Quick Takes: "Raging Bull", "Barry Lyndon", "Australia", "Inglourious Basterds"

"Raging Bull" (****)

Directed by Martin Scorsese

A rather important dot to be crossed off my gargantuan in scope list of films I have yet to see, "Raging Bull" is one of the films that Martin Scorsese is most famed for, and for rather good reason. The film is so meticulously, at times grotesquely, debasing of the title character's fame and ego. There are rather few non-essential factors in the mix of this film, the makeup being transformative, though still disconcerting, since there's the subtle feeling that Robert De Niro isn't supposed to look like that. The editing is so utterly veracious and aggressive, as with the best of sports-oriented cinema. De Niro's performance, so repudiating of redemption in favor of honesty to the point of destruction. Scorsese, only dialing up the flash and flair when it is truly and ultimately necessary, which is something he tends to forget nowadays. Damn near immaculate in its construction.

"Barry Lyndon" (****)

Directed by Stanley Kubrick

Quite easily the most overlooked and under-appreciated film in Stanley Kubrick's rather short pantheon of work, the small details and slow effectiveness of "Barry Lyndon" only really starts sinking in upon further viewings. Ryan O'Neal does seem to break the tradition of Kubrick-esq performances, but he more represents a Channing Tatum of his own time. His dramatic tendencies serve best in tight comedic terms, but not to the point of them being utterly superfluous. The extended sufferings of this character with no home, family, or true identity, is as entertaining as it is non-consoling towards its title character. The pace moves smoothly across with masterful deliberation on Kubrick's part. Never have such precise and finicky movements been shown with so much passion. Buckle under the emotional weight of a final scene dictating a character signing her name on a piece of paper.

THE LISTS: Ranking Stanley Kubrick

Before anyone else even has the chance to chastise me, I'll beat you to it. How the hell have I gone through nineteen years of my life without being touched once by the genius of Stanley Kubrick? How did I get by this long without seeing his influence in my rear-view? In a word, barely. In the first sixteen years of my life, I'd describe myself as a complete and total idiot. By eighteen, still painfully limited. By nineteen, a point of confidence and individuality, but still not quite complete. I have made more headway towards becoming the sort of influential filmmaker that I want to be most in the past week and a half than I have in almost my entire life.

To say that Stanley Kubrick has had a great deal of influence on several high profile filmmakers is an understatement. The man practically defined perfection in cinema at a time when it was still searching for a definitive form. Not to say that his films are the absolute, unequivocal best, and that no other film could top his #1. I think that'd be just far too insane and geekish a statement for everyone. Still, there is no other filmmaker who has taken up the task of perfection in medium quite as much or as sincerely as Kubrick. If you've not seen and loved a film of his, you are of a dead nature to me, and I'm afraid there's no hope for you.

The moment I'd made my way through two of his films, I knew that I couldn't stop until I was done. And with Halloween just waiting around the corner, and me not quite willing or prepared to make a list of the top horror films this year, I felt this was the perfect opportunity for a list. After all, you can find sinister undertones permeating through most of his films, outside his sole horror venture. There are very few that don't have that touch. Though I must say that I couldn't include all of Kubrick's films. There were some that just didn't match up. "Killer's Kiss" was too banal a piece, and though "Lolita" had a characteristically strong start, I couldn't make it out of that first hour without feeling uninterested. So it's with the utmost of honor that I run down the ranking of Kubrick's ten other features, after the jump.