627 The Game
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- Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2011 11:45 pm
Re: Forthcoming: The Game
Am I the only one that thinks that "The Game" is not played with the characters but with the audience? I always thought it was the filmmakers trying to see how far they could push things before the audience stopped believing. There are even parts at the very end when it is explained that they did things "just like in the movies".
- flyonthewall2983
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Re: Forthcoming: The Game
Is it odd to be thrilled a thread I started will be in the main CC page?
- Gregory
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:07 pm
Re: Forthcoming: The Game
I remember 10 years ago on the old EZ-Board forum seeing "When oh when will Criterion release The Game"-type posts. This seems like an event comparable to Bottle Rocket finally getting released.
- The Narrator Returns
- Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2011 6:35 pm
Re: Forthcoming: The Game
This is quite possibly the best Criterion news I've heard in a while. Thankfully, Benjamin Button is no longer the only Fincher film in the Collection.
- zedz
- Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm
Re: Forthcoming: The Game
Do you mean we're never going to hear anybody talk about this film ever again?Gregory wrote:I remember 10 years ago on the old EZ-Board forum seeing "When oh when will Criterion release The Game"-type posts. This seems like an event comparable to Bottle Rocket finally getting released.
- mfunk9786
- Under Chris' Protection
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Re: 627 The Game
Unless you go into the thread for the film, which seems counterproductive if you don't want to hear about it!
- manicsounds
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
- Location: Tokyo, Japan
Re: 627 The Game
Looks like all the extras are just ports from the old laserdisc and special edition DVD. I was hoping for something new, besides the alternate 5.1 track.
One thing missing from the Laserdisc (and was not on the SE DVD) was the psychological test.
One thing missing from the Laserdisc (and was not on the SE DVD) was the psychological test.
- oldsheperd
- Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2004 5:18 pm
- Location: Rio Rancho/Albuquerque
Re: 627 The Game
This movie, while being very stylistic and suspenseful has to have one of the worst endings in cinema history. I rank it right above Woman in the Window for horrible endings to great movies.
I've seen the arguments about the ending being great, but to me it always seemed like the writer couldn't come up with and ending as suspenseful as the plot and cooked up a contrived one. Seriously, the ending is on par with a rushed 9th grade creative writing assignment.
I've seen the arguments about the ending being great, but to me it always seemed like the writer couldn't come up with and ending as suspenseful as the plot and cooked up a contrived one. Seriously, the ending is on par with a rushed 9th grade creative writing assignment.
- knives
- Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm
Re: 627 The Game
I have to disagree as the ending is the ultimate indictment of the character and his entire class.
- warren oates
- Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2012 12:16 pm
Re: 627 The Game
I agree with knives. The ending is great. But I'm curious old sheperd -- how would you have ended it?
- swo17
- Bloodthirsty Butcher
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- Location: SLC, UT
Re: 627 The Game
The entire film is built around the ending. It's completely preposterous but hardly a cop-out.
- Jeff
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:49 pm
- Location: Denver, CO
Re: 627 The Game
Yeah, if anything, the end came first, and the film was built around that. I'm convinced that Fincher was fully aware of how implausible everything is, and that it is irrelevant to what he was trying to do. Anyone who hasn't read this Mike D'Angelo piece yet should, but only if you have seen the film.
- warren oates
- Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2012 12:16 pm
Re: 627 The Game
And I'd add that what happens in The Game is hardly more outrageous than the events of many other thrillers. This just happens to be a first-rate one that's unashamed of its genre trappings. Anybody expecting it to be a deeper drama or something else instead isn't seeing it for what it is. That Onion piece is awesome, btw.
- oldsheperd
- Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2004 5:18 pm
- Location: Rio Rancho/Albuquerque
Re: 627 The Game
I just feel that the writer was like, "Wow, this story is really great! Oh, wait how do I end it."
That doesn't take away from the fact that the film is well done. As far as a indictment of the character's class level. I don't see that one bit. I just feel like they got so far and had to wrap it up somehow. I mean nothing personal, I've sold a lot of dvds to some of you guys and I've been on here forever, but I think y'all are fishing a bit when you're trying to justify the ending as some sort of meaningful comment. I'm curious to know a bit about the production history of this film and if it originally had a bleaker end. The end, as it stands now, has studio interference written all over it.
SpoilerShow
The idea that this was whole ruse was not hinted at anywhere in the film. There was no foreshadowing in the bit. It just ended like, "Hey, you should really appreciate things in life." Totally stupid.
- knives
- Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm
Re: 627 The Game
SpoilerShow
I don't see how you could get a bleaker ending than the one we have now which suggests the wealthy lead lives so empty that their utter destruction is seen as a joke.
- cdnchris
- Site Admin
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Re: 627 The Game
oldsheperd wrote:SpoilerShowThe idea that this was whole ruse was not hinted at anywhere in the film. There was no foreshadowing in the bit. It just ended like, "Hey, you should really appreciate things in life." Totally stupid.
SpoilerShow
I think his father's suicide foreshadowed it, plus his brother's obvious concern early on in the film. Hell, my one buddy who I saw it with guessed it midway through that the whole thing was going to be designed to change his life around, and he figured this from the constant references to his dad's suicide, which admittedly weren't planted at all subtley. I had to tell him to shut-up.
