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In Honor of Wikkidpissah: Peter Weir Director Hall of Fame ***VOTE HERE*** (1 Viewer)

What movie should Peter Weir go into the Movie HOF with?

  • Master and Commander

    Votes: 6 12.8%

  • The Truman Show

    Votes: 7 14.9%

  • Dead Poets Society

    Votes: 17 36.2%

  • Witness

    Votes: 3 6.4%

  • The Year of Living Dangerously

    Votes: 8 17.0%

  • Gallipoli

    Votes: 3 6.4%

  • Picnic at Hanging Rock

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Fearless

    Votes: 1 2.1%

  • The Last Wave

    Votes: 2 4.3%
  • Total voters
    47
Ilov80s

Ilov80s

Footballguy
The Billy Wilder vote was crazy close. One movie with 9 votes, one with 8 votes and two with 7 votes. 

Something you may not know is that Wikkid had an incredible reverence for Australian director Peter Weir. He even had some 2nd hand connections with him. Here's Wikkid's own words on Weir:

my ol' drinking/poker buddy, the late Bill Kelley, wrote the (Oscar-winning) script for Witness. Bill was amazed by three things - poker skill, the human hunger to capture God & Peter Weir. we talked a great deal about writing for the screen (he wrote a thousand Gunsmokes/Kung Fus/ etcs) and he would steamily marvel that, while some directors got a lot, some directors got precious little of what he was going for in a script, Weir - without all that much consult - put what Bill "saw" as he was writing Witness onto the screen as tho he'd drawn it out of his skull with a straw.

because of that, i recommended Weir to my director cousin when he got to helm Memoirs of a Geisha, when all he'd done was musicals. he arranged dinner with him during the next awards season, and went from nothing but doubts about the visual logic of the piece to no worries at all in the course of one lonely meal. just an extraordinary sense of place, and taking one to places they havent been is what flikkashows do best.
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Rd 1: Jaws for Spielberg (50%)

Rd 2: Alien for Ridley Scott (43%)

Rd 3: Psycho for Alfred Hitchcock (44%)

Rd 4: 2001: A Space Odyssey for Stanley Kubrick (31%)

Rd 5: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre for John Huston(46%)

Rd 6: Titanic for James Cameron (26%)

Rd 7: Some Like It Hot for Billy Wilder (25%) 

 
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I haven't seen half the films, so I'll pass. Feels cheap to vote when you don't really know. Sounds like Witness would be a good one. 

 
rockaction said:
I haven't seen half the films, so I'll pass. Feels cheap to vote when you don't really know. Sounds like Witness would be a good one. 
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Not saying you should or shouldn't vote but I am sure people voting on most of these haven't seen many of the films. My guess is many haven't seen half of the movies here but there are certainly a handful here that most people probably have. I say vote if there is one you saw and particularly liked. No wrong answer. 

 
Fearless and The Last Wave will be the only two i have not yet seen but will before voting. Right now I'm torn between Year of Living Dangerously, Gallipoli and Truman. For rocknation and others, there is not a one of these films I would not hesitate to recommend. All high quality h2o.

 
Master and Commander did for 19th century naval battles what Top Gun did for 20th century air combat and you can feel yourself immersed in the scenes. Gripping.

 
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I didn't realize how strong his body of work had been.  Probably going with The Year of Living Dangerously or Gallipoli, but these are all solid.  Haven't seen The Last Wave.

 
Joe Schmo said:
Master and Commander did for 19th century naval battles what Top Gun did for 20th century air combat and you can fell yourself immersed in the scenes. Gripping.
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I think this is gonna be my vote, though I want to think on it a little more. I didn't see it until years after it came out and put it on just to have something kinda dumb on in the background. I was surprised at how good it was - not just the spectacle, but the performances were great too. I don't think I knew weir was the director when I watched it.

 
krista4 said:
I didn't realize how strong his body of work had been.  Probably going with The Year of Living Dangerously or Gallipoli, but these are all solid.  Haven't seen The Last Wave.
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It's well worth checking out. Really haunting. Listen to this wild plot set-up:

In Sydney, business lawyer David Burton is given the pro bono assignment of defending five aborigines accused of the murder of another tribesman. None of Burton's clients are willing to speak about what happened, even in their own defense, and the medical examiner on the case can't figure out how the victim died. But what's most troubling Burton is the increasingly terrifying apocalyptic visions he's having, leading him to think Australia may soon be destroyed.

