tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31207624236462995092024-02-20T11:06:51.466-08:00Thoughts and Tasty BeveragesEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11562800997530732107noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120762423646299509.post-30028267417412738642013-08-27T14:16:00.000-07:002013-08-27T14:16:00.635-07:00queue de grace: The Battle of Algiers and Laura<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Random comment from Karen a couple of days ago on hearing that <i>Atlas Shrugged</i> is now a movie:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">"Yeah, yeah. Enlightened self-interest. Next."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Best. Girl. Ever.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I'm just sayin'.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I'm also saying that two more movies are up from my infernal journey into enlightenment... first is <b>The Battle of Algiers (1966)</b>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I'm ignorant of a surprising number of things, but history is more of a glaring hole in my awareness than it should be. Much more than I'd like to admit. If you had asked me before seeing this movie to give you three facts about Algiers I might have said the following:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">- I think it is in North Africa</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">- It might be a type of delicious cheesy bread</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">- It would make a good dog name. Algiers, FETCH!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Acts of violence don't win wars. Neither wars nor revolutions. Terrorism is useful as a start. But then, the people themselves must act. That's the rationale behind this strike: to mobilize all Algerians, to assess our strength. ~</i><b>Ben M'Hidi (The Battle of Algiers 1966)</b></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And those who explode bombs in public places, do they respect the law perhaps? <br />
When you put that question to Ben M'Hidi, remember what he said? </span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><b>~</b></i><span style="color: black;"><b>Col. Mathieu (The Battle of Algiers 1966)</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I wanted to watch the movie cold, before reading anything about the actual events, to better catch it on it's own terms without losing my way in historicritical sidesteps. I was not expecting this to be an extraordinarily relevant commentary on current world events, namely terrorism and our relationship / response to it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">A bit of random context: at OU I saw a presentation where a black law professor from Harvard debated himself, presenting, with passion and great arguments, both sides of the issue of affirmative action.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">It wasn't a stunt. Well, ok, it was a stunt, but it wasn't JUST a stunt. In his first speech, he argued for it in such a way that most of the room was nodding with him, it was impressive. He even had a panel of local law professors asking him questions and pushing him on the legality of various aspects... then it came time for his opponent to speak.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">And he stepped up again. Arguing against it this time, with passion and crafted oration, the gentleman had serious rhetorical game. By the time he was through we were in on the joke, but he did it so well, we didn't care. Even the panel of professors "judging" the debate were smiling in appreciation. I would not want to face him in front of a judge, you could be completely in the right and still have your hands full.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">It's not just about what you believe. How you say something and the mental gymnastics involved in formulating a position is not just a matter of perspective. It's a skill, that can be learned and improved and it isn't just spin... there was an appreciation and nuance to a many handled grey area of complexity that by a good, hard look at both sides, was well treated and if we don't know what position he actually held at the end of the session, well so be it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">We'll just have to think for ourselves (a bit) and make up our own minds won't we?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia;"><b>The How:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The film was slippery in exactly this sort of way. It wasn't a bad thing. It portrayed both sides, in what felt like brutally transparent detail. Both sides of the bloody conflict were shown doing things we would have a visceral negative reaction to. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">And both sides were shown doing things that seemed completely rational and understandable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The plot was more of a series of escalating anecdotes than a simple straightforward narrative and this was extremely effective in drawing us into the humanity and the real losses experienced by the people involved. Somehow it felt like remembering, but without the filter of one sided-ness that comes after you pick a side or a point of view to agree with.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">This created a sort of pressure, reflected in the repeated drum beats that would appear in critical moments like a heartbeat... then get louder and louder to a sort of crescendo before the sonic intrusion released.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The way the film was shot went back and forth between drama with great cinematography and the look and feel of what I might describe as an old newsreel. That was a great choice, it worked wonderfully.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">For those folks, that like me, think "Algiers" is a kind of long haired goat, please note that it was actually a country in North Africa that had been under something like French Colonial rule for more than a hundred years, before they really united in a clamor for independence. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">One group of revolutionaries was the FLN, they seemed to be the most aggressive and organized, though there seemed to be other groups at play as well. They were opposed pretty directly by the French occupying force and eventually an increasing number of anti-terrorist militia.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The Algerian people seemed caught in the middle to some extent, but were as a group, leaning towards the desire, or at least the hope of independence as a nation. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Many of the scenes were disturbingly familar and the questions asked in the movie, particularly among the anti-terrorist militia are the same questions we're asking now. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><b>The What:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">This is a movie about terrorism and how we respond to it. That's true to some extent, but too simple.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">This is also a movie how people respond to a lack of sovereignty and self -determination.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The moral and ethical questions would go something like this:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">- Do we have a responsibility to oppose a tyrannical and oppressive government?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">- How far do you take that opposition before you're out of bounds?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">- Is there an out of bounds in this scenario?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">- What's the end game, once you resort to terrorist tactics? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">On the other side:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">- You can't allow terrorism to go unchecked, without any response</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">- How do you respond to a subset of a group of people without punishing the entire group?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">- If you know other attacks are planned, and you capture one of the terrorists - how far do you go to get information that may save dozens or hundreds of lives?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">- How do you effectively stop an individual (or group) who has declared war on you?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The Algerians are suffering from an unwanted foreign led government that is treating them unfairly in many cases. They seem to have a legitimate beef.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">So one group responds to that by killing policemen - multiple hits on the police, wounding and killing a surprising number in a short amount of time. Ouch.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The authorities respond with crackdowns, the terrorists respond with worker strikes and escalating violence... shooting, stabbing, bombing. Women and children play their role, helping the FLN obtain and hide weapons in choreographed handoffs to support the hits on the establishment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Darn it, if it just isn't a sticky mess. Ben M'Hidi, one of the terrorist leaders is eventually captured and interviewed by the press... and it would be so much cleaner if he weren't so smart, well spoken and thoughtful. Ultimately, we're probably not agreeing with his conclusions or methods - but he isn't wearing a red suit and a tail. And what he wants is independence and freedom for his people - hard for this American kid to not appreciate that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In the same way Mathieu, the leader of the wave of anti-terrorist units, seems to be a good man, but he isn't quite the white hat we might hope for. In many cases, he's brutal and unyielding and not afraid to bend (or break) the rules to accomplish the goal. When the press starts giving him a hard time for hard interrogation techniques and jurisdiction... he gives the quote above.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If Side A in a conflict is murdering people, and injuring innocent people to further their agenda, isn't that at least as bad (or a lot worse) compared to Side B waterboarding to try to prevent future attacks? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">That isn't defending the use of torture, but Mathieu has a point. If the press is going to point at behavior of anti-terrorist action and question it... shouldn't they also question the much worse behavior of the terrorists themselves - and more aggressively than they do? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sauce for the goose.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As things progress, Mathieu locks the city down and is relentless in going after the terrorist cells. There is a harrowing final confrontation where teen (and maybe pre-teen boys) are holding out the last cell in a gunfight with the french troups. The Colonel has them pinned down and all but begs them to surrender.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">He seems to be fully under the weight of the moment. Is he acting to remove a clear and present danger to innocent people? Yes. Are his men about to kill a bunch of kids? Yes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It's just ugly and the film does an amazing job of letting us see more nuance that perhaps we would prefer to in this situation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ultimately (years later) Algiers gets their independence and I had to wonder, at the very, very start of the American Revolution - were our initial acts of demanding our freedom, even at the cost of war, so very different?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Next up, <b>Laura (1944).</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If you, like me, hadn't seen this before now - please watch the movie before reading on. I don't think I can talk about it without spoiling it a bit. I'll wait.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">You didn't watch it and you're still reading. I'm being completely serious. Stop reading and watch the movie first. You'll enjoy it.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The How:</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I was expecting lots of things from this one. From Cole's list so far, I knew it would be good. I knew it would be clever, I knew the writing would be top drawer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I was expecting a hard boiled noiriffic murder mystery with some twists and turns along the way and some dialogue that would be extremely enjoyable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I was not expecting the victim of the murder to come home and be, you know, ALIVE in the middle of the movie. That was the best reversal I've ever seen - there was absolutely nothing before that leading me to think that even might be an option for the film. I don't know how you could know this... while writing it, and not leave even an unconscious hint that this is where we're going.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">It was exquisitely delightful. I literally clapped my hands like a child.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I'll apologize for ruining it for you. In my defense, I told you to watch it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Twice. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I still feel a little guilty. </span><br />
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Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11562800997530732107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120762423646299509.post-45680386508025959382011-09-25T13:37:00.000-07:002011-09-25T13:43:54.820-07:00SAW an ocean, to fly over soon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGJOYuBADKmYFiKzzkWb59U9UhXbL28IOcg7t_WX5a7-iEqG0xEQtHJ26zsoFO1a50NdvrqP0oUTLE9JfSRthy4V_S44JYImkwyzsAP7TOllZmCDOvJj9Tw6gw3-DZ8yHopZ7qZLiBJ3QQ/s1600/SeptSAWBanner2011.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hca="true" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGJOYuBADKmYFiKzzkWb59U9UhXbL28IOcg7t_WX5a7-iEqG0xEQtHJ26zsoFO1a50NdvrqP0oUTLE9JfSRthy4V_S44JYImkwyzsAP7TOllZmCDOvJj9Tw6gw3-DZ8yHopZ7qZLiBJ3QQ/s320/SeptSAWBanner2011.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />
