can i get a witness: the PETER WEIR poll

hanging rock forever

i really hate dead poets society and don't remember anything redeeming about green card. but most of the rest have something worthwhile -- he has a good eye -- and i think a couple are at least sort-of classic.

i guess picnic at hanging rock is the likely winner, with living dangerously as runner-up, and i understand why. but i really like fearless. (also have a soft spot for the last wave, which spooked me once upon a time.)

Torn btwn Gallipoli and Witness, going with Witness. Hanging Rock is probably his best moment, but I can't watch it twice. (Ok, not a third time.)

Ebert otm

witness has a lot of hokey stuff in it, but boy is it gorgeous. and tense! the showdown at the end is action-movie all-star material. plus harrison ford's really good.

ts: Ford in Witness vs Gibson in Gallipoli. Second-rate actors turning in first-rate performances.

(but I still love Gibson's Hamlet, but let's not go there.)

mel's really good in living dangerously too. maybe his purest classic-leading-man role.

plus -- sigourney weaver walking slo-mo thru a rainstorm.

Don't force me to admit that Mel Gibson is a good actor.

i haven't seen homesdale, but it sounds like i'd like to.

Only seen Cars, Picnic, and The Last Wave. I'd probably go with The Last Wave, though the first hour of Picnic is mesmerizing.

Picnic at Hanging Rock 4-ever

Picnic at Hanging Rock for the wonderful, dreamlike ambiguity. Gallipoli, Mosquito Coast and Year are also excellent. PW used to be a filmmaker of great vision up until Dead Poets Society; afterwards, he became a bit of a hired hand.

Too difficult. Can't tell if my love for Master and Commander in the cultural climate it came out during is eclipsing a slightly more objective reasoning that Witness and Hanging Rock are better films. I'll have to take some time on this.

ooh... ya know, I'd hardly considered Master and Commander, but I can't count the friends that I've had to explain to that no, it's not Gladiator, it's not ridiculous, Russell Crowe does not suck just because he's Russell Crowe, it's actually a fine movie.

Gallipoli. the crushing freeze frame at the end 4ever

http://i36.tinypic.com/125hswl.jpg

oh thanks now you ruined the end

oh sorry

i just kind of thought ppl reading this thread have either seen it or have no intention of seeing it you see.

I was kinda kidding anyway.

Wish "The Plumber" was eligible. But I still go with "Gallipoli" (maybe my favourite war movie.)

i really want to see last wave but can not find it ANYWHERE

If I was a smug contrary fucker, I would go with The Cars That Ate Paris. But no, Picnic At Hanging Rock just over Gallipoli and Witness.

SHAME THAT MEL DIDN'T DIE IN GALLIPOLI TOO

Hanging Rock is fucking brutal, Fearless is fucking real, I voted Mosquito Coast cos it won't get many votes, it tells the truth about families, and I watched it with a girl I miss a lot.

i adored truman show when it came out but i haven't seen it since then.

fearless and picnic are the only other ones i've seen but they're both pretty classic.

i adored truman show when it came out but i haven't seen it since then.

yeah i think truman show does what it does very well. the setting, the town, all that is nicely done. and the scene where he finds the horizon is really visually striking. as metaphor it's all pretty labored, but the movie really benefits from weir's sort of understated spookiness. he has a very identifiable vibe of like everyday eerieness: the soft menace of the fields in witness, the drowning visions in last wave, the shadow puppets in year, the amazing opening scene of fearless. i almost think m. night shyamalan borrows a lot from him, but he's a lot more obvious.

i watched the year of living dangerously on tcm last night, too. mel gibson was so beautiful; it's disconcerting. i love the movie but i hadn't seen it in a while and some of its swoonier touches seemed sort of embarrassing to me on this viewing.

my wife had never seen it and was sort of taken aback by mel's dreaminess. i know what you mean about the melodrama, but i don't mind; it's such a classical to have and have not-type romance.

linda hunt rules, also.

with Weir, the schlockier the better – when the pseudo-mysticism smothers the plot, he looks illiterate. With The Year of Living Dangerously and Fearless he's a New Age William Wyler, which is good enough.

haha, that's a good description.

