The Dark Tower: a few comments

I finally got around to watching The Dark Tower.  After I watched it, I realized the film began with a very large lie: a statement to the effect that this film is based on the "Dark Tower" novels of Stephen King.

Well, let's see.  One of the characters in the film was named "Roland Gilead," which does come from the novels.  Another was "Walter" or the "Man in Black."  And, Jake Chambers  is also found in both the novels and the film.  Oh yes, there was a mention of The Dark Tower and part of the action in the novels does take place in NYC.  That's about all I recognized in the film as coming from the novels.

Of course, it's been a long time since I read the novels, so my memory may be a bit faulty here.  So, if anyone has seen the film and recognized scenes from the novels that I obviously missed, please let me know.

One curious note:  Stephen King appeared in one of the  Extras, but for less than ten seconds I would guess.  He said that he had Clint Eastwood in mind when he created Roland.  When I read the novels, I thought Eastwood would have made a great Roland.  King's second comment was that he thought that Matthew McConaughey was well cast as Walter.  I thought that was a strange juxtaposition of the comments about the two of the leading roles in the film.

I think Idris Elba, who played Roland, is an excellent actor and was convincing in his role.   However, he is not  Clint Eastwood.  So, as I watched the film, I tried to forget King's Roland and think of Elba as a different Roland.

Overall Reaction:  the powers-that-be turned a highly complex and imaginative work into just another film featuring a teenager with superpowers who saves the universe.  Jake is the hero and Roland is his bodyguard. 

Bokeh, a film

Bokeh, a film


A young couple, Americans, are on vacation in Iceland.  One morning they awake to find that everybody else has disappeared--completely disappeared.  There are no bodies; no signs of any disaster.  The only change they can see is that the human race has vanished and only they remain.  Radio, TV, and phones are silent.  The world has gone silent, whether it is local in Iceland or international.  They have no idea of why or how this happened nor why they alone remain. 

Bokeh is a quiet film with no monsters, mutants, aliens, car chases, or devastation found so frequently in post-apocalyptic films.   To a considerable extent, it reminds me of another film, a documentary that discussed what would happen if the human race just simply disappeared. Unfortunately I can't remember the title.

The film focuses on their attempts to deal with the situation, and with each other.  While they are in love, this is the first time they have been forced to interact solely with each other for any extensive length of time.   In the past, other people  have always been nearby, along with their work and life in the 21st century, with its distractions, crises, and pleasures.  Now, for the first time, they are really alone and are faced with the reality of being alone for a long time--just the two of them.  

They appear to live in the present.  There is little thought for the future.  Their main concern seems to be to exist.  They ignore the potential Adam and Eve setting for they do not even speak of children.  It was as if they thought only of themselves and weren't concerned that the human race might die out with them. 

The photography was one of the strong points of the film .  This could almost pass as as travelogue for they took advantage of Iceland's scenery and filmed much of it.  It almost made me want to schedule a trip to Iceland.  If you are curious about Iceland and can't find a travel film, rent this film. 

 In the press notes, the writer-directors explain that "bokeh"is a photographic term for the part of a photo that's out of focus, the background that helps to set the foreground.   In their film, the science fiction scenario of this silent apocalypse is part of that background.

I must admit that I wasn't that impressed immediately after watching the film.  However, I have been thinking about it, on and off, since then.  Something about the film intrigues me,  but I don't know what it is.  I just may rent it again to find out.  If so, that suggests that the film had affected me at some level below the conscious level.

Bokeh is a puzzlement.  

Two very, very different films

Snowpiercer, an SF Film

Into Great Silence, a documentary



  
Snowpiercer
 
Several nights ago, I watched two very different films.  One was Snowpiercer, directed by the South Korean director  Bong Joon-ho.  It's a post-catastrophe or post-apocalypse film that reflects current events.

In an attempt to deal with global warning, a chemical is interjected into the upper atmosphere.  It, of course, goes wrong (otherwise there would be no film), and, instead, sends earth off into a planet-wide ice age, killing off everything.  The only survivors are the lucky ones who managed to get aboard a long, powerful, and self-sufficient supertrain created by the mysterious and wealthy Wilford.  Obsessed with trains, Wilford uses his wealth to create a world-wide railway system for his train. 

It's now seventeen years later, and a strict brutal class/caste system has evolved.  The train is a linear depiction of this system, with the train tailenders at the back living in a few overcrowded and rundown cars, on rations barely above the starvation level.   any grumbling is met with a lecture about how ungrateful they are to be allowed to live.  They are at the back end and others at the front because that's the way it is and they should know their place.  This is the natural order of things.   Sound familiar?

As we move forward, the conditions improve until we reach just behind the Eternal Engine where the rich live idle lives with a variety of rich foods, clothing, and drugs, with no concern for the less fortunate at the train's back end. At the front is the Eternal Engine compartment, occupied only by Wilford, who is seen almost as a deity at this point and visited by only a few.

However, yet another revolution by the ungrateful powerless poor is brewing.  Curtis, one of those trapped in the rear of the train, leads the poor and dispossessed through the train which provides numerous fight scenes, violence, and a high body count. 

The number of interesting characters among the rebels and the ruling elite is one of this film's strong points.

One point made by the film perhaps explains the behavior of the very rich and powerful today.  They seem unconcerned about the dangers brought about by global warming at this point, and spend millions of dollars fighting legislation that is designed to reduce the threat if that legislation reduces either their power or their profits.   The film suggests that they believe that, while global warming or any severe climate change may cause problems, they are rich enough and powerful enough to ensure their own comfortable survival. 




Into Great Silence

Fortunately that wasn't the only film I watched that  night and doubly fortunate that I watched Into Great Silence, a documentary about life in a Carthusian monastery, the Grande Chartreuse monestery in the Chartreuse Mountains of France, afterwards.   The non-stop action in Snowpiercer would have kept me awake for a long time.  Into Great Silence was the exact opposite-- almost a silent film, with only one instance of the monks engaging in conversation and that at a permitted time.  The only other examples of the human voice was the chanting during ceremonies and a formulized question-and-answer dialogue when a novice took his temporary vows.  Oh yes, one other bit of talk occurred when the monk, whose job it was to feed the monastery cats, called them for dinner.  He talked a little to them and noted that one was the big boss. 

Philip Groning, the director, had contacted the monastery in 1984, requesting permission to do the documentary.  They responded that they weren't ready yet.  Finally, 16 years later Groning was told they were ready. 

The film is a visual documentary:  there is no narrative voice explaining what is being filmed.  The viewer is forced to guess.  Groning shot the film in natural light so the viewer sees the monastery and its inhabitants going about their daily routine without any artificial lighting.

The monastery does have electricity, but its use seems to be limited to when it is absolutely necessary; for example during night time services, small lights are placed by the music stands so they can see the music.  Clearly it replaces candles.  The Carthusians do not have tonsures, but instead get all of their hair cut off regularly.  (Reminded me of my time in basic training in the USAF)  They use electric hair clippers instead of hand clippers. 

The monks were shown going about their daily lives of prayer, work, meditation, and rituals without commentary.  They never spoke, except for the examples noted above, and seemingly spent most of the day silently and solitary, at least outwardly so. 


The combination of the silence and the beautiful photography both inside the monastery and outside made this an extraordinary film.

The Village: an SF film

The Village
an SF film


Here's another one of those quiet SF films that I never heard of until I ran across it by accident.  It appeared in 2004 and was written, produced, and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who has also directed The Last Airbender and The Sixth Sense.  

I'm surprised that I missed this film because it stars William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Joaquin Phoenix, and Bryce Dallas Howard.  With this cast, it should have received more notice.  Of course, I may just have missed it and am the only person in the world who hadn't heard of it.  The background music is also unique in that the solo violinist is Hillary Hahn, a world-class performer who, at age 35, already has won two Grammys. 

The film opens on a quiet village scene, apparently sometime during the 1800s, according to their clothing and the implements they use.  However, something strange appears almost immediately as two young women who are sweeping the porch with brooms make a game of it, dancing with the brooms.  Suddenly the frolicking is interrupted when one spots a red flower.  They stare at it and one wonders where it came from.  One plucks the flower and immediately buries it, saying "bad color, bad color."

The villagers are all from surrounding towns where each has lost someone through violence or has come here to escape violence.  All have taken a vow to remain in the village and not to return to the towns.  It appears to be one of the many utopian communities formed during the 19th century, one of which was featured in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Blythedale Romance.  These are the 19th century equivalents of the hippie communes of the 20th century.  

The people are happy and content as they go about their daily chores and work.  The town is self-sufficient as it produces its own food in its own gardens, and it has a small herd of cattle.  We see the women making clothing, and a blacksmith forging tools and other implements.  Ingredients for the meals do not come out of cans or boxes.  Decisions are made by a council of village elders, with William Hurt's character being the unofficial leader.

