12 Angry Men, US Film (1957)
This film appeared in the theaters in 1957 and, while a critical success, did not attract an audience and disappeared from the theaters. Since then, however, it has steadily grown in critical estimation and audience appeal.
The plot is simple: a young boy has been tried for killing his abusive father. He claims he did not kill him. The film opens with the judge's instructions to the jury, which then retires to the jury room. The film then never leaves the jury room. Once there, several of the jurors (this is 1957 so the jurors are all white males) are convinced it's an open-and-shut case and call for an immediate vote without having any discussion. Several of the jurors are in a hurry: one has tickets for a baseball game that night and another has to catch a flight for an important business meeting. The vote comes out 11 for guilty and 1 not guilty. The lone dissenting vote is cast by Henry Fonda's character, Juror 8. When pressed for his reasons for voting "not guilty," he says he doesn't know whether the boy is innocent or guilty, but he does feel that, since a guilty verdict mandates execution, there should some discussion about the case.
"Beyond reasonable doubt" is the troublesome criterion facing the jury. A guilty verdict can only be rendered if the prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt, and this is the point that Juror 8 focuses on. Is the evidence strong enough to move a person to be convinced beyond reasonable doubt. If not, then they must render a verdict of not guilty.
The deliberation concentrates on the evidence. Is it strong enough to convict him of murder, thus resulting in his execution? Juror 8 and the other jurors spend considerable time discussing, attacking, defending, interpreting the evidence. Occasionally a juror will say something that involves a personal issue as a way of making a point, but this is rare. The issue is the evidence: is it strong enough to justify his execution?
Juror 8, the Henry Fonda character, is clearly the central character. He is the leader of the gradually increasing group that argues for a "not guilty" verdict. Juror 8 is a familiar character--strong, plain-spoken, confident, calm, measured, determined in behavior-- in other words, Henry Fonda as he has been seen in many roles.
It soon becomes clear that the evidence is only part of what moves many of the jurors to insist on a "guilty" verdict. The other part, which emerges much more strongly as the evidence becomes more and more questionable, is prejudice; however, the target is never really specified. It is always "them." Typical references are "You know what they are like..." I thought that was an interesting tactic as it allows the viewers to plug in whatever group is on the receiving end in their personal experience and doesn't limit the references to prejudice or bigotry aimed at any special group. The optimistic viewpoint of the film seems to be that as the jurors become aware of their prejudices, they are more able to see clearly that the evidence is not strong enough to convict the boy.
In spite of Perry Mason and countless other legal thrillers, finding the "real" murderer does not play a role here. One of the jurors belligerently demands to know who killed the father if the boy didn't. Juror 8 (Fonda) responds that the issue for them is determining the son's guilt and only that, nothing else.
Overall Rating: a superb film, the issues raised back in 1957 are still with us, but not brought out as clearly now as it was then. The attitudes are still here, just more subtly put forward.
--highly recommended.
12, Russian version (2007)
While the basic idea of the film had not been changed, the Russian version contains much more about the back story of the way the boy and the Russian soldier met and how the soldier adopted the him. Some of this was confusing, and I wonder if scenes had been left out. In this version, the boy is a Chechen orphan who was adopted by a Russian soldier and brought to Moscow. Contrary to the US film, there was no suggestion here that the father had been abusive.
While watching the film, I felt that I was missing something. Russians are good at burying unacceptable (to the government, regardless of the type it is) ideas and issues in their poetry, stories, and films that are critical of the official line of thinking in order to get them by the official censors. I suspect that a Russian would have gotten much more out of the film then I did.
Juror 8, as in the US film, is the only one who voted "not guilty" in the first ballot taken shortly after retiring to the jury room. However, he did not appear to play a strong role in what followed. In fact, he was silent much of the time. It was much more of a communal effort with various individuals taking control throughout the deliberations. Again, I may have missed something here--something that suggested he was playing a central role but that in my ignorance of the Russian culture I missed the cues.
Another significant difference was the roles played by individual experience on the one hand and on the other hand the focus on the evidence during the deliberations. Jurors told stories about their experiences and past that did not appear in the US version and sometimes it was hard for me to see the relevance although they appeared to be significant to the other jurors. There was discussion of the evidence, but it seemed to play a lesser role here than it did in the US version.
