Okay, so I said I learned in the last blog battle not to underestimate the power of music. (The two finalists were musical despite a majority of entrants from the world of film.) Couldn't have round two without some musical choices.
The Kinks may be better known for "Lola," and I was tempted to run a "Lola" v. Lolita match, but why pass up a chance to let you all torment me by voting on one of my favorite whipping boys?
Yes, Terence Malick enters the arena as the 800 pound gorilla/heavy favorite, fresh off a recent work (A New World...hmmm...could have matched that against the Aladdin song "A Whole New World") that was so good, even I had to grudgingly admit I liked it. The Kinks...well hard to vote against the band Pete Townsend called "much more quintessentially English." (And give him props for using "quintessentially."
So, "What's Better?": "Living on a Thin Line" or The Thin Red Line?
7 comments:
Since no one seems to be jumping in early, I'll start if off. A Thin Red Line
Ken, this is no contest. A Thin Red Line is one of the best films of the last ten years. And now that I'm writing this comment, I realize I don't even know what it is up against, but it really doesn't matter as its such an impressive piece of work.
I believe the title is actually THE Thin Red Line. Then again, perhaps you switched to the indefinite article to signal your ambiguity over which film adaptation of the James Jones novel really belongs here (Malick's 1998 film was the second; Marton's 1964 film, starring Keir Dullea and the late Jack Warden, was the first).
Noted and corrected, thank you, Peter. (And so poor people have to pay for editors and fact checkers.)
I don't suppose you'd like to cast a vote while you are here? The Kinks could use your help.
I'll vote for "Living on a Thin Line."
Down, boys! ;-)
Sorry, Ken -- while I have seen The Thin Red Line twice, I have never heard more than a song or two of the Kinks', and thus I feel unqualified to vote. (Although ... the Kinks songs were catchy and to the point, whereas the Malick film was so long and detached that even his admirers, like Jonathan Rosenbaum, said they were bored ... okay, the Kinks it is!)
I have to grudgingly respect The Thin Red Line in the face of so much community love, but the use of Living on a Thin Line in The Sopranos just haunts me.
I vote for The Kinks.
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