We’re debuting a new feature this week (what with all the ‘new’ things of late – new retrospectives, new writers, etc. – I hope y’all don’t burn out on us) where we highlight the eloquence, brilliance, and wit of you, our loyal readers and commenters. Quite frankly, you guys rock, and the site would not function without all of you tossing your opinions into the mix. Seriously. We would likely just give up if we thought no one cared.

So each week we’re going to feature some of the best, brightest, funniest, and oddest comments that you guys have left on the pages of MovieZeal. I fully realize that no one can read everything that pops up here, so hopefully this will give many of you a chance to see some of the highlights you may have missed.

So without further ado…

The Maltese Falcon is one of my favorite movies and Huston is one of my favorite filmmakers. I love the lean, precise, unforgiving disciplined nature of the film. People tend to underacknowledge how daring of an actor Humphrey Bogart was, he would try anything and would monkey with his image in any way that was appropriate to serve the part at hand. Nice review Evan, but I will argue one point, Spade is doomed, just not in the traditional sense.

Chuck Bowen on The Maltese Falcon

While Spade is the quintessential noir protagonist, a loner on the edge of polite society, sorely tempted to transgress but declines and is neither saved nor redeemed, he is more complex than you allow.

For Sam and Brigid are truly lovers. He loves Brigid and this is abundantly clear at the end, and Brigid loves him. She will never make up the years she will lose in prison, and Sam will never recover from the necessary betrayal of their love. Sam was not seduced. Brigid is not a femme-fatale: she manipulates Sam, but never seeks to have him act as her surrogate.

Together they discover the desperate emptiness of their lives. She true to her nature can’t comprehend how he can send her down if he loves her, and he can’t fathom her lying while knowing she loves him.

The famous ad-lib by Bogart on the leaden black bird at the end says it all … “the stuff that dreams are made of”.

films noir on The Maltese Falcon

Hey Evan, guess u ticked off my friend, but u dont seem to know much about trackbacks firstly. Secondly, u have a “Trackback this Post” link on every post, so obviously people will trackback. Thridly, Wordpress won’t have this oldest feature if it were spam which apparently is not. Its being widely used by all bloggers on the net. Here is what Trackback actually means….

Trackback is used to tell the other blog that you link in your post, basically it just said “Hey your post is useful and put it on my blog“

So you know Ignorance is Bliss, so we are assuming that u have no clue about it, so thats that….Best thing is to remove the Trackback this post link on every post.

Why so serious? Without knowing anything without any reason accusing a reputable professional site of spamming. Now thats being really cheap.

Rahul on Tell No One

So what gets a 5? I’ve seen about 20 of these films, and I’d probably hand out 7 or 8 fives. Which is not to say that I’m an easy reviewer, but you’ve got the very best examples of the second greatest genre/movement/style ever produced in American film.

I guess I’m calling out Evan and Phillip here, or at least asking for clarification: What gets a 5? How many of these films would you give 5s to, if you were rating all of them?

I was surprised that Falcon didn’t get a 5, but I personally agree with that selection, and I certainly don’t think This Gun for Hire deserves a 5. But here we’ve got arguably the greatest film by arguably the greatest director of all time (I’m pretty sure you could make a good case for anyone in the top 20 or 30 on this list: http://www.theyshootpictures.com/gf1000_top100directors.htm)

So I guess my question is: Phillip and Evan: Is the 5/5 some near unobtainable ideal for you (reserved for Citizen Kane and maybe The Searchers, if you’re in a good mood) or do you just not hold Falcon and Indemnity up where others do?

G on Double Indemnity

The classic films of the noir series and 1930’s and 40’s cinema in general showcase the greatest American films ever made in the perceptions of all serious scholarly film critics and historians. If we can’t give supreme cinematic masterpieces like DOUBLE INDEMNITY or THE MALTESE FALCON or several others here the top rating then we can’t rightfully give a film like MAN ON WIRE or WALL-E five nor any of the seven or eight a year that nearly all critics award. At a stingy rate of only five 5 star ratings a year through movie history we would have maybe 450 five-star ratings after 90 years of American film heritage. And again, that’s being stingy. THE MALTESE FALCON, DOUBLE INDEMNITY, OUT OF THE PAST and several others here including LAURA rank among the greatest films ever made in the USA, a fact that is recognized in Europe and all through the world by legions and legions of art lovers and film fans. You simply cannot find any publication anywhere that would lower the ratings of these indisputable and unanimous masterpieces neither in volumes or blog sites. Kael, Kauffmann, Agee, Sarris, Simon, MacDonald, Tyler, Bazin, Truffaut, Sadoul, Powell, Malcolm, and endless legions of today’s critics have all consistantly called these film’s top-flight cinematic masterpieces in an iconic framework. To me it would rival hearing Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and saying “it doen’t quite measure up” or that Michaelangelo’s “The Last Supper” is an overated painting, or that Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” doesn’t quite deserve the highest rating, or that Joyce’s ULYSSES isn’t quite intellectually challenging enough. For me it is artistic blasphemy to write a review of a quintessential masterpiece of world cinema like DOUBLE INDEMNITY or THE MALTESE FALCON and then to post a star rating on top that is less than the highest rating. What it does is it completely invalidates and undermines star ratings completely as the minute you try and issue a five-star rating for ANYTHING modern, it becomes more than problematic in a comparative sense.

Sam Juliano on Laura

So are we comparing Sam to the Devil? Or just saying that we have Sympathy for him?

Luke Harrington on “Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name…”

Hard to imagine how you could make MovieZeal better, but I think you just did. Welcome to Blogsylvania, Sam! (sorry, I’ve sworn I’d never use the word that rhymes with ’shmogosphere’ so one must invent alternatives.)

Craig Kennedy on “Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name…”

Clearly, he is insane and that is what drives his machine. Did you notice how he sucked at his cheeks or (worse) constantly had his tongue on his lips? Why? Because he likes how it feels to touch his scars. They are the anchor that his tugboat of madness is tied to. Maybe there’s a happy thought that creeps in or, in a moment, he might feel good about himself. All he need do is flick his taster on what drives his insanity to quell it. Better yet, do it out of habit and that will keep positive feelings at bay. Genius.

Maurice on The Dark Knight

And I think you may be frontin’ a bit, [Luke], cuz Evan and Coosa Creek Rick told me you cried in the first one when that little girl dies of Leukemia.

Fox on Theater Releases for August 6th, 2008

May I congratulate the staff writers of MovieZeal on adding my erstwhile friend Sam Juliano to your list of movie writers. His reviews are always passionate, erudite and opinionated enough to leave one either applauding or baying for blood, a sure sign of an involving writer.

However, I do ask that you do my friend the service of rectifying the somewhat embarrassing first of having his first review be that of such a piece of Popcorn fodder as Mamma Mia (the ciritcs equivalent of Orson Welles being remembered for his whisky commercials), an exclamation not entirely inappropriate, under the circumstances.

If he hasn’t told you, he has a passion for anything cinematic, worships the water Ingmar Bergman once walked on until he lost that inevitable game of chess and will watch just about anything – and believe me, I have put that theory to the test.

You could do no better than him, and coming from me, that’s a compliment.

Allan Fish on Mamma Mia!