petermaxie
Joined Apr 2000
Badges2
To learn how to earn badges, go to the badges help page.
Reviews26
petermaxie's rating
Well, here I am again commenting with nobody listening. I saw it on Showtime a few nights ago, and frankly I don't even know why I have Showtime, or that is, why Showtime is subscribed to in the house where my wife and son and me currently live in North Hollywood after they tried to get rid of me so many times before. I'm such a damn loser, of course I don't blame them. I should be dead by now. But here I am. And they love me, so.. here I am.
I've made a lot of dumb-ass comments before on this site. I hate reading most of them, except maybe the one on Fabulous Baker Boys. I could say the reason I didn't even know this film existed is because my son was born in March of 1992 and literally all of my time was spent caring for him that year. So maybe I'm not as much of a loser as I thought. American Heart really hit me hard, though. Powerful mother. I like how the title sounds like a stupid country record, too. Puts it smack where it needs to be: heard by the mainstream. If it wasn't seen by the mainstream, that's nothing more than Sturgeon's Law (95% of everything is crap) applied to general film viewing public.
If I was president, I would force feed ala Clockwork Orange certain movies to every citizen - i.e. force each person to view with eyes pinned open until they vomit, then force more viewing. I know this is stupid and didn't work etc. but still.. Those movies would be Wilder's The Apartment, Fabulous Baker Boys and this film. A couple others too, that I can't think of at the moment as I'm hurrying because my wife needs to get on the computer to do her work so we can feed ourselves.
Just wanted to say that this film is freaking great, very realistic and reveals EXACTLY what it's like to be an ex-con trying to go straight and how our screwed up society prevents that. Whatever with drama, films, directing, art and other crap. This film isn't about those things. This film has a movie star, Jeff Bridges, and he's freaking great that he would make a film like this. He deserves a damn medal and three halves for doing this realistic stuff about REALLY IMPORTANT issues. Don't fool yourselves, people. Our country sucks when it comes to helping people get their lives together. The parole officer character was REAL, phony helpfulness, totally uncaring in the end. The system creates this screwup, where people in positions to help simply can't get anything done.
But also, the Bridges character is a hick screwup. Think about this, people. Don't just go, he's a mean mother. Think about what kind of cultural influences create people like this. I used to dig Fogerty's and Seger's etc. voices in that kind of rock music. But after seeing this film, I'll never want to hear that kind of music again, and I'm a professional musician who has played this stuff on concert stages many times. IT NEEDS TO STOP. That's all. Go home to your kids, people. Be nice. Learn to think like Jack Lemmon. Get off the crud that's messing your head up. Make it to Alaska if that's what it takes. Whatever it takes. Just do it.
I've made a lot of dumb-ass comments before on this site. I hate reading most of them, except maybe the one on Fabulous Baker Boys. I could say the reason I didn't even know this film existed is because my son was born in March of 1992 and literally all of my time was spent caring for him that year. So maybe I'm not as much of a loser as I thought. American Heart really hit me hard, though. Powerful mother. I like how the title sounds like a stupid country record, too. Puts it smack where it needs to be: heard by the mainstream. If it wasn't seen by the mainstream, that's nothing more than Sturgeon's Law (95% of everything is crap) applied to general film viewing public.
If I was president, I would force feed ala Clockwork Orange certain movies to every citizen - i.e. force each person to view with eyes pinned open until they vomit, then force more viewing. I know this is stupid and didn't work etc. but still.. Those movies would be Wilder's The Apartment, Fabulous Baker Boys and this film. A couple others too, that I can't think of at the moment as I'm hurrying because my wife needs to get on the computer to do her work so we can feed ourselves.
Just wanted to say that this film is freaking great, very realistic and reveals EXACTLY what it's like to be an ex-con trying to go straight and how our screwed up society prevents that. Whatever with drama, films, directing, art and other crap. This film isn't about those things. This film has a movie star, Jeff Bridges, and he's freaking great that he would make a film like this. He deserves a damn medal and three halves for doing this realistic stuff about REALLY IMPORTANT issues. Don't fool yourselves, people. Our country sucks when it comes to helping people get their lives together. The parole officer character was REAL, phony helpfulness, totally uncaring in the end. The system creates this screwup, where people in positions to help simply can't get anything done.
But also, the Bridges character is a hick screwup. Think about this, people. Don't just go, he's a mean mother. Think about what kind of cultural influences create people like this. I used to dig Fogerty's and Seger's etc. voices in that kind of rock music. But after seeing this film, I'll never want to hear that kind of music again, and I'm a professional musician who has played this stuff on concert stages many times. IT NEEDS TO STOP. That's all. Go home to your kids, people. Be nice. Learn to think like Jack Lemmon. Get off the crud that's messing your head up. Make it to Alaska if that's what it takes. Whatever it takes. Just do it.
as one of those old 30s children's musicals about candied immigration, is actually a post-modern farce that revels in the bitter apathy of the 70s teenage wastelands.
Everyone has a generation they're from. This is the Broadway representation of my generation, the 70s hippies who came of age after the original 60s hippies. Gene Wilder's Wonka adds the perfect smirk for the period. With more than a little bitterness and social conflicts in our laps and without a clue to address the worst of the issues (war, draft, racism etc.), a Let It Be philosophy was embraced.
Hence, the birth of the post-modern smirk. This musical semi-farce was a preamble to the comedy farce which I regard as the bible of our (early 70s) generation: Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles, also starring Wilder. When Gene cynically over-amplifies, with that far-away Wonka gleam in his eye, `He's so strict,' that pretty well sums up the tongue in cheek humor of the hyper-liberal early 70s. Wonka's one of my favorite films of all time.
Everyone has a generation they're from. This is the Broadway representation of my generation, the 70s hippies who came of age after the original 60s hippies. Gene Wilder's Wonka adds the perfect smirk for the period. With more than a little bitterness and social conflicts in our laps and without a clue to address the worst of the issues (war, draft, racism etc.), a Let It Be philosophy was embraced.
Hence, the birth of the post-modern smirk. This musical semi-farce was a preamble to the comedy farce which I regard as the bible of our (early 70s) generation: Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles, also starring Wilder. When Gene cynically over-amplifies, with that far-away Wonka gleam in his eye, `He's so strict,' that pretty well sums up the tongue in cheek humor of the hyper-liberal early 70s. Wonka's one of my favorite films of all time.
