Story and Film

the spirit

2009-07-09T11:32:00.000-07:00

the spirit is a somewhat comedic take on a superhero movie. the main character runs around the city in which he lives, like a superman or batman character, taking care of the city and working with the police. the villain in this film is samuel l. jackson's character, who glorifies adolf hitler. i liked the style of this film, with memorable female characters in a cartoonish plot.

blow up

2009-07-09T11:25:00.000-07:00

blow up is an interesting film in many ways: the main character is a photographer who catches proof of a murder plot in the background of one of his photographs. it is a classic film in many ways, and raises more questions that it seemingly answers. it is directed by antonioni, set in london, and raises the question of whether life itself is absurd, with no guarantee of justice for crimes done. i especially like the mimes and clowns who travel around in a car, yelling, laughing and screaming. vanessa redgrave is attractive as someone who tries to seduce the main character into turning over the film.

appaloosa

2009-06-18T11:58:00.000-07:00

ed harris and viggo mortensen star as law men, gun men, friends, who are up against a villain, jeremy irons, in this western set in the 1800's. all in all, i would say this film is definitely worth watching, though the dialog can get a bit slow sometimes. this film poses the question: is it possible to love a woman who is not at all loyal to you, and only you?

rachel getting married

2009-06-11T14:53:00.001-07:00

there are few films as emotional as this film. --in terms of how it affects the viewer. anne hathaway is great in this film. the main character has been in rehab and comes home for her sister's wedding. with amazing music, this is a treat of a film. i especially appreciate films about the 12 steps and how people go through recovery, and this film is amazing in that way.

what doesn't kill you

2009-06-04T11:47:00.000-07:00

what doesn't kill you is essentially a story set around working class boston, crime, prison, and redemption. it's worth seeing, because the main character has a choice. he can either continue to follow a losing path (crime) or he can do the right thing. work. support his family. even if his jobs are humble, menial, and discouraging. the thing i liked about this film was the 12 step program, the alcoholism treatment, that offers hope to all addicts, and a way out from the losing path, the downward spiral.

quarantine

2009-05-28T13:28:00.000-07:00

quarantine is a film advertised as "the scariest movie" of the year. i'm not sure i would agree, but it may be one of the silliest. an infection from a mad dog turns people into zombie-like creatures that attack the necks of those who have not yet been infected. the highlight of the film was a girl, maybe 7 years old, attacking the neck of an adult. the film starts with a kind of reality tv show air, with a female TV reporter spending time with a fire fighting squad. little does she know that later that night, they will be in a house where the authorities have barricaded the doors and windows and will shoot to kill anyone who tries to escape the house. i like horror films, and this is a typical film of the genre. it does make you think about what kind of steps the authorities will take to quarantine sick people in the event of a contagious and horrible disease.

love for law enforcement

2009-05-21T13:37:00.000-07:00

there is a concept that the poor

who get harrassed by the police

either hate or fear or are angry with the police

or they are drug addicts. dealing, buying, using drugs.

they don't know how to communicate in love. they fight, hair is pulled out,

there is domestic violence.

and so a show like cops increases the anger, the fear, the hatred,

the suffering between the poor and the police.

but if buddha were here, he would not want there to be fear, hatred, anger, fleeing,

etc.

and drug addiction is a kind of slavery. the buddha would want you free of that slavery.

so if you struggle, if you fight, if you increase the hatred,

then you are merely increasing the conflict.

better to work, like the dalai lama does about tibetan issues,

in a spirit of harmony, with the belief that in the long term

love conquers hate.

wizards and women

2009-05-21T13:24:00.000-07:00

in both tolkien and in the movie excalibur there is a sense

that wizards themselves (gandalf and merlin)

cannot have a girlfriend. they cannot have romance. they cannot get married.

the female sorceror taunts the wizard merlin. "perhaps you want what you cannot have."

someone once said that (was it nietzsche?) that socrates got married

specifically because it was absurd for a philosopher to be married.

he did it for the absurdity of it.

is there a sense in which it could be said that philosopher and wizards are similar?

both deal with basic, fundamental patterns of what life is. what society is. ideas. thoughts.

someone gets under a spell that says that he is to go out and spend money at the bookstore on something.

so he does it.

