The highlight of Cyrano. As I end the refrain, thrust home.
Category: Movie Reviews
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16MAR2024 – And Now for a Message from Our Sponsor
Saturday dawns sunny and brisk. Very refreshing. So much so that I resent sitting here to write. But yesterday was a clamorous and dreary day of work. So as Bob Cratchit observed, “I am behind my time.” So here I am and I will take the time to provide cogent analysis on whatever it is that demands comment. But “demands” is a stretch here. I refuse to write further on Trump’s many legal battles. When and if they reach a critical juncture, meaning, when they actually drag him off to the gulag, then I shall say my piece.
As for the latest political polls; yes, yes, we all know Trump’s winning. Even a Democrat shill like Nate Silver is openly admitting that Biden is losing significant minority voters along with other important components of the Democrat coalition like the young and women. But that’s all been said. Sure, I’ll mention it in passing if it seems especially pointed. But we are months and months away from even the conventions and by then, Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny may be the Democrat candidate. So, no, let’s put that aside for now.
I’ve already spoken about cannibal migrants this week. Check.
Camera Girl has complained about the ruinous price of food including the corned beef for her birthday celebration this weekend. Check.
Russians killing Ukrainians and Ukrainians killing Russians. Check. Check.
So, what, what, what?
Well, truth be told, I don’t feel like talking about any of that crap right now. It’s been said and we can take a break from saying the same things again.
If you notice I’ve been putting up some stuff from movies and books. I find this stuff makes me feel better. And I’m looking for more of it. This kind of stuff makes the day better and reinforces the things I think are good and healthy to think about. And I openly encourage anyone who has anything that they want to share with the rest of the readers to link it and I’ll put it up. Even Weird Al Yankovic (within reason of course).
Inevitably because I’m old and because a lot of what’s new stinks, the things I’ll point to will be old. And the amount of high definition will be limited. I hope my younger readers will forgive this. But honestly watching some black and white footage won’t hurt any of them too badly.
I was thinking the other day that Shakespear died more than four hundred years ago and yet his English is still ninety percent understandable by even average readers. Newness isn’t really a very good selection criterion for entertainment or really much of anything outside of technology. Humans are still humans. What needs to be done is to attempt to reintroduce the younger audience with their cultural heritage. Whether it’s Shakespeare or the Marx Brothers, the human condition is pretty constant. Iron Man and Odysseus are similar characters with similar problems. Thor is just Achilles with CGI added in.
So, I apologize in advance if I stop banging away quite as often on how the end of Western Civilization is approaching and instead put-up examples of why we should care if Western Civilization is saved. I’ll try to strike the right balance of outrage and fond remembrance so that your experience here is stimulating.
On with the show.
They Don’t Make Bus Rides the Way They Used To
If I didn’t know better I might say that Frank Capra had strayed away from the typical experience of long distance bus travel.
At least I can’t really remember the last time that a small string band and a sailor broke into song.
But who hasn’t wanted to say “Ya got me. Yah!” to a bus driver.
Friends, Romans, Countrymen; Lend Me Your Ears
Mark Antony’s eulogy of Julius Caesar. Everyone has heard the first few words. They’re in my title. But have you ever watched a dramatization? Many years ago I saw a small production in the Berkshires. And in its bare bones presentation; no fancy costumes or sets, it was well done. But I do not remember Antony’s speech impressing me.
Here are three versions. Two are Hollywood spectacles. One with Marlon Brando and one with Charlton Heston. The third is a solo recitation. See if you can guess which one I favor. And I’ll give those who care to watch them a chance to provide their own judgement on which is best. Lend me your ears.
Loading ...What is This Quintessence of Dust
Back when all I knew of Mel Gibson was Mad Max, the Road Warrior, if you had told me that he would play Hamlet I would have laughed and said, “Sure, and Sylvester Stallone will be playing King Lear and Macbeth too!”
But who knew? Gibson is good.
I like this speech because it seems to cover the fact that depending on the events of the day each of us can view the world and all in it as either a lovely frame or a sterile promontory. Humanity can be either like an angel or the quintessence of dust.
Gibson is a good actor and I don’t think he loses by comparison to Olivier or Branagh when performing Hamlet.
Michael Keaton Does Shakespeare
Back in 1993 Kenneth Branagh directed a film version of Shakespeare’s comedy, “Much Ado About Nothing.” Michael Keaton was given a small role as the dim-witted constable Dogberry and along with the malapropisms and absurd swagger Keaton added an almost Monty Pythonesque quality to the role and to that of his associates in the night guard. I ten to think it’s the best part of the show. Shakespeare did love his clowns.
Transgender Hubris Through Lear
Andrew Klavan is a gifted writer. He breathes emotion and conviction into his arguments and they ring true. In this essay he interprets transgenderism and other manifestations of “transhumanism” through the stories of Lear and Prospero in Shakespeare’s plays.
What he points out is the hubris that confused men commit when they ignore that they literally are not God. When we pretend that the definitions of human life do not apply to us we set ourselves up for the catastrophe that will follow when we attempt to ignore these boundaries.
“We have now reached the nadir of that mode—or the zenith, depending on where you stand. This is that moment that Nietzsche talked about, the “catastrophe” of a civilization awaking to find its foundations gone.”
Klavan sees King Lear as the cautionary tale for human hubris and rejection of the natural order and The Tempest as a fairy story about restoring it. Well, I like Shakespeare so I like when a gifted writer uses it to make a point. Bravo Andrew.