We had a wonderful evening at <a href="http://www.facebook.com/newlifemclean">New Life McLean</a> this weekend, enjoying the music of <a href="http://www.brettbarry.com/">Brett Barry</a> and <a href="http://www.laurabaronmusic.com/">Laura Baron</a>, along with some lovely open mic offerings from those gathered at the end.<br />
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If you haven't been to one of these, you really should come. They are a wonderful evening to spend with friends... with great music, laughter and the uplifting of heart that happens when you hear a great song sung straight from someone's soul. The <a href="http://www.saw.org/">Songwriter's Association of Washington</a> is doing some really cool stuff, and I'm honored to get to hang with these folks from time to time.<br />
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Brett's set was focused around a concept of a love that endures, with many songs written for his wife of 24 years... but affirming the things that this kind of relationship Can be. Musically, it was a great set all around, with rock solid bass and percussion, Brett's guitar was inventive and flowing and the harmonies simply could not have been better. And of course, Ron Goad emceeing is always a good time...<br />
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The highlight for me was the songwriting itself, it was just really easy to relax and get lost in the spirit of the song (even though I was greatly appreciating the technical aspects), Brett really just carried us along with him... to see this love through his eyes. It was refreshingly honest, hopeful, humble and honoring of his lady and the love he clearly still has for her. <br />
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Just the powerful quality of the songs themselves, were as good as anything I've heard in years.<br />
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It seems like we live in a world where love is both romanticized beyond any semblance of reality and putting the feelings of falling in love up on a pedestal beyond reach of most mortals... while simultaneously maintaining a cynicism related to love(easy to understand in a world where so many of us have endured divorce and broken families)... as something that promises, but doesn't deliver, at least not for the long haul.<br />
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To hear Brett sing, and to watch him put his arm around his wife and just enjoy Laura's set afterwards... was simply, a blow against the darkness that the kind of love we all hope for, can't at the end of the day be real. Thank you sir, for sharing something beautiful with us... it was greatly appreciated from my end.<br />
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Laura Baron was up next, and she didn't disappoint.<br />
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Lots of good things about Laura's set, but my favorite thing was her voice. It is as clear and smooth as the perfect cup of coffee after a fine meal. Her voice was freshly brewed, just hot enough to make you slow down and sip it to enjoy it more... the kind of thing that chases all anxiety away.<br />
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Did I mention that she has that silky, sultry, jazz torch voice that has magical powers? It can make you forget yourself for more than a moment. It can make you hallucinate floral scents. It can spin straw into gold and balance your checkbook in the snap of a finger or the a blink of an eye, if you like that kind of thing.<br />
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Also, her voice was just lovely.<br />
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And when singing about her soon daughter to be, it can fill us with hope and a sense of love that can't be contained by silly little things like, you know, continents and hemispheres. She's adopting a little girl from India in a couple of weeks and this show was something of a send off of well wishes.<br />
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That isn't to discount the music surrounding her. Really interesting harmonic structures and progressions, with some bass and guitar lines that were delicious enough to gather some instant and spontaneous applause. Laura is known in the SAW crowd and the affection everyone has for her was clear and well deserved.<br />
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The thing that has been really wonderful to me about these SAW events has been how quickly the room breaks through the "ok, I'm viewing this with some skepticism, will this be good?" to "ohhh, that's really nice, ok I'm with you - take us wherever you want to go."<br />
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That is what music really Ought to be. That the performers have been able to take us there at all is a gift. That they've done it consistently is, to me, a wonder.<br />
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Thanks guys... and thanks to Brett and Laura for an evening I'll remember for years to come.Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11562800997530732107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120762423646299509.post-23992469657294129672011-09-01T13:46:00.000-07:002011-09-01T13:49:00.231-07:00Get Some Kids to Carry Things in Bags!All,<br />
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We delivered backpacks, filled with school supplies and love to deliver to kids who will need them at Longfellow Middle School through the amazing generosity of New Life McLean folks and other people in our community of friends... here's a note from our fearless leader, Dwaine Darrah - just wanted to share this! ~E<br />
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Gang,<br />
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What a huge fun thing. We just delivered all 43, fully-stacked, backpacks to Longfellow Middle School this morning. It was great to have several of you pop over to lend a hand. It was grand. Principal Carole Kihm and her assistant principal dropped in to hang and chat. We had a chance to meet other key people in the Student Services Department, including Gail Bigio, its director. They were all just blown away that we took this project on, and they talked on and on about how much this means to the kids. <br />
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For example, they had a backpack last year that someone dropped off that was covered in ants and bugs, so the school just threw it in the trash. They later found one of the "at risk" students digging it out of the trash bin because it was the only backpack available to him. So, to get brand-new backpacks filled with al the school supplies is just so important to helping the kids get off to a good start in the school year. <br />
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We also put into each backpack a bottle of water with the New Life logo on it.<br />
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It was also fun to let everyone know what a collaborative effort this was this year. I told them that New Life McLean, the True Light Christian Church (the Korean congregation that meets in our building on Sunday afternoons), P4C, R-TEK, and the Songwriters' Association of Washington all banded together to make this happen. <br />
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Carole Kihm went on to say that they are looking to do even more to partner with us once all the construction is finished at the school, which the contractors are now saying should happen in January 2012. So, stay tuned for more opportunities to love on the school and the students.<br />
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A final cool story. . .As we left, Gail Bigio was walking down the hallways with two huge backpacks strapped across her shoulders. She was telling everyone she could find about the backpacks and New Life and the organizations who helped.<br />
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I love this job!!! Thanks to everyone at New Life McLean who joined in to make this happen!!! and you guys at SAW, True Light, R-TEK, and P4C are the bestest!!<br />
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dwaineEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11562800997530732107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120762423646299509.post-41434252123510069812011-05-22T04:32:00.000-07:002011-05-23T17:17:29.327-07:00SAW me a River: Post Apocalyptic Concert a Huge Success<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqObAW8h63KmxI8axZrMPcJDmIDYqII3QGu2eLIqYCIYewDOMW6lFYr1WUmh8RXYJM5TzE7x4HK7VEQwjfqJSbtDA4-3eBYcAAxv0tXXlV3d33EOgkehf30J3q_hvSuCyHHvztPjHnZ62h/s1600/New+Life+SAW+Flyer+Outlines+B-W.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqObAW8h63KmxI8axZrMPcJDmIDYqII3QGu2eLIqYCIYewDOMW6lFYr1WUmh8RXYJM5TzE7x4HK7VEQwjfqJSbtDA4-3eBYcAAxv0tXXlV3d33EOgkehf30J3q_hvSuCyHHvztPjHnZ62h/s320/New+Life+SAW+Flyer+Outlines+B-W.png" width="247" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-size: small;">First, Harold Camping is an idiot. Sorry, I was holding that in and I had to let it out.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Second, God loves idiots and children (and dogs)... so hopefully Camping didn't sell all of his earthly goods this weekend and will eventually be ok. And perhaps we all can take a lesson in humility regarding what we think we know and move on. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So the Rapture didn't happen. No need for any more than that at 11.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In the world of actual events and real people... SAW (<a href="http://saw.org/">saw.org</a>), the Songwriter's Association of Washington had their kickoff event at our venue at the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/newlifemclean">New Life McLean Campus</a> last evening.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It was a great evening, and I wanted to share a couple of thoughts while things were still fresh on my mind.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">First, the open mic was surprisingly good. We wandered from songs about Braddock road, to resurrections, to southbound trains, to Jabberwocky, an ode to Dylan and the Mayan god of sin... a buffet of creativity to say the least.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Without exception, the artists were able to convey a sense of emotion and shared experience with the room. That is a huge win for a songwriter, so from my view, raise a glass to the folks who sang and played in the open mic - nicely done all of you!</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">As a performer, I'm always a bit more nervous with musicians in the room. They know things. And it can be a little daunting, because they tend to see and hear the dumb mistake you made in the second chorus much better than normal people do. Plus, sharing a song you've written is what one friend would call a "pants down" exercise. To some extent it is a horrible intimate sharing of your soul... and what if your soul sucks? </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It takes a fair amount of courage to step up and share the creation only heard by your pets before now... but the SAW crowd has the right heart of unequivocal support and encouragement... being extremely appreciative of things done well without being critical at all. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">That was refreshing and frankly, a good thing in the earth. Keep that up.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Second, I can't remember the last time I laughed as much as I did last night. What a sense of community and fun and good music and friends, new and old. This is EXACTLY what music is supposed to be. A vehicle for bringing us together, a space where we can see a truth expressed in a new and unique way... a poignant moment where the vulnerability of a past wounding can be shared, and hopefully, made a little better.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The "Bowling" and "Ed McMahon" poems literally reduced me to tears and a fit of laughter I haven't experienced since Junior High. Genius. Hysterically odd and wonderful. It was something like e.e. cummings giving Beatnik poetry a delightful singsong noogie leading up to a nervous breakdown that doesn't quite happen yet. Well, maybe not exactly like that, but you get the idea.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Our main performers were <a href="http://jeanbayou.com/jean/">Jean Bayou</a> and <a href="http://www.cindislaughter.com/home.html">Cindi Slaughter</a> and instead of running sets independantly, they bounced songs back and forth, riffing along the way. That was a good choice and the percussive and extremely tasty, bluesy style of Cindi's guitar playing was a wonderful point / counterpoint to the rolling harmonic tapestry that Jean brought to the fore. Ron Goad added percussion and emcee goodness, with the heartbeat and accents and humor that brought everything together.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cindi has groove down to her metatarsals (that's feet bones for those of us who went to public school). </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Let me tell you, she's got the chops... and the head bobbing, sliding lead rhythm up to the 12th fret to ring the harmonic style connected up to the ankle bones and shin bones of the room. Everything she did was extremely nice. She just smacked us awake with her very first song and pretty much owned us from then on out. You want to go somewhere? Cool, we'll go with you, just lead on! </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">And trivia about Pink Floyd results in a door prize of (wait for it...) grits. </span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dark Side of the Moon Grits. That just never would have occured to me without Cindi's help.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Your love... is better than cheese whiz... fantastic. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Somewhere Sarah McLachlan started twitching uncontrollably and she didn't know why. And on the deeper note, the song fitting into the family theme, sung from the heart of a child to her father long gone, was a courageous and vulnerable moment that muted all of us in an sense of loss and real longing. Great connections, and a great performance. Nicely done CS.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Jean grooved as well, but I'm trying to think of a good way to describe it. It was more of a sublime and wandering groove of grace from the smart sister we should have had growing up. Wisdom meets an old friend and shares an inside joke on the way to clever lyrics, surrounded by an open chord harmonic structure that reminds us songwriting is in fact a craft that we can be good at.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">She brought several musicians up to share the stage and her collaborative style and sharing of the spotlight really increased the sense of community we experienced. Well played, in every sense of the word.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Plus, seeing a bunch of older guys clap in delight at the thought of a song about a mammogram was both surreal and oddly appropriate for the evening. It was funny even before it was funny, if you catch my drift.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So to review, the world didn't end. Famine was staved off by cheesecake and coffee and the other horsemen, if they stopped in at all, grabbed a chair and joined in the applause of a great evening filled with friends, music and laughter.</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Thanks SAW, and thanks God for letting the world spin a little bit longer. It was an enjoyable and memorable evening and (hopefully) the first of many to come!</span></span>Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11562800997530732107noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120762423646299509.post-23545488152711532652011-04-13T07:33:00.000-07:002011-04-13T07:39:44.390-07:00queue de grace: M and The Exiles <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Children singing in an early scene of M</td></tr>
