Brian Fellows
Pete Carroll Owns Me
I can't understand that one Spanish trainer at all.
My experiences with horse tracks is generally me going and getting really drunk and occasionally winning on a long shot to win, place or show. As a result, I didn't really get a lot of what was going on. Still, it was really fucking good and I couldn't be more excited for the show at this point.
I teared up a bitwhen they put the horse to sleep. And I'm not much of a horse fan other than occasionally winning, but mostly losing, money off of them. Of course I probably would have done that for any animal, reminds me of my dog. Still it was really well done.
I'm going to need to see more. Some of the best visuals I have seen in a televison show.
I'll rewatch it at some point to get a better idea of what's going on in some scenes/plotlines.
I'll need to watch it again to sort out exactly what the fuck was going on, but it certainly weren't no JFC.
Yeah, I got the basic gist of it, but wow I was kinda lost for most of that, glad to see others were too.
Huh. What was so hard to understand? Is it just really dense?
Yup. The gambling/horse stuff by itself is dense, then you add Milch's layered dialogue to it.
Once the episode ends, it's pretty clear:
a) Nolte's horse is bred from excellent stock, and he needs to choose a jockey carefully.
b) A group of four gamblers, have won an insane jackpot thanks to the good horse sense (HA! FUCKING HORSE SENSE! IT FITS SO WELL IN THIS INSTANCE) of one of them, who has a gambling problem that has cost him the ability to gamble at whim.
c) Ace has just gotten out of prison and is buying a horse through a proxy (not Nolte's MASTER HORSE). The preview for the rest of the season hints at his greater plans but all he's done so far is suggest to an old associate to look into buying a racetrack.
d) Two jockeys, one a redheaded dame with an irish brogue and one dude with an accent from Mars I think, are both looking to get their legs around Nolte's MASTER HORSE (jockeyly speaking). Speculation, but I bet by the end of the season, one will be riding Nolte's and the other will be riding Ace's. Mr. Martian's agent is called Porky Pig, I'd assume behind his back, due to his stutter.
e) There's also a renowned horse trainer who Mr. Martian wants to impress even though he kind of instantly loathes him. El Trainer Del Horses, however, must have some faith in either Mr. Martian or the horse he rode, because he surreptitiously bet on him and won.
The preview looks to pile on even more pro- and antagonists, so hold onto your...stick things...that jockeys use...to...do stuff.
Yeah, this dude's accent was weird.
Some of the accents are tough, too, though the trailer that played after seemed as if that stuff was a little tweaked. HBO is really killing it with the cinematography, their current slate is unmatched. Raw, incomparable beauty on display throughout. Great first episode, can't wait to see where it goes.
Definitely think the "jockey from Mars" was Cajun / New Orleans, though the accent was wildly inconsistent.
That was beyond awful. What the fuck even happened?
I'm stunned it didn't look like a home video project from 1987, as per Mann's usual.
Keep this up Benji, and we're gonna have issues!
Collateral (Entourage, lol), Miami Vice and Public Enemies were all digital. The first two were immaculately shot, but yes, PE was a mess.
Yeah, it looked very much like a Mann movie, even if you ignore it being digitally shot. The music and everything all felt like something in one of his movies.
Thank ye, good sir!
You can see a few cameras in the Invitation to the Set feature. Most of them look pretty small, so I'm guessing they're DV? (I don't know a ton about this - just speculation on my part.) There was also a shot of the main rig they used on the horse racing scenes in one of the videos, but I can't remember which one. I was surprised with how sharp everything looked.It's possible he just started using better cameras or better cameras have become more affordable/portable. There was a lot of horse stuff that still looked vivid and clear but so "in the action" that it's unlikely it was some big Panasonic rig mounted onto a horse or whatever.
After what an HBO source describes as "serious" discussions, Milch has the final word on scripts, but Mann decides everything else, from casting to cutting to music. Clearly that is not a situation to which Milch, the Emmy-winning writer-producer of NYPD Blue and Deadwood, has lately been accustomed.
This insider laments that Mann has taken control of the editing process, saying: "David's used to writing on the page and in the editing room. And David's very good in the edit. It's a whole other writing process."
But Mann and Milch, in a joint statement to THR, say they are happy with the working arrangement: "We both have the highest admiration for each other's work. After the pilot was finished and both of us liked what we did, we decided -- as two men who have been around for a number of years -- we ought to be smart enough to figure out a mechanism that would enable us to work together to our and the series' benefit. And we did."
But the duo acknowledges the split responsibilities.
"Like any good partnership, we collaborate with each other frequently on story, editing, etc.," they say. "But ultimately, the writing has to be David's domain with final decision-making, just as the filmmaking is Michael's."
Ha, I have a hard time thinking either man has it in them to stick to their areas. I really liked the pilot, hopefully they can keep this show going for awhile. Although I feel like the shows greatest enemy (and greatest asset) is the pairing of Mann and Milch. Unless they can genuinely work together, they'll probably tear the show apart unless one of them backs down completely which wouldn't necessarily be a good thing either.
Unless they can genuinely work together, they'll probably tear the show apart unless one of them backs down completely which wouldn't necessarily be a good thing either.
Three thoughts on LUCK preview:
(1) Like all Milch shows, you need a while just to learn the language.
(2) May have found a way to capture John from Cincinnati's poetic-loser vibe, w a more accessible dramatic angle.
(3) Love how Michael Mann's direction gets how beautiful, and TERRIFYING, horses can be.