Sunday, June 30, 2019

Paul Schrader's attack on Brian De Palma

“Don’t get me started on Brian De Palma. I re-watched ‘Redacted’ last night because [I] thought that given total artistic freedom he could reach for the stars. And he did. But the stars were beyond his reach. The script is trite, it is weak. That’s because Brian is trite, Brian is artistically weak. Skate fast on thin ice. That’s his story. That’s his con.”
--Paul Schrader

Schrader reportedly posted this on Facebook, left it up for a time then took it down, not because he thought better of it, but because he wanted to start a "conversation" but not have it drag on forever.

Most of us are trite and artistically weak. There's not much we can do about it. If Brian De Palma has managed to cope with this handicap, a lot of people would benefit from hearing about it, but "Skate fast on thin ice" isn't all that helpful advice by itself.

I haven't seen Redacted. US troops rape a girl and murder her and her family in Iraq. It was based on an actual incident. I don't know what Schrader's problem was with the film, but pro-rape-and-murder "critics" like the Zionist Michael Medved were outraged and I don't think being more artistic would have helped.


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