Slate "The O Factor - Was Owen Wilson the key..."

Raleigh St Clair · **Joined:** July 4th, 2002, 9:51 pm **Posts:** 1248

<a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2123292/">www.slate.com/id/2123292/</a>

Good article. Many may not agree here, but I think the author has a point. TLA definitely had nothing on the Wes films with Owen for me. I guess we will see if it's really the case with the next Wes film sans Owen. "Well I want to die." - Raleigh St Clair

chelseagirl · **Posted:** July 26th, 2005, 9:01 am

Wow, that is great, Raleigh. Thanks so much. All teh buddy crap was making me lose sight of certain things.

He raises soe good points. <hr /> "There’s never any time to have too much self-doubt" - Wes Anderson

HJ Blume · **Joined:** September 18th, 2003, 5:58 pm **Posts:** 336

<blockquote>Quote:<hr>TLA definitely had nothing on the Wes films with Owen for me. <hr></blockquote>

Yeah I agree, as much as I hate to say it, the more I see TLA I think that.
Interesting article, thanks for posting. I think I’d exchange a lifetime worth of Owen buddy pictures just for one more Anderson/Wilson collaboration.

chelseagirl · **Posted:** July 26th, 2005, 10:18 am

I really wonder now what happened with Wes and Owen.

yes, I believe that O just keeps saying 'yes' to fun comedies, and then loooks down at his calendar and finds it all filled up.
As pointed out in that excelent article, who wouldn't do the same, given the opportunity? (I'd like a Porsche AND a Prius and a new house, and my pick of all the girls, I mean, guys,
too!)

And then I wonder if there was more to it. They disagreed. it was tough to get together.

I do agree, also, tha TLA has less reality than the other films, death scene notwithstanding! I love that cringe-worthy moment in Rushmore, which I think is still my fave of all Wes' films. That humiliating feeling is absolutely real.

(gotta go, but I expect to add to this later)

<hr /> "There’s never any time to have too much self-doubt" - Wes Anderson

highwaters · **Posted:** July 26th, 2005, 10:18 am

<blockquote>Quote:<hr>The best line in Wedding Crashers, hands down—"Scientists say we only use 10 percent of our brains, but I think we only use 10 percent of our hearts"—was reportedly a Wilson original.<hr></blockquote>

:\ Oh, Owen.

My favorite thing about the Rushmore DVD is O's contribution to the commentary track. I never seem to get enough Owen, and as it's well documented on this board, I cannot stand his movie-pushing PR appearances on TV. They're so disquieting.

There's no doubt Owen's voice is missing, excepting how he plays Ned, and his warm portrayal compensates for that consequence-free edge in much of the dialogue. He's the geniune article, for sure. I love him acting in Wes' films every bit as much as I loved him co-writing them.

That part when the chopper crashes, and they're in the water. I remember thinking how lovely it was that Ned was concerned about how he landed the plane. He says that maybe he could've landed it more softly. That seemed so intentional and kind to us, to not make it a bloody affair, just one that happens, and I thought with the way Wes shot it, coupled with Ned's lines and death immediately following, they did make the softest possible landing there.

I hope we never have to miss moments like that in Wes' films, ever, even if Owen never writes with Wes again. That scene touched me, the compassion-to-brutal loss ratio reslts in something so fragile.

The Slate linked two other articles in the footer as well, which I haven't gotten to yet but will.

I bet we all feel a little more validated, although I'll reiterate my love for TLA, despite Owen's absence from the writing. I don't have a problem with Noah, even if he's not breathing any "new air" into Wes' vision. I like Wes' vision a little too much to complain about that part of it.

Sorry for going on and on, but I love O. I love Wes, too, and I don't think their matching degrees of stubbornness will ever result in a McCartney-Lennon break. Stubborn does not equal stupid. They bring out the best in each other.

Thanks for posting that link, Raleigh. <hr /> "And that's the whole idea of the film: it's a fake documentary; it's about fake secrecy. It's really important to me that it's all transparent, all totally coy. It's about what happens when you keep secrets, because they're transparent anyhow. Things will come out one way or another, and just because they come out doesn't mean they are true." - Jennifer Montgomery

Kumar's Touch · **Posted:** July 26th, 2005, 3:51 pm

<blockquote>Quote:<hr>That part when the chopper crashes, and they're in the water. I remember thinking how lovely it was that Ned was concerned about how he landed the plane. He says that maybe he could've landed it more softly. That seemed so intentional and kind to us, to not make it a bloody affair, just one that happens, and I thought with the way Wes shot it, coupled with Ned's lines and death immediately following, they did make the softest possible landing there.<hr></blockquote>Exactly. To me, that entire sequence felt like it could have belonged in any of the Wes-Owen films.

That article does bring up a lot of good points, and I suppose I would prefer Wes and Owen to Wes and Noah, even though I do love TLA. <hr />I never liked kids. They're like small drunk adults.

