quote for today + movie review
It may be hard to believe, given my taste in movies, but until last night I had never seen The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
I liked it. Unfortunately it never sucked me in. This may have been the pacing, which seemed slow to me, or because I knew where it was going very early on. Whatever the explanation, some part of my brain was quibbling with details through the whole movie. (I'm sorry, but you don't go from high desert to rain forest without crossing a mountain range. You don't get trees that size growing where yucca and saguaro cacti grow. I'm pretty certain that was papyrus in some of the scenes, and it wouldn't be growing in any of those areas. And there are no tigers in mexico. Yes, I also have quibbles that aren't about plants, but they may count as spoilers. On the off chance some of you haven't seen this movie and might watch it some day, I'm not going to post them here.)
What can I say that's positive? I like the general message of the movie. Walter Huston is brilliant in it. Tim Holt also does a good job. Bogie does well, but I never liked his character, so I didn't care that he was doing a good job. While it's interesting to watch a noir western, if I'm going to watch Humphrey Bogart playing a dark character there are other titles I think are better. (In a Lonely Place is a superb film, if you are fond of über-noir. (And, yes, I joined those together just for the culturally lingoistic juxtaposition of the composition.))
With that movie review out of the way, if you read the book review I just posted you'll understand why I love the following line. For our quote for today...
You know, the worst ain't so bad when it finally happens.
Not half as bad as you figure it'll be before it's happened.
~Bob Curtin
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
I liked it. Unfortunately it never sucked me in. This may have been the pacing, which seemed slow to me, or because I knew where it was going very early on. Whatever the explanation, some part of my brain was quibbling with details through the whole movie. (I'm sorry, but you don't go from high desert to rain forest without crossing a mountain range. You don't get trees that size growing where yucca and saguaro cacti grow. I'm pretty certain that was papyrus in some of the scenes, and it wouldn't be growing in any of those areas. And there are no tigers in mexico. Yes, I also have quibbles that aren't about plants, but they may count as spoilers. On the off chance some of you haven't seen this movie and might watch it some day, I'm not going to post them here.)
What can I say that's positive? I like the general message of the movie. Walter Huston is brilliant in it. Tim Holt also does a good job. Bogie does well, but I never liked his character, so I didn't care that he was doing a good job. While it's interesting to watch a noir western, if I'm going to watch Humphrey Bogart playing a dark character there are other titles I think are better. (In a Lonely Place is a superb film, if you are fond of über-noir. (And, yes, I joined those together just for the culturally lingoistic juxtaposition of the composition.))
With that movie review out of the way, if you read the book review I just posted you'll understand why I love the following line. For our quote for today...
You know, the worst ain't so bad when it finally happens.
Not half as bad as you figure it'll be before it's happened.
~Bob Curtin
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre