Obsessed With Film

52. Elizabethtown (2005) - Cameron Crowe

Posted by Matt Holmes

52. Elizabethtown (2005) - Cameron Crowe

During an outrageous memorial for a Southern patriarch, an unexpected romance blooms between a young woman and man.

Sometimes I feel like Cameron Crowe only makes movies for me. As critics and movie audiences are very mixed on his cinematic output, I devour every last frame of anything he touches (apart from Almost Famous, which I thought was ok).

Elizabethtown was my second most anticipated flick from last year (it wasn’t going to be higher on the list than Batman!) but I was really worried how it was going to turn out. The movie was constantly delayed, casting changes were happening all the time, a mostly bad set of reviews were written at festivals meaning Crowe had to cut down his film and then there was the two leads….. Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst.

Well my worries came true on a couple of those things… Orlando Bloom really sucked in this movie, he was WAY out of his depth. I have a feeling I would have loved this movie so much more if it was a young Tom Cruise starring, the role seemed written for his acting style. Kirsten Dunst wasn’t actually that bad, but still a stronger actress would have improved the flick ten fold.

Still I can’t get enough of Elizabethtown. I’ve watched it three times since it’s release last October and each time the movie passes like a blur. The constant soundtrack of mega hits after mega hits that are so prelevant in Crowe movies…goes in overload here as their must be around 40 to 50 tracks used in the film. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before, it’s great.

He creates “classic” movies that no-one bothers to make now in this cynical age. Classic stories of love and passion for life flow through every movie he touches. He truly is a modern day Billy Wilder.

As usual with Crowe movies the themes and messages are very deep (Bloom is all but seconds away of commiting suicide in the most horrific of ways in the opening reel). The relationship between a father and a son is what the whole movie revolves around, and the worry that you never really know your father at all. It’s also about a passion for life…. taking road trips to enjoy what a beautiful world we live in. Take a trip in your car at the weekend, drive as long as you like with your favourite records…. chill from the rush and strain of daily life.

I go to see Cameron Crowe movies because they make me feel so good about life and myself. It’s a classic reason for wanting to go to the cinema, but a one that is so welcomed in this day and age of the “profit” movie.

categories - Movie News

5 Comments »

Matt, you are straining your credibility here. “Elizabethtown” probably shouldn’t even be on a Top 100 list, and it definitely shouldn’t be ahead of “Caligari”, among others.

This movie hinges entirely on coincidences, the musical soundtrack, and the supposed charm of the leads. The dialogue is contrived. The dramatic payoff is yawn-inducing.

One other note: I hate Crowe’s Nora Ephron-like need to place music on the soundtrack in order to telegraph emotion. It’s like he doesn’t trust his ability to create drama through the conventional means of thoughtful direction, meaningful dialogue, and inspired performances. To act in a Crowe film means to strike poses in time with the music on the soundtrack.

Rethink this one. PLEASE.

Comment by Ray | November 12, 2006
What I said in September…..

\”Now remember, this is highly subjective and is not a list of what I consider to be the BEST 100 movies of all time but instead my FAVOURITE 100 movies. For example, clearly Million Dollar Baby is a better movie than Austin Powers but I prefer Austin Powers and that makes the list\”!

Elizabethtown isn\’t in the Top 1000 movies ever made but yet I keep coming back to it and enjoy watching it more than say Vertigo. Case in point…. I think Orson Welles\’ Touch of Evil is one of the best movies ever made, yet i\’ve only managed to watch it once myself and not once in five years.

This is not an AFI List, it\’s a Geek list. It\’s a way for me to celeberate the movies I like….it\’s a way for me to express the person I am by the movies I enjoy. I have more fun watching Elizabethtown despite it\’s flaws, than most.

Like I said in the Elizabethtown post, I feel like Cameron Crowe makes movies for me and me only. It\’s as if he is tuning in on my thoughts and emotions and knows exactly which buttons to press. A lot of what happens to Bloom in this movie has happened to me in the past and I\’m right there with him in the final touching scene in the car. My relationship with my father is similar to his, not quite knowing the person that your so close to. And his thoughts on mortality and death are all things touched on in Vanilla Sky and Jerry Maguire…. if you look closer it\’s a very deep movie.

The dialogue is \”classic\” movie romantic dialogue that you just don\’t get to hear nowadays. Love is to often portrayed as being cynical on our screens in 2006.

When you see as many movies as I do every week, and watch most of the cynical drab that is produced every week…. watching Elizabethtown is a breath of fresh air.

I will end this with a quote from Cameron Crowe himself….

“Every movie has its own world, and its own language, but I’ve always held a special affection for the personal films that a director makes with no one looking over his shoulder, and only his private heart as a guide.”

I too have a special affection for personal films.

Expect a lot more geek choices as we get closer to the top 10.

Comment by Matt Holmes | November 12, 2006
Interesting defense. Persoanlly, I don’t feel like Crowe is actually trying to make films for himself anymore…I thought Elizabethtown was a crass stab at critical and commercial success.

I understand that this list is highly subjective. But the reason we make lists is to debate the choices with our friends and others. That is why I made this list.

And boy, did I get ripped on that one LOL.

Comment by Ray | November 12, 2006
I love it! Almost Famous is like Crowe’s only good movie, and you note that out of all of them it is only “ok”! We’ll I guess we have VERY different tastes in movies. Elizabethtown was likely was definitely on my “bottom 10” for 2005.

Comment by The Crowe | November 14, 2006
This is a really great list and a great site. i never saw it before.

please tell me, btw, you didn’t vote for more than one LOTR film on Cinemafusion’s top 100

Comment by Anonymous | July 16, 2007