TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

oOgiandujaOo_and_Eddy_Merckx It's the turn of the century in the middle of nowhere. Buck Jones stars as rube Steve Tuttle, a man who is the very definition of bone idle. He's a nice honest guy but he'd much rather be chewing on an ear of corn with a hat over his face than doin' much of anything. For some reason a lovely young lady called Agnes is sweet on him, but he'd rather catch forty zees than go a-courtin'. There's a brash annoying fellow called Elmer Ballister who is referred to by an intertitle as being a "Beau Brummel" type, and he is well dressed and well-to-do but that's about the sum of the man. Agnes' ma, rather a wicked witch type of character straight of the set of the Wizard of Oz prefers Elmer to Steve. For sure, if she could sweep him into the river she would.To add a dash of zing to the film Agnes' sister Ruth turns up with a baby. She went away to college and married a nautical fellow on the sly. Unfortunately the sea took him from her. Ruth knows that her mother will never believe the story. On the way home she ditches herself in the river and Frank hooks more than he bargained for lazing in the Y of a tree with his fishing rod.He agrees to look after the baby, so that Ruth can go home and pretends that nothing has happened. And that's how he spends the next few years, lazin' away and bringing up "Kit". Borzage allows us the usual tender moments here. As in Lucky Star, come the Great War, the protagonist (almost an oxymoron in this case) heads off to France, where he becomes a war hero by total chance.This movie is about the passing of time though. Steve returns from France and time has moved on, his boots don't fit, and the sticking gate which he always meant to fix has been fixed by a young man who carries his Kit away.This is the part of the movie that really is a punch in the gut. Steve, inept at love through inexperience and sheer idleness falls in love with his adoptive daughter whom he can't have. The last scenes were like a roundhouse to the jaw for me. Just after we've quite literally seen the hay wain of life pass a house-entombed Agnes by, we see Frank catching the tiniest fish in the gulch. That I think is major cinema. There are momentous hardcore existential messages pouring off the screen during the reversal at the end of the film. At it's heart it is a movie about the sheer folly of letting life slip idly by.Steve, one might feel, deserved some reward for bringing Kit up, however in a nice guy comes last world, things like that don't happen. You have to seize life and in particular the girl to get anything out of it.My apologies for the spoilers, almost impossible to discuss the movie sensibly without them.

boblipton At his peak in the 1930s and 1940s, to watch Frank Borzage with pleasure, you have to believe in love as something more than a variety of lust. It can be transformative when living (as in the terrific and subtle A MAN'S CASTLE) and, in the hands of performers like Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, can even overcome death -- although I should caution the observant film watcher that the enormous power of those movies lies in the unequaled abilities of Miss Gaynor, who was a truly great film actor; Mr. Farrell was a good one and gave many a fine performance, but it finally occurred to the people who made the movies that no one would go out of his way to see Mr. Farrell on his own.Although the influence of Murnau on Borzage is usually cited as key, looking at this movie, made three years before SUNRISE, we can see that the essence of Borzage is already in place: the small figures against the enormous vistas, the seemingly inevitable workings-out of the plot but most especially the way people look at each other: Buck Jones never gave a better performance than as the title character of this piece. As another reviewer has put it, it's all in the eyes.Visually, Borzage has not settled on his signature look, a gauzy effect achieved, according to legend, by filming through a pair of sheer white hose that softened the image and forced the audience to see what was in the viewer's heart. Instead, the print that was used in the Borzage/Murnau at Fox set seems both a little flat -- perhaps from a safety-stock print -- and possessed of a bit of dazzle on the right side of white objects. Perhaps this effect was intended. Perhaps not. In either case, this is a most welcome addition to my collection of silent movies.

rogerskarsten My fellow reviewers have done so much justice to this fine film that I hesitated to submit my own thoughts, since many of them would be quite redundant. I therefore will not comment so much on the story itself in this review, but instead concentrate on some of the aesthetic qualities of the film.The careful attention to period detail is one of the salient features of LAZYBONES. Produced in 1925, but telling a story that reaches back to the turn-of-the-century and advances to "now," it genuinely captures the look of each era it portrays. Often films made in the 1920s but set, say, before the War (WWI), look very different from actual films produced in 1914 -- we can see it in the clothes and the hairstyles. In LAZYBONES this is not the case. Even the characters age believably as the decades advance (only Kit is portrayed by different actresses as she grows up). Buck Jones's transformation from a teenager to an almost middle-aged man is especially noteworthy.Another strength of Borzage's direction is his strong evocation of place. His rural America is steeped in romanticism -- so stylized and yet so personal as to exist both everywhere and nowhere simultaneously. One is left with the feeling that these characters -- especially Steve (Buck Jones) and his mother (Edythe Chapman) -- are inextricably linked with the languid atmosphere of their environment. This quality is also reflected in Borzage's lingering, empathetic close-ups that seem to stretch time beyond its natural bounds. The scene in which Ruth (Zasu Pitts) passes by Steve's house in the carriage, catching a glimpse of her daughter, is one such example. This moment -- consisting of only a few seconds in real time -- is frozen as Borzage focuses on the emotions displayed in the expressions of Ruth, Steve, and Kit (Virginia Marshall). The reunion scene when Steve returns from the war is certainly every bit the equal of the one near the end of Vidor's THE BIG PARADE, and is another prime example of "stretching time" for dramatic effect.In contrast to such Borzage silent masterpieces as 7TH HEAVEN, STREET ANGEL, and LUCKY STAR, I would classify LAZYBONES as a film fundamentally grounded in realism (note the prominent use of real exteriors instead of studio back-lot sets). At the same time, however, Borzage flavors the whole work with a wistful romanticism that is never cloying but somehow manages to capture the dream-like qualities of our own nostalgic memories: snapshot moments, tinged at times with melancholy, at times with happiness.

FerdinandVonGalitzien "Lazybones", directed by Herr Frank Borzage was the beginning of this director's most fruitful period in the silent era. Like Herr Borzage's other most important and remarkable silent films,"Lazybones" was produced for Fox. "Lazybones" tells the story of Steve Tuttle ( Buck Jones ) "a man as slow as molasses in winter" so the people gave him the nickname of "Lazybones" a man with many unrequited loves that he will sacrifice in a languid way true to his character. The film combines a refined sense of humour with a kind of melancholy melodrama developed by excellent actors who are perfect in their different characters. Buck Jones was mainly famous for his cowboy roles ( And Borzage himself was also noted for his early westerns ). Steve's opposite is JaneNovak (Zasu Pitts) , a victim of her strict mother, and who is a fragile character with little chance for rebellion in a town where convention rules and keeping up appearances is a very important matter.In this film nature and the landscapes are very important too and become subtle characters in their own right. They sometimes reflect the different moods or the special way of life of the different characters of the film, ( sunny, idyllic and carefree for Lazybones and unsettled and windy for the women ). The decisive importance of the background shows an European influence, especially from the Danes and Swedes. The film is also an excellent example of the Herr Borzage mastery of storytelling and pacing. Technical effects, flashbacks and camera movements are combined in such an imperceptible manner that the audience can feel and sense the inexorable passing of time in an elegant, sad but beautiful way…,this German count, who lacks some of the common human feelings, still thinks that makes for poetry, doesn't it? And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must go stretch.Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien