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FilmFan88
Hungary
Приєднався 4 тра 2023
A channel for people who love good films and want to discover new and even newer gems from the world of cinema.
Cinema is my Passion.
Cinema is my Passion.
The Killing (1956) Stanley Kubrick Movie Scene and Review
The Killing (1956) Stanley Kubrick Movie Trailer, Scene and Review video presents one of the best film-noir movies of all time. You could call this video also a The Killing trailer. This video contains a short scene from the movie The Killing.
The Grand Budapest Hotel ua-cam.com/video/1oJ658xeAek/v-deo.html
The Shawshank Redemption ua-cam.com/video/R1sfb77Fvag/v-deo.html
No Hard Feelings ua-cam.com/video/h9-Y5p4gdqo/v-deo.html
Tetris ua-cam.com/video/ndxCrjaUnuw/v-deo.html
Dancer in the Dark ua-cam.com/video/g5CEMZtOBfQ/v-deo.html
the killing
the killing movie
the killing trailer
the killing scene
the killing review
the killing film
The Killing (1956)
directed by Stanley Kubrick
written by Stanley Kubrick, Jim Thompson, Lionel White
starring Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards
The Killing 1956 Movie Trailer, Scene and Review
Thank's for Watching!
@Mozz888
#FilmFan88
The Grand Budapest Hotel ua-cam.com/video/1oJ658xeAek/v-deo.html
The Shawshank Redemption ua-cam.com/video/R1sfb77Fvag/v-deo.html
No Hard Feelings ua-cam.com/video/h9-Y5p4gdqo/v-deo.html
Tetris ua-cam.com/video/ndxCrjaUnuw/v-deo.html
Dancer in the Dark ua-cam.com/video/g5CEMZtOBfQ/v-deo.html
the killing
the killing movie
the killing trailer
the killing scene
the killing review
the killing film
The Killing (1956)
directed by Stanley Kubrick
written by Stanley Kubrick, Jim Thompson, Lionel White
starring Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards
The Killing 1956 Movie Trailer, Scene and Review
Thank's for Watching!
@Mozz888
#FilmFan88
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Відео
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) Wes Anderson Movie Scene and Review
Переглядів 298 місяців тому
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) Wes Anderson Movie Trailer, Scene and Review video presents one of the best quirky comedy-drama movies of all time. You could call this video also a The Grand Budapest Hotel trailer. This video contains a short scene from the movie The Grand Budapest Hotel. The Shawshank Redemption ua-cam.com/video/R1sfb77Fvag/v-deo.html No Hard Feelings ua-cam.com/video/h9-Y5p4g...
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Dancer in the Dark (2000) Lars von Trier Movie Trailer, Scene and Review video presents one of the best musical melodrama movies of all time. You could call this video also a Dancer in the Dark. This video contains a short scene from the movie Dancer in the Dark. Moonrise Kingdom ua-cam.com/video/bGYXzTK4NTY/v-deo.html Killer's Kiss ua-cam.com/video/rIdcT2Xu3Dw/v-deo.html The Good, the Bad and ...
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Killer's Kiss (1955) Stanley Kubrick Movie Scene and Review
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Killer's Kiss (1955) Stanley Kubrick Movie Trailer, Scene and Review video presents one of the best crime film noir movies of all time. You could call this video also a Killer's Kiss. This video contains a short scene from the movie Killer's Kiss. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly ua-cam.com/video/wvvJUt7Y-Zg/v-deo.html Napoleon ua-cam.com/video/W8Vg-4ncspE/v-deo.html The Idiots ua-cam.com/video/8...
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) Sergie Leone Movie Scene and Review
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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) Sergio Leone Movie Trailer, Scene and Review video presents one of the best epic western movies of all time. You could call this video also a The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. This video contains a short scene from the movie The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Napoleon ua-cam.com/video/W8Vg-4ncspE/v-deo.html The Idiots ua-cam.com/video/8udsPY_0XMk/v-deo.html Fant...
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Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) Wes Anderson Movie Trailer, Scene and Review video presents one of the best stop-motion animated comedy movies of all time. You could call this video also a Fantastic Mr. Fox trailer. This video contains a short scene from the movie Fantastic Mr. Fox. Promising Young Woman ua-cam.com/video/5Z9Vn_nlWtw/v-deo.html The Talented Mr. Ripley ua-cam.com/video/XtHyPN0F55s/v-deo...
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Breaking the Waves 1996 Lars von Trier Movie Trailer, Scene and Review video presents one of the best psychological drama movie of all time. You could call this video also a Breaking the Waves trailer. This video contains a short scene from the movie Breaking the Waves. breaking the waves breaking the waves movie breaking the waves trailer breaking the waves scene breaking the waves review brea...
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😢😢
Inception.... Cyberpunk XD just no
Thanks for the fun facts. Specially now I know what “Thin Red Line” means! I wondered but never check it out. 😊
Excelente actor pero por sobre todas las cosas Excelente ser humano❤
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His a world class actor who plays roles most won't, and Hollywood hate that he isn't scared to play the roles they don't want shown.
👍
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Traduinromana
😂😂 😊una película original 🎉😊 que mucho me reiii 😅
unfortunately I am roulette addicted ...😢
Obecnie na świecie panuje zgnilizna moralna. Pan Caviezel pokazuje nam wszystkim, że można zostać prawym i uczciwym człowiekiem. Musimy brać z niego przykład. There is moral rot in the world today. Mr. Caviezel shows us all that it is possible to become an upright and honest person. We must follow his example
Garfield spoils the picnic😅😅😅😅😅😅
You deserve a bigger following. Your shows are amazing. Come on people this needs to be talked about on every platform. Great work. Vikki from Australia.
Without a proper release across the U.S., The Killing performed poorly at the box office. In spite of a last-minute promotion as a second feature to Bandido!, it failed to turn a profit. But it garnered critical acclaim, landing on several critics' top-ten lists for 1956. Time wrongly predicted that it would "make a killing at the cash booths"-asserting that Kubrick "has shown more audacity with dialogue and camera than Hollywood has seen since the obstreperous Orson Welles went riding out of town on an exhibitors' poll"-as the film recorded a loss of $130,000.[9][5] New York Times film critic A. H. Weiler wrote, "Though The Killing is composed of familiar ingredients and it calls for fuller explanations, it evolves as a fairly diverting melodrama. ... Aficionados of the sport of kings will discover that Mr. Kubrick's cameras have captured some colorful shots of the ponies at Bay Meadows track. Other observers should find The Killing an engrossing little adventure."[10] Variety liked the acting and wrote, "This story of a $2 million race track holdup and steps leading up to the robbery, occasionally told in a documentary style which at first tends to be somewhat confusing, soon settles into a tense and suspenseful vein which carries through to an unexpected and ironic windup ... Hayden socks over a restrained characterization, and Cook is a particular standout. Windsor is particularly good, as she digs the plan out of her husband and reveals it to her boyfriend."[11] Kubrick and Harris thought the positive critical reception had made their presence known in Hollywood, but Max Youngstein of United Artists still considered them "not far from the bottom" of the pool of new talent at the time.[12] Dore Schary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was impressed with the film, and offered the duo $75,000 to write, direct and produce another, which became Paths of Glory.[12] The Killing has gained a cult following, among other Kubrick films.[8] For example, Eddie Muller placed the film 15th among his top 25 favorite noir films, saying, "If you believe that a good script is a succession of great scenes, you can't do better than this. Hey, that scene was so good, let's do it again from somebody else's perspective".[13] In 1998, Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader included the film in his unranked list of the best American films not included on the AFI Top 100.[14] In 1999, film critic Mike Emery wrote, "Kubrick's camerawork was well on the way to finding the fluid style of his later work, and the sparse, low-budget circumstances give the film a raw, urgent sort of look. As good as the story and direction are, though, the true strength of The Killing lies in the characters and characterizations."[15] The same year, director Peter Bogdanovich wrote in The New York Times that while The Killing did not make money, it, along with Paths of Glory, established "Kubrick's reputation as a budding genius among critics and studio executives."[16] In 2012, Roger Ebert added The Killing to his list of "Great Movies". In his opening remarks, Ebert writes, "Stanley Kubrick considered The Killing (1956) to be his first mature feature, after a couple of short warm-ups. He was 28 when it was released, having already been an obsessed chess player, a photographer for Look magazine and a director of March of Time newsreels. It's tempting to search here for themes and a style he would return to in his later masterpieces, but few directors seemed so determined to make every one of his films an individual, free-standing work. Seeing it without his credit, would you guess it was by Kubrick? Would you connect Dr. Strangelove with Barry Lyndon?"[17]
While playing chess in Washington Square, Kubrick met producer James B. Harris, who was looking for a young new talent to produce for, having sold his film distribution company. Harris considered Kubrick "the most intelligent, most creative person [he had] ever come in contact with", and the two formed the Harris-Kubrick Pictures Corporation in 1955.[6] Harris purchased the rights to Lionel White's novel Clean Break for $10,000, beating United Artists, which was interested in the film as a vehicle for Frank Sinatra.[6] At Kubrick's suggestion they hired hardboiled fiction novelist Jim Thompson to write the script. United Artists told the pair that it would help finance the picture if Harris and Kubrick could find a high-profile actor to star. They signed Sterling Hayden, who agreed to accept $40,000. But Hayden wasn't a big enough star for UA, which wound up providing only $200,000 for the film; Harris financed the rest using $80,000 of his own money and a $50,000 loan from his father.[7] The film was the first of three on which Harris and Kubrick collaborated as producer and director over less than ten years.[8] Working titles for the film were Clean Break and Bed of Fear.[8] It was the last feature film completely filmed by Kubrick in the United States (interiors for Spartacus were shot on Universal's Hollywood sound stages, but its battle exteriors were shot in Spain). Three members of the cast-Hayden, Ted de Corsia and Timothy Carey-had appeared together the previous year in the low-budget noir film Crime Wave. The art director, Ruth Sobotka, was Kubrick's wife at the time.[8] Kubrick and Harris moved from New York to L.A. to shoot the picture, and Kubrick went unpaid during the shooting, surviving on loans from Harris. In addition to Hayden, Kubrick cast actors from films noirs he liked, such as Timothy Carey, Ted de Corsia, Elisha Cook Jr. and Marie Windsor. He chose former professional wrestler and old chess friend Kola Kwariani to play an aging, chess-playing grappler.[7] The Hollywood cinematographers' union told Kubrick that he could not be both director and cinematographer, so veteran cinematographer Lucien Ballard was hired to shoot the picture. He and Kubrick often clashed during filming. On one occasion Kubrick favored a long tracking shot, with the camera close to the actors with a 25mm wide-angle lens to provide slight distortion of the image, but Ballard moved it further away and began using a 50mm lens. Kubrick sternly ordered him to put the camera back or he would be fired.[7]
The Killing is a 1956 American film noir directed by Stanley Kubrick and produced by James B. Harris.[4] It was written by Kubrick and Jim Thompson and based on Lionel White's novel Clean Break. It stars Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, and Vince Edwards, and features Marie Windsor, Elisha Cook Jr., Jay C. Flippen and Timothy Carey.
