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Today:
To the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee
Posted: Mar 07, 2008 in Movies
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Those famous last words are spoken by Capt. Ahab as he is about to die following the failed quest for revenge. So, I now ask the readers to speak on the best revenge movie they have seen. Many would say the obvious answer is "Kill Bill 1&2" or even lesser fare such as "Payback"(Mel Gibson) or "V for Vendetta". Do not get me wrong, I enjoyed all of these listed movies but their idea of revenge is to kill someone. I recently saw a movie that is, in my opinion, the best movie ever made on the concept of revenge...and by this I mean the totality of revenge. Before I give the movie name to everyone I will preface by saying it is a foreign film from South Korea. I preface it because we will weed out 90% of the chaff that is instantly turned off by a movie they "have to read"...as if reading were that taxing of a thing to do. These people will miss out on some of the best cinema in the world and won't care...this post is not for those of limited mind.
This movie takes the revenge and serves it up to us as a 10 course meal...each course adding to the rich layers we have previously eaten and hinting at the rest to come. The layers of revenge that are piled upon one another leave the viewer with the sense that they did not fully understand revenge before watching this movie. There has been some hinting that this movie is set to be remade by Hollywood but they are having trouble finding an American actor to do what his Korean counterpart had to do. Thus, I say you should all go out and rent this movie before all Americans are introduced to (what will surely be) an inferior product made in L.A.
The name of this gem is "Old Boy" and you can find it at your local video rental store or any online service you might have. Get your favorite libations and prepare to find out what true revenge is...
I have to disagree. Those words were spoken by Khan Noonien Singh in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. :)
But you have my total agreement that Oldboy is a fantastic movie, and has quite the screwed up Greek tragedy kind of ending.
Thanks for the comment but you are only partially correct...those words were spoken by Khan right before he launches the genesis device, but the words were written by Herman Melville in "Moby Dick"...and if you notice in the movie you will see that Khan has "Moby Dick" on his bookshelf at the beginning of Star Trek II when they show him on Seti Alpha V.
I hope you give me enough credit to know that was a joke! :)
Moby Dick has long been used in Star Trek. It was used by the Next Generation cast in Star Trek: First Contact, when Lily (played by Alfre Woodard) compared Captain Picard to Captain Ahab in hunting and killing the Borg. Picard actually quotes it (I don't recall the entire passage, but it had the "If his chest were a cannon, he'd have shot his heart upon it" line).
Oh, and by the way, First Contact remains the best Trek movie of them all. :)
I know that scene well and I consider it to be Patrick Stewart's best scene as Capt. Picard. First Contact is the best and will remain so...but I look forward to the new one.
I didn't like the take they used in the movie, where he says "The line must be drawn HEAH!"
In the original trailer, they used a less angry, more measured "The line MUST be drawn here".
It seemed more Picard to me. More determined and indignant, rather than blindly enraged. I get why they wanted the angrier version, but it wasn't as true to the character