I have never in my life responded to a topic in a forum ever. But I think the addition of Benjamin Button to CC is brilliant. Too many people don’t know the wonders of CC and this film can open the doors for these people. I want that; the spreading of these amazing works of art (which Benjamin Button absolutely is). Not every film is for everyone, but to compare this to Steven Seagal or even Dazed & Confused & Armageddon is pure nonsense. Shame on those who find any movie below them.
I highly doubt anyone who buys the Button CC will be picking up L’Avventura or Andrei Rublev any time soon. But this film definitely fits the Dazed/Armageddon comparisons since it’s being used by CC to earn more revenue, not to fulfill their mission statement.
come on jp belmondo,
you cannot make that pretentious blanket statement. i myself happen to love and own l’avventura and andrei rublev. some of us don’t pretend to be above hollywood films, thinking we are better for knowing a few artsy foreign films. although i completely agree that the films you chose to mention are far superior to CC, i still maintain that criterion has the ability to realize that this film will be studied in the future and is more important than has been realized. and once again, stop putting dazed with armageddon, they don’t belong together.
Ugh.
Why don’t they belong together? I don’t see how I criticized the film at all other than it doesn’t fit CC’s mission statement. Doesn’t mean I don’t want it in the collection since it will bring a lot of money for them like Dazed/Armageddon/Fear and loathing/etc. and that’s where I was drawing the comparison from.
Many of the people who buy Button on Criterion are going to be the people who buy special editions of all the films they like, and are not going to start browsing the collection for more ideas of what to buy since they only wanted that single release. This release may introduce a select few to CC, but most are just going to get Button and screw the rest, much like those who buy the Anderson or Fear and Loathing releases since the CC releases of those films are largely the only ones available at retailers.
But since I feel compelled to give an opinion on Button now having been provoked I will: It’s a shitty, pseudo-remake of Forrest Gump, a film which didn’t need a remake nor an original since it was so uninspired to begin with. The acting, soundtrack, everything is so blah it was enough for me to want to run screaming away from the theater.
i think youre all crazy. i love the true classics such as the ones that jp belmondo referenced and many more, but his elitist and snobby comment doesnt detract from me loving ben button, its a masterpiece. all of the comparisons to forrest gump are unfair as this is a far superior film. it would be like rejecting kurosawa for retelling old tales, which he did often. ben button is an amazing film that fits well into criterion and i think most of you should get over yourselves.
Actually, as an older person, I think a film about a person progressively getting younger as they age is kind of neat thematically. I will give it a try, but don’t have high hopes of anything that relies on the same writer as Forrest G-rump for its story line. Life is not a box of chocolates but occassionally it is a box of doggie doo. Unless a film can show that – it really doesn’t merit critical viewing. In any case, I trust Criterion to know their own marketing strategy on this one and its not going to kill anybody or turn them into an instant moron to view this film and think of it what they want.
o1. It is a beautiful film.
o2. The biggest flaw it had was the similarities to Gump
o3. CC relased The Prince of Tides so don’t get too upset about this release
David Fincher is one of the best filmmakers around…why not release this? And why not release FIGHT CLUB & THE GAME too?!?!
Just leave his Alien movie alone – we don’t need to see that again.
Not having seen the film I have no opinion as to whether it should be released on criterion. However since this thread discussing it is the only one directly linked to the DVD information I do object to people saying to let this thread die and continue it on another one. I’m probably in the minority but when getting other people’s opinion about a film in the CC I find it easier to to the link at the bottom rather than trawling the forum or searching for it. Bfore the websitte got all changed around I would go straight to the relevent page discussing a particular DVD and use that to help inform my decsion ( I got fishing with John on the basis of comments and am very pleased that I did). The new website should make this easier but not if the best place to discuss a film is moved.
you all suck. instead of wasting your time on this crappy website, make a movie that you think is better…oh, wait…that would mean you would have to make an effort in your life.
Brendan I think you need to go back to the IMDB threads, friend. I think the point of this site’s forum is centered more around spirited debate, than personal attacks.
I liked Alien 3
Benjamin button was a good movie i just think it shouldn’t of had that title because it is nothing at all like the book not even the basic storyline the only thing they hold in common was aging in reverse. i read the book and seeing the movie it just bugs me because im sure i would of enjoyed the movie if only it had a different name.
I just want them to have a special feayure where all the struck by lightning scenes were put together. The movie itself is good, not great. Cinematography is nice. I would package it with a paperback. I prefer it over pop flair titles Armageddon and The Rock or movies that are in the canon just because they offend like Salo. On the other hand, I would prefer all titles to be of the quality of Berlin Alexanderplatz and If….