However, in spite of the ordinariness of their lives,  strangeness appears when we realize that there is a circle of wooden poles surrounding the village that bear lit torches at night.  A guard is posted at night on a tall watch tower that can be reached only by ladder and up through a trap door that is locked by the guard at the top.  Children are warned not to go beyond the barrier.  We also learn that there are creatures out there called "Those We Don't Speak Of," and there seems to be an unspoken agreement that neither bothers the other by coming into the village or going beyond the barrier.  However, several incidents suggest that this agreement is breaking down for some reason.

The first half of the film depicts the lives of these people and the series of disquieting events regarding the relationship of the villagers and "Those We Don't Speak Of."   However, the second half turns into something quite different as it now focuses on the relationship between two of the characters.  A young blind woman, played by Bryce Dallas Howard, goes on a heroic and solitary quest to a nearby town to get some medicine for her newly betrothed lover, played by Joaquin Phoenix.  It is her journey that now becomes the center of the film.  It is because of this journey that dark secrets are revealed, at least for viewers. 


It's an interesting film about a small isolated village whose inhabitants have voluntarily cut themselves off from what they perceive as the dangers of  living in large towns.  The film centers on people and ideas, and the special effects and the usual trappings of action-oriented SF are missing. 

Recommended for those looking for something other than noisy space battles, drooling aliens, and special effects that substitute for plot and character development.

Europa Report: An SF film

Europa Report  (ER)    is one of the best SF films I've viewed in some time.  I actually hadn't heard much about it before I came across it somewhere.  It's too bad because it is far more interesting than many of the blockbuster SF films with a huge marketing budget.

It reminds me somewhat of another great SF film--2001: A Space Odyssey.  Both feature exploratory spaceships headed for Jupiter and much of the concluding action takes place there.  The difference is that ER focuses at the end on the events following the landing on Europa, a moon of Jupiter, while 2001 concludes in the vicinity of Jupiter.  Moreover, the ending of ER is much more in line with present day scientific findings. 

The design of the ships in both films is complex and not the typical cigar shapes found so often.  In addition, the photography has clearly been influenced by Kubrick's film, especially the frequent closeups of the cast in which bright lights are reflected off the space helmets or even on the bare skin of their faces.

The focus of the film is realism, an attempt to portray an actual exploratory journey to Europa to explore the possibility of life there.  The film incorporates the latest findings about Europa, especially the recent discovery that, although covered with ice, there is a strong possibility that there may be an ocean underneath the ice cover, much like the lake recently discovered under the ice in Antarctica.  NASA photographs have been seamlessly incorporated into the film which add to the realism of the film.  In addition, I don't recognize any of the cast members which eliminates the distractions caused by familiar faces.

If you are looking for a recent fact-based SF film about space exploration, take a good look at Europa Report--it won't disappoint you

Harlan Ellison: Some comments about A Boy and His Dog

The following quotations come from HE's introduction to Vic and Blood, a recently published collection of the three Vic and Blood short stories.  The introduction is titled "Latest Breaking News: The Kid and the Pooch." HE wants to set the record straight regarding responsibility for the film.



"The film version of  'A Boy and His Dog' had a more than slightly misogynistic tone.  Not the story, the movie.  I have no trouble placing the blame on that sexist loon Jones (see: "Huck and Tom,   The Bizarre Liaison of Ellison and Jones" in  Outre magazine, issue #309, Fall 2002).  He was brung up in Texas, and as a good ole boy he is pretty much beyond retraining.

But I catch the flak.   I've had to go to universiies where they've screened the movie (it being one of the most popular campus films perennially, and constantly available in one of another unauthorized knock-off video versions)  and I've had to try to explain to Politically Correct nitwits that I didn't write the damned film--which I happen to like a lot, except for the idiotic last line, which I despise--I wrotne the original story; so I won't accept the blame for what they perceive as a 'woman-hating' in the film.

And I say to them READ THE D_____D STORY!  In the story (not to give too much away for those few of you who don't know this material), as in the film.  .  .  VIC NEVER TOUCHES THE MEAT!"

"So here we are,  Vic, Blood, you, me, 34 years after I wrote that first section (which turned out to be the second section, actually).  Twenty-eight years after the film of  'A Boy and His Dog' won me a Hugo at the 34th World Science Fiction Convention.  And I've written the rest of the book, BLOOD'S A ROVER.  The final, longest section is in screenplay form--and they're bidding here in Hollywood, once again, for the feature film aand TV rights --and one  of these days before I go through that final door, I'll translate it into elegant prose, and the full novel will appear."

Well, it's been ten years since he wrote this on "25 March 2003," and I haven't seen anything of the novel or heard anything about the film.  By the way, I've reread this several times and any unusual spelling or punctuation you find belong to HE.  

A Boy and His Dog: an SF film

I must admit that when I first saw the title many years ago, my immediate reaction was another "Lassie Come Home" film, so I ignored it.  Years later I came across comments that suggested it was a post-apocalyptic film and that Harlan Ellison had something to do with it.  Aha, I thought--Harlan Ellison!  Dog comes home and is eagerly welcomed.  That night the dog gets up and rips out the throats of all those in the house or perhaps those welcoming the dog hadn't had any food for days, so Lassie ends up in the pot that night.  That's HE stuff.

So I watched the film, and I was intrigued by it, but still troubled by something.   I would watch it several times over the past decades and never quite resolved my problems with it.  Finally, last week I watched it again, and I think I found out what's troubling me.

The film is really a two-part fantasy, one part above ground and the other down below.  The inhabitants of the two planes of existence are very different, although they do share one common characteristic: both are trapped in a future-less existence.

Above ground, the inhabitants live solely in the present:  they have no past and no future.  They make no plans for the future.  No one seems concerned that the canned goods they scavenge may either run out or turn bad over time.  They want food and they search for it until they find some, eat, and rest.  The same holds true for sex.  They want sex, they search for it until they find a woman, rape her, and also frequently kill her. Today is all there is, and survival and immediate gratification are primary.   The only common meeting ground for the inhabitants appears to be at the patched up film tent where apparently the only films that survived (or at least played) are porno films.

The only voice of sanity is that of Blood, the telepathic dog who hangs with Vic, a young rover or loner (played by a young Don Johnson, in his pre-Miami Vice days).  Blood's sardonic observations provide a common sense point-of-view on the environment and the people about them.  In complete contrast to everyone else, including his partner Vic, Blood alone has a sense of the past, present, and future.

His comments about the behavior of  Vic and the others in the present are brief, ironic, and accurate.  In addition, he attempts to teach Vic some history, which suggests that Blood is aware that unless one understands the past, one cannot comprehend the present, and if one doesn't know where one is, one cannot see where one is going.  Blood alone is one who thinks about a better future or at least a different future.  Now the promised land he frequently tries to persuade Vic to search for may be mythical, but it does show that Blood understands that this may not be all there is and there may be a better future than the one awaiting those who remain in this desolation.

Vic eventually is seduced into going down below and leaving Blood behind.   Down below is far more bizarre than the post-apocalyptic world above.  It's inhabitants occupy a different fantasy world: the past of the  American Golden Age.  It's the small town, the rural heartland of  America, that possibly never existed, the time appears to be the period between WWI and WWII.  The inhabitants wear bibbed overalls and pinafores, with clownish makeup and pigtails.  A high school marching band wanders here and there (reminds me a bit of the band in The Prisoner).  Everyday is a picnic:  every day is the Fourth of July.  The community is run by the Committee whose every dictate is silently obeyed by the rest.   Dissenters are sent to "the farm," an interesting WWII holdover euphemism which stands for death.

We now discover just why Vic has been lured down there.  The Committee has decided that "new blood" is needed, some healthy mongrel genes are necessary for the maintenance of healthy diversity.  He is an imported stud.  Unfortunately for Vic, the world down below has techniques for artificial insemination for humans also, so Vic's initial dream of endless couplings comes to naught.


 I consider this to be the weakest part of the film, for Blood is not there with his brief and sarcastic observations.  Jason Robards, as head of the committee, is the only one down there who is aware of what the real situation is, but he lacks Blood's ability to see beyond the present.  All of Robard's actions are designed to maintain the status quo.  The people down below are trapped in the past, they deny the present, and their future is only an escape to a mythical past.

Vic, and the viewers, need Blood to point out the weaknesses of the down below world.  Perhaps it is impossible for common sense to exist below.  The strange encounter with the dog below makes me wonder about that.  Vic sees a dog similar to Blood, although considerably cleaner.  Vic speaks to the dog but gets no answer.  Robards gets the dog and questions it.  Silence.  This is not a telepathic dog. Robards orders the dog to be sent to "the farm," just in case.  This might be suggestive of what might happen to anyone who might look too closely at their culture.

The film only regains its focal point when Vic escapes the asylum (mental asylum, not safe place asylum) down below and finds Blood.  Blood is the real star of the show.   He provides a basic level of sanity that pokes through the fantasy above ground, but not for the world below.  And, without Blood, I find the world down below somewhat disappointing and less interesting than it should have been.

