Wordsmith.org: the magic of words

Wordsmith Talk

About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us  

Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Page 1 of 6 1 2 3 4 5 6
#140309 02/27/05 09:41 AM
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
W
Carpal Tunnel
OP Offline
Carpal Tunnel
W
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
I have read Joseph Campbell only in excerpts, but what I've read is consistent in getting across archetypes that are common to various cultures.

My kids are studying excerpts from the Odyssey, and I have wondered for a long time now what the Cyclops themselves could have represented on a spiritual or archetypal level. Why one eye? They are a group without rule, each one of them being a law unto himself with no higher law. Could the single eye somehow represent this? A limited point of view? All solo?

Just wondering...


Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
FWIW, Robert Graves thought the whole one-eye thang was because they wore eyepatches, being blacksmiths and all, to keep sparks out of their eyes. Cyclops means (most likely) round-eye.


Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
well totally non architypal, i read, that the early greek had seen skeletons of elephants (before they ever saw an elephant alive) and mistook the large front nasal cavity for an eye socket and 'constructed' the cyclops myth from that. (they had evidence of some large animal, that had mythical powers, never have seen one, and with only the skull to judge.. came up with cyclops.. (there is the same sort of evidence about 'griffens'--you can google and--there was an article in the early 1990's in archiology magazine about how mythical griffens might have been constructed out of fossilized evidence(of a dinosaur)

elephant aren't found (naturally) north of sahara, and african elephants don't lend themselves to domestication anyway, so the closet elephant that could be domesticated would have been indian.. (and pretty far away.)

there are large game animals who's existance was thought to be fabled until the modern exploration of the interior of africa (ie, late 1800/early 1900's.


Joined: May 2008
Posts: 1
stranger
Offline
stranger
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 1
As a retired teacher with 35 years behind me and a zillion meetings attended from 1958 to 2008, I have come to appreciate the wisdom of Joseph Campbell and I post this prose-poem written as a quasi-eulogy for/to him.-Ron Price,Australia
-----------------------
ZONES

"Each individual," write Joseph Campbell, "is the centre of a mythology of his own, of which his own intelligble character is the Incarnate God, so to say, whom his empirically questing consciousness is to find."1 For Baha'is, it seems to me, this Incarnate God is the God within "mighty, powerful and self-subsistent." It is the "know thyself," from Delphi. This centre of mythology is also an unfolding of convictions derived from the effects and expression of experience, the imprintings of infancy and our peculiar and private worlds. This is what Campbell calls our "mythogenic zone." It is our interior life and its communication with others. The poem below explores the negative side of the process across our global society. -Ron Price with thanks to Joseph Campbell, Creative Mythology, Viking Press, 1968, p. 93.

This poetic writing aims
to let the Word resound
behind words1 seemingly
endless words where
my mythogenic zone
is especially informed
by the metaphorical nature
of all of physical reality,
Baha'i history no less
and lived experience.
My innermost need
to express has its place
in my shaping of self
and civilization,
in my particular form
of intoxication.2

And a growing impoverishment
of symbols, spiritual poverty,
symbol-lessness fills the land,
liquidating our past,
with bleak substitutes.
A bland barrenness reaches
all the way to the stars
and history becomes a nightmare
of complex, anarchic confusion,
uninterpreted, unassimilated, alien,
and: a Waste Land fills their place.

1 ibid.,p. 93.
2 Frederick Neitzsche wrote that "for art to exist there is a physiological prerequisite: intoxication." Twilight of the Idols, quoted in Campbell, p.355.

Ron Price
10 February 2002
----------
(updated for Wordsmith.org
21/5/'08)


married for 41 years, a teacher for 35 and a Baha'i for 49
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067
old hand
Offline
old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067
 Originally Posted By: of troy
well totally non architypal, i read, that the early greek had seen skeletons of elephants (before they ever saw an elephant alive) and mistook the large front nasal cavity for an eye socket and 'constructed' the cyclops myth from that. (they had evidence of some large animal, that had mythical powers, never have seen one, and with only the skull to judge.. came up with cyclops..