Yeoman shot The Grand Budapest Hotel on 35 mm film using Kodak Vision3 200T 5213 film stock from a single Arricam Studio camera provided by Arri's Berlin office. His approach entailed the use of a Chapman-Leonard Hybrid III camera dolly for tracking shots and a geared head to achieve most of the film's rapid whip pans. For whip pans greater than 90 degrees, the filmmakers installed a fluid head from Mitchell Camera Corporation's OConnor Ultimate product line for greater fidelity. Anderson requested Yeoman and project key grip Sanjay Sami focus on new methods for shooting the scenes. Thus they used the Mad About Technology Towercam Twin Peek, a telescoping camera platform, to traverse between floors, sometimes in lieu of a camera crane. For example, when a lantern drops to the basement from a hole in the cell floor in the Checkpoint Nineteen jailbreak scene, the filmmakers suspended the towercam upside-down, a setup which allowed the camera to descend to the ground. The Grand Budapest Hotel uses three aspect ratios as framing devices which streamline the film's story, evoking the aesthetic of the corresponding periods. The multifarious structure of The Grand Budapest Hotel emerged from Anderson's desire to shoot in 1.37:1 format, also known as Academy ratio. Production used Academy ratio for scenes set in 1932, which, according to Yeoman, provided the filmmakers with greater-than-routine headroom. He and the producers referred to the work of Ernst Lubitsch and other directors of the period to acclimate to the compositions produced from said format. Filmmakers formatted modern scenes in standard 1.85:1 ratio, and the 1968 scenes were captured in widescreen 2.40:1 ratio with Technovision Cooke anamorphic lenses. These lenses produced a certain texture, one that lacked the sharpness of Panavision's Primo anamorphic lenses. Yeoman lit interior shots with tungsten incandescent fixtures and DMX-dimmer-controlled lighting. The crew made the Warenhaus ceiling from stretched muslin rigged with twenty 4K HMI lamps, an arrangement wherein the reflected light penetrated the skylight, accentuating the set's daylighting. Yeoman preferred the lighting choice because the warm tungsten fixtures contrasted with the coolish daylight.[42] When shooting deliberately less inviting hotel sets, such as Zero and Gustave's small bedrooms and the Grand Budapest's servants' quarters, the filmmakers combined fluorescent lighting, paper lanterns, and bare incandescent lights for historical accuracy. The Stuttgart-based LUXX Studios and Look Effects' German branch (also in Stuttgart) managed most of The Grand Budapest Hotel's visual effects, under the supervision of Gabriel Sanchez. Their work for the film comprised 300 shots, created by a small cadre of specialized artists. The development of the film's effects was swift, but at times difficult. Sanchez did not work on set with Anderson as Look Effects opened their Stuttgart headquarters after The Grand Budapest Hotel filming wrapped, and therefore was only able to reference his prior experience with the director. The California-based artist also became homesick working his first international assignment. Only four artists from the newly assembled team had experience working on a multi-million dollar studio set. Creation of the effects was daunting because of their technical demands. The filmmakers camouflaged some of the stop-motion and matte effects in the forest-set chase scene to convey the desired intensity, and enhancing the snowscape with particle effects posed another challenge. Sanchez cites the observatory and hotel shots as work that best demonstrate his special effects team's ingenuity. To achieve the aging brutalist design of the 1968 Grand Budapest, they generated computer models supplemented with detailed lighting, matte effects and shadowy expanses. The crew used a similar technique in developing digital shots of the observatory; unlike the hotel, the observatory's base miniature was presented in pieces. They rendered the observatory with 20 different elements, data furthermore enhanced at Anderson's request. It took about one hour per shot to complete the final digital rendering.
The project was director of photography Robert Yeoman's eighth film with Anderson. Yeoman participated in an early scouting session with Anderson, recording footage with stand-in film crew to assess how certain scenes would unfold. Yeoman drew on Vittorio Storaro's dramatic lighting techniques in the romantic musical One From the Heart (1982). Filmmakers shot The Grand Budapest Hotel in ten weeks, from January to March 2013 in eastern Germany, where it qualified for a tax rebate financed by the German government's Federal Film Fund and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. They also found Germany attractive because the production base was geographically confined, facilitating efficient logistics,[48] but the frigid weather and reduced daylight of early winter disrupted the shooting schedule, compounded by the slow film stock used for the camerawork. To rectify the issue, the producers used artificial lighting, expedited the daytime work schedule, and filmed night scenes at dusk. Principal photography took place at the Babelsberg Studio in suburban Berlin and in Görlitz, a mid-sized border town on the Lusatian Neisse on Germany's eastern frontier. The filmmakers staged their largest interior sets at the vacant twentieth-century Görlitzer Warenhaus, whose atrium doubled for the Grand Budapest Hotel lobby. The top two floors housed production offices and storage space for cameras and wardrobe. Anderson at one point considered buying the Warenhaus to save it from demolition. He and the producers eyed vacant buildings because they could exercise full artistic control, and scouting active hotels that often enforce heavy shooting restrictions would call into question The Grand Budapest Hotel's integrity. Exterior shots of the eighteenth-century estate Hainewalde Manor and interior shots of Schloss Waldenburg stood in for the Schloss Lutz estate. Elsewhere in Saxony, production moved to Zwickau-shooting at the Osterstein Castle-and the state capital Dresden, where scenes were filmed at the Zwinger and the Pfunds Molkerei creamery.
A seventeen-actor ensemble received star billing in The Grand Budapest Hotel. Anderson customarily employs a troupe of longtime collaborators-Bill Murray, Adrien Brody, Edward Norton, Owen Wilson, Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, and Jason Schwartzman have worked on one or more of his projects. Norton and Murray immediately signed when sent the script. The Grand Budapest Hotel ensemble comprised mostly bit cameos. Because of the limitations of such roles, Brody said that the most significant challenge was balancing the film's comedy with the otherwise solemn subject matter. All were the filmmakers' first casting choices save for Swinton, whom they pursued for Madame D. when Angela Lansbury dropped out as a result of a prior commitment to a Driving Miss Daisy theater production. Once hired, actors were encouraged to study the source material to prepare. Dafoe and Fiennes in particular found the animatics helpful in conceptualizing The Grand Budapest Hotel from Anderson's perspective, though Fiennes did not refer to them too often as he wanted his acting to be spontaneous. A head-and-shoulder shot of Ralph Fiennes at The White Crow Tokyo premiere A head-and-shoulder shot of Tony Revolori at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con International A head-and-shoulder shot of Saoirse Ronan at the Mary Queen of Scots Edinburgh premiere in 2019 Left to right: Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori, and Saoirse Ronan play Gustave, Zero, and Agatha, respectively. Anderson desired an English actor to play Gustave, and Fiennes was an actor he sought to work with for several years. Fiennes, surprised by the offer, was eager to depart from his famously villainous roles and found Gustave's panache compelling. Fiennes said he was initially unsure how to approach his character because the extent of Anderson's oversight meant actors could not improvise on set, inhibiting his usually spontaneous performing style. The direction of Gustave's persona then became another question of tone, whether the portrayal be hyper-camp or understated. Fiennes drew on several sources to shape his character's persona, among them his triple role as Hungarian-Jewish men escaping fascist persecution in the István Szabó-directed drama Sunshine (1999), his brief stint as a young porter at Brown's Hotel in London, and the experience reading The World of Yesterday. Johnny Depp was reported as an early candidate in the press, claims which Anderson denied, despite later reports that scheduling conflicts had halted negotiations. Casting director Douglas Aibel was responsible for hiring a suitable actor to play young Zero. Aibel's months-long search for prospective actors proved troublesome as he was unable to fulfill the specifications for an unknown teenage actor of Arabic descent. "We were just trying to leave no stone unturned in the process." Filmmakers held auditions in Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, France, England, and the United States before revising the role's ethnic criterion. Eventually the filmmakers narrowed their search to Tony Revolori and his older brother Mario, novices of Guatemalan descent, and Tony landed the part after one taped audition. He and Anderson rehearsed together for over four months before the start of filming to build a rapport. Abraham spent about a week on set filming his scenes as the elderly Zero. Saoirse Ronan joined The Grand Budapest Hotel in November 2012. Though a longtime Anderson fan, Ronan feared the deadpan, theatrical acting style characteristic of Anderson-directed films would be too difficult to master. She was reassured by the writer-director's conviction, "He guides everyone extremely well. He is very secure in his vision and he is very comfortable with everything he does. He knows it is going to work." The decision to play Agatha with Ronan's native Irish accent was Anderson's idea, after experimenting with German, English, and American accents; they felt an Irish accent projected a warm, feisty spirit into Agatha.
