| _\ L|
> |________|'''' \ / _|
> //||\\ /\ ) .....Ben Rule <[log in to unmask]>.......
>
 _______________________________________________________________________________
>

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