but a wizard will examine the spell, where the spell came from (in the case of advertising)

while the philosopher will examine the psychology of consumerism, what exactly is gained,

what exactly is lost, when you collect more "stuff" and why do you do it in the first place?

when a "magic man" does have a woman, as in the case of the song by heart, magic man,

he may only have her for a while, until something else happens. not holy matrimony.

thus, there may come a time when people lay aside their childish things,

and simply accept their destiny, as when "this rough magic i thee abjure" in shakespeare,

when the wizard in the tempest says. he gives up his magick. just as a writer

must eventually write his last play, his last short story, or whatever. a writer

is like a wizard as well. words, sentences, are spells to conjure up feelings.

sometimes someone may give up magic, because they may say

if i get what i want because of magic, maybe someone or something somewhere else in this universe

suffers because of it. or maybe karma will bring the suffering around full circle back to me.

better to be a buddhist.

better to be a stoic.

better to be a taoist.

better to be a christian.

gandalf (from fellowship of the rings dvd extended edition)

2009-05-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

i'm slowly making my way through the fellowship of the ring dvd extended edition--

i say slowly because sometimes i only watch about 10 or 15 minutes of it before going to bed.

one of my favorite characters is gandalf the grey, who later becomes gandalf the white

when he becomes head of his order of wizards. he is a wizard for good,

and never hesitates to take on the evil demon from ages past, even though he wasn't sure

he could take him. he did that to save the lives of his friends, on the quest.

yes i really admire the wizard. "i am keeper of the sacred flame of..." (or whatever.)

he shouts at the demon.

it's kind of like the exorcist in the exorcist. "the power of Christ compels you!"

then the idea that his power is in his staff is interesting to me.

when he came back from the gods he had a new staff, therefore

vastly expanded powers, including the power to break the staff of saruman

(some say that saru-man means the man of sorrow, which means

he lost hope and sold out. gandalf never really lost hope.)

of course we have gandalf's love of hobbits, which is endearing as well.

he is not too proud to set off some fireworks for the children.

he is not too proud to sit and smoke the "halfling's leaf" with bilbo.

when the gods sent him back to earth, it was clear that the good side was going to win.

and that's what all these adolescent quest adventures tend to be about: good vs. evil.

how do you overcome evil? by fighting it?

but the buddha said, hatred does not by hatred cease, but by love.

more on cops

2009-05-14T13:58:00.000-07:00

there are homeless people who get into pools of water in las vegas, trying to scoop up coins that have been tossed in there. the cops who are filmed arresting this guy who did that, tried repeatedly to get him to admit that he was wrong in "stealing" the coins.

it is true that there are few resources in this country for the poor, the homeless. and when they do try to get some coins, they are persecuted for having stolen coins from casinos, who themselves use systems to get money from the public. these systems are fixed, and so you have the story of the man in las vegas who wandered down the street, shouting, "you took all my money!" that is the insanity of las vegas.

yet for a homeless man, a man who has been homeless for some time, he ends up as a TV star in a reality show, ending up in jail for stealing some coins. that is the cops show. that is what i watch at night, since i don't have cable TV, i have to take what i can get, in terms of TV.

and that is our social welfare net: either homelessness or jail. and a TV crew to film the homeless as "criminals."

the rockford files

2009-05-14T12:20:00.000-07:00

i was looking forward to getting the rockford files on DVD. finally i got it. the first season. i appreciate stories based on private detective archetypes. but after having watching 5 or 6 of the episodes, i see that every episode mirrors somewhat every other episode. the private detective himself, rockford, is an ex-con, something that cops like to point out. they say he's crud. he runs into extreme anger from the cops. he deals with wealthy people who are able to afford his services. there is a car chase. there is danger. and it ends on a funny note. often he doesn't even get paid, and he ends grinning, as if, as james garner says, he's not in it for the money. the main thing that i like about the series is that it was made at a time before the cop was the main character of virtually every show. so a common man, living in a trailer, was the main character, and was always defiant to people in power. in the 80's we got movies based on cops as main characters, and starting with reality TV shows on late at night, we now get to see poor people, addicts, down on their luck, being almost tortured by cops who eventually find the rocks of crack cocaine that they've hidden in their mouth or in their wallet. cops, as a show, is the opposite of the rockford files: in cops, the cop himself is the main character, and the poor are oppressed because of their addiction. and it's on every night now where i live. could it be said that the poor don't know any better than to get addicted? or if they are addicted, do they deserve to be oppressed by the police? and do everyday citizens have to watch that if they turn on the TV set? the idea that justice is something beyond merely what the police do is something that draws anger: cops get angry at rockford when he says something about the law. "you yardbird lawyers..." likewise, the cops get particularly scornful when they find a lawyer who has passed out, having done too much cocaine or other drugs. "the wheels of justice turn slowly," they say, implying that a lawyer is the worst of all scum. most people in the rockford files are angry, except those who have a scheme, or who are working an angle. people have their own business, and go about their own business. as one philosopher said, society is best served if we all as individuals go about our own business. take care of your own business. but the private detective is the one who must go about finding out other people's business. and if he is a common man, who has been to prison, he has several strikes against him, and he has to be tough. that's the good thing about rockford files: he's tough, it's a job he can do, he's not in it for the money, and he has a sense of humor.