Drafting of The Grand Budapest Hotel story began in 2006, when Wes Anderson produced an 18-page script with longtime collaborator Hugo Guinness. They imagined a fragmented tale of a character inspired by a mutual friend, based in modern France and the United Kingdom. Though their work yielded a 12-minute-long cut, collaboration stalled when the two men were unable to coalesce a uniform sequence of events to advance their story. By this time, Anderson had begun researching the work of Austrian novelist Stefan Zweig, with whom he was vaguely familiar. He became fascinated with Zweig, gravitating to Beware of Pity (1939), The World of Yesterday (1942), and The Post Office Girl (1982) for their fatalist mythos and Zweig's portrait of early twentieth-century Vienna. Anderson also used period images and urbane Europe-set mid-century Hollywood comedies as references. He ultimately pursued a historical pastiche with an alternate timeline, disillusioned with popular media's romanticism of pre-World War II European history. Once The Grand Budapest Hotel took definite form, Anderson resumed the scriptwriting, finishing the screenplay in six weeks. The producers tapped Jay Clarke to supervise production of the film's animatics, with voiceovers by Anderson. Anderson's sightseeing in Europe was another source of inspiration for The Grand Budapest Hotel's visual motifs. The writer-director visited Vienna, Munich, and other major cities before the project's conception, but most location scouting began after the Cannes premiere of his coming-of-age drama Moonrise Kingdom (2012). He and the producers toured Budapest, small Italian spa towns, and the Czech resort Karlovy Vary before a final stop in Germany, consulting hotel staff to develop an accurate idea of a real-life concierge's work.
The Grand Budapest Hotel is a 2014 comedy-drama film written and directed by Wes Anderson. Ralph Fiennes leads a seventeen-actor ensemble cast as Monsieur Gustave H., famed concierge of a twentieth-century mountainside resort in the fictional Eastern European country of Zubrowka. When Gustave is framed for the murder of a wealthy dowager (Tilda Swinton), he and his recently befriended protégé Zero (Tony Revolori) embark on a quest for fortune and a priceless Renaissance painting amidst the backdrop of an encroaching fascist regime. Anderson's American Empirical Pictures produced the film in association with Studio Babelsberg, Fox Searchlight Pictures, and Indian Paintbrush's Scott Rudin and Steven Rales. Fox Searchlight supervised the commercial distribution, and The Grand Budapest Hotel's funding was sourced through Indian Paintbrush and German government-funded tax rebates. Anderson and longtime collaborator Hugo Guinness conceived The Grand Budapest Hotel as a fragmented tale following a character inspired by a common friend. They initially struggled in their brainstorming, but the experience touring Europe and researching the literature of Austrian novelist Stefan Zweig shaped their vision for the film. The Grand Budapest Hotel draws visually from Europe-set mid-century Hollywood films and the United States Library of Congress's photochrom print collection of alpine resorts. Filming took place in eastern Germany from January to March 2013. French composer Alexandre Desplat composed the symphonic, Russian folk-inspired score, which expanded on his early work with Anderson. The film explores themes of fascism, nostalgia, friendship, and loyalty, and further studies analyze the function of color as an important storytelling device. The Grand Budapest Hotel premiered in competition at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival on February 6, 2014. The French theatrical release on February 26 preceded the film's global rollout, followed by releases in Germany, North America, and the United Kingdom on March 6-7. The Grand Budapest Hotel received critical acclaim in the press. Critics distinguished the actors and the film's craftsmanship for praise, though occasional criticism centered on the film's approach to subject matter, fragmented storytelling, and characterization. It earned $173 million in box office revenue worldwide, Anderson's highest-grossing feature to date. The film was nominated for nine awards at the 87th Academy Awards including Best Picture, winning four, and received numerous other accolades. Since its release, The Grand Budapest Hotel has been assessed as one of the greatest films of the 21st century.
Freeman was cast at the suggestion of producer Liz Glotzer, who ignored the novella's character description of a white Irishman, nicknamed "Red". Freeman's character alludes to the choice when queried by Andy on why he is called Red, replying "Maybe it's because I'm Irish."[40] Freeman opted not to research his role, saying "acting the part of someone who's incarcerated doesn't require any specific knowledge of incarceration ... because men don't change. Once you're in that situation, you just toe whatever line you have to toe."[2] Darabont was already aware of Freeman from his minor role in another prison drama, Brubaker (1980), while Robbins had been excited to work alongside the actor, having grown up watching him in The Electric Company children's television show. Darabont looked initially at some of his favorite actors, such as Gene Hackman and Robert Duvall, for the role of Andy Dufresne, but they were unavailable;[40] Clint Eastwood and Paul Newman were also considered.[44] Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, and Kevin Costner were offered, and passed on the role[8]-Hanks due to his starring role in Forrest Gump,[40] and Costner because he had the lead in Waterworld.[45] Johnny Depp, Nicolas Cage, and Charlie Sheen were also considered for the role at different stages.[45] Cruise attended table readings of the script, but declined to work for the inexperienced Darabont.[8] Darabont said he cast Robbins after seeing his performance in the 1990 psychological horror Jacob's Ladder.[46] When Robbins was cast, he insisted that Darabont use experienced cinematographer Roger Deakins, who had worked with him on The Hudsucker Proxy.[8] To prepare for the role, Robbins observed caged animals at a zoo, spent an afternoon in solitary confinement, spoke with prisoners and guards,[33] and had his arms and legs shackled for a few hours. Cast initially as young convict Tommy, Brad Pitt dropped out following his success in Thelma & Louise, and the role went to a debuting Gil Bellows.[2][8] James Gandolfini passed on portraying prison rapist Bogs.[8] Bob Gunton was filming Demolition Man (1993) when he went to audition for the role of Warden Norton. To convince the studio that Gunton was right for the part, Darabont and producer Niki Marvin arranged for him to record a screen test on a day off from Demolition Man. They had a wig made for him as his head was shaved for his Demolition Man role. Gunton wanted to portray Norton with hair as this could then be grayed to convey his on-screen aging as the film progressed. Gunton performed his screen test with Robbins, which was filmed by Deakins. After being confirmed for the role, he used the wig in the film's early scenes until his hair regrew. Gunton said that Marvin and Darabont saw that he understood the character, which went in his favor, as did the fact his height was similar to Robbins', allowing Andy to believably use the warden's suit. Portraying the head guard Byron Hadley, Clancy Brown was given the opportunity to speak with former guards by the production's liaison officer but declined, believing it would not be a good thing to say that his brutal character was in any way inspired by Ohio state correctional officers.[47] William Sadler, who portrays Heywood, said that Darabont had approached him in 1989 on the set of the Tales from the Crypt television series, where he was a writer, about starring in the adaptation he was intending to make.[48] Freeman's son Alfonso has a cameo as a young Red in mug shot photos,[40] and as a prisoner shouting "fresh fish" as Andy arrives at Shawshank.[49] Among the extras used in the film were the former warden and former inmates of the reformatory, and active guards from a nearby incarceration facility.[2][50] The novella's original title attracted several people to audition for the nonexistent role of Rita Hayworth, including a man in drag clothing.
Development Darabont first collaborated with author Stephen King in 1983 on the short film adaptation of "The Woman in the Room", buying the rights from him for $1-a Dollar Deal that King used to help new directors build a résumé by adapting his short stories.[8] After receiving his first screenwriting credit in 1987 for A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Darabont returned to King with $5,000[35] to purchase the rights to adapt Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, a 96-page novella from King's 1982 collection Different Seasons, written to explore genres other than the horror stories for which he was commonly known.[36] Although King did not understand how the story, largely focused on Red contemplating his fellow prisoner Andy, could be turned into a feature film, Darabont believed it was "obvious".[8] King never cashed the $5,000 check from Darabont; he later framed it and returned it to Darabont accompanied by a note which read: "In case you ever need bail money. Love, Steve." Five years later, Darabont wrote the script over an eight-week period. He expanded on elements of King's story. Brooks, who in the novella is a minor character who dies in a retirement home, became a tragic character who eventually hanged himself. Tommy, who in the novella trades his evidence exonerating Andy for transfer to a nicer prison, in the screenplay is murdered on the orders of Warden Norton, who is a composite of several warden characters in King's story.[8] Darabont opted to create a single warden character to serve as the primary antagonist.[38] Among his inspirations, Darabont listed the works of director Frank Capra, including Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and It's a Wonderful Life (1946), describing them as tall tales; Darabont likened The Shawshank Redemption to a tall tale more than a prison movie.[39] He also cited Goodfellas (1990) as an inspiration on the use of dialogue to illustrate the passage of time in the script, and the prison drama Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) directed by John Frankenheimer.[40] While later scouting filming locations, Darabont happened upon Frankenheimer who was scouting for his own prison-set project Against the Wall. Darabont recalled that Frankenheimer took time out from his scouting to provide Darabont with encouragement and advice. At the time, prison-based films were not considered likely box-office successes, but Darabont's script was read by then-Castle Rock Entertainment producer Liz Glotzer, whose interest in prison stories and reaction to the script, led her to threaten to quit if Castle Rock did not produce The Shawshank Redemption.[8] Director and Castle Rock co-founder Rob Reiner also liked the script. He offered Darabont between $2.4 million[42] and $3 million to allow him to direct it himself.[8] Reiner, who had previously adapted King's 1982 novella The Body into the 1986 film Stand by Me, planned to cast Tom Cruise as Andy and Harrison Ford as Red. Castle Rock offered to finance any other film Darabont wanted to develop. Darabont seriously considered the offer, citing growing up poor in Los Angeles, believing it would elevate his standing in the industry, and that Castle Rock could have contractually fired him and given the film to Reiner anyway, but he chose to remain the director, saying in a 2014 Variety interview, "you can continue to defer your dreams in exchange for money and, you know, die without ever having done the thing you set out to do".[8] Reiner served as Darabont's mentor on the project, instead.[8] Within two weeks of showing the script to Castle Rock, Darabont had a $25 million budget to make his film[2] (taking a $750,000 screenwriting and directing salary plus a percentage of the net profits),[42] and pre-production began in January 1993.
