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RE: Tarantino's "Death Proof"

Sorry you were talking about Kane - I understand - the film is before my time - I'm soon to be 34. but my dad was born in 1937 and he wasn't a big fan.

Like I say I get the themes but I'm also not an American and perhaps not being an American means that I do not associate success as much with financial success and power.

But hey I feel the same way with the Shakespeare tragedies. I preferred his comedies. I find more tragedy in a work like Miller's Death of a Salesman than people of high born stature falling. The presumption is that it is more of a tragedy when royalty or the rich fall from wealth and power than a guy like Willy Loman who bought into the American Dream while never realizing or even attempting to realize his own dreams and passions. To me that is a far greater tragedy.

Of course the tragedy of Kane was that all the money and power of buying into the dream and that in the end was not what really makes him happy. I get it but I guess it just doesn't translate for me on a gut level. I actually find the great cinematography to detach me from the film.

Back to Death of a Salesman - I wrote a paper way back when first to convince that Death of a Salesman could be considered a tragedy and then to convince that it was a greater tragedy than the Shakespearean accepted notion of a tragedy. The professor said - "Don't write a paper about Death of a Salesman being a tragedy because it isn't." So how could I resist? "Death of a Salesman: The Tragedy of the American Dream" or some such title.

Don't get me wrong I recommend the film Citizen Kane with a pretty high score but for me the resonance just isn't there. From around the same era I much prefer The Third Man.

Incidentally if you have not seen it - the made for TV Death of a Saleman with Hoffman and Malkovich is worth watching.


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