March 9, 2008


_____ in a lifetime

We watched Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull (1980) last night — for the nineteenth, or eighteenth, or twentieth time, and were reminded once more that a film so magnificent may never come again in our lifetimes. Here is the opening credit sequence, just to remind you, or entice you, or both.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQhwi8kk-dE[/youtube]

posted by Sheila Ryan in aesthetics, movies, observations 

comments

5 Responses to “_____ in a lifetime”

  1. Deron Bauman on March 9th, 2008 at 7:01 pm

    I’d be curious to know what others consider to be their once in a lifetime movie. I still haven’t decided.

  2. Sheila Ryan on March 9th, 2008 at 7:07 pm

    Oh, nor have I. So I just left it _____. “_____ in a lifetime.” But I was struck forcefully by the thought that of all the films I admire that were made since Raging Bull, there are few of equivalent stature. As I believe I put it to Jon last night, “Even the best seem like films made by children for children.”

  3. Brandon Hobson on March 9th, 2008 at 8:49 pm

    Raging Bull–yes, a favorite!

  4. Sheila Ryan on March 9th, 2008 at 9:02 pm

    We’ll screen it at the 2009 clusterflock gathering, okay?

  5. Cindy Scroggins on March 10th, 2008 at 8:33 am

    I’ve said it here before, but for me (and I think I can speak for Daryl on this, too), it was definitely Pulp Fiction. I can still pull up the feeling I had, sitting in the theater on opening day, watching that film unfold. It was new and fresh and powerful and shocking and funny; it did everything I wanted a film to do. And the music! Daryl and I just kept looking at each other, unable to believe our good fortune to be in that place at that time. Many of you flockers were probably too young to see the film when it came out, and it had such an immediate influence on films to follow that you might not realize how innovative it was. But it was glorious in its time, and even after 15-20 viewings, I still love it.

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