The continued downward spiral of post-Mormon LaBute

[MikeWaters]

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wicker_man/

[Colly Wolly]

The previews for this looked cool. I was going to go see it. Not anymore.

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wicker_man/

He's had a lot of success, including Nurse Betty, since they disfellowshiped him in 1999 because of the content of his films and plays. He's had successful plays as well as movies.

http://www.allocine.co.uk/personne/f...nne=21074.html

Wicker Man is getting mixed reviews but it's hardly a disaster. He's still one of the most admired directors and playrwrites. The Church should have ignored him. It's ridiculous to disfellowship someone over their art. What if the Catholic Church had excomunicated Copolla because of the Godfather. People would have thought the Pope lost it. What's your point? God is punishing him?

[non sequitur]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

He's had a lot of success, including Nurse Betty, since they disfellowshiped him in 1999 because of the content of his films and plays. He's had successful plays as well as movies.

http://www.allocine.co.uk/personne/f...nne=21074.html

Wicker Man is getting mixed reviews but it's hardly a disaster. He's still one of the most admired directors and playrwrites. The Church should have ignored him. It's ridiculous to disfellowship someone over their art. What if the Catholic Church had excomunicated Copolla because of the Godfather. People would have thought the Pope lost it. What's your point? God is punishing him?

If he'd stayed in the church, maybe he could have aspired to be the next Richard Dutcher. Or maybe he could have hitched his star to the folks at Halestorm. Poor Neal. He could have been somebody.

[FarrahWaters]

I haven't been following his career closely enough to know if it's in a downward spiral. I heard a couple of his recent plays received some critical acclaim.

IMO, In the Company of Men was his best movie (that I've seen), with that cruel little twist at the end. I guess that doesn't fall in his post-Mormon era though. I did not like "Friends and Neighbors", he butchered an A.S. Byatt book I like with his adaptation of "Possession", and "The Shape of Things" was only so-so. I hardly remember anything about Nurse Betty, except Eckhardt being scalped while eating dinner.

[tooblue]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

He's still one of the most admired directors and playrwrites.

Isn't that a little like a fellow inmate receiving the admiration of Charles Manson?

Art is the outward expression of ideas ... he may well have reasoned himself beyond the Lord's influence.

It is possible that it is in the best interest of both parties, the writer/filmmaker and the church, to seperate from one another.

[tooblue]

Originally Posted by non sequitur

If he'd stayed in the church, maybe he could have aspired to be the next Richard Dutcher. Or maybe he could have hitched his star to the folks at Halestorm. Poor Neal. He could have been somebody.

Certainly, being a former Mormon who liberated himself from the shackles of intellectual oppression couldn't possibly benefit his career ... no, nothing deliberate in that, he's a victim, an inspiration in fact!

[tooblue]

Originally Posted by tooblue

Certainly, being a former Mormon who liberated himself from the shackles of intellectual oppression couldn't possibly benefit his career ... no, nothing deliberate in that, he's a victim, an inspiration in fact!

Gee, I bet he never wears that knowledge on his lapel like a badge of courage as he seeks the backing from his peers.

[MikeWaters]

I typed up a fairly long reply earlier this morning, replete with box number statistics.

Suffice it to say that Nurse Betty, Possession, the Shape of Things, and now Wicker Man are box office duds.

I think it is also safe to say, and the article linked earlier seems to support this, is that his earliest work is his strongest, and his work is not getting better.

He was able to gain some currency as the controversial Mormon asshole. Being just a controversial asshole is less interesting. Lots of those. One wonders if the dynamics involved in maintaining some semblance of faith helped his work. Who knows.

I have followed his career relatively closely, but Possession was so terrible as to make me not bother to watch the Shape of Things, despite the fact I have it recorded.

I don't agree with disfellowshipping someone over a play like he wrote (if that is what happened). And for his excommunication, maybe it was due to philosophy, or maybe it was due to something else. He is no longer married to a Mormon, for example. Who knows what's there. But the important point is that he disavows Mormonism and doesn't consider himself a Mormon artist.

In that I am interested in Mormon artists, my interest in her recedes a bit. But I'm all for great movies. It's not like I rejoice when Hollywood puts out crap like The Wicker Man.

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

I typed up a fairly long reply earlier this morning, replete with box number statistics.

Suffice it to say that Nurse Betty, Possession, the Shape of Things, and now Wicker Man are box office duds.

I think it is also safe to say, and the article linked earlier seems to support this, is that his earliest work is his strongest, and his work is not getting better.

He was able to gain some currency as the controversial Mormon asshole. Being just a controversial asshole is less interesting. Lots of those. One wonders if the dynamics involved in maintaining some semblance of faith helped his work. Who knows.

I have followed his career relatively closely, but Possession was so terrible as to make me not bother to watch the Shape of Things, despite the fact I have it recorded.

I don't agree with disfellowshipping someone over a play like he wrote (if that is what happened). And for his excommunication, maybe it was due to philosophy, or maybe it was due to something else. He is no longer married to a Mormon, for example. Who knows what's there. But the important point is that he disavows Mormonism and doesn't consider himself a Mormon artist.

In that I am interested in Mormon artists, my interest in her recedes a bit. But I'm all for great movies. It's not like I rejoice when Hollywood puts out crap like The Wicker Man.

I confess to finding him more interesting when he was a controversial Mormon artist. I think he suffers from somewhat limited vision. His stories all seem to employ the same formula, involving a handsome ladies man treating a woman
impaired in some way (she may just be less beautiful than his standards permit, she may be beautiful and deaf, etc.) with seeming chivalry while his objective ultimately is unremitting cruelty, while enlisting a man, a less attractive friend, in the enterprise who winds up falling for the woman but losing her because he's fundamentally a loser and also because of his complicity in the other man's cruelty to her. His theme is handsome man's cruelty to woman in a limited context--dating. The pittilesness of the cruelty, lack of sentimentality or redeeming plot turn in La Bute's films was surprising at first, but ultimately pretty barren. At the very least his films and plays could have used a little humor. His latest broadway play employed the old formula; he needs a new one. His work has always made me think the dating scene at BYU must be a real jungle.

I agree In the Company of Men was his best film. As for Possession, I think the criticism is unfair. I thought the novel was extremely pretentious and extremely bad. It's not hard to see why it was fashionable to like it, but there were way too many pages for what story there was there, and the poetry, well, the poetry didn't match Robert Browning, not even close. The book was boring and not well enough written to float on literary merit alone. Posession was also not easily adaptable to film. Thus, given the impossible task LaBute faced--making a good film out of Posession--I thought he did an admirable job, one of the few instances in which the movie turns out to be better than the book, in my opinion. I know this is subjective.