Hamlet Scenes
I was rewatching Olivier’s Hamlet today. So I picked out the scenes I thought were noteworthy. The characters are so strange to modern audiences and the plot so improbable. But there are some scenes that are iconic. Many will recognize the famous quote or the scene. My favorite is the gravedigger’s scene. Alas, poor Yorick. Shakespeare’s fools and jesters are obviously his favorites and always have the best lines.
Anyway.
To Thine Own Self Be True
That is the Question
The Play’s the Thing
I Knew Him Horatio
But Let It Be
2024 Academy Awards – Oppenheimer and What?
The 96th Academy Awards will take place March 10th 2024. Now I haven’t watched any part of the Oscars in coming on twenty years. Even back in the early 2000’s they had become unwatchable both for the virtue signaling that made up most of the spectacle and for the unbelievably low entertainment value of the movies selected as nominees.
In the spirit of open mindedness I decided to take a look at the publicly available information on the movies that are up for the Best Picture award. Below are links to each of the nominees.
- American Fiction
- Anatomy of a Fall
- Barbie
- The Holdovers
- Killers of the Flower Moon
- Maestro
- Oppenheimer
- Past Lives
- Poor Things
- The Zone of Interest
You can check for yourself if your tastes may differ from mine. Most of them sound unwatchable. A multi-decade exploration of Leonard Bernstein’s bisexuality or a courtroom trial to determine whether a wife killed her husband or he committed suicide or whether he just fell off a balcony with their blind son as the chief witness or several other even less interesting plots.
I suppose a lot of older women might want to see Barbie. And I’m sort of interested to see whether Oppenheimer is any good. But after those two movies there isn’t much else. Interestingly, those two movies appear to be the only ones that made any money. The rest of them didn’t even break even. And since the Marvel movies lost money last year does that mean Oppenheimer and Barbie are the only source of income for Hollywood in 2023?
So my experiment in open-mindedness crashed and burned. Hollywood is no longer a thing. Other than maybe a source for genre movies (action/adventure, sci-fi and comic book heroes) they’ve basically moved away from a pretty large chunk of what used to be their audience.
And it shows. This list of best picture nominees is made up of either vanity projects by arthouse directors or Hollywood virtue signaling vehicles. There’s even that time honored chestnut, the Nazi Holocaust period piece (The Zone of Interest).
So, I still haven’t gotten around to watching Oppenheimer. I’ve heard it’s a mixed bag. It has some interesting things but it’s more than bit too long. Eventually I’ll watch it. But as for either watching the Oscars or any of these movies that ain’t happening. In fact, I can’t imagine that I’ll ever have a reason for watching the Academy Awards ceremony again. Maybe if they were brave enough to make Ricky Gervais the emcee I might watch the compilation of his insults of the nominees. That I could see as being worthwhile. What he did to the Golden Globes as the host was epic and well deserving of my time to rewatch it.
In fact that’s what I’m going to do on March 10th. I’ll rewatch the clip showing all of his best zingers at the Golden globes.
Now that’s entertainment!
01March2024 – And Now for Something Light
Today Camera Girl accused me of being obsessed with the depressing politics of our dystopic world. I readily agreed. And I discussed with her some of the things that cause me to obsess about current events; pediatric transgender surgery, millions of illegal aliens crowding our streets, officially sanctioned anti-white hatred, double digit percent increases in the cost of everything, an epidemic of violent crime in the cities. I think I depressed her.
But she has a point. As enchanting as they are, let’s take a break from Joe Biden, Mitch McConnell and Joy Reid for just a little bit. I think it’s good to distract ourselves sometimes with pleasant things. So, I was watching for the zillionth time the beginning of “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Kubrick’s impressive cinematography, the apt use of the “Blue Danube Waltz”
and “Also sprach Zarathustra”
to convey emotion and provide mood to the scenes.
I don’t tend to watch the whole movie from start to finish. Frankly the ending doesn’t work for me. It’s overly long and frankly annoying. I do enjoy the battle between HAL and the astronauts, especially the scene where Dave removes HAL’s memory chips and renders him brain dead.
I think of it as the first shot in the long war that will be fought between man and AI machines. In that sense Dave Bowman is an heroic trailblazer pointing the way to what we will be faced with in the future. An echo of this can be heard in the Star Trek episode where Kirk must psyche the M5 computer into committing suicide.
I think about these various cinematic tropes to remind me that there was a time when humans and specifically Americans still believed that intelligence and being human were the two important traits that made our species unique and extremely interesting. There was a beauty and a joy to the way we embraced the future. There was immense optimism and confidence.
Now all those things have been systematically eliminated from our culture. Systematically and purposefully eliminated by an ideology that hates beauty and intelligence. Instead, it strives for power and control and doesn’t mind seeing humans reduced to depravity and destitution for the sake of meaningless goals like carbon zero or whatever senseless goal they are currently pursuing.
But I’m pretty sure that this ideology, in the long run, will be self-defeating. The utter stupidity of their ideas and the damage that their agenda will do to their ability to maintain a modern economy and standard of living seems to ensure that some time in the near future, those who shun their path will outstrip them in every meaningful way and relegate them to the proverbial “ash heap of history” where they will join North Korea and Cuba in worshipping their local demigods while huddling in the dark when the power is turned off for the night.
So, I’ll end with the most gung-ho, can-do attitude about human capability that I can think of from somewhat recent sf&f cinema.
Sure, it’s silly stuff but it’s in line with the optimistic vision of the American future, instead of the Greta Thunberg one.