 As for the ending--that's pure Ellison.  All I can say is encapsulated in two cliches, slightly modified:

Love is a sometime thing, but a dog is man's best friend.

And

Greater love hath no man than to give up his wife for his dog.



 I recently found a copy of  Ellison's short story that was the basis for the film.  It was a bit expensive, but I was curious.  When I received it a few days ago, I discovered that Ellison had written three short stories about Vic and Blood,  "Eggsucker," "A Boy and His Dog" (the basis for the film), and "Run, Spot, Run."  The third one is actually an excerpt from Ellison's projected novel Blood's a Rover (working title).   I can't find any information that the novel was published.  However, there are several graphic novels featuring Vic and Blood, so those may have replaced the projected novel.

Now for the short stories.

Jerome Bixby's Man from Earth, an SF film

Jerome Bixby is probably best known for his short story, "It's a Good Life," which became a Twilight Zone episode in 1961, as well as scripts for four Star Trek episodes.  In addition, he has written numerous short stories, both SF and westerns under several pseudonyms.  But, for me, his best work is the script for The Man from Earth, which he finished several days before his death.

It has no special effects, no drooling bug-eyed monsters (BEMs), no space ships, no ray guns, no car chases, no exploding buildings, no scenes of hand-to-hand combat, and no gun battles.   So, what does it have?  It has a fascinating premise, interesting characters, and intelligent dialogue.  It is directed by Richard Schenkman, who resisted the urge to "improve" it by turning it into an action-oriented film.  The cast has no big names, which is an advantage for then the focus is on character and dialogue.  They do a superb job.

The plot is simple: John Oldman, a history professor, has resigned his position and is leaving the area.  His friends and colleagues are hurt, angry, and confused, for he hasn't told anyone about his decision, except for the university administration. He plans to leave without saying goodbye to his friends, some of whom he has known for ten years.   They are hurt and angry because he is "sneaking" out of town without even saying goodbye and confused about his reasons.  He is highly respected and considered to be the most obvious choice for appointed head of the department in a few years.

The film opens quietly: John is putting boxes into the back of his pickup.  He is obviously getting ready to leave when several cars pull up.  People get out carrying bags of takeout food and drinks.  They have decided to have a going-away picnic, in spite of John's attempts to leave quietly.  It is clear that they are upset, but he is a friend so they try to be civil.

They move into the house and take places in the large front room with a fireplace.  This is where they will spend most of the film, talking about John's decision to leave.  After considerable nagging, John reluctantly comes to a decision: he will explain.

He introduces the subject gradually, by suggesting that he may be writing a novel.  He begins by asking his anthropologist friend if a man from the Pleistocene Era, which ended around 12000 BC, would be noticeable today.  The anthropologist says that one wouldn't be any physically different from people today.

John explains that he's not talking about time travel or any sort of mechanism that would suddenly transport this person some 14,000 years into the future.  His caveman simply lives day-by-day, after having reached the apparent physical age of mid 30s.  He is 14,000 years old.

After having established this, he casually mentions, in response to a question about Columbus, that he had been with Columbus and that he, like many, did feel the world was round, but there was always that uncertainty.  At this point the mood and tenor of the relationships changes drastically.

To be brief, John Oldman claims to be 14, 000 years old, and that's why he is leaving.  He has found that it is best if he spends no more than a decade in any particular place because people begin to notice that he doesn't seem to age like everybody else.  In fact, one of his colleagues, a few minutes earlier, had joking asked what his secret was--that he hadn't aged a bit since he arrived ten years ago.

There are three ways that one can respond to Oldman's claim:  he is telling the truth, he is deceiving them for some reason, or he is seriously mentally disturbed.  They cannot accept that he is telling the truth, so he must be lying or seriously delusional.  Some are angry for they think he is trying to make fools of them while others are saddened by his obviously delusional state of mind.  

These are good, honest, intelligent people who try to handle possibly the most ambiguous and perplexing situation they have ever encountered.  They know, like, and respect John, but his claim is too outrageous.  They try to poke holes in his story, but it's impossible.  He makes no claim to be a super genius or possess super powers.  He only knows what he learns from those about him.  Everything he knows could have come out of a book or learned paper written by anthropologists or historians.

The film concentrates on the changing relationship between John and the others.  He now realizes that he made a serious mistake in telling them his story for they can't accept it as true.  Part of their problem may be that they can't accept that he will go on living while they age and eventually die.  I wonder if I would sit there and ask myself--"Why him and not me?"
  
When I first sat down to watch the film, I had no expectations aside from the brief blurb stating that it was about a man who claimed to be 14,000 years old.  I couldn't believe it when the film ended and I found I had sat there, transfixed for 90 minutes by a film that many would dismiss as being just one of those talky movies where nothing happens.

I have watched it now four times and finally purchased my own copy.  It is one of only ten DVDs that I own, two of which are gifts.  The other two SF DVDs that I own are Blade Runner and THX 1138.  I will watch it again, probably several more times at that, for each time I discover something new, about the story, about the dialogue, about the characters.

Iron Sky: an SF film?

The question in the title of this post really means that I wondered whether to call it a film or farce.  It's brought to you by the same folks who produced Star Wreck, another SF satiric film that conflates Star Wars and Star Trek. I haven't watched it yet, but it's in my queue now.  Iron Sky also targets two victims:  various alien invasion films and films about hidden nests of Nazis plotting to resurface and take over the world.  In other words, Moon Nazis.

There was some discussion many years ago as to who got the best German rocket scientists--the USA or the USSR.  Now, the truth can be told.  Neither!  The best German rocket scientists fled to dark side of the moon along with many other high ranking Nazi officials in 1945.  Since then, they have been working on a super weapon that will destroy the world.

The time is 2018 and the last problem with the doomsday weapon has been solved, mostly by accident.  Two American astronauts have landed on the moon near the Nazi base (built in the shape of a swastika, of course).  One of the astronauts had a mobile phone with him.  When asked what it was, he told them it was a phone and a computer.  The German Mad Scientist (who had a hairdo reminiscent of Einstein) laughed and said this was obviously a lie because it was so small.  Real computers were room-sized.  Curious anyway, the Mad Scientist inserts the phone to discover it can control the doomsday weapon, but the battery drained too quickly.  The solution to the problem was obviously to go to Earth and get bigger and stronger batteries.

The Nazis go to Earth occasionally, but not too often because the crews and ships frequently don't return for some inexplicable reason.  The Nazi ships look just like the flying saucers so prevalent in 1950s alien invasion movies.  So, the UFO sightings were real: they weren't aliens--they were Nazis.  Meanwhile, the Mad Scientist's young, beautiful, blonde daughter begins to fall in love with the American astronaut and helps him to escape.  And so on and so forth.

The American President who plays a significant role is obviously Sarah Palin, even though she is not named: the long black hair, the glasses with the half-lens, and various verbal expressions.  Her Oval Office is equipped with a cycle exercise machine and various stuffed trophy animals, including a polar bear.  (The director in an interview says the bear was not planned, but his staff found it somewhere.)

Eventually the Nazis launch an attack on New York and the scenes are classic from 1950 films:  crowds running and screaming, saucers destroying buildings, dogfights between fighter jets and saucers.  The Nazi mother ships resemble dirigibles.  However, various nations on Earth including the US possess armed space ships (all illegal of course, banned by the UN, and agreed to by all nations).  When the US President scolds them for possessing these illegal ships, some point out that the US has one also.  Her response is the that the US always lies--it is expected.

Keep an eye peeled for at least two little bits "borrowed" from Dr Strangelove--Peter Sellers' problem with his arm and the ending.

Lots of fun.  It is best viewed by shutting down your brain, in the presence of like-minded friends, and  with your favorite attitude adjustment substance at hand. 

Three SF films

Warning:  I will discuss endings and significant plot elements.   

These are three films that I have just recently viewed.  As you can see, I'm not exactly right on top of the film scene.  

Total Recall (remake)

Source Code

Looper

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Total Recall 
If you want exciting and impossible scenes of hovercar chases (see Star Wars) in rush hour traffic, as well as car crashes, this is for you.  If exploding buildings and huge fireballs reaching for the skies are your thing, watch this film.  If scenes of hand-to-hand combat and numerous firefights are your thing, don't miss this one.  

However, if interesting characters with more than one dimension, plot development, and intelligent dialogue are your preferences, don't bother.  Watch something else.  The blurb on the DVD box says, "Better than the original."  That's a joke.  That had to be written with tongue firmly impressed into the cheek.

The bare plot line of the first film is there, buried under CGI special effects.  Quaid bored with his job, goes to a place that will insert false memories of an exciting adventure, and finds out that his present persona is an overlay.  The shootouts begin immediately at this point.   He escapes and heads for home.  He discovers that his loving wife, Lori ( played by Kate Beckinsale, has been assigned to watch for signs that he's recovering his memory, which apparently isn't his real memory either.  

