Ralph Nelson
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A variation on a theme of the 1968 Academy Award winner “Charly,” “Limitless” asks us what we would do with superintelligence and then gives us the wrong answer, however stylishly.
This sort of mental rags-to-riches progression has inspired a lot of movies; ever see Cliff Robertson in “ Charly ” (1968)?
There’s a similar, but different enough, storyline between Neil Burger’s new film and 1969?s “Charly,” a multi-award winning feature starring Cliff Robertson—who won an Oscar for his performance as a shy, mentally challenged man turned massively intelligent savant via a drug-induced scientific experiment.
As Fanning's peckerwood dad, Morse stars as yet another of his leering lowlifes before a bolt of lightning strikes Dad on his tractor and transforms him into a kind of redneck variation on Cliff Robertson's simpleton from the film Charly.
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Directed by Clint Eastwood
influenced by Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962)
Themes
Eastwood has crafted a boxing movie that holds more akin to the 1956 Paul Newman starrer, “Somebody Up There Likes Me,” or “Requiem For A Heavyweight” than the “Rocky” franchise, to which it is most compared.
Meanwhile, Powder comes across as a cross between Cliff Robertson's " Charly ," the Elephant Man, Mr. Spock, E.T. and Jesus.
As extracted from what must have been a very busy Stephen King short story (written, quite obviously, in the 10 or 15 minutes after King had watched Cliff Robertson's great "Charly" on his VCR) it follows as a research scientist uses some kind of virtual reality therapy to transform a retarded lawn-mowing man into a) a genius and b) a god.
Though rooted in fact, the movie feels like a synthetically engineered mishmash of Rain Man, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and most prominently Charly, the 1968 fantasy in which Cliff Robertson played a retarded man who gains and then loses a genius-level IQ.
The film’s revisionism was nothing new--both Ralph Nelson and Arthur Penn had turned the tables on western clichés back in 1970 with Soldier Blue and Little Big Man, respectively--but Costner and screenwriter Michael Blake (who adapted his own 1987 novel) reinvigorate the argument with depth of character and a narrative scope that allows for various shades of gray across all perspectives.
12 Years a Slave (2013)
Directed by Steve McQueen
influenced by Lilies of the Field (1963)
Characters
He gave a once in a lifetime performance that stands right next to Sidney Poitier in Lilies of the Field and Marlon Brando in The Godfather.
If anything, Karl seems too bright for someone raised in a chicken coop by religious fanatics, but writer-director Thornton has nonetheless given us the best portrayal of a troubled man-child since Cliff Robertson in Charly.
Southpaw (2015)
Directed by Antoine Fuqua
influenced by Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962)
Plot Themes
The screenplay by Kurt Sutter, creator of TV’s Sons of Anarchy, offers little that we haven’t already seen in the Rocky saga, Requiem for a Heavyweight, Raging Bull, Million Dollar Baby, and dozens of lesser boxing dramas.
We’ve seen it many times before, in everything from Champion to Requiem for a Heavyweight, but what makes this one different is the dedication, commitment and sincerity the star brings to every aspect of the role.
Antoine Fuqua's latest is a rote, by-the-numbers sports melodrama that ultimately lacks the courage of its convictions, meaning that although it's shooting for Rocky and Requiem for a Heavyweight, it ends up as Real Steel.
Written by Kurt Sutter ( Sons of Anarchy ) and directed by Antoine Fuqua ( Training Day ), Southpaw has some stiff competition in the boxing-film subgenre: Rocky , Raging Bull , Million Dollar Baby , The Fighter , Cinderella Man , Requiem for a Heavyweight (and coming in the near future are Bleed for This, Creed , and Hands of Stone).
Of course, it is those later sequences that set the film apart from similar stories such as Daniel Keyes’s Flowers for Algernon (filmed as Charly ) and Alan Glynn’s The Dark Fields (filmed as Limitless ).
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (2021)
Directed by Will Sharpe
influenced by Charly (1968)
Characters
Some could argue that Cumberbatch is trolling for awards consideration; nothing impresses Academy voters more than performances of the “mentally-challenged” (Cliff Robertson in “Charly,” Tom Hanks in “Forrest Gump,” Dustin Hoffman in “Rain Man,” and Anthony Hopkins in “The Father” from last year).
…super-hit Ferngully; The Last Rainforest vs Soldier Blue mash-up Avatar…
Marty was followed by adaptations of two other Chayefsky dramas, The Bachelor Party (1957) and Middle of the Night (1959), as well as adaptations of TV dramas by Rod Serling (1956’s Patterns and 1962’s Requiem for a Heavyweight) and J. P. Miller (1959’s The Rabbit Trap and 1962’s Days of Wine and Roses).
Sebastian and Mia are among the freeway drivers, and they’re introduced, after a flurry of angry horn honks, by flipping each other the bird, at which point the film travels into Mia’s life: her bedroom with its posters of “Lilies of the Field” and “The Black Cat,” her three glam roommates, and a party that leads to another all-in-one-take musical number (or close enough to it — there are a couple of cuts).
Mientras que otros realizadores adoran decir que sus películas responden a una tradición monolítica y ultra conservadora símil el promedio de las franquicias de nuestros días o por el contrario, afirman que las mismas salieron de un repollo autocontenido y narcisista sin influencias externas, James Cameron jamás tuvo ningún problema en reconocer que Avatar (2009) funciona como un refrito de influencias, recursos, procesos históricos y latiguillos formales y temáticos de lo más diversos, basta con pensar que así como el film incluye alusiones a la Conquista de América, la Guerra de Vietnam, la Fiebre del Caucho en el Amazonas, las dos Guerras del Golfo y todo el operativo bélico/ represor/ genocida del desquiciado de George W. Bush en Medio Oriente después de los atentados terroristas del 11 de septiembre del 2001, también recupera el motivo del doble agente de las faenas de espionaje, aquel “salvador blanco/ occidental” de Danza con Lobos ( Dances with Wolves , 1990), de Kevin Costner, y L…
So in that sense, Rocky, The Wrestler, Fat City, Cinderella Man, Requiem for a Heavyweight, and even a Mike Tyson documentary are all more or less the same.