Analysis The film has been interpreted as being grounded in Christian mysticism. Andy is offered as a messianic, Christ-like figure, with Red describing him early in the film as having an aura that engulfs and protects him from Shawshank. The scene in which Andy and several inmates tar the prison roof can be seen as a recreation of the Last Supper, with Andy obtaining beer/wine for the twelve inmates/disciples as Freeman describes them as the "lords of all creation" invoking Jesus' blessing. Director Frank Darabont responded that this was not his deliberate intention, but he wanted people to find their own meaning in the film. The discovery of The Marriage of Figaro record is described in the screenplay as akin to finding the Holy Grail, bringing the prisoners to a halt, and causing the sick to rise up in their beds. Early in the film, Warden Norton quotes Jesus Christ to describe himself to Andy, saying, "I am the light of the world", declaring himself Andy's savior, but this description can also reference Lucifer, the bearer of light. Indeed, the warden does not enforce the general rule of law, but chooses to enforce his own rules and punishments as he sees fit, becoming a law unto himself, like the behavior of Satan. The warden has also been compared to former United States President Richard Nixon. Norton's appearance and public addresses can be seen to mirror Nixon's. Similarly, Norton projects an image of a holy man, speaking down sanctimoniously to the servile masses while running corrupt scams, like those of which Nixon was accused. An empty crescent shaped beach, with small patches of grass and a small red boat sits on the shore. The sea appears to the left of the image and mountains appear in the background. Andy and Red's reunion was filmed at the Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge, Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. The location has been interpreted as a form of escape or paradise. Zihuatanejo has been interpreted as an analog for heaven or paradise. In the film, Andy describes it as a place with no memory, offering absolution from his sins by forgetting about them or allowing them to be washed away by the Pacific Ocean, whose name means "peaceful". The possibility of escaping to Zihuatanejo is only raised after Andy admits that he feels responsible for his wife's death. Similarly, Red's freedom is only earned once he accepts he cannot save himself or atone for his sins. Freeman has described Red's story as one of salvation as he is not innocent of his crimes, unlike Andy who finds redemption. While some Christian viewers interpret Zihuatanejo as heaven, film critic Mark Kermode wrote that it can also be interpreted as a Nietzschean form of guiltlessness achieved outside traditional notions of good and evil, where the amnesia offered is the destruction rather than forgiveness of sin, meaning Andy's aim is secular and atheistic. Just as Andy can be interpreted as a Christ-like figure, he can be seen as a Zarathustra-like prophet offering escape through education and the experience of freedom. Film critic Roger Ebert argued that The Shawshank Redemption is an allegory for maintaining one's feeling of self-worth when placed in a hopeless position. Andy's integrity is an important theme in the story line, especially in prison, where integrity is lacking. Robbins himself believes that the concept of Zihuatanejo resonates with audiences because it represents a form of escape that can be achieved after surviving for many years within whatever "jail" someone finds themselves in, whether a bad relationship, job, or environment. Robbins said that it is important that such a place exists for us. Isaac M. Morehouse suggests that the film provides a great illustration of how characters can be free, even in prison, or imprisoned, even in freedom, based on their outlooks on life.[29] Philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre described freedom as an ongoing project that requires attention and resilience, without which a person begins to be defined by others or institutions, mirroring Red's belief that inmates become dependent on the prison to define their lives. Andy displays resilience through rebellion, by playing music over the prison loudspeaker, and refusing to continue with the money-laundering scam. Many elements can be considered as tributes to the power of cinema. In the prison theater, the inmates watch the film Gilda (1946), but this scene was originally intended to feature The Lost Weekend (1945). The interchangeability of the films used in the prison theater suggests that it is the cinematic experience and not the subject that is key to the scene, allowing the men to escape the reality of their situation. Immediately following this scene, Andy is assaulted by the Sisters in the projector room and uses a film reel to help fight them off. At the end of the film, Andy passes through a hole in his cell hidden by a movie poster to escape both his cell and ultimately Shawshank. Andy and Red's relationship has been described as a nonsexual story between two men, that few other films offer, as the friendship is not built on conducting a caper, car chases, or developing a relationship with women. Philosopher Alexander Hooke argued that Andy and Red's true freedom is their friendship, being able to share joy and humor with each other.
Cast Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne: A banker sentenced to life in prison in 1947 for the murder of his wife and her lover Morgan Freeman as Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding: A prison contraband smuggler who befriends Andy Bob Gunton as Samuel Norton: The pious and cruel warden of Shawshank penitentiary William Sadler as Heywood: A member of Red's gang of long-serving convicts Clancy Brown as Byron Hadley: The brutal captain of the prison guards Gil Bellows as Tommy Williams: A young convict imprisoned for burglary in 1965 James Whitmore as Brooks Hatlen: The elderly prison librarian, imprisoned at Shawshank for over five decades The cast also includes Mark Rolston as Bogs Diamond, the head of "the Sisters" gang and a prison rapist; Jeffrey DeMunn as the prosecuting attorney in Dufresne's trial; Alfonso Freeman as Fresh Fish Con; Ned Bellamy and Don McManus as, respectively, prison guards Youngblood and Wiley; and Dion Anderson as Head Bull Haig. Renee Blaine portrays Andy's wife, and Scott Mann portrays her golf-instructor lover Glenn Quentin. Frank Medrano plays Fat Ass, one of Andy's fellow new inmates who is beaten to death by Hadley, and Bill Bolender plays Elmo Blatch, a convict who may actually be responsible for the crimes for which Andy is convicted. James Kisicki and Claire Slemmer portray the Maine National Bank manager and a teller, respectively.
The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 American prison drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont, based on the 1982 Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. The film tells the story of banker Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), who is sentenced to life in Shawshank State Penitentiary for the murders of his wife and her lover, despite his claims of innocence. Over the following two decades, he befriends a fellow prisoner, contraband smuggler Ellis "Red" Redding (Morgan Freeman), and becomes instrumental in a money laundering operation led by the prison warden Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton). William Sadler, Clancy Brown, Gil Bellows, and James Whitmore appear in supporting roles. Darabont purchased the film rights to King's story in 1987, but development did not begin until five years later, when he wrote the script over an eight-week period. Two weeks after submitting his script to Castle Rock Entertainment, Darabont secured a $25 million budget to produce The Shawshank Redemption, which started pre-production in January 1993. While the film is set in Maine, principal photography took place from June to August 1993 almost entirely in Mansfield, Ohio, with the Ohio State Reformatory serving as the eponymous penitentiary. The project attracted many stars for the role of Andy, including Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, and Kevin Costner. Thomas Newman provided the film's score. While The Shawshank Redemption received critical acclaim upon its release-particularly for its story, the performances of Robbins and Freeman, Newman's score, Darabont's direction and screenplay and Roger Deakins' cinematography-the film was a box-office disappointment, earning only $16 million during its initial theatrical run. Many reasons were cited for its failure at the time, including competition from the films Pulp Fiction and Forrest Gump, the general unpopularity of prison films, its lack of female characters, and even the title, which was considered to be confusing for audiences. It went on to receive multiple award nominations, including seven Academy Award nominations, and a theatrical re-release that, combined with international takings, increased the film's box-office gross to $73.3 million. Over 320,000 VHS rental copies were shipped throughout the United States, and on the strength of its award nominations and word of mouth, it became one of the top video rentals of 1995. The broadcast rights were acquired following the purchase of Castle Rock by Turner Broadcasting System, and it was shown regularly on the TNT network starting in 1997, further increasing its popularity. Decades after its release, the film is still broadcast regularly, and is popular in several countries, with audience members and celebrities citing it as a source of inspiration or naming it a favorite in various surveys, leading to its recognition as one of the most "beloved" films ever made. In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Critical response On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 70% of 226 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.1/10. The website's consensus reads: "This raunchy comedy often plays it disappointingly safe, but Jennifer Lawrence's comedic and dramatic chops ensure that the end result prompts No Hard Feelings." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 59 out of 100, based on 50 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported 84% of filmgoers gave it a positive score, with 59% saying they would definitely recommend it. Critics opined the film is an enjoyable showcase for Lawrence's knack for physical comedy. Shirley Li of The Atlantic wrote, "Like the Risky Business copycats and hot-girl-meets-dweeby-dude romantic comedies that thrived in the aughts and early 2010s, No Hard Feelings offers some insight into the role that sex plays in the coming-of-age process, and how a perceived pressure to lose your virginity by some arbitrary deadline can remain a cross-generational burden. The film explores the difficulties of growing up, whether at 19 or 32, and the ways in which Maddie's and Percy's attitudes toward sex invite judgment about their levels of maturity." Writing for The Hollywood Reporter, Lovia Gyarkye said, "There's more to each of these characters than meets the eye. Stupnitsky dials down the intensity of the first act - with its sharp comedic timing and energetic slapstick - to make way for sweeter moments with Maddie and Percy." Tim Grierson from Screen Daily called the movie an uneven, but thoughtful sentimental story about insecure characters with good hearts. Deadline Hollywood called it "a great start post-pandemic for a rare raunch comedy". Prior to the film's release, some commentators accused No Hard Feelings of promoting sexual grooming. In an article for Bust, Carmella D'Acquisto commented on the film's trailer, writing, "take a moment to think about if this film would be made if the genders were reversed. Can you imagine pitching a film where a 32-year old man was paid to groom and coerce a 19-year-old woman into having sex that she doesn't want to have? No one would make that movie. But it's presented as funny and quirky when a grown woman does the manipulating." In defense of the film in her review, Sophie Butcher of Empire wrote that the premise is supposed to be "icky" and that the film constantly addresses it saying "Maddie is frequently confronted by the generational gap between her and Percy's peers, but her immaturity means she also often seems childlike by comparison." Feldman, who plays Percy, said in an interview regarding the controversy that, "The film never condones the things that Jennifer's character does or that my character's parents do. This is a movie about flawed people and it's a cringe comedy. You're meant to cringe! You're meant to sit with those uncomfortable feelings." He also noted that the film normalizes "wanting to find love and connection," not pressuring young males to have sexual relationships.
