The one-shot thing was pretty cool and technically interesting, but I kind of wish I hadn't known about it before watching the movie. I found it incredibly distracting because every time an object crossed the foreground, my mind yelled out "that's a cut point!"
I agree with you that the casting of two young actors is a good choice, I would even say that it's probably the best thing about the movie. The music is also not bad, if you compare with Lawrence of Arabia it's a little bit more subdued. I liked the moment just at the half-point of the movie when the character enters the city, the music is in major-flat sixth. I think it fits very well with the weird lighting.The mood of the scene is also more ambiguous, it's not exactly horror but it's not wonderment either. I like it when music brings something that would not have been there otherwise and I think they succeeded with that scene.
For Deakins, I think he has a very particular style and I think it fits more when he does natural looking films, like Fargo. He does more big budget movies nowadays and it creates a weird mix between spectacular and naturalistic.
I also had the same impression with how the soldier was incompetent and was nonetheless able to go through everything. It felt extremely contrived to me. It's like the script was written around the idea of the continuous shot (per example it looked better to make the character run through the city instead of stopping and shooting enemies.) In that sense, the movie felt a little bit like a ride through a park attraction more than a well crafted story. And I'm not a huge fan of continuous shot either, for me it has to be motivated by storytelling, not the other way around.
For the male singing, I never thought about that and it's true there is not a lot of solo unaccompanied pieces for voice. I looked a little bit on the internet and there's Gregrorian chant and music for male choir by Sibelius but I didn't find anything else. Somebody should compose great music for solo male singer!
The one-shot thing was pretty cool and technically interesting, but I kind of wish I hadn't known about it before watching the movie. I found it incredibly distracting because every time an object crossed the foreground, my mind yelled out "that's a cut point!"
The singing was good, I don't know what's wrong with Casey :P
I agree with you that the casting of two young actors is a good choice, I would even say that it's probably the best thing about the movie. The music is also not bad, if you compare with Lawrence of Arabia it's a little bit more subdued. I liked the moment just at the half-point of the movie when the character enters the city, the music is in major-flat sixth. I think it fits very well with the weird lighting.The mood of the scene is also more ambiguous, it's not exactly horror but it's not wonderment either. I like it when music brings something that would not have been there otherwise and I think they succeeded with that scene.
For Deakins, I think he has a very particular style and I think it fits more when he does natural looking films, like Fargo. He does more big budget movies nowadays and it creates a weird mix between spectacular and naturalistic.
I also had the same impression with how the soldier was incompetent and was nonetheless able to go through everything. It felt extremely contrived to me. It's like the script was written around the idea of the continuous shot (per example it looked better to make the character run through the city instead of stopping and shooting enemies.) In that sense, the movie felt a little bit like a ride through a park attraction more than a well crafted story. And I'm not a huge fan of continuous shot either, for me it has to be motivated by storytelling, not the other way around.
For the male singing, I never thought about that and it's true there is not a lot of solo unaccompanied pieces for voice. I looked a little bit on the internet and there's Gregrorian chant and music for male choir by Sibelius but I didn't find anything else. Somebody should compose great music for solo male singer!