627 The Game

Discuss releases by Criterion and the films on them. Threads may contain spoilers!
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Jeff
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Re: Forthcoming: The Game

#26 Post by Jeff » Tue Mar 13, 2012 1:36 am


duck duck
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Re: Forthcoming: The Game

#27 Post by duck duck » Sat Mar 17, 2012 4:22 am

Am I the only one that thinks that "The Game" is not played with the characters but with the audience? I always thought it was the filmmakers trying to see how far they could push things before the audience stopped believing. There are even parts at the very end when it is explained that they did things "just like in the movies".

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Re: Forthcoming: The Game

#28 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Fri Jun 15, 2012 3:07 pm

Is it odd to be thrilled a thread I started will be in the main CC page? :)

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Gregory
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Re: Forthcoming: The Game

#29 Post by Gregory » Fri Jun 15, 2012 3:16 pm

I remember 10 years ago on the old EZ-Board forum seeing "When oh when will Criterion release The Game"-type posts. This seems like an event comparable to Bottle Rocket finally getting released.

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The Narrator Returns
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Re: Forthcoming: The Game

#30 Post by The Narrator Returns » Fri Jun 15, 2012 3:19 pm

This is quite possibly the best Criterion news I've heard in a while. Thankfully, Benjamin Button is no longer the only Fincher film in the Collection.

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zedz
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Re: Forthcoming: The Game

#31 Post by zedz » Fri Jun 15, 2012 4:36 pm

Gregory wrote:I remember 10 years ago on the old EZ-Board forum seeing "When oh when will Criterion release The Game"-type posts. This seems like an event comparable to Bottle Rocket finally getting released.
Do you mean we're never going to hear anybody talk about this film ever again?

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mfunk9786
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Re: 627 The Game

#32 Post by mfunk9786 » Fri Jun 15, 2012 4:54 pm

Unless you go into the thread for the film, which seems counterproductive if you don't want to hear about it!

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manicsounds
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Re: 627 The Game

#33 Post by manicsounds » Fri Jun 15, 2012 6:47 pm

Looks like all the extras are just ports from the old laserdisc and special edition DVD. I was hoping for something new, besides the alternate 5.1 track.

One thing missing from the Laserdisc (and was not on the SE DVD) was the psychological test.

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oldsheperd
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Re: 627 The Game

#34 Post by oldsheperd » Fri Jun 15, 2012 8:23 pm

This movie, while being very stylistic and suspenseful has to have one of the worst endings in cinema history. I rank it right above Woman in the Window for horrible endings to great movies.
I've seen the arguments about the ending being great, but to me it always seemed like the writer couldn't come up with and ending as suspenseful as the plot and cooked up a contrived one. Seriously, the ending is on par with a rushed 9th grade creative writing assignment.

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knives
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Re: 627 The Game

#35 Post by knives » Fri Jun 15, 2012 8:30 pm

I have to disagree as the ending is the ultimate indictment of the character and his entire class.

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warren oates
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Re: 627 The Game

#36 Post by warren oates » Fri Jun 15, 2012 8:43 pm

I agree with knives. The ending is great. But I'm curious old sheperd -- how would you have ended it?

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swo17
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Re: 627 The Game

#37 Post by swo17 » Fri Jun 15, 2012 8:49 pm

The entire film is built around the ending. It's completely preposterous but hardly a cop-out.

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Jeff
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Re: 627 The Game

#38 Post by Jeff » Fri Jun 15, 2012 8:59 pm

Yeah, if anything, the end came first, and the film was built around that. I'm convinced that Fincher was fully aware of how implausible everything is, and that it is irrelevant to what he was trying to do. Anyone who hasn't read this Mike D'Angelo piece yet should, but only if you have seen the film.

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warren oates
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Re: 627 The Game

#39 Post by warren oates » Fri Jun 15, 2012 9:05 pm

And I'd add that what happens in The Game is hardly more outrageous than the events of many other thrillers. This just happens to be a first-rate one that's unashamed of its genre trappings. Anybody expecting it to be a deeper drama or something else instead isn't seeing it for what it is. That Onion piece is awesome, btw.

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oldsheperd
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Re: 627 The Game

#40 Post by oldsheperd » Fri Jun 15, 2012 10:06 pm

I just feel that the writer was like, "Wow, this story is really great! Oh, wait how do I end it."
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The idea that this was whole ruse was not hinted at anywhere in the film. There was no foreshadowing in the bit. It just ended like, "Hey, you should really appreciate things in life." Totally stupid.
That doesn't take away from the fact that the film is well done. As far as a indictment of the character's class level. I don't see that one bit. I just feel like they got so far and had to wrap it up somehow. I mean nothing personal, I've sold a lot of dvds to some of you guys and I've been on here forever, but I think y'all are fishing a bit when you're trying to justify the ending as some sort of meaningful comment. I'm curious to know a bit about the production history of this film and if it originally had a bleaker end. The end, as it stands now, has studio interference written all over it.

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knives
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Re: 627 The Game

#41 Post by knives » Fri Jun 15, 2012 10:09 pm

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I don't see how you could get a bleaker ending than the one we have now which suggests the wealthy lead lives so empty that their utter destruction is seen as a joke.

