Finally back with the discussion thread, hopefully everyone had a chance to watch at least one of the Ocean's Eleven movies. We'll be discussing the similarities and differences between the two version and also just the movies themselves.
Enjoy!
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From the old film I definitely got a strong sense of "manliness" being a big player. It seemed at times that each character was an embodiment of some aspect of manliness: the father, the husband, the rough type, the muscly one, the player, the working man, they're all military guys, etc. Of course 60's values plays a role in that. It's almost a caricature of 60's social norms. Picking up and discarding dames, or the ol' "I was wrong about some little thing, better punch me in the fucking jaw, bud". Machismo was definitely there in the newer film, but it was much more sly about it. It wasn't there in your face all the time. Rather, Daniel Ocean's machismo is on the line in the new film. His wife's been snatched away by some mill(bill?)ionaire, and he has to win her back. Ocean's marriage was in trouble in the original film, but it didn't seem like a big deal at all. It was a more of a 60's "women, ah fuck em" attitude. The ending in the original felt very odd. They fail, then the movie just kinda ends. All the other plot lines just kind of go unsatisfied. What happens with Ocean's dueling women? What about whatshisface that was extorting the gang, does he just let it go? The original also didn't bother to develop a bunch of the characters. We have 11 guys but I couldn't describe at least half of them. The newer film made a much better point of introducing and using the 11 characters, with each being unique and memorable. For these reasons in particular I found the later movie to be a stronger film.
Yes to the "manliness" in the older film. I completely forgot to mention that in my post. Like the bar scene in the first 30 minutes or so of the older film. Somebody yelled? Better go punch them, also my buddies will automatically punch anyone who comes trying to help.
I ended up watching the newer of the two films first, not sure if that would make a difference or not but I thought it'd be worth pointing out. Two of the more apparent differences I noticed in the films were:
1, the newer film had a much more showcasey feel to it and 2, the older film had a much more military and family oriented feel to it. To my first point on the newer film having a "showcasey" feel to it, it seemed as if all the actors were in the spotlight. They all are in dramatic lighting as if being shown off at a dealership which fit the feel of the movie well since they're pulling off a grand heist in an elegant fashion. I wasn't able to catch this in the older version, maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention or it wasn't as apparent but I much preferred the newer version because of this since I believe it added to the movie.
And secondly, the older version had a lot of military and family oriented influences on it. A number of times the fact that two characters were from "X" platoon or from the same squad and they wanted to get their crew back together was used as a bargaining point. And more to the family side of things when Richard Conte met his son after "being in Japan" (while he was actually in prison) it seemed very similar to a father coming back from being stationed overseas and seeing his child for the first time. Or when Joey Bishop (I think that's the right actor) called his mother for money and she mentioned that she had been home for 3 days and he had still yet to call, is just another example of what I believe was an overabundance or just far too blatant use of "family values" or something like that. I think this is all just more a sign of the times than anything else and it didn't necessarily take away from the movie for me, just very apparent. Lastly, what was up with Don Cheadle's accent in the newer film? I was so glad Sammy Davis Jr. didn't have anything like that in the older version.
I think "elegant" is really a great word for the recent version of Ocean's Eleven. It reminds me of this article about charm I read here which kind of says that George Clooney epitomizes the quality of being a charming man (which I think I generally agree with) and which is a falling virtue. I have always really enjoyed the new version of Ocean's Eleven. I think it's better than the original, I really enjoy the more developed characters and "unity" kind of of the 11 men and their development and distinguishment from each other that is present. The movie feels clean, snazzy, stylish - it feels elegant.