Development In October 2021, it was announced that Sony Pictures had won a highly competitive R-rated comedy package backed by producer-star Jennifer Lawrence and director Gene Stupnitsky over studios Apple, Netflix, and Universal Pictures for a theatrical-exclusive release. Lawrence, Alex Saks, Marc Provissiero, Naomi Odenkirk, and Justine Polsky serve as producers while Stupnitsky co-wrote the screenplay with John Phillips.[8] Its plot came from a real Craigslist ad sent to Stupnitsky by producers Provissiero and Odenkirk, with the former telling Lawrence about the story over dinner with her in mind for the role.[9] In July 2022, it was reported that Sony would be moving forward with the film and engage in a theatrical release set for June 16, 2023. Casting In September 2022, Andrew Barth Feldman joined the cast as the male lead, while Laura Benanti and Matthew Broderick were cast as that character's parents along with Ebon Moss-Bachrach joining the cast. The following month, Natalie Morales and Scott MacArthur joined the cast. Filming Principal photography began in late September 2022 in various Nassau County locations in New York, such as Hempstead, Point Lookout, Lawrence, and Uniondale. Ted's Fishing Station located in Point Lookout was made to look like "Montauk Dock East". One month later, production shot scenes at the North Shore Animal League America in Port Washington. Filming for No Hard Feelings concluded that November. Music Mychael Danna and Jessica Rose Weiss composed the film score.
No Hard Feelings is a 2023 American sex comedy film starring Jennifer Lawrence as a woman who is hired by a wealthy couple to romance their romantically and sexually inexperienced son, played by Andrew Barth Feldman. The film is directed by Gene Stupnitsky from a screenplay he co-wrote with John Phillips. Along with Lawrence-who was one of the film's producers-and Feldman, the film stars Laura Benanti, Natalie Morales, and Matthew Broderick. The project was announced in October 2021, when Sony Pictures Releasing and Columbia Pictures won a bidding war between Apple Original Films, Netflix and Universal Pictures. Lawrence joined the cast and produced the film with Stupnitsky attached to direct the film. Much of the cast joined in September to October 2022. Filming began in late September in various Nassau County locations in the New York City metropolitan area, before finishing the following November. No Hard Feelings was theatrically released in the United States on June 23, 2023, by Sony Pictures Releasing. It received positive reviews from critics and grossed over $87 million worldwide against a $45 million budget. Lawrence earned a nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical at the 81st Golden Globe Awards, and the film was nominated for Best Comedy at the 29th Critics' Choice Awards.
In an interview prior to the film's release, Henk Rogers said that both he and Alexey Pajitnov reviewed the script and made suggestions. However, Rogers noted, "It's a Hollywood script, a movie. It's not about history so a lot of [what's in the movie] never happened." There were events in the movie that did transpire in real life. For instance, Rogers notes that he did convince Nintendo to bundle Tetris in with the Game Boy at launch in place of Super Mario Land. Rogers emphasized that the producers wanted to "capture the darkness and the brooding" that he felt during his time trying to get the rights to Tetris in then-Soviet Russia. He continued, "They tried their best to accept our changes when they had to do with authenticity. But when it started getting into [creative flourishes like] the car chase and all that, it was like 'OK, now it's all them.' We couldn't change anything."
Critical response On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 82% of 186 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "While it's nowhere near as addictive or fast-paced as the game, Tetris offers a fun, fizzy account of the story behind an 8-bit classic." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 61 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Accolades Tetris received nominations for Best Music and Best Action/Thriller TrailerByte for a Feature Film at the 2023 Golden Trailer Awards. Egerton was nominated for Best Actor at the 6th Hollywood Critics Association Midseason Film Awards. Lawsuit In August 2023, Dan Ackerman, the chief editor of Gizmodo, sued Apple for "illegally copying" his 2016 book The Tetris Effect: The Game That Hypnotized the World. Ackerman is asking the court for monetary damages of $4.8 million, which is 6% of the film's $80 million production budget.
n July 2020, it was reported that a biopic was being made about the making of Tetris, which will delve into the legal battles that took place during the Cold War over ownership of the game, with Jon S. Baird directing and Taron Egerton cast to portray the game publisher Henk Rogers. Egerton confirmed this report in an August 2020 interview, explaining that the film would mirror a tone similar to The Social Network. In November 2020, Apple TV+ acquired the film. Filming began in Glasgow in December 2020, including Glasgow Prestwick Airport on the Ayrshire coast. In February 2021, filming took place in Aberdeen at locations including the University of Aberdeen's Zoology Building, which was used as the headquarters of Soviet firm Elorg, and Seamount Court[8] which was used for several scenes. Filming took place for 7 days in and around the former (RAF) military base at Balado in Perth & Kinross; particularly internal scenes for a quasi-military backdrop. Production then returned to Glasgow for a few days, before wrapping in early March 2021. Reshoots took place in 2022, and the film's release was planned for later in the year. In a 2023 interview, Alexey Pajitnov admitted that the film "didn't make an actual biography or an actual recreation of what actually happened", but that was "close enough and very right emotionally and spiritually".
Tetris is a 2023 biographical thriller film based on true events around the race to license and patent the video game Tetris from Russia in the late 1980s during the Cold War. It was directed by Jon S. Baird and written by Noah Pink. The film stars Taron Egerton, Nikita Efremov, Sofia Lebedeva, and Anthony Boyle. Tetris premiered at the SXSW Film Festival on March 15, 2023, and was released on March 31, by Apple TV+. The film received generally positive reviews from critics.
Box office It grossed $45.6 million worldwide, including $4.2 million in the United States and Canada. It was number one at the Japanese box office for three weeks.[citation needed] Accolades Dancer in the Dark premiered at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and was awarded the Palme d'Or, along with the Best Actress award for Björk. The song "I've Seen It All" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song, at the performance of which Björk wore her famous swan dress. Sight & Sound magazine conducts a poll every ten years of the world's finest film directors to find out the Ten Greatest Films of All Time. This poll has been going since 1952, and has become the most recognised poll of its kind in the world. In 2012, Cyrus Frisch was one of the four directors who voted for Dancer in the Dark. Frisch commented: "A superbly imaginative film that leaves conformity in shambles". Director Oliver Schmitz also lauded the work as "relentless, claustrophobic, the best movie about capital punishment as far as I'm concerned".
At the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Dancer in the Dark earned positive reviews from 69% of 121 critics, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The critics consensus on the website reads, "Dancer in Dark can be grim, dull, and difficult to watch, but even so, it has a powerful and moving performance from Björk and is something quite new and visionary". According to Metacritic, which assigned the film a weighted average score of 63/100 based on 33 critic reviews, the film received "generally favorable reviews". On The Movie Show, Margaret Pomeranz gave it five stars while David Stratton gave it a zero, a score shared only by Geoffrey Wright's Romper Stomper (1992). Stratton later described it as his "favourite horror film". Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian dubbed Dancer in the Dark the "most shallow and crudely manipulative" film of 2000, and in 2009 he described it as "one of the worst films, one of the worst artworks and perhaps one of the worst things in the history of the world". The film was praised for its stylistic innovations. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote: "It smashes down the walls of habit that surround so many movies. It returns to the wellsprings. It is a bold, reckless gesture". Edward Guthmann from the San Francisco Chronicle wrote: "It's great to see a movie so courageous and affecting, so committed to its own differentness". However, criticism was directed at its storyline. Jonathan Foreman of the New York Post described the film as "meretricious fakery" and called it "so unrelenting in its manipulative sentimentality that, if it had been made by an American and shot in a more conventional manner, it would be seen as a bad joke". Fiachra Gibbons, writing for The Guardian, considered the film to be "the most unusual, extraordinary feel-good musical ever made". In 2016, David Ehrlich ranked Dancer in the Dark as one of the best films of the 21st century, hailing Björk's performance as the "single greatest feat of film acting" since 2000. Björk's performance is also ranked in the "25 Best Performances Not Nominated for an Oscar of the 21st Century" list] Mia Goth credited the performance as one of her main influences, dubbing it "perfect" and "faultless".
