I Just Want My Money to Squeal Like a Pig: The JOHN BOORMAN Poll

Amazing consistency. I might still vote for Excalibur over H&G, Deliverance and Point Blank.

The General and TTOP were unexpectedly vital.

Voted Deliverance - love Point Blank as well, but it's a bit of a travesty of the source material.

Boorman gives great commentary track. And I love his quote about the failure of Exorcist 2 - "I guess I didn't throw enough Christians to the lions"

I've seen exactly half of the 16, and really nothing is going to topple Point Blank for me; his DVD commentary is terrific on it too. Saw him do a Q&A a few years ago after the Mifune-Marvin Hell in the Pacific, so I have to see his Lee M documentary sometime.

Apparently I like travesties of noir lit, see also The Long Goodbye.

An excellent writer and editor too (see Projections).

Inspired by Point Blank being on TCM yesterday?

I've seen Excalibur several times whereas I've seen most of the others only once, so I'm inclined to vote that, but I really need to watch Point Blank again.

(BTW anyone who doesn't like The Long Goodbye is not quite right in the head.)

i really liked hope and glory when i was younger, want to see it again

i still havent seen Exorcist II. is it a massive turkey or worth checking out?

Kim Morgan talks to the 4 principal actors of Deliverance:

http://sunsetgun.typepad.com/sunsetgun/2012/07/john-boormas-deliverance-me-deliverance-never-feels-dated-in-fact-it-still-plays-so-revolutionary-and-daring-there-rea.html

gotta be point blank but part of me really wants to vote excalibur

excalibur was, uh, important to my boyhood.

Excalibur is batshit cinema at its best

I voted Excalibur without hesitation. It's one of those movies I go back to again and again. I like that you can watch it with the sound off and it's just as good.

Although you do need the sound for the bit near the end when Arthur and his knights are riding through the country, bringing it back to blooming life, while Carmina Burana is playing. So awesomely over the top.

still haven't seen the general and never even heard of the last two

hope and glory is probably my favorite but goddamn he made some amazing movie

still tempted to vote for zardoz just cuz i'm so happy zardoz exists

pauline kael had an anecdote about being anixous meeting a director-friend of hers after seeing a horrendous movie of his, but the dude was totally chill and put her at ease. My prime suspect has always been Boorman, in part because he seems cooler than Altman and Boorman was definitely making some horrendous shit in the 70s.

Boorman was gonna do a live-action "Lord of The Rings" in the '70s.

Hope And Glory is just flat out amazing, easily one of my all time faves. for some reason 87-88 had 3 of those kind of movies; men in their 40s and 50s fondly looking back on their WW2 era childhood; this, Radio Days and Distant Voices Still Lives. i wonder why. all 3 of those are the bee's knees too IMO.

well, Allen and Davies are kinda still doing it.

"Excalibur" is incredible, flaws and all. The "Grail Quest" section - up to Arthur's rejuvenation - is fantastic.

Genuinely upsetting, that sequence of the movie.

And let's not forget how funny Merlin is. His jokes throughout the movie range from so bone dry you need to hear them twice, to incredibly broad.

lets not forget a dude boning w/o taking off his armor

This puzzled us sophomores in 1990.

It puzzles me still.

Maybe that was hot back then. "Oh you're so hard! All over! And rather cold to the touch, but whatever."

still tempted to vote for zardoz just cuz i'm so happy zardoz exists

^this

When i was a kid, I loved Excalibur. But Zardoz is just insane.

it's cuz the shit is hard to take on and off w/o help! and he didn't have any squires along cos he was boning in secret! it's realism!

plus it's Arthur's dad

it'd be like accusing Mary of being too virginal.

man is excalibur good? i have no sorta post-childhood-enthusiasm memory of it, you all make me wanna watch. gonna vote point blank, meanwhile, for recording for posterity the brief seventies window in which colour schemes strictly confined to the yellow/orange/brown spectrum were de rigueur

Watch Excalibur again. You will not be bored, not for a minute. By my sword, I swear it.

ha ha, it is gonna kindle a second tearing-around-the-park childhood in me, i know it

yeah Excalibur is mind blowingly great no 2 ways about it. is there a performnace in all cinema that matches Nicol Williamson's Merlin?? it seemed bonkers to me even aged 9.

H&G deserves some votes though. I might swing a couple to The General -- maybe Jon Voight's best "comeback" role.

Excalibur. So much <3 for that movie. Everyone and everything in that film is sex in armour. Arthur's Cornish accent. Disco Grail. Helen Mirren! Patrick Stewart!

