Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Terry Gilliam’s Don Quixote film finally hits the big screen after 25 years

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 102 posts

Re: Terry Gilliam’s Don Quixote film finally hits the big screen after 25 years

#91

Post by mcv »

lisper wrote: post #59
satori99 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is one of the most prescient films ever made. "People think I am a prophet and that Brazil described the world we’re living in now a few years ago. But we were living in that world then; people just weren’t paying attention the way they do now." https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/01/magazine/terry-gilliam-is...

Interesting. I'm not sure I agree though. I was in my early 20s in 1985 and so I can tell you from personal experience that things were really very different back then than now. In 1985 it was possible to escape surveillance without to much difficulty. Nowadays it's nearly impossible. Also, in 1985 the stock villains weren't terrorists, they were Russians.

There were terrorists in 1985. In fact, there was more terrorism in the 1970s and 1980s than in recent decades. It's just that today the fear of terrorism is more exploited for political gain than it was back then.

Re: Terry Gilliam’s Don Quixote film finally hits the big screen after 25 years

#92

Post by Iv »

lisper wrote: post #59
satori99 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is one of the most prescient films ever made. "People think I am a prophet and that Brazil described the world we’re living in now a few years ago. But we were living in that world then; people just weren’t paying attention the way they do now." https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/01/magazine/terry-gilliam-is...

Interesting. I'm not sure I agree though. I was in my early 20s in 1985 and so I can tell you from personal experience that things were really very different back then than now. In 1985 it was possible to escape surveillance without to much difficulty. Nowadays it's nearly impossible. Also, in 1985 the stock villains weren't terrorists, they were Russians.

Escaping surveillance is easy: "forget" your phone in a friend's bag.

And in 1985, you did not have Tor or public wifi allowing you to access the whole world with no effort in an anonymous way.

Look at how terrorists and criminals evade surveillance now: it is incredibly low tech.

Re: Terry Gilliam’s Don Quixote film finally hits the big screen after 25 years

#93

Post by goto11 »

lisper wrote: post #62
satori99 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that the plot devices involving terrorism were the most prescient. When I first saw the film as a young teenager in the 80s, I was fascinated that the terrorists philosophy or demands were never clearly defined beyond "anti-government". Terrorism was portrayed as a regrettable but normal part of life. Perhaps people who lived through actual terrorist bombing campaigns in British cities can relate to this more…

I thought this scene made it pretty clear that the terrorist attacks in the film were false-flag operations carried out by the government: JILL Who is this war against, Sam? SAM Well, terrorists of course. JILL How many terrorists have you met? Actual terrorists? SAM Actual. terrorists? Well... it's only my first day.

My impression was that the terrorists didn't exist and the explosions were just due to malfunctioning systems and technology.

Re: Terry Gilliam’s Don Quixote film finally hits the big screen after 25 years

#94

Post by goto11 »

monocasa wrote: post #33
neves wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

May you elaborate?

There was a lot of bad blood over the US studio's reedit of Brazil to give it a happy ending (which was atrocious). Following that Baron Munchausen was a flop (and while I like it, def not his best work to be fair). After that he was sort of written off from the establishment as it were (including the critics who know to pay the piper). But while that would have killed off the careers of most directors, Terry Gilliam…

Gilliam commented on this notion in an interview. He said Hollywood does not carry grudges because Hollywood doesn't have any memory. After the debacle of Brazil and the economical disaster of Münchhausen, many wondered if he would ever be able to make a movie again. But Hollywood didn't care one bit about all that as long as it seemed like the next movie would make a profit, as was the case with Fisher King and 12 Monkeys.

The mixed reviews is not surprising for a director who is highly original but not so strong in (or doesn't care about) traditional storytelling virtues like dramatic curve and relatable characters. His movies are divisive.

You really think reviewers are afraid to give a Gilliam movie a positive review? Maybe they just don't like them all that much.

Re: Terry Gilliam’s Don Quixote film finally hits the big screen after 25 years

#95

Post by lisper »

Iv wrote: post #92
lisper wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I'm not sure I agree though. I was in my early 20s in 1985 and so I can tell you from personal experience that things were really very different back then than now. In 1985 it was possible to escape surveillance without to much difficulty. Nowadays it's nearly impossible. Also, in 1985 the stock villains weren't terrorists, they were Russians.

Escaping surveillance is easy: "forget" your phone in a friend's bag. And in 1985, you did not have Tor or public wifi allowing you to access the whole world with no effort in an anonymous way. Look at how terrorists and criminals evade surveillance now: it is incredibly low tech.

> "forget" your phone in a friend's bag.

Are you going to forget your credit cards and ATM cards too? Give up on flying? Driving new cars? Driving in non-rural areas? And good luck finding a job nowadays without a cell phone or an internet connection.

