Hyperbole watch.
"The dialogue is worthy of Hemingway." (That's Jonathan Rosenbaum of The Chicago Reader on Million Dollar Baby.) People, the ink and praise being spilled on this film is bordering on the hysterical. Like I said, it's a fine film, albeit one that's not growing any finer in hindsight. If anything, I'm getting more tripped up over certain aspects of the film that I think are really condescending and how damn seriously it takes itself.
Now let me be condescending. I'm wondering which pieces of dialogue Mr. Rosenbaum thinks are worthy of Hemingway. Is it when Clint growls "Girlie, tough ain't enough"? Or mayhap when Morgan Freeman rehashes his Shawshank monologues and wisely intones "Some wounds are too deep and too close to the bone, and no matter what you do you can't stop the bleeding." Either way, I guarantee you that this is the first time a writer for Walker, Texas Ranger has been compared to Hemingway.
posted by Ben @ 10:32 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Touché. (Not to be confused with Rolling Stone senior writer Touré.)
I know that comparing a writer to Hemingway is almost always intended as a compliment, but if anyone ever told me that my dialogue is worthy of Hemingway I'd kill myself. Hemingway is simply not a good writer. "Girlie, tough ain't enough," could easily have been lifted from any idiotically phrased Hemingway work and "Some wounds . . . " is far deeper than any thought Ernest had (drunk or sober, even those ones he had while buttfucking Scott Fitzgerald.) Hemingway is about the only suicide that holds no fascination for me, because he pretty much deserved to die.
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