Death of 1,000 cuts in movies

[Giles Ducroy]

The analogy of a death of a 1,000 cuts sometimes appears in literature,
and in discussions of politics and business.

How about movies? In which movies has the death of a 1,000 cuts been
used, or even mentioned?

Definition:
death of a 1000 cuts - n. - the martial concept that a gradual bleeding
to death of an opponent (attrition) is easier to accomplish than a
single deadly thrust. The concept is extended to politics and the
erosion of personal liberties necessary to establish tyranny. See
boiling frog. In one current online example Commentary: Death by 1,000
cuts in Iraq, UPI Senior News Analyst Martin Sieff uses this term, but
does not define it.
Source: http://www.vikingphoenix.com/Internet/reference/defglos.htm

-------@!
Giles Ducroy
They come for me in the night. Seductive beauties straight off the
pages of Sports Illustrated, Playboy, straight out of the Victoria's
Secret catalog. They seduce me, embrace me until I quiver like a
mackeral out of water, and then they drain me. --
http://www.geocities.com/gilesducroy/

[Al Smith]

> The analogy of a death of a 1,000 cuts sometimes appears in literature,
> and in discussions of politics and business.
>
> How about movies? In which movies has the death of a 1,000 cuts been
> used, or even mentioned?

"Cabaret" the televised version. It was edited so badly to avoid a
homosexual reference that the meaning of what the characters were
saying and doing was completely lost. Anyone who saw it only on
television would have been left scratching their heads and going
"Wha?" Hence, death by a thousand cuts. :-)

[Joe Gillis]

CAPE FEAR -- Robert Mitchum compares it to his plans for Gregoty Peck.

[art...@yahoo.com]

Someone once decided that "The Sound of Music" was too long, so they
shortened for TV by removing the songs (This was on Korean TV).

Getting back to the original meaning, In Office Space, one of the
characters is fired, but he never realizes it and they stick him in a
basement, take away his desk and other accesories (I think). The final
indiginity comes when he doesn't get a piece of cake at an office party.

[Al Smith]

>>>The analogy of a death of a 1,000 cuts sometimes appears in literature,
>>>> > and in discussions of politics and business.
>>>> >
>>>> > How about movies? In which movies has the death of a 1,000 cuts been
>>>> > used, or even mentioned?
>>
>>>
>>> "Cabaret" the televised version. It was edited so badly to avoid a
>>> homosexual reference that the meaning of what the characters were
>>> saying and doing was completely lost. Anyone who saw it only on
>>> television would have been left scratching their heads and going
>>> "Wha?" Hence, death by a thousand cuts. :-)
>
>
> Someone once decided that "The Sound of Music" was too long, so they
> shortened for TV by removing the songs (This was on Korean TV).

That's not a bad idea. I bet if we removed all the fight scenes
from the typical Steven Segal movie, we could get it down to ten
or fifteen minutes running length.

[Joe Gillis]

[David Matthews]

>> Someone once decided that "The Sound of Music" was too long, so they
>> shortened for TV by removing the songs (This was on Korean TV).
>
> That's not a bad idea. I bet if we removed all the fight scenes from the
> typical Steven Segal movie, we could get it down to ten or fifteen minutes
> running length.

There was an American TV station that cut out all the dance numbers in a
Fred Astaire - Ginger Rogers movie.

[Grant Hurlock]

> How about movies? In which movies has the death of a 1,000 cuts been
> used, or even mentioned?
>

(These are 1,000 cut-ish)
In telefilm Dial a Deadly Number, Linda Liles inflicts hundreds of tiny
stabwounds on Gary Collins that barely break the skin but shatter his mind.
In Silent Scream, petshop owner Peter Cushing has this basement game:
you can hang out with a hungry tiger or escape down a narrowing passage
lined with razorblades--take your pick.
In Sherlock Holmes & the Secret Weapon, Moriarty drains Holmes' blood
drop by drop--(which really creeped me out watching it as a kid).

