AlmostAGhost

Hm ya that makes sense. I had no real qualms with Cooper after one watch but definitely, I want to feel his tension, his worry, much more. Stoicism is one thing, and I certainly wouldn’t have wanted Heston-like emoting, but we need more of his inner turmoil to come through.

I do keep bouncing back on forth on this, especially as I think about the movie more. I understand the emphasis on how shitty the town was. Maybe it was necessary and the point: a bit of irony, or bittersweet, or whatever. But I keep coming back to that my gut reaction to the ending was basically "huh" and nothing stronger, and I was trying to figure out why... especially because I quite enjoyed the preceding hour, the build-up to it, a lot.

Yea I missed this part. I knew his wife was a Quaker, but didn't think how that maybe affected his actions/progress. While he wasn't confronting them head-on at the end, I still think it's an heroic takedown there. Maybe I haven't seen enough normal Westerns to realize it isn't though, but outwitting and outsurviving is what heroes do. He was indeed trying to save the town, a town of cowards no less, and I get that needed to be shown. I don't think that he's a hero is in question (unless you're John Wayne); to me it was, is this effective heroing on a storytelling/film level? And I feel some of the impact could have been expressed and felt stronger.

This made me think a lot about it, which I liked. Paul early on said he felt it was 'bland' and I've been thinking along the same lines. So the story breaks down to basically this: 1. Bad Guy comin' 2. Good Guy tries to get help to stand up to Bad Guy 3. everyone says 'f you' 4. Good Guy wins anyway Now I hate that my complaint sounds a little like the guest said John Wayne felt (a real manly sheriff wouldn't go asking for help), but... why the heck did he ask for help? I think the fact that he wins without help is weakened by him having spent the whole movie asking for help. I get that it sets him up to do it alone, but the whole build-up is him asking for help he does NOT NEED. I found that a little weird. I don't particularly feel like the town let him down, because he won anyway. How I see it is this.... there's 3 possible heroic endings: 1. The Devastating Heroic Ending: he asks for help, doesn't get it, fights Bad Guy alone, loses/dies because the help he needed didn't come. That's still heroic, fighting against the odds, but it's much more impactful. 2. The Feel-Good Heroic Ending: the town turns him down, but has a change of heart and helps him win in the end. I'm sure that's what John Wayne wanted. Probably way to feel-good, or maybe traditional Western? Surely it's good they didn't do this, but it would've had an impact. 3. The ending they went with: shrugs off the town, wins with his wife's brief help. They went with the bland ending. He's still a hero, I guess, but it's just far less emotional. He just won anyway, whatever. I mean, we get the awesome look of disgust at the town as he leaves this way, but I don't know. Was it the best choice? I'm not so sure.

Cool, looking forward to this one

oh oops, for some reason I was thinking Fellowship was the third LOTR movie. I've only seen them a million times but somehow I registered that the third one was the one on the list, and didn't think any harder about what I was noting. still, I think everyone should watch all three.

pretty sure "Machu Picchu" is just some restaurant in NYC tho

that makes me feel like there some staff on this movie who were consciously sabotaging it from the inside

i think the inherent problem is that the film thinks it is being all "looks don't matter in love," which is fine and sort of noble, but instead it actually comes off as "horrible people aren't so bad really," which is shitty

Yea. The show bombed, but there was a brief DC Universe comic book comedy on TV called Powerless. Vanessa Hudgens was on it and I thought she was terrific there, a very likable lead actress for a TV show. I'm not familiar with the High School Musicals or whatever but from that show I've thought she was cool.

Nah I'm much closer to you here (I think I have it #12 or 13). Like I said, I've been turned off the film since it initially scared me; I can't imagine ever really loving it after that. I do get the nostalgia people have, but it wasn't mine. It was warmer than I remembered when watching it last night, but there's still a lot of things about the story that I question as basic nonsense, and I know the score is everyone's favorite, but I prefer a minimal style there myself.

Yea we probably are in agreement. I think it's a good interp tho. I initially took it just as sort of 'friends' (and I think that's the common interp) but I do think there's definitely something more 'family' about it all. E.T. is the crazy uncle

But isn't "strengthening their familial bond" what we mean by "father figure"? I mean, sure, E.T. isn't raising Elliott to be an adult; as sycasey said it's more abstract. He's just a presence in the family which teaches some lessons to one particular family, makes them all closer, then leaves. It is for sure a strong contrast with the actual father, who did the opposite: left the family a mess.

I was going to ask what you all thought about the alternate interpretations. I like Paul's take of E.T. being sort of an absent father. It's strange to think about it that way, but I think it works? Honestly though, I'm not sure I buy Spielberg's thing about it being all 'accept your neighbors and other cultures' though.

The nostalgia argument falls for me, basically because I saw it young, age 7 or so, that it scared me and I never wanted to watch it again. I have some sort of anti-nostalgia for the film. Anyway I tried to bring some more attention to our discussions

I don't get why she's so surprised at that though! The people who listen to pods and rate on FB almost certainly will be all over E.T. *shrug*

Wait, looking at Amy's tweet, I think she means ET is ranked BETTER than King Kong. She says the result "warms her heart" so I think she and the group are pro-ET, right? I'm not clear at all how FB groups ratings are compiled though.

also my plan is, in 82 weeks, to find all the lists of people who listened along with the pod and compile them and merge our individual rankings into one master one. hopefully it's not just like 4 of us!

Hmm, technically I've ranked both E.T. and King Kong the same. E.T. will certainly be ahead when the list is finished though. You know what I felt about King Kong though? Excitement. I got some thrills out of it. I like rating things, and lists are a byproduct of that. I used to think lists were useless, but making them (I mainly do it with music) forces me do those odd comparisons, and to be able to think through what I like and why and whether that art is successful in ways that speak to me. Sure, it's personal. But also, it's not? Because certainly if we did our "favorite movies of 1982" lists, it'd probably be a similar collection of films. There is a universality to 'favorites' too.

sure but, as was the movie's tendency, it was ruined with the "NAILED IT" pun right after

I thought about making Wizard Of Oz comparisons in my Letterbox review, but stuck to a more personal take. In the ep, Paul & Amy brought it up, but I actually think they make totally different arc/tales: Dorothy goes to a magical wonderful land, still has to find her way home ET goes to earth, hides in a closet, gets drunk, almost dies, and needs to get home asap

There were songs?

Spinal Tap definitely should be on this list.

Yea I’m not watching any band named after Bickle. I love the film a lot but screw that hero worship, ironic or otherwise.