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Re: 627 The Game

#42 Post by cdnchris » Fri Jun 15, 2012 10:15 pm

oldsheperd wrote:
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The idea that this was whole ruse was not hinted at anywhere in the film. There was no foreshadowing in the bit. It just ended like, "Hey, you should really appreciate things in life." Totally stupid.
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I think his father's suicide foreshadowed it, plus his brother's obvious concern early on in the film. Hell, my one buddy who I saw it with guessed it midway through that the whole thing was going to be designed to change his life around, and he figured this from the constant references to his dad's suicide, which admittedly weren't planted at all subtley. I had to tell him to shut-up.

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Jeff
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Re: 627 The Game

#43 Post by Jeff » Fri Jun 15, 2012 11:01 pm

oldsheperd wrote:I just feel that the writer was like, "Wow, this story is really great! Oh, wait how do I end it."
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The idea that this was whole ruse was not hinted at anywhere in the film. There was no foreshadowing in the bit. It just ended like, "Hey, you should really appreciate things in life." Totally stupid.
That doesn't take away from the fact that the film is well done. As far as a indictment of the character's class level. I don't see that one bit. I just feel like they got so far and had to wrap it up somehow. I mean nothing personal, I've sold a lot of dvds to some of you guys and I've been on here forever, but I think y'all are fishing a bit when you're trying to justify the ending as some sort of meaningful comment. I'm curious to know a bit about the production history of this film and if it originally had a bleaker end. The end, as it stands now, has studio interference written all over it.
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The idea that the whole thing was an elaborate production was telegraphed throughout the film, and Nicholas almost starts to catch on when he recognizes a CRS employee from a television commercial. The whole idea of Conrad buying this experience for his brother is set up as a suicide intervention. He sees Nicholas following the same path his father followed, and becoming what he became. The whole point of the game is to push him to that breaking point and then save him from it. If he actually died at the end, it would undermine the purpose of the entire film.

As far as production, Fincher agreed to do the script because he enjoyed the twist. He actually brought in Andrew Kevin Walker to make it darker and more cynical (which it certainly is). There was certainly no "studio interference." There wasn't even a studio in the traditional sense. This was Polygram's first film that they distributed on their own -- very independent. They wanted Fincher on board, and he basically had carte blanche to refashion the original spec script to suit the style and tone he wanted. It's his film all the way.

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oldsheperd
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Re: 627 The Game

#44 Post by oldsheperd » Sat Jun 16, 2012 1:07 am

I get what everyone is saying, but for me, personally, it just doesn't work.

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warren oates
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Re: 627 The Game

#45 Post by warren oates » Sat Jun 16, 2012 1:13 am

But what would work instead or work better? Can you rewrite just the ending and improve it? Or is there something about the whole film you don't like that your fixation with the ending is bringing out?

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oldsheperd
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Re: 627 The Game

#46 Post by oldsheperd » Sat Jun 16, 2012 1:36 am

I like the film. I just think the ending is tremendously flawed.

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knives
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Re: 627 The Game

#47 Post by knives » Sat Jun 16, 2012 1:40 am

How would you improve the ending though? That might help to illustrate why you think it is flawed.

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warren oates
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Re: 627 The Game

#48 Post by warren oates » Sat Jun 16, 2012 1:46 am

Well, I don't mean to be a dick about it, but you've told us you think the ending sucks and it doesn't work. Many of us have disagreed -- but in detail -- explaining specifically how it does work for us. Have you thought at all about how you would do it differently? What, in your mind, should happen to the Douglas character so as to make it a more effective and affecting film and a more satisfying thriller? If there's a stronger ending out there, I really want to hear it.

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tenia
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Re: 627 The Game

#49 Post by tenia » Sat Jun 16, 2012 5:13 am

I have the same problem than oddsheperd.
The movie is quite thrilling, but the ending is so down to the ground, that I felt it was disappointing.
I wouldn't know which kind of ending would make it better, but it makes me think of an exemple :
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In LOST, in Locke's first season episode (1x14, I think), at the very end of the episode, he get to the hatch, and begs on his knees to get a sign. Then, the hatch just light up. That was absolutely wonderful. But when you learn in the season 2 that it was probably Desmond just turning the light on to read a book, or go to the can, than, I felt it was disappointing the same way The Game's ending was.

Maybe I should have felt emotion I haven't, which ruined part of it, but in the end, it's 100 min of suspense, just to find it it REALLY IS a birthday invitation.

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Re: 627 The Game

#50 Post by John Cope » Sat Jun 16, 2012 6:08 am

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But what is so devastating about the end is that it ultimately is "just a big joke". It's insidious, going deep into its bleakness and is not obvious as it would be if the Douglas character actually had fallen to his death. It's a scenario in which the human has little intrinsic value and all that matters is the ingeniousness of mechanics. I do disagree with knives as to the implications, however. I don't see it as an indictment of that character and his class except insofar as they are the ones who can afford this elaborate approximation of self-annihilation. That's more despairing and therefore sympathetic, I think. AFAIC, it's much more of a broad indictment of a whole society that is spiritually dead already, who in some ways either recognize that enough to acknowledge it or otherwise evidence it through an indifferent, though active, participation in its theatrical realization. It's a perfect set-up for Fight Club then: "Our Great Depression is our lives."

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