Another difference between this film and the US version comes up briefly when Juror 8 is asked who else might be the murderer if the boy isn't. Juror 8 responds that determining the boy's guilt is the issue, not the identity of the real killer. However, one of the other jurors offers a theory as to whom the killer might be, but when asked where he got this information, he just smiles and refuses to answer. This comment has an interesting effect at the end of the film, something which does not happen in the US version.
The issue of prejudice and bigotry was also raised in this film but again the treatment differed from the US version in that two groups were brought forward in the Russian film as the targets--Jews and Chechens. Since the defendant was a Chechen, the relevance is obvious. What escaped me though was that the first expression of prejudice was directed at the Jews. Again, perhaps I'm missing something here.
Ek Ruka Hua Faisla, Hindi language version (1986)
In spite of the wretched subtitles, it seems clear that this version is very close to the US version. Some minor changes have been made, but it is a very close remake. I would guess that the US script had been translated into Hindi. Then the subtitles had been created from the Hindi language script as I could frequently recognize dialogue from the US version. The sequence of events was also the same or at least as far as I could tell.
Juror 8, as in the US version, played the central role in the deliberations. Again, while there were some personal issues and stories brought out, the focus for the most part was on the evidence as in the US film. The problem of prejudice also appeared as a significant issue, but its treatment was almost identical to its handling in the US film. No particular group, aside from vague references to the lower social classes--the poor and the destitute--was named.
The question of who the real killer might be comes up also, but again it is handled the same way as in the US version. The jury's concern is the guilt of the boy, not determining the identity of someone else who might be the killer.
I would recommend viewing all three versions; however, if you don't have that much time, then I would suggest seeing at least the US and the Russian versions, since the Hindi version is very close to the US film.
Showing posts with label film. Show all posts
Showing posts with label film. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Where the Green Ants Dream, a film
I have a rather long queue on Netflix, so it takes some time for a film to work its way to the top. Frequently, therefore, I'm not exactly sure why I added a particular film to my queue. In this case, I had no doubts about why I added it. Surely, a title such as Where the Green Ants Dream would be sufficient reason alone to take at least a look at it. And, then, when I discovered the director was Werner Herzog, how could I resist? The director and the title seem made for each other.
The film is loosely based on a real event that took place in Australia several years before the film came out in 1985. Even before filming began, Herzog was threatened with a lawsuit if he used the name of the mining company in the film. As Herzog pointed out in his commentary, it really made no difference what name he used because Australians knew the details of the incident.
To be brief, a mining company has sent out a exploratory crew to an area that is considered sacred by the Australian Aborigines who live in the area. It is the place where the green ants dream. First, the mining company was going to conduct tests that would involve numerous explosions in order to get a seismic map of the subsoil. If the tests proved positive, it would then go in and begin digging.
The Aborigines believe that if the green ants' dreaming is disrupted, and the explosions alone would do this, there would disastrous consequences for the land and for the Aborigines who live there. I've read some comments that it wasn't just the land but the entire universe that would be disrupted if the green ants were disturbed during their dreaming. I know very little about the Australian Aborigine beliefs so I can't comment other than to say that it was obvious that they believed it would be catastrophic to awaken the ants and interfere with their dreaming. I think it's a bit ironic that the mining company was searching for uranium, an absolute necessity for the development of nuclear weapons.
It is the classic conflict between native peoples and their sacred lands on the one hand and a corporation that wants to profit by engaging in some activity on those lands, activity that will conflict with the beliefs of native peoples and disrupt or change the land for a long time afterwards, if not permanently.
The POV character is Lance Hackett, a geologist who works for the company. When the Aborigines begin to interfere with the tests, he informs the company of the problem. As the presumed leader of the exploratory crew, he becomes the point man for the negotiations between the company and the Aborigines. As the negotiations continue, he becomes, as one might expect, more sympathetic to the Aborigines.
Those who have seen the recent SF film, Avatar, might see some similarities between the two films. They are there, but one of the major differences is in the portrayal of the two companies. In Avatar, the company is a law unto itself. It uses military force in an attempt to drive out or exterminate the native peoples. This does not happen in Where the Green Ants Dream. The company has obtained the appropriate permits to search for uranium deposits and then begin mining operations if the uranium is there in sufficient quantity. The company does its best to recompense the Aborigines, including getting them a military aircraft that looks somewhat like a large green flying insect.
