Comments on: BURN HOLLYWOOD BURN: REVOLUTIONARY ROAD - A Post-Viewing Open Letter to Sam Mendes

By: / HAMMER TO NAIL » Blog Archive » WITHOUT BIAS - Too Much Personal Bias, Perhaps

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:57:56 +0000

[...] book, Richard Yates’ Revolutionary Road (if you haven’t read my review, you can do that here, though be forewarned: it isn’t pretty). In the case of Len Bias, even Revolutionary Road [...]

By: / HAMMER TO NAIL » Blog Archive » EXPLODING GIRL, THE - The Invisible Observer

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:50:42 +0000

[...] Kazan, who powerfully played the one night stand secretary in the tepid Oscar fodder Revolutionary Road, here stars as Ivy, a 20-something college student returned home to Manhattan for spring break. She [...]

By: Down Revolutionary Road « Café Society

Down Revolutionary Road « Café Society — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 05:37:55 +0000

[...] tried too hard. Michael Tully made some interesting comparisons between the book and movie in his open letter to Mendes, and how the movie fails on many levels: Frank’s affair with his secretary. What [...]

By: gcgiles

gcgiles — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:54:47 +0000

I submit to your observation of testicular absence! Agreed. I’m waiting for someone to fuck up John Crowley’s books on the big screen, but I also know that the guy deserves much more attention, whether his books get corrupted or not as “adaptations.” At the same time, now that I’ve played Henry Kissinger and acknowledged the lesser evil of glorified furniture polish posing as cinema that unwittingly creates a more sophisticated reading public, I realize, too, that most people are going to be disappointed by the stark tonal disjunction between movie and novel, whether they work in one direction or the other. And feel the ugly smack either way. But, then again, you make enough Philip K. Dick or Raymond Chandler movie adaptations–good or bad–eventually the Library of America is going to step up and canonize. (As excellent as both writers are, to what else can we attribute their inclusion in that heavily-remaindered series?) My pragmatism gets a little mushy at this point… No more “post-creep.” Sorry.

By: Michael Tully

Michael Tully — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 14:01:19 +0000

gcgiles, you are right-right-right. a month or so after the smoke has cleared, i’ve settled down and am actually pleased to see the book in airport bookstores and elsewhere–even taking the cover image into account. this IS great news for Yates fans everywhere.you said it very, very well. that said, the movie is still a castration!

By: gcgiles

gcgiles — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 07:29:36 +0000

OK, not URL friendly: let’s just say Everyman’s Library, published Jan. 9 a handsome hardcover volume w/ the novels Revolutionary Road, 11 Kinds of Loneliness, and The Easter Parade.

By: gcgiles

gcgiles — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 07:27:00 +0000

Guess what’s happening? The movie has prompted a promotional paperback reprint of Revolutionary Road, and more people have read the book than probably ever have since it was first published, and there has been a reprinting of some of Yates’s more obscure titles, and his readership will expand. And all because the movie sucks! Which it does. But lift your chin up, Tully. That is, if you truly want more people to read his work and not just perpetuate his cult status. (Oh, and look what just “happened” to be published earlier last month [big-ass URL, sorry]: )
And alas, Claire Denis is more likely to film René Daumal’s Mt.Analogue than Richard Yates, I fear. I don’t think that she gives a fuck about Revolutionary Road, even if you and I do.

By: / HAMMER TO NAIL » Blog Archive » The Year in Film: 2008

/ HAMMER TO NAIL » Blog Archive » The Year in Film: 2008 — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:07:39 +0000

[...] Revolutionary Road (Sam Mendes, USA) [...]