The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)'s comments

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God

as soon as i saw that last shot thanking the academy for letting them use oscar statuettes in the movie i knew it must had won a shitload of them. and i was right- it won 5 oscars. 2 things the academy loves: ass-kissing and movies about the industry. amazing film though.

7 years 12 months ago

dombrewer

Great Hollywood tale of a ruthlessly ambitious producer and the people he walks over on his route to the top before his inevitable decline. Kirk Douglas is on blazing form as Jonathan Shields, particularly impressive in his scenes opposite Lana Turner in the second of three long flashbacks from friends and lovers Shields trampled over to get his way. It stands comparison with Billy Wilder's similar dissection of studio Hollywood in "Sunset Boulevard" (though with less cynical venom) and rightly won a slew of Oscars.

11 years 7 months ago

Wise Jake

Always amazes me how long that it takes to get that phone call from Paris ready. Oh, how technology has advanced.

11 years 11 months ago

-1flb2-

A great movie. Strong acting, and a strong screenplay! A little bit of joke but true. I liked the 3 stories format. A very visually pleasing movie. A flawless production. What can I saw I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.

7 years 10 months ago

allisoncm

Would be a good pairing with https://www.icheckmovies.com/movies/daffy+doodles/

9 years 7 months ago

Siskoid

Vincente Minnelli's The Bad and the Beautiful is a Hollywood confidential, albeit one about a fictional producer (Kirk Douglas), or I should probably say, a composite of actual producers. David O. Selznick was famously afraid it was about him, but in the "Cat Man" movies of "Shields"' early career, one must necessarily see Val Lewton. Whoever Shields is or is not, each of three flashbacks shows how he sequentially minted a director, a star and a writer, and how he eventually betrayed them. They own him everything, in a way, but have sworn never to work with him again. Can the allure of a new project bring them back to the fold? Minnelli shows us a Hollywood where the personal often takes a back seat to professional ambition, and makes Douglas an ambiguous figure. Is he ruthless businessman or driven artist? Is the work more important than the people? Are they temperamental ingrates with bruised egos, or are there things that cannot be forgiven? It's hard to pick sides and decide who might just be a hypocrite, and that's a strength. Of course, the flashbacks aren't all of equal value, and I felt like they started strong and ended on the weakest. The director's story is full of behind the scenes interest; the star's has some fun bubble-bursting needle scratch-type moments that foreshadow what will happen in the relationship; and then the writer's is so "writerly" in its narration that it feels artificial. Still, the strengths outweigh the weaknesses.

4 years ago

acolthart

I love films about the industry and this is one of the best. A cleverly layered story loosely based on several big players of that time. Kirk Douglas is excellent as big time producer Jonathan Shields whose story is told through three ex- acquaintances who believe Shields has wronged them, as they dig deeper into their own stories they come to the realisation that he has done no such thing.

10 years 7 months ago

Skyscore

http://www.afisha.ru/movie/170291/review/146588/

12 years 1 month ago