HJ Blume · **Joined:** September 18th, 2003, 5:58 pm **Posts:** 336

<blockquote>Quote:<hr>I do agree, also, tha TLA has less reality than the other films, death scene notwithstanding! I love that cringe-worthy moment in Rushmore, which I think is still my fave of all Wes' films. That humiliating feeling is absolutely real. <hr></blockquote>

As much as I love TLA I do think that's the missing key ingredient. When that writer wrote: "Anderson appeared to have floated off to an adolescent never-never land where everyone wears Lacoste, colorful and quirky toys abound, and a vintage emo soundtrack gets piped in whenever a little poignancy is required—a Michael Jackson ranch for the Salinger set", I couldn't help but agree.

When I first saw TLA I absolutely loved it but I still felt I didn't connect with it the same way I have with Wes's other films. The moment when we realise Ned is dead somehow feels unreal to me; it's not half as poignant as the "I've had a rough year Dad" moment in TRT for example. It definitely is missing a does of reality to act in contrast to Wes World. I think moments like Max going to an ordinary school in Rushmore for the first time definitely help make Wes's self-contained little worlds seem more special and less twee.

I don't know if it's Owen who contributes those moments, but, like that writer, I suspect he does. TLA definitely could have used more of his touch IMO.

chelseagirl · **Posted:** July 27th, 2005, 7:30 am

<blockquote>Quote:<hr>everyone wears Lacoste,<hr></blockquote>...is just a weird detail to point out as the Lacoste-wearing was in TRT, an Owen co-write.

Highwaters, I like your point about the 'soft landing" and I am not saying that this scene wasnt well-done. Just that there was less that I relate to personally in this film.

BUt I still am not sure how much of that is becasue owen didn't co-write.

One weird thing Owen said about this film was that he didn't change the script much. Wheras, he claims to have changed 'almost every line' in Wedding Crashers, ans that seems to be his usual style.

So ... was TLA so on-the-money that he didn't need to change anything? Or, was it a touchier issue to go changing it, since Wes wrote it with a new partner? Was he too busy chasing Italian girls to care? Or what? <hr /> "There’s never any time to have too much self-doubt" - Wes Anderson

morrigan · **Joined:** February 10th, 2004, 3:12 am **Posts:** 293

i just read this now, it's linked thru the main imbd.com site. weird... either way, i thought it was really interesting, because altho i can feel the lack of owen in TLA, i don't mind it very much. i think he adds just as much to the movie as ned as he could have co-writing it. god only knows what's with him and wes, or how their collaboration REALLY works, but i'm sure ned is a product of owen as much as it is of wes and noah.

i'm gonna have to be completely honest though and admit that although i think owen is a good actor, i don't like his non-wes movies. they're fun to watch with a gang of ppl and laugh at, they have their moments, but i just don't connect with them. not at all... his work with wes (writing AND acting), i find brilliant though, and i wish he'd do more of that, instead of the comedies. <hr /> reality had met me, such a short time ago, in such and ugly shape, that i have no wish to come in contact with it again. somewhere in me a dark fear was still crouching and i took refuge within the fantastic like a distressed child in his book of fairy tales. i did not want to look ahead, and not at all to look back. (isak dinesen)

Raleigh St Clair · **Joined:** July 4th, 2002, 9:51 pm **Posts:** 1248

"i don't like his non-wes movies"

Does anyone really? They're generally terrible. "Well I want to die." - Raleigh St Clair

Bert Fischer · **Joined:** March 15th, 2004, 7:41 am **Posts:** 504

I love Zoolander, and I love Owen in Zoolander. <hr />You don't have scurvy. Only pirates get scurvy.
Pirates and me! Wait... write that down, that's a good movie title.

Kumar's Touch · **Posted:** July 27th, 2005, 4:26 pm

<blockquote>Quote:<hr>Does anyone really? They're generally terrible.<hr></blockquote>I generally find them amusing. But I have bad taste in film. <hr />I never liked kids. They're like small drunk adults.

chelseagirl · **Posted:** July 27th, 2005, 7:14 pm

I have a guilty-pleasure thing for Hansel :\ <hr /> "There’s never any time to have too much self-doubt" - Wes Anderson

highwaters · **Posted:** July 27th, 2005, 11:13 pm

Just chiming back in to say that I found the experiences of Steve Zissou in particular, but also a few other characters, closer to mine than in any of his other films (sometimes metaphorical, but mostly not). Not even kidding. <hr /> "And that's the whole idea of the film: it's a fake documentary; it's about fake secrecy. It's really important to me that it's all transparent, all totally coy. It's about what happens when you keep secrets, because they're transparent anyhow. Things will come out one way or another, and just because they come out doesn't mean they are true." - Jennifer Montgomery

Belafonte · **Joined:** May 15th, 2005, 10:15 pm **Posts:** 8

I love Zoolander, too. I thought owen was hilarious.

I hate most of owen's other movies, even though i love owen, because i feel like he's working beneath himself. when he makes movies like starsky and hutch and wedding crashers, lame movies that people will forget in two years, it makes me mad because he could be making a movie with wes that would be really great.

"well, are you or not?"
"what dying?...yeah"

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