[steve]

On 2-Feb-2006, smacked up and reeling, "Giles Ducroy"
<giles...@yahoo.com> blindly formulated
the following incoherence:

> How about movies? In which movies has the death of a 1,000 cuts been
> used, or even mentioned?

I believe one of the characters in a 1990s film called "Zentropa" actually
commits suicide by immersing himself in a hot tub and cutting himself
hundreds of times. Dont recall if there was any reference to "1000 cuts".

steve
--
"Local firemen improvised."
Benny Hill

[rick++]

(I think GIles was referring to the torture method.)

However there is a compression method similar to
cutting, but only one or two frames at a time.
It measures the visual or sound difference
among several frames and drops one if things dont
change much. There some other elaborations to
avoid jerkiness or munchkin speech. But I hear they
get 20% or so compression this way. Some TV does
this to squeeze in a few more minutes of commercials.
In the old days they was often an introductory scene
that could be cut. Some directors hate their works
distorted this way.

[Taylor]

Al Smith wrote:

A&E's pathetic airing of 'The Boys Of St. Vincent' was so incredibly
cowardly, they edited out ALL references to sexual abuse (although it
did air in primetime). Meanwhile, it can still be aired OTA on the CBC
late nights physical abuse, sexual abuse, male nudity and all.

[Al Smith]

Ha! I can do better than that. Run the "Jazz Singer" and cut out
the Jolson numbers. "You ain't heard nothing yet .... [silence]."

[Al Smith]

I know what he was on about, but I found it uninteresting so I
modified the topic. Just for me.

The compression method you speak of resulted in the greatest
abomination of the American cinema -- the time-compressed version
of "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance."

Oh ... my ... God!

Duke! Duke! How could those bastards do that to you? You sound
like one of the Chipmunks! No, don't speak -- I want to remember
you as you were.

Excruciating! Even though I love that movie, I will not watch the
time-compressed version when it comes on television, which is
regularly. The sound of John Wayne's voice is too painful.

[Al Smith]

What really pisses me off is when the edits destroy all the sense
of the film, so that you don't know what is going on. Why run the
movie at all, if the audience isn't going to be able to follow the
plot? I don't mind edits of gore, although in some films even this
can be bad -- the "Manchurian Candidate" had a bad edit of the
fight between Sinatra's character and the Korean houseboy. I saw
the movie uncut when it was first released by Sinatra. Then I saw
the edited (butchered) version. Almost no fight scene left! A
crime, really a crime, to do that to such a great film.

[tomcervo]

It may be a myth but Fred Silverman (working at a station in Chicago)
was famous for getting "Jailhouse Rock" to fit a time slot by cutting
all the songs.

[Al Smith]

> It may be a myth but Fred Silverman (working at a station in Chicago)
> was famous for getting "Jailhouse Rock" to fit a time slot by cutting
> all the songs.

Well, that at least makes sense.

[Halmyre]

Giles Ducroy wrote:
> The analogy of a death of a 1,000 cuts sometimes appears in literature,
> and in discussions of politics and business.
>
> How about movies? In which movies has the death of a 1,000 cuts been
> used, or even mentioned?
>

'Robocop' was once shown on Sunday afternoon TV in the UK. The story of
this amazing feat of editing actually made it into the trivia entry on
the IMDB, although for some reason it now seems to have been removed.

--
Halmyre

[Martin Sjøberg]

"Al Smith" <inv...@address.com> skrev i en meddelelse
news:7csEf.9107$VV4.1...@ursa-nb00s0.nbnet.nb.ca...

Yeah, but who would pay to see that? Well, who would pay to se any Steven
Seagal movie?

[Evelyn C. Leeper]

Giles Ducroy wrote:

> The analogy of a death of a 1,000 cuts sometimes appears in literature,
> and in discussions of politics and business.
>
> How about movies? In which movies has the death of a 1,000 cuts been
> used, or even mentioned?