I suppose that's possible of the really early Greeks, however, elephants (of both varieties) were well known to the Greeks, Persians, Carthaginians, Romans and others at least several centuries BC. It seems to me more likely the Cyclops was a literary creation, a fictional monster, rather than a legend pertaining to some real animal.

Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 155
M
member
Offline
member
M
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 155
Let me throw in the sun and the moon, when viewed in unsettling weather or solar system conditions, as nominees for cyclops eye.

Last edited by morphememedley; 05/22/08 03:30 AM. Reason: prescientific (scientific as in astronomic) settings
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
really early Greeks

Homer, or whoever composed the Odyssey, is usually dated to the 9th century BCE.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
 Originally Posted By: morphememedley
Let me throw in the sun and the moon, when viewed in unsettling weather or solar system conditions, as nominees for cyclops eye.


It must have been puzzling a bit that on some days sun and moon are both visible in the sky.

Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067
old hand
Offline
old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067
 Originally Posted By: zmjezhd
really early Greeks

Homer, or whoever composed the Odyssey, is usually dated to the 9th century BCE.

Yes that's why I said it's possible. But, why doesn't Cyclops have large tusks? All the author in question seems to be quoted as claiming is that "some sources" say the Cyclops has [presumably normal sized] tusks. What sources?

Also of course, though it is most likely Homer lived ca 700-900BC we don't know for sure, since the earliest extant Greek manuscripts are around 2,000 years later, ca 10th or 11th century AD. It is certain that Aristotle taught Homer to Alexander the Great in about 343BC, but I don't know whether there are any earlier literary allusions to his works.

It's possible, but I don't think it's possible to know for sure that the legend was based on ancient archaeological finds. I do find the other hypotheses more convincing, however, regardgin the Griffin, etc.

Last edited by The Pook; 05/23/08 01:01 AM.
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 876
old hand
Offline
old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 876
The Wicked Witch of the West had only one eye...

Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
 Originally Posted By: Faldage
FWIW, Robert Graves thought the whole one-eye thang was because they wore eyepatches, being blacksmiths and all, to keep sparks out of their eyes. Cyclops means (most likely) round-eye.<br><br>


Looking back over The Greek Myths I see that Graves actually said they were bronzesmiths and that Cyclops meant 'ring-eyed'.

 Originally Posted By: Graves, The Greek Myths

The Cyclopes seem to have been a guild of Early Helladic bronzesmiths. Cyclops means 'ring-eyed', and they are likely to have been tattooed with concentric rings on the forehead, in honour of the sun, the source of their furnace fires; the Thracians continued to tattoo themselves until Classical times. ... The Cyclopes were one-eyed in the sense that smiths often shade one eye with a patch against flying sparks.

Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
 Originally Posted By: twosleepy
The Wicked Witch of the West had only one eye...


erk?


formerly known as etaoin...
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Yes that's why I said it's possible. But, why doesn't Cyclops have large tusks?

Well, I never said I held the oliphant theory plausible. I'm more than willing to concede that the "origin" of Cyclops as a character in a story is unknown, and, maybe even, unknowable. Most folks do so hate a vacuum or lacuna, and do try almost anything to fill it. The etymology of the name though seems pretty straightforward: Κυκλωψ (Kuklops) < Greek κυκλος (kuklos) 'circle; wheel' + ωψ (ōps) 'eye'.

I was reminded, offtopically, of English louche 'morally suspect' from Old French losche 'squint-eyed' < Latin luscus 'one-eyed'. Come to think of it, wheel-eyed or round-eyed doesn't necessarily imply one-eyed. Maybe the Cyclops was like the dog with eyes as big as saucers in Andersen's The Tinder Box.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067
old hand
Offline
old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067
 Originally Posted By: zmjezhd
Come to think of it, wheel-eyed or round-eyed doesn't necessarily imply one-eyed. Maybe the Cyclops was like the dog with eyes as big as saucers in Andersen's The Tinder Box.