Lori (Beckinsale) is the only character who stands out in this film.  She is remarkable as the embodiment of the old cliches:  Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" and "the female of the species is more dangerous than the male."   She wants Quaid dead.  And, she's not Salome who persuades others to bring Quaid's head to her on a plate; she wants to be the one who puts it there.  

The locations have been changed: it is no longer Earth and Mars, but a post-catastrophic Earth reduced to the British Federation and the Colony, which appears to be Australia and is still somewhat free of total domination by the Federation.  What's holding Cohaagen, the dictator, back is the strong resistance movement.  Cohaagen's secret weapon is Quaid who is a double/triple agent who is supposed to appear to be sympathetic to the resistance and  eventually reveal the location of the leadership.  

In the original version, Quaid learns of a device that will provide Mars with a breathable atmosphere, thus freeing the inhabitants from being forced to live in the domes because they couldn't go outside.  The end of the film was the marvelous scene of the new atmosphere covering Mars and giving all the chance to escape the Earth-controlled domes.

Total Recall 2012 has been gifted with a far less imaginative ending. Cohaagen, once the resistence is eliminated or weakened, sends his syntha-soldiers, all wearing white, shiny, plastic-appearing armor  (see Star Wars) to invade the colony and wipe out the inhabitants.  He will replace them with people from the Federation, which is getting overcrowded.  

The gimmick is the elevator, a shaft that burrows through the earth between the Federation and the Colony, which is used to transport people and goods between the two.  As the invasion begins, Quaid learns of a secret code which, if inserted into the main communication center of the syntha-soldiers,  will cause them to go inert, thus ending the invasion.  But this certainly won't provide the thrilling climax to the film:  just how exciting would be a scene where the syntha-soldiers simply stop functioning and come to a halt.  So, we and Dennis Quaid learn that the code really doesn't  exist, and Quaid is forced to resort to another method of stopping the invasion.  Would you really be surprised to learn that it involves blowing something up?

Recommendation:  see first and second paragraphs.


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Source Code

This is not a film about time travel but something to do with quantum physics. OK, but it sure looks like time travel to me.  Anyway, Colter Stevens' mission is to locate a bomb placed on a commuter train heading for Chicago, disarm it, and identify the bomber.   He needs to do this because the bomber has another "dirty bomb" which he plans to set off in Chicago.   However, he has only eight minutes to do this because the gizmo can place him on the train only eight minutes before the bomb goes off.  Fortunately for Colter, he has more than one chance to do this.  In fact, he is forced to go back numerous times because the bomb keeps going off before he succeeds in defusing it.  

Colter did not volunteer for this mission.   He was an Air Force copter pilot in Afghanistan whose last memories are of being on a mission and reporting that he's getting heavy ground fire.  Then, he suddenly finds himself on this commuter train, seated across from a very attractive young lady who seems to know him under a different name.  He heads for the men's room to regain control and finds that he has a different face and probably a different body.  The bomb explodes, and Colter finds himself in some sort of pod or control cabin, where he is able to communicate with an AF officer and a mad scientist, who finally explain just what is going on.

Now he is informed of his mission. He is being placed, thanks to a highly secret and experimental gadget, into the consciousness of a man who is about to die in eight minutes.  That is the limitation of the gadget's functioning.  Why he went the first time without any information is never explained, or at least I don't remember any explanation.  I suspect this was done, not because of the plot, but simply to make the film more intriguing to viewers.

The film has two stories: one is Colter's attempts to locate the bomb and the bomber and the other is his growing attachment to Christina Warren (played by Michelle Monaghan), the young woman seated across from him, who knows him as Sean Fentress.  What Colter doesn't know is that he is being kept alive artificially for the duration of the mission and will die at the end.  Colter, however, guesses at his true situation and persuades his contact to run a little experiment of his own.  

The director of Source Code is Duncan Jones, who also happens to be the director of another SF film that I enjoyed, Moon.   Jones is unique today in that he is able to keep the special effects to a minimum and actually spends most of the film developing interesting characters and story line.  I've seen only two of his films and in those two he follows a pattern.  He focuses on only one SF element (cloning in Moon and the consciousness-transferring gizmo in Source Code).  He then builds the story and characters around those elements, concentrating on character behavior and dialogue among the cast members and creating an interesting story line.  Special effects are kept to a minimum: the focus is on the relationship among the characters as they are acted upon by the SF element.

Rating:  I would give it a 3.75 on a 5 point scale. It's not a great SF film, but it's certainly a decent film about gizmos and people who try to survive with them or in spite of them.


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Looper

This is certainly the most complex film of the three.  It is definitely and clearly a time-travel film. But, like Source Code, the SF element does not dominate the plot to the exclusion of an interesting story and some interesting characters.  Time-travel in this film is one-way only-to the past. Someone who travels into the past must remain there.  In addition,  there appears to be a limit to the length of time one can travel into the past--30 years.


Loopers are assassins working for the mob, but with a twist.  The story is set in 2044 in an US suffering an economic collapse.  Time travel is invented in 2074, some thirty years later.  It is immediately outlawed by the government, but criminal elements have gotten control of a time-travel machine.  As it is extremely difficult to hide a body in 2074, the mob uses the device as a way of disposing of their enemies.  A looper in 2044 gets a message telling him where to be and at what time.  The victim appears, bound hand and foot, and with a bag over his head.  The looper then immediately shoots him.  The victim also has several silver bars strapped to his back, the looper's payment. 

Occasionally a looper will find that his payment is a considerable number of gold bars.  This happens when the looper "closes the loop."   If a looper lives long enough, he will reach 2074.  The mob now considers him a threat  for he knows about time-travel,  and they do not want the government to discover what they are doing.  So, he is captured and sent back, with the gold bars, to his earlier self to be killed.  At this point, the looper retires and decides how to spend the next 30 years.     

Joe is a looper who lives a comfortable life and even manages to save a few bars of silver from each job.  All goes well until his last assignment, which he doesn't immediately recognize as being his last one.  He get a notice of time and place and is puzzled when the victim doesn't show up exactly on time.  Then the victim appears, but Joe freezes when he is confronted by a man who is not tied nor does he have a bag over his head.  Stunned, the victim turns and is shot in the back, but the gold bars protect him.  He manages to knock Joe out and escape. The victim is Old Joe, himself 30 years in the future.

Young Joe realizes that he's in trouble and in a confrontation with several members of the looper gang is knocked out.  This is followed by the most confusing scene in the film.  Joe is knocked out and when he regains consciousness, he is back in the field, waiting for the victim to appear.  This time the victim is bound and his head is covered with a bag.  Joe kills him and discovers his payment is in gold bars, and he now realizes whom he had killed.  This time all proceeds as expected, and Joe retires.  We then follow Joe as he ages and turns in Old Joe, who is played by Bruce Willis.

 We are now in 2074 and see the events that led to the first visit by Old Joe who survives.  He has come back not just to survive but to kill the child who will grow up to be the Rainmaker, the mob leader who was responsible for the death of Old Joe's wife.  The rest of the film is now split between Old Joe, as he searches for the child and Young Joe who is trying to stay out of the hands of the looper gang. 

As in Source Code, the special effects are kept to a minimum, even in scenes involving time travel.  The traveler suddenly appears without benefit of noise or color or transporter beams, etc.  

Young Joe is portrayed as shallow and self-absorbed.  He has no compunction about killing others, including his future self, whom he insists is not him at this present moment.   Since killing his future self will benefit him, he is determined to finish him off. Old Joe, the Bruce Willis' character, is quite a different person, a reformed killer.  He is determined to kill the child because he feels that will save his wife.  He regrets the necessity, but the life of his wife is more important.


One of the most interesting scenes takes place in a diner when Young Joe and Old Joe confront each other.  Several minutes are spent in just dialogue, most likely a scene that would have been cut by the director of Total Recall or by George Lucas, who lately has forgotten that  the prime elements of a film are plot and characters.  Special effects should enhance the film's story, not be the reason for it.

Three characters who stand out:   Bruce Willis as Old Joe, Emily Blunt as Sara, the mother of the child who will become the Rainmaker, and Jeff Daniels as Abe, the head of the looper gang. 

Rating:  3.75 on a 5 point scale.  It probably would get a higher rating from someone who isn't bothered by the confusing scene I mentioned earlier, nor by the ending.  Of course, this is time travel, so I guess I should just forget the anomalies and enjoy the film. 



While Total Recall had at least three or four times and perhaps even five times the action scenes of the other two films combined, we must not forget that Bruce Willis is in Looper, and we can't have Bruce without at least one shootout.  In fact, we see him in what I consider to be the Iconic Bruce Willis encounter.  In this scene he enters the building where the looper gang hangs out and proceeds to stroll down the hallway, an automatic weapon in each hand, firing as he goes, taking them out, to the front, to the rear, on each side as he passes by the doors to various rooms.  Willis clearly was enjoying himself in this scene, and it reminded me of an almost identical scene in Last Man Standing. . 

