Two Depalma films that stick out in my mind and are Similar to Tarantino are “Scarface”(duh!) and “Snake Eyes”. Snake Eyes is a really overlooked Depalma gem. Depalma has made great movies like Scarface and Carrie and Snake Eyes but he has made Mission to Mars which translates to utter crap because it was competing against Red Planet.
Personally If I were De Palma and I had really wanted to make a space movie in 1995 I would have made Apollo 13. Ron Howard just can direct warm and fuzzy(Grinch, beautiful mind). Apollo 13 needed a dark Kubrick esque space view(2001) that Brian DePalma could have given
I only know DePalma for Scarface, Snake Eyes, Carrie and Mission To Mars can u guys name any other good ones.
Peace
[quote]Two Depalma films that stick out in my mind and are Similar to Tarantino are “Scarface”(duh!) and “Snake Eyes”. Snake Eyes is a really overlooked Depalma gem. Depalma has made great movies like Scarface and Carrie and Snake Eyes but he has made Mission to Mars which translates to utter crap because it was competing against Red Planet.
Personally If I were De Palma and I had really wanted to make a space movie in 1995 I would have made Apollo 13. Ron Howard just can direct warm and fuzzy(Grinch, beautiful mind). Apollo 13 needed a dark Kubrick esque space view(2001) that Brian DePalma could have given
I only know DePalma for Scarface, Snake Eyes, Carrie and Mission To Mars can u guys name any other good ones.
Peace[/quote]
Pulp I cant say enough about DePalma. Hes one of those directors that has such a great style and wit with his films. Over the years, he become one of my very favorite directors right up there with Scorsese. I think theres only one DePalma film Ive seen and not really liked (Bonfire of the Vanities). But the rest are all on my favorite films list. Hes influenced many newer directors, including a guy we know named Quentin Tarantino.
I reccomend watching all his films if you can.
You can begin with: Greetings, Hi Mom and The Wedding Party, Get to Know Your Rabbit and Home Movies which are pretty much satirical comedies.
Then you can get into DePalmas great horror and suspense/thrillers like: Sisters (1973), Phantom of the Paradise (1974), Obsession (1976), The Fury (1978), Dressed To Kill (1980, try to get the unrated cut on DVD if possible), Blow Out (1981), Body Double (1984), Raising Cain (1992), Femme Fatale (2002).
Then check out some great gangster films like: Carlitos Way (1993), The Untouchables (1987), Wise Guys (1986).
Hes done a War crime film: Casualties of War (1989).
Hes done some great action/adventure work with: Mission Impossible
What I really love about his films are a) the visual work is just beautiful, its true cinema storytelling. His style is so distinct, he’s the kind of director where you can watch the films and know HE directed it. b) the colorful characters in his films are just great. c) the darkly comedic wittiness of his films is second to none. d) the films as a whole are all great works of cinema.
Hes just a one of a kind artist in all of those areas. Hes a true director’s director.
BTW, I just realized I am repeating myself, I already posted a big paragraph way back in this post.
i am sorry i made you type that long paragraph i forgot that I have seen Mission Impossibile and The Untouchables.
Coppola made the greatest war movie of all time in 1979 with Apocolypse Now call me narrow minded lol i am as big a defender of that movie as i am Raging BUL LOL
i did watch Casualties of War on Bravo! and the cinemotography looked like it was plucked from Hamburger Hill or The Boys from Company C or other low budget 'Nam flicks. It was Coppola who paved the way and Stone who completed the Vietnam Film Legacy with Platoon which was about the everyman while AN was about the epic scope of the war as much as it was about one man’s journey
Mission To Mars:2001 For Retards
[quote]i am sorry i made you type that long paragraph i forgot that I have seen Mission Impossibile and The Untouchables.
i did watch Casualties of War on Bravo! and the cinemotography looked like it was plucked from Hamburger Hill or The Boys from Company C or other low budget 'Nam flicks. It was Coppola who paved the way and Stone who completed the Vietnam Film Legacy with Platoon which was about the everyman while AN was about the epic scope of the war as much as it was about one man’s journey
[/quote]
Pulp what are you talking about? Casualities of War was a 100% DePalma film. It looks nothing like Boys from Company C or Hamburger Hill either. Its also better than both those films by far. Casualties of War is one of my Top 5 favorite Vietnam films. Its a gutwrenching, heavy film with ALOT of soul. If you can watch COW and not be affected by it, your a cold hearted bastard IMO. It also looks great visually. The acting by Michael J Fox, Sean Penn and John C Reilly, Ving Rhames, John Leguizamo is some of their best work too. That film got DePalma the best reviews of his entire career. I give it 5 out of 5 stars.