He thinks so, does he preciousss, gollum gollum, perhaps he may be right preciouses, but what has it got in its etymological pocketses we wonders we does..." 8)

Last edited by The Pook; 05/24/08 12:11 AM.
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
but what has it got in its etymological pocketses we wonders

Cur? Ecce: Origines Sancti Isidori Hispalensis.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067
old hand
Offline
old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067
 Originally Posted By: zmjezhd
but what has it got in its etymological pocketses we wonders

Cur? Ecce: Origines Sancti Isidori Hispalensis.

Holy Spanish Goths Batman!
...um does this have some obscure connection with Smeagol that I am too dense to see? Or is it just one of your favourite sources?

Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
 Originally Posted By: Wordwind
They are a group without rule, each one of them being a law unto himself with no higher law. Could the single eye somehow represent this? A limited point of view? All solo?<br><br>Just wondering...<br><br>

(a passage where Achilles, protaganist in "Omeros" gets caught by tourists' cameras after a hard day of fishing at sea:

"Achilles then cries against their clicking cameras and throws an imaginary lance.
It was the cry of a warrior who looses his one soul to the click
of a cyclops".


(Nobelprize winner 1992 Derek Walcott)

The metaphor of the camera as a modern cyclops.
Thinking of our news hungry hordes of camera men I like to link it to this quote from Wordwind.

Last edited by BranShea; 05/25/08 09:19 AM. Reason: addition
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 876
old hand
Offline
old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 876
 Originally Posted By: etaoin
 Originally Posted By: twosleepy
The Wicked Witch of the West had only one eye...


erk?


couldn't find "erk" anywhere...

Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
 Originally Posted By: twosleepy
 Originally Posted By: etaoin
 Originally Posted By: twosleepy
The Wicked Witch of the West had only one eye...


erk?


couldn't find "erk" anywhere...


heh sorry, it was just a random expulsion. what's up with the WWW only having one eye?


formerly known as etaoin...
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 956
old hand
Offline
old hand
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 956
 Originally Posted By: etaoin
what's up with the WWW only having one eye?


Mebbe in her downtime she was a blacksmith!

Apparently her good eye had telescopic vision, kinda like Superman but not.

Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 155
M
member
Offline
member
M
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 155
If she only had one visible eye from her witch-beginning (parthenogenetic or otherwise), could what would normally (to some) be the third eye have served as her second eye?

If she had one visible seeing eye and one visible apparently-blind eye, perhaps the latter was used for her dark arts.

Last edited by morphememedley; 05/26/08 05:11 AM.
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Oh, well, just have a good Memorial Day. Meaning All of You!






Last edited by BranShea; 05/26/08 04:40 PM.
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 876
old hand
Offline
old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 876
In the book, not the movie, she did not have green skin, and she had only one eye, not two or more with any non-functional. The one eye was, indeed, telescopic in nature, so she could see all of her realm in the West. When Dorothy and her friends set off to destroy her, she saw them coming from a long way off. There was no sneaking into the castle at all. She had a reputation for making slaves of those she captured. She had no idea who Dorothy was, but sent four waves of minions to dispatch them all, except for the Lion, as she thought it would be amusing to hitch him up to a cart. Dorothy escaped murder by the apparently visible mark of the Good Witch of the North's kiss on her forehead. By the way, the witch of the North remained nameless, the Good Witch of the South was named Glinda, and she did not appear until the end of the story, when Dorothy sought her out to go home.

Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
why do I get the strong feeling that you've read more than just The Wonderful Wizard?

-joe (Tik-Tok) friday

Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 876
old hand
Offline
old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 876
Your feeling is accurate; however, all that I recounted above is from the first book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I have a very old copy, plus a copy of Ozma of Oz that were part of my family's books. There were tons written, and I have certainly not read them all. They get way off into unfamiliar territory real quick...

Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
thanks for the clarification, sleeps. I have read a couple of the Oz stories, but didn't remember the details.


formerly known as etaoin...
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 1
H
stranger
Offline
stranger
H
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 1
most mythology seems to have emerged fron reflection on the sun moon and stars.in indigenous australia often ancestors are seen as living in the stars very reminiscent of the myths in star wars etc.

Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Welcome, smile you've returned to cyclops and mythology exactly 3 days and five years after this thread was started.
Sun and moon must have given great reason to wonder and worship in the very old days and even though we know more about it now we still do not know the wherefrom-whereto.

I can imagine our ancestors living in the stars as there must be at least enough stars in the sky to account for every soul that ever lived.

Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,915
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,915
Likes: 2
The current movie "Australia", now out on DVD, shows
brilliantly the stars and the ancestors concept.


----please, draw me a sheep----
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 618
D
addict
Offline
addict
D
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 618
Originally Posted By: LukeJavan8
The current movie "Australia", now out on DVD, shows brilliantly the stars and the ancestors concept.


It is, however, the second worst movie in the history of the world.

Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
oh, come on doc, you can't leave us hanging like that!
-joe (so what's the worst) friday

Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,915
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,915
Likes: 2
Originally Posted By: doc_comfort
Originally Posted By: LukeJavan8
The current movie "Australia", now out on DVD, shows brilliantly the stars and the ancestors concept.


It is, however, the second worst movie in the history of the world.


Living in Australia I can understand your comment. What is the
"worst" movie? At least as far as you are concerned?

I feel many movies made of Native Americans here vie for the
category as you mention it.


----please, draw me a sheep----
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 655
addict
Offline
addict
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 655
My vote for worst is Mr. Costner's "Waterworld," at least in U.S. cinema.


"I don't know which is worse: ignorance or apathy. And, frankly, I don't care." - Anonymous
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
I'd go with Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! At 87 minutes it was about 57 minutes too long..

Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,915
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,915
Likes: 2
My contribution: "Ishtar", and "Barry Lyndon".


----please, draw me a sheep----
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
There is always one second best or second worst but of best and worst there are always many.

Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,915
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,915
Likes: 2
Originally Posted By: BranShea
There is always one second best or second worst but of best and worst there are always many.


Part of your post did not make it here, Bran, but comes in the email. I did sit through Barry Lyndon
twice, and the second time, paid close attention to costumes and appurtanences. Lots of good movie/bad
movie depend, I suppose on our like or dislike of the actors. I liked "Australia" for instance, but
won't see a Tom Cruise movie, no matter how many millions they pay him.


----please, draw me a sheep----
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Uh? Oh! I forgot there are email notifications cause I don't subribed those/ Yes the original post was more substantial.

Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,915
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,915
Likes: 2
Originally Posted By: BranShea
Uh? Oh! I forgot there are email notifications cause I don't subribed those/ Yes the original post was more substantial.


They do have the tendency to clog up one's inbox, that's for sure.
I did not get them for a very long time, but then would lose
someone's comment to me, and I would reply days later, long after
the topic had changed, or in anagram stew, the word itself had
gone on to greater heights.
(You's was some sort of glitch in the system: because when I
tried to click on your response, the site said it could not
link to it: I got here through the back door, back up to forums
and down to the thread.)


----please, draw me a sheep----
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 655
addict
Offline
addict
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 655
Ishtar and Barry Lyndon! Terrific choices - one worse than the other. We seem naturally to have focused on relatively big-budget movies that should have been good, but stunk. If we widen the net to include low-budget films, there are too many really, really, bad movies to count or to rank. In fact, "rank" is a good word to use in association with this class of film. They used to be hard to find, but now they're available on DVD anywhere movies are sold. They're not all old, either. They just stink. My son and I watch them (particularly those striving to be classified in the sci-fi genre) just for the laughs they provide.