Overall:  I found Looper and Source Code far more interesting than Total Recall.

Prometheus: a prequel or a remake or both?

When I settled down with the DVD of Prometheus, I didn't know what to expect.  I had heard or read a few vague comments that suggested it was a film worth watching.  So, I settled back in my recliner to find out whether it really was worth watching.

The actors were convincing in their roles, the special effects were good, the dialogue was considerably better than silly, and the plot was interesting,  but I felt as the end approached that the film really didn't break any new ground.  I felt it had all been done before, which may be unfair to the film, to some extent, because I've watched many SF films over the decades.  It wasn't until the very end of the film that I finally caught on.  I'm slow that way, partially because I get involved in the film or book or whatever and don't step back to take a good analytical look at it until I've finished, or until something jumps out at me. Frequently I have to watch or read it again to get beyond enjoying it or being bored by it.   This time it was the ending that did it..



Unfortunately there's no way I can talk about this film without revealing plot details and the ending.


SPOILER WARNING!





As I mentioned above, the ending finally gave me the clue.  I then did some research and talked to some knowledgeable friends and got confirmation.  I'm probably the last person in the Known Universe to find this out: Prometheus is a prequel, the first of three actually, to the superb SF/Horror film, Alien, with Sigourney Weaver. I finally caught on when the critter that popped out of the giant's body at the end was the monster with the pointy head and the most frightening set of jaws in filmdom.

However, the more I thought about it, the more I was convinced there was more to Prometheus than simply being a prequel.  It was the initial familiarity that I experienced long before I caught on to the relationship with Alien that got me thinking.  I eventually came up with the following chart:



Director::
Alien  (A) :            Ridley Scott

Prometheus  (P) :  Ridley Scott



Set Designer:
A    H. R. Giger

P    H. R. Giger




Film's Initiating Event::
A.   Spaceship Nostromo receives message interpreted as an SOS which later turns out to be a warning to all ships to avoid this planet.

P.  Archeologists discover a drawing or illustration that is found in many cultures world wide--what appears   to be a giant pointing at several stars. The pattern of stars is identical regardless of the time and place.  This is interpreted as an invitation to go there, but it could as easily have been a warning to stay away.




Setting:
A:  uninhabited planet with an apparently deserted alien spaceship.

P.   uninhabited planet with an apparently deserted alien spaceship.


  
The Alien Ship:
A.  appears to be a cargo ship

P.  appears to be a cargo ship


Exploration of the Ship
A.  It becomes clear the ship is not uninhabited but is occupied by dangerous creatures 

P.   It becomes clear the ship is not uninhabited but is occupied by dangerous creatures.




The Android/Robot:
A  One of the crew members is an android who is responsible for bringing a creature on board ship and is directly responsible for the death of one of the crew.

P  One of the crew members is an android who is responsible for bringing a creature on board ship and is directly responsible for the death of one of the crew.



The Android/Robot:
A.   The android attempts to kill Ripley (the Sigourney  Weaver character)  but fails.

P    The android attempts to kill  Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (the Noomi Repace character) but fails.




The Android/Robot's Head: 
A.  In a struggle, the android is decapitated, and we see the android's head on the floor, still able to function.

P.   In a struggle, the android is decapitated, and we see the android's head on the floor, still able to function.



The Crew:
A  The crew members of the ship Nostromo are killed, leaving Ripley, a woman, as the sole survivor (plus the ship's cat, of course.)

P   The crew members of the ship Prometheus are killed, leaving Shaw, a woman, as sole survivor, along with the android's head.



The Escape:
A.   Ripley attempts to escape in the ship's emergency pod, but finds the creature already there.

P    Shaw attempts to escape in the ship's emergency pod, but finds the creature already there.



The Ending:
A   Ripley with ship's cat gets in the deepsleep capsule and heads for nearest Terran outpost.

P    Shaw, with the android's head,  finds another alien ship and they?  head for the home planet of the giants, leaving the critter from Alien alone on the planet, awaiting the arrival of the Nostromo?  She also sets up a warning signal, telling them to stay away.  This is the signal that draws the Nostromo to the planet. 


What do you think?   

Tron and Tron: Legacy, a return visit

It's been over a year (see post on April 26, 2011)  since I last watched Tron and Tron: Legacy, and I was curious about whether my initial reactions to the two films had changed since then.  So, last night I engaged in a Tron film festival.  It's only two films, so it's not much of a festival, but so far, Disney hasn't come up with a Tron 3, yet.

To be brief, my initial reactions still held true, even stronger now after a second viewing.  The plots are still weak, although Tron: Legacy had an opportunity to explore an Eastern tradition in cyberspace, but never went anywhere with it, aside from putting Jeff Bridges in a meditation gown and showing him in a meditative pose now and then.  That is frustrating  for that could have been a fascinating idea to explore.

Put simply:  Tron had the look and feel of a truly alien world.  It was a convincing depiction of cyberspace, a digital universe with bright, sharp colors and strong demarcations of creatures and structures and motion impossible in our world. Cyberspace could be like this.

Tron: Legacy was not an alien universe, but our own universe distorted to some extent by computer graphics.  It no longer was an unknown world, but just one variation of ours--no longer digital but now a  modification of our analogue universe.  And, according to an interview with the director, Joseph Kosinsky,  this was done deliberately.  In his view, the digital world had evolved to become more "realistic," more like our own world. The special effects were fantastic, but all they did was to turn the digital world into ours.

What a waste of time, money, and effort!  I watched the film to see something new, not a variation of a world that I already knew, and a variation that concluded with scenes from the 1934 Nazi propaganda film, Triumph of the Will, directed by Leni Riefenstahl. I guess this is supposed to be another example of how realistic the Tron world has become.

If this trend continues, the third Tron, if there is one, will be set in an universe so realistic that it will be indistinguishable from ours.  I'll skip that one. 

The Woman in the Moon: a German SF film

Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou were married from 1922-1933.  During those eleven years, they collaborated on a number of remarkable films:  Lang as director and von Harbou as screenwriter.    In 1927 Lang directed and von Harbou wrote the script for Metropolis, one of the best SF films ever made.  Shortly afterwards, von Harbou wrote a novelization of the film.  I have a copy but I haven't had a chance to read it yet.  Perhaps I should rent the film again and then read the novel.

In 1929, Lang directed and again von Harbou did the screenplay for another SF film, The Woman in the Moon, which was based on a novel she had written the year before.  Then, in 1931, Lang directed von Harbou's script for M, starring a young Peter Lorre as a serial child murderer, whom the police seem unable to capture.  So, the criminal underworld, disturbed by the attentions of the police, decide to take a hand.  This is one of  Peter Lorre's finest performances.

As I mentioned above, The Woman in the Moon was produced several years after Metropolis.  It is a different sort of SF film in that it appears to be set in relatively contemporary Germany.  At least there was nothing that I could see, except for the space ship of course, that couldn't be found in Germany in the late 1920s.

Wolf Helius is an engineer and the prosperous owner of his own firm.  He is the friend and sole support of a disgraced scientist, Prof Manfeldt, who years ago had theorized that there was considerable gold on the moon.  When he propounded his theory at a scientific meeting, he was laughed at and ridiculed, and his reputation destroyed. However, Helius believed him and is in the process of building a spaceship, supposedly in search of the gold, but to Helius, the gold is really just an excuse to go to the moon.

A group of wealthy unscrupulous business folk (four men and a cigar-smoking woman) learn of Helius' plan and decide that the gold really should be in their hands and "not controlled by crackpots and visionaries," forgetting of course that it is the crackpots and visionaries who discovered the possibility of gold and  who  developed the nearly completed spaceship.  As part of a carefully laid plot, they stole the plans and threatened Helius with destroying the ship and possibly hurting a number of people.  He could prevent this only  by allowing their representative to go along on the journey.   He agreed, probably partially because he really wasn't interested in the gold--it was the journey that counted.

The ship's crew, therefore, consisted of Helius, Hans Windegger (his closest friend and assistant engineer and also assistant pilot),  Prof Manfeldt, and Turner, the representative of the evil business cabal.  Also aboard is Friede, a young astronomy student who is engaged to Windegger.  And after liftoff,  they discover a stowaway, a young boy who insists he an "expert" on space travel by virtue of having read numerous SF stories.  One complication that emerges during the trip is Helius' undeclared love for Friede which he has kept secret from everybody, but being in such close contact with her is making it extremely difficult for him.  As one might expect, this will play a significant role in what happens on the trip.

One advantage Lang had was his scientific consultant,  Dr. Hermann Oberth who,  along with the American  Robert Goddard and the Russian Konstantin Tsiolkovsky,  is considered one of  the three founding fathers of space flight.

