Logging

Film:  The Dark Knight Rises, Ride Lonesome

The plotting and story telling is all over the place in the Dark Knight and you can barely understand Bane speaking, but overall, for a summer event movie, I enjoyed myself.  The theater was only half full - my favorite Westwood Bruin theater for event movies - during the day on Saturday.  Felt like less of a let down than the 3rd Act of the last Dark Knight movie.  The thing that stands out to me in these Batman movies is a bit how much Christian Bale seems to recede into the background.  He isn't the first thing I think about in these movies and he is obviously a skilled and great actor.  Take, the Fighter, for instance and it is his performance that really makes the film, but in Batman, he is a bit of an afterthought.

Ride Lonesome is perhaps the best Boetticher/Kennedy/Scott film.  The final shot is one of my favorite in all of cinema.  Saw a gorgeous print (I think) at the Billy Wilder theater.  Wish I wasn't tired and half drunk watching it -- but still enjoyed the film quite a lot.  "She ain't ugly."  Still for my money, one of the great lines in any Western.