Dan Gvozden is a student of film making at the exquisite NYU. I don’t know much about him past that, except he’s obviously talented enough to be making his own films on actual FILM, unlike my Mini DV exploits, and has been doing a lot of hard work in the industry, amateur and otherwise, for a good part of his life.

I met the guy at a mutual friend’s birthday party, and Dan’s comments on my early work, Locked Blades, lead to enough inspiration for me not to give up all hope. We keep in touch from time to time, but being that he’s one of the busiest people alive and I’m on the road to becoming the same, it’s hard to cross connect.

However, around 2:30 this morning we had an interesting discussion (I.E. Nerdy as all hell) on Trilogies. As noted, I’m not a huge Star Wars fan. I always found all but the second flick somewhat childish. But I do know why people love it- the original three movies are truly great accomplishments in escapism and adventure. Maybe if I wasn’t so keen in going against the flow. Then again, while I dislike Star Wars, he dislikes Spider Man, so it all balances out in the end, doesn’t it?

Here’s the conversation we had, in Verbatim.

DAN…star wars is untouchablely the best trilogy ever and dont’ give me this lord of the rings shit
DYLANHmmm…
DYLAN Hah. No I wouldn’t.
DAN becuase those movies blow
DYLAN LOTR was the same thing for 3 movies. The first movie was good. REALLY good. After that I kinda got…bored.
yea
DAN agreed the 3rd one was good
DYLANThe first movie was a small, intimate quest.
DAN but not as great as the first
DYLAN Which made you appreciate the characters. It felt like you were walking in the world with them, and seeing these great mystical things. The second and third were just “yeah…watch us kill stuff for 2 hours”
DAN yea i mean there was more to it than that
DYLAN: I liked them, but the third wouldn’t have won an oscar if anything better was out that year.
DAN but the 1st was by far better than the other ones
DYLAN yeah I’m trying to think of a better trilogy, but you’re right. I can’t think of anything else with that kind of consistency.
DAN nope nothing is better indy comes close
DYLAN Although I never really appreciated Star Wars, all 3 movies ARE consistently decent.
………..skipping a little further down
DYLAN I loved Alien 3, but no one really agrees with me.
DAN its a good concept
the cgi was poorly concieved its a mixed bag
DYLAN I thoguht it was good for the time. And it still works. But yeah, that speech that Charles S. Dutton gives towards the end is classic to me.
DAN yea i mean i own it
DYLAN “You’re all gonna die to night. But how’s it going to be? Standing like men, or on your knees?” If I’m ever a general of an army, I’m stealing that fucking monologue and we’re going to kick Mongolia’s ass. But yeah. What about The Matrix as a trilogy?
DAN The 1st one was good great actually 2nd one was ok 3rd one blew
DYLAN Hmmm… Let’s see…you’ll never even CONSIDER SpiderMan…but I’d agree because the first one was waaaay too cheesy in retrospect. What about POTC when it finishes? You think that’s got a chance to knock out starwars?
DAN no way the 2nd one blew
DYLAN Pirates?
DAN yea it was an hour too long i would love to recut that movie
DYLAN Hahaha I agree. But damn what an hour. Absolutely stupid as fuck movie, but with some really overblown entertainment. Drove me up a wall. If you cna release yourself enough to feel that “kid inside” bullshit, you’ll love the movie. but its…really damned hard.
DAN the bad guys were pretty cool but that’s about it
DYLAN Johnny Depp in a gerbil wheel. If you ever thought you’d see that at any point in your life, ok. But I didn’t. Seeing it was GREAT. but yeah, otherwise I agree. I think the third will be really good though.
DAN yea it could be
DYLAN …AHA. I found a trilogy that could contend, but I dunno if you’d go for it. The Dollar’s Trilogy.
DAN the fact that i haven’t heard of it means no
DYLAN Fistful of Dollars, Few Dollars More, The Good,the Bad,and the Ugly.
DAN oh yea they are good
DYLAN The ultimate western trilogy masterpiece.
DAN really good
DYLANThey are GODLY.
DAN but still no star wars
DYLAN heh. they’re closely related though. They both ripped off Kurosawa to get their starts.
DAN yea
DYLAN Ripped off like CRAZY.
DAN yea but yea anyway i gotta go to bed
DYLAN So in essence, every good movie ever made owes itself to Kurosawa anyways.

And there you have it folks! A new, nerdy discussion. This will go in the “forums” section, since I deem it a discussion. Later guys.