Unable to dissuade the mining company, the Aborigines go to court and eventually reach the highest court in Australia. According to the commentary, this was the first time the Aborigines had gone to the courts for protection. In the end, the Aborigines lose because, as the judge stated in his decision, the Aborigines were unable to produce evidence that would be acceptable in an Anglo-Saxon court of law.
This is a Herzog film. Those who have seen Fata Morgana (a film I commented on in April 2010) will recognize this immediately. There are scenes of vast wastelands with bizarre rock formations and a burned out bus. Occasionally the viewer will spot an abandoned pickup truck in the middle of nowhere, with a piece of earth moving equipment nearby. Why they are there is never clear. Interspersed is a little subplot, one that seemingly has nothing to do with the main plot: an old woman has lost her dog. It has run into one of several caves and apparently can't find its way out.
In Fata Morgana, the viewer meets a biologist who has spent years of his life studying a lizard that lives in the vast deserts of Northern Africa. We meet another biologist who has spent years of his life studying the green ants of this part of Australia. The green ants do exist, and they are partially a bright green. Only, they really aren't ants; they are in the termite family. The dreaming green ants is not part of the Aborigine beliefs; that is Herzog's creation. However, it is based partially on fact: a type of lizard in another part of Australia is believed to dream and therefore plays an important role in preserving the planet.
Some of the most interesting scenes are those of the negotiations between the Aborigines and the company. The camera focuses on the faces of the Aborigines (Herzog somehow managed to get Aborigines to play the appropriate roles in the film), and I could almost hear the Aborigines thinking. The actions of the white men were completely incomprehensible to them. The mining company's activities were going to be catastrophic, including the destruction of the Aborigines themselves, and the company thought that offering money or a share of the profits would be satisfactory.
The camera would then shift to the company representatives, and I could see the same bewilderment. What did the Aborigines want? They were offered a large cash settlement and a share of the profits which would take them out of poverty, as the company saw it anyway. The company would even build a small museum that would focus on the Aborigine culture. It's as if the company and the Aborigines lived on separate planets.
To be simplistic, the conflict is between profit-making activities and the beliefs of native peoples--between the material and the spiritual worlds--and it seems not to be slackening in any way either.
Which should take priority?
====================
P. S.
Steven Riddle of A Momentary Taste of Being, (see his blog listed on the sidebar) made a comment that started me thinking (which he so often does) . He mentioned the images from the film that stayed with him. That struck a chord and provided an answer to something that was bothering me about this post. There was something I hadn't said yet: it had to do with what images have stayed with me after watching the film. The following is the comment I made on Steven's blog and I decided to post it here also.
"What stays with me are the faces of the Aborigines. Herzog has the camera linger on them much longer than on the white faces. It's almost as though they are a force of nature and not ephemeral beings such as we "civilized people" are. They are rooted solidly while we are transients, if that makes any sense."
I am reminded of the Zen dictum by Yun-Men:
In walking, just walk
In sitting, just sit
Above all, don't wobble
In the film, the Aborigines walked and sat, while the whites wobbled.
The film is loosely based on a real event that took place in Australia several years before the film came out in 1985. Even before filming began, Herzog was threatened with a lawsuit if he used the name of the mining company in the film. As Herzog pointed out in his commentary, it really made no difference what name he used because Australians knew the details of the incident.
To be brief, a mining company has sent out a exploratory crew to an area that is considered sacred by the Australian Aborigines who live in the area. It is the place where the green ants dream. First, the mining company was going to conduct tests that would involve numerous explosions in order to get a seismic map of the subsoil. If the tests proved positive, it would then go in and begin digging.
The Aborigines believe that if the green ants' dreaming is disrupted, and the explosions alone would do this, there would disastrous consequences for the land and for the Aborigines who live there. I've read some comments that it wasn't just the land but the entire universe that would be disrupted if the green ants were disturbed during their dreaming. I know very little about the Australian Aborigine beliefs so I can't comment other than to say that it was obvious that they believed it would be catastrophic to awaken the ants and interfere with their dreaming. I think it's a bit ironic that the mining company was searching for uranium, an absolute necessity for the development of nuclear weapons.