In October 2017, Björk, in the wake of dozens of sexual abuse cases brought against film producer Harvey Weinstein, posted on her Facebook page that she had been sexually harassed by a "Danish film director she worked with". She commented: It was extremely clear to me when I walked into the actresses profession that my humiliation and role as a lesser sexually harassed being was the norm and set in stone with the director and a staff of dozens who enabled it and encouraged it. I became aware of that it is a universal thing that a director can touch and harass his actresses at will and the institution of film allows it. When I turned the director down repeatedly he sulked and punished me and created for his team an impressive net of illusion where I was framed as the difficult one. ... and in my opinion he had a more fair and meaningful relationship with his actresses after my confrontation so there is hope. Let's hope this statement supports the actresses and actors all over. Let's stop this. There is a wave of change in the world. The Los Angeles Times found evidence identifying him as Lars von Trier. Von Trier has rejected Björk's allegation that he sexually harassed her during the making of the film Dancer in the Dark, and said "That was not the case. But that we were definitely not friends, that's a fact", to Danish daily Jyllands-Posten in its online edition. Peter Aalbæk Jensen, the producer of Dancer in the Dark, told Jyllands-Posten that "as far as I remember we [Lars von Trier and I] were the victims. That woman was stronger than both Lars von Trier and me and our company put together. She dictated everything and was about to close a movie of 100m kroner [$16m]". After von Trier's statement, Björk explained the details about this incident: In the spirit of #metoo I would like to lend women around the world a hand with a more detailed description of my experience with a Danish director. It feels extremely difficult to come out with something of this nature into the public, especially when immediately ridiculed by offenders. I fully sympathise with everyone who hesitates, even for years. But I feel it is the right time especially now when it could make a change. Here comes a list of the encounters that I think count as sexual harassment: After each take the director ran up to me and wrapped his arms around me for a long time in front of all crew or alone and stroked me sometimes for minutes against my wishes. When after 2 months of this i said he had to stop the touching, he exploded and broke a chair in front of everyone on set. Like someone who has always been allowed to fondle his actresses. Then we all got sent home. During the whole filming process there were constant awkward paralysing unwanted whispered sexual offers from him with graphic descriptions, sometimes with his wife standing next to us. While filming in Sweden, he threatened to climb from his room's balcony over to mine in the middle of the night with a clear sexual intention, while his wife was in the room next door. I escaped to my friends room. This was what finally woke me up to the severity of all this and made me stand my ground. Fabricated stories in the press about me being difficult by his producer. This matches beautifully the Weinstein methods and bullying. I have never eaten a shirt. Not sure that is even possible. I didn't comply or agree on being sexually harassed. That was then portrayed as me being difficult. If being difficult is standing up to being treated like that, i'll own it. Björk's manager, Derek Birkett, has also accused von Trier's actions in the past: I have worked with Björk for over 30 years and have never made a single statement or interview regarding our work together. This time is different. I have read the lies written by Lars and his producer Peter about Björk - and feel compelled to speak out and put the record straight. Over the last 30 years, the Dancer in the Dark project is the one and only time she has fallen out with a collaborator. This was a result of the directors ongoing, disrespectful verbal and physical abuse which continued after both Björk and myself demanded that he stop behaving this way. Björk completed the film out of respect for the cast and everyone involved. I feel compelled to publicly speak out in fierce support of Björk in regards to her terrible experiences working with Lars Von Trier, and I back what she has said 110%. The Guardian later found that Jensen's studio, Zentropa, with which von Trier frequently collaborated, had an endemic culture of sexual harassment. Jensen stepped down from CEO position of Zentropa as further harassment allegations came to light in 2017.
Dancer in the Dark (2000) ua-cam.com/video/g5CEMZtOBfQ/v-deo.htmlsi=t-0SxNUlxK-OMzoQ
Selmasongs: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack 'Dancer in the Dark is the first soundtrack album by Icelandic musician Björk. It was released on September 18, 2000, by One Little Indian Records to promote and accompany the film Dancer in the Dark. In the film, Björk starred as Selma Ježková, a Czech immigrant who has moved to the United States. The album features classical arrangements, as well as melodies and beats composed of sounds from mundane objects, such as factory machines and trains. Notably, some songs on the album have lyrics that are substantially different from their lyrics in the film, the most pronounced example being "Scatterheart". The album omits the vocals of actors David Morse, Cara Seymour and Vladica Kostic. Some lyrics were rewritten, perhaps to prevent spoiling crucial plot details, since the soundtrack was released in stores before the movie opened in theaters, or to make the record flow better as a stand-alone album. In particular, on the song "I've Seen It All", Thom Yorke performs the words sung by Peter Stormare in the film. In addition, the tracks "My Favourite Things" and the original "Next to Last Song" do not appear on the album at all, despite appearances in the film. The track "I've Seen It All" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song, and was released as a promotional single in 2000. For the track, Björk made a "webeo" with director Floria Sigismondi that premiered on September 1, 2000, on MTV.com. It used a shorter version of the song that the singer recorded specifically for the webeo. Original music: Björk Singers: Björk, Catherine Deneuve, Siobhan Fallon, David Morse, Cara Seymour, Edward Ross (for Vladica Kostic), Joel Grey, Peter Stormare (In the soundtrack Selmasongs, Thom Yorke sings instead of Stormare) Lyrics: Björk, Lars von Trier and Sjón Non-original music: Richard Rodgers (from The Sound of Music) Non-original lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein II (from The Sound of Music) Choreographer: Vincent Paterson
Much of the film has a similar look to von Trier's earlier Dogme 95-influenced films: it is filmed on low-end, hand-held digital cameras to create a documentary-style appearance. It is not a true Dogme 95 film, however, because the Dogme rules stipulate that violence, non-diegetic music, and period pieces are not permitted. Trier differentiates the musical sequences from the rest of the film by using static cameras and by brightening the colours.
The film's title suggests the Fred Astaire/Cyd Charisse duet "Dancing in the Dark" from the 1953 film The Band Wagon, which ties in with the film's musical theatre theme. Actress Björk, who is known primarily as a contemporary musician, had rarely acted before, and described the process of making this film as so emotionally taxing that she would not act in any film ever again (although she appeared in Matthew Barney's film installation Drawing Restraint 9 in 2005, and in Robert Eggers' The Northman). Trier and others have described her performance as feeling rather than acting. Björk has said that it is a misunderstanding that she was put off acting by this film; rather, she never wanted to act but made an exception for Lars von Trier. The musical sequences were filmed simultaneously with over 100 digital cameras so that multiple angles of the performance could be captured and cut together later, thus shortening the filming schedule.[citation needed] Björk lies down on a stack of birch logs during the "Scatterheart" sequence. In Icelandic and Swedish, björk means "birch". A Danish MY class locomotive and one T43 (both owned by Swedish train operator TÅGAB) were painted in the American Great Northern scheme for the film, and not repainted afterward.
Dancer in the Dark is a 2000 musical melodrama film written and directed by Lars von Trier. It stars Icelandic musician Björk as a factory worker who suffers from a degenerative eye condition and is saving for an operation to prevent her young son from suffering the same fate. Catherine Deneuve, David Morse, Cara Seymour, Peter Stormare, Siobhan Fallon Hogan and Joel Grey also star. The soundtrack for the film, Selmasongs, was written mainly by Björk, but a number of songs featured contributions from Mark Bell and some of the lyrics were written by von Trier and Sjón. Dancer in the Dark is the third and final installment in von Trier's second trilogy "Golden Heart", following Breaking the Waves (1996) and The Idiots (1998). It was an international co-production among companies based in thirteen European and North American countries and regions. Like the first installment, it was shot with a handheld camera inspired by Dogme 95. Dancer in the Dark premiered at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and won the Palme d'Or, along with the Best Actress Award for Björk.[10] The film received generally positive reviews, with Björk's performance being widely praised. The song "I've Seen It All" performed and co-written by Björk, with Sjón and von Trier, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song, but lost to "Things Have Changed" by Bob Dylan from Wonder Boys.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 83% of 29 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.6/10. When released, the staff at Variety magazine gave the film a mixed review, and wrote: Ex-Look photographer Stanley Kubrick turned out Killer's Kiss on the proverbial shoestring. Kiss was more than a warm-up for Kubrick's talents, for not only did he co-produce but he directed, photographed and edited the venture from his own screenplay [originally written by Howard Sackler] and original story...Kubrick's low-key lensing occasionally catches the flavor of the seamy side of Gotham life. His scenes of tawdry Broadway, gloomy tenements and grotesque brick-and-stone structures that make up Manhattan's downtown eastside loft district help offset the script's deficiencies." In a 2003 review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote: Killer's Kiss brought the director onto more conventional territory, with a film noir plot about a boxer, a gangster and a dance hall girl. Using Times Square and even the subway as his backdrop, Mr. Kubrick worked in an uncharacteristically naturalistic style despite the genre material, with mixed but still fascinating results. The actress playing the dance hall girl, billed as Irene Kane, is the writer Chris Chase, whose work has frequently appeared in The New York Times. Jamie Smith plays the boxer, whose career is described as 'one long promise without fulfillment.' In the case of Mr. Kubrick's own career, the fulfillment came later. But here is the promise."
