The Conversation (1974) [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v247/capoditutti/fourstars.gif[/img Director: Francis Ford Coppola A master of surveillence, private investigator brings his line of work into question when the possibility of a man and woman's lives being put at stake results from one of his assignments. Well, hot damn. Wonderfully constructed... A beautiful piece of character development and study. This is probably one of the best films that studies insanities toll on a protaganist, save Taxi Driver. I've found myself in something of an interesting position; I'm seriously taking into consideration, the possibility that this is FFC's masterpiece, and not the much-acclaimed The Godfather Part II. The two come very close for me, and I simply cannot determine which is better in my eyes. Not yet.
Once Upon a Time in America (1984) Director: Sergio Leone Thirty-five years after ratting on his friends, and being ran out of town by the mob, an ex-bootlegger returns to his old Jewish neighborhood in New York City. Bloody fantastic. It had been nearly a year since my last viewing, which is ridiculously inexcusable; so in the past 24 hours, I've watched this film twice. This film brings me to a very serine mood. Emotionally, it does a very unique job on me. The hallucination theories fit, and I've come acustom to the film being a dream. The flashbacks seem very vivid but a bit exagerated and self-indulgent, as do most old memories when looked back on by a single person, and the 1960s segments seem completely bizarre and hazy. The new plotlines that Noodles faces in these segments are completely warped and resemble an intoxicated dream; which is the best comparison I can offer to anyone who has at least fallen asleep drunk.
"Somebody told me when the bomb hits, everybody in a two mile radius will be instantly sublimated, but if you lay face down on the ground for some time, avoiding the residual ripples of heat, you might survive, permanently fucked up and twisted like you're always underwater refracted. But if you do go gas, there's nothing you can do if the air that was once you is mingled and mashed with the kicked up molecules of the enemy's former body. Big-kid-tested, motherf--ker approved."
