TGME Round 1: A New Hope Vs. To Kill a Mocking Bird

[RoninFox]

Nope, won't play that game. It's whatever version you want it to be.

That's a bit tricky, while the original Star Wars definitely puts up a fight in my mind (enough of one that I still have to re watch To Kill a Mockingbird to decide) the special edition or dvd edition couldn't win this match if you watched the competition with cotton in  your ears and your eyes plucked out.

[Pak-Man]

A deleted scene with Jabba and some cleaned up special effects and added establishment shots aren't enough to ruin the movie for me. :^)

[RoninFox]

Bleh, cleaned up special effects shouldn't mean turn it into a video game.  CGI Jabba was horrid, as was most of the CG stuff, even for the time.  Ah well, if I vote for Star Wars here it'll be with the original in mind.  I don't even think of the special edition as a movie.   

[bratpop]

First CG Jabba was okay. Second one was nothing like Jabba.

[Tripe]

But you must admit, they are better than To Kill a Mockingbird: Special Edition.

But the Ewoks on the witness stand are integral to the plot now!

[mrbasehart]

But you must admit, they are better than To Kill a Mockingbird: Special Edition.

But the Ewoks on the witness stand are integral to the plot now!

*ahem*

Atticus Finch: To begin with, this case should never have come to trial. The Empire has not produced one iota of medical evidence that the crime Wicket is charged with ever took place. It has relied instead upon the testimony of two Stormtroopers whose evidence has not only been called into serious question on cross examination, but has been flatly contradicted by the defendant. Now there is circumstantial evidence to indicate that Oola was beaten savagely by someone who led, almost exclusively, with his left [hand]. And Wicket now sits before you, having taken "The Emperor's Oath" with the only good paw he possesses -- his right.

I have nothing but pity in my heart for the Chief Witness for the Empire. She is the victim of cruel poverty and ignorance. But, my pity does not extend so far as to her putting an Ewok's life at stake, which she has done in an effort to get rid of her own guilt. Now I say "guilt," gentlemen, because it was guilt that motivated her. She's committed no crime. She has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society, a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with. She must destroy the evidence of her offense. But, what was the evidence of her offense? Wicket, an Ewok. She must put Wicket away from her. Wicket was to her a daily reminder of what she did.

Now what did she do? She tempted an Ewok. She was white and she tempted a fuzzy bear. She did something that in our society is unspeakable: She kissed an Ewok . Not an old uncle, but a strong, young, hirsuite creature. No code mattered to her before she broke it, but it came crashing down on her afterwards.

The witnesses for the Empire, with the exception of the sheriff of Endor, have presented themselves to you gentlemen -- to this Court -- in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted; confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption, the evil assumption, that all Ewoks lie; all Ewoks are basically immoral beings; all Ewok males are not to be trusted around our women, an assumption that one associates with minds of their caliber, and which is in itself, gentlemen, a lie -- which I do not need to point out to you.

And so, a quiet, humble, respectable Ewok, who has had the unmitigated TEMERITY to feel sorry for a white dancing girl, has had to put his word against two white peoples. The defendant is not guilty. But somebody in this courtroom is.

Now, gentlemen, in this Empire our courts are the great levelers. In our courts, all men are created equal - except for perhaps clone troopers - But I'm no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and of our jury system. That's no ideal to me. That is a living, working reality!

Now I am confident that you gentlemen will review without passion the evidence that you have heard, come to a decision, and restore this Ewok to his treetop tribe

In the name of the Force, do your duty. In the name of the Emperor, believe Wicket.

[Johnny Unusual]

*Applause*

I was just going to make a joke about a digitally remaster CGI ham costume or the decision to make Boo Radley lizard beast, but that, sir, was inspiring.

[Tripe]

Tres Bien! 

[wurwolf]

Oooh trouble and strife in the pretty-wurwolf household

oh yeah, where movies are concerned there's really only three that we agree on their greatness.  Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Secretary, and Road House.

Mostly, I'm stuck in a house of popcorn movie lovers.  Although, I'm trying to expand the girls' horizons but that's slow going so far.

*GASP!* I can't believe you forgot MST3k: The Movie!

[CM916]

Sorry, I just have something against books I was forced to read as a child.

[bratpop]

Strangely I managed to escape my childhood without ever being "forced" to read a book. They came pretty close trying to get me to read Lord of the Flies, but I don't like baseball stories.

[Pak-Man]

Yeah, a lot of the books they force on you in High School English are important, but not necessarily any good. I think most of them survived solely on the torch being passed on. "This is what they forced ME to read in High School, this is what I'LL force them to read in High School."

But I digress. TKaMB is good, no doubt about it, but at the end of the day, the movie I'd rather watch is New Hope. It says something when a movie can slap the same dopey grin on my face every time after 30+ viewings over my 30+ years of life.

[bratpop]

I haven't seen it, so I don't know... I only know I hate courtroom dramas, but what are the merits of TKAMB the MOVIE as opposed to the book? Is it really fair to call it a great movie because it was well adapted from a great book? Shouldn't a movie achieve something on its own other than capturing decent acting performances? I mean, the Wizard of Oz is a great book, but the movie is a classic because it was bursting with technicolor, nothing like it had been done before outside of animated films, and it was like tripping without drugs. But there are plenty of courtroom dramas. It's sort of like saying Beowulf is great just because people thought it could never be filmed. So is Mockingbird really a great movie, or just a good movie of a great book? Because Star Wars did what Wizard of Oz did, and it's something that can only be a movie. And I'm having a hard time figuring out why the vote is so close. Especially in a forum that complains about how unoriginal Hollywood is. A film that's massively original versus a cash-in of a famous book. If they did that now, you'd say, "Can't Hollywood come up with some original ideas???"

I have of course always heard the praises of the book sung, but I don't recall ever hearing anyone tout the movie as a classic. And if you can easily say, "the book is better," doesn't Star Wars win by default? I mean it's all personal perference of course, but I never imagined so many people outside of film school would prefer To Kill A Mockingbird: The Movie to Star Wars.

[mrbasehart]

I'm going to quote you as an answer, bratpop:

I haven't seen it, so I don't know...

And calling TKaM a courtroom drama is incorrect.  The movie ends in a courtroom, but Atticus Finch isn't even the main character, Scout is.  Mostly, the movie - and the book - is about how she comes to recognize that there are things outside of her life, that her childish view that she's the centre of the universe is a fallacy and there are things she is unable to control or even influence.  And I really don't get your point about the adaptation process, why shouldn't the movie adhere to the book? It's a great one.  Why the need to change something just to make it different from the source material? Plenty of movies already do that and fail.

Especially in a forum that complains about how unoriginal Hollywood is. A film that's massively original versus a cash-in of a famous book. If they did that now, you'd say, "Can't Hollywood come up with some original ideas???"

That's just absurd.  Sure, Star Wars may be original - though it's plot is nothing more than a western - but that doesn't mean it's a better movie than TKaM.  No one complained about There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men, or Atonement, all of which are "cash-ins". 

[anais.jude]

TKaM is a phenomenal book and an amazing movie.