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<div align="left"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>These guilty men ought to be brought, by accusers kindly rather than angry, to justice, as patients to a </em></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>doctor, that their disease of crime may be checked by punishment.</em></span></div> <span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> ~Boethius, <strong>Consolation of Philosophy</strong></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>M (1931), </strong>directed by Fritz Lang and brilliantly acted by Peter Lorre tracks the events surrounding a serial killer of children (and sexual abuse before the killings is strongly implied). It's a chilling account, with a suprising number of unexpected turns driving the movement of the plot forward. The film eventually leads us to questions of philosophy and justice, the nature of responsibility and punishment and with an abrupt ending, leaves us to consider our own role in the fabric of society.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><strong>The How:</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">I don't have a coherent structure for talking about form with this one. So, I'm just going to make a series of random comments of things I noticed and we'll get there eventually.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The use of sound in this was fascinating. Sparing, which made even the early scenes harrowing and there was a lot of silence. In contrast we have the killer whistling from, "In the Hall of the Mountain King" (thanks Karen) as Lang creates a theme metonymically connected with the murderer Hans Beckert. That's eventually the connection that snares him.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Peter Lorre was phenomenal. Beyond the expression of his giant eyes, we have his empassioned plea before the "criminal" court and if we don't actively pity him, he had me hesitating in my own summary judgment at least. He really communicated a lot of dark complexity here, with the compulsion, the whistling, the kindness as a lure (making his crimes even worse) and his cathartic confession / speech / plea for mercy and help.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Google informs me that this was early on in the era of the talkies, when film made the jump to use of recorded sound and that was Lang's first use of sound of this type in his films. Genius.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The back and forth scenes between the police / political influences scheming how to catch the killer while simultaneously the criminal underworld was meeting to also talk about catching the killer was an interesting twist that I didn't see coming. I was expecting a more straight forward episode of Law and Order (or whatever it is this week) where the really clever investigators outwit through little clues the really clever and scary criminal.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">That's not what happened. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Across the stata of society this level of violence and abuse for the children simply could not be tolerated. The criminal world was further motivated by the dramatic increase of pressure from the police and other organizations which made the lockdown of the city really bad for business. So the criminals decide to go after him with all of their resources as well.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The sequence of the blind man identifying Beckert, followed by something like the guild of beggars tracking him through the city streets led to the title sequence of Beckert being marked with a chalk "M" on the back of his coat. It was stereotypically efficient and clever of the German beggars to get that done, while notifying the other criminals that they had him trapped in an office complex.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Without the constraint of search warrants, they systematically dismantle the building door by door and room by room until they have him.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">One of the most chilling shots I've ever seen was the slow panning across the hundreds of "criminal" participants in Beckert's "trial" in the warehouse as they all are just waiting, patiently, silently, in quiet judgment. Beckert's response is to scream in panic and run. Of course it is, what other response could you possibly have to that? It seemed really clear that he would not be getting off on a technicality, even before a word was uttered.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The leader of the German criminals was pretty intimidating. I kept telling myself that this was pre-Hitler, but with his hat, coat and leather gloves and prosecutorial style, he had an SS sensibility that was hard for me to set aside.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Last note here. The ending was abrupt to the point that I thought my streaming had malfunctioned. I actually backed it up and ran it to that point again. I wondered, did he do that intentionally? Of course he did! </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Then I doubted myself, looked it up (again, thanks Google) and yes, it was intentional. The abrupt ending was one more way to throw us off of our expectations. A quick review of my own suprises at the narrative flow:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">- I was expecting the story to start quickly, but the early pace really languished</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">- I did not expect the criminals to get involved</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">- I was expecting the police to get him through their surprisingly good 1931 forensics</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">- I wasn't looking for him to get "spotted" by the blind guy</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">- I didn't expect the criminals to catch him, I thought he would elude them</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">- I didn't expect any of the criminals to defend him, but they did</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">- I didn't him to leave that room alive, but the police got there in time</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">- I was expecting a more normal courtroom scene, at least a verdict</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">- I wasn't expecting the movie to end so abruptly</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">I love not knowing what's going to happen next.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><strong>The What:</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">This film was about the nature of evil and our responsibility to oppose it.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Regardless of political affiliation, preference for paper or plastic, liberal, moderate, conservative or whether you like vanilla or chocolate, pretty much everyone agrees that molesting and murdering children is out of bounds. It's wrong and evil and we shouldn't do that.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Further, we shouldn't allow other people to do that, regardless of their motives, reasons, compulsions and the like - it truly doesn't matter in this case. Not allowed.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">In the scene where he's captured I was reminded of Boethius and <em>The Consolation of Philosophy</em> where Lady Philosophy argues (with great logic) that criminals and evildoers are to be pitied above all men. The argument goes something like this (vastly over-simplified):</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">- to be the victim of a crime is bad</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">- to be in a place in your life where you are capable of committing that crime is worse</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">- it isn't good to allow someone to be the victim of a crime if you can stop it</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">- it is even less good to allow the perpetrator of a crime to continue being criminal, because that is bad for future victims and even worse for the offender</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">- therefore, punishment that prevents further crime is good for the criminal and society at large</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">And the motive isn't revenge against the individual, but the good of the individual criminal. In the case where the criminal can't help himself (to whatever degree) it falls on us to take more extreme measures, and this is actually a good thing. The removal of someone's ability to further damage their own humanity is the kindest, most loving thing we can do.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Yes, that's counter-intuitive and yes, if someone hurt my little girl, my immediate response might not be to kill them... but I would certainly lean towards making them wish they were dead. That's why it's important to have these things decided by a court, with a judge, and not by an angry dad - as much as we might sympathize with the parent in any given case.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><strong>M</strong> strikes to the heart of this idea in the criminal kangeroo court scene. The criminals are crying out for him to be killed, as retribution for what he's done. His defense and his own plea point towards his mental illness and his inability to not do what he's doing. For the criminals, that's even more reason to end him. But his "defense" advocate says that his sickness makes it necessary that he be treated as ill, not as a reponsible for his crimes. The mob is raising to a fever pitch when the police arrive and he is transferred to the German authority.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">So we're presented with two possible paths to justice. One is the quick death of the guy with the M on his coat, without room for appeal, or insanity pleas or temporary stays in the sanitorium resulting in other opportunities for the predatory behavior.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The other is to be turned over to the authorities and the incarceration / treatment of our killer as someone who is insane and in some sense, not completely responsible for the things he has done.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Side note: for Boethius (and maybe for our film makers), it doesn't matter which one you choose, both just punishment or treatment for mental illness could be considered a kindness. The critical piece would be ensuring he is not able to commit this sort of crime again, which life in prison would accomplish.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Lang does a good job of exploring both sides of the issue, in a short amount of time. I was nodding in agreement when the criminals get him, knowing that he would get blasted without pity or appeal. I was hesitating with the notion that he might not be truly responsible for his crimes... and I was really interested to see where the tribunal would go with this - we see them seated without hearing the verdict.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Where Lang turns it back onto us is with the final sequence, with one of the mother's of the slain children telling us to watch our kids and be vigilant. That the lesson to be learned here is that we need to play a better part in the safety of the kids in our influence. The movement from the court of criminals to the police intervention to the judges being seated to the mothers happens so quickly that we're forced to back up and mentally recreate the narrative to engage it. I think that's what the film makers intended here.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="The Exiles" class="highlighted_picture" height="238" id="pictureImage" image_id="2077" image_platform="flx" image_type="movie" image_url="http://content7.flixster.com/rtmovie/20/2077_gal.jpg" src="http://content7.flixster.com/rtmovie/20/2077_gal.jpg" style="height: 345px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 462px;" title="The Exiles" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yvonne from The Exiles</td></tr>
