In a Savage Land

[tipou]

bienvenue!

[lizap]

My goodness, what a lovely movie. I was completely swept away.

[tipou]

I KNOW!

[rueful]

At last, my copy has arrived!

I hope I have the time to watch it tomorrow. If you don't hear from me for a while, I might be rewatching, if it's as good as you all say.

[tipou]

about time.
friendly advice: remember, it's a DVD, so you can get through the whole movie at one sitting, and then you have the rest of your life to free frame!!!

[rueful]

about time

I know! I swear I heard the Halleluia chorus playing when I opened my mailbox.

I'm not sure what this "free framing" you speak of involves, but if it's a new kind of fun with Rufus, I'm all in!

[tipou]

LOL! i meant "freeze frame"

[lizap]

Hooray! So glad it's in your hands at last, rueful!

[rueful]

Thanks, ladies! I'm very impatient to see it. Maybe I don't need to go to bed tonight after all!

PS I think we should invent a definition for "free framing." Maybe something to do with making screen caps and cropping selected parts. No, that needs work.

[rueful]

SPOILERS BELOW!!!!!



Ok, I've finally watched. And rewatched several selected scenes. I feel like I must digest it more, but these are my current thoughts.

Especially for the first hour or so, I was disoriented. I couldn't keep track of the passage of time. The movie seemed to jump from scene to scene without explanation, and it often seemed we were coming in the middle of the action or dialogue. This feeling was heightened by the lack of closed captioning or subtitles, so that I couldn't always understand the dialogue.

Of course, I began to figure out how my experience was echoing Evelyn and Phillip's experiences as outsiders, who were completely out of their element. As the movie progressed and Evelyn and Phillip became more and more disturbed, I could see how the movie was playing with the light and dark correspondingly. I think these were good choices to help the viewers lose themselves the way the outsiders were losing their sense of self in this "savage" culture.

As I watched it, I felt like I was watching three movies:
1. The typical 1940s "explorer/anthropologist encounters savages" movies.
2. The epic forbidden romance
3. The World War II movie

I wasn't sure how they all would fit together--the tones of these genres are so different. Even after finishing the whole thing, I'm still not sure. What am I supposed to feel or think? Regarding genre 1, explorer movie, was Phillip ultimately a bad guy? Did he deserve to die for his cluelessness, his rigid ideas that were a product of his time and culture? I don't think so, and yet without his death, a happy resolution to genre 2, the epic romance, wouldn't have been possible. Genre 3, the war movie, allowed Mick to show not just the others but himself that he really was worthy of "being remembered" (after all he got a monumental tombstone that he didn't really even need), but what does it mean that all of Evelyn's efforts were for nothing, since the war changed the villagers' lives anyway? Were they just an agent for change in her, rather than real characters? I don't mean in her eyes, but in the way the filmmakers chose to show her journey. She went back for Mick and her notes, but she wasn't shown enquiring after any of the people she had met. Sorry, I know that's not too coherent, but I haven't made my mind up whether I like this aspect of the film or not.

However, all that said, my opinion about Rufus is, ! Fabulous portrayal. As Tipou pointed out earlier, he plays "regular guy" so well. He captures Mick's bravado as well as the uncertainty beneath that. And he makes such incredible choices of glances and small gestures in every scene. There are lots of examples, but the one that pops into my head now is the scene where he offers to stay with her at the headhunters village, sleeping in a separate hut, and she refuses. He does that quick goodbye, like "Yeah, ok, I didn't really want to stay anyhow," but then after he turns he kind of angrily dumps his coffee and stalks off. Even with his back turned, he radiates rejection.

Despite my ambivalence about the mixed genres, I LOVED the romance. It was beautiful and realistic. Their attraction, the way he cared for her when she was distraught, their ultimate, fumbling love scene, all perfect.

I loved the scene where he is sitting in the rain and she calls him in, for several reasons (not least being the removal of clothing--ahem), but my favorite part is the look of disappointed impatience on his face when the guide interrupts him with questions while he's trying to get his mojo going with Evelyn. Perfect.

The dancing scene. Hot. Just hot.

