Andrew Posted October 19, 2011 Report Share Posted October 19, 2011 Hearkening back to the first post in this thread, maybe the marketing folks should've signed up for rights in the South. On a Tuesday night in a small university town, the showing I attended was completely sold out, with the staff even setting up additional plastic chairs in the front. A heartwarming sight. I'll echo the comments already made about how splendid it was to see this film in 3-D. I love how Herzog finds odd, likeable, intelligent commentators for his documentaries: in this case, the circus juggler turned archaeologist and the master perfumer sniffing out caves. The postscript featuring the reactors is much more sobering now than when first filmed, in the aftermath of March's nuclear disaster in Japan. On a happier note, this was one of my best filmgoing experiences with my kids. After meeting with much skepticism and cynicism about my dragging them to a 'boring' documentary, it thrilled me to hear them gasping in awe multiple times, and as we were leaving the cinema, my 10 year old son proclaimed, "Anyone who doesn't think this film is amazing is crazy," then told me that he wants to be an archaeologist when he grows up. Quote To be an artist is never to avert one's eyes. - Akira Kurosawa https://www.patheos.com/blogs/secularcinephile/ Link to post Share on other sites
Scott Derrickson Posted October 22, 2011 Report Share Posted October 22, 2011 (edited) I'm surprised there isn't more discussion about the anthropological implications of this film. I think this one of the best films of the year, and oddly enough, I can't think of a film I've seen that has reinforced my faith quite like this one. Walker Percy's book "Signposts in a Strange Land" has a chapter titled "Is a Theory of Man Possible?" In it, he talks about the astonishingly immediate and profoundly significant evolutionary leap that early man took 35,000 years ago, when the language center suddenly appeared -- in terms of the evolution timeline, that's like yesterday. When I saw this film, I felt that I was bearing witness to indisputable evidence that during that era, such a short time ago, "God breathed into man the breath of life, and he became a living soul." The film played to me as a kind of good-sense study of how the miracle of human consciousness was flipped on like a light switch, rather than growing into itself ever-so-slowly over millennia during late pre-recorded and early recorded human history (which is the more common view, I think). In fact, the film even made me reconsider taking the Garden of Eden story a bit more literally. Edited October 22, 2011 by Scott Derrickson Quote In eternity this world will be Troy, I believe, and all that has passed here will be the epic of the universe, the ballad they sing in the streets. -- Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson Link to post Share on other sites
SDG Posted October 22, 2011 Report Share Posted October 22, 2011 Anthropological? Quote “I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.” — Flannery O'ConnorWriting at the new Decent Films | Follow me on Twitter and Facebook Link to post Share on other sites
Scott Derrickson Posted October 22, 2011 Report Share Posted October 22, 2011 (edited) Anthropological? Wow. Yes. Thanks. I'm going to blame that on weariness and the word anamorphic since I've been shooting nights with 2:40 lenses. Changed it above. Edited October 22, 2011 by Scott Derrickson Quote In eternity this world will be Troy, I believe, and all that has passed here will be the epic of the universe, the ballad they sing in the streets. -- Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson Link to post Share on other sites
Tyler Posted December 5, 2011 Report Share Posted December 5, 2011 Streaming on Netflix, BTW. Quote It's the side effects that save us. --The National, "Graceless"Twitter Blog Link to post Share on other sites
Tyler Posted February 16, 2012 Report Share Posted February 16, 2012 I finally got around to watching this on Netflix. The cave scenes looked cool on my computer, but I kept thinking about how it would have felt to enter that space in a 3D theater. For a while, I felt like the movie was around 30 minutes too long (the not in the cave scenes), but now I think I appreciate the context they give to the people who painted those images in the caves. Did the last painting montage remind anyone else of the montage at the end of Andrei Rublev? And from now on, we should use the hashtag #AlbinoAlligator to describe a film that goes completely off the rails in the last 5 minutes. Quote It's the side effects that save us. --The National, "Graceless"Twitter Blog Link to post Share on other sites
Persona Posted February 16, 2012 Report Share Posted February 16, 2012 And from now on, we should use the hashtag #AlbinoAlligator to describe a film that goes completely off the rails in the last 5 minutes. LOL. Like! Quote In an interstellar burst, I am back to save the Universe. Filmsweep by Persona. 2013 Film Journal. IlPersona. Link to post Share on other sites
Scott Derrickson Posted February 18, 2012 Report Share Posted February 18, 2012 And from now on, we should use the hashtag #AlbinoAlligator to describe a film that goes completely off the rails in the last 5 minutes. LOL. Like! That's so great. Quote In eternity this world will be Troy, I believe, and all that has passed here will be the epic of the universe, the ballad they sing in the streets. -- Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson Link to post Share on other sites
Evan C Posted April 30 Report Share Posted April 30 Finally caught up with this, and even on a 2D television screen, the journey through the cave was a transcendent experience. Thanks to whomever nominated this for the top 100. Quote "Anyway, in general I love tragic artists, especially classical ones.""Even the forms for expressing truth can be multiform, and this is indeed necessary for the transmission of the Gospel in its timeless meaning."- Pope Francis, August 2013 interview with Antonio Spadaro Link to post Share on other sites
Andrew Posted April 30 Report Share Posted April 30 I don't know if I was the only one, but you're welcome! It was a kick to go back and read my post from 2011, with my then 10 year old son's assessment of this film: "Anyone who doesn't think this film is amazing is crazy." He's still as dogmatic about his artistic loves, but now it's all anime and manga. This film directly inspired one of my family's vacation destinations: in 2016, we visited the Dordogne region of France and entered two sites with cave paintings that are open to the public: Font de Gaume (with a frieze of 5 multi-colored bison molded to the cave contours) and Rouffignac (woolly mammoths!). An incredible experience to see artwork from 20,000 years ago. From a mountain valley or two away, we've also viewed the nuclear power plant featured at the end of Herzog's film, but we didn't visit the albino alligators... Quote To be an artist is never to avert one's eyes. - Akira Kurosawa https://www.patheos.com/blogs/secularcinephile/ Link to post Share on other sites
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