 
Ilov80s said:
It's well worth checking out. Really haunting. Listen to this wild plot set-up:

In Sydney, business lawyer David Burton is given the pro bono assignment of defending five aborigines accused of the murder of another tribesman. None of Burton's clients are willing to speak about what happened, even in their own defense, and the medical examiner on the case can't figure out how the victim died. But what's most troubling Burton is the increasingly terrifying apocalyptic visions he's having, leading him to think Australia may soon be destroyed.
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In!

 
It's not fair for me to vote in this, as I've only seen Dead Poets, Witness and Truman. Plus, it's tough for me to see a common 'style' that would say they were all done by the same person. When I think about those three, though I pick up a sense of calm/lack of embellishment in the storytelling, so maybe that's his 'signature'.

By reputation, it seems like any one of his films are worthy of being his Hall of Fame movie. Good luck with that.

 
Charlie Steiner said:
It's not fair for me to vote in this, as I've only seen Dead Poets, Witness and Truman. Plus, it's tough for me to see a common 'style' that would say they were all done by the same person. When I think about those three, though I pick up a sense of calm/lack of embellishment in the storytelling, so maybe that's his 'signature'.

By reputation, it seems like any one of his films are worthy of being his Hall of Fame movie. Good luck with that.
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I still think you should vote on your favorite of the 3. Those are 3 of his best. As for distinct style, Wikkid said it was the ability to fully understand a script and put it on film exactly as the author saw it. They are generally about characters who feel uncomfortable in the world and lose their innocence in the face of struggle. He's also a very spiritual director. Especially his early films all have a sense of some other worldliness. He has done a lot of genres but I do think there are some themes that often follow his work. 

 
I did it. I voted for Dead Poets Society. The Truman Show never really shocked or shook me, for some reason. Maybe I missed the metaphor there. I guess as a teen and twenty-something, I was doing my own thing regardless of whether society/parents/God wanted it or not. There wasn't that allegory there for me to have a revelation about. 

 
rockaction said:
I did it. I voted for Dead Poets Society. The Truman Show never really shocked or shook me, for some reason. Maybe I missed the metaphor there. I guess as a teen and twenty-something, I was doing my own thing regardless of whether society/parents/God wanted it or not. There wasn't that allegory there for me to have a revelation about. 
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That is a good vote. It is cliche but as a teacher, I do remember the first time I saw DPS. I am nothing like Robin Williams or John Keating as a teacher. Still, I can not help but be moved by it.  

 
Voted for The Last Wave because college-age Eephus loved it back in the day.

I've seen seven of the films but the two I've never watched are Dead Poets Society and The Truman Show. :bag:

 
I compared Weir favorably to Ridley Scott in Ridley's thread.  There are Weir films that are not particularly my cup of tea (Dead Poets' Society, for example), but I think he is a preeminent craftsman.  Every film he's directed is extremely well-made.  They're shot well, edited well, and acted well.  I voted for Master & Commander because I think it stands out even among Weir films as being a supreme piece of craftsmanship.  You really feel what it's like to be on a warship in the Napoleonic Wars.  The action scenes are beautifully directed.  They're kinetic and chaotic, but you never get the sense that you get in so many other films that you really don't know exactly what is going on.  Even if the naval maneuvers aren't intuitive to you.  I think too many action movies use the maxim that battle is chaotic and disorienting to give us set pieces where nobody really thought how to translate the action into cinematic grammar.  But Weir is old school, so his set pieces are tightly edited.

The Far Side of the World isn't a particularly faithful Aubrey/Maturin adaptation.  Jack and Maturin are significantly weirder characters on the page than what appears on the screen.  And the Far Side of the World never even addresses the Jane Austen-y comedy of manners stuff and Jack's hapless attempts to navigate Admiralty politics.  By all rights, book fans should have a lot to complain about.  But most fans of the novels also love the movie and wish they'd make another.  

I think that's a testament to Weir's sensibilities.  He knew what would make a compelling film.  And he condensed several books down into something that works on its own terms as a great adventure movie and two-man character study.