- Jeff
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:49 pm
- Location: Denver, CO
Re: 627 The Game
oldsheperd wrote:I just feel that the writer was like, "Wow, this story is really great! Oh, wait how do I end it."That doesn't take away from the fact that the film is well done. As far as a indictment of the character's class level. I don't see that one bit. I just feel like they got so far and had to wrap it up somehow. I mean nothing personal, I've sold a lot of dvds to some of you guys and I've been on here forever, but I think y'all are fishing a bit when you're trying to justify the ending as some sort of meaningful comment. I'm curious to know a bit about the production history of this film and if it originally had a bleaker end. The end, as it stands now, has studio interference written all over it.SpoilerShowThe idea that this was whole ruse was not hinted at anywhere in the film. There was no foreshadowing in the bit. It just ended like, "Hey, you should really appreciate things in life." Totally stupid.
SpoilerShow
The idea that the whole thing was an elaborate production was telegraphed throughout the film, and Nicholas almost starts to catch on when he recognizes a CRS employee from a television commercial. The whole idea of Conrad buying this experience for his brother is set up as a suicide intervention. He sees Nicholas following the same path his father followed, and becoming what he became. The whole point of the game is to push him to that breaking point and then save him from it. If he actually died at the end, it would undermine the purpose of the entire film.
As far as production, Fincher agreed to do the script because he enjoyed the twist. He actually brought in Andrew Kevin Walker to make it darker and more cynical (which it certainly is). There was certainly no "studio interference." There wasn't even a studio in the traditional sense. This was Polygram's first film that they distributed on their own -- very independent. They wanted Fincher on board, and he basically had carte blanche to refashion the original spec script to suit the style and tone he wanted. It's his film all the way.
As far as production, Fincher agreed to do the script because he enjoyed the twist. He actually brought in Andrew Kevin Walker to make it darker and more cynical (which it certainly is). There was certainly no "studio interference." There wasn't even a studio in the traditional sense. This was Polygram's first film that they distributed on their own -- very independent. They wanted Fincher on board, and he basically had carte blanche to refashion the original spec script to suit the style and tone he wanted. It's his film all the way.
- oldsheperd
- Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2004 5:18 pm
- Location: Rio Rancho/Albuquerque
Re: 627 The Game
I get what everyone is saying, but for me, personally, it just doesn't work.
- warren oates
- Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2012 12:16 pm
Re: 627 The Game
But what would work instead or work better? Can you rewrite just the ending and improve it? Or is there something about the whole film you don't like that your fixation with the ending is bringing out?
- oldsheperd
- Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2004 5:18 pm
- Location: Rio Rancho/Albuquerque
Re: 627 The Game
I like the film. I just think the ending is tremendously flawed.
- knives
- Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm
Re: 627 The Game
How would you improve the ending though? That might help to illustrate why you think it is flawed.
- warren oates
- Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2012 12:16 pm
Re: 627 The Game
Well, I don't mean to be a dick about it, but you've told us you think the ending sucks and it doesn't work. Many of us have disagreed -- but in detail -- explaining specifically how it does work for us. Have you thought at all about how you would do it differently? What, in your mind, should happen to the Douglas character so as to make it a more effective and affecting film and a more satisfying thriller? If there's a stronger ending out there, I really want to hear it.
- tenia
- Ask Me About My Bassoon
- Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:13 am
Re: 627 The Game
I have the same problem than oddsheperd.
The movie is quite thrilling, but the ending is so down to the ground, that I felt it was disappointing.
I wouldn't know which kind of ending would make it better, but it makes me think of an exemple :
The movie is quite thrilling, but the ending is so down to the ground, that I felt it was disappointing.
I wouldn't know which kind of ending would make it better, but it makes me think of an exemple :
SpoilerShow
In LOST, in Locke's first season episode (1x14, I think), at the very end of the episode, he get to the hatch, and begs on his knees to get a sign. Then, the hatch just light up. That was absolutely wonderful. But when you learn in the season 2 that it was probably Desmond just turning the light on to read a book, or go to the can, than, I felt it was disappointing the same way The Game's ending was.
Maybe I should have felt emotion I haven't, which ruined part of it, but in the end, it's 100 min of suspense, just to find it it REALLY IS a birthday invitation.
Maybe I should have felt emotion I haven't, which ruined part of it, but in the end, it's 100 min of suspense, just to find it it REALLY IS a birthday invitation.
- John Cope
- Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2005 5:40 pm
- Location: where the simulacrum is true
Re: 627 The Game
SpoilerShow
But what is so devastating about the end is that it ultimately is "just a big joke". It's insidious, going deep into its bleakness and is not obvious as it would be if the Douglas character actually had fallen to his death. It's a scenario in which the human has little intrinsic value and all that matters is the ingeniousness of mechanics. I do disagree with knives as to the implications, however. I don't see it as an indictment of that character and his class except insofar as they are the ones who can afford this elaborate approximation of self-annihilation. That's more despairing and therefore sympathetic, I think. AFAIC, it's much more of a broad indictment of a whole society that is spiritually dead already, who in some ways either recognize that enough to acknowledge it or otherwise evidence it through an indifferent, though active, participation in its theatrical realization. It's a perfect set-up for Fight Club then: "Our Great Depression is our lives."