Jim Doherty wrote:
> >
> Many dramas have comical parts. It's called
"comedy
> relief." It doesn't make them comedies, per se.
TLG
> wasn't primarily a comedy. It was a drama with
some
> parts that the director intended to be
funny.
>
> CAT BALLOU wasn't a drama with some funny parts;
it
> was a comedy.
>
> Do you really not see any difference?
Of course I see the difference. I just don't think we agree
on terms. Chekhov described UNCLE VANYA as a comedy, but I
think it's at least as dramatic as TLG (Altman's) and that at
the same time they're both about equally funny--though one is
laugh-out-loud funny more often than the other, which is more
smilingly funny.
In any event, I doubt that any of us is interested merely in
changing your mind. I think the impetus on my side of this
discussion is to make it clearer that some of your statements
are still up for debate, and that to the reader/viewer who
hasn't experienced TLG, that his mileage on viewing the film
may well vary from yours, which you have, at the very least,
implied was the final word, that any who disagree are wrong,
plain and simple. I quote:
"> It shouldn't be an insult that it exists.
You're right, it shouldn't be an insult. But it is. Moreover,
it's a deliberate, calculated insult. Insulting the book, the
character, the author, and the genre was Altman's entire
purpose.
> As the pros always say, "He didn't ruin the
book.
> It's still fine right there on the
shelf."
And they always say that when the film DOES, in fact, ruin
the book."
"Does, in fact," you say. Well, I respectfully contend that
Chandler's Long Goodbye is not ruined as a book and reading
experience, even if one has seen and hated Altman's film. I
experience them differently. If I wanted to experience them
exactly the same, I'd eliminate one from the equation and
read/view the other twice.
So please, have your own opinion. It has been energetically
and interestingly defended. But with all due respect, I get a
little antsy when someone says, "No, it isn't what you say it
is, it's what I say it is."
Jim Beaver
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