</tbody></table> <div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>The Exiles (1961) </strong>was painful to watch. I believe the running time was 1:12, but it seemed a lot longer than that with the emotionally engaging and draining narration and events of the day that came into play. Sometimes a shared experience will create the background for an inside joke, where you immediately "get" what the other person is saying on a level not immediately apparent. For Cole to suggest this film to me, is similar to that experience, except instead of an inside joke, it's an inside sorrow, or a shared appreciation of poignancy. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Cole, this had exactly the impact on me you thought it would.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">We grew up in a little cow town called Apache in Oklahoma, with a strong population of Native Americans, Choctaw, Kiowa, Apache... among others. This film was made before I was born and the young adults it portrays belonged to a different generation. Still, I could almost see my friends from junior high and high school being thrust into this black and white downtown LA and the sadness the movie expresses hit me harder than I was expecting.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><strong>The How:</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">This was beautifully shot. Very dark and minimalistic, but the close-ups and cinematography were both top drawer. It starts with a series of still photographs of American Indians that all convey a deep sense of sadness and loss.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">If you think about that for a minute, it makes sense. The Indians of the Great Plains weren't doing a lot of camera work in the 1700s... it was only when the white man came with all of his cataclysmic cultural influence that we start seeing photographs. The very nature of photography for these people came with a lot of other manifest destiny evil, so it shouldn't be surprising that the photos reflect the sadness they were living firsthand.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">I don't know where to put this film in terms of category. Sort of a documentary, but with elements of narrative without a real sense of movement or plot... material clearly coming from interviews and scripting and maybe improvisational sequences that happened to be filmed.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The mannerisms, the dialogue, the playful mischief and give and take all rang way too authentic to me to have been written, learned and acted in a traditional sense. Somehow MacKenzie was capturing ineffable qualities of interaction that I grew up with and witnessed that seemed accurate beyond belief.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The film ends without a resolution, which is the point. It isn't quite Limbo in the classical sense, but more of a group of people who are thoroughly and fundamentally lost, caught in between shifts of culture without any clear path forward... and the dull sense of lives that are unhappy, getting by and trapped in amber.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><strong>The What:</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">This movie was about the damage done to individuals who lose their own culture.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">It wasn't exactly hopeless, but it was close. If you put yourself in Homer's shoes, as an example - what are your realistic options here? How do you stop drifting aimlessly in the gaps between two cultures?</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">1) Go back to the reservation, with your pregnant wife in tow, take a vow of poverty but get a good amount of support from your social base. Try to resist the change that has been forced on your tribe to be a dull shadow of it's previous self, but you'll never quite get there. And never leave.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">2) Turn your back completely (in some sense) on your parents and your tribe that has stretched back for generations... and pretend you're a white guy. Go get a job, pay your bills and get ready to be poor and abused until you can acquire education or skill to be successful in a white man's world, on white man's terms. That will take years by the way and you might not ever really get there.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">He joined the Navy, which was a bewildering and negative experience and as a first step to getting a foothold in this new cultural reality, it didn't work.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">There might be other options, but those choices seem pretty hopeless.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Is it any wonder he wants to get away from that menu? So option 3 becomes, Do the least amount you have to in trying to survive... drink and spend time with your friends. Rinse and repeat.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Yvonne talks about starting a different kind of life, where she could raise her child in a way to give them "things she never had" (the heart of almost any parent), but you get the sense that this is unlikely. It's almost like she's an immigrant, but without the realistic hope for her children as part of that cycle. How do you become an immigrant to your own country? </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">The solace they take is the escape through alcohol, and the fascinating gathering on Hill X, overlooking Los Angeles. It wasn't exactly a pow wow, but the drums, singing, dancing and occasional fight was very much a longing to return to a time when things were different.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">That return isn't possible and while as a viewer, I hope that over a generational span the equation will change for their children and grandchildren, <strong>The Exiles</strong> portrays a world where this isn't a given.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div></span>Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11562800997530732107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120762423646299509.post-74885822090612630642011-04-10T19:40:00.000-07:002013-08-27T14:11:16.699-07:00queue de grace: Brief Encounter and Bride of Frankenstein<div style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Dear Readers,</span> <br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Apologies for turning the queue de grace into the queue de gridlock - lots of life issue stuff happening in the past 3-4 weeks, including a second part time job change with huge practical impact for me and the busiest time of year for my business. My goal will be to have the queue completed this week and I've watched probably half of the remaining movies so that should be doable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Up first is <strong>Brief Encounter (1945)</strong></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-collapse: separate; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>And the true order of going, or being led by another, to the things of love, is to begin from the beauties of earth and mount upwards for the sake of that other beauty, using these steps only, and from one going on to two, and from two to all fair forms to fair practices, and from fair practices to fair notions, until from fair notions he arrives at the notion of absolute beauty, and at last knows what the essence of beauty is. </em></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-collapse: separate; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em> ~</em>Plato, <strong>The Symposium</strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">My first crush of puppy love was with a girl named Lulu. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">No, that isn't a joke. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">She was a ballerina and we were 5 years old at Schultz Kindergarten in Dallas, Texas (Go Panthers!) She had Shirley Temple curls, though a bit darker and moved with a grace that belied the horrible marketing inherent in the notion of "Lulu the ballerina." No, she wasn't blue, or a dancing hippo, or a Jim Henson puppet, she was a cute little girl that I was smitten with (see Charlie Brown and the Little Red Haired Girl for reference.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Our love was doomed by an ill advised self haircut at 3am, which was perfectly done (except for a few places where I created bald spots by cutting down to the scalp) and the inexplicable subsequent buzz, which for some unknown reason my parents insisted on, followed by me wearing a stocking cap to school in August... followed by a gaggle of 5 year olds stealing my hat of shame and laughingly chasing the bald boy for perhaps the longest 17 minutes of my life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">This movie threw me full blown into the reflection of relationships that happened, those that almost did but didn't quite... and ultimately made me appreciate Karen even more.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Moving past Lulu, I was widowed at 22. I would have to say, that the impact of that event, on the inside of my head, was both very good and very bad all at the same time. I certainly don't think about romantic relationships the same way I did before, and find that the things that I look for and cherish in a relationship are perhaps a bit unusual. Again, that is both good and bad. My inability to escape the existential filter of my own point of view had me understanding, reeling, angry, sympathetic, relieved, apprehensive, hopeful and appreciative of the movement of the film, not necessarily in that order.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">My short review of this one would be, find this and watch it. This has to be one of the best movies ever made.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The longer review would start with <strong>the How:</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">One of the many brilliant aspects of this one was the first scene told, then later retold, with the layers of context that let us in on the depth of bittersweet suffering and moments lost through the clutter of everyday life. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">This, along with the narration of things Laura can't tell her husband, amidst the knitting and crosswords reflects the simultaneity of consciousness and disconnect that we feel when we consider our perceptions of ourselves, versus our perceptions of everyone else.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">It is perfect that so much of this happens in a train station. It is perfect that their trains are going opposite directions. It is perfect that they meet by him removing a bit of dirt from her eye... and that their last moment is stolen by an oblivious busybody whose world is filled with a torrential stream of unimportant details recounted as if they were matters of life and death - but still showing real kindness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Neither Laura nor Alec were looking for an affair or for love. They were, in some sense, captured on the way to other things... and doesn't that just ring true somehow?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">This was beautifully shot, the writing was strong, especially her narration and the repetition of the scene of her homelife with her family, pedantic and ordinary was a lovely contrast to the excitement and concurrent turmoil of her inner life.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The What:</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">This movie is about the nature of romantic love.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I'm actually reminded of Shakespeare's <em>Romeo and Juliet</em> here, with <strong>Brief Encounter</strong> coming at the topic from the other direction. The problem with Shakespeare is that often how he says something is so mesmerizing that we lose sight of what he is saying. So a quick review of the actual plot points of R and J:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">- Two 14 year olds fall madly in love and this fills up their world</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">- They forsake their families and all manner of things in pursuit of this love</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">- This continues for a few days</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">- They commit a double suicide over a misunderstanding, because they can't stand to lose that love</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Can I just say out loud, that this is NOT an example of what love ought to be? It is a warning, and one that all 14 year olds should pay extremely close attention to. I love that this is taught in Junior High as a matter of course. It is embarrassing that we, for the most part, are too dull to get or honestly talk about the lurking point here with our fine feathered teenage friends.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Shakespeare, on one level, is really simple. When everyone dies at the end, the approach people were taking in the scenes leading up to that dreadful end was bad. What Hamlet was doing... yeah, don't do that. Everybody dies when you do that. Blood everywhere in Shakespeare = bad.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Shakespeare's point here is that the place of love in our lives isn't just the passion that fills up our world in that moment of decision. That sometimes, following that urge blindly, can result in a lot of destruction for ourselves and the people around us. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Brief Encounter</strong> joins the Bard is reminding us that, "Caution, downstream impacts to this kind of thing may be larger than they appear."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The reptilian part of my brain wants to say that this movie ends with Laura appreciating her husband and tearfully reconnecting with him because the writer decided to drop back 10 and punt. That she and Alec didn't consummate their affair because a 1945 audience wouldn't stand for it, at least not in a way that implied in any way that this was ok.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The better angels swoop in to slap me off of that intrepretation pretty quickly. This was entirely too well written and executed to be anything other than what it was intended to be. It might theorectically possible for someone to do this accidentally... or do it, then cave to social / societal pressure, but I'm not not willing to put my money on art of this level happening with monkeys and typewriters or with the ending being essentially a cop out. There is more going on here than that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">On one level, they didn't consummate their relationship sexually, because his friend came home early. But that they were willing to, made arrangements for and had greenlit Project Lust has them very much in the "committing adultery in their hearts" bucket. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">On another level, it is important, perhaps even critical to the story, that even though the decision was made and opportunity was pursued... it wasn't ultimately fulfilled. This kind of intimacy is simply more than skin rubbing on skin, we all get that even if we don't say it out loud. But the skin on skin step really is important and that it didn't happen in this case matters a great deal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">If the moral point here is that love is more than a connection that goes so deep as to break our hearts when we lose it, this doesn't diminish the poignancy of their situation, or the reality of the loss they experience. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I was making goat noises when we come back to the scene in the train station cafe and we realize that they were hopelessly (literally hopelessly) in love and that Mrs. Chatterblather was ruining their last moment together. Even more bleating as we follow her outside to watch her consider suicide by Express Train. I was literally yelling at her to not do it, even though I knew from the earlier version that she goes back inside.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Buck up with a stiff shot of bourbon indeed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">But love is more than the moment of despair we feel when it is lost, damnably intense though that moment certainly is.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The kindness of Laura's husband when she comes back to him physically and metaphysically, is the true lesson of the film. <strong>Brief Encounter </strong>isn't saying that the loss Alec and Laura experience is illegitimate or to be ignored. It only says that this loss isn't the whole picture, even though we can sympathize with the idea that it does feel that way when it happens.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">We wonder with Laura whether life is worth continuing without the promise that the intensity her love with Alec represents. It is a real question. And fortunately, it has a real answer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I love my "crossword puzzle" moments with Karen. It turns out that is the thing we miss the most when a long term relationship is lost is companionship. The simple joy of shared experience, the funny moment, the movie and snacks...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">and her recognizing the Rachmaninoff in the music, pretty much instantly. That's kind of fun. And the encounter isn't brief, we can enjoy those moments the rest of our lives.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">________________________________________________</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)</span></strong></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="320" id="il_fi" src="http://collider.com/wp-content/image-base/DVD/B/Bride_of_Frankenstein/bride_of_frankenstein_01.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="274" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Bride of Frankenstein</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-collapse: separate; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-align: left;"><em>And thereby make ourselves, as it were, the lords and masters of nature.</em><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> ~Descartes,<strong> Discourse on Method</strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">With the crazed mad scientist moments, I'm reminded that eliminating death has been a goal of medicine and science for quite a while now. Rene' Descartes had this in mind with his invention of modern philosophy and the practical doubt which led us to methodological naturalism and the scientific method. His goal was to take up an approach which would sharpen the process taken by doctors related to the workings of the human body. His hope was that a thoroughly rational approach to physiology and medicine would help us solve the problem of death.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">It doesn't sound quite so crazy the way he says it, but there is definite room for a great scream or two here.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><strong>The How:</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">MUA HA HA HA HA ha ha ha ha. HA HA MUA HA HA HA. Ok, I'm better now, just getting my mad scientist into the groove.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I'm sure I saw this as a child, maybe multiple times, but I'm surprised how little of it I remembered. Probably because the scream the Bride gives us was roughly the same noise Lulu made at seeing my bald 5 year old head. The trauma of her hissing at me probably erased most of the plot from active memory.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Electric girl's hair was burned into my brain, along with her screaming the undead Monster version of LET'S JUST BE FRIENDS in a way that just breaks your heart a little. We've all gotten that response from a girl at some point... and if there were a lever in reach... zzzzz zttzzzz tzzzzz.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I was not expecting this to be as campy as it was, very much over the top in moments... but the interesting thing was that the campiness doesn't over do it. It doesn't damage the story, or the acting, or the movement of the film and it isn't just goofball silliness. The truly odd moments help create a surrealistic vision that is both larger than life while messing with our expectations of a more linear narrative.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Dr. Praetorian's presentation of the tiny people in the jars, was just the oddest thing I've seen in a while.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">We get a queen, who is aloof, a king who is Henry the VIII snacktastic with a turkey drumstick and amorous air kisses to the queen, a finger wagging bishop, a mermaid, the devil, complete with an evil little mustache and a one song ballerina who prefers Mendelson.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">It's like what you get flipping onto Telemundo (if you were completely hammered), and they were all dancing on a stage with a midget and someone in a chicken suit... extremely random. But it serves the purpose of throwing you off the scent for a while, making the chase that much more interesting.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Karloff was amazing. I can't imagine anyone doing what he did without either seeming tritely contrived or monstrous. He brings a real sympathy to the role over and over again, with extremely limited dialogue and movement. Irony firmly in play, the Monster is the least monstrous one of the bunch.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The mad scientist SHE'S ALIVE scenes and electricfest has to be iconic. It makes Tesla look like an amateur, complete with a castle and giant kites on steel cable to attract the delicious lightning. I mean, come on, that's pretty cool. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I also appreciated the nod to Shelley's original work, in the desire of Frankenstein's Monster to have a mate. In the book, Adam talks like an age of enlightment philosopher, is handsome and strong... but still essentially alone. It was the driving work of the plot, and it that sense, this was a truer movie to the text than the original Frankenstein was.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">It's a side note, but the castle falling down was pretty spectacular. In terms of special effects, they weren't distracting at all, which is pretty impressive.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><strong>The What:</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">This is a movie about loneliness and fundamental existential angst.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Every major character wants to be whole, and the path to be whole involves the creation of another person who can fill the gap they experience. Consider the following examples swirling around the film:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">- Dr. Praetorian's creations are "small" and inadequate, he needs more</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">- The Monster needs a mate, and the Bride is his best shot</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">- Dr. Frankenstein has to create the Bride to get Elizabeth back, yes he's bullied into it</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">- The blind hermit creates a narrative of the Monster from own desire for friendship</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">It only works for Dr. Frankenstein, perhaps because he was an unwilling participant in the process, so in terms of narrative justice, he gets a pass. Everyone else loses everything.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I was dissatisfied by the "burn it all down" ending, though certainly I can understand the sentiment. I found myself wanting the Bride to see the Monster as the hermit did, as a friend and companion. But she didn't... and the Monster's response was to lash out in despair. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">"We belong dead!" Ouch.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I was hoping that they could have another ending, but in this one, it wasn't to be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">On a lighter note, three things I didn't know about the Monster in Frankenstein:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">- He likes a good cigar</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">- Though dribbling a bit, he likes a good stiff drink</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">- He swam pretty well, somehow I expected him to sink</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I need a good haircut. One that does not produce this reaction:</span><br />
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<a href="http://content8.flixster.com/photo/31/12/49/3112498_gal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The bride of Frankenstein" border="0" class="highlighted_picture" height="240" id="pictureImage" image_id="3112498" image_platform="flx" image_type="celebrity" image_url="http://content8.flixster.com/photo/31/12/49/3112498_gal.jpg" src="http://content8.flixster.com/photo/31/12/49/3112498_gal.jpg" sub="img" width="320" /></a></div>
Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11562800997530732107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120762423646299509.post-20521619987648466852011-03-09T17:24:00.000-08:002013-08-27T13:54:25.346-07:00queue de grace: The General and My Man Godfrey <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIGsiUU5qmw-Lc2_99h7YLUJfCax0VaDzg-tFoPEwCF66M-lsa5V04BC8uscLf4h3i861__HpGlnXBqm6ejsdT62lDp0ewMajp4GQmexnYgfQdOGkV_3LV2ru9LIM7EWiD_OymmwlmmqLc/s1600/general_buster_keaton3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIGsiUU5qmw-Lc2_99h7YLUJfCax0VaDzg-tFoPEwCF66M-lsa5V04BC8uscLf4h3i861__HpGlnXBqm6ejsdT62lDp0ewMajp4GQmexnYgfQdOGkV_3LV2ru9LIM7EWiD_OymmwlmmqLc/s320/general_buster_keaton3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<i>Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.</i><br />
~Saint Francis of Assisi<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many years ago I started SCUBA diving and my first dive post certification was in Cozumel, Mexico at Palancar reef. It was in a section of the reef called the "gardens", so named for its extensive variety of coral and altogether stunning display of massive coral pillars that stretches for hundreds of yards. It is something like an underwater forest, comprised of coral and Caribbean fish and utilizing every color you've ever imagined (and then a few you haven't yet). You literally, dive down into the reef, then spend a good thirty minutes (or so) floating in and around the giant coral pillars, with angelfish the size of dinnerware for company.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was expecting it to be fun, and it was. I was expecting it to be beautiful, it was.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wasn't expecting it to be so quiet.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The silence adds to the intensity of the experience as your entire world shrinks down to breathing and looking. It is very peaceful and when you eventually surface, it takes a few minutes before you even really want to talk again, because talking breaks the spell.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Watching <b>The General (1926)</b> was a similar experience for me. Engaging a silent film in this way and removing the spoken word, made it more focused somehow and it was simply delightful. I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that I've never actually sat through a full length silent film before. I'd seen shorts, and snippets of Keaton and Chaplin and others, but never a full feature.</span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The How:</span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bouncing between the occasional slide of written word (in a nice font by the way) and the visual movement of the black and white scenes, the story propels forward on the tracks of Keaton's grace.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What an amazing physicality Keaton has, a simple marvel of expression and groove in the way he moves from place to place. He embodies the moments of childhood fearlessness where you're jumping around with unbounded joy, before you almost get seriously hurt and remember to be more careful. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I really didn't see any points where the action seemed to cut away from Keaton, he seems to be his own stunt man, which is alarming and fun in tandem. He's dancing around an actual moving train for crying out loud! In front of the "cow catcher", with what appears to be a real railroad tie... on the engine itself, springing from car to car on top of the train and at least one death defying leap from car to woodpile to steam engine in a go.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In modern stuff, we watch people outrunning explosions, etc... and even in our suspension of disbelief, we know that this is smoke and mirrors and the "danger" isn't real. No disrespect to stunts or stuntpeople intended or implied.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With the stunts and visual gags Keaton is doing, you have the sense that most of this is first take material and you know that he's actually doing these things. The choreography, the sense of actual danger and the coordinated execution of the physical movement he is engaged in throughout makes it more compelling. The "please don't break your leg and get run over by the train that isn't a model" sense you're feeling makes the funny funnier and connection you feel with the action even stronger.</span></div>
