Badmovies.org Forum

Someone here said they hated Orson welles.  I somewhat disagree and rather that hostility I invite civil discourse on the matter.

I think Orson welles was a real influence in early Hollywood. He showed the potentially dangerous power of the mass media with his WotW radio broadcast. His citizen Kane movie proved that movies could reflect reality and expose the powerful.

The stranger was perhaps the first movie to deal with fugitive nazis.

His movie "compulsion" fought against the death penalty at a time when doing so wasn't a safe move.

I also admired his convictions,  beliefs and views on many issues.

Off camera Welles loaned his wonderful voice to many to many roles,  narrating many movies and acting as the occasional spokesman.

I don't  really have anything against wells and like much of his work.

Orson Welles was ahead of his time in many ways. That's  one of the reasons why nobody wanted to back him. They thought he was crazy. Crazy like a fox. He had a vision-unfortunatly no one else did. Like an artist without paint.

If you really, genuinely prefer bad movies to good ones, maybe you hate Welles because he is the epitome of a good filmmaker.

I think bad movie fans should enjoy TOUCH OF EVIL, though. It's the movie I'd recommend to change the mind of people who think they hate Welles.

Error 404 (Not Found)!!1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFCaDFAKNlk#)

Mr. Welles was a mixed bag.  He was a genius....and a little pushy (often to the point of dictorialship)  But he needed to be to get his vision on screen.  To give an example of this; Welles had stated on a talk show that a film he worked on with his friend, Peter Bodonvich was an experience he wish he had not done.. (its not that bad of a movie..not that great either)   but it did hurt  Mr. Bodgonvich's feelings..    

"I thought we were friends, Mr Wells?"   Mr. Bogdonivich wrote to him.

Wells replied:
'I am truly sorry I hurt your feelings. I hope this has not damaged our friendship.
or..
'it was just an interview on a TV show. Get over it.....Take your pick' (im paraphrasing here)

Well,  Orson welles was in a bad movie, the spoof version of casino royale. I mean it was an entertaining bad movie,  but it was definitely bad.

Also little known fact,  he allowed john boorman to use his head as a model for the titular Zardoz.  :teddyr:

He also played Max Buda (yuk yuk) in THE V.I.P.s (1963) a bad dumb movie.  :thumbdown: :teddyr:

His last role was the voice of Unicron in the original transformers movie. I have to admit if yoihcre ringto have someone verbally b*tch slap Megatron he had the voice for it.

Also I actually liked his narration form the original star trek movie commercial. Damn, if only he'dt had a role in star trek...


http://youtu.be/Mbf5oUEYVtg?list=PL6CF8A75F89C8A256 (http://youtu.be/Mbf5oUEYVtg?list=PL6CF8A75F89C8A256)


http://youtu.be/sey9jqAaLC0?list=PL6CF8A75F89C8A256 (http://youtu.be/sey9jqAaLC0?list=PL6CF8A75F89C8A256)

Who doesn't love Welles' rant about green peas? (He's probably right about the copy, but boy is he obnoxious!)

http://youtu.be/Ol5RpDEzLzY (http://youtu.be/Ol5RpDEzLzY)

And "The Critic"'s parody?

http://youtu.be/6i7ycxiog40 (http://youtu.be/6i7ycxiog40)

"Full of green pea-ness..."

fantastic actor and a revolutionary director

Listening to the "peas" rant.   :bouncegiggle:  Nitpicking witch; just like me. 

http://youtu.be/59yMEgjY-1w (http://youtu.be/59yMEgjY-1w) 

Here's what I wrote about Welles on the set of MALPERTUIS:

"Orson Welles was hired for three days of shooting.  An irascible, elderly eccentric by this time in his career, Welles asked for his fee to be delivered in cash in a suitcase.  Welles was drunk and rude on the set, interfering with Kümel's attempts to direct and, in one case, repeatedly ruining one of Michel Bouquet's takes until the director agreed to give Welles a closeup he had requested.  At the end of Welles' three-day contract, the project was well behind schedule due to the legendary actor's drunkenness, extended lunch breaks and general peevishness.  Apologizing for his behavior, Welles volunteered to work for a fourth day free, and performed all his remaining scenes perfectly in a single morning, putting the production back on schedule."

In other words, it sounds like he deliberately messed up all his lines for three days so he could get free catering! What a character.

:question:

If he did it all right on day one he would it have gotten thecasteri g for the next two days.

Always thought it was a shame he never got to finish Heart of Darkness.

There was an effort to make a dune movie while welles was still alive,  and he was going to play a very different baron Vladimir harkonen than that nurgle worshipper in the eventual film.

and Salvador Dali was going to play the Emperor Shadam IV.  ...I would have loved to seen it come to the screen.

Personally, I take cinema mainly as entertainment. Yeah, you can send messages, use it for politics, religion, whatever you like, because it's art. But I, as a viewer, watch movies to get entertained. After experiencing Welles' masterpiece I can say without a doubt that I was never that bored before. I felt like cutting myself just to ease the pain of that movie. Even talking about the man itself puts me to sleep.

Yeah, it has camera angles and storytelling and stuff, but I'm no movie director nor a student of that particular art, I just want to get entertained or emotionally moved, and that film did neither. Well, it made me angry, I guess that counts as an emotion?

tl;dr: the guy is boring and I can't stand that.

For me, this is his greatest accomplishment:

Error 404 (Not Found)!!1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fs5YwFONswQ#)

The out takes from his other ads had me wondering about this one...
http://youtu.be/_3HVCwPp7j0 (http://youtu.be/_3HVCwPp7j0)