I can't believe that no one has mentioned THE SAND PEBBLES.

(Well, yes, I can, because no one seems to remember films from before
1980 any more. :-( )

--
Evelyn C. Leeper
Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can.
That is the only secret of style. -Matthew Arnold

[Al Smith]

>>>Someone once decided that "The Sound of Music" was too long, so they
>>>>> shortened for TV by removing the songs (This was on Korean TV).
>>
>>>
>>> That's not a bad idea. I bet if we removed all the fight scenes from the
>>> typical Steven Segal movie, we could get it down to ten or fifteen minutes
>>> running length.
>
>
> Yeah, but who would pay to see that? Well, who would pay to se any Steven
> Seagal movie?

I watched what I guess is his latest the other week on DVD, the
2005 film "Black Dawn." The poor guy can barely walk, let alone do
fight stunts! He did absolutely nothing in this movie, except one
time he grabbed someone by the wrist and applied painful pressure.
It was so obvious that the action shots were done by stunt
doubles. And I'm not talking about stunt action -- I'm talking
about running across the street sort of action. He is so fat! In
his early movies he was always shot without his shirt. Now, in his
later films, you never see him without a coat on.

This is from IMBD, and I quote:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443450/

"As for the action: This is also a mixed bag with gun fights
ranging from competent to lazily and quickly constructed. While
the fight sequences, which are extremely few and brief, are poor.
The poorness of the fights however are due to the fact that Seagal
isn't present in any of them, even though his character is
involved. They are poor because Seagal is hardly even used for
inserts and his double is constantly being used so the director is
attempting to hide this fact. As a result the fights are
incredibly disorientating leaving you unsure if Seagal's character
is even fighting."

On top of his lack of physical conditioning, his movie made no
sense. The audience was just dumped into the middle of the story,
with no idea of who was who, or why they were doing what they were
doing. Talk about confusing. The amazing thing is, the reviewer I
quoted above saw "Black Dawn" as an improvement over recent Seagal
films. Well, I agree with him that Seagal's movies have sucked to
high heaven for the past decade or so, but "Black Dawn" didn't
improve anything. If Seagal were any more absent from his movie,
he could just phone in his lines and never leave his house. They
could paste a Steven Seagal cut-out on his stunt double's head and
let him to the love scenes, in addition to everything else.

In summary, I agree with your statement, nobody but nobody should
pay to see another Seagal film.

[Martin Sjøberg]

>>>>
>>>> That's not a bad idea. I bet if we removed all the fight scenes from
>>>> the typical Steven Segal movie, we could get it down to ten or fifteen
>>>> minutes running length.
>>
>>
>> Yeah, but who would pay to see that? Well, who would pay to se any Steven
>> Seagal movie?
>
>
> I watched what I guess is his latest the other week on DVD, the 2005 film
> "Black Dawn." The poor guy can barely walk, let alone do fight stunts! He
> did absolutely nothing in this movie, except one time he grabbed someone
> by the wrist and applied painful pressure. It was so obvious that the

> action shots were done by stunt doubles. (...)

> In summary, I agree with your statement, nobody but nobody should pay to
> see another Seagal film.

I wouldn't say that i used to enjoy Seagal movies, but in his younger days
it was ok action b-movies. At least his character always got into som sort
of cool knife-fight. But well, it's not the greatest loss Hollywood has had.

[Frank R.A.J. Maloney]

"Martin Sjøberg" <spam...@ofir.dk> wrote in message
news:43e3abcf$0$78280$157c...@dreader1.cybercity.dk...

[deletions]

> I wouldn't say that i used to enjoy Seagal movies, but in his younger days
> it was ok action b-movies. At least his character always got into som sort
> of cool knife-fight. But well, it's not the greatest loss Hollywood has
> had.

I will admit to enjoying one Seagal flick, _Under Siege_ (1992), but I
suspect the main reason I enjoyed it was the presence of Tommy Lee Jones and
Gary Busey who very efficiently stole the show.

