Even James Newton Howard, a composer I found usually mediocre, provides a powerful outstanding score for the movie.

Kudos to Scott Hicks and Frank Marshall for having the guts to make such a "out-of-the mainstream" movie, particulary when it touches the shameful confination of north-american japanese descendants into Concentration Camps.

Easily the best movie of 1999 and one of the best of decade.

ROMY

No one else?? http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/confused.gif">

But I believe he didn't harmed SNOW... most of all because his love story with the japanese girl was melted in favor of better material.

quote:

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Originally posted by André Lux:

Apparently, just the three of us dig this marvelous movie...

No one else?? http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/confused.gif">

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As Obi-wan said to Yoda...."there is another..."

'Snow Falling on Cedars' far outshines the mediocrity of 'Shine' and Newton-Howard's score is stunning. The cinematography is luscious and the themes tackled eloquently. Full points to Hicks for resisting the temptation to offer "Shine II". Why - I adored the film so much I bought some of it...
http://www.geocities.com/cine-sin/aboutme.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.geocities.com/cine-sin/aboutme.html

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Only Max von Sydow shined, but even he couldn't rescue it from forgetting it two days later. It has important themes indeed, but so did Armageddon (objects from outer space might hit us and kill us all), but it didn't help that movie either.

np return to oz

As for the actors, except for Ethan Hawke (who is indeed weak), the rest of the cast is perfect.

And your comparision between this movie and ARMAGEDDON is just too ludicrous to be considered. Besides, I can't see why "objects from outer space might hit us and kill us all" is an important theme...

With such vision, every movie has an important theme:
- FINAL DESTINATION: learn how to scamm death
- JURASSIC PARK: don't mess with nature or nature will mess with you
- BATTLEFIELD EARTH: cavemen on supersonic jets can defeat alien slayers
- MAN IN BLACK: dogs who talk are from outer space
... and so on...

I'm just saying that Cedars was not that gripping as I hoped it would be, since all the right elements were there, the music, the directing, the cinematography, Max Von Sydow, the setting etc. The script and Ethan dragged it down and I sat there afterwards kinda disappointed, felt like someone had stood me up on prom night.

quote:

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Originally posted by MrBlack:
Saying a movie has an IMPORTANT theme is not enough to make it good, though.

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I agree, but no one said that.
It was you who figured it out by yourself.
There are loads of bad movie with important subjects around.

I only said (and everyone else here seems to agree) that the movie was quite good because of all the things I've mentioned, including its importance.

"You'll believe cavemen can learn to fly!" should've been the tagline.

And OF COURSE dogs who can talk would be from outer space!!!!! Where else? Cleveland? http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/biggrin.gif">

quote:

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Originally posted by H. Rocco:
"You'll believe cavemen can learn to fly!" should've been the tagline.

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Oh well... Cavemen CAN learn to fly! But I am afraid it would take a little more than 2 days for that to happen... http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/biggrin.gif">

quote:

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Originally posted by MrBlack:
HAHAHA, yes all movies have a theme, exactly. Saying a movie has an IMPORTANT theme is not enough to make it good, though.

I'm just saying that Cedars was not that gripping as I hoped it would be, since all the right elements were there, the music, the directing, the cinematography, Max Von Sydow, the setting etc. The script and Ethan dragged it down and I sat there afterwards kinda disappointed, felt like someone had stood me up on prom night.

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Hi all,

Firstly, I want to say that I respect your opinion with reference to your above statement. Slow movies are now for all. However, some apsects need to be placed in cultural and historical perspective.

You say the actors bring little emotion to the film. What I would like to know is - what are your expectational devices on achieving such a realm?

Let us call to question the Japanese perspective. In the courtroom, we see Kazuo appearing cold in appearance and displaying little remorse. However, we also learn from a Japanese cultural perspective that he was not to expose his emotions. This being an approach taught since childhood. As such, he is being 'judged' in the courtroom for showing little remorse from a naive perspective.

Similarly, Hatsue was under the same pressure to constrain her true feelings for Ishmael.

Then we have Ishmael himself, who like his character in 'Gattaca', desires to see himself as part of the world for which is supposedly unattainable. Typically cliched are the shots of him in the courtroom behind bars. In 'Gattaca' we see him behind glass windows desiring the world of the genetic previleged.

In my opinion, there is a reason for the inter-twining time-spaces. In the days of youth/innocence, there exists freedom while in the days of adulthood and war there exists restraint. I believe that there was much emotion expressed in the days of youth that are far removed from harsh realities of adulthood. You only have to look at the way young Ishmael adores Hatsue.

For these reasons, I feel that isolation plays a major conceptual role in the 'cold' portrayal of characters. However, the warmth is expressed through visuality alone and has little to do with dialogue.

Furthermore, the score encaptures that whole experience. The violin and cello says it all in term of musical translation.

Finally, on a different note....I quite like slow films and that is the reason why Ozu and Dreyer are some of my favourite filmmakers.

Take care all,
Rochelle

When I watch a movie however, I DO know when the acting is sour, when something is not right, 'cause it takes me out of the reality of the movie and into knowing-I'm-just-watching-a-movie, I just stop caring about what goes on and that is the worst experience we as audience can have.

And that happened to me when watching CEDARS, I just stopped caring about Ethan Hawke and his problems. I really wanted to be involved and love this film, but in the end I felt indifferent.

I love slow movies too, they can go on forever as long as I'm involved and care about the characters and what goes on.

np Link

As for MrBlack: it wasn't YOU that lose interest in the problems of Ethan Hawke. The movie takes you in that direction. As the story unfolds, we learn that there's much more things going on then just Hawke's love story.

That's just another reason I loved the movie: it has the guts to abandon the Love Story and goes into other more interesting directions!

http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/cool.gif">

Great stuff!!

ROMY

np: SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS-"Humanity goes on Trial"

it is clear that some of the people here who liked this movie are utterly unable to accept any criticism of it...but here're my two cents anyhow.
the cinematography of this film and perhaps the music were unfortunately its only redeeming qualities. it had wonderful potential, but was ultimately confused about what its own direction was- it wasn't sure whether it wanted to be a love story, a murder mystery or a commentary on racism. i know those who liked it will argue that it was all of these- but by spreading itself so thinly, none of the stories paid off and it became terribly difficult to care about any of what was going on. so basically i felt the same let down as mrblack- like i had just seen a great story portrayed with abject mediocrity.