SCFZ

Polling the films of Bob Clark

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half* of the Clark films you've seen, up to a maximum of 8. So if you've seen 6 films, you can vote for 3, and if you've seen 20, you can vote for up to 8.

* If you've seen an odd number, you can round up when deciding the length of your ballot -- e.g if you've seen 7, you can vote for 4, and if you've seen 15, you can vote for the maximum of 8.

- i'll assume ballots are ranked unless you tell me otherwise. unranked ballots are fine.

- deadline for ballots: next Friday, in seven days, whatever day that is

umbugbene created an index on letterboxd of all of our previous polls here: letterboxd.com/umbugbene/list/index-of-all-scfz-director-polls/

festive poll for the xmas season! bob clark directed two famous xmas films, which is two more than most of the directors we've polled.

Black Christmas
A Christmas Story
Catch a Falling Star
Murder by Decree
She-Man: A Story of Fixation

seen eight (edit: seen ten), i think both the xmas films are very good for what they are (so good in very different ways) but i have not liked a single other clark film at all, mind you the clark films i've seen include baby geniuses, superbabies: baby geniuses 2, and the karate dog, so it might be my film choices and not clark's filmmaking that's the main problem. edit: actually catch a falling star was likeable enough too

seen 2

black christmas

Am I correct in saying I can vote for 1 movie if I've only seen 1 (rounding up to 2)? If so...

A Christmas Story

Seen 4

Black Christmas

Evelyn Library P.I. wrote: ↑Fri Dec 24, 2021 4:29 pm Am I correct in saying I can vote for 1 movie if I've only seen 1

yes, that's correct, though i hope in that case people only vote when they think the movie they've seen deserves a vote

seen 2, both were fantastic!
Too bad I can't vote for both.

01. Murder by Decree

Clark seen: 2

Great, thanks! And yes, I genuinely like A Christmas Story so I'm happy to give it a push in the poll.

seen 3

Maniac Magee
A Christmas Story

3

Deathdream
Black Christmas

It's a shame that I can't pick Black Christmas as well. His filmography after releasing two fantastic, utterly bleak horror films in 1974 is so bizarre.

Deathdream
Black Christmas
Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things

greennoir wrote: ↑Fri Dec 24, 2021 11:14 pm It's a shame that I can't pick Black Christmas as well. His filmography after releasing two fantastic, utterly bleak horror films in 1974 is so bizarre.

if you've seen 3 you're allowed to vote for 2 under the new rules (we're using what i used to call the 'extended rules' for every poll now)

Interesting choice. He peaked early after making one of the best horror films of all time (Black Christmas). His career was never the same following Porky's, and the disastrous Rhinestone with Dolly and Sly made it a lot more difficult for him to secure quality work in the studio system. As others have noted, he made two completely different Christmas films, but A Christmas Story actually has more in common with Porky's than his other films insofar as it's an episodic comedy set in the distant past told from an adolescent's POV. Both are also nostalgia pieces to varying degrees.

Seen 12.

Black Christmas
Porky's
Deathdream
Murder by Decree
A Christmas Story
Porky's 2

The least Xmassy Xmas poll I could have imagined, the seasonal aptness within Clark's oeuvre nothwithstanding. I mean A Christmas Story is fine in the abstract, nothing too exciting, but nothing all that irksome, but, damn, the amount of attention and continual reference to it over the years bugged the crap out of me, making it hard to keep a neutral perspective. The grotesque outsized influence of Porky's and his incredible incompetence with actors is also hard to be even-keeled about when looking at Clark, but I put him on my list of directors I've seen more than 10 from, so I better vote for something I guess. Wish I'd seen Deathdream or Breaking Point, those might have been a decent options, couldn't make my way through Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things and most of the rest frighten me just by looking at 'em.

Black Christmas
Murder by Decree
Rhinestone
A Christmas Story
Remote Control Man

Well fuck, I wanted to knock Tribute off the list so I just watched Clark's Amazing Stories episode "Remote Control Man" figuring it'd have to make the list just for the virtue of being the shortest thing Clark made, but jeezus it was awful in every concievable way. So I ended up wasting 25 minutes to no avail other than morbid fascination trying to figure out what the point of the whole thing was and got no answer in the end cuz it was just too damned idiotic to make any sense at all. It was Christmas related though, so at least it keeps with the theme I guess. (It gets the slot for being so "amazingly" atrocious that its near singularity in that regard is a mark in itself.)

seen 3

1 A Xmas Story

seen 11.
I like 2 films:
1-Black Christmas
2-Murder by Decree
Others are not important for me.

flip wrote: ↑Fri Dec 24, 2021 11:35 pm

greennoir wrote: ↑Fri Dec 24, 2021 11:14 pm It's a shame that I can't pick Black Christmas as well. His filmography after releasing two fantastic, utterly bleak horror films in 1974 is so bizarre.

if you've seen 3 you're allowed to vote for 2 under the new rules (we're using what i used to call the 'extended rules' for every poll now)

Coool

xmas films finish #1 and #2 (tied)! that won't happen in many of our polls. only two clark films after 1985 got any support (even though more than half of his 30 credits are from after 1985), and no one voted for any of clark's last three films: superbabies: baby geniuses 2, the karate dog, and blonde and blonder (though he was uncredited on that last one). it also won't happen in many of our polls that we survey a director whose career ended quite like that.

results
1. Black Christmas (1974) — 22 pts
2. A Christmas Story (1983) — 10 pts
2. Murder by Decree (1979) — 10 pts
4. Deathdream (1974) — 8 pts
5. Porky’s (1981) — 4 pts
6. Catch a Falling Star (2000) — 3 pts
6. Rhinestone (1984) — 3 pts
8. Maniac Magee (2003) — 2 pts
9. Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things (1972) — 1 pt
9. She-Man: A Story of Fixation (1967) — 1 pt
9. Remote Control Man (1985) — 1 pt
12. Porky’s 2 (1983) — 0.5 pts

A circumstance where I felt need to actually cast a vote for Rhinestone is a remarkable one indeed.

That it received any votes at all kind of shocks me, and I'm probably more fond of Sly and Dolly than most on this board. Hah.

Joks Trois wrote: ↑Wed Jan 05, 2022 12:12 pm That it received any votes at all kind of shocks me, and I'm probably more fond of Sly and Dolly than most on this board. Hah.

I would have voted for it, but as I had seen only 2 his masterpiece MURDER BY DECREE got my vote instead.

now up at letterboxd:

https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... -poll-310/