The film His Girl Friday was interesting to say the least. It was a bit of a change for me because I generally like the movies I see. Unfortunately, this film just rubbed me the wrong way. The tragic flaw of the movie (in my very biased opinion) was the incessant flow of dialogue. Now, I realize that this was completely purposeful and absolutely made the film what it is. However, it was a little too much for me to handle. The plot itself is fairly straightforward: girl loved boy, now girl hates boy. Girl is engaged, guy is jealous. Guy hoodwinks girl into loving him once again. Everyone lives happily (-ish) ever after. While this plain of a plot would generally be uninteresting, it is spiced up enormously by all of the little twists and turns. Throughout the entire movie, little things keep happening in the news world that slingshot the plot in a new direction. Every time Bruce gets arrested, every time a new story breaks, it sets the plot back a little. Overall, it is a very clever idea and works beautifully. The part that does not work is the constant dialogue. While its purpose is to focus all of the viewer's attention on what exactly is happening in the film, it is overwhelming. There are scenes where five or six different people are on the telephone, yelling away at their newspaper about the latest story. While this may be exhilarating for some people, it was absolutely exhausting for me. At times, the chaos of the movie literally affected me physically. As disarray ruled the film, I became extremely agitated and anxious, something that could only be remedied by my calm and structured second hour (AP Spanish 5). I'm not trying to say that His Girl Friday was a bad film because it wasn't. It was just too much for me to handle and remain sane.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Do they ever shut up?
The film His Girl Friday was interesting to say the least. It was a bit of a change for me because I generally like the movies I see. Unfortunately, this film just rubbed me the wrong way. The tragic flaw of the movie (in my very biased opinion) was the incessant flow of dialogue. Now, I realize that this was completely purposeful and absolutely made the film what it is. However, it was a little too much for me to handle. The plot itself is fairly straightforward: girl loved boy, now girl hates boy. Girl is engaged, guy is jealous. Guy hoodwinks girl into loving him once again. Everyone lives happily (-ish) ever after. While this plain of a plot would generally be uninteresting, it is spiced up enormously by all of the little twists and turns. Throughout the entire movie, little things keep happening in the news world that slingshot the plot in a new direction. Every time Bruce gets arrested, every time a new story breaks, it sets the plot back a little. Overall, it is a very clever idea and works beautifully. The part that does not work is the constant dialogue. While its purpose is to focus all of the viewer's attention on what exactly is happening in the film, it is overwhelming. There are scenes where five or six different people are on the telephone, yelling away at their newspaper about the latest story. While this may be exhilarating for some people, it was absolutely exhausting for me. At times, the chaos of the movie literally affected me physically. As disarray ruled the film, I became extremely agitated and anxious, something that could only be remedied by my calm and structured second hour (AP Spanish 5). I'm not trying to say that His Girl Friday was a bad film because it wasn't. It was just too much for me to handle and remain sane.
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1 comment:
Kate, I respect your opinion of the crazy fast dialogue- and I can totally understand how that can affect how you opinionize the film, but personally I thought it was kind of fun. At first I agree, it was hard to watch, but when I relaxed it was quite amusing to witness all these actors be wildy alert through the obnoxious events that took place. I would definitely tell you to never watch Gilmore Girls, because they talk just like this film... I find it a bit hypnotizing myself. :)
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