See if the following doesn't sound a bit familiar.  The ship was built in a large industrial complex, not in someone's back yard or out in the desert.  Secondly it was built in a large hanger with gantries that pulled back as the ship prepared for liftoff.  In addition,  the ship was based on a large platform that moved the ship out of the hanger to the lifting area (launch pad in NASA terminology).  Moreover, it was a  three-stage rocket which discarded stages one and two after liftoff.  I've seen a number of  early films about space travel, and I don't remember any that suggested a multi-stage rocket, prior to the NASA program.


Trivia:
--Helsius,  as they approached the time for liftoff, called out  "ten seconds to go....6...5...4...3...2...1."    This is the first time according to the commentary that a countdown had been used in a film.

--At the end of the film, they discovered that they didn't have enough oxygen for the return trip.  Somebody was going to have to remain on the moon (Destination Moon?)   But, since the moon had a breathable atmosphere, there was a chance that the one who remained could be rescued if the ship could be quickly readied for a return flight.  After all, there was gold in them thar' lunar hills.

--When I discovered the the film was based on von Harbou's novel, I immediately went looking for it.  Amazon.com had nothing available while abebooks.com had two available: a French language version for $2000+  and a second copy for over $9000 dollars.  Needless to say I'm not going to have my own copy soon.

I don't particularly care for silent films and normally give up after about 30 minutes, or even less sometimes.  However, I  found this film to be interesting enough to be able to watch it in its entirety.   Another exception to the rule is Metropolis.  Both are SF films and both are directed by Fritz Lang.  This may not be a coincidence.  Overall, this is one of  most technically accurate films of space travel I have seen that was made long before the actual trips to the moon.

Battle Royale, a Japanese SF film

A battle royale, according to my dictionary, is defined as a battle which could be one in which numerous combatants participate or a fight to the finish or an intense altercation.  Battle Royale actually fits all three definitions.

I came across this film, as I have done so many others, by chance, for I had never heard of it until a short time ago.  The SF  book discussion group that I belong to scheduled Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games a few months ago.  After the discussion, I heard that a film was being made of it and would be out soon.  I checked up on it to see what the general reaction to it was. The reviews were, as usual, mixed, but one comment interested me the most.  Essentially the comment was that Battle Royale was a much better film. So, off to Netflix I went.

I haven't seen The Hunger Games yet, so I can't really compare them, but I will say this: if The Hunger Games is more violent and bloody than Battle Royale, then I don't want to watch it.

BR's plot is simple and probably somewhat familiar to those who either read and/or watched T he Hunger Games. It is set in Japan in the near future when the economy has collapsed and unemployment is over 15%.  Violence has become routine, especially among young people.  The Battle Royale Act is passed which allows the government to take any 9th grade class at random and transport them to an island.  There they are issued, randomly, weapons, of varying usefulness.  Some get automatic weapons while others get a GPS tracking device.  Some get swords or knives while others get large pot lids.

In the film, the class selected is 49-B, mostly 15-year-old boys and girls.  They are told that this session will last three days, and at the end of three days, the one person alive is the winner and will be returned to Japan. They are also fitted with collars that can't be removed and have a small explosive charge, sufficient to kill the wearer.  Attempting to remove the collar without the proper tools will  also cause an explosion.  The person doing the briefing, actually a former teacher of this class who had left after one of the students had stabbed him, demonstrates the collar's effectiveness by detonating the collar of one of the more obstreperous youths (it may even have been the one who stabbed him).  If more than one person is alive at the end of the three days, all collars will be detonated, and there will be no winner.   Reports are broadcast regularly informing the students of how many are left and who are the latest to die. One can imagine the psychological effect of that on the survivors.


The definition of battle royale::

numerous combatants:  There are 43 students in the class. After the briefing, only 41 remain, 40 of whom must die within the next three days.

a fight to the finish: only one person can be alive at the end,  or to borrow the title of another film--last student standing.

intense altercation:  These are not strangers trying to survive by killing each other.  These are fellow classmates, some of whom may be their best friends or their worst enemy.  These are young people who know each other and trusted some of them.  Now?  Each hand is turned against the other.  Some try to form self-defense groups, while realizing that only one can be alive at the end. Some seem to enjoy the opportunity to revenge themselves for real or imagined slights.  Others are paralyzed by the situation.  "Intense"  is an understatement.  I found it far more intense than the novel The Hunger Games, but that just might be the effect of a visual presentation in comparison to a verbal one.  I shall have to see The Hunger Games film before I can come to a decision.


For those interested, here are the relevant dates:

Battle Royale:  the film came out in 2000.  The sequel, Battle Royale II, came out in 2003.  BRII, from what I've read, is the story of one of  the survivors who formed a "terrorist" group whose goal was to bring down the government that conducts the battles.  Sound familiar?

The Hunger Games:  the novel was published in 2008, with sequels arriving within the next 2-3 years.

The Hunger Games: the film came out in 2012.

So, if one influenced the other, it's fairly easy to see who influenced whom.

Overall Comments: the focus of the BR film and the Hunger Games novel differs.  In  BR, we see a number of characters all acting with varying motives, whereas in THG, we follow only one character: the rest are strangers mostly and are there to provide the danger to the main character and to die when their time comes.  This was not true in BR, for the viewer comes to know a number of them, so these are not strangers who die, but characters about whom we know something.

It is a violent film, definitely something to consider when deciding to see the film..  

Recent Viewings

This is a mixed bag of recent DVDs I've watched in the past few weeks.  Some were disappointments while others surprised me.  One was a dramatization based on a short story that greatly expanded on the short story, adding a new element, along with the usual special effects, that reminded me of another film.


------------------------------------------

Casablanca

Casablanca had to be one of the two best films I've seen recently.  It is the classic with Bogart, Bergman, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Paul Henreid and everybody's favorite German officer, Conrad Veidt.  It has a great cast, a great script, and a story that has everything--romance, adventure, danger, and patriotism.  The specific reason for seeing it this time was a fear that a recent viewing of the Neil Simon effort, The Cheap Detective, spoiled the film for me.  Sometimes images from a pastiche can interfere with the original.  In this case, there was no problem.

If you haven't seen it, go see it.  If it's been awhile, see it again. 


----------------------------------------

The Maltese Falcon

The other film which occupied the top spot was The Maltese Falcon, which was the second part of Neil  Simon's The Cheap Detective, in which the Peter Falk character played the role of Bogart's Sam Spade who occasionally wandered onto the set of Casablanca.   Like Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon also had a great cast:  Bogart, Greenstreet, Lorre, Barton MacLane, Ward Bond, and Elisha Cook, Jr., in the only role I can remember him, as the Gunsel or the Kid.  The weak link was Mary Astor, as Brigid O'Shaughnessy.  The specific reason for watching this film is the same as for Casablanca.  I was curious to see if I could watch it and not have my enjoyment spoiled by Simon's pastiche.  Again, I found no problems. 

My recommendation is the same as for Casablanca--see it soon.


--------------------------------------------

Aftermath: Population Zero


Aftermath:  Population Zero is a very different film.  It is a National Geographic special that predicts what would happen on Earth if the human race suddenly vanished.  It doesn't explain why or how this happened, just that all humans vanished at the same time.  The immediate effect was a lot of auto crashes and eventually plane crashes.  It took a bit longer for ships to collide or run aground or just lose power and become just another bit of flotsam.

The period of time covered in the film went from one minute after the disappearance to twenty-five thousand years in the future when another ice age completely destroyed any remaining signs of human existence on Earth.  Ironically, the only signs that humans existed were the astronauts' footprints and discarded materials on the moon.  They might last for hundreds of thousands of years.  What surprised me the most was the speed at which the power grid shut down--a few days at most.  This of course resulted in various other failures, one of the most serious was at nuclear power plants when the cooling systems shut down and caused meltdowns.  I thought that the estimate of the damage was minimized.

The film naturally had spectacular graphics of the destruction of many buildings and landmarks.    I also found interesting the speculations regarding the fate/future of various animals which had been pets (dogs, cats, exotic birds) or domestic animals (cattle, sheep, pigs, horses, chickens) or most interesting, animals in zoos, assuming they could get out of their cages or habitats.

If you're curious about what would happen if we all disappeared one day, give this one a viewing.  I found it absorbing and enlightening.  


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Nostradamus:  2012

Hoping to get some real information, free from the hype of those with an axe to grind and from those who just wanted to exploit the topic, I chose to watch The History Channel's film on Nostradamus, Nostradamus: 2012, which presumably would cover Nostradamus' predictions and the Mayan prophecies regarding events on Dec. 21, 2012.

I hadn't watched many of the offerings of this channel, so I had high expectations for the level of discussion.  I was disappointed.  It turned out to be just another exploitation film with all the usual tricks that show up.  Much of the narrative consisted of questions that later on were assumed to be answered.  Speculations later became facts.  Claims were made by "experts,"  who were never named.  These claims were followed by a statement from one or more authors who testified mostly that those statements or prophecies really existed, but nothing about the legitimacy of the prophecies.  Nothing was ever said about Nostradamus, that his prophecies had been used by numerous seers and preachers who pointed out  the relevance of those prophecies to events in every century or even almost every decade since his death in 1566, almost four hundred and fifty years ago.

