We have another movie with special effects created by having a foreground object or actor imposed on a background scene that was shot separately. As kc pointed out, this was rather charming in “The Lavender Hill Mob”. But do you think it works here?
The interior of their B-52 was realistic, and I liked the background view of flying when it was out the window. But I think they should have skipped all the exterior shots of the plane since it just looked like the small model that it was and didn’t move in conjunction with the background. Getting damaged by the missile blast wasn’t impressive either. I think it would have been more intense and tightly focused to have done only interior shots. This might be true even if the U.S. Air force had allowed the use of a B-52 which they never would for a critical movie like this.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
Agreed, dw. Kubrick is usually in top form with his cinematography, but those exterior shots looked like a toy model.
The perspective when the bombs hit different points of the Earth was compelling, though. There was one great shot where the explosions were reflected in the water.
Yes, those shots, like the opening shot of the plane refueling, were stock footage that was publicly available and beyond the control of the military. Kubrick could probably have found some footage of B-52s flying over at high altitude if he wanted to use that instead. But I’m a bit surprised he went with the models.
Yes, the models were laughable, especially as compared with the highly realistic look of the plane's interior. I thought the clumsy exterior shots, though, really highlighted the notion that these highly complex war machines are really akin to toys in the hands of the doofs running the world. The whole tone of the movie is that the arms race is a game being played by adolescent boys who like to see things explode. Maybe the use of models underscores this. Just a theory.
And the montage of mushroom clouds plays into this, too. We don't see people being incinerated by the bombs. We don't see the true close-up horror of war. We just see the neat orgy of explosions that is the glee (multiplied by millions) of a child watching a fireworks show.
... and learned to love the bomb...
When filmed in color, those mushroom clouds can be beautiful—just like a sunrise.
I didn't mind the exterior shots.
By the way, part of the reason they weren't given access to a B-52 for the film was that it was still considered state-of-the-art when the film was made.
I wanted to laugh at the model airplanes. They looked very silly to me. I read somewhere that they sped up the background footage to give the appearance of jet speed, but to me that just added to the silliness.
Post a Comment