On the other hand _Hard to Kill_ (1990) in which Our Hero spends several
years in a coma and then using martial arts and mediation prepares himself
for revenge ought to have been entitled _Hard to Stomach_ if there really
were truth in advertising.

And a kind of P.S., let me note in the spirit of the upcoming Superbowl that
the Seahawks' cheerleaders are called the Seagals.

--
Frank in Seattle
____

Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney
"Millennium hand and shrimp."

--
Frank in Seattle
____

Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney
"Millennium hand and shrimp."

[Martin Sjøberg]

>> I wouldn't say that i used to enjoy Seagal movies, but in his younger
>> days it was ok action b-movies. At least his character always got into
>> som sort of cool knife-fight. But well, it's not the greatest loss
>> Hollywood has had.
>
> I will admit to enjoying one Seagal flick, _Under Siege_ (1992), but I
> suspect the main reason I enjoyed it was the presence of Tommy Lee Jones
> and Gary Busey who very efficiently stole the show.
>
> On the other hand _Hard to Kill_ (1990) in which Our Hero spends several
> years in a coma and then using martial arts and mediation prepares himself
> for revenge ought to have been entitled _Hard to Stomach_ if there really
> were truth in advertising.
>
> And a kind of P.S., let me note in the spirit of the upcoming Superbowl
> that the Seahawks' cheerleaders are called the Seagals.

That's a kind of funny... but everyone knows that Steelers gonna win. ;o)
(know it's OT, but I couldn't resist :o) )

[Grant Hurlock]

> That's a kind of funny... but everyone knows that Steelers gonna win. ;o)
> (know it's OT, but I couldn't resist :o) )
>

Maybe they win it in OT :o)))

[Al Smith]

>>I watched what I guess is his latest the other week on DVD, the 2005 film
>>> "Black Dawn." The poor guy can barely walk, let alone do fight stunts! He
>>> did absolutely nothing in this movie, except one time he grabbed someone
>>> by the wrist and applied painful pressure. It was so obvious that the
>>> action shots were done by stunt doubles. (...)
>>> In summary, I agree with your statement, nobody but nobody should pay to
>>> see another Seagal film.
>
>
> I wouldn't say that i used to enjoy Seagal movies, but in his younger days
> it was ok action b-movies. At least his character always got into som sort
> of cool knife-fight. But well, it's not the greatest loss Hollywood has had.

Yes, total agreement with you. Steven Seagal has always been full
of himself. At least in his early films he did good action work,
but he can't act. He's like a robot. He makes Chuck Norris look
like Dustin Hoffman. No loss to the film industry, maybe no loss
to the world, either.

[Savage Lizard]

"Frank R.A.J. Maloney" <fr...@blarg.net> wrote in message
news:11u7c26...@corp.supernews.com...

> "Martin Sjøberg" <spam...@ofir.dk> wrote in message
> news:43e3abcf$0$78280$157c...@dreader1.cybercity.dk...
>
> [deletions]
>
>> I wouldn't say that i used to enjoy Seagal movies, but in his younger
>> days it was ok action b-movies. At least his character always got into
>> som sort of cool knife-fight. But well, it's not the greatest loss
>> Hollywood has had.
>
> I will admit to enjoying one Seagal flick, _Under Siege_ (1992), but I
> suspect the main reason I enjoyed it was the presence of Tommy Lee Jones
> and Gary Busey who very efficiently stole the show.

Under Siege was great! Especially when Erika Eleniak emerges from the
birthday cake!!!

Savage Lizard

[Al Smith]

> I will admit to enjoying one Seagal flick, _Under Siege_ (1992), but I
> suspect the main reason I enjoyed it was the presence of Tommy Lee Jones and
> Gary Busey who very efficiently stole the show.
>
> On the other hand _Hard to Kill_ (1990) in which Our Hero spends several
> years in a coma and then using martial arts and mediation prepares himself
> for revenge ought to have been entitled _Hard to Stomach_ if there really
> were truth in advertising.