 
Possibly my favorite director. I recently watched Picnic at Hanging Rock only because he was the director.

Year of Living Dangerously, Dead Poets Society and Gallipoli were neck and neck with my pick, which was Witness.

 
rockaction said:
I haven't seen half the films, so I'll pass. Feels cheap to vote when you don't really know. Sounds like Witness would be a good one. 
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Neither have I but there’s still a very easy choice here for the HoF association. 

 
KarmaPolice said:
You more like the boring Latin teacher?  ;)  
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Definitely not but I don't give motivational speeches and all that. I do my job, I expect the students do their job. We all respect each other and work as a team but I am not looking to change people's lives or get them to follow their dreams. 

 
krista4 said:
I'm the only vote for Gallipoli.  :kicksrock:  
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There’s some good movies here. Dead Poets Society cops a lot of flak, but for those it hits a home run for, its big.

That said Gallipoli the movie is a masterpiece. For those unfamiliar it sets the scene for Australia becoming a nation. Federated in 1901, they did Englands bidding and dutifully were sent to the Turkish peninsula at the start of WWI. Essentially a mess from English commanders incompetence, Winston Churchill included.

It caused the downfall of the english government and “Churchill was demoted from First Lord of the Admiralty as a condition of Conservative entry to the coalition but remained in the Cabinet in the sinecure of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster”. The slaughter of thousands of Australian and New Zealand troops did give the nations identity. The anniversary of the landing was April 25, commemorated as Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand with a reverent public holiday. It is observed in all schools and shops are shut. Dawn services include school children marching with ex soldiers through the streets of cities and towns all across Australia and New Zealand.  I was very proud as a 6 year old to be marching with the last few surviving Gallipoli veterans in my town growing up. 

As for the movie, a young Mel Gibson showcases his star potential as a clueless young man signing up with his best friend as idealistic youngsters. The story follows the two as they sign up, join the army and prepare for Gallipoli. The battle scenes are brutally honest and while the british military are overly depicted as pompous out of touch heartless bastards, the movie does a brilliant job of showing the futility of war. The closing shot is a cinematic masterpiece. Add the majestic and briiliant use of the music of Jean Michel Jarre and it gets my vote. 

 
John Maddens Lunchbox said:
There’s some good movies here. Dead Poets Society cops a lot of flak, but for those it hits a home run for, its big.

That said Gallipoli the movie is a masterpiece. For those unfamiliar it sets the scene for Australia becoming a nation. Federated in 1901, they did Englands bidding and dutifully were sent to the Turkish peninsula at the start of WWI. Essentially a mess from English commanders incompetence, Winston Churchill included.

It caused the downfall of the english government and “Churchill was demoted from First Lord of the Admiralty as a condition of Conservative entry to the coalition but remained in the Cabinet in the sinecure of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster”. The slaughter of thousands of Australian and New Zealand troops did give the nations identity. The anniversary of the landing was April 25, commemorated as Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand with a reverent public holiday. It is observed in all schools and shops are shut. Dawn services include school children marching with ex soldiers through the streets of cities and towns all across Australia and New Zealand.  I was very proud as a 6 year old to be marching with the last few surviving Gallipoli veterans in my town growing up. 

As for the movie, a young Mel Gibson showcases his star potential as a clueless young man signing up with his best friend as idealistic youngsters. The story follows the two as they sign up, join the army and prepare for Gallipoli. The battle scenes are brutally honest and while the british military are overly depicted as pompous out of touch heartless bastards, the movie does a brilliant job of showing the futility of war. The closing shot is a cinematic masterpiece. Add the majestic and briiliant use of the music of Jean Michel Jarre and it gets my vote. 
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:hifive:   Brilliant write-up.  You must have now convinced a third person to vote for this, too! 

 
Weir's first feature film The Cars That Ate Paris (1974) is airing late night tomorrow on TCM. I've never seen it but have always been intrigued by its title. It's a black comedy set in a fictional Australian outback town named Paris.
 
Was between Master and Commander and Gallipoli for me. The ending of Gallipoli is such a punch to the gut but I'll go M&C; the first hour is some of my favorite fillmaking ever. Witness & Dead Poets also very good. Terrific and varied career.
 
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