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There's just something cool and distinctive about the vaudeville era of physical comedy we simply don't encounter outside of it.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It may go without saying, but the movie was really funny. Both Karen and I laughed out loud enough times to lose count... the example I'm thinking of is when he gets the Lieutenant's uniform and immediately strikes a civil war pose - completely hysterical. Even remembering it just now made me laugh again. Has there ever been anyone else who could pull that kind of thing off as well as he does?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Keaton's ability to convey unpretentious expression is a joy to watch.</span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The What:</span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The General (1926)</b> is about making the most of opportunity. To flesh that out a bit, to make the most of opportunity by adjusting to changing circumstances well when our plans just don't work out, and holding to perseverance as you go.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Consider the following gags, but in the context of my proposed direction:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Johnny alerts the army and gets dozens of men to climb aboard a car to go after the union soldiers, but then the engine isn't attached to the car and he leaves without them</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- He deals with multiple obstacles on the track that are blocking his way</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- He deals with the flaming car, intended to burn the bridge and block passage</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- He runs out of wood to fuel the steam engine</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- He's separated from his train by fire, by a fall into the river, through the train's reversing course...</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This list could go on, but none of these occurrences are a reason to give up. They provide the context for everything from stunts to silliness, but it really isn't ever an option to just call it quits and go home.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Even the final scene, where he is trying to kiss the girl, but also salute the enlisted men... the answer isn't to either stop kissing the girl, or ignore the saluting.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The answer is to move her to the other side and do both, which is silly but we get the point.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Three cheers for, in some small way, having our cake and eating it too.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This was an entirely uplifting and hopeful film. I felt better after watching it, and I'm confident that you will too.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5gVUaF2IOOFqlHOZo8cJmdHhsybicNV_FRTg1AKCvSYJtHIn2XZ4WUqPGNqwnzo13CJnAgMBCc7-zYJW_6dy536MKy14wOAY_ik6teV4pa61OW9VWie8H5nAhnoVufCwZCjQJFZF0iyGo/s320/mymangodfrey.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">William Powell and Carole Lombard in My Man Godfrey</td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><i>You have a wonderful sense of humor. I wish I had a sense of humor, but I can never think of the right thing to say until everybody's gone home</i>.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"> ~Irene in <b>My Man Godfrey (1936)</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 17px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The How:</span></b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 17px;">I haven't talked much about the actors yet, though they have been superlative without exception so far. In this one I'll talk about little else. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 17px;">In <b>My Man Godfrey (1936)</b> the leads of William Powell with his patience and presence, contrasting with the geniusly manic machine gun fire dialogue of Carole Lombard are as good as it gets. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;">I adored them both, but especially Lombard, I've just never seen anything quite like her. My goodness, she's a force of nature, speaking at 200 words a minute and not even considering stopping for a breath in her stream of consciousness hopping from one thought to the next. It's funny, charming, ditzy, impressive, endearing, tiring, brilliant and screwballarific all at the same time. I was looking for the handle to make it stop, while thoroughly enjoying everything she did.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;"><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 17px;">The quote above might be better read as, "</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 17px;">Youhaveawonderfulsenseofhumor. IwishIhadasenseofhumor, butIcanneverthinkoftherightthingto sayuntileverybody'sgonehome."</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;">Don't try that at home, it's harder than it looks. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17px;">Powell is the soothing and sarcastically careful counterpoint to her wackball melody. He speaks with such a quiet dignity that you know from the start there is more to his story than meets the eye. </span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The rest of the cast was pretty perfect as well, with the vacuous non-sequitur mother, the ice cold Cornelia with cat like posture and phrasing, desperate for approval, the sarcastic deadpan delivery of the father, the acerbically clever maid and my personal favorite - Carlos, in his starving artist, gorilla imitating, piano playing, "Ochi Chornya" goodness.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17px;">To the writers, casting agent, director and actors - I salute you, nicely done everybody.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17px;"><b>The What:</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17px;">This movie is about kindness, in a practical sort of way.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17px;">We first see this in how Cornelia approaches Godfrey, and then how differently he is approached by Irene. They both want the same thing, but Irene is checked by kindness, where Cornelia really isn't. And Godfrey doesn't have a chance.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17px;">Godfrey is really our paragon here, having gotten ahead of this learning curve through his experience discovering and living among the forgotten men. In small ways they are shown sharing, speaking kindly to and helping each other and in their approach Godfrey finds something beautiful and determines to repay them.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17px;">He is kind to the mother throughout, but especially in delivering her breakfast after the initial party. He shows kindness to the maid by doing the dishes when she wasn't feeling well, to the father by selling his stock short and giving him the proceeds to help him recover, to Cornelia by not immediately revealing her betrayal... but returning her pearls late and speaking to her kindly in a way she can understand. And of course, the forgotten men are not forgotten by him at all.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17px;">One of my axioms of analysis is that there is meaning in repetition, so when I see something repeated, I tend to fasten on it. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17px;">
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17px;">One of my axioms of analysis is that there is meaning in repetition, so when I see something repeated, I tend to fasten on it. (insert rimshot here)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17px;">Stepping back, this movie makes me wonder a couple of things:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17px;">One, why can't people doing romantic comedies now write this well? Is it really that hard to find someone with game, pay them a million dollars and have them write something on this level? Truly, not everyday is your birthday and I'm betting that not every movie made in the 1930's was this good, but I can't think of anything in the last 10 years that could hold a candle to this in terms of dialogue or execution.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17px;">Two, why do we settle for less? Couldn't we pass a law that anyone making a bad movie has to watch this one 72 times until they understand where they missed it and make a solemn vow to do better?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17px;">Just a thought. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17px;">Finally, if Shakespeare taught us anything, it's that the comedy ends with a wedding, and then the show is over. The final scene where Irene corrals Godfrey had me grinning like an idiot.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17px;">
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17px;">So as the curtain draws, I'll leave you with this:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><i>Stand still, Godfrey. It'll all be over in a minute. </i></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><i> ~</i>Irene, <b>My Man Godfrey (1936)</b></span></span></div>
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Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11562800997530732107noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120762423646299509.post-10830874054893812452011-03-07T20:42:00.000-08:002013-08-27T13:51:17.394-07:00queue de grace: The Third Man (E)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibq-yeThimG64Y3ehf-XAF2S7v16aQcPo0q-2Ki8Zj8FBh7-7rUQRoUvQ3ZToZGzCXjmC3wmhYEXOC2UeJ6OidSwCIViqQx8B8blWp6hJ2Y4W7m3W3tWb-XHDqvJ1cWiuGd0v3nMDqRbc/s320/IMG_5056.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lego Homage to The Third Man</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;">
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<em><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><i>That's a nice girl, that. But she ought to go careful in Vienna. Everybody ought to go careful in a city like this.</i> </span></span></span></strong><strong> </strong></span></em><br />
<div style="line-height: 0.18in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;"><em>~</em>Popescue, <strong>The Third Man (1949)</strong></span></strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>The Third Man (1949)</strong> has a title fraught with possibility even before we get started. Who are the first and second men? Why is he separated or called out from what must be a group of three men? What the deuce is a zither? By the way, Karen immediately identified the zither, because that's how she rolls (seriously).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">She's just forgotten more about music than the rest of us will ever really know. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Still, she didn't know who the third man was, or how he factored into the looming narrative. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We do know he's important, to merit mention in the title, and it seems that truth and identity will be firmly in play. We don't have a name, but we do have a hint of our path forward, and what looks to be a mystery. </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'll apologize now for the length of this post, I'll make a concerted effort to be more brief as we go. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You could write a book on this one and not fully capture it.</span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The How:</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'll stick to the How and What lines for now, even though that is an overly simplistic way to approach the complexity of film as expression. Part of that is an attempt to understand the literal before moving to the figurative, but since movies hit us through multiple senses at once, "how" a movie is presented provides a powerful commentary on "what" content is delivered.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As such, it's a place to start.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first thing I have to say is that this movie utilizes light and shadow better than anything I've ever seen. It simply has to be definitive in this regard. I hadn't considered this, but of course black and white movies would be better with the effect of shadow than films in color overall. When your visual palatte (in terms of color) is comprised entirely of shades of grey, awareness of the impact of contrast would be a primary move.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The film was beautiful, in a "bombed out" sort of way. It was dark, literally and contextually and having seen it, I can't imagine this being done in color, without diminishing the film's power. I just can't overstate it, the play of visuals in terms of light and shadow complimenting the context of what is happening here was genius throughout. Especially in the sequence where the third man's identity is revealed (might be one of the most interesting sequences ever filmed) and the final chase scene in the sewers. In comparison with a world of CGI characters, universes and stunning visual complexity, it was surprising to me to watch a film in black and white that was so superior in visual execution.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The use of foreign language without subtitle was also brilliant in creating a world where we share the character's perception of a setting where meaning and intelligibility is elusive and has to be overcome to some extent. The German / Austrian lines counterpointed the dialogue and in some sense, became word shadows that obscured our vision somewhat.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Set in Vienna, post WWII, the sound was also flawlessly executed, with the brakes squeeling in the background at the perfect moment during the description of Harry's fatal accident and the use of music which was haunting and seemed to come from a single instrument. This isn't Vienna, center of culture and art in the Renaissance, this is Vienna that is recovering from being bombed and is a picked over ghost of it's truer self. The piles of bricks and rubble set the perfect stage for the events surrounding the post traumatic setting and relationships we find. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think it would be fair to say that Vienna (in this state) is the right city for Holly, Anna and the Third Man, all of whom are arguably bombed and shelled versions of their better selves.