This was Kubrick's second feature. Kubrick removed his first film Fear and Desire (1952) from circulation over his dissatisfaction with it. Kubrick directed that film between the ages of 26 and 27, and had to borrow $40,000 (equivalent to $441,000 in 2022) from his uncle Martin Perveler, who owned a chain of drug stores in Los Angeles.[3]: 78 Killer's Kiss, originally titled Kiss Me, Kill Me,[4] was also financed privately through family and friends, but because Fear and Desire did not recoup its production budget, Perveler did not invest this time. Most of the initial budget was covered by Morris Bousel, a Bronx pharmacist who was rewarded with a co-producer credit. Kubrick began to shoot the film with sound recorded on location, as was common practice in Hollywood. However, frustrated by the intrusion of the microphone into his lighting scheme, Kubrick fired his sound-man and decided to post-dub the entire film as he had with his first film.[5] The film is notable for its location shots in the old Penn Station, which was demolished in 1963, as well as Times Square, and the run-down streets of both the Brooklyn waterfront and of Hell's Hundred Acres - the nickname at the time for Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood. Ballerina Ruth Sobotka, Kubrick's wife at the time, was the art director for this film, as well as for Kubrick's next, The Killing. She is also featured in a long dance solo, playing the role of Iris. Then-model and future writer and television journalist Chris Chase, using the stage name Irene Kane, made her acting debut as the female lead. Against Kubrick's wishes, United Artists required the film be recut with a happy ending. United Artists paid $100,000 for the film and also agreed to provide $100,000 for Kubrick's next, The Killing. The film features the song "Once", written by Norman Gimbel and Arden Clar. It is one of Gimbel's earliest contributions to a film, although his lyrics do not actually appear in the final version.
Killer's Kiss is a 1955 American independently-produced crime film noir directed by Stanley Kubrick and written by Kubrick and Howard Sackler. It is the second feature film directed by Kubrick, following his 1953 debut feature Fear and Desire. The film stars Jamie Smith, Irene Kane, and Frank Silvera. The film is about Davey Gordon (Jamie Smith), a 29-year-old middleweight New York boxer at the end of his career, and his relationship with his neighbor, taxi dancer Gloria Price (Irene Kane), and her violent employer Vincent Rapallo (Frank Silvera).
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly holds an approval rating of 97% based on 75 reviews, with an average rating of 8.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Arguably the greatest of the spaghetti westerns, this epic features a compelling story, memorable performances, breathtaking landscapes, and a haunting score."[81] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 90 out of 100 based on 7 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Upon release, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly received criticism for its depiction of violence.[83] Leone explains that "the killings in my films are exaggerated because I wanted to make a tongue-in-cheek satire on run-of-the-mill westerns... The west was made by violent, uncomplicated men, and it is this strength and simplicity that I try to recapture in my pictures."[84] To this day, Leone's effort to reinvigorate the timeworn Western is widely acknowledged. Critical opinion of the film on initial release was mixed, as many reviewers at that time looked down on "Spaghetti Westerns". In a negative review in The New York Times, a critic Renata Adler said that the film "must be the most expensive, pious and repellent movie in the history of its peculiar genre."[86] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the "temptation is hereby proved irresistible to call The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, now playing citywide, The Bad, The Dull, and the Interminable, only because it is."[87] Roger Ebert, who later included the film in his list of Great Movies,[88] retrospectively noted that in his original review he had "described a four-star movie, but only gave it three stars, perhaps because it was a 'Spaghetti Western' and so could not be art."
Like many of his films, director Sergio Leone noted that the film is a satire of the western genre. He has noted the film's theme of emphasis on violence and the deconstruction of Old West romanticism. The emphasis on violence is seen in how the three leads (Blondie, Angel Eyes, and Tuco) are introduced to various acts of violence. With Blondie, it is seen in his attempt to free Tuco which results in a gun battle. Angel Eyes is set up in a scene in which he learns about hidden treasure from Stevens, kills Stevens when he draws on him, then his employer Baker (fulfilling his title as 'The Bad'). Tuco is set up in a scene in which three bounty hunters try to kill him. In the film's opening scene three bounty hunters enter a building in which Tuco is hiding. After the sound of gunfire is heard Tuco escapes through a window after shooting the three, one of whom survives (fulfilling his title as 'The Ugly'). They are all after gold and will stop at nothing until they get it. The film deconstructs Old West Romanticism by portraying the characters as antiheroes. Even the character considered by the film as 'The Good' can still be considered as not living up to that title in a moral sense. Critic Drew Marton describes it as a "baroque manipulation" that criticizes the American Ideology of the Western,[53] by replacing the heroic cowboy popularized by John Wayne with morally complex antiheroes. Negative themes such as cruelty and greed are also given focus and are traits shared by the three leads in the story. Cruelty is shown in the character of Blondie in how he treats Tuco throughout the film. He is seen to sometimes be friendly with him and in other scenes double-cross him and throw him to the side. It is shown in Angel Eyes through his attitudes in the film and his tendency for committing violent acts throughout the film. For example, when he kills Stevens he also kills his son. It is also seen when he is violently torturing Tuco later in the film. It is shown in Tuco how he shows concern for Blondie when he is heavily dehydrated but in truth, he is only keeping him alive to find the gold. It is also shown in his conversation with his brother which reveals that a life of cruelty is all he knows. Richard Aquila writes "The violent antiheroes of Italian westerns also fit into a folk tradition in southern Italy that honored mafioso and vigilante who used any means to combat corrupt government or church officials who threatened the peasants of the Mezzogiorno".[69] Greed is shown in the film through its main core plotline of the three characters wanting to find the $200,000 that Bill Carson has said is buried in a grave in Sad Hill Cemetery. The main plot concerns their greed as there is a series of double crossings and changing allegiances to get the gold. Russ Hunter writes that the film will "stress the formation of homosocial relationships as being functional only in the pursuit of wealth".[70] This all culminates in the film's final set-piece which takes place in the cemetery. After the death of Angel Eyes, Tuco is strung up with a rope precariously placed around his neck as Blondie leaves with his share of the money. Many critics have also noticed the film's anti-war theme.[52][71] Taking place in the American Civil War, the film takes the viewpoint of people such as civilians, bandits, and most notably soldiers, and presents their daily hardships during the war. This is seen in the film's rugged and rough aesthetic. The film has an air of dirtiness that can be attributed to the Civil War and in turn, it affects the actions of people, showing how the war deep down has affected the lives of many people. A scene in the extended version presents Angel Eyes arriving in an embattled Confederate outpost. Angel Eyes shows compassion towards the agonizing soldiers, pointing out that even 'The Bad' is shocked by the horrors of the war. As Brian Jenkins states "A union cordial enough to function peacefully could not be reconstructed after a massive blood-letting that left the North crippled by depopulation and debt and the south devastated".[72] Although not fighting in the war, the three gunslingers gradually become entangled in the battles that ensue (similar to The Great War, a film that screenwriters Luciano Vincenzoni and Age & Scarpelli had contributed to).[10] An example of this is how Tuco and Blondie blow up a bridge to disperse two sides of the battle. They need to clear a way to the cemetery and succeed in doing so. It is also seen in how Angel Eyes disguises himself as a union sergeant so he can attack and torture Tuco to get the information he needs, intertwining himself in the battle in the process.
The score is composed by frequent Leone collaborator Ennio Morricone. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly broke previous conventions on how the two had previously collaborated. Instead of scoring the film in the post-production stage, they decided to work on the themes together before shooting had started, this was so that the music helped inspire the film instead of the film inspiring the music. Leone even played the music on set and coordinated camera movements to match the music. The unique vocals of Edda Dell'Orso can be heard permeating throughout the composition "The Ecstasy of Gold". The distinct sound of guitarist Bruno Battisti D'Amorio can be heard in the compositions 'The Sundown' and 'Padre Ramirez'. Trumpet players Michele Lacerenza and Francesco Catania can be heard on 'The Trio'. The only song to have a lyric is 'The Story of a Soldier, the words of which were written by Tommie Connor. Morricone's unmistakable original compositions, containing gunfire, whistling (by Alessandro Alessandroni), and yodeling permeate the film. The main theme, resembling the howling of a coyote (which blends in with an actual coyote howl in the first shot after the opening credits), is a two-pitch melody that is a frequent motif, and is used for the three main characters. A different instrument was used for each: flute for Blondie, ocarina for Angel Eyes, and human voices for Tuco. The score complements the film's American Civil War setting, containing the mournful ballad, "The Story of a Soldier", which is sung by prisoners as Tuco is being tortured by Angel Eyes.[11] The film's climax, a three-way Mexican standoff, begins with the melody of "The Ecstasy of Gold" and is followed by "The Trio" (which contains a musical allusion to Morricone's previous work on For a Few Dollars More). "The Ecstasy of Gold" is the title of a song used within The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. Composed by Morricone, it is one of his most established works within the film's score. The song has long been used within popular culture. The song features the vocals of Edda Dell'Orso, an Italian female vocalist. Alongside vocals, the song features musical instruments such as the piano, drums, and full orchestra, with the opening solo by the English horn. The song is played in the film when the character Tuco is ecstatically searching for gold, hence the song's name, "The Ecstasy of Gold". Within popular culture, the song has been utilized by such artists as Metallica, who have used the song to open up their live shows and have even covered the song. Other bands such as the Ramones have featured the song in their albums and live shows. The song has also been sampled within the genre of Hip Hop, most notably by rappers such as Immortal Technique and Jay-Z. The Ecstasy of Gold has also been used ceremoniously by the Los Angeles Football Club to open home games. The main theme, also titled "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", was a hit in 1968 with the soundtrack album on the charts for more than a year, reaching No. 4 on the Billboard pop album chart and No. 10 on the black album chart.[65] The main theme was also a hit for Hugo Montenegro, whose rendition was a No. 2 Billboard pop single in 1968. In popular culture, the American new wave group Wall of Voodoo performed a medley of Ennio Morricone's movie themes, including the theme for this movie. The only known recording of it is a live performance on The Index Masters. Punk rock band the Ramones played this song as the opening for their live album Loco Live as well as in concerts until their disbandment in 1996. The British heavy metal band Motörhead played the main theme as the overture music on the 1981 "No sleep 'til Hammersmith" tour. American heavy metal band Metallica has run "The Ecstasy of Gold" as prelude music at their concerts since 1985 (except 1996-1998), and in 2007 recorded a version of the instrumental for a compilation tribute to Morricone. XM Satellite Radio's The Opie & Anthony Show also opens every show with "The Ecstasy of Gold". The American punk rock band The Vandals' song "Urban Struggle" begins with the main theme. British electronica act Bomb the Bass used the main theme as one of several samples on their 1988 single "Beat Dis", and used sections of dialogue from Tuco's hanging on "Throughout The Entire World", the opening track from their 1991 album Unknown Territory. This dialogue along with some of the mule dialogue from Fistful of Dollars was also sampled by Big Audio Dynamite on their 1986 single Medicine Show. The main theme was also sampled/re-created by British band New Order for the album version of their 1993 single "Ruined in a Day". A song from the band Gorillaz is named "Clint Eastwood", and features references to the actor, along with a repeated sample of the theme song; the iconic yell featured in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly's score is heard at the beginning of the music video.
