By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com
Shear gall: Caryn James cuts-'n'-trims the latest styles
“The commonsensical view that an audience might actually have a better experience if the film were tauter is rare among directors, especially this season when some of the most prominent movies are needlessly long,” writes noted, lauded filmmaker Caryn James, adopting a condescending tone hardly heard since a certain past critic would recast movies to his tastes in his reviews. “These films achieve their bloated status for different reasons: the old New World and Brokeback Mountain… take too much time getting started. If the audience knows that the English settlers will land and the cowboys will turn out to be gay, the movies shouldn’t waste 15 minutes getting there. Both Peter Jackson’s popcorn movie King Kong” … and Steven Spielberg’s ultraserious Munich… seem slacker than they should, probably because their powerful directors can do whatever they want… As Mr. Malick realized, the issue is not length itself, but what works on screen.” The original version of The New World, Ms. James coyly suggests is filled with what “others might call travelogues: pretty pictures of birds flying, water flowing, trees growing… Those preliminary scenes, which slowed things down, have been trimmed, and the voice-overs—interior monologues in which Pocahontas and Smith meditate on their lives—are less likely to accompany picturesque views of nature. Instead, [co-producer Sarah] Green said, the voice-over “pulls you into the next scene.” The editing was the kind of snipping that, like a good face-lift, should be inconspicuous if it works. Besides, Mr. Malick can put it all back (and more) in the DVD.” [Ultraserious. Shit! Who wants to see that? Yes, and it’s lonnnnnnng. And it’s full of… Nature. Yike-ums.]