The sex scene. Sweet. Sweet and hot. (Am I wrong to wish they had shown more, as they did with Phillip and Evelyn?)

The ending (I mean in the train station) was so beautiful. I have a feeling that may not have been the only or original ending they prepared. It seemed abrupt. But if so, I'm glad they chose it.

Rufus looked gorgeous. I like the scruffy, tanned, slightly beefy version, very, very much!

So, you can see overall, I really loved the movie, and I want to thank all those who urged (or commanded) me to buy it. I can see it's one I'll watch more than once as I try to figure it out. (Aren't you glad I restricted myself to my "current thoughts"? Geez, it's like I'm writing Phillip's monograph. Sorry)

PS May I say how much I utterly love the interview segment with Rufus where he's trying to explain something and starts his sentence out in a way that leaves him absolutely nowhere to go at the end. The expression on his face, "Wait. What the hell did I just say?" is hilarious. Link to youtube video, the portion I'm talking about starts at about 1 min 17 sec: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmyHfWVRnSo

[tipou]

yeahhh! you watched it!

i understand your comment about the "3 movies" - however, it is, i beleive, as the characters would have lived it. they were not compartimenting their lives between work/relationship/war - (certainly not evelyn and her hubby) and they certainly were not thinking: hey, here we are, entering second world war. they have basically no idea how it came to happen, so they could not reflect on it. we get to be as lost as they would have been. so we get to go from one day to the next, one event to the next, said event being all jumbled up. i like to be as out of my element as possible, as it brought me closer to their experience. and then we get to know mick, the westerner who knows what 's going on, and we know how he comes to play a role in their lives.

i think it was premiere movie magazine that had a segment called " exemplary performance, or soemthing like that. that segment focused on one actor in one film, often a secondary role, who approached perfection or at least did his job exceptionnally well in that specific movie.
for me, rufus deserved such a segment. i recently read how he went as far as change his body for the role - stronger arms, because of the swim, but a bit of a paunch, since the guy is supposed to be very average and a bit seedy. he is every bit the regular joe that he tought mick should have been.

i think it was lizap (or was it GE2) who said she never saw "rufus acting", but always the character, i think such was the case in this movie even more than in his other ones. watch the way he reacts when someone tells him he's a nobody outside the island - it hurts.

note for the naughtily disposed: about the "fumbling sex scene". when evelyn removes her shirt (or tries to), mick kisses her breast. later, you can actually see the spit on her breast. this detail, apart from showing how the actors got into their performance (!!??!!), added to the feeling of instant and familiar intimacy of the scene, made it quite... real and believable.

no wonder why the rascal likes his job so much.

[lizap]

Thanks for sharing your impressions, rueful! I'm so glad it was an overall positive reaction (it might have been a bit awkward had we bullied you into buying a movie you hated). ;D

My response to this movie was mostly emotional, as opposed to prompting specific thoughts about it as a film. A couple of ideas that emerged were that it was an extremely gentle movie, and that it was unusually non-manipulative, meaning that it didn't seem to want to lead the viewer. I'd say this goes along with your comment, rueful, about not knowing what you were supposed to feel or think? I felt it was saying, 'feel what you will, conclude what you will about these lives'. It totally drew me in, and I was lost in it from the moment it started 'til the moment it ended, moreso than usual.

I agree with tipou, that the film is very organic in the way it develops, so the variety of genres wasn't something I was conscious of (though I certainly see your point about that now). I felt I was really transported to that place and was experiencing things as they were.

I also loved that adorable moment in the commentary!

[tipou]

Feb 17, 2009 21:40:44 GMT lizap said:

My response to this movie was mostly emotional,
it was unusually non-manipulative, meaning that it didn't seem to want to lead the viewer.
It totally drew me in
I was really transported to that place and was experiencing things as they were.

oh i wish these were my words, this is really what i felt...

[lizap]

tipou, that is a great compliment coming from you, who express yourself and your emotions so wonderfully!

[tipou]

oh!!! **blush**
i have a big mouth. i am only glad i dont bother you guys to death.
but its the first time i joined a serious (!?!) group of cinema buffs, and i so enjoy reading everything here, i read so much from what you guys see and feel in the movies you talk about, either if they are with or without rufus.