DVD Talk review of '49th Parallel'
02-14-07, 09:48 AM
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DVD Talk review of '49th Parallel'
I read DVD Savant's DVD review of 49th Parallel at http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=26489 and...
Holy cow, I saw the LD version of this and was bored out of my skull. Olivier gives his absolute worst performances as the Frenchy trapper. Portman can't unclench his teeth long enough to issue an intelligible (German)-English line. That whole deal where the Mounties capture one of the baddies by telling the goodies to simply stand where they are—the moral force builds up until the disguised baddie goes nuts with guilt—is one of the truly worst sequences ever to make it to film. I hated hated hated this film. I'm glad you enjoyed it, I just can't conceive how.
Holy cow, I saw the LD version of this and was bored out of my skull. Olivier gives his absolute worst performances as the Frenchy trapper. Portman can't unclench his teeth long enough to issue an intelligible (German)-English line. That whole deal where the Mounties capture one of the baddies by telling the goodies to simply stand where they are—the moral force builds up until the disguised baddie goes nuts with guilt—is one of the truly worst sequences ever to make it to film. I hated hated hated this film. I'm glad you enjoyed it, I just can't conceive how.
02-14-07, 10:07 AM
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I dig the flick - but then, I'm a whore for anything by Powell Pressburger.
You gotta see the film as not just a product of it's time but also as propaganda. If you watch it objectively, it will fail. That's what's so great about Criterion - they put it in the proper perspective that helps one appreciate such films.
You gotta see the film as not just a product of it's time but also as propaganda. If you watch it objectively, it will fail. That's what's so great about Criterion - they put it in the proper perspective that helps one appreciate such films.
02-15-07, 02:27 PM
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This seems to be one of those movies that people either "get"/like or don't. There doesn't seem to be much middle ground, and it's hard for one side to convince the other. Personally, I love the movie, but my brother loathes it.
I think the brilliance of the film lies in its makers' decision to make the Nazis the protagonists and thereby force us to identify with their point of view. It also strikes me as an interesting counter-point to what other master filmmakers were doing with propaganda around the same time; it's a kindler, gentler take on the same sort of material Hitchcock worked on during the war. (And of course, Powell spent most of 1938-42 trying to break out of the "new Hitchcock" role that so many younger directors were cast in -- Carol Reed being the other notable example.)
I think the brilliance of the film lies in its makers' decision to make the Nazis the protagonists and thereby force us to identify with their point of view. It also strikes me as an interesting counter-point to what other master filmmakers were doing with propaganda around the same time; it's a kindler, gentler take on the same sort of material Hitchcock worked on during the war. (And of course, Powell spent most of 1938-42 trying to break out of the "new Hitchcock" role that so many younger directors were cast in -- Carol Reed being the other notable example.)