"I don't know which is worse: ignorance or apathy. And, frankly, I don't care." - Anonymous
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,915
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,915
Likes: 2
Originally Posted By: beck123
Ishtar and Barry Lyndon! Terrific choices - one worse than the other. We seem naturally to have focused on relatively big-budget movies that should have been good, but stunk. If we widen the net to include low-budget films, there are too many really, really, bad movies to count or to rank. In fact, "rank" is a good word to use in association with this class of film. They used to be hard to find, but now they're available on DVD anywhere movies are sold. They're not all old, either. They just stink. My son and I watch them (particularly those striving to be classified in the sci-fi genre) just for the laughs they provide.



And it has to be great having a son to provide the company for that rank activity. Recently rented
Hogfather, supposedly a spoof on Christmas or something. DON'T rent it: watch 23 minutes of it before
turning it off: totally stinks. I just tell my dog who looks at me like "You're the human, why not just
take me for a walk, instead of watching that stuff".


----please, draw me a sheep----
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
My contribution: "Ishtar", and "Barry Lyndon".

I never saw Ishtar, but I have always enjoyed Barry Lyndon the couple of times I have watched it (once in the cinema). I even went so far as to read Thackeray's book on which it was based. While it is not an unflawed film, I could scarce call it bad. There are so many bad films so much deserving, e.g., 1941, How the West Was Won, Green Slime, Lynch's Dune, The Horror of Party Beach, and others.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Yes! That was what the glitsjed post contained. I have seen Waterworld several times ( 2 or 3 )and Barry Lyndon 3 times even though I'm not fond of Ryan O'Neal. I still have the LP of the soundtrack.( beautiful landscapes, panoramic action scenes, the story ) I always re-watch Spaghetti Westerns ( Once upon a time in the West and: see headline of post) when they pass on TV. Love Ennio Morricone's music. Dune, wish I could see that one again. Only saw it once. Ishtar never heard of before. If it's the same sort of bad it might be good.

Also great are those spektakel movies with the wrong Odysseusses and Agamemnons and Helenas and more classical heroes and monsters.

Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,915
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,915
Likes: 2
I really like the music to Barry Lyndon. And watch westerns
spagetti or otherwise on the western channel I receive.
Istar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar_(film)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093278/

The reviewer on the last reference liked the movie. I took
breaks during it to stay awake.


----please, draw me a sheep----
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
I looked at the YTube trailer. No, real bad. The kind of funny that isn't funny.

Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,915
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,915
Likes: 2
Exactly, makes you wonder who wrote the script and why.


----please, draw me a sheep----
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
makes you wonder who wrote the script and why

Easy to determine. The director, Elaine may, wrote the screenplay. As to why, the Wikipedia article (link) on Ishtar says this:
Quote:
Beatty felt indebted to May, who in addition to cowriting his 1978 hit Heaven Can Wait had done a major uncredited rewrite on the script of his Academy Award-winning Reds and helped immensely with its postproduction. He began looking for a project to do with her, one she could write and direct. She had never, he believed, had a sufficiently protective producer, and by starring and producing in her next film he could give her the chance to make the film he believed her to be creatively and commercially capable of making.

At a dinner with Beatty and Bert Fields, their agent, May said she would like to do a variant on the Road to... movies of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, set in the Middle East. Her idea would feature Beatty and a costar as a mediocre singer-songwriter duo who would go to Morocco and get caught in the crossfire between the Central Intelligence Agency and a local left-wing guerilla group. She thought it would be funny to cast Beatty against type as the Hope part, the bumbler of the duo, while the costar, possibly Dustin Hoffman, would play the self-assured ladies' man that Crosby usually took.

