Harvey is a fucking weird movie. That's about all I'll say, although I will say that it is *not* particularly odd if one thinks about it for a short time. It's yet another movie I've seen recently that tries to prove the old George Costanza saw - 'It's not a lie if you believe it.'
I guess all I want to mention here is that this movie completely does not work without Jimmy Stewart. Stewart's aw-shucks honesty in this role is perfect, there is no winking to the audience, and never any doubt in his character.
I can definitely see why Steven Spielberg is supposedly remaking this movie. I will be eager to see how he screws it up.
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Stewart works great for movies made up to 1963, and then his persona comes off as old-fashioned and prudish. Its impossible to imagine him having success as an actor today if you picture him as he is in the 40's and 50's. The way he talks and his mannerisms just wouldn't work.
ReplyDeletethe way he talks and his mannerisms wouldn't work, i agree, but i definitely think tom hanks is as close as we'll get to a modern-day jimmy stewart.
ReplyDeleteTriumph, would you rather have the comments stay on topic? I don't want to derail the conversation if you're not comfortable with that.
ReplyDeleteBut speaking of Spielberg remakes, he's also working on a new version of Oldboy with Will Smith, which is absolutely mind-boggling for anyone who has seen the original.
haha like 7 people read this at most, go ahead and derail. i've not seen 'oldboy', but yeah spielberg should not be remaking movies.
ReplyDeleteif you liked Harvey (1950), you'll love Marty (1955).
ReplyDeletewhoa. wait. i didn't see that last comment. an oldboy remake directed by spielberg starring will smith? that has got to be - that had better be - a joke.
ReplyDeletei think a lot of spielberg movies are overrated. i only liked raiders, a.i., jurassic, and minority report. jaws was decent. pass on his two most acclaimed movies: schindler's and saving private ryan.
ReplyDeletemy main criticism of spielberg is his audience pandering. i think he trades in personal perspective for visceral impact. in short, he's big-money directing, which often leaves me entertained but feeling empty and manipulated.
Ian, sadly, it's not a joke. I've read that they're working from the original source material (a manga I think) which is more Spielberg friendly. That has to be true because there's obviously no way in hell he'd make a movie that tells the same story as the original did.
ReplyDeleteTriumph, I highly recommend you add Oldboy to your queue. It's in my all-time top 20. Maybe top 10 on a good day.
re: oldboy - yes it is true, imdb link here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt1321511/
oldboy is one of those movies which netflix is always recommending to me, which upsets me because some algorithm has correctly predicted like half the movies i just put on my queue. but yeah, it'll go on there soon.