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I was playing a naval warfare game earlier today...and decided to pop on the Das Boot soundtrack. This got me thinking - what are some films or TV shows which were so good/accurate that they ruined a genre for you?
Examples: Das Boot, Saving Private Ryan, LOTR
This German mini-series turned film has never been rivaled since...it set the unattainable gold standard for submariner (okay, technically a U-Boot is not a submarine...) films. Every submarine film since has felt like a cheap student film by comparison. Now I can still enjoy stuff like Crimson Tide and Red October, but they simply don't even come close to delivering the atmosphere, stress, etc. that Das Boot does.
Saving Private Ryan did the same thing to WW2 films for me. The brutal realism, generally solid historical accuracy (regarding kit, equipment, etc.) and the general film making just annihilated every WW2 filmed project since (obvious exception being Band of Brothers, etc.)
I could argue LOTR set a ridiculous standard that even Peter Jackson failed to live up to with his later films....but we almost never get fantasy films anyway, so my expectations are always low. While I didn't adore the third film, the overall attention to detail, the sweeping vistas, the dedication of the actors, the scope/scale/music, etc...all really crushed it.
What are some Genre-shattering films or shows for you?
I feel like these films are the standard by which I judge other films in the genre. I'm likely to say "Well, it's no Das Boot, but it was okay." etc.
Galaxy Quest, whilst being in the top 3 of Trek movies, put a major dent in my ability to take Trek movies seriously (JJ's whizbang Trek Wars efforts are far enough removed that I can tolerate them)
Logan, whilst its more of a Western than a Super film has made it tricky to give a hoot about most of the MCU (honorable mention to the Ben/Jen Daredevil that got slated yet when Nolan or Synder pull the same beats its edgy cool)
Alien/Star Wars, bringing the lived in sci-fi, up till then nearly everything was shiny shinyness barely a step away from 30/40's Flash / Buck Rogers efforts
GoT, up to S5(?)(whenever Jon got stabbed up), the remainder was okay but clearly felt like a rush to the end
oh and Hobo with a Shotgun, a double distilled take on all the 80's gunfests I grew up with and the late Rutger Hauer gamely sending up his whole career
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2019/08/21 10:21:27
"AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED."
I would definitely say that LoTR was a hallmark of modern fantasy movies, even all these years later.
"By this point I'm convinced 100% that every single race in the 40k universe have somehow tapped into the ork ability to just have their tech work because they think it should."
The Princess Bride.
Because it stands alone in its own genre, nothing else can come close to it.
"Through the darkness of future past, the magician longs to see.
One chants out between two worlds: Fire, walk with me." - Twin Peaks
"You listen to me. While I will admit to a certain cynicism, the fact is that I am a naysayer and hatchetman in the fight against violence. I pride myself in taking a punch and I'll gladly take another because I choose to live my life in the company of Gandhi and King. My concerns are global. I reject absolutely revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method... is love. I love you Sheriff Truman." - Twin Peaks
Formosa wrote: Star Trek the motion picture..... yeah i went there, fight me
No need, and to be honest given the amount of design by committee and muddled production it could have been far worse, as is its a fine tale, a little slow and baggy in places but a brave talky effort in the face of Star Wars as the sci-fi standard at the time
"AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED."
Dragonheart! Seriously its shocking but we've not had a good big budget knights and dragons film since then! Then again as noted for some reason fantasy hasn't really caught on in Hollywood for some reason at present. Even Lord of the Rings didn't spark a spawn of multiple fantasy films and with comics currently ruling the roost it might take years and years before we see fantasy get another chance.
That or someone finds the remains of Camelot or somesuch.
While Babylon 5 deserves credit for many innovations, the one way it changed the genre that I seldom see mentioned is how it portrayed space visually. Before Babylon 5, most space scenes consisted of grayish ships against black space with white dot stars. B5 made the ships more colorful, but more importantly they filled the background with brightly colored nebulae and gorgeous color. Ever since then, space opera space scenes have almost always used their approach to make space more colorful.
There's a little movie called Pontypool which ruined zombie movies for me.
Specifically that final monologue about how they're 'just killing scared people'.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Overread wrote: Even Lord of the Rings didn't spark a spawn of multiple fantasy films and with comics currently ruling the roost it might take years and years before we see fantasy get another chance.
I thought it did?
After LotR we had years of lazy medieval epics with big hordes of CGI soldiers running into each other. They were just... really bad.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2019/08/21 15:51:34
-"Wait a minute.....who is that Frazz is talking to in the gallery? Hmmm something is going on here.....Oh.... it seems there is some dispute over video taping of some sort......Frazz is really upset now..........wait a minute......whats he go there.......is it? Can it be?....Frazz has just unleashed his hidden weiner dog from his mini bag, while quoting shakespeares "Let slip the dogs the war!!" GG
-"Don't mind Frazzled. He's just Dakka's crazy old dude locked in the attic. He's harmless. Mostly."
-TBone the Magnificent 1999-2014, Long Live the King!
Survival horror.... Alien (1979) and The Thing (1982). There's been plenty in this genre since but I can't think of anything that can top these two. The horror comes from the suspense, the what if, the shadows and the things unseen. Modern stuff reveals too much, too many shocks, too many undeserved jump moments. Someone mentions Jaws above and that was amazing for the same reason. The shark machine kept breaking so they had to shoot with minimal use of the shark. Watch it again and the worst scenes are those with the shark in - it looks bloody rediculous! Hell, half the scenes that show the actual alien are bad - aliens is worse, especially the alien queen. The Thing shows enough, brief moments of visual horror before sliding right back into suspense. That's genre defining.
Christ the young ones! Show em the University Challenge episode!
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2019/08/21 20:29:46
Blair Witch. It's nowhere near as creepy as it once was, but it made the found footage genre.
I realize it's a very, very narrow genre, but Robocop either started or perfected the supercop genre, where your good cop is given extraordinary powers to fight evil.
Klawz-Ramming is a subset of citrus fruit?
Gwar- "And everyone wants a bigger Spleen!"
Mercurial wrote:
I admire your aplomb and instate you as Baron of the Seas and Lord Marshall of Privateers.
Orkeosaurus wrote:Star Trek also said we'd have X-Wings by now. We all see how that prediction turned out.
Orkeosaurus, on homophobia, the nature of homosexuality, and the greatness of George Takei.
English doesn't borrow from other languages. It follows them down dark alleyways and mugs them for loose grammar.
Henry wrote: Survival horror.... Alien (1979) and The Thing (1982). There's been plenty in this genre since but I can't think of anything that can top these two. The horror comes from the suspense, the what if, the shadows and the things unseen. Modern stuff reveals too much, too many shocks, too many undeserved jump moments. Someone mentions Jaws above and that was amazing for the same reason. The shark machine kept breaking so they had to shoot with minimal use of the shark. Watch it again and the worst scenes are those with the shark in - it looks bloody rediculous! Hell, half the scenes that show the actual alien are bad - aliens is worse, especially the alien queen. The Thing shows enough, brief moments of visual horror before sliding right back into suspense. That's genre defining.
Christ the young ones! Show em the University Challenge episode!
Yeah, I'm surprised and bummed that Hollywood hasn't used modern filmaking tech to make some really nice Deadspace-esque horror movies as spiritual successors to Alien and the Thing. Though in ways the movie Pandorum did a really good job of it.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2019/08/21 23:20:54
"By this point I'm convinced 100% that every single race in the 40k universe have somehow tapped into the ork ability to just have their tech work because they think it should."
