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Posted: |
Aug 29, 2017 - 8:11 AM
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By: |
Jim Phelps
(Member)
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Ok, back to the subject. And Jim, you have probably nailed why Chinatown doesn't work for me as well as I would have expected it to. Dunaway's performance always throws me out of the film.
Don't get me wrong about Chinatown; I adore the film and just about everything about it except Dunaway's performance.
BTW, my favorite scene in Chinatown is when Jake is out in the sunbaked riverbed and, ever the detective, asks the kid on horseback questions about the river. I love the look, feel, and sound of it.
Not to completely derail this thread, but the reason I particularly love Yulin is his performance in a short film on PBS in the seventies, Parker Adderson, Philosopher, based on a story by Ambrose Bierce. This description captures the piece beautifully: "Confederate Generals don't look kindly upon Yankee spies-in fact, they're hanged at sunrise...usually. Parker Adderson is a confessed spy whose philosophizing about his fate forces his executioner to confront his mortality-and take a long, hard look at the death that awaits every soldier, and every human being."
Derail the thread? No way!  Your admiration for Mr. Yulin's obscure-to-me work makes the point that those of us who like 1970-75 films about disillusionment (or otherwise) and their scores are enough of a niche around this forum that no one will notice if there's a stimulating discussion alongside NIGHT MOVES and digresses into nearby realms of that era. I'm no Carnac the Magnificent, but I can make a list of those who will chime in on an early '70s topic at this forum. Besides, this place cries out for more '70s discussion; there are too few of us here anymore. 
A thread that may interest you:
https://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=119742&forumID=7&archive=0
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Yes, I've scanned that thread as well (predictably, I guess). Didn't contribute as nothing much to say. As I've said elsewhere around here (and in the context of why I'm not such a fan of Chinatown), I've wearied of the nihilism of early 70's cinema under the premise I've latterly adopted: Despair is easy; it's hope that's hard.*
Still, I enjoy watching this sort of thing from time to time. But my go-tos are more in the Charley Varrick, Pelham 123, Marathon Man vein. (Hey, there's a Matthau subtheme there, no coincidence!)
(*And no, I don't mean A New Hope!)
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Right, I didn't mean Shamus was a better film at all, just that I recall bits and pieces of it from TV....Night Moves I never seem to remember as well until I watch it. And hell, there's Harris Yulin, with a limp and a cane even, right there at the beginning. That I should remember - I love him.
Thinking offhand, I only know Harris Yullin from playing Wyatt Earp and his small role in the Woody Allen film Another Woman. However in looking over his credits at the all-knowing IMDb, I am pleased to see Mr. Yulin working prolifically in films and TV though in precious little I have seen.
I'd have to finally watch Shamus to see and hear what all the fuss is about, since it is from Goldsmith's best career period, though if the main title is any indication, the enthusiasm for Shamus around here is for Jerry's "brand-name" recognition and the score's "tantalizing" unavailability as opposed to the precious, annointed few of us who are admirers of Michael Small who are clamoring for Night Moves.
Not '70s, but Yulin is probably best known to the widest audience due to his supporting role as Mel Bernstein, the crooked cop, in De Palma's SCARFACE. I'd have to guess that's the one that people stop him most on the street to quote back to him.
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I don't know, guys, re Dunaway in Chinatown: I think her mannered, brittle performance is perfect for the character of Evelyn Mulwray considering how much she's "covering up," so to speak.
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Besides, this place cries out for more '70s discussion; there are too few of us here anymore.
Hear, hear!
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I don't know, guys, re Dunaway in Chinatown: I think her mannered, brittle performance is perfect for the character of Evelyn Mulwray considering how much she's "covering up," so to speak.
That's always how I read it as well. Much of her affected mannerisms are product of her clamping down on so many secrets and traumas, as well as aspects of her social class.
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