Tag: robert de niro

Dub’s Take: Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

or, “Deborah’s Theme:
400 Words on Elizabeth McGovern”:
A spoiler-ish mini movie conversation.

The following post discusses taboo
themes, and contains language that
could be triggering.

I’m late to the “Downton Abbey” party, so I wasn’t aware (or spoiled) that one of season 4’s serials stems from the sexual assault of a major character.

This event – stupefying though off-screen – is earned narratively, by virtue of my invested connection with the players. Original properties usually have to really convince me that their using rape, implied or otherwise, isn’t either for shock value, or out of creative laxity.

Having said that, if an intrepid & shameless (mostly shameless) Reddit user hasn’t already asked what ‘The Most Disturbing Rape Scenes of All-Time’ are, I have now walked into that trap myself.

I have my own personal picks that needn’t be discussed here, but the potency of said scenes would be dissonant were it not for the mettle of the actors involved: particularly those who may not already have a propensity towards violence.

[cont’d]

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400 Words on: The Alto Knights (2025)

or, “Running Around the Woods with Shrimp Cocktails”:
A spoiler-free mini movie review.

2.5 out of 5

There are few things more comforting to a cinephile than Robert De Niro calling someone an expletive & unloading an entire pistol clip into them.

It’s unwholesome, but this has been his playground for decades. The Alto Knights is an impassioned throwback to the Scorsese/De Niro collaborations of old, but lacks the oomph of those masterpieces.

GQ’s 2006 interview with Bob is required reading for anyone wanting an encapsulation of the stubborn actor. I’m not here to rag on De Niro: he’s had many legendary performances over his long career. But like any artist (*cough* senior), he’s set in his ways, rejects change, and becomes crotchety when he feels disrespected.

Now an octogenarian, Bob can’t just go back & retroactively change his De Niro-isms, no matter how much digital technology de-ages him (like in Scorsese’s The Irishman). Now forced into ‘grandpa’ roles that he may or may-not feel are beneath him (being a new dad at 81 certainly increases that obligation), audiences know exactly what to expect.

[cont’d]

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Posted on by wd 0