It is the classic conflict between native peoples and their sacred lands on the one hand and a corporation that wants to profit by engaging in some activity on those lands, activity that will conflict with the beliefs of native peoples and disrupt or change the land for a long time afterwards, if not permanently.
The POV character is Lance Hackett, a geologist who works for the company. When the Aborigines begin to interfere with the tests, he informs the company of the problem. As the presumed leader of the exploratory crew, he becomes the point man for the negotiations between the company and the Aborigines. As the negotiations continue, he becomes, as one might expect, more sympathetic to the Aborigines.
Those who have seen the recent SF film, Avatar, might see some similarities between the two films. They are there, but one of the major differences is in the portrayal of the two companies. In Avatar, the company is a law unto itself. It uses military force in an attempt to drive out or exterminate the native peoples. This does not happen in Where the Green Ants Dream. The company has obtained the appropriate permits to search for uranium deposits and then begin mining operations if the uranium is there in sufficient quantity. The company does its best to recompense the Aborigines, including getting them a military aircraft that looks somewhat like a large green flying insect.
Unable to dissuade the mining company, the Aborigines go to court and eventually reach the highest court in Australia. According to the commentary, this was the first time the Aborigines had gone to the courts for protection. In the end, the Aborigines lose because, as the judge stated in his decision, the Aborigines were unable to produce evidence that would be acceptable in an Anglo-Saxon court of law.
This is a Herzog film. Those who have seen Fata Morgana (a film I commented on in April 2010) will recognize this immediately. There are scenes of vast wastelands with bizarre rock formations and a burned out bus. Occasionally the viewer will spot an abandoned pickup truck in the middle of nowhere, with a piece of earth moving equipment nearby. Why they are there is never clear. Interspersed is a little subplot, one that seemingly has nothing to do with the main plot: an old woman has lost her dog. It has run into one of several caves and apparently can't find its way out.
In Fata Morgana, the viewer meets a biologist who has spent years of his life studying a lizard that lives in the vast deserts of Northern Africa. We meet another biologist who has spent years of his life studying the green ants of this part of Australia. The green ants do exist, and they are partially a bright green. Only, they really aren't ants; they are in the termite family. The dreaming green ants is not part of the Aborigine beliefs; that is Herzog's creation. However, it is based partially on fact: a type of lizard in another part of Australia is believed to dream and therefore plays an important role in preserving the planet.
Some of the most interesting scenes are those of the negotiations between the Aborigines and the company. The camera focuses on the faces of the Aborigines (Herzog somehow managed to get Aborigines to play the appropriate roles in the film), and I could almost hear the Aborigines thinking. The actions of the white men were completely incomprehensible to them. The mining company's activities were going to be catastrophic, including the destruction of the Aborigines themselves, and the company thought that offering money or a share of the profits would be satisfactory.
The camera would then shift to the company representatives, and I could see the same bewilderment. What did the Aborigines want? They were offered a large cash settlement and a share of the profits which would take them out of poverty, as the company saw it anyway. The company would even build a small museum that would focus on the Aborigine culture. It's as if the company and the Aborigines lived on separate planets.
To be simplistic, the conflict is between profit-making activities and the beliefs of native peoples--between the material and the spiritual worlds--and it seems not to be slackening in any way either.
Which should take priority?
====================
P. S.
Steven Riddle of A Momentary Taste of Being, (see his blog listed on the sidebar) made a comment that started me thinking (which he so often does) . He mentioned the images from the film that stayed with him. That struck a chord and provided an answer to something that was bothering me about this post. There was something I hadn't said yet: it had to do with what images have stayed with me after watching the film. The following is the comment I made on Steven's blog and I decided to post it here also.
"What stays with me are the faces of the Aborigines. Herzog has the camera linger on them much longer than on the white faces. It's almost as though they are a force of nature and not ephemeral beings such as we "civilized people" are. They are rooted solidly while we are transients, if that makes any sense."
I am reminded of the Zen dictum by Yun-Men:
In walking, just walk
In sitting, just sