Thursday, April 23, 2020

Thursday Movie Picks #302: Verbal Altercations



Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share your movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple: based on the theme of the week pick three to five movies and tell us why you picked them. For further details and the schedule visit the series main page here.

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Verbal Altercations [Suggested by Getter]

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This week's theme is a suggestion by Getter. I love dialogue heavy movies so I greatly enjoy verbal fights. I think you really see the strengths of the script and acting in those scenes. Anyway here are three that I love and I know I'm forgetting other great ones.




Pride & Prejudice (2005)
The praise is mostly to Austen of course because her dialogue is so sharp and the movie does a decent enough job of putting all of that on the screen. The scene takes place after Mr Darcy tries to propose to Elizabeth which he does so horrendously. As he is awkward, too honest and totally unable to flatter, he insults Elizabeth's family and her social standing as he is proposing. Of course she is offended!



Closer (2004)
It was that scene where Clive Owen's character confronts his wife played by Julia Roberts about her infidelity. I found him pretty scary as he relentlessly presses his wife to divulge the details of her affair.




American Beauty (1999)
It's the dinner scene. It is soo good and darkly funny as well.

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11 comments:

  1. I love this version of P&P and while I love the totality of it this is probably my favorite scene. I agree that Jane Austen provides a great base for the actors to work with but both Matthew MacFayden and Keira Knightley make the most of this scene and their roles. From the moment he tells her he loves her "most ardently" until their attraction almost makes them kiss despite their anger those two provide fireworks. It's wonderfully staged as well. I've always wondered if they waited for that torrential rainstorm or if it was just a happy accident.

    That's a fantastic scene in American Beauty and both Spacey and Annette Bening sell the hell out of it. I think it's a fine film but I don't think I've watched it again since seeing it in the theatre.

    Closer is one that I've meant to see but haven't gotten around to.

    I decided the easiest way to zero in on a set of verbal altercations was to do a theme within the theme using one performer. I turned to a master of the verbal tongue lashing-Miss Bette Davis! She was Oscar nominated for all three of these pictures.

    The Little Foxes (1941)-At the turn of the 20th century in the deep South the Hubbard brothers and their sister Regina Giddins (Bette Davis) are rapacious jackals whose love of money overrides all things. The brothers steal bonds from Regina’s husband Horace, a good man who abhors their avarice, behind his back for a business deal he refused. When Horace and Regina discover her brothers plan to replace the value of what was taken and keep any profits for themselves Regina wants them arrested and all the profits. But the gravely ill Horace tells her he intends to let them do as they planned as a payback to her for all her meanness through the years of their marriage. It does not go well. They tear into each other, she telling him he resents her because he knows he’s dying and begrudges her having what she wants after he’s gone, he telling her he sees her and her family for the succubi they are. She turns to him and with deadly malice and says “I hope you die…I hope you die soon…I’ll be WAITing for you to die.”

    The Star (1952)-Margaret Elliott (Bette) was once a big Oscar winning movie star but now she’s fallen on hard times and is working as a sales clerk in a department store. Recognized by two customers who disparage her behind her back Margaret confronts them in an epic takedown “Take a good look ladies so there’s no doubt! It IS Margaret Elliott and it IS a disgrace! Margaret Elliott waiting on a couple of old bags like you.” One of them tells her they’ll call the manager. “Call the manager” Margaret says “Call the president….call the fire department! I won’t be here. I’m going back where I belong! I AM Margaret Elliott and I intend to STAY Margaret Elliott!”

    Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)-Jane Hudson (Bette) and her sister Blanche (Joan Crawford) were once great stars. Jane as a child in vaudeville and Blanche later in films by which point Jane had become a troublesome drunken has-been. It all comes crashing down when Blanche is crippled in a mysterious accident and now the sisters, estranged and bitter reside in Blanche’s fading mansion locked in a miserable existence. Almost their every conversation is a verbal conflict but as Jane’s grip on reality becomes ever more tenuous things escalate and when Blanche tells her she wouldn’t be able to do the awful things she does if Blanche wasn’t in a wheelchair Jane screams “But ya are Blanche! Ya are in that chair!”

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    1. Whenever I watch P&P I wish I was as eloquent in verbal arguments as these character. Anyway I thought the rain was fake. To be the setup where the characters had to face each other, until they absolutely can't any longer.

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  2. I’ve seen all three but the only I remember is the scene from American Beauty a it’s a terrific one as well as a terrific film.

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  3. I've seen all of your picks! Great list!

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  4. Closer one was really uncomfortable and like.. in a good way.

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  5. American Beauty is my favorite movie so I love that pick. P&P is good too. I need to rewatch Closer. I only saw that movie once and I don't remember anything from it.

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    1. Closer, I love it...so definitely a rewatch.

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  6. I have to see Pride & Prejudice! I never even heard of Closer but it sounds like a good film and love American Beauty which was such a good film with very funny moments mainly from Kevin Spacey.

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    1. Closer - you haven't? Well if your tend to like movies from plays, you might like this, it is very dialogue heavy.

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  7. Great pick with American Beauty. I have always wanted to do that but my wife and I have a happy marriage.

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