Apocalypse Now came out 10 years before COW. Its my favorite Vietnam film. I know everything about it. Ive watched the film countless times and I own The Documentary on the making of it. Its totally on a different level than COW. Its an immense visionary piece by Coppola. Its just its own entity. Nothing in cinema history is even like it.
Platoon came out 3 years before Casualties of War. It is on my Top 5 as well. You cant compare it to COW because Oliver Stone was IN Vietnam. Platoon is basically his autobiography of being in that war. DePalma on the other hand was not in Vietnam, which makes COW even more great, because DePalmas vision of the War environment is damn good.
Personally I feel that the recent war is hell movies trend(Tears of The Sun, Black Hawk Down) lacks humanity and originality that the great war movies of the 1970s and 1980s had. Those movies had intensity and heart and feeling. Hopefully Tarantino will top all of them or create a war movie noir worthy of standing next to Apocalypse Now and Platoon in the annals of film history
I can’t believe you compared DePalma to Spielberg or Scorsese! DePalma is nothing even in their shadows. I mean I’ve liked many of DePalma’s films, but I think has yet to get a really good script to film. Most of his movies are nothing more then simple bullet fests. His best film (The Untouchables) comes short of genious, but at the same time not far away.
The day for DePalma to prove himself as more then a simple director has yet to come, and while I do believe he has yet to truly prove himself, I think he does have the potencial t, but until then he is just the guy who did Mission: Impossible.
[quote]I can’t believe you compared DePalma to Spielberg or Scorsese!  DePalma is nothing even in their shadows.  Most of his movies are nothing more then simple bullet fests.  His best film (The Untouchables) comes short of genious, but at the same time not far away. ÂÂ
The day for DePalma to prove himself as more then a simple director has yet to come, and while I do believe he has yet to truly prove himself, I think he does have the potencial t, but until then he is just the guy who did Mission: Impossible. ÂÂ
[/quote]
Film Student you should drop out of film school. Thats THE most ignorant post I’ve read in this forum. You just spewed forth so much BS, I need a fuckin life vest to keep me from drowning. lol.
Film, I think I’m gonna post your little speech in the DePalma message board I goto. They will LOVE it! 
(laughing my ass off here)
wait, filmstud, you say that his films are
quote: nothing more than simple bullet fests
and then you mention Untouchables as your favorite, which is the most bullet festiest of his movies.
scorsese is a master, de palma cant live up with, i agree, but spielberg is just a mainstream hack, come on.
i dont consider myself a depalma fan, i just dont know much about the guy, but i think, you know… weigh your arguments before you post them.
dont contradict yourself, dude
[quote]wait, filmstud, you say that his films are
quote: nothing more than simple bullet fests
and then you mention Untouchables as your favorite, which is the most bullet festiest of his movies.
scorsese is a master, de palma cant live up with, i agree…
i dont consider myself a depalma fan, i just dont know much about the guy…[/quote]
You guys need to actually watch some of his suspense/thriller films (No, not just Scarface, Untouchables, Mission Impossible or Carlitos Way) before you say stuff about him. Right now, DePalma is above Scorsese on my favorite directors list. It has nothing to do with Oscars, awards or anything else. It has to do with a true artist who creates films from the heart. If you look at DePalma’s filmography you’ll see that hes been working steadily since the late 60s. Hes made all kinds of films in that period. I have seen almost all his films, and I love them all. Hes a one of a kind director that cinephiles like me, love.
He is better than George Lucas (overrated), Coppola (love him but he hasnt made a good film in years) and Spielberg ( too mainstream) to me. They are all friends too.
The only director that hes friends with that I like as much or more is Scorsese.
After Hitchcock there is only one true Master of The Psychological Thriller that is Brian DePalma.
De Palma is one of the masters of cinema. He is so vastly under-rated. He excells in dark films, and has made noirish-Hitchcockian thrillers his staple. De Palma’s greater works are always over-looked or under-rated, while his miss-fires, such as Snake Eyes, always get plenty of publicity. Just bad luck for my man Brian. (For the record, I used Snake Eyes for an example of a miss-fire, because most everyone consideres it to be so. I for one enjoyed this movie. This movie is also technically great for the long one-take opener).