The conclusion?  One of the most prominent authors on the program told us in a very confidential voice that he really didn't think that anything dramatic was going to happen on December 21, 2012--no earthquakes, no super-volcanic eruptions, no super storms .  .  .  It was going to be a normal day, just like any other day.  In other words, he just discounted everything that had just been told us.  However, forty years in the future in a world that has eliminated pollution, overpopulation, poverty, disease,  famine, war, etc., we would be able to look back and say that it all began on December 21, 2012.

No comment

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The Box

The Box is a recent film based on Richard Matheson's short story "Button, Button."   If you are not familiar with his writings, then you should take a look at his SF novel  I Am Legend, which has been made into several mediocre films.  It's a reverse spin on the traditional vampire legend.   In this tale, a normal human is seen as a monster (for good reasons) which vampire parents use to scare their children.

In "Button, Button,"  a financially struggling young couple receive a package one day.  Upon opening it, they find a box with a button on top, all covered by a plastic shield.  Later, they receive a visitor who tells them that by pushing the button they will receive fifty thousand dollars.  In addition, someone they don't know will die.  They can get the money only at the expense of someone's life. 

We then see the discussion between the husband and wife.  They need the money.  But, at the cost of a human life?  Is this a hoax?   The button is pushed, but at a price neither expected.

It's clear this is too slight of a story to be turned into a feature length film.  It was dramatized on Twilight Zone in the 80s, a version which I haven't seen.  I suspect, though, that  it would do well in a short format.

In 2009, the feature film version came out--The Box, which was loosely based on the story.  In the film, a young couple with financial problems receive a package containing a box with a button on top and covered with a plastic shield.  A visitor later that day tells that by pushing the button they will get one million dollars: 
obvious inflation here as we've gone from $50,000 in 1970 when the story was first published  to $1,000,000 in 2009.  This is followed by the discussion between the husband and the wife, and eventually the button is pushed.  In both the short story and the film, the husband is opposed to pushing the button and he leaves for work.  While he is gone, she pushes the button.

Spoiler warning:  I have brought out some significant plot elements here.

Up to this point, the film has been very close to the story, but once the button is pushed, the short story is forgotten.  All sort of special effects and strange events take place.  There is a group behind the box who seem to be running some sort of experiment.  In the back ground are aliens who have come to test humanity for the virtues of compassion and empathy.  If humanity loses, it will be destroyed--a bit reminiscent of a much earlier classic The Day the Earth Stood Still.  In addition, at the end the husband is forced to choose between his son and his wife.  This is a reversal of sorts of the end of the short story.

Recommendation:  give it a viewing.  I doubt if it will be a classic, but it does pose some questions regarding morality which are frequently ignored in many SF films.   And, these questions should also be turned back on the aliens as well.

Combination Plate 20

Spoiler Warning: I will reveal important plot elements and endings if necessary in the discussion.



Moon: an SF film

Ever Since The World Ended: an SF film

Geoff Ryman: Air, an SF novel

Peter Temple: Truth, a mystery

The Mutant Chronicles: an SF? horror? slasher film



Villains in earlier SF films and stories tended to be clumped into well-defined categories: bad governments, alien invaders, mad scientists, mutated critters of all sorts (grasshoppers, ants, rabbits. . .), and the hazards of space travel. Over the years some popular types have dropped out and new ones have taken their place. For example, aliens are no longer universally viewed as evil, as demonstrated by the recent film Avatar, which also provides an example of a new type of villain--the corporation. Corporations are now portrayed as evil, or at best, insensitive to the effects they have either on beings or the environment. In fact, I can't think of a recent film or story that has a benevolent corporation. There may be some, but as I haven't read every story or seen every film, I may have missed it.

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Moon, an SF film

Sam Bell has the perfect job for a hermit, or at least a loner. He has signed a three-year contract with a mining company to monitor an automated computer- run mining installation. He will be the only human on the site, and, moreover, the mining site is on the far side of the moon. His only company has been Gerty (voice of Kevin Spacey), the computer whose job it is to run the mining operation and also to monitor Sam Bell. Sam's only contact with humans has been the occasional TV contact with his wife and daughter and a mining official. Sam's contract is nearing the end of his three years, and he is looking forward to rejoining his family. He's been alone long enough, almost too long perhaps, because he's beginning to hallucinate the presence of others on the installation.

All is still going well, though, until Gerty informs him that one of the harvesters has malfunctioned. Bell decides to take a rover there to see if he can figure out the problem. On the site he has an accident which traps him in the rover, and he is rendered unconscious.

In the next scene we see him back at the station, with no apparent injuries. He decides to go back to the site and attempt to figure out what happened. Once there he discovers another rover and a man in a spacesuit trapped inside, just barely alive.

In the next scene, we are back at the main installation and discover two Sam Bells, which for the sake of clarity, I will designate as Bell1, the first Sam Bell, the one who was injured, and Bell2, the "new" Sam Bell.

The answer, of course, is cloning. Bell2 is a clone of Bell1. However, both argue that they are the real Bell but agree to put that dispute aside for the time being. The real problem is where Bell2 came from. From this point on, the film becomes a mystery as they attempt to solve the riddle of the Bell clones. As you may have guessed by now, the villain in this film is the "evil corporation."

I found it an interesting film, low-key, and what was best, not a single car chase, gun battle, or exploding building throughout. The focus is on the relationship between the two Bells and their struggle to determine just what the real situation is. Certain questions need to be answered: Bell1 is going home shortly--just what will happen to Bell2? If Bell2 is a clone and just recently created (by whom?), how can he be the same age as Bell1?

The questions, eventually, are answered, and unfortunately, recent headlines regarding corporate and also government behavior, suggest that they really would act that way.

My favorite line in the film is also the last line in the film. Bell2 has managed to escape to Earth and has told his story to the UN. A radio talk show host has this comment about Bell2's story: "This guy is either wacko or an illegal immigrant. Either way he should be locked up for good."

I wonder what state the radio host lives in--I think I can guess.


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Ever Since The World Ended

This appears to be a low-budget, independent film. One of its most striking features is the lack of special effects. If one mutes the dialogue, one would find it hard to guess that this is a post-holocaust film.

The film is set in the San Francisco Bay area. Approximately seven years have passed since the great plague killed most of the inhabitants, and fewer than 300 people now live in the area. The disease acted so quickly that there was no chance of doing any research leading to identification and perhaps a cure. They do not know where the plague came from--whether it was a naturally evolving plague or perhaps something that escaped from a laboratory or even the result of an attack by an enemy that succeeded all too well. Since it was a disease and not a war, in the conventional sense anyway, there is no destruction, therefore no need for special effects showing any devastation.

The film is an audio-visual record made by a survivor who decided that it was time to document life as it now is after the plague. It's a comfortable, quieter, more peaceful life now. In fact, I got the feeling that many were happy that the plague took place.

To be brief, the cameraman wanders around the area, films the everyday activities of the survivors, and interviews a number of them. Some are teaching the children that survived the plague, while others work to find ways to get around the lack of a central power system--batteries are very important now. Since there was very little destruction, people live in houses just as they did before the plague. Clothing is not a problem yet, so all are dressed as they were before the plague.

There is no real government, just a group of people who meet to discuss and suggest ways of solving problems that arise. One problem that has recently arisen is the return of the arsonist. Shortly after the plague they found him setting fires (he was a firefighter before the plague), in abandoned buildings, at least so far. They forced him to leave the area and warned him not to return.

He has returned, in spite of the warning, and insists that he is cured of his problem and no longer has any desire to set fires. The group is not unanimous about what to do. Some want to give him a chance, while others see him as a threat. The problem is that there is no one who wants to watch him constantly. If he is locked up, who will be the jailer? Who will feed him?

Several of the characters decide that it is now time to try to connect up with other small communities. Five of them, including the cameraman, begin a trek to the nearest community. They expect to be gone a week or so. Several days into the trip, they are fired upon by one or more people, and one of them is wounded. Unlike characters in numerous other films I've seen, these people are not heroes who are determined to carry on, regardless of the risk. Life is too precious. They turn back.

The killing has not stopped.


At times I found the film compelling, mainly because of the format--a documentary. At no time did I get the feeling that I had seen something like this before. Since there really was no plot, no story line, I never could predict what was coming next. It is what it was supposed to be- a rather amateurish attempt to document on film the way people lived now, some seven years after the plague.

At the same time, this is also an handicap, for though it was compelling--at times-- I was only slightly involved at other times, but enough so that I was interested and never considered giving up on it. Since there were no real overarching storyline and dominant characters to follow, there really was nothing there for me to get deeply involved in.

For example, the only two incidents I remember are those which involved the arsonist who had returned and the failed exploratory expedition. Both had drama and a specific issue to be resolved. Both are resolved--sadly. I remember little about the rest of the film.

