Cain
Gentlebane
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2005
- Messages
- 6,174
- Reaction score
- 143
- Points
- 48
What do you guys think about this flick?
The past 13 years I've seen this movie enough to now say it is one of my favorites of all time.
As far as performances De Niro was fantastic playing the "punk" essentially. This was a point in his career where he was being typecast as mr. big balls so it was good to see him play a straight and vulnerable dude. Pesci was very memorable but too similar to previous roles to really say anything new about. Sharon Stone well this is easily the greatest performance in her entire career. I would've never thought she was capable of being that great of an actress otherwise if it wasn't for what Scorsese got out of her. James Woods was fantastic too makes me laugh all the time.
I personally have grown to love the film over the years as I got older. I used to think it was overrated when it was first released cause I was a huge Raging Bull and Goodfellas fan and didn't really find it as mind blowing but now I understand why it was praised. It's more than just a story about criminals running a Casino. It's about the negative aspects of humanity and how that affects a person's decisions above everything else.
Whether it's a materialistic woman selling herself to a man she feels no empathy for just because he could fulfill her material desires no matter how unhappy being with this person could make her. To the same woman sticking by a man who treats her like dirt just because he always found a way to tell her the things she wants to hear and because she feels a sense of loyalty to him since he's been her twisted father figure for years.
To a firecracker of a man who cannot live his life by following authoritarian rules no matter who may have made up those rules. A man who is so wreckless and careless that he only thinks in the moment and doesn't think about the future consequences that his actions may cause. A man who is so self assured and self centered that he had no problem giving in to the temptation of banging his friend of 3 decades' wife even though he knew if it was discovered that will mean his life.
What about the meticulous fellow. The man who is always observing things and using logic to achieve solutions. A man who is such a perfectionist as a professional yet is a complete mess as a real person because he never took anytime in his life to build up any real personal character. He's naive in thinking he could change a grown woman but he's so used to always getting what he wants and being in control that it completely blinds him. It causes him to make decisions that lead to his fall when he would've forseen that coming otherwise had the situation not been love which is something he just wasn't familiar with.
Bascially we all know a man like Nicky who always feels untouchable or a woman like Ginger who uses the most shallow means of achieving self gratification to give her self a false sense of comfort and accomplishment. We all met a man like Ace a man that has the answer to every problem except those that personally plague him. That's why to me it's a work of art because above everything else it's an exploration of man's instinctive behavior and how that could lead to their downfall.
The past 13 years I've seen this movie enough to now say it is one of my favorites of all time.
As far as performances De Niro was fantastic playing the "punk" essentially. This was a point in his career where he was being typecast as mr. big balls so it was good to see him play a straight and vulnerable dude. Pesci was very memorable but too similar to previous roles to really say anything new about. Sharon Stone well this is easily the greatest performance in her entire career. I would've never thought she was capable of being that great of an actress otherwise if it wasn't for what Scorsese got out of her. James Woods was fantastic too makes me laugh all the time.
I personally have grown to love the film over the years as I got older. I used to think it was overrated when it was first released cause I was a huge Raging Bull and Goodfellas fan and didn't really find it as mind blowing but now I understand why it was praised. It's more than just a story about criminals running a Casino. It's about the negative aspects of humanity and how that affects a person's decisions above everything else.
Whether it's a materialistic woman selling herself to a man she feels no empathy for just because he could fulfill her material desires no matter how unhappy being with this person could make her. To the same woman sticking by a man who treats her like dirt just because he always found a way to tell her the things she wants to hear and because she feels a sense of loyalty to him since he's been her twisted father figure for years.
To a firecracker of a man who cannot live his life by following authoritarian rules no matter who may have made up those rules. A man who is so wreckless and careless that he only thinks in the moment and doesn't think about the future consequences that his actions may cause. A man who is so self assured and self centered that he had no problem giving in to the temptation of banging his friend of 3 decades' wife even though he knew if it was discovered that will mean his life.
What about the meticulous fellow. The man who is always observing things and using logic to achieve solutions. A man who is such a perfectionist as a professional yet is a complete mess as a real person because he never took anytime in his life to build up any real personal character. He's naive in thinking he could change a grown woman but he's so used to always getting what he wants and being in control that it completely blinds him. It causes him to make decisions that lead to his fall when he would've forseen that coming otherwise had the situation not been love which is something he just wasn't familiar with.
Bascially we all know a man like Nicky who always feels untouchable or a woman like Ginger who uses the most shallow means of achieving self gratification to give her self a false sense of comfort and accomplishment. We all met a man like Ace a man that has the answer to every problem except those that personally plague him. That's why to me it's a work of art because above everything else it's an exploration of man's instinctive behavior and how that could lead to their downfall.