I seem to remember really wishing I didn't know anything at all about the Truman Show before seeing it. Aside from the title, which is a giveaway, I don't think there are any real credits at the beginning, and it is an absurdly long time before the whole reveal of the soundstage and tv show and all that. Sitting down and watching with no idea what it is must be a really bizarre experience. I could be remembering the film all wrong tho.

Weir is a master at structure. very understated. he should make something else.

Fearless

oh shit, no, Mosquito Coast.

picnic is all-time top 10 for me so that.

I thought Master and Commander was excellent too, but then I always love those 18th-century sea epics. In fact, I woulda liked to have seen Weir tackle the '84 "Mutiny on the Bounty" remake (like he was originally slated to?) He always had a knack for those intruding-on-other-cultures themes...

...and yet, I probably shouldn't be voting at all, since I confess I've never even seen "Picnic" or "Wave", for shame.

the pseudo-mysticism smothers the plot, he looks illiterate.

which films (apart from picnic) are you talking baout?

I've seen most of these when they were released and not since, so my opinion might be useless.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

i always hear the phrase 'lost the meaning' in my head when i read about dodgy cops and the like. so WITNESS. ford doesn't get enough recognition for being a brilliant leading man.

no love for DEAD POETS..? this is just great:

hanging rock will (deservedly) walk away with this

never could fully appreciate picnic for hanging rock - starts out great but goes to pot at the end. the last wave is creepier and more satisfying.

but I really love fearless, which is an underappreciated jewel in his body o' work.

i really want to see last wave but can not find it ANYWHERE

kind of surprising, it's a criterion collection dvd

This is a cinema of moments (if even that in some instances): the intermittent homoeroticism of Gallipoli, the boy string at the cop's photo in Witness, etc. Just like Rebecca, Picnic trips when the men enter (but, um, isn't fit to dust Rebecca's sprocket holes). But there's not a single one of these films I like on the whole. I went with Fearless for effectively making me terrified of flying for years (which was the precise opposite of Weir's point anyway).

more polls should have a "none of the above" option

Fearless seemed just like a high-end TV movie at the time.

I remember liking Witness a lot until the rote showdown with Danny Glover at the end. Somehow have never seen of The Last Wave.

Danny Glover went out early in that showdown. Buried in grain and suffocated by its dust. It's a darn inventive movie death, I think.

^um, spoiler

hey, someone posted the last shot of Gallipoli upthread, I ain't the bad guy here

Besides, there's always that "Peter Weir ending" that leaves you hanging because while the plot it over, whatever you really cared about is unresolved.

or in the case of Green Card, what you didn't care about.

oh god, I forgot that one.

The elephants are restless.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Haha Master and Commander?!?!? Is that really any good?

Also surprised by the love of Fearless and the indifference to the Last Wave.

Haha Master and Commander?!?!? Is that really any good?

It is! He's best when he sticks to genre exercises. Terrific interplay between Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany too.

dammit i forgot to vote last wave.

Last Wave was my second choice behind Fearless. For me, Hanging Rock was third.

I missed the poll, but The Last Wave is my favorite!

master and commander is pretty great, really. i'm surprised at no 'year of living dangerously' votes, i would've swapped out my 'fearless' vote if i'd known. 'last wave' is completely worth tracking down too. richard chamberlain, aboriginal hoodoo, rain of frogs, it's good stuff.

I love the way his work seems eclectic in its narrative and tone - adding huge depth to what might otherwise amount to generic Hollywood schlock in the hands of lesser directors - but there's an underlying Weirness, best summed up by Wiki: "Often his films will involve a juxtaposition between macrocosm and microcosm, with the characters often making the difficult choice of choosing to live within the macrocosm."

I was in the Gobi desert, Mongolia back in May, and our guide (who had no idea who he was) had just shown Weir around Mongolia to scout locations for his next feature, which sounds awesome.

Really shocked by the no votes for The Last Wave.

i almost think m. night shyamalan borrows a lot from him, but he's a lot more obvious.

OTM!

A bit gratified by the love for Fearless, which is rather obscure despite Rosie Perez's Oscar nom (one of Jeff Bridges' top five best performances; maybe Rossellini's best, after Blue Velvet). Also agree with the Mel dreaminess in TYOLD.

which films (apart from picnic) are you talking baout?