but now that i've seen a number of first season rockford files shows, it occurred to me i don't need the other seasons. if you've seen a few episodes, you pretty much know what's going to happen in a show.

star trek

2009-05-14T12:13:00.000-07:00

i don't know what to say about star trek. it's a crowd pleaser. there's a younger version of scotty, of kirk, of spock, of sulu, uhura, and so on. i liked the addition of the elder version of spock. of course with two spocks you have to have time travel, but other than that i won't give away the plot. i thought it was worth seeing, but in some ways it was just what it could be predicted to be: each character has certain ways of speaking based on the original character. it's a pop culture phenomenon, and that's where the same old patterns come up again and reappear. there is also a sense in which the enterprise and the federation are portraying themselves as "a peaceful armada" yet they go out in ships outfitted for war. well, you might say, they have to defend themselves. and in our time america, as an idea, is a purely democratic society, the last best hope for mankind on earth, you might say. well, there's always two sides to a story. the victor gets to write the history books. empires grow until they run up to other empires, then they struggle and one becomes weaker, one becomes stronger. the idea that the federation is a purely peaceful armada seems to be at least partially based in propaganda. still, i appreciate the idea of a perfect society set in the future where money itself is no longer in existence.

the music within

2009-04-26T11:07:00.000-07:00

if you were ever curious about the origins of the great piece of legislation that recognizes the rights of the disabled, the americans with disabilities act, this film, the music within, tells that story. the main character, richard, becomes convinced that he can get a good job, regardless of the fact that he was made deaf in vietnam. he dedicates his life to fighting for the rights of the disabled. it's a great story, and a story that needed to be told. the music is good, as the story progresses from the 60's, the 70's, and so on. and the main character is fierce in insisting that, for example, his good friend with cerebral palsy should be able to go to a restaurant and eat pancakes without being denied service. everyone is equal in the eyes of God, as God is no respecter of persons. that leaves it to us to extend and protect the rights of individuals that need that protection in law.

slumdog millionaire

2009-04-19T13:57:00.000-07:00

in getting slumdog millionaire i thought it would be a rags to riches story. it was better than i expected. it is a comment on the state of the caste system in india, on put downs and barriers in place, as well as being set in an emerging capitalist india that has massive call centers, etc. i love india. i don't know if i can put this exactly in words, but i am a Christian, but i respect the way india has held on to its culture and religion. i love india. i love the holy men of india. though i have been a student of zen and am now a Christian. and i love movies that, despite the odds, have a happy ending. a love story that goes from childhood to adulthood. an overcoming of the caste system, to open the door to a new life. an amazing film.

fling, also known as lie to me

2009-04-08T10:21:00.000-07:00

fling is a movie about an open relationship. as both parties date and fall in love with other people, the relationship's future is in doubt. the acting is fairly good, and the actors themselves are familiar, if not recognizable by name. the actors do a creditable job, and the movie is worth watching, but it is by no means an important film. but the story was worth telling. the main character is a fool in a classical sense, thinking that it would be ok if other people have sex and romance with his girlfriend. both parties are deluding themselves, and it is no surprise when the relationship falls apart.

