8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a must see for movie buffs, October 14, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: The Projectionist (DVD)
a wonderful fantasy that shows a pure love of film. an interesting artistic journey that holds up after all these years.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The projections of the mind, September 22, 2008
THE PROJECTIONIST is hard to categorize-- not exactly a comedy, although there are some amusing things in it, and not a drama as the story deals with the undramatic ordinariness of every day life and what one man does to cope. Perhaps this movie is most accurately described as a comic/fantasy/non-drama.
Chuck McCann stars as an employee of a run-down theater owned by the somewhat tyrannical Rodney Dangerfield (in his screen debut). McCann (the unnamed projectionist) invents a superhero alter-ego named Captain Flash, whom he calls upon whenever the blues, boredom or the boss nag at him. In McCann's daydreams, Dangerfield appears as "The Bat," a villainous Nazi who can only be defeated by the heroics of "Flash," and theater ushers are Bat's henchmen. These b&w 'B' grade movie serial phantasms seem far more colorful than real life. It's little wonder the projectionist indulges in them as often as he does.
McCann was a supporting player to Alan Arkin in THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER (1968). (
VHS version) (
DVD version)
Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 viewer poll rating found at a film resource website.
(5.4) The Projectionist (1971) - Chuck McCann/Ina Balin/Rodney Dangerfield/Jára Kohout/Harry Hurvitz/Mike Gentry/Lucky Kargo/David Holliday/Sam Stewart/Robert Lee
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7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Film sampling starts here, December 17, 2002
This review is from: The Projectionist (DVD)
There are a couple of film arteests located somewwhere in Calif. who have produced entire epics out of having assembled clips of extant films- dialogue dubbed over. "The Projectionist" seems to have been the genesis of the idea (don't know who of people I've discussed obtained legal rights, but who cares? We're only interested in art, correct?).
There are wonderfully inventive sequences of clips in "The Projectionist" that are a hoot in their making sense as part of a sequence, but also can't overcome their familiarity to movie fans, so they work on two dimensions.
Also, there is some interesting juxtaposition of clips forming sequences of feelings of standard Mom-Apple Pie-Chevrolet U.S.A. flag-waving, but they are counterparted by sequences of clips showing the dark side and hypocrisy of the American Dream (myth?). There is the voice of JFK, delivering his most famous line: "Ask not...(etc.)", with that audio timed perfectly to sync with Hitler exhorting and gesticulating (No particular disrespect to JFK, I'm sure- just to make the point that Hitler demanded sacrifice to further the dreams of the State, also, and the misguided adventure in Vietnam was very topical at the time of this film's production. At least I think that's what the point is).
This movie also has the wildest use of split-screen, ever.
And the finale harkens to "The Stunt Man", i.e., where does the movie begin and where does the part not in the movie end?
Richard Rush, the director of "The Stunt Man", says he's excited by pushing the envelope of film syntax. That is really accomplished in "The Projectionist".
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