SUMMER REWATCH: Michael Clayton Discussion

LOVE this movie!

Missa - AMEN to that! There's not a false note or bad performance in it. One of my top 3 George movies. Planned to rewatch tonight to remind myself of the details.

It's a cracking film worthy of many viewings IMO.
That scene near the end between George & Tilda Swinton ?
Just keep your eyes on her as George walks away towards camera. Riveting !

Just got through rewatching. The performances in this movie are amazing! George was great, but Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton were riveting. In that last scene she had with George she was actually trembling! How did she do that?! The last scene in the taxi? On the Actor's Studio George said he was just trying not to laugh. I found myself watching to see if there was even a tiny hint, but you really couldn't tell. I LOVE THIS MOVIE!!!

Well I'm going to rewatch this one. I didnt quite catch the plot the first time, it's too complicated.
I was literally shocked by the last scene.. gonna find whats more from that and the whole film

I just finished as well.  I had forgotten how wonderful Tom Wilkinson is in this film.  Tilda Swinton isn't always my cup of tea, but she's amazing.  My favorite scene is the last confrontation with Tilda; George is soooo good in that scene.

He is really good in this film .

I love love love this movie. The screenplay is great, too. (Tony Gilroy would tell you that himself at the blink of an eye.)

Every scene, every performance was memorable. George upped his game for this one. You'd better, when Tom Wilkinson sets the stage for you.

The only semi-negative thing I can think of is that the screenplay made it much clearer that the car bombing was designed to look like it had been botched, but by the pros (Russians?? I can't remember). At least one scene ended up on the cutting room floor. I would have left it in. Other than that, this is perfect.

Oh. The woman in the office that Clayton was having a quasi-thing with...? In the screenplay, she had a bigger part. I'm glad it was reduced, because it was interesting, but didn't add to the core story. It's much more taut without that.

I'm going to have to block out a couple of hours to watch this for the don't-know-how-manyth time.

Which woman in the office was he having a thing with? I remember hearing there was a scene with a girlfriend that was cut, but I didn't know she was a co-worker.

I'm glad they cut the romance. I think it would have been a distraction and complicated the story unnecessarily. The movie is nearly perfect just the way it is.

Missa wrote:Which woman in the office was he having a thing with? I remember hearing there was a scene with a girlfriend that was cut, but I didn't know she was a co-worker.

Do you remember the scene where the office staff gets the news that Michael was killed? The woman who reacts like it was a very personal loss, who had been in one scene with him before. She had about 2 other scenes in the screenplay. Glad they got cut.

I'll have to watch that scene again, I'm curious. They definitely didn't need a romance thrown in there, would have just dragged the plot to a stop.

Way@Old - Interesting that George would want to cut his own love scenes - but not surprising. He's got good instincts.
BTW, the car-bombers weren't Russian. Just good old home-grown murder-for-hire jerks.

Yeah, the scenes were designed to show how maybe Clayton had missed as many chances at love as he had in his career. But it wasn't anything we didn't know or couldn't figure out about him by watching him work.

Word is that George and the editor, who happens to be Tony Gilroy's brother, convinced Tony to cut the scenes. Don't know if that's true or not. But I've heard T Gilroy speak, and I can imagine how hard it would be to convince him to "kill his babies," as the saying goes.

LizzyNY wrote:Way@Old - Did you work on this one? How do you know what they cut?

Nah. I wish. I only know by comparing what was in the shooting script to what made it to the screen.

I vaguely remember the reaction of the lady in the office .

This one is probably my favorite movie of his, everything about it is brilliant, the story, the performances, the direction, just everything. A little trivia info, Clooney's role was supposed to be played by Denzel Washington, but the latter turned it down because the director (Gilroy) was a first timer and he wasn't comfortable with that, I think even Clooney was a bit hesitant for the same reason, and look what happened

This explains the parts of the film that I never understood....the book that Michael's son was so obsessed about and it's relevance.


"Committed to a fully developed back story, director Tony Gilroy spent a good deal of time establishing the details of "Realm and Conquest" with production designer Kevin Thompson.
The director explains that right from the beginning, when he first read the script, he could tell that "Realm and Conquest" was going to be a key prop.
In the movie it's a metaphor for truth and justice.

In creating the details of the fictional novel, Thompson generated original visuals inspired by German Expressionistic images cut from wood blocks, and Gilroy wrote the first two pages for three chapters of the book.

They even went as far as designing a "Realm and Conquest" card game for a scene between Henry and Michael.
Thompson offers, "This detail was important to Tony because, in his own life, novels and games similar to 'Realm and Conquest' allow him to connect with his son in a meaningful way"

A bit of lighthearted trivia.....LOL

"The Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedan that is blown up in this film was first used in filming of The Devil Wears Prada (2006). For the earlier film it was cut in two for use in process shots featuring Meryl Streep and
Anne Hathaway.
It was then welded back together and repainted in order to be blown up in Michael Clayton (2007).
The car's preparation was featured on
Shooting Cars (2006)."

In the ITAS interview George said it took him a year to agree to do the film because he didn't want to work again with a first time director. He finally had a sit-down with Gilroy, who convinced him to do the part. I'm glad he did.

Tony Gilroy has an ego the size of a mountain. But he has the talent to back it up. I imagine he can be very persuasive.

He and Matt Damon had a bit of a tiff over the script for the last Bourne movie. Gilroy's script sucked, and Damon was the only one willing to tell Gilroy so. Gilroy responded by saying that he'd let a few of the great writers and producers in the business read the screenplay, and they'd all told him how awesome it was.

And Jeremy Renner became the new face of the Bourne franchise...

I love that movie too. One of my favorites. I think George and Tilda Swinton played very good together.....I liked the end. Very good movie....