what just happened

2009-04-02T14:18:00.000-07:00

what just happened has some funny moments, but all in all i don't think i would recommend shelling out even 2 or 3 dollars to rent it. robert deniro plays a deceptive agent in hollywood who never quite says what he means. bruce willis is the hero of a movie who has gained too much weight and who will not shave his face, despite much pressure from the studio. i thought it was worth seeing, if you are a film student (at least a self-defined film student, or a film geek) but for most people, the dryness of the humor would not make the film worthwhile.

burn after reading

2009-04-02T14:12:00.000-07:00

i loved parts of burn after reading. there is an absurdity about it that is rarely on film. as a comedy it was a great success. george clooney plays a sleazy guy who cruises the internet picking up girls. frances mcdormand is a rather shallow character herself, thinking that plastic surgery is the key to having a better life. i liked the parts of the plot that had to do with espionage, the espionage culture. all in all, a great film.

quantum of solace

2009-04-02T14:06:00.000-07:00

quantum of solace is about what i thought it would be. high speed, lots of explosions and collapsing buildings, chases. i'm glad i saw it, but that's about all i can say about it. every james bond film requires a villain. a villain who is evil and kills people in horrible ways. now that so many james bond films have been made, the question is: in what way is james bond different? he is an assassin, killing people apparently without regret for his actions. the local paper here ran a review that described the latest james bond as essentially a serial killer. and there is that point of view. he who lives by the sword shall die by the sword. still, i guess when a new james bond film is made, i will be among those renting it or going to the theater to see it. maybe i have been programmed by all the other james bond films i have seen. and that is what we need to rise above: to rise above the conditioning that says the man of war, the killer, is the essence of "what it means to be a man."

religulous

2009-03-22T13:36:00.000-07:00

i liked the spirit behind the humor of religulous. best of all was the scene where bill maher was shouting out the beliefs of scientology in a park in london. speaker's corner. "how do you people expect to make it to the next level!" he shouts. i liked that because a lot of religions are like that. there's some other level to get to. some cults call it the level beyond human. religions are so crazy that some people commit suicide with 5 dollars or whatever in quarters in their pocket, thinking that they will get to the spaceship by committing suicide. people aren't content to just be where they are, doing what they're doing. no, there's always another level to get to, with religion. well, i'm not going to drink the poisoned kool aid. steer clear of a religion when it decides to relocate to guyana. still, i am a Christian, and will be until the day i die. there is a lot i don't understand about Christianity, so i stick with the things i do understand, and hopefully work from there. so i am not offended by bill maher poking fun at religions. and it makes a great comedic film, a documentary, but what are you left with without religion? a kind of hedonism and humanism. i do admit i get tired of bill maher sometimes. to follow catholicism blindly is one thing, but is being a wiseacre the only other alternative?

w

2009-03-15T12:29:00.000-07:00

when w was in the theater, i was tempted to go and see it. now that it came to dvd, i rented it, and it was pretty much what i expected. you see w saying, for example, "i'm the decider." you get the crew talking about authorizing torture, using other terms. but the story of w is a story of a man who believed he had been called by God to become president. he is a strange guy. a born again Christian. and i believe myself to be a born again as well. god bless him, in his new life after being president. i myself am not a republican, but i think this story was worth telling in the form of a film. as far as the war mongering and torture usage, i think that was horrible. america should never be in favor of that. i think the republican party should look long and hard at the wreckage created by w of the republican party's chances, and change their ways. still, i have to salute anyone who has been saved by Jesus Christ. the relationship with his father was also interesting.

the visitor

2009-03-12T13:13:00.001-07:00

the visitor is a good film about a man, a middle aged professor, who's lost any meaning in his life, who encounters a young couple and has his life turned around. he learns to play the drum. it's a radical change in his life. i would recommend this film. the film is also about illegal immigrants and how they are harshly treated by the american system.

revolver

2009-03-05T11:57:00.000-08:00

guy ritchie directed this film, which in the end seems to be an allegory of the conscious mind vs. the ego. the bible says the proud shall fall. and the main character of this film is proud. he refuses to bow to the authority of the main mafia guy in town. (or at least the guy controlling the gambling.) so... is the movie worth seeing? i think so. there were moments i fast forwarded however. it seems appropriate that the (former) husband of madonna would direct a film about an allegory about the ego. at the end we learn from spiritual teachers that the ego, externalized, is what we think of as the devil. the film is about a man who's in prison, in solitary confinement, and the two people next to him are a con man and a chess master. a lot of the movie is about con games, about the way that in a chess game the master will feed pieces to the other person, make the other person feel powerful, before swooping in for the kill, to win the chess game.