In 1985 I could fly without showing ID to anyone, including the person I bought the ticket from (back then airplane tickets were printed on paper). I could drive anywhere without my license plate being tracked by default and without having to worry about the GPS in my car (because there was no GPS). And I had a reasonable expectation of privacy, enshrined in law, in my phone calls and snail mail correspondence (there was no email). Today all of that is gone.

Re: Terry Gilliam’s Don Quixote film finally hits the big screen after 25 years

#96

Post by BuildTheRobots »

max_likelihood wrote: post #86
toyg wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you forgot the quotes around "heating engineer".

If you want the quotes added, you're going to need to fill out a 27b-6 ;)

Completely missed that on previous watches of the film. 27b-6 is a reference to George Orwell's address; Apartment 6, 27B Canonbury Square, Islington London.

It's also the website of David Thorne, who is always amusing if you're looking for some vicious sarcasm: http://www.27bslash6.com/missy.html

Re: Terry Gilliam’s Don Quixote film finally hits the big screen after 25 years

#97

Post by WorldMaker »

lisper wrote: post #59
satori99 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is one of the most prescient films ever made. "People think I am a prophet and that Brazil described the world we’re living in now a few years ago. But we were living in that world then; people just weren’t paying attention the way they do now." https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/01/magazine/terry-gilliam-is...

Interesting. I'm not sure I agree though. I was in my early 20s in 1985 and so I can tell you from personal experience that things were really very different back then than now. In 1985 it was possible to escape surveillance without to much difficulty. Nowadays it's nearly impossible. Also, in 1985 the stock villains weren't terrorists, they were Russians.

> Also, in 1985 the stock villains weren't terrorists

Libyan Terrorists were stock villains in a lot of 1980s entertainment (especially on TV like the A-Team and MacGuyver), including perhaps most notably their very clear presence in 1985 in Back to the Future.

Re: Terry Gilliam’s Don Quixote film finally hits the big screen after 25 years

#98

Post by WorldMaker »

npsimons wrote: post #47
monocasa wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a lot of bad blood over the US studio's reedit of Brazil to give it a happy ending (which was atrocious). Following that Baron Munchausen was a flop (and while I like it, def not his best work to be fair). After that he was sort of written off from the establishment as it were (including the critics who know to pay the piper). But while that would have killed off the careers of most directors, Terry Gilliam…

> You can see this most clearly in the Metacritic for Tideland which is pretty positive as far as user submitted reviews go, but is one of the worst movies ever if you were to go off the critics reviews. The problem is, critics are usually right, and the audience usually isn't. This is because critics have studied film, often went to film school, and can point out just exactly how a film fails. That being said, Gilli…

Also, Tideland is a weird example to use because it is so intentionally awful. It's on the list of films such as Requiem for a Dream that I'm glad I watched but somehow doubt I will ever watch a second time. A lot of the critics are right about Tideland that it is an awful, miserable experience to watch but many of those low "number" reviews also suggest seeing it or experiencing it for yourself, because that's also the art to it, the subjective experience. (Which is why review scores are useless metrics because art is subjective and averaging a bunch of subjective numbers together doesn't do anything but give you a random number. Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes are interesting random numbers, but they can't actually tell you if the art was good or not.)

Re: Terry Gilliam’s Don Quixote film finally hits the big screen after 25 years

#99

Post by lisper »

WorldMaker wrote: post #97
lisper wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I'm not sure I agree though. I was in my early 20s in 1985 and so I can tell you from personal experience that things were really very different back then than now. In 1985 it was possible to escape surveillance without to much difficulty. Nowadays it's nearly impossible. Also, in 1985 the stock villains weren't terrorists, they were Russians.

> Also, in 1985 the stock villains weren't terrorists Libyan Terrorists were stock villains in a lot of 1980s entertainment (especially on TV like the A-Team and MacGuyver), including perhaps most notably their very clear presence in 1985 in Back to the Future .

That's a fair point. Still, terrorism was nowhere near as much on the radar then as it is now.

Re: Terry Gilliam’s Don Quixote film finally hits the big screen after 25 years

#100

Post by EliRivers »

lisper wrote: post #95
Iv wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Escaping surveillance is easy: "forget" your phone in a friend's bag. And in 1985, you did not have Tor or public wifi allowing you to access the whole world with no effort in an anonymous way. Look at how terrorists and criminals evade surveillance now: it is incredibly low tech.

> "forget" your phone in a friend's bag. Are you going to forget your credit cards and ATM cards too? Give up on flying? Driving new cars? Driving in non-rural areas? And good luck finding a job nowadays without a cell phone or an internet connection. In 1985 I could fly without showing ID to anyone, including the person I bought the ticket from (back then airplane tickets were printed on paper). I could drive anywhe…

Also, don't get photographed by anyone else! It's not just our own phones we have to worry about; everyone is more eyes and ears for the man :/
Post reply on HN