Recommended for those who are interested in post-holocaust films and would like to see an atypical treatment, something without scenes of destruction, mutants, zombies, etc.

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Geoff Ryman: Air, an SF novel of the near future

This has to be one of the most interesting SF novels I've read recently. The basic idea is simple. A means of transmitting information has been developed that will allow all humans to connect with, well, let's call it the Internet for want of a better term, without the need of any physical equipment. Instead of turning on one's PC, laptop, or other electronic device, all one has to do is think about connecting up. Once connected, the individual simply thinks about various actions instead off have to mess around with a keyboard or mouse. If wanted, I guess one could simply visualize a mouse or keyboard and interact that way.

The good side is that it is free and accessible to everyone. It's in the air. And, that's also the bad side; people do not have a choice. All, including the most isolated villagers sitting high atop a mountain or deep within a swamp or desert are hooked in--involuntarily. It wasn't clear, but I think that those who do not make an effort to hook up will not be affected in any way. It just won't be there for them. Of course, there really haven't been any long-term study made of the effects of being immersed in Air, nobody really knows what the effects will be--socially, culturally, or physically--in a few decades.

There are two slightly different formats to this process. The United Nations elected to install Air as its choice, therefore blocking the other format, which was called Gates. Gates is the format owned by a large software company (you can guess which one). The UN decided to get involved because it thought that having a political entity control a process that affected every human on the planet would be preferable to a corporation having that control.

Ryman focuses on a small isolated village in a country in Central Asia. The inhabitants are a mix of Chinese Buddhists who fled from communism decades ago, Moslems, Hindus, and indigenous peoples. They are poor, but they have managed to survive for centuries. There is only one TV set in the village, owned by one of the wealthier families. They have set the TV up so that in the evening, anyone who wishes can stop by and watch. Shortly afterwards, another wealthy family suddenly decides to get a TV, the latest and more up-to-date, as they point out, and lets it be known that visitors are welcome to stop by.

The main character is Chung Mae, a Chinese woman who has become the style leader or fashion expert for the women in the village. She learns of the project and fears for what it means to her village and their culture. She adopts the old adage--know thy enemy--thinking that learning about it will help her to fight it and thereby maintain their way of life. Of course, the ending at this point is predictable.

One example of the very predictable outcome is the episode of the collars. In her village, people who are involved in a significant event or do something significant get together, decide on a pattern, and weave a collar that is distinct from all others. It is their sign that they were involved in this event and are proud of it. Chung Mae in her interactions on the Net finds there is a great market for this type of apparel at this time. Her employees, she has a small company by this time, make up the collars and send them off to their distributor in New York. Chung Mae doesn't realize what she has done. She has taken this item of significance to the people of her village and turned it into a global accessory, worn by people to whom it is merely a fashion statement.

What will the future be like? I think Chung Mae's infant is an example. Born at the end of the novel, the infant has suffered severe burns and loss of all senses--vision, smell, hearing, touch. . .
Chung Mae says to her child, "My little future. You are blind, but you will not need to see, for we can all see for you, and sights and sounds will pass through to you from us. You have no hands, but you will not need hands, for your mind will control the machines, and they will be as\ hqnds. Your ears also burned away, but you will hear jmore in one hour than we heard in all of our lifetimes."

Without physical senses, how can the child form a sense of a separate identity?

I find this terrifying.

The last words of the novel: " . . . all of them turned and walked together into the future."

The characters walk off at the end into a bright future.

Perhaps . . .

Ryman, I believe, has constructed an allegory, with Air being the all-pervasive destructive influence of Western technological culture on local cultures and mores. I found this disturbing, but the others in the SF discussion group that selected Air disagreed. I got the feeling I was perceived as being a Luddite, one against progress. After all, I was one of the few there that didn't have a mobile phone. Well, perhaps I am. But, I still have a choice. The people in Ryman's novel didn't.

To sum up, perhaps Ryman is saying that change is inevitable, that for every gain there will be a loss, that the best one can do is to work with it, that one should do one's utmost to control it and not be controlled by it.

It's an intriguing story and one that I would recommend.

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Peter Temple, Truth
Mystery type: Police Procedural
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Time: Contemporary


It's an ironic title for at the end I wasn't sure I had found the truth. It's my first novel by Temple, so I don't know whether this writing style is typical of him. It takes a while to get into the flow for it could be described as telegraphese with its short sentences, staccato flow, and missing subjects. Several of the members of the discussion group stopped reading because of the style. One of the members called it hyper-machismo.

This is the first in a series of novels featuring the cases of John Villani, head of the homicide squad in Melbourne, Australia. Villani's problems aren't limited to solving murders, for his marriage is falling apart and his daughter is hooked on drugs. At one point, his daughter is arrested, and he decides to let her think about it overnight in jail, rather than get her out that night. His wife doesn't agree.

Other obstacles are corrupt superiors in his own department, corrupt politicians, and corrupt business leaders. He himself is not exactly pure, as one might guess from his last name--Villani. If one switches the last two letters in his name, it becomes Villain--interesting coincidence, if that is what it is. Coincidence or not, I got the same feeling from reading this novel as I did from reading several of Ian Rankin's "Rebus" stories. Corruption is in the air.

Overall Reaction: The plotting is complex, and several of the characters, including Villani, are finely drawn. If you are up for a really gritty and grubby police procedural and are willing to work a bit with the style, it's worth reading. But, don't expect to settle back and get comfortable while reading it. Its staccato style put me on edge, and it was more like starts and stops than a smooth flow.

Having said this, I would still say--take a look at it. It is different.

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The Mutant Chronicles: a film.

Actually, I think it's a misnamed film; if one considers the precise meaning of mutant, then these aren't mutants. Just what they are--I'll let you decide, if you ever watch this film.


The world is divided among four corporate states which are permanently at war with one another (see George Orwell's 1984, even though he had only three states):

1. Capitol (North America perhaps),
2. Bauhaus (Central Europe?),
3. Imperial (???), and
4. Mishima (Asia?--probably a reference to the right-wing Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima, who committed suicide when he couldn't persuade the Japanese army to overthrow the government and restore the Emperor as ruler).

The film opens on a battlefield in the trenches with the Capitol army. The enemy this time is BAuhaus. The two armies have constructed trenches that stretch over many miles. Suddenly, the Bauhaus artillery opens with a sustained barrage, a sure sign of an impending attack. Then the barrage lifts, and the Bauhaus army goes over the top and charges into withering fire in the no-man's land between the two armies. It appears the Capitol lines will hold until the Bauhaus troops begin lobbing canisters of poison gas into the Capitol trenches (see World War I, for more information).

In the midst of the hand-to-hand struggle, a third force intervenes and slaughters both sides. We now switch to a conference room where the representatives of the four states are meeting. There they learn from a representative (played by Ron Perlman) of a small and unknown religious order (we know it's a religious order because he's wearing monk's robes and a hood) of the nature of the threat.

Thousands of years ago, a space ship landed carrying a machine. The machine could turn humans into slaves to do its bidding. After a prolonged struggle, the machine was finally isolated and sealed away in an underground cavern. The religious order has been tasked with keeping watch over the machine for lo these many thousands of years. Now, the machine has breached the walls confining it and is again attempting to master the human race. (I'll bet that some of this sounds vaguely familiar.)

The conference comes up with two solutions. Build space craft to take them to Mars as soon as possible. Even though they can't build enough for the entire population, there will be enough room for the leaders and the powerful and rich elite, and possibly a few of the common folk.

The second solution is to recruit a small group of warriors and hope that they might be able to get to the machine and destroy it (see The Dirty Dozen and numerous other films). The film follows predictably from this point.

One little twist is that though a single shot, even to the head, won't stop the critters from coming, a sword can and will kill them. So, this allows for a considerable amount of blood splattering and gushing as the critters are armed only with a long knife, so now there's a reason for both sides to hack away at each other.

While watching the machine attempt to convert a human, I couldn't help but remember a somewhat similar scene in Star Trek: The Next Generation, as Captain Picard is turned into a Borg. And, the critters remind me of zombies, even though a bit more agile, but certainly not any prettier--zomborgs? borbies? I don't know, but I certainly don't consider them mutants.

The atmosphere, the setting, is as dark and grim as any I've seen, and very well done. I didn't spot a zipper anywhere.

At the end, Mitch (the leader of the squad) is standing on the top of the underground tower while everything crashes down around him. Suddenly, the quiet but urgent voice of Obi-Wan Kanobi is heard: "Use the Force, Luke, use the Force." I couldn't believe this, so I froze the film, backed it up a bit, and replayed it. What was really said? It was the voice of Ron Perlman, who apparently wasn't dead, at least not yet, saying: "Jump, Mitch, trust me, jump."

The last scene of the film? Nothing after a hard day of hacking and chopping and slicing tastes quite as good as a cigarette.

Recommendation: Lots of fun, best viewed with others of like minds and with plenty of one's favorite mood enhancer.