Movies and DVDs
noskilz writes:
"Do you think the rapid turnaround from theater to dvd is a problem? One of my friends refers to theatrical releases as "trailers for the dvd" and I usually don’t worry about catching a film at the theater unless it’s the sort of thing likely to benefit from a gigantic screen and sound system."
I think the rapid turnaround from theater to DVD is a problem — but apparently not for the corporations that own the movie studios.
Monsters! Cloverfield
WHAT DOES THE PROTAGONIST WANT? Rob has a dilemma: should he take his big-deal job in Tokyo, or should he settle down with the woman he loves? It was a decision he thought was easy until the woman, Beth, showed up at his going-away party with a shimmering-gold party dress (yay!) and another guy (boo!). It doesn’t get easier when he must dodge monsters and army guys in order to save her life.
WHAT IS THE MONSTER? I’m aware that there is a small industry devoted to discussing the details of the nature of this beast, but as far as the movie itself is concerned, the monster is deliberately vague: it is a Big Irrational Thing that, for some reason, has risen from the ocean and decided to trash Manhattan island.
WHAT IS THE WARNING? Hang on to the one you love.
Movie Night with Urbaniak: Bullitt
I’ve been on a bit of a Steve McQueen kick here at chez Wadpaw: a couple of weeks ago urbaniak and I watched the 1968 Thomas Crown Affair and the other night I finally got around to the 1958 Blob.
One of the chief pleasures of The Blob is to watch Steve McQueen before he really became Steve McQueen. He’s still susceptible to direction, and tries to "help" scenes along by adding gestures and expressions for emphasis. Luckily, he learned to stop doing that really fast. The camera loves to look at him, and the less he does the more power he has as a performer. Urbaniak and I spent a portion of Bullitt comparing him to leading men of our time: who among our contemporaries possesses McQueen’s seemingly effortless magnetism and composure? Who today is as comfortable in his skin as McQueen is here?
Yma Sumac, Michael Crichton
I would be remiss if I did not mention the passing of Yma Sumac and Michael Crichton. Sumac I knew through her gonzo lounge-exotica album Voice of the Xtabay, an LP I kept in my collection for many years. She was a true one-of-a-kind entertainer: how many other Peruvian sopranos were there who dressed like an Incan princess and sang oddball "exotica" in New York clubs in the 1950s?
Michael Crichton was, of course, a much more easily-defined talent: he wrote bestsellers. Lots of them. The Andromeda Strain was one of my first "grown-up movie" movie-going experiences, I was probably 10 or so when my brother took me to see it. It scared the hell out of me, images of the town full of dead people still linger in my mind. I remember, even then, admiring the deft twists of its plot, and the way it criticized the fallibility of science. I rushed to see The Terminal Man in spite of the fact that it was, of all things, a George Segal vehicle — pardon, a George Segal thriller, and Futureworld, which was a kind-of sequel to Westworld, which set the tone for a number of Chrichton plots to come: rich guy takes a cool scientific principle and tries to turn it into a theme park — with disastrous results. Chrichton had a hugely commercial understanding of how to make science cool to the casual entertainment consumer and was the source of many successful adaptations, as well as some interesting misfires — The 13th Warrior springs to mind, with its end-of-Act I moment where Antonio Banderas, after being kidnapped by a cannibalistic tribe, suddenly finds that he can understand their language. The scene is handled beautifully — Antonio is huddled by the fire, scared to death as the barbarians talk in their strange, brutish tongue, and then suddenly an English word pops up here and there, and then suddenly they’re all speaking English. The dramatic point of the scene is that Antonio can now understand them, but the screenwriters figured out how to express that the way it would seem to the protagonist, and I’ve always kept that scene in the back of my mind in case I ever need to steal it for something. (The 13th Warrior is based on Crichton’s Eaters of the Dead, which, well, if you don’t think Eaters of the Dead kicks The 13th Warrior‘s ass around the block title-wise, I just don’t know what to tell you.
UPDATE: Okay, okay, I didn’t describe the translation-by-immersion scene from The 13th Warrior very well. swan_tower , as usual, puts it much better below. And this blog entry must surely be the largest gathering of 13th Warrior fans ever assembled.
Monsters! The Blob
Jane, Steve, Blob.
WHAT DOES THE PROTAGONIST WANT? Steve wants nothing more than to get a leg over with his girlfriend Jane. But the Blob won’t let him. Young Steve will, in fact, never achieve his goal of making out with Jane — he will, instead, be thrust into the job of saving the entire world from an ever-growing glob of flesh-eating protoplasm.
WHAT IS THE MONSTER? The Blob, a whatsit from outer space, is an exemplary movie monster — mindless, soulless, alien, unknowable, capable of mysterious and peculiar actions. Because it has no real characteristics to speak of, other than its desire to consume people (and nothing else), it can be a metaphor for almost anything.
WHAT IS THE WARNING? In times of trouble, we would do well to trust those trying to help us — even teenagers.
What did you do on election night?
I took my family over to a friends house, where there was a small gathering of white-wine-sipping, arugula-eating Hollywood Liberals gathered to watch the election results. The adults watched MSNBC and talked shop (movies and real estate) while the kids watched Anchors Aweigh in the other room.
My vow to you: go out and vote today, if you have not already, and I shall reward you with my long-awaited analysis of The Blob. If not, well, I just don’t know man, I just don’t know. That’s how serious this is.
Yes! Er, No!
For my fellow Californians, zodmicrobe reminds me that there is an important proposition on the ballot tomorrow, Proposition 8, which seeks to amend the California constitution to make gay people second-class citizens. This proposition was rammed into the ballot by the Mormon church, which has spent tens millions of dollars in misleading advertising to get people to vote for it. It’s a might confusing in this season of "Yes We Can" to vote "No" on something, but there you have it, NO ON 8.
Non-Californians, disregard, and feel free to marry someone of your own sex (should it be legal in your state).