Movie --> Videogame Continued

[Sploops]

I thought of a potential alternate Grizzly Man game:  You're Werner Herzog and you have to stop that woman from listening to the tape of Treadwell's death.  There's a countdown in the corner of the screen and Herzog has to run through the streets, dodging bullets, cops and Klaus Kinski.  Whatever it takes, Jewel MUST NOT listen to that tape.  It would be TOO HORRIBLE. 

Am I the only one who watched Grizzly Man and found it very touching and tragic?

Everyone seems so quick to make fun of it like it's some big fucking joke he was killed. Has anyone actually ever watched it or are you all just those people who think "it's a credit to the gene pool when stupid people die" or some bullshit like that.

I dunno, maybe I'm taking shit to seriously again but I don't really see humor in it.

I'm with you, Colin.  I hate that whole "Darwin Awards" attitude.  Someone dies in a strange/stupid way and it's a laugh-riot to these ghouls.

[Joe Don from Astoria]

I hear you guys on the ghouls front.  To laugh about the fact of the man's death is surely ghoulish.

However there's still room to find humor in Grizzly Man, I think. . . When an animated man aims a camera at himself and waxes poetic about a fresh pile of animal manure, it's bound to invite some snickering.  Or when he chases and scolds a fox who's stolen his favorite cap. . . Or salutes his untamed animal friends with a buoyant "Hey, Mr. Chocolate!"  I imagine Treadwell himself would not deny the viewer some smiles at his antics.  And the scene where Herzog steps out from behind the camera to listen to that tape did strike me as over-the-top grandstanding on the part of the director, and perhaps serves as a clue to why Herzog related to his subject.  And as far as over-the-top goes, let's not forget the strange (and ghoulish) medical examiner who seems all too eager to assume a larger-than-life movie role.

All that said, the movie also provokes some deeper feelings; humor and poignancy are by no means mutually exclusive, but rather interestingly intertwined.   My reactions to Grizzly Man were similar to those I got from watching another favorite documentary, American Movie.  That film's subject, the amateur horror movie maker Mark Borchardt, at times seems misguided in his attempts to chase his dream, which give rise to some absurdly comical situations . . . and yet at other times his sense of overwhelming purpose and determination in the face of obstacles, naysayers, and even conventional common sense, arouses admiration and even inspiration.

In short, I have no new suggestion for this thread.

[Forrest]

Slightly off-topic: Does anybody know the song and/or artist that plays at the very end of Grizzly Man? I've been curious for a while.

[Chris L]

I don't think what I wrote was particularly ghoulish.  If anything I was poking fun at Herzog, not Treadwell.  And I think Grizzly Man is incredibley rich and complex.  To not see any humor in it seems to miss the point as much as those boors who can't understand why someone would watch a movie about a guy dumb enough to live with bears. 

The scene w/ the medical examiner, like the ones with the helicoptor pilot and any number of others in Herzog's documentaries, was as staged and manipulated as any fiction.  You can even see the guy glance at the director at the end of his bizarre spiel as if to say "how was that?"

[dania]

Agreed, Chris L.  I don't think anyone's saying that Grizzly Man ISN'T touching and tragic, or funny for that matter.  It was incredibly sad and frightening watching that guy throughout the film knowing what would happen to him at the end.  You've got to admit, though, that very moment Herzog says "You must destroy this tape" is one of the biggest letdowns ever.  Who can honestly say that they wouldn't want to hear that tape?  Call me a ghoul as much as you want, but I still wanted to hear the tape; because I'm like any other voyeuristic, want-to-see-or-hear-violence-on-my-TV kind of gal.  I never thought it would be funny at all, but shock value is so very hard to resist. 

[Chris L]

Yeah, but the actual contents of the tape, horrific though they may be, would have been comparitively banal.  You may forget the sound of Treadwell's girlfriend's screams or whatever over time, but you won't forget a filmmaker pulling back like that. 

[Denim Gremlin]

yeah, call me a spoil sport but I honestly don't want to hear anyone's death on tape.

[Sploops]

Road House.  Bouncing goons, tearing out throats, monster trucking car dealerships, so many awesome gameplay possibilities.