I don’t believe that, from a director with such control and a star with so much power, one can take this film for its visual effects apart from the story to make the case that it belongs. The history of film is littered with “technical masterpieces” that had little to no story to carry them. If that’s the (pun intended) criteria, than this company should go after every Sci-Fi film that came in the wake of 2001: A Space Odyssey, like Silent Running and Logan’s Run (and those are the best ones that followed before Star Wars). The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was a terrible film. I have no agenda against the filmmakers, nor am I critically qualified to cut into these people because I’m a paying customer; Benjamin Button was just a collision of poor intentions and worse execution. The special effects, I feel, have received too much notice. I was somewhat awed by the young-er-old Button character, but after awhile I felt like I was watching a cinematic bait and switch, in which the special effects are perfected to the point at which the story is irrelevant; this has and will never work. Thank you, Pixar, for making my point.
As for Button’s inclusion in the Criterion Collection, it surprised me only initially; the filmmakers demanded that this movie be taken seriously as some timeless fable (how many times did we hear “Forrest Gump” when the film came out?), and their target audience, the demographic they aspired to was that which is prone to purchasing a Criterion film now and again, if not owning most of the set.
The movie itself really is bad. The actors swam in moribund, self-referential dialog and forced the emotion from every scene, signifying nothing. If you take the “timeline” of the film, than the climax just happens to fall when Brad Pitt is at his most graciously engineered; the most handsome man in the world looking exactly the part, and then moreso, and then moreso….
I nearly feel bad in not liking the picture because it wasn’t some fruit-of-the-month horror or car flick. In a way though, this is so much worse: it’s a movie that aspires to be seen as art, but not aspiring to be art. It felt made by committee of faux-moral relativists; no one is good or self-aware, but all carry just one more piece to create a moral world for our main character. I felt the worst scene was with Cate Blanchette as a young girl at the fountain, begging for Pitt’s attention with these awkward tales of smoking and being with boys and all that; she had no place to take the scene and it’s the one time I concur with Pitt in being absolutely dumbfounded. For all the film, I felt like the story was more calculated than the graphics themselves. If the whole tale wasn’t bad enough, it ends with that that curtain call of reiterated nonsense from one cast member after another. The whole film was frivolous, vacuous, and worst of all, I didn’t find a trace of effort made for the film except when it came to the marketing. The “for your consideration” aspect of this film campaigned from the first blip in Variety and then on; landing a slot in the Criterion catalog was their finest coup yet.
For that, I can only laugh and stand in ovation. I’m sure they calculated that reaction, too.
BEING THE ONLY PERSON IN THIS FORUM THAT HAS ACTUALLY MET DAVID FINCHER ! ! I would say that people who are against this film comming out do not know what the HELL!! they are talking about!! David did the best that he could working under the auspices of the Hollywood system! If people would know what he had to go through to make this breakthrough film everyone in this forum would be thinking diffrently!!
Splice – Your argument is ridiculous. It doesn’t matter how hard he worked if the end result is not good. I don’t care if he spent a decade working on it, $100 million dollars of his own money, destroyed his relationship with his family, and his son grows up hating him all for the sake of this film, I’m not going to praise it unless it’s good. It wasn’t. What you’re suggesting is we just praise everyone that tries hard, no matter the end product. It makes no sense. Ok, he had to work in the “evil” Hollywood studio system, cry me a river. There have been plenty of director past and present that have been able to make good, sometimes even great, films in that same system. The fact that he had a hard time working for Hollywood producers is no excuse for the turd he released upon us.
That being said, I will say (once again) I don’t care who releases the film on DVD/Blu-Ray, VHS, or VCD. I literally couldn’t care less.
If you want to continue our debate post here. I’m not posting on this thread anymore, it should have died weeks ago.
Benjamin Button was a good movie, but not David Fincher’s best. I’m actually glad that this film is getting the criterion collection treatment. I could only wish for “Zodiac,” the best film of 2007 and my favorite film of the last ten years, would get this type of treatment. I liked Benjamin Button, but only enough as a rental. Besides, if there was one film that should not have been nominated last year, I’d pick “The Reader.”