Production began at the Cinecittà studio in Rome again in mid-May 1966, including the opening scene between Eastwood and Wallach when Blondie captures Tuco for the first time and sends him to jail.[33] The production then moved on to Spain's plateau region near Burgos in the north, which doubled for the Southwestern United States, and again shot the western scenes in Almería in the south of Spain.[34] This time, the production required more elaborate sets, including a town under cannon fire, an extensive prison camp, and an American Civil War battlefield; and for the climax, several hundred Spanish soldiers were employed to build a cemetery with several thousand gravestones and wooden crosses to resemble an ancient Roman circus.[34] The scene where the bridge was blown up had to be filmed twice because all three cameras were destroyed in the first take by the explosion.[35] Eastwood remembers, "They would care if you were doing a story about Spaniards and Spain. Then they'd scrutinize you very tough, but the fact that you're doing a Western that's supposed to be laid in Southwest America or Mexico, they couldn't care less what your story or subject is."[36] Top Italian cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli was brought in to shoot the film and was prompted by Leone to pay more attention to light than in the previous two films; Ennio Morricone composed the score once again. Leone was instrumental in asking Morricone to compose a track for the final Mexican stand-off scene in the cemetery, asking him to compose what felt like "the corpses were laughing from inside their tombs", and asked Delli Colli to create a hypnotic whirling effect interspersed with dramatic extreme close-ups, to give the audience the impression of a visual ballet.[34] Filming concluded in July 1966. Eastwood was not initially pleased with the script and was concerned he might be upstaged by Wallach. "In the first film, I was alone," he told Leone. "In the second, we were two. Here we are three. If it goes on this way, in the next one I will be starring with the American cavalry."[37] As Eastwood played hard-to-get in accepting the role (inflating his earnings up to $250,000, another Ferrari[38] and 10% of the profits in the United States when eventually released there), he was again encountering publicist disputes between Ruth Marsh, who urged him to accept the third film of the trilogy, and the William Morris Agency and Irving Leonard, who were unhappy with Marsh's influence on the actor.[37] Eastwood banished Marsh from having any further influence in his career, and he was forced to sack her as his business manager via a letter sent by Frank Wells.[37] For some time after, Eastwood's publicity was handled by Jerry Pam of Gutman and Pam.[33] Throughout filming, Eastwood regularly socialized with actor Franco Nero, who was filming Texas, Adios at the time. Wallach and Eastwood flew to Madrid together, and between shooting scenes, Eastwood would relax and practice his golf swing.[40] Wallach was almost poisoned during filming when he accidentally drank from a bottle of acid that a film technician had set next to his soda bottle. Wallach mentioned this in his autobiography[41] and complained that while Leone was a brilliant director, he was very lax about ensuring the safety of his actors during dangerous scenes.[42] For instance, in one scene, where he was to be hanged after a pistol was fired, the horse underneath him was supposed to bolt. While the rope around Wallach's neck was severed, the horse was frightened a little too well. It galloped for about a mile with Wallach still mounted and his hands bound behind his back.[43] The third time Wallach's life was threatened was during the scene where Mario Brega and he-who are chained together-jump out of a moving train. The jumping part went as planned, but Wallach's life was endangered when his character attempts to sever the chain binding him to the (now dead) soldier. Tuco places the body on the railroad tracks, waiting for the train to roll over the chain and sever it. Wallach, and presumably the entire film crew, were not aware of the heavy iron steps that jutted one foot out of every box car. If Wallach had stood up from his prone position at the wrong time, one of the jutting steps could have decapitated him. The bridge in the film was constructed twice by sappers of the Spanish army and rigged for on-camera explosive demolition. On the first occasion, an Italian camera operator signaled that he was ready to shoot, which was misconstrued by an army captain as the similar-sounding Spanish word meaning "start". Nobody was injured in the resulting explosion. The army rebuilt the bridge while other shots were filmed. As the bridge was not a prop, but a rather heavy and sturdy functional structure, powerful explosives were required to destroy it.[45] Leone said that this scene was, in part, inspired by Buster Keaton's silent film The General. As an international cast was employed, actors performed in their native languages. Eastwood, Van Cleef, and Wallach spoke English and were dubbed into Italian for their debut release in Rome. For the American version, the lead acting voices were used, but supporting cast members were dubbed into English.[46] The result is noticeable in the bad synchronization of voices to lip movements on screen; none of the dialogue is completely in sync because Leone rarely shot his scenes with synchronized sound.[47] Various reasons have been cited for this: Leone often liked to play Morricone's music over a scene and possibly shout things at the actors to get them in the mood. Leone cared more for visuals than dialogue (his English was limited at best). Given the technical limitations of the time, recording the sound cleanly would have been difficult in most of the extremely wide shots Leone frequently used. Also, it was standard practice in Italian films at this time to shoot silently and post-dub. Whatever the actual reason, all dialogue in the film was recorded in postproduction. By the end of filming, Eastwood had finally had enough of Leone's perfectionist directorial traits. Leone insisted, often forcefully, on shooting scenes from many different angles, paying attention to the most minute of details, which often exhausted the actors.[40] Leone, who was obese, prompted amusement through his excesses, and Eastwood found a way to deal with the stresses of being directed by him by making jokes about him and nicknamed him "Yosemite Sam" for his bad temper.[40] After the film was completed, Eastwood never worked with Leone again, later turning down the role of Harmonica in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), for which Leone had personally flown to Los Angeles to give him the script. The role eventually went to Charles Bronson.[49] Years later, Leone exacted his revenge upon Eastwood during the filming of Once Upon a Time in America when he described Eastwood's abilities as an actor as being like a block of marble or wax and inferior to the acting abilities of Robert De Niro, saying, "Eastwood moves like a sleepwalker between explosions and hails of bullets, and he is always the same-a block of marble. Bobby, first of all, is an actor, and Clint first of all is a star. Bobby suffers and Clint yawns."[50] Eastwood later gave a friend the poncho he wore in the three films, where it was hung in a Mexican restaurant in Carmel, California.
After the success of For a Few Dollars More, executives at United Artists approached the film's screenwriter, Luciano Vincenzoni, to sign a contract for the rights to the film and the next one. Producer Alberto Grimaldi, Sergio Leone and he had no plans, but with their blessing, Vincenzoni pitched an idea about "a film about three rogues who are looking for some treasure at the time of the American Civil War". The studio agreed but wanted to know the cost for this next film. At the same time, Grimaldi was trying to broker his own deal, but Vincenzoni's idea was more lucrative. The two men struck an agreement with UA for a million-dollar budget, with the studio advancing $500,000 upfront and 50% of the box-office takings outside of Italy. The total budget was eventually $1.2 million. Leone built upon the screenwriter's original concept to "show the absurdity of war ... the Civil War, which the characters encounter. In my frame of reference, it is useless, stupid: it does not involve a 'good cause'." An avid history buff, Leone said, "I had read somewhere that 120,000 people died in Southern camps such as Andersonville. I was not ignorant of the fact that there were camps in the North. You always get to hear about the shameful behavior of the losers, never the winners." The Batterville Camp where Blondie and Tuco are imprisoned was based on steel engravings of Andersonville. Many shots in the film were influenced by archival photographs taken by Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner. As the film took place during the Civil War, it served as a prequel for the other two films in the trilogy, which took place after the war. While Leone developed Vincenzoni's idea into a script, the screenwriter recommended the comedy-writing team of Agenore Incrucci and Furio Scarpelli to work on it with Leone and Sergio Donati. According to Leone, "I couldn't use a single thing they'd written. It was the grossest deception of my life." Donati agreed, saying, "There was next to nothing of them in the final script. They only wrote the first part. Just one line." Vincenzoni claims that he wrote the screenplay in eleven days, but he soon left the project after his relationship with Leone soured. The three main characters all contain autobiographical elements of Leone. In an interview he said, "[Sentenza] has no spirit, he's a professional in the banalest sense of the term. Like a robot. This isn't the case with the other two. On the methodical and careful side of my character, I'd be nearer il Biondo (Blondie), but my most profound sympathy always goes towards the Tuco side ... He can be touching with all that tenderness and all that wounded humanity." Film director Alex Cox suggests that the cemetery-buried gold hunted by the protagonists may have been inspired by rumors surrounding the anti-Communist Gladio terrorists, who hid many of their 138 weapons caches in cemeteries. Eastwood received a percentage-based salary, unlike in the first two films, from which he received a straight fee. When Lee Van Cleef was again cast for another Dollars film, he joked, "the only reason they brought me back was that they forgot to kill me off in For a Few Dollars More". The film's working title was I due magnifici straccioni (The Two Magnificent Tramps). It was changed just before shooting began when Vincenzoni thought up Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (The Good, the Ugly, the Bad), which Leone loved. In the United States, United Artists considered using the original Italian translation, River of Dollars, or The Man With No Name, but decided on The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.