"Under Siege" was his best film. It was a genuine hit. I actually
liked "Hard to Kill" -- for me it is the quintessential Seagal
film. But it's definitely a B picture, by my definition of B
picture (which, I've discovered, some "King Kong" fans don't agree
with).

[Al Smith]

>>And a kind of P.S., let me note in the spirit of the upcoming Superbowl
>>> that the Seahawks' cheerleaders are called the Seagals.
>
>
> That's a kind of funny... but everyone knows that Steelers gonna win. ;o)
> (know it's OT, but I couldn't resist :o) )

The Steelers should hire a crew to come out on the field before
the game starts and hot-cast from molten steel a big sledge
hammer. They could grind it down and polish it during the game
right on the sidelines, then wave it around in the air every time
the Steelers score a touchdown. In fact, they could use it to
smash little ceramic seagulls on an anvil.

[NASCAR26]

"Martin Sjøberg" <spam...@ofir.dk> wrote in message

news:43e344cc$0$67258$157c...@dreader2.cybercity.dk...

People who live in trailer parks and are in bowling, pool, darts, or
softball leagues probably make up the bulk of his audience. Their money
spends as well as anyone else's.

Some years ago I was in a blue collar tavern and I heard some gals come to
the conclusion that "Roadhouse" was the best movie they have ever seen.

[NASCAR26]

"Savage Lizard" <savage...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:11u7pk4...@news.supernews.com...

Steven and Erika are the Lucy and Desi for this generation.

[NASCAR26]

"Giles Ducroy" <giles...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1138901824.3...@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

> The analogy of a death of a 1,000 cuts sometimes appears in literature,
> and in discussions of politics and business.
>
> How about movies? In which movies has the death of a 1,000 cuts been
> used, or even mentioned?
>

> Definition:
> death of a 1000 cuts - n. - the martial concept that a gradual bleeding
> to death of an opponent (attrition) is easier to accomplish than a
> single deadly thrust. The concept is extended to politics and the
> erosion of personal liberties necessary to establish tyranny. See
> boiling frog. In one current online example Commentary: Death by 1,000
> cuts in Iraq, UPI Senior News Analyst Martin Sieff uses this term, but
> does not define it.
> Source: http://www.vikingphoenix.com/Internet/reference/defglos.htm
>
>
>

I read a novel about Marco Polo or some such thing that had a graphic
description of "Death of 1000 Cuts". It was a form of capital punishment.
The royal executioner or torturemeister or whatever had charted the exterior
of the human body and written each little piece down on a slip of paper and
put all 1000 slips in a drum. So as each slip was drawn from the drum that
part that was described was cut off the victim. So it was a sort of a
perverse lottey in that a younger, stronger person would suffer for days or
weeks longer than an older person.

[Martin Sjøberg]

>>> typical Steven Segal movie, we could get it down to ten or fifteen
>>> minutes running length.
>>
>> Yeah, but who would pay to see that? Well, who would pay to se any Steven
>> Seagal movie?
>>
>
> People who live in trailer parks and are in bowling, pool, darts, or
> softball leagues probably make up the bulk of his audience. Their money
> spends as well as anyone else's.
>
> Some years ago I was in a blue collar tavern and I heard some gals come to
> the conclusion that "Roadhouse" was the best movie they have ever seen.

I dated this girl who thought that "New York Minute" with Mary-kate and
Ashley Olsen is a pretty good movie. Geez...

[Lincoln Spector]

"Martin Sjøberg" <spam...@ofir.dk> wrote in message
news:43e3abcf$0$78280$157c...@dreader1.cybercity.dk...
>>>>>

His first film, Above the Law, was pretty good. And I liked Under Siege.
But, come to think of it, they would have been better with another star.

Lincoln