Just a reminder. Tomorrow night's Wednesday Night at the Movies open thread at newcritics will feature the Sidney Poitier-Rod Steiger classic, In The Heat of the Night.
Thread opens at 10 PM Eastern, 9 Central. We have a new comments format at newcritics and it requires registration but it'll save the trouble of having to fill out the forms every time you want to comment. Registration's quick and painless but you might want to show up a little early to get it over with before the discussion gets underway.
As per the rules laid out by me, and I'm the king around here, you don't have to have watched the movie recently, or ever, to join in. Lurking discouraged but not prohibited.
Okay, I admit, I'm a lurker. You could even call me a discouraged lurker.
I've just never got the hang of chiming in on those forum type of comment threads. But even as a lurker, I greatly enjoyed the discussion of The Graduate last week. The absence of any of what made the sixties the sixties from the film, as that you noted, save the color spectrum, the set dressings and the clothes and hair styles, was especially noticeable and unsettling for those of us who are old enough to have seen the film in a theatre at approximately the age Ben Braddock was supposed to be. I loved your questions about the Anne Bancroft character, and especially your thoughts about her being the only genuinely subversive character in the whole film. Yes, she's a monster, but at least she's a subversive monster. And at least she has the energy and guts to do something, even if it is utterly destructive. I've always thought it said something significant about Mike Nichols that he could summon up not a moment of respect for her subversiveness, and that it earned her not a moment of pity, at the least.
I look forward to tomorrow evening.
Posted by: Leah | Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 06:28 PM
Lance, I wasn't able to participate last week, but I've read the post and comments and agree with Leah that's there's some very interesting stuff in there. I've registered for the comment system and hope to join the discussion tonight (though it's been a couple of years since I saw Heat on TCM -- I'm checking the library today to see if they've got the DVD).
Posted by: Kevin Wolf | Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 07:07 AM
Leah,
Your company is always welcome and much appreciated, whether you're lurking or not. Hope you can stop by tonight.
Kevin,
Same for you. Looking forward to seeing you there.
Posted by: Lance | Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 02:49 PM