Well, almost all of them, actually! The Last Wave, Linda Hunt's voice-overs in TYOLD about shadowplay, etc, and River Phoenix's in The Mosquito Coast, most of The Truman Show, which was overrated at the time; the only Weirness that works are those closeups of Ed Harris talking to Jim Carrey.

An interesting taking sides: John Boorman vs Peter Weir.

wow -- I just realized that Weir has FOUR Oscar nods for Best Director.

So, Gallipoli then, eh? Never seen it.

It's good if you have no gay porn in your life.

Boorman >>>> Weir.

I think they are about even actually. Boorman's had some weak movies here and there and Weir's made some crappy Hollywood films. Both's highs are pretty high.

Ford's character is too watered down in Mosquito; they shd've had ppl fleeing the theater.

While not his best work, The Way Back has a lot to offer.

Agreed. There are some shots in there that really made me catch my breath. And I am lame enough that I cried during the final montage scene;_;

Rewatching The Year of Living Dangerously. What an odd one. It's still my favorite Weir, but the grafting of forties melodrama onto sixties liberalism, an orientalist take on mysticism, and conventional Third World suffering is ungainly.

the way back is pretty good. would've voted for Master & Commander, i think - would love to see a sequel, and apparently tom rothman has unsuccessfully attempted to get Weir to come back for one

Finally watched The Last Wave on Criterion, which is brilliantly made , including the soundtrack (and not just the music). I have a hard time separating out the 'exoticism' of the way the practices/mysteries of the aboriginal characters affect and all but destroy Richard Chamberlain's lawyer with more general existential themes, but the plotting in the last act and RC's shortcomings in the depth department sort of drag it down regardless. Still you should watch it.

http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/168-the-last-wave

Haha, never realised he directed Green Card!

Weir gotta eat

Skolimowski's The Shout makes an interesting companion piece to The Last Wave

It does; i think i probably like it better.

Kael on TLW: "The aborigine actors, with their deep-set eyes, are by far the most vital element, yet they're kept on the margins and used as supernatural forces. Weir, who has apparently studied Nicolas Roeg's films, knows how to create an allusive, ominous atmosphere. But the film is overdeliberate and sluggish, and Chamberlain can't stop quivering his lips to connote sensitivity and contracting his nostrils for apprehensiveness and pulling in his cheek muscles for ineffable sorrow. He keeps us conscious that he's acting all the time. His toes act in his shoes."

"The Last Wave" is up on Youtube. It's a good movie. It reminds me a lot of "Take Shelter" actually. I just turned on the TV and "Gallipoli" is no now!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfJ1c-6FFX4

*on now

Man, The Last Wave. Not a perfect movie but really enjoyed it and the soundtrack was amazing.

The Last Wave got robbed here.

Saw Fearless last night. I'd say it's a flawed movie, inconsistent in tone and in writing, like a very middling Hollywood film keeps peeping in amidst the surreal calm of and eeriness that are established with the opening scene. Wish it had leaned more heavily into Weir-dness, but the parts that worked were fantastic (about 80% of the film I'd say).

Want to see Fearless again

Recently watched most of his films up through The Truman Show.

Picnic At Hanging Rock was great I thought, maybe his best. I also really liked The Last Wave, Gallipoli, The Year of Living Dangerously, and Witness

The Truman Show and Dead Poets Society both had charms but I wasn't really drawn in by them

I saw Fearless earlier this year and had almost the same take as you, budo. still enjoyed it

I realize looking at this poll that I should watch more of Weir's films, he's 3 for 3 out of what I've seen

Jeff Bridges is fabulous.

I've never seen "The Way Back" or "Green Card," but the rest are all worthwhile. Even the ones you think are relatively boilerplate on paper - "Dead Poet's", say, or even "Master and Commander" - have more going for them than the usual Hollywood prestige/action exercise.

"Mosquito Coast" gets overlooked a lot, it's great.

im very fond of witness it looks incredible has a really beautiful pace and vibe and the performances are endearingly and effectively simple (not the crooked cops obv)

some of the sequences really stay with you

peter weir has retired from filmmaking

oceans are no longer battlefields