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wonder how many amazing movie moments are basically lifted all but directly from this film? I was reminded of the scene from The Fugitive of Harrison Ford in the dam... and the final confrontation of DeNiro and Pacino in Heat. I didn't realize how much of an homage those things were paying to <b>The Third Man</b>, but now it seems obvious that these are deliberate nods.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A couple of other more random observations. Like the contrast of light / darkness, the humor in this was all the more contrasted from the darker theme and feel and it seemed to supercharge the funnier moments. More than that, the humor is also very carefully placed to reinforce the message of "things are not what they initially appear to be."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When Sergeant Paine hits Holly, knocking him down early on, then says, "Oh! Be careful!" and then helps him up, being really nice about it, it is very much a Groucho moment and oddly perfect. More, it was communicating that there was real goodness and this wasn't just a simple case of police power run brutally amok.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They really brought the funny with the mysterious driver, waiting in the shadows to shanghai Holly into a vehicle then embarking on a death ride that has Holly shouting at the driver through the bars, "HAVE YOU BEEN HIRED TO KILL ME?!" From the perspective of someone who did not see that coming, the film had me exactly where it wanted me for that scene and the reveal. I haven't laughed that hard in months.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wilkommen! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The last random thought I had about form was the names of two of the primary characters, Holly Martins and Harry Lime. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It might be overplaying it but the only thing I can think of that holly (as a plant) and limes have in common is that they are both green. And our author is none other than Graham Greene. It is very possible that this is just a coincidence, but given the humor present, I would like to believe that Greene is taking a poke at me from beyond the grave in a clever and amusing fashion. </span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The What:</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This movie is about identity. But genius of this level slips out of categorization pretty readily. The closest I can come briefly, is that this is an exploration of the inexorable nature of will and acceptance, in how that relates to the shaping of identity.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It isn't a sense of fatalism, but rather the idea that once we decide, that choice becomes real and becomes central to a sense of self that is either impossible or devilishly difficult to change or deny.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don't know Greene well enough to be be aware of his influences, but I was reminded of two great thinkers of the era previous to Greene that may have been in the background to some extent.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First would be Dostoevsky (though Anna may be a nod to Tolstoy instead), in that the character's behavior seem to stem from their central ideas chiefly. Character becomes a specific type or a way of looking at the world. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, as a few ham handed examples: Harry would be our amoral pragmatist, Holly our resident idealist who believes reason will lead to truth, the doctor is our positive scientific empiricist, Calloway is organized around justice, with the ends justifying the means and Anna is centrally focused by a love that is blinded to other circumstance. Taken together, they form a mosaic of possible ways to look at the world and those perspectives help drive the plot forward.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Second would be Charles Saunders Peirce, a mathematician and philosopher who did ground breaking work in the area of philosophy of language and semiotics. He specifically had a notion of Thirdness, that while not quoted directly, I just couldn't get away from, even while the movie was still running. </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirdness"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirdness</span></a><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's a bad summary, but Peircian Firstness would be a quality in metaphysical sense. Secondness would be a response or relational reference to the quality at hand and Thirdness would be a further expansion and reflection of the first two. As an overly simplistic example:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Firstness</strong>: thought (in the sense of possibility of thought)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Secondness</strong>: a specific actual idea someone is thinking</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Thirdness</strong>: metacognition (thinking about the idea, or thought in general)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Peirce held that there couldn't be anything truly new or creative without Thirdness. It's ironic that in the movie, it is Holly who is the catalytic Third and not Harry Lime. Holly is the one who brings the extra outside perspective that leads to the mystery of the accidental death unraveling in full.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With Peirce as a filter, let me take a run at Anna, Holly and Harry, in that order.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>First, up, Anna Schmidt.</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lovely, mysterious, with hints of a difficult past, it's easy to see how Holly would fall for her quickly. Anna had a number of fantastic noiriffic quotes, but I think my favorite was:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>A person doesn't change just because you find out more. ~</em>Anna</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Holy cats. Check please. So running Anna through the Pierce colander might look like this:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Firstness</strong>: love can be constant</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Secondness</strong>: she chooses to love Harry (and eschew Holly) in spite of Harry's actions</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Thirdness</strong>: love must be loyal at all costs, even after (in some sense) betrayal and death</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In a move that would make Freud proud, Anna repeatedly calls Holly, “Harry” by mistake. The obvious chemistry between them leads us to believe (maybe even to hope) that they would eventually connect, and some part of Anna wants this as well it seems. Her loyalty to Harry, misguided though it seems, keeps Holly at arm's length.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We don't get the final verdict until the very<span style="font-weight: normal;"> last scene where Anna keeps walking and never even looks at Holly (or the camera). As it was happening, I truly didn't know what she would do. Would she stop? Would they go off together? Would she look at him and sadly walk away? When I saw it to completion, I'm not too proud to admit that goat noises were involved. Wow.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I admit that what she finally ends up doing is perfect, but it's interesting to me that while I didn't see it coming,it was flawless in concept and execution.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Second, Holly Martins.</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The jaunty, quirky stylings of the zither were a pitch perfect introduction to Holly.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><i>I'd make comic faces... and stand on my head and grin at you between my legs... and tell all sorts of jokes. I wouldn't stand a chance, would I</i>? </span></span></span> </em>~Holly</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That would be a no, really big no nope nopers, you don't stand a chance. But it's encouraging that he still hopes that he does, even at the very end. For Holly, I would slap him with Pierce like so:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Firstness</strong>: a world of disappointment and death can still end well</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Secondness</strong>: think clearly and pay attention, the clues will lead to truth and that will be good</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Thirdness</strong>: the truth and even heroic action can still know real sorrow and loss</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is something noble in how much he loves his old friend and even the decision to betray him isn't unloving. Even the decision to ultimately kill him, wasn't borne in revenge or hatred. True, he doesn't “get himself a girl” but there is still the sense that he'll somehow be OK.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Third, Harry Lime.</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This being set in the literal, actual rubble of WWII gives a horrible weight to Harry's speech about the unimportance of the individual. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Nobody thinks in terms of individuals. Governments don't. Why should we? ~</em>Harry</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, Boo Boo, you should, because if you don't millions of innocent people die and cities like Vienna get “bombed up a bit” and are reduced to rubble, causing problems for generations. But for Harry, this is a real question and his answer comes up differently.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Firstness</strong>: a world that gives us WWII isn't good or evil, it just is</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Secondness</strong>: be practical then, Vienna in dire straits is a place to make some easy money</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Thirdness</strong>: from the right distance, people are just “dots”, and if they die because of your actions, well, they would have died eventually anyway</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the things that makes Harry interesting, is that in spite of his arguably evil philosophy, he is likeable. The grin when he was revealed was delicious. That he doesn't kill Holly on the Ferris Wheel humanizes him to some extent, and there is the sense that he wants Holly to help Anna escape to a better life. The last exchange, where he acknowledges Holly and seems to give him permission to do what he feels he must was sublime.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What I'm wondering is if Greene and Carole are using this film as Thirdness (or something like Thirdness) to get us to ask questions that are truly new, without dictating to us a prescribed answer. Wouldn't be cool if they could actually pull that off?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If <b>The Third Man</b> has a definition of virtue, I would say that Harry's approach to life and opportunity isn't the right way to go. But it also seems that Holly's approach and Anna's approach are flawed as well, paying a terribly high price for doing what they see to be right.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For my part, it seems right to watch this with a friend and talk about what it might mean over a tasty beverage afterwards. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For us, it was some freshly brewed tea.</span>Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11562800997530732107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120762423646299509.post-71539600481465065372011-03-04T21:34:00.000-08:002011-03-06T21:01:53.362-08:00queue de grace: parmesian encrusted with taste buds ringing in delightFor years I didn't like fish.<br />
<br />
I mean for eating, I wasn't somehow enraged by halibut, should I ever happen to meet one. <br />
<br />
But fish tasted bland and lifeless, with a texture that was a bit like crumbly epoxy, accompanied by a side of bad fishy smell, and undercooked soggy fries, with the last dregs of watery ketchup from a bottle long past it's prime. Or it tasted really scary and too alive to be dealt with. My appendix isn't active, and I don't want to think about my body trying to digest that nasty thing I just managed to choke down.<br />
<br />
Delicious.<br />
<br />
Then I discovered that, growing up in Oklahoma, I'd never had fish before. Not really anyway. My understanding of fish as non-edible was based on Mrs. Paul's Fish Sticks, and the little bars of leftover oceanic pieces / parts that were served in the school cafeteria. Fish don't have fingers, you pirates, you're not fooling anyone here.<br />
<br />
Amazing how 20+ years later I can still vividly remember that smell. It's like a visit to the fish dentist.<br />
<br />
To be fair, if you bother to look, Oklahoma has amazing catfish and there are folks and restaurants who can prepare it properly. Done right, it will rival almost any dish I can think of. For whatever reason, that experience was outside my circle and I was stuck with swillfish and re-processed bass innards.<br />
<br />
My ephishany happened with friends on the coast of North Carolina. Apparently there was a seafood place of southern renown and they were all buzzing about it. I was along for the ride, and didn't want to be too much of a downer, so was planning to quietly order something safe and hope for the best.<br />
<br />
To the horror of the entire table, I ordered chopped steak and some shrimp on the side as a meager attempt at participating in "seafood." One of the more colorful natives said, "Son, what the hell are you doing? Did you see any cows on the trip out here?"<br />
<br />
Ouch, good point. I timidly explained that I didn't like fish, from my extensive seafood-sampling experience from completely landlocked Oklahoma. They all thought that was pretty funny. It's like a Canadian who doesn't like Mexican Food, because Taco Bell in Calgary gets meat from a bag... you get the idea.<br />
<br />
So the same gregarious southerner, who knew our waitress by name, ordered a gigantic sampler of basically everything the restaurant served... with the goal of forcing me to eat a bite of everything while a crowd looked on. A fishocopia of 17 kinds of aquatic phylum, shrimp, scallops, clams and things I didn't catch the name of arrived and several people started arguing about what I should be force fed first.<br />
<br />
