Sunday, May 14, 2006
My Final Thoughts on Cameron Crowe
"I'm proudest of the fact that I've been able to make a few movies in the studio system that are slightly unorthodox and personal. But it's never quite as easy as you dream that it could be." - Cameron Crowe
In his earlier movies like Say Anything, & Singles, Crowe is more or less showing us a story about love, relationships, average everyday men, women, life and the complications, chaos and greatness of it all. As time went on though he became more interested it seems in looking at the flawed man, the "successful" man who believes he has everything, the "corporate man," and how love or the Ms. Right can make or change that man. We see this in such movies as Jerry Maguire, (not so much in Almost Famous, because I saw that more as Crowe's take on his world as a journalist for Rolling Stone), Vanilla Sky and Elizabethtown.
Now while I do enjoy seeing how love and a female can redeem a man. I wonder how fair is Crowe being. Aren't we all flawed? And can't someone or something change or help us to be a better person? I think so. So I guess what I'm saying is I'd like it if Crowe had two flawed characters, male and female and show how they changed each other. I feel like Crowe did this quite well in Say Anything and was attempting to do it again in Elizabethtown. I think doing this would help Crowe capture his style of realism much better.
I really do enjoy Crowe's movies, especially now that I'm getting older. The dialogue that he supplies with his characters is one I wish I had said or were saying or one that I'd hear walking down the street or in a bar. I love that he goes against romantic conventions by using real songs instead of silly classical over dramatic music. Could you really imagine the boombox scene from Say Anything with classical music? I don't think so.
Crowe in my opinion does a great job at capturing real life - the drama of it all, the romance, the comedic moments, the crappy ones, the great ones - everything. So, in that sense that I think he does excel in romantic comedies but he also breaks the mold by incorporating some drama. My only hope is that Crowe doesn't allow the pressure of Hollywood, movie studios or money get in the way or make him forget why he decided to make movies in the first place.
// posted by singleinthecity @ 7:17 PM 
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