EPISODE 370: artist profile of SEAN CONNERY

Ray (@RaySquirrel) says:

On your previous profile episode on the late Philip Seymor Hoffman you mentioned that you were planning to do a profile episode on Walter Murch. As an amauture editor myself I was anticipating a profile episode on one of the most famous editors in movie history. In my own work I have constantly thought of this anecdote which Murch shares in his book. He talks about attenting the premiere of Apochalypse Now. He estimates the number of edits in the film and compares it to the number of days they spent editing the film. The ratio was around 1:1. He thought he could have just spent one day thinking hard about the splice that he wanted to make, make that splice, then go home and think really hard about the splice he was going to make the next day, and they would have had the same film.

On a related note, (since it involves editing, this episode and Lawrence Fishburn) since you have again mentioned your problem with Morpheus not dying in the Matrix movies. One project I have been working on the past few years, I’ve mentioned it on the comments of this website before, is a fan edit of The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions. When the Wachowskis released the original films, they also released a companion video game and animated shorts which tells different parts of the story. The reason why Reloaded and Revolutions don’t work as independent films to some people (they work fine for me but then again I played the video game) is because the films do not contain the entire story. Why Revolutions feels like such a “slog” is that it is one scene after another of characters referencing things that aren’t in any of the movies.

My theory as to why Morpheus doesn’t die is because Neo usurps the roll of the mentor for The Kid. (that is the characters name, just “the Kid.”) For my edit of Revolutions, the film begins with the animated short Kid’s Story, which is bascally an animated remake of the first movie with Kid in the role of Neo and Neo in the roll of Morpheus. Transitions into the Kid’s scenes from Reloaded. And that transitions into Revolutions where the siege is edited parrallel to Neo traveling to the machine city. They commit a similar action simultaneously showing that the Kid has become the savior of humanity and Neo has become the mentor. And assuming the role of savior/mentor (spoiler for 10 year old movie) Neo dies.

I have recently completed the edits of both films. I have shown it to fans of the original films and have gotten positive responses. Now I want to show it to people who did not like the original films to get a response.

Also on a point related to Sean Connery, it is funny to point out that Alan Moore made a sequel to League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, set in the 1960s. In that book it features James Bond as a character, who is a murdering rapist. I can’t help but think that is simultaneously a comment on the image of masculinity presented by the character of James Bond and his response to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie featuring Sean Connery.

Marko says:

“Something” called Sir Billy indeed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a20oRLJ4v4s

Also, Tyler’s mention of the score of the score from Dragonheart and it’s frequent use in media reminded me of this piece of music from the same composer that was also frequently used and of which I often confused one another with: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHthbtSbGLM

Sparkylab says:

To add to Huston’s ‘The Man Who Would be King’, and Hitchcock’s ‘Marnie’, outlined above, any retrospective of Connery’s career should have probably included Lumet’s ‘The Hill’, ‘The Anderson Tapes’, ‘Family Business’ (and maybe ‘The Offence’), Hyams’ ‘Outland’, as well as Boorman’s ‘Zardoz’, and finally Annaud’s ‘The Name of the Rose’.

His only western – Shalako (though Outland might also qualify), isn’t bad at all. Rising Sun, a later career highlight is also worth the time, too.