PS I definately see the humor in Grizzly Man (even moreso in the Grizzly Project, check it out!) but I didn't mean anyone here is a ghoul, I was just thinking of those Faces of Death watching cretins that get their jollies laughing at Darwin Awards or Ogre.com or whatever.  I hate that shit and it's all over the internet. 

[Martin]

You've got to admit, though, that very moment Herzog says "You must destroy this tape" is one of the biggest letdowns ever.  Who can honestly say that they wouldn't want to hear that tape?

Me.

[Sarah]

I don't want to hear it, either.  I have a ghoulish streak, but not that wide.

[Joe Don from Astoria]

While it may be human nature to have some degree of morbid curiosity about the tape, I didn't walk away wishing I could have heard it, either.  I actually agree with Herzog that as much as Treadwell made his activities public, that tape is best left as a private thing, and never heard.  But the way Herzog inserted himself into the movie came off as stagey and melodramatic (thus, kind of funny) nonetheless.

To get back on topic --

I'd like to play a videogame based on John Carpenter's THEY LIVE. 

You can be Roddy Piper or Keith David -- but either way, you are going to get waylaid into a 20 minute street alley fistfight with the other character.  If you make the mistake of walking down that alley again, same deal.  Exploring the city, you eventually discover the underground movement and wear the glasses that allow you to see things as they really are.  Our national obsession with money ("your god") and status has never been so exposed!  Plus you make the amazing discovery that Meg Foster is actually Kirstie Alley.  In a bonus round, John Carpenter appears and you have to figure out which button to push on his Casio keyboard to play the soundtrack.

I enjoy this movie and THE THING, which already has a videogame.  There is apparently no demand for a PRINCE OF DARKNESS game, in which you are Jameson Parker ("Simon and Simon") trying desperately to grow a thick mustache in time for first call.

[Itslikeimsayin]

This isn't clever or funny, but I think it would make for a fun video game: Midnight Run.

You're a bounty hunter who needs to capture The Duke and take him across country on buses, trains and by car (no planes). Along the way you have shootouts with mobsters, need to fend off other bounty hunters, duck the Feds, trick locals out of money so you can eat, catch up with old family members and develop an unlikely friendship with The Duke. If you win you get a feast that includes Lyonnaise potatoes and chorizo and eggs. Then you open your own coffee shop, and the game becomes a sim where you run a restaurant.

(I tried to call a bunch of times but didn't get through during the show.)

[Joe Don from Astoria]

Hey, your game has stolen sunglasses in it, too. 

The game of Alfred Hitchcock's REBECCA would have you as the Woman With No Name, which is sort of like Clint's Man With No Name, only without the self-assurance, gristle and gunfire.  Your aim is to progress through the game by building self-esteem as represented as a bar at the bottom of the screen.  The bar can dwindle early in the game, when you are reprimanded by your blowhard employer... but much more severely later on in the wonderful world of Manderlay, when cornered by the steely stare of the wandering Mrs. Danvers, who shows up over your shoulder without warning.  You can also be injured by the hot and cold running tempers of your great love, Max de Winter; and the machinations of George Sanders are also in play.  If your self-worth erodes to zero, you take a leap into the frothy cliffside waters or otherwise do yourself in.  But if you unravel the mystery of Rebecca, stand by your man, and stand up for yourself, you become a strong woman.  And get to choose a name for yourself on the High Score list.

[masterofsparks]

This isn't clever or funny, but I think it would make for a fun video game: Midnight Run.

You're a bounty hunter who needs to capture The Duke and take him across country on buses, trains and by car (no planes). Along the way you have shootouts with mobsters, need to fend off other bounty hunters, duck the Feds, trick locals out of money so you can eat, catch up with old family members and develop an unlikely friendship with The Duke. If you win you get a feast that includes Lyonnaise potatoes and chorizo and eggs. Then you open your own coffee shop, and the game becomes a sim where you run a restaurant.

(I tried to call a bunch of times but didn't get through during the show.)

I would play this game.

[Jixby Phillips]

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (which WAS made into a computer game, but listen)

It would be like "Rock Band", where 5 nerds would stand in the living room, with microphones. The goal is to recite scenes from the movie the best they can. In the game, they'd play a few other, different nerds, who are in their high school cafeteria, and the goal is to not get thumped by bullies. If you perform it well enough, they just ignore you.