how the west was won

2009-03-05T11:48:00.000-08:00

in the process of watching every jimmy stewart movie, i started watching a lot of westerns. there was a time in my life when i didn't like westerns much. now that i'm older, i have started to appreciate westerns as a pure form of movie, good guys, bad guys, warriors, dames, and so on. how the west was won was not a movie based on character. it's more of a movie, following i think 3 generations of a family, as the west was opened up to exploration, gold mining, settlement, and as there were conflicts with the american indians. there are some memorable moments in the film, which was filmed cinerama or whatever, it's a wide screen film. overall, though, this film is just another western to have seen. i consider myself to be a film student, and there is something satisfying about having seen a film like how the west was won. i talked to someone, a close relative, about the film, and he said he had flipped the tv on and watched part of it, then flipped elsewhere, and did this a couple of times, and so he felt he didn't need to see the whole film. my point, however, is that there is something good about watching a film from beginning to end, not flipping the channel, etc. from beginning to end. a story. from alpha to omega. the whole thing. anyway... yeah this movie is somewhat memorable, but just because of the cast. a lot of big names are in this film. the story itself is basic enough. and it has deep chords to those who are in the midwest already, where just a few hundred years ago settlers came in from the east.

hot writing

2009-02-22T12:44:00.001-08:00

i never gave the term "hotmail" much thought, for a long time. but then i realized at some point that "hot" refers to something available from any internet terminal, anywhere in the world. one time i tried to enter my email address when trying to contact someone from high school, at a web site, and the message came back, "no hot linking allowed." then a police officer one time referred to my house as a "hot house." or was that my imagination? i thought, later, that he might be referring to all the books in the house. but no, that would be fahrenheit 451 if that were true. or it might be a resentment against anyone who uses the internet, by those more old fashioned, who just use the tv set. or there are other possibilities. i am just now starting to love Jesus Christ more every day, to the point that my Christianity would govern every decision i make, so that i am not a hypocrite. so i don't really know what the police officer meant when he said my house was a "hot house." but i do know there is a higher Law than man's law, and that is God's Law. the Law of sin and redemption, salvation from sin and the effects of sin. now i walked into the library one time and someone called me a "hot writer." (or was this too my imagination?) i realized this may just mean that i am a blogger, that i give away my writing for free over the internet. as a society, we are still working out the problems of zero cost on the internet, giving away things for zero cost. how then would the artists get paid? so i guess, yes, i am a "hot writer." and i am not ashamed to say that i prefer the internet to tv. in fact i hope i never again subscribe to cable tv. but i do miss the movie channels. like from the 40's and 50's. if tv is a mirror, then it is in some ways an evil mirror. because we live in a fallen world. a world governed by powers and principalities against God. so be careful when you turn on the tv set. in some ways there is a "reality field" between you and the tv set. it's just not a reality you want to join. my question: if you enjoy mafia movies, and someone gets killed in the tv show, then are you in some way participating in the reality of the mafia by voluntarily watching that show? i think you might be. so in my watching, i try to watch police shows, private detective shows, and spy films, when it comes to drama and action.

gonzo: the life and work of dr. hunter s. thompson

2009-02-22T12:28:00.000-08:00

i don't know exactly what to say about the documentary gonzo. hunter s. thompson was clearly in the middle of the drug revolution, the sexual revolution, the change in mores. whether that makes him a hero is another question. i like people who push the boundaries and "break on through to the other side." he ran for sheriff in a county in colorado. he lost. God bless his soul, he had a full life. i for one, however, did not enjoy the idea of giving notoriety and fame to biker gangs who used group rape as a common practice. the idea, as well, of glamorizing drug use is questionable to me, as long as these drugs are illegal. i enjoyed the film fear and loathing in las vegas. there is a freedom in doing whatever you want. but whether that freedom has good or evil consequences is the question, and i also wonder, from a Christian point of view, about the destination of the soul of hunter s. thompson. he was essentially interested in politics of america, yet he seemed to operate from the assumption of a position of not being powerful except through words. still, the role he played in getting president carter elected is appreciated by me, as a Democrat.