1071 Defending Your Life

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DarkImbecile
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1071 Defending Your Life

#1 Post by DarkImbecile » Tue Dec 15, 2020 1:56 pm

Defending Your Life

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Is there love after death? Acerbic everyman Albert Brooks finds a perfect balance between satirical bite and romantic-comedy charm as the writer, director, and star of this wonderfully warm and imaginative existential fantasy. After he dies suddenly, the hapless advertising executive Daniel Miller (Brooks) finds himself in Judgment City, a gleaming way station where the newly deceased must prove they lived a life of sufficient courage to advance in their journey through the universe. As the self-doubting Daniel struggles to make his case, a budding relationship with the uninhibited Julia (Meryl Streep) offers him a chance to finally feel alive. Buoyed by a brilliant supporting cast that includes Rip Torn, Lee Grant, and Buck Henry, Defending Your Life is a rare feat of personal, philosophical filmmaking that happens to also be divinely entertaining.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
  • New 4K digital restoration, supervised by director Albert Brooks, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New conversation between Brooks and filmmaker Robert Weide
  • New interview on the afterlife with theologian and critic Donna Bowman
  • New program featuring excerpts from 1991 interviews with Brooks and actors Lee Grant and Rip Torn
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
    PLUS: An essay by filmmaker Ari Aster

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The Narrator Returns
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Re: 1071 Defending Your Life

#2 Post by The Narrator Returns » Tue Dec 15, 2020 2:17 pm

Donna Bowman contributing to this, Emily VanDerWerff doing the Moonstruck essay, it's a good time to be a former AV Club staff member.

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Pavel
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Re: 1071 Defending Your Life

#3 Post by Pavel » Tue Dec 15, 2020 2:55 pm

Even with such a bad cover, this announcement makes me very, very happy. Give me as much Albert Brooks as possible! (Though Real Life would've been even better.)

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therewillbeblus
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Re: 1071 Defending Your Life

#4 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Dec 15, 2020 3:18 pm

Pavel wrote:
Tue Dec 15, 2020 2:55 pm
Give me as much Albert Brooks as possible! (Though Real Life would've been even better.)
I'm hoping Real Life is part of their Paramount deal, and I can't imagine them not releasing it, if so

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justeleblanc
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Re: 1071 Defending Your Life

#5 Post by justeleblanc » Wed Dec 16, 2020 8:53 am

therewillbeblus wrote:
Tue Dec 15, 2020 3:18 pm
I'm hoping Real Life is part of their Paramount deal, and I can't imagine them not releasing it, if so
This seems highly likely. And I'd imagine several (if not all) of his short films will also be added as features.

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barbarella satyricon
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Re: 1071 Defending Your Life

#6 Post by barbarella satyricon » Wed Dec 16, 2020 10:25 am

I might be opening a can of worms with this one, but when I first watched this years ago, there was one scene, and one particular shot within it, that just completely took me out of any enjoyment or feeling of good will toward the movie. It’s spoilered below, and if anyone rolls their eyes about it, I’d understand the reaction. I’d be able to argue from a countering viewpoint as well.

But what can you do when something just completely rubs you the wrong way, even if the reaction might be trivialized as a mechanism of “political correctness“ or what is now called wokeness (a term which wasn’t coined when I was first watching this)?
SpoilerShow
In the scene where various characters are being shown their past lives, Meryl Streep’s character is shown to have been some kind of a knight on a white horse (enter google search result here: she was “Prince Valiant“ in a past life). Albert Brooks is shown to have been some kind of an African warrior or “bushman” (surely an offensive term now, utilized mindfully here, I hope), running from some wild animal that is pursuing him.

Yeah, I know, big deal. And wouldn’t there be some form of ingrained racism in finding this offensive in the first place? Well, I think the issue is one of representation, and the seemingly insurmountable cultural, political and social baggage that comes with juxtaposing in one shot, for comic effect, a depiction of a “valiant prince” triumphantly astride his white steed and one of a comically played black, aboriginal character, running for his life, complete with what sounds like exaggerated pidgin language chattering. (That’s how it sounded to me, and asking for your understanding if my own understanding is incorrect.)

Maybe it was because my viewing of this was while I was still in the thick of post-secondary studies in the humanities. Or maybe that’s just a cheap way of writing off what I still see as, at the very least, a completely tone-deaf and culturally oblivious artistic blunder - even for, what, 1991? In short, I wouldn’t want to be anyone unwittingly caught sitting through this scene in mixed company, and if that mixed company should include Chuck D or Flavor Flav or anyone of a like mind (me included, more often than not), I’m pretty sure we’d be hearing a reprise of Burn Hollywood Burn.

If anyone, in this year of 2020, might have issues with or concerns about even “incidental” racism in the movies, this is just to say, avoid a blind buy.

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dwk
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Re: 1071 Defending Your Life

#7 Post by dwk » Mon Mar 08, 2021 2:33 pm


Gerald Christie
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Re: 1071 Defending Your Life

#8 Post by Gerald Christie » Mon Mar 29, 2021 2:16 pm

Chris, I see that you just posted your review. There have been some reports of an audio drop out around 39:38 for a split second. Could you check your disk to see if it's just an isolated incident? Thanks!

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cdnchris
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Re: 1071 Defending Your Life

#9 Post by cdnchris » Mon Mar 29, 2021 4:22 pm

When Lee Grant opens her case? I didn't notice anything, went back and double-checked and nothing stood out at first. THOUGH, eventually I did hear a slight little drop/shift/whatever during a moment in her line "is still held back by the fears," with it happening on/around "by" at around 39:44

To be honest, I didn't even notice it until going back and listening closer.

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TheKieslowskiHaze
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Re: 1071 Defending Your Life

#10 Post by TheKieslowskiHaze » Sun Apr 04, 2021 4:40 pm


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cdnchris
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Re: 1071 Defending Your Life

#11 Post by cdnchris » Mon Apr 05, 2021 12:22 am

That's his best one since Election

JabbaTheSlut
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Re: 1071 Defending Your Life

#12 Post by JabbaTheSlut » Mon Apr 05, 2021 12:46 am

TheKieslowskiHaze wrote:
Sun Apr 04, 2021 4:40 pm
Blu-ray.com review.
Is Doctor Atanasov qualified to review comedy?

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soundchaser
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Re: 1071 Defending Your Life

#13 Post by soundchaser » Mon Apr 05, 2021 1:17 am

Satire really is the most dangerous art, isn’t it?

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therewillbeblus
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Re: 1071 Defending Your Life

#14 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Apr 05, 2021 1:51 am

Best to skip the afterlife- that's a good one!

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