The Hunt (Craig Zobel, 2020)

Discussions of specific films and franchises.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
DarkImbecile
Ask me about my visible cat breasts
Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2013 6:24 pm
Location: Albuquerque, NM

The Hunt (Craig Zobel, 2020)

#1 Post by DarkImbecile » Fri Aug 09, 2019 1:06 pm


User avatar
colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: L'art de la guerre politique

#2 Post by colinr0380 » Fri Aug 09, 2019 2:53 pm

Well Trump has been lashing out at video games and the internet as well recently to desperately swerve the debate away from, you know, real life gun control. So Hollywood should feel in good company and perhaps even flattered that he's so upset with them. Really though the media needs to just start ignoring him rather than trying to write 'well maybe he has a point?' desperate think pieces about whatever new spiel comes from his Twitter feed, as that's only providing his ramblings with legitimisation.

(I'd actually agree with Trump if he meant something like White House Down or Olympus Has Fallen, but somehow I think that he might quite enjoy those...)

User avatar
tenia
Ask Me About My Bassoon
Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:13 am

Re: L'art de la guerre politique

#3 Post by tenia » Fri Aug 09, 2019 3:05 pm

There's always a good reason not to do anything.

User avatar
colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: L'art de la guerre politique

#4 Post by colinr0380 » Sat Aug 10, 2019 2:32 pm

According to The Hollywood Reporter, these Trump comments have been specifically in response to an upcoming Blumhouse production The Hunt which has apparently been getting heavy negative publicity on Fox News recently (warning: link is to Fox News video on YouTube, in case you don't want to give them clicks). From the trailer it looks a bit like a politicised version of the Most Dangerous Game (or an aged-up Hunger Games) mixed with a bit of Cabin In The Woods and Predators. Universal has pulled the film from distribution.

User avatar
soundchaser
Leave Her to Beaver
Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2016 12:32 am

Re: L'art de la guerre politique

#5 Post by soundchaser » Sat Aug 10, 2019 2:47 pm

Coincidentally enough, I’m almost finished Hollywood Under Siege, the book about Universal releasing Scorsese’s Last Temptation. Plus ça change...

User avatar
tenia
Ask Me About My Bassoon
Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:13 am

Re: L'art de la guerre politique

#6 Post by tenia » Sat Aug 10, 2019 6:28 pm

It reminds me of Battle Royale, especially.

User avatar
furbicide
Joined: Thu Dec 29, 2011 4:52 am

Re: L'art de la guerre politique

#7 Post by furbicide » Sat Aug 10, 2019 10:50 pm

colinr0380 wrote:
Sat Aug 10, 2019 2:32 pm
According to The Hollywood Reporter, these Trump comments have been specifically in response to an upcoming Blumhouse production The Hunt which has apparently been getting heavy negative publicity on Fox News recently (warning: link is to Fox News video on YouTube, in case you don't want to give them clicks). From the trailer it looks a bit like a politicised version of the Most Dangerous Game (or an aged-up Hunger Games) mixed with a bit of Cabin In The Woods and Predators. Universal has pulled the film from distribution.
Honestly, it seemed like a pretty terrible idea for a film – either a) a right-wing straw man job, b) a weird and very tone-deaf liberal wish-fulfilment exercise or, most likely, c) a liberal provocation seeking to “humanise” Trump voters by getting fellow liberal audiences to side with them and question their prejudices, etc. – but even if I’m wrong, I just don’t know how you could salvage such a preposterous premise (even though Fox’s opposition is very simplistic and reactive in its “ban this sick filth” way).

I mean, at least Punishment Park was based on an actual (obscure) American law, right?

User avatar
colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: L'art de la guerre politique

#8 Post by colinr0380 » Sun Aug 11, 2019 4:15 am

Yes it does seem a bit broad from that trailer, though it is ironic in the light of this to see a Hollywood film that actually seems to be playfully trying to take some kind of political slant at all rather than having it all be in the eye of the beholder, Mona Lisa-style. I am partial to these kinds of 'death game' films anyway (I love Series 7: The Contenders but that had its sights firmly set as much on satirising the form of reality television even more than its premise of people hunting each other), so I'm hoping it will get a quiet release somewhere. I'm mostly just looking forward to what looks like a Kill Bill influenced, presumably climactic, one-on-one battle inside Hilary Swank's swanky home that the trailer seems to promise!