One more thing on Excalibur, and I'll stop: Helen Mirren as Morgana is hotter even than the wicked Queen in Snow White. And you can't help but spot Liam Neeson and Patrick Stewart. Yes, just watch it. Watch it with someone you love.

XP!

(Only complaint is the magic spells in Q-Celtic when Arthur & co would have spoken P-Celtic)

Kenan OTM re: Mirren. Truly sexy. Also, Boorman's commentary on the dvd/Blu is a great listen. The film was basically shot in his backyard! Lots of DIY goings on since money was tight. Definitely does not look it even after all these years.

recording for posterity the brief seventies window in which colour schemes strictly confined to the yellow/orange/brown spectrum were de rigueur

schlump, Point Blank is '67.

rlly guys, Arthurian films were undermined for all time by Holy Grail.

(6-7 years before Excalibur)

You're just not correct about that.

schlump, Point Blank is '67.

!
the bayside/alcatraz scenes are the only thing that read as "'60s" to me, i thought it had such a '70s look. ty.

Holy Grail makes the 'myth' even more.. mythical.

was counting down to Morbs Buzzkill moment. Never fails.

It's such a lovable institution at this point

haha! Like Groundhog Day.

I remember Excalibur having this mythical status on the playground when I was a kid (a sword and sorcery movie! with actual SEX! and VIOLENCE!) but never got around to watching it. didn't know it was so well-loved around here

Point Blank obv

We oughta do a Friedkin poll after this.

Think I've only seen the two most famous, although maybe The Tailor of Panama too. It's not a favourite, but Point Blank; I like how the poster's used in Who's That Knocking at My Door?

excalibur

i thought it had such a '70s look

plus Carroll O'Connor has a character part in the last 15 mins, 4 years before he became a huge TV star.

"buzzkill," like when you guys ritually shit on Spielberg huh

gonna vote point blank, meanwhile, for recording for posterity the brief seventies window in which colour schemes strictly confined to the yellow/orange/brown spectrum were de rigueur

― blossom smulch (schlump), Wednesday, July 11, 2012 5:05 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

point blank's 60s, and it gets pretty psychedelic!

voted PB with a nod to deliverance

i never saw excalibur

It's great!

Didn't know the same guy directed all these. I watched the stabbing scene in The Emerald Forest at exactly the moment I was being stuck with a needle in a plasma clinic.

any defenders of Beyond Rangoon? A couple of Nat'l Society of Film Crit types loved it in '95 (e.g. Rafferty).

still tempted to vote for zardoz just cuz i'm so happy zardoz exists

― da croupier

i just did that :D

non-challopsy vote would go to the general.

Zardoz is both batshit and shit.

can i just

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-pliu-57CE

there is only one correct voice on this bitch:

http://www.badmovies.org/movies/zardoz/zardoz1.jpg

i recently downloaded leo the last. crossing my fingers.

this year the cinema ritrovato festival in bologna showed point blank on a big ass outdoor screen and boorman introduced it.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

poignant break

deliverance vs excalibur for me

prolly gonna go deliverance because every time I watch it I'm struck by how damn good it is, and deeply weird/weirdly deep too

I think I'm going to go with Hope and Glory.

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

Zardoz 6

YAY

I think i voted Zardoz but really should've voted Excalibur. Merlin is the man.

I was watching an interview with Boorman on TV last night. He was asked about The Exorcist sequel at one point and he said that he hated the original Exorcist, "a girl being tortured for 2 hours" and said he kinda failed with the sequel because people were expecting gore and thrills and he didnt provide any. Makes me want to see it now!

I have point blank sitting on my shelf due to poll results, haven't gotten a chance to watch it

morbz you read 'surburban boy'? a buddy at work copied a few pages for me and it seems like it's going to be wonderful.

london ilxors may also be interested in all the boorman stuff coming up at the BFI over the next couple of months!

i have not, is that his autobio?

Leo the Last gets a special screening in NYC, w/ panel, next month.

http://www.92y.org/Tribeca/Event/Leo-the-Last.aspx

it is yeah, had a skim through this lunch, gonna order myself a copy. here's the BFI stuff:

https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/online/john-boorman

there weren't many tickets for the boorman in conversation thing left when i ordered mine, def worth popping out to if you like his stuff...

Saw JB do an intro and Q&A at MoMA last night for Leo the Last, which... isn't very good. (And he sort of admits it. "I tried to put too much into it... but what the hell.") I do like the way he says "cineMAH."