Can I just say, that this was not fun for me? I have simple tastes, I know what I like and please leave me alone. Please. I don't need to expand my horizons to bricks and centipedes and fish.<br />
<br />
Until the first bite. The clouds parted and light shone down from heaven on the absolute miracle that was fish done well. Holy smokes was it wonderful, and everything I tried just got better and better.<br />
<br />
Over the years, I've not liked Chinese Food, Thai Food, Sushi, Bluegrass, Opera and Classical Music, among other things.<br />
<br />
It's been a fun ride of similarly mind blowing experiences when someone has rightfully told me that I'm an idiot and here, open the hangar and let something new wing it's way into your piehole.<br />
<br />
So, it's time for Old Movies to have a go. The simple tonnage of things I don't know, to borrow a line from West Wing, would stun a team of oxen in it's tracks. I get that, but old movies have been boring for me. At least the 14 minutes of them in total that I've watched in between endless stints of car chases and explosions.<br />
<br />
Of course there are exceptions. I lost a bet to my wife and she made me watch <strong>On the Waterfront (1954)</strong>. OK I'll give you that one, great movie. Part of my issue is that, for me, movie watching is all about expectations and there are two basic categories:<br />
<br />
<strong>One:</strong> I want explosions and car chases and popcorn. 92 minutes of escapist fun. Dialogue and plot are optional, I really don't care. It has to be truly, truly bad, before a movie will irritate me if I've put it in bucket number one.<br />
<br />
<strong>Two:</strong> I want to see something really good. True Grit, Gladiator, A Few Good Men, Raising Arizona, Dark Knight, 3:10 to Yuma, The Shawshank Redemption, Unbreakable, Gran Torino... you get the idea. I want a score that is genius, I want camera work that looks like a series of paintings, I want dialogue that Shakespeare would smile at, I want a plot that isn't a bad retelling of something done better 400 years ago. I want to be challenged and surprised and I want to mull it over for a few days before I feel like I get it.<br />
<br />
And surprisingly often, that happens. People are making good movies from time to time. As long as I'm not confused about which category movie I'm watching, I'm good to go.<br />
<br />
I really enjoyed the Star Wars films. They were bucket number one. I'm not there for dialogue or philosophical revelation. I'm there for special effects, light sabers and at some point, a girl with cinnamon rolls on her head (last movie had that accomplished in 4minutes 11seconds). I get those things and I'm golden.<br />
<br />
I really hated the last Matrix movie. I thought it was going to be bucket #2, but instead it was a giant digital hairball that lasted for two hours and violated every great thing about the first two movies. Even during the movie, someone I was with said, out loud, "this sucks" and the room applauded that assessment. I WAS there for a philosophical revelation, and all I got was a monkey throwing his own poo at the screen.<br />
<br />
It felt like the writers died, and brought in their crazy cousin Eddie to finish the screen play. Boo.<br />
<br />
But alas, my simple movie going world is about to get taken off the rails. I know this because I've avoided old movies like I avoid flu shots. <br />
<br />
I know people that I love and trust who adore dozens, hundreds of old movies and go on and on about how great they are. It's been on my list of things to do (appreciate old movies better), but I haven't dug in, because I knew I would get sucked in to this weird little world... and because I really didn't know where to start.<br />
<br />
Second problem solved. My friend Cole, purveyor of <a href="http://www.facebook.com/reqs.php?fcode=d0afbc6fc&f=1469892032#!/pages/vitagraph-american/121944727837601">vitagraph, american</a> and writer of things you should know about movies at <a href="http://vitagraphamerican.blogspot.com/">http://vitagraphamerican.blogspot.com/</a> has taken my plea for help and generated a starting list of old movies for Karen and I to watch. The notion is called the "queue de grace" and basically involves turning over your viewing of movies for a period of time over to some crazy person, and then writing about them. It's a cool idea and Cole has done this a couple of times on his blog.<br />
<br />
He's a talented movie critic, who is making all the noises of an expert in the field. It will be a matter of time before someone pays him to do this full time, or there is no justice in the earth. <br />
<br />
The reverse queue was also a rousing success (at least it was delightful to me) in watching Cole generate a list for Thomas Lazlo, 8 year old and author of <a href="http://awesome9000.blogspot.com/?zx=78bfe3fed5e0a9b9">http://awesome9000.blogspot.com/?zx=78bfe3fed5e0a9b9</a>.<br />
<br />
So here we go, I'll get as close to a single week as I can in watching these and responding... and will do my best to trick Karen into posting as well. The queue is:<br />
<br />
the third man (1949)<br />
the general (1926)<br />
my man godfrey (1936)<br />
brief encounter (1945)<br />
m (1931)<br />
laura (1944)<br />
the bride of frankenstein (1935)<br />
the battle of algiers (1966)<br />
the exiles (1961)<br />
a man for all seasons (1966)<br />
arsenic and old lace (1944)<br />
the wages of fear (1953) <br />
<br />
I don't like fish. I especially don't like sea bass from the Chart House, here in Old Town Alexandria.<br />
<br />
And I don't like old movies. <br />
<br />
I figured I would get that in one last time, before my ill informed and ridiculously prejudiced opinions get crushed by irritating people who think they can show me something really cool that I don't already know.Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11562800997530732107noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120762423646299509.post-2014580050242560452011-02-20T13:14:00.000-08:002011-03-02T15:23:28.090-08:00Thoughts on The FighterWe just saw <em>The Fighter</em> and enjoyed it immensely.<br />
<br />
The How:<br />
<br />
The film was gritty and shot without a slick feel of production that, maybe without realizing it, I've come to expect. This was clearly deliberate and it created a conscious effect of a dirty, uneducated, lower income environment which was a subtext for the movie's message and feel. There were times it almost felt like a documentary, which added to the sense of realism, and in my mind, this was a powerful and effective choice.<br />
<br />
The acting was superlative and the folks getting kudos for this deserve the buzz. It opens with Christian Bale (who everyone knows has chameleon like acting chops) but it took exactly two seconds (before dialogue) to establish him as a twitchy, nervous, strung out guy with pretty serious issues. We've all met this manic, irritating, lovable guy at some point in real life, and he nailed it.<br />
<br />
Also huge were Amy Adams and Mark Wahlberg. It was an interesting casting choice for Adams to play the blue collar, college drop out love interest - a pretty big departure from what I've seen her do before, but she seemed believable to me. If this had been the first thing she had done, I would have assumed she knew it from life experience. For Wahlberg, I enjoy his understated approach to his roles and it was perfect in this movie. He's a quiet hero with integrity and he gets to play the straight man that all of the other crazy people are bouncing off of the entire film. Without him, the dysfunctional family stuff is a Jerry Springer episode... with him at the center, it becomes a powerful, emotional piece of art.<br />
<br />
The surrounding characters were also great, with their hair and the greek chorus of sniping dysfunctional comments. Even in their acting out a particular "type" they didn't seem two dimensional or contrived. In fact, the dialogue, acting and feel were almost too good, in the sense that this movie is stressful. If you've ever seen a family freak out (and who hasn't), it rings true and you're feeling it with them.<br />
<br />
The What:<br />
<br />
This is a movie about relationships. In all their complexity and dysfunction and warmth and goodness and need for boundaries. The suprising thing, and great thing about the movie was that Mickie (Wahlberg's character) doesn't do what we're silently yelling at him to do for most of the movie; to tell his crazy family to go away while he chases his dream.<br />
<br />
When Bale was walking down the street with his cake, my beautiful date said, "this isn't going to be good" and I responded, "I don't know, maybe." I was envisioning everything from a true break from the addictive lifestyle of bad decisions, to a return to the drugs in force, to something horrible like a really dramatic suicide.<br />
<br />
Can I just say, before we knew the outcome, it was a great moment?<br />
<br />
I love not knowing what is going to happen next. What a great picture of real choice - and of real freedom - and we got to share it. <br />
<br />
Perhaps even more powerful was the porch scene between Adams and Bale where humility, forgiveness, grace and a genuine request for second chances give us the heart of the film. The line, "I'm trying to build something here..." followed by the, "I am too." just resonated through the entire room.<br />
<br />
What we realize is that all of the characters are, in some sense, The Fighter. Flawed, not having realized their potential, tired and somewhat bitter, they still press on in their own (sometimes weird) ways. The last speech that Bale gives to Wahlberg in the last fight scene juxtaposes the two, and when he goes back out, he isn't just fighting for the title. <br />
<br />
He's fighting for his life and the hope that things don't have to end badly. He's fighting for a sense of purpose and redemption and love and meaning and a place where past mistakes don't finalize our lives. He's fighting for the part of us that dares to dream and that knows deep on the inside that we're capable of more. Definitely worth some oscar nods - and definitely worth seeing with someone you love and want to talk to afterwards with a tasty beverage.Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11562800997530732107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120762423646299509.post-61581841827857269602011-02-20T13:01:00.000-08:002011-03-02T20:40:16.189-08:00Thoughts on True GritThe How:<br />
<br />
Love 'em or hate 'em, the Coen Brothers know how to make a film. Beautifully shot, there is an epic background and feel to everything that is going on. It's a nice counterpoint to characters that are larger than life, especially Rooster. Somehow a painting of this crazy old man ought to be on a huge canvas.<br />
<br />
Matt Damon won't get the praise he deserves for this one. His "Texas" accent was spot on (from someone who grew up in Texas and Oklahoma, he nailed a north Texas accent in terms of flavor and pacing). Not taking anything away from Bridges, or Steinfield (she deserves an oscar in my opinion), but Damon was really great as a boring straight man in this movie. He's a chameleon who can even sublimate his presence and genius to serve the role. I think his potrayal and execution really set up Bridges and Steinfield to be even better.<br />
<br />
Another consistent hallmark of Coen brother's stuff is the "odd moment" that they sprinkle in here and there for relief and comic effect. It rings true, because those things happen in life and while they don't have anything to do with the actual narrative, they are marvelous and provide a resonance that we understand and appreciate.<br />
<br />
In True Grit, the scenes with the trapper / doctor and when Rooster is demonstrating his shooting skill with cornbread, completely hammered, were both just hysterical.<br />
<br />
Well acted, well shot, incredibly well written, this was a movie that was finely crafted and showcases what a film can be in terms of polyphonic art.<br />
<br />
The What:<br />
<br />
This was a movie about true grit.<br />
<br />
That is less of a cop out than it might appear at first glance. There is a sense of character, resilence in the face of opposition, perserverance and courage which is a combination of those things, but isn't quite captured by any single word seperately. It's more than "heart", or "gravitas" or any characterization I can readily think of, sort of a moving courage in action that can rise to an occasion of greatness.<br />
<br />
Here's the thing, every major character on the protagonist side has it. The little girl is just indomitable in her spirit and her desire for justice. When she, without hesitation, spurs her horse into the river to not be left behind, there was real danger there... but she simply wouldn't be denied.<br />
<br />
LaBoef was the one I had the most fun thinking about. He has great, even legendary western hero moments, where he draws on four men, despite the overwhelming odds of that situation... not giving up, even after being shot and wounded in the encounter. And of course, in the end where he makes the rifle shot to save Rooster, it just seems right that he do so. The fascinating thing to me and it's a subtle move, if you just listed the things that he did - he would sound like Achilles mixed with Wyatt Earp. Actually, he's in the background for the most part and somehow smaller than life, in spite of his actions.<br />
<br />
And Rooster, with reins in his teeth, like justice incarnate and lightning in his hands, riding down like a storm on the gang that kidnapped Mattie... and later in the wild ride / run to save her life, he displays a perserverance beyond simple human endurance. True Grit, great heart... and they were captured and recounted to us over and over.<br />
<br />
They're all flawed. Mattie is proud and overbearing, not seeing at all that her perspective should ever be adjusted in the least. LaBoef is honorable, but not very bright despite his education, Rooster is a drunk, is selfish and mean spirited and that list could probably go on for some time.<br />
<br />
But when it counts, and push comes to shove, would you want any of these people on your team or not?<br />
<br />
I would. Everyday and twice on Sunday, if it came down to it. There is something really beautiful about true grit in a situation with great need, even if these are not people you'd want to have dinner with on a regular basis.<br />
<br />
Of the oscar contenders I've seen sofar, this is the one I'll buy the DVD of and watch again and again.Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11562800997530732107noreply@blogger.com0