Comments on: How’s Your Pacing: Rushing Or Dragging? https://www.thestorydepartment.com/rhythm-pacing/ Story. Screenplay. Sale. Thu, 10 Feb 2022 22:50:27 +0000 hourly 1 By: Joe https://www.thestorydepartment.com/rhythm-pacing/#comment-370552 Thu, 10 Feb 2022 22:50:27 +0000 https://www.thestorydepartment.com/?p=237024#comment-370552 Power of the Dog (TPotD)
The pacing in this movie is painful, which was for me an unpleasant experience (inducing memories of just about every Ingmar Bergman movie I had suffered through, sorry to say to Bergman fans). The slow burn in TPotD was in part the result of how the characters were portrayed (for example, I had no empathy for Rose, Phil, or George. I did for Peter, though) and partly the story. To call it a western is surely an insult to that genre. Drama, yes. Some critics have characterized it as a sequel to Brokeback Mountain, and some others as a prime example of toxic masculinity (as seen through the lens of both the director and her DoP), neither of which are endearing or necessarily attractive qualities to draw in an audience imho (the low box office takings since its release just proves my point).

As a result, I confess I couldn’t bring myself to watch all of it, so walked out. I’ve since been made aware that (a) it’s been nominated for just about every category under the sun in the Oscar’s, and (b) persisting to end of the movie delivers a satisfying denouement. Ugh! Now I have to suffer watching all that molasses-slow story again just so I can see what all the critics and reviewers are raving about. Forest Gump was right: life’s not a box of chocolates. For this movie, I wish Jane Campion had listened to Forest. The Piano was fast paced compared to TPotD! On the other hand, maybe I’ll just read the book the movie was based on.

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