I have about 800 ideas for books that I'll probably never write; one of them is acollection of case studies of films that initially flopped, only to be reclaimed as classics. In the same vein, via GreenCine Daily comes news of the Ambitious Failure blogathon. Beginning today and running through Sunday the 24th, the blogathon was initiated by William Speruzzi, who writes:
Pushing the limits of budget, creativity and patience can all be a bust in the end but that is in the eye of the beholder. Can hindsight work in a films favor? Was the criticism deserved or misguided? What makes a film that aspires to reach beyond the boundaries of entertainment go down in flames? Who gets to determine its demise? What is an ambitious failure? Thats what were here to find out.
There are four entries up already, each approaching the concept of failure from a different angle. Perhaps unsurprisingly, 50 percent are so far concerned with films by Francis Ford Coppola: Ed Copeland takes on The Cotton Club ("Having not seen The Cotton Club in more than 20 years (and remembering it fondly), I suspected that it might fit the bill for an "ambitious failure." Boy, was I right."), while Speruzzi looks at Apocalypse Now ("The media was caught up in the great American malady of predicting failure before it actual happens, if not actually rooting for it."). Paul Hackett's entry is basically an industrial analysis of Phillip Noyce's The Quiet American, citing Miramax's reluctance to promote the film in the wake of 9/11 as the root of its failure. And while Alien 3 might have failed with audiences (and in the mind of director David Fincher), Ray DeRousse is ready to reclaim the sequel for its "powerful message, powerfully delivered."
To contribute to the blogathon, check out the guidelines here. I think I'm going to do an entry on It's Always Fair Weather, Stanley Donen's super-dark sort-of sequel to On the Town.
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