Alan Smithee: The art of the long tracking shot

Dear Mr. Smithee: While watching "Children of Men" recently, I was amazed at the long tracking shot near the end of the movie that goes through a war zone and into a building that is under attack by the military. I also read an article about "Atonement" where Joe Wright has pulled off a similar piece of filmmaking.

Using your infinite wisdom and vast moviegoing experience, please provide me with some of your favorite examples of long tracking shots like these -- except for Brian DePalma's, which just make me nauseous.

CARL CLAYMORE, Lawrenceville, Ga.

Dear Carl: I've been somewhat amused by all the recent attention paid to that five-minute-plus tracking shot involving the beach at Dunkirk in "Atonement." Personally, I thought the director must have been as bored as me with this section of the movie and must have decided that the tracking shot might make the viewing a little more tolerable.

Now, don't get me wrong. I think "Atonement" is an excellent movie, but only when the three main characters are together. When James McAvoy is off at war, I think the movie itself is off.

And good news for you, Carl, because I'm not much of a DePalma fan, either. Every time he pushes his slo-mo tracking shot button, I start to yawn. Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa and other masters have their tracking shot moments. And much has been made of the opening of Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil" with its intricate and explosive eight-minute-plus tracking shot that follows a ticking time bomb placed in the back of a car.

Many people adore the long, multifloor martial arts scene in "The Protector." For Asian fisticuffs, I prefer the more claustrophobic, fists-a-flying "Oldboy" that so beautifully goes on and on.

I could talk about the opening of Robert Altman's "The Player" or Francois Truffaut's "Day for Night" or Paul Thomas Anderson's "Magnolia." Or "Once Upon a Time in the West" or "Raging Bull." Or even the film you saw -- "Children of Men," which has two excellent and long tracking shots (how "Children" lost the cinematography Oscar to "Pan's Labyrinth" I'll never know).

What I will do, Carl, is to encourage you to see four relatively new films that push the envelope on long tracking shots: the French "Irreversible" (warning: the film is as offensive as it is artistic), Gus van Sant's "Elephant," Mike Figgis' "Timecode" (the screen is divided into a quadrant, which unveils four separate 90-minute shots filmed simultaneously) and "Russian Ark" (an amazing, 99-minute one-shot sequence that marches through 33 rooms at the Russian State Hermitage Museum with a cast of 2,000).

ALAN

P.S. You get a "Juno" hamburger phone and an "Ask Alan Smithee" T-shirt.

Settling a family feud Dear Mr. Smithee: I need your help in settling an argument with my wife. She thinks the two best male actors for the past 10 years are Brad Pitt and George Clooney and I told her, "No way!" The two best had to be Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington. Who would you agree with?

Dear Way: Her list is better than yours. And she beat you just by saying Clooney. Hanks and Washington have been pretty much coasting for years. But the truth is, I only always agree with me. The best male actors of the past 10 years are Ryan Gosling, Terrence Howard, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Don Cheadle, Chris Cooper and Jamie Foxx.

ALAN

P.S. You get a "Kite Runner" kite and an "Ask Alan Smithee" T-shirt.