I'm getting the impression that Trump is only angry because he insecurely thinks that he is part of the 'Elites' being targeted for criticism, but unless he actually does run a death game on a private EU-bought (?) piece of land where he can operate with impunity (Maybe on that golf course?) then he should not really have gotten so upset by merely a trailer. Methinks the lady doth protest too much otherwise. Or maybe he's just noticed how vaguely 'anti-elites' that The Purge series and the Jordan Peele films have been and just wanted to jump on the bandwagon for this next Blumhouse 'provocation' as early as possible.

(I had wondered why the director's name rang a bell, and on checking his debut feature was that 'how far will you brutalise someone based on somebody saying that they are in authority telling you to?' film Compliance)

User avatar
thirtyframesasecond
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2007 1:48 pm

Re: L'art de la guerre politique

#9 Post by thirtyframesasecond » Sun Aug 11, 2019 5:25 am

The Hunt sounds like a reworked Purge movie, and I imagine nobody who watches Fox really noticed these movies until the 3rd/4th movies which were much more Trump/MAGA satires. Unless the movie has time travelled, connecting it to recent shootings is naive and just a form of deflection. Yeah it might not be an ideal time so be released, but has every current movie featuring guns been banned from release? I suspect the idea of standing up against the elites is more dangerous than the guns themselves. If you think it's going to incite violence, you're probably (a) giving the movie too much credit and (b) showing little faith in people. If someone watches this film and commits an atrocity, I don't think the movie is to blame. Even if it's not showing in cinemas, I hope it gets an Amazon etc. release (but they won't touch it) as I'd have watched it. And Compliance....man I liked that movie but it was horrible to watch.

User avatar
Brian C
I hate to be That Pedantic Guy but...
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:58 am
Location: Chicago, IL

Re: L'art de la guerre politique

#10 Post by Brian C » Sun Aug 11, 2019 11:41 am

colinr0380 wrote:
Sun Aug 11, 2019 4:15 am
I'm getting the impression that Trump is only angry because he insecurely thinks that he is part of the 'Elites' being targeted for criticism, but unless he actually does run a death game on a private EU-bought (?) piece of land where he can operate with impunity (Maybe on that golf course?) then he should not really have gotten so upset by merely a trailer. Methinks the lady doth protest too much otherwise. Or maybe he's just noticed how vaguely 'anti-elites' that The Purge series and the Jordan Peele films have been and just wanted to jump on the bandwagon for this next Blumhouse 'provocation' as early as possible.
I think it's probably simpler and scarier than that. Basically, Fox News has been playing this movie up as an insult to the heartland and an example of the violent contempt that coastal elites have for the "deplorables." And Trump gets all his information from Fox News. Ergo, Trump is worked up in a lather about it because he saw on his favorite TV channel that it's bad.

User avatar
tenia
Ask Me About My Bassoon
Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:13 am

Re: L'art de la guerre politique

#11 Post by tenia » Sun Aug 11, 2019 2:53 pm

Isn't how Trump often works anyway ? He gets riled up by whatever he saw on Fox News and rant about it ?

User avatar
Brian C
I hate to be That Pedantic Guy but...
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:58 am
Location: Chicago, IL

Re: L'art de la guerre politique

#12 Post by Brian C » Sun Aug 11, 2019 4:45 pm

Pretty much! If Fox News started talking about how liberals build tall buildings and hotels to insult real heartland Americans, then Trump would start ranting about tall buildings and hotels.

User avatar
zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: L'art de la guerre politique

#13 Post by zedz » Sun Aug 11, 2019 5:35 pm

If you're looking for a good modern take on The Most Dangerous Game, hold out for Kleber Mendonca Filho / Jiliano Dornelles' Bacurau.

User avatar
Luke M
Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2007 9:21 pm

Re: L'art de la guerre politique

#14 Post by Luke M » Sun Aug 11, 2019 11:28 pm

I like that conservatives can now fall back on the one with Ice-T killing all the white gun-nuts.

User avatar
colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: L'art de la guerre politique

#15 Post by colinr0380 » Mon Aug 12, 2019 10:52 am

I do agree with Brian C and don't think there is any deeper thought going into the rhetoric than whatever Fox News is telling him to be upset about this week, although it still seems a bit 'those who live in glass houses should not throw stones' blinkered for Trump to start throwing around accusations that privileged groups of people are being dangerously reckless by 'cynically' appealing to blue collar disaffected and exploited-feeling populaces and asking them to rise up against corrupt elites when that was the basis of his entire election campaign.