Hoffman, who was also indebted to May for her extensive uncredited rewrite on Tootsie, intially turned it down due to "misgivings". At Beatty's request, the two met with May and Hoffman's creative confidant, playwright Murray Schisgal. The latter two felt that the action plot in Morocco overwhelmed the rest of the film and that it "should not leave New York". Hoffman was finally persuaded by Beatty's assurances that he would provide May with the room she needed to work.
When May finished the script, Beatty, Hoffman, and some other friends including Charles Grodin, had a meeting and read-through at Beatty's house. All present agreed that the script needed work, but it was funny and could be a hit.
May was a talented comedienne and writer, and even the most talented person is capable of creating something that's a flop. Creating a great notoriously difficult and even some of the greatest filmmakers (Griffith, Hawks, Fellini, et al) have some real duds to their names. (I just watched Hawks' Man's Favorite Sport?) yesterday, and I switched it off after about 40 minutes. It was a dismal little "comedy" with Rock Hudson in the lead.) Anyway, it's probably time i saw Ishtar, so I can judge for myself if it deserves its reputation.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
zmjezhd #189817 03/07/10 07:33 PM
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Just saw an item on the news here. Sandra Bullock came to pick up her Razzie for worst actor in 'All about Steve".
The little speech she gave was só funny. She is nominated for best actor in The Blind Side tonight.

Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Of course you are right in that a 4 minute trayler doesn't guarantee a safe opinion, but what I saw looked a bit dated and I do suppose they selected the most persuasive parts. I never saw it pass here. Not in cinema nor on TV. But all pass on TV in the end so who knows..?

Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 132
G
member
Offline
member
G
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 132
Originally Posted By: LukeJavan8
Recently rented
Hogfather, supposedly a spoof on Christmas or something. DON'T rent it


It's based on the Terry Pratchett novel. I guess you're not a fan.

Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,915
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,915
Likes: 2


I guess I should look up Mr. Pratchett. Thanks, but I really
don't remember the movie now: some time ago when I posted that,
but I guess I did not like it.


----please, draw me a sheep----
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Originally Posted By: goofy
Originally Posted By: LukeJavan8
Recently rented
Hogfather, supposedly a spoof on Christmas or something. DON'T rent it


It's based on the Terry Pratchett novel. I guess you're not a fan.


I loved the book (and pretty much all Pratchett!). how is the movie, goofy?


formerly known as etaoin...
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
B
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
B
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
I don't have Hogfather, but here's a (lowbudget) Pratchett film:

Run Rincewind Run

Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,915
Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,915
Likes: 2


Cannot see the film as it is no longer available.


----please, draw me a sheep----
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 132
G
member
Offline
member
G
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 132
Originally Posted By: Buffalo Shrdlu
I loved the book (and pretty much all Pratchett!). how is the movie, goofy?


As a fan, I enjoyed it. But I think it was too faithful to the book, which made it too long, and it contained unnecessary scenes which newcomers might get turned off by.

Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Originally Posted By: goofy
Originally Posted By: Buffalo Shrdlu
I loved the book (and pretty much all Pratchett!). how is the movie, goofy?


As a fan, I enjoyed it. But I think it was too faithful to the book, which made it too long, and it contained unnecessary scenes which newcomers might get turned off by.


cool! I wonder if I can get my wife to put it on Netflix....


formerly known as etaoin...
Page 1 of 6 1 2 3 4 5 6

Moderated by  Jackie 

Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics
Forums16
Topics13,912
Posts229,271
Members9,179
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
Newest Members
TRIALNERRA, befuddledmind, KILL_YOUR_SUV, Heather_Turey, Standy
9,179 Registered Users
Who's Online Now
1 members (A C Bowden), 285 guests, and 4 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Top Posters(30 Days)
Top Posters
wwh 13,858
Faldage 13,803
Jackie 11,613
tsuwm 10,542
wofahulicodoc 10,502
LukeJavan8 9,915
AnnaStrophic 6,511
Wordwind 6,296
of troy 5,400
Disclaimer: Wordsmith.org is not responsible for views expressed on this site. Use of this forum is at your own risk and liability - you agree to hold Wordsmith.org and its associates harmless as a condition of using it.

Home | Today's Word | Yesterday's Word | Subscribe | FAQ | Archives | Search | Feedback
Wordsmith Talk | Wordsmith Chat

© 1994-2024 Wordsmith

Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5