His new one is a sort of sequel to Hope and Glory.

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/film_screenings/22455

wide-ranging interview

(Sean Connery) was a very explosive character. At the end of (Zardoz) we shoot a scene where his characters ages rapidly, and with the makeup, that scene took a whole day. So we'd shoot a bit, take him out, put on more makeup, shoot a bit more, and so on. When we finished it, we sent the film to the lab, and the lab scratched it. So we had to do it all over again the following day. Sean hated makeup, hated anything touching his skin. He was very grumpy the whole day when we shot the scene. So when I told him that we had to do it again, he was absolutely enraged. Enraged!

At any rate, we did it all over again, all day long, the whole process. And the assistant camera-loader opened the camera and exposed the film. So we had to do the process again. Sean wouldn't believe me; he thought I was teasing him. When I convinced him that we needed to do it for the third time, he went after this camera-loader and nearly killed him. It took three grips to restrain him. [Laughs.]

http://www.vulture.com/2014/11/director-john-boorman-on-violence-in-film.html

weeklong NY retro

http://filmforum.org/series/boorman-series-page

His sequel to Hope & Glory; Queen & Country is finally coming out in May, it seems to have already been previewed early last year iirc.

Not sure if my muted vote for Point Blank above was based only on seeing it once or twice at home; some striking visuals on a big screen for sure (my favourite was Marvin walking down that hallway early on). I think the best thing about the film is Marvin's deadpan, though. "I want my money." "WHAT DO YOU REALLY WANT, WALKER?!" "No really--I want my money." Or the way he walks away after Angie Dickinson slap-pummels him.

PB was released 50 years yesterday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPrWidRLL1w

Film School Rejects/OnePerfectShot tweeted out highlights of Point Blank commentary w/ Boorman and Steven Soderbergh.

ex: There was bad blood between Angie Dickinson and Lee Marvin and Marvin wanted Peggy Lee to play her role

https://filmschoolrejects.com/things-we-learned-from-point-blank-commentary-steven-soderbergh/?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1576476253

That Dave Clark Five film was on the other day, was only half watching it but it seemed like a strange venture for them to get involved in. Foundered on Dave Clark being a charmless fucker with zero screen presence.

Point Blank left me cold, neither arthouse nor genre movie and not as boring as Altman's Images but that's what it reminded me of, bad American Antonioni.

Exorcist II: The Heretic 1

whoever did this is my best friend

I think I did lol

it's both, flappy!

i should see point blank, my favorite movies are always meetings of arthouse and genre

I’ve been meaning to revive an exorcist thread to blather on at length about how I rewatched it last month & also watched all the sequels for the first time and am sort of obsessed with them esp the heretic

i should see point blank, my favorite movies are always meetings of arthouse and genre

it's both, flappy!

― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius)

imo it doesn't really work as either, like some of the lesser Chabrol movies (This Man Must Die, Innocents with Dirty Hands). The Swimmer, for example, completely blew me away, that was like really good American Antonioni, not only in style but in its themes and concerns (I'd say the same of The Last Picture Show). as a deconstruction of noir/adventure archetypes, I don't find Point Blank very convincing or interesting (even that line toward the end- "what's my last name?" "what's my first?" -just comes across as silly, like a spoof, but of course this movie rests on whether or not you're taken in/hypnotized by the atmosphere).

Good movie though. Hardly ever boring, unlike Quintet or Images. I'd like to see it again in a theater sometime.

There's more Resnais in PB than Antonioni.

I'm not persuaded The Swimmer is a better film than Point Blank, but flappy's comparison fascinates me, and I'd love to discuss it over drinks.

PB needed some Joan Rivers.

xp I don't drink, but if you're ever in Baltimore, or if I'm ever in Miami, we'll talk.
I'll bring my oil pen 😝

and yeah Point Blank leans more Resnais

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/feb/13/john-boorman-you-think-the-holy-grail-is-lost-no-i-have-it-on-my-piano?CMP=share_btn_tw

nice and melancholy interview here, although at least he has excalibur at his side wand the holy grail on the piano to keep him company during his last days.

Great interview. Eternal thanks for the beautiful "Excalibur".

like the interviewer, Excalibur had a huge impact on me as a teenager, must have watched it hundreds of times.

got hung up for a minute when the writer mixed up “false positive” and “false negative” somewhere in the middle

sad his LoTR was never made, all in one film as he planned it with children playing the hobbits in fake beards and dubbed-over grown-up voices