User avatar
tenia
Ask Me About My Bassoon
Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:13 am

Re: L'art de la guerre politique

#16 Post by tenia » Mon Aug 12, 2019 11:32 am

He certainly wouldn't the first to do that and come from that very milieu. We have the same in France with the Le Pen dynasty for instance.

User avatar
PfR73
Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2005 6:07 pm

Re: L'art de la guerre politique

#17 Post by PfR73 » Mon Aug 12, 2019 2:57 pm

colinr0380 wrote:
Sun Aug 11, 2019 4:15 am
(I had wondered why the director's name rang a bell, and on checking his debut feature was that 'how far will you brutalise someone based on somebody saying that they are in authority telling you to?' film Compliance)
Compliance is actually his third feature. His debut is a film called Surfacing: AKA A Letter from My Father, that I haven't seen, and then he did a film called Great World Of Sound, about "song sharking," that I saw at SXSW many years ago and is pretty good, and also stars Pat Healey, who played the caller in Compliance. He was also a co-creator of Homestar Runner.

User avatar
colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: L'art de la guerre politique

#18 Post by colinr0380 » Mon Aug 12, 2019 3:43 pm

Thanks for the correction, I had missed those previous films! And to find out that he was one of the people behind Homestar Runner and the Strong Bad character (who later got his own episodic adventure game in the pre-Walking Dead period of Telltale Games) is very interesting!

flyonthewall2983
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:31 pm
Location: Indiana
Contact:

Re: L'art de la guerre politique

#19 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Aug 12, 2019 3:52 pm

All that I am gathering from this is my increasing need to know WTF happened to Hillary Swank's career. I was in a waiting room last year and saw her guest host the afternoon edition of Good Morning America. She might be one of the few people and certainly women of a certain age who has 2 Oscars, and now she's doing stuff like this?

Jack Kubrick
Joined: Sun Jun 02, 2019 9:13 pm

Re: L'art de la guerre politique

#20 Post by Jack Kubrick » Mon Aug 12, 2019 4:19 pm

Hollywood had no idea what to do with Swank, as she was never bankable and the two Oscar wins were consider flukes by many Oscaristorians.

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: L'art de la guerre politique

#21 Post by swo17 » Mon Aug 12, 2019 4:32 pm

She was one of the best parts of Logan Lucky

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: L'art de la guerre politique

#22 Post by domino harvey » Mon Aug 12, 2019 5:15 pm

All parts of Logan Lucky were the best parts

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: L'art de la guerre politique

#23 Post by swo17 » Mon Aug 12, 2019 5:16 pm

Fair enough

User avatar
colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: L'art de la guerre politique

#24 Post by colinr0380 » Mon Aug 12, 2019 5:51 pm

I wonder if the relative box office failure of that big scaled Amelia Earhart biopic could perhaps have caused some problems? Probably her highest profile film since that was in that Gary Marshall ensemble comedy-drama New Year's Eve. Though she is only one of many broadly sketched in plots in that film, she has probably the most moving of all the stories as her harassed executive drops everything to do a last minute reconciliation with her dying father, played by Robert De Niro, creating a surprise cross connection Magnolia-style.

The other couple of Swank roles that I found interesting since her heyday was the rather unsympathetic store clerk in that comic take on an Amores Perros 'everyone is connected' story: 11:14, as well as one of the couple of films that appeared in that short-lived revival of the Hammer Films brand: The Resident. And she had a great role in The Homesman (though that got rather overwhelmed by the thematically similar Mad Max: Fury Road the next year).

User avatar
thirtyframesasecond
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2007 1:48 pm

Re: L'art de la guerre politique

#25 Post by thirtyframesasecond » Tue Aug 13, 2019 2:50 am

Jack Kubrick wrote:
Mon Aug 12, 2019 4:19 pm
Hollywood had no idea what to do with Swank, as she was never bankable and the two Oscar wins were consider flukes by many Oscaristorians.
I'd have to check who else was nommed when she won for MDB, but I stand by that being a very good film.

But you're right, she has a weird filmography for a two-time Oscar winner.

So I think I got the political twist of The Hunt wrong - I assumed the Trump supporters were the elites, so is it liberal elites hunting Trump supporters (e.g. the deplorables tag makes more sense)? TBH that sounds a better film.

Post Reply