Brains best:
- Blow Out (One of QT’s favs too)
- The Untouchables
- Dressed to Kill
- Casualties of War (Another one of QT’s favs)
- Hi, Mom!
- Scarface
- Carrie
- Carlito’s Way
- Sisters
- Phantom of Paradise
And whats with all of the Spielberg bashing? I’ll admit he is a mainstream director, but that doesn’t take away from the billiance of his films. Yes some aren’t all that special, but he has given us some awesome movies. The best of them being Schindler’s List, one of my top ten. He has done so many great films though. I mean, come on! It’d be like dismissing an indie masterpiece just because it was indie. Does that make any sense? Mainstream…SO WHAT?
I love what I’ve seen of DePalma aside from M:I and Snake Eyes. It’d be nice to see a horror movie done right. It’s been a long time since that’s been accomplished.
Casualties of War is extremely underrated. It shows Micahel J. Fox’s true chops at acting and gives us a glimpse into a handful of young actors (some of which became stars). I consider it superior to most of the “praised” Vietnam films.
thanks toothpickvega… that guy is like drowning in his own non Depalma knowledge…
Speaking Of Brian DePalma I read somewhere that since Brian’s Dad was a doctor Brian had an obssession with red and blood specifically. That might explain Carrie or Scarface. Those two are really the most blood laden films of his career so far. Carrie because the end where she is drenched in blood and Scarface well all of Scarface is bloody LOL
Is this DePalma’s visual style ToothPickVega?
[quote]thanks toothpickvega… that guy is like drowning in his own non Depalma knowledge…
Speaking Of Brian DePalma I read somewhere that since Brian’s Dad was a doctor Brian had an obssession with red and blood specifically. That might explain Carrie or Scarface. Those two are really the most blood laden films of his career so far. Carrie because the end where she is drenched in blood and Scarface well all of Scarface is bloody LOL
Is this DePalma’s visual style ToothPickVega?[/quote]
Well thats definitely part of the personality of many of his films Pulp. Many of his films are bloody. DePalma has always adhered to Sergei Eisensteins theory that “Film IS Violence”. Hence the violent nature of the majority of his films. Violence is a common theme in every DePalma film I’ve see so far. Be it graphic onscreen violence or implied violence. If you watch Tarantino’s films you’ll see a direct influence by DePalma in those areas. The quick editing and the humorous side of violence comes from DePalma.
As for his visual style, I’d say DePalma is one of the last true visual storytellers working in film. DePalma’s said himself that its becoming more about dialogue than visually telling a story nowadays. I agree 100%. He has more in common with the silent film directors than anyone else I’d say. That is, telling the movies story thru visuals rather than just dialogue.
When I watch DePalma’s films I just get lost in them. I really love his visual style alot. That mixed with his sense of humor is unmatched by anyone in film.
Some of the great visual style directors are guys like De Palma, Tarantino, Kubrick, and maybe Scorsese.
Is Tarantino a verbal style or a visual style?
[quote]Some of the great visual style directors are guys like De Palma, Tarantino, Kubrick, and maybe Scorsese.
Is Tarantino a verbal style or a visual style? [/quote]
I think Tarantino is a mix of both. Thats why we love his films. Hes got excellent dialogue AND a great cinema style. I think what QT will always do is change his dialogue/visual styles with each new film. He will use whatever fits in with what genre hes working in. Hes like a cinema chameleon in that way.
This is the original post I started about DePalma awhile back.
If Seb can add Bad Mofos post to this it would be cool. We might as well keep the board as condensed as possible right?
Bad Mofo: Theres alot of great posts on this one. Check it out.
We have 3 DePalma topics open.
This is the oldest one with the most information. So I close an other one.
There BadMotherFucker wrote:
You guys are always talking about how Brian DePalma is such a great director, but i’ve only seen Scarface and Blow Out. What other good movies has he done? By the way, i liked Blow Out a lot better than Scarface.
And check out the third one:
<LINK_TEXT text=“http://tarantino.webds.de/cgi-bin/taran … 1062780259”>http://tarantino.webds.de/cgi-bin/tarantino/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=ot;action=display;num=1062780259</LINK_TEXT>
De Palma is one of my favorite directors. The visual style, the great and unexpected storylines and the Hitchcock Hommages, great! My favorites are “Blow Out”, his underrated masterpiece, then “Scarface” of course, “Dressed to Kill”, “Carlito’s Way”, “Carrie” and “Obsession”. And his newest movie “Femme Fatale” is great, too. Thats classic De Palma.