Why I Saw This Movie
This is one of those classic
movies that I’ve been meaning to get around to for a long time—for example it
was voted the second best comedy of all time by the American Film Institute (W).
In addition,
my curiosity in this film was further aroused when Stephen Pinker quoted
dialogue from this film in The Language Instinct as an illustration of how humans don’t always
communicate directly with each other.
The Review
Supposedly one of the best movies
of all time…And I hated it.
The premise
was ridiculous. Dustin Hoffman in drag
does not look like a convincing woman, and it’s ridiculous that everyone in
this movie is so completely fooled.
Secondly, all the characters in this movie are constantly making ridiculously
bad decisions in a way that causes further disbelief.
All that
would have been forgivable if it had been funny, but the movie just wasn’t
funny.
And the
whole movie just stank of 1980s cheesiness—from the cheesy dialogue to the awful
soft rock ballads to the montage scenes.
Other Things I Would
Talk About If I Wasn’t Limiting Myself to 100 Words
* All the things
characters in this movie did which didn’t make any sense.
Rating :
Links
Since I’m a minority opinion, I suppose it’s only fair that
I link to some of the more traditional appraisals of this film for balance—Roger Ebert gave this film 4 out of 4 stars in his 1982 review here. And to show that the film continues to
attract positive reviews even in more recent times, here is the AVclub’s take here.Link(s) of the Day
Noam Chomsky on "Capitalism, Property, Technology, Government and the Social Order" (1997)
From Khmer440.com: Life in Brown Coffee and Bakery. As with everything from Khmer440, I have mixed feelings about linking to this, because I think it's about one-third exaggerated, one third blatantly false, and one-third true. But then all writing is based on subjective observations. At any rate, I spend a lot of time in Brown Coffee, so I could identify with at least some of what he says in this article.
And from Tom Tomorrow, here is yet another cartoon that absolutely nails it--Supporting the Drones
In addition, my curiosity in this film was further aroused when Stephen Pinker quoted dialogue from this film in The Language Instinct as an illustration of how humans don’t always communicate directly with each other.
ReplyDeleteWithout wanting to sound nit-picky, are you sure it was in the Language Instinct, as I know that Pinker uses some examples from Tootsie to introduce Gricean Maxims, face, and Brown and Levinson's politeness theory.
...whoops! I meant to say "Pinker uses some examples from Tootsie...in the Stuff of Thought...to introduce..."
ReplyDeleteActually now that you mention it, I'm not 100% sure it came from the Language Instinct. I did read some of The Stuff of Thought, and I might be getting the two books jumbled in my memory.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, have you seen Tootsie?
ReplyDeleteBy the way, have you seen Tootsie?
ReplyDeleteNo, I haven't. Like you, I put it on my list of things I should watch based on the recommendation of Pinker. However, I think I might not bother now. I'm glad you linked to Ebert's review, though. Maybe I will make up my mind about watching it based on that because I usually find Ebert a reliable guide. Even if Ebert's tastes differ from mine I can usually tell from his write-ups whether or not I will like the film because he rates the films according to whether or not it succeeds for the genre.
Yeah, take my opinion with a grain of salt, since the rest of the world seems to disagree with me on this one.
ReplyDelete