The bonus features are probably the reason here – they include -
Audio commentary featuring Academy Award-nominated director David Fincher
Never-before-seen footage revealing the innovative techniques behind the Academy Award–winning visual effects and makeup
Step-by-step examination of the motion-capture process aging Brad Pitt
In-depth exploration of David Fincher’s creative process on the set
Interview with acclaimed composer Alexandre Desplat about the score
I think that the majority of the folks complaints regarding this fine film are being too harsh and might I add—Snobby? Sure, this is not some Godard or Kurosawa masterpiece, but this film still warrants some positive recognition (by Criterion). If you look back on some of the brilliant films/movie to have been made in the past 60 years that were equally snubbed upon initial release, like Hitchcock’s “vertigo,” for one, then I think one might realize that great films like the Benjamin Buttons of the world might just be ahead of their time for most which saddens me greatly. As for this film being forgotten, I truthfully believe that this one will pick up some eventual steam, especially once the naysayers hopefully come to their senses. Loosen up Criterion lovers and take a whiff the smelling salt !
Splice, please clue us in — what did Fincher go through? I thought his life was easy street after Fight Club, if not Se7en. Now I’m intrigued.
I was looking for reasons to avoid seeing this film, now CC is giving me a reason to check it out. I agree with Bob about the doggie doo, but sometimes great things come in unexpected packages, too. Especially someone like me who naturally gravitates toward darker, more serious films — I am always hoping to find a good uplifting one.
Is this one going to be region coded like all the other CC-blu-rays, or is it going to be region free like all Paramount releases to date? Anyone who knows?
very, very sad. i understand the criterion collections acceptance of movies like robo-cop/armageddon due to cultural influence, but this….left over vomit of forest gump? my eyes are open, it’s all about publishing rights! movies by almodovar, wertmüller, lynch, etc are not part of collection due to this…this i can understand but benjamin button?
really-do i really now have to read a commentary concerning cate’s awful raspy voice in the movie?
criterion collection shame on you. shame. shame.
Andrew Kotwicki – couldn’t agree with you more. “Ben Button” is technically impressive but it’s all over the place, story-telling wise it’s the sloppiest of Fincher’s films.
I haven’t seen BB. I love what CC does; as a matter of fact – Thank you for what you do CC; much appreciated!
As I have read a good handful of comments as to how people are confused about how BB made it into “The Collection,” I find myself having to comment on what Jay Olie Espy said about “film history dismisses the content of the film.” To some extent that’s how I feel about a lot of films in this collection. I understand the social barriers these films challenged, but I almost wonder sometimes how much those barriers actually needed challenged. A lot of these movies are great as they have encouraged us not only as viewers but also as thinkers, people that live in the world’s that these movies comment on, to challenge the status quo, to challenge the way “the Man” tells us to think. Unfortunately, I believe it’s due to a lot of these early European, Asian and even American paradigms expressed in a lot of these films, that have opened up a way of thinking, a way of perceiving life and the experiences we encounter in our current time and cultures, that is dangerous. American culture, ever since the mid 60s, has seen “the Family” dissolve into a bunch of households with “individuals” living a life for the immediate. We want what we want and we want it NOW. I do believe too much violence, too much sexuality, any deviant sexuality, and a lack of self-control is truly a bad thing, a bad situation.
As I went to school to study movies, I enjoy CC as it is because of them that I have been able to enjoy movies such as The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, the directors (Kurosawa…) that influenced those who have become the big American directors (Lucas, Kubrick, Spielberg, Tarantino), Ozu and even the old silent films (Pandora’s Box, Nosferatu, The Passion of Joan of Arc), all of which I most likely wouldn’t have been able to see, let alone in my own living room.
Oddly enough, as many of the directors that CC has been able to expose us to, challenge the ways we view life and I believe it is with that same call to think and re-think social structures that we also need to be cautious as to how much we allow ourselves to walk in some of these ideas, paradigms. Challenging and questioning social structures, analyzing the local, national and global events that happen throughout history is very often not only a good thing, but even helpful in giving us a chance to understand the things we believe and to allow healing in the areas we need healed thanks to these events, situations, experiences, words and lack of words.
There is nothing wrong with thinking about life and experiences, whether past, present or future, but it’s where we allow these thoughts to take us that can be dangerous, detrimental, or even fatal.
Fo’ Realli Dikulous – despite anything else… greatest name ever!
Sorry if I’m being stupid Fo Realli. I found your rguement interesting and well argued, even if I disagree with some aspects of it, but are you saying BB is one of the films that you like the film challenges soical barriers or because it goes against the trend of the CC and doesn’t do thisd. I’ve not seen the film and in all the arguement for and against it’s inclusion I found yours most intersting ,probably because I don’t understand all of it:).
Ooops
SOYBEAN
pull the plug