Author: Simon Hardy Butler
Musical Snares, Part II: ‘Excalibur,’ Wagner and the Context of Melody
Anyone care to explain why music from Richard Wagner’s seminal opera Tristan und Isolde, which tells the story of the doomed love between Arthurian Knight of the Round Table Sir Tristan and the already married queen Iseult, is used to accent scenes featuring the fellow warrior Lancelot and his lord’s wife Guinevere in John Boorman’s…
Musical Snares: ‘Cavalleria,’ ‘Raging Bull,’ ‘The Godfather: Part III’ and Art’s Integrity
If a great piece of existing music is used to accentuate a brilliant sequence in one film and then, much later, employed as the background for another superb scene, is the music’s impact—as well as its context—diluted? This question has troubled me for a long time, as it concerns the nature and purpose of art…
Review: ‘Downsizing’ Goes Big with Ideas But Stays Small in Execution
Alexander Payne’s 2017 science-fiction picture Downsizing is so cleverly conceived you might forget how poorly made it is. Undoubtedly, it’s not a horrible movie. In fact, it’s quite watchable, though it drags at certain points and has its share of frustrating moments. The problem is that it should have been better, given the talent behind…
Siding with ‘Dirty Harry’ on the Use of Violence in Movies
Think anyone in the history of movie-watching ever felt sorry for serial killer “Scorpio” in the 1971 Don Siegel policier Dirty Harry? What, no one at all? Not even when Clint Eastwood’s Inspector Harry Callahan tortures the guy by stepping on his injured leg after shooting him on a football field? Or when he stabs…
Nudity, ‘Blade Runner 2049’ and the Hollywood Gaze
The biggest problem with Denis Villeneuve’s misfire of a sci-fi sequel Blade Runner 2049 (2017) is not its sizeable length. Nor is it the fact that the music at the climax misguidedly referenced Vangelis’ wistful primary theme from Ridley Scott’s original 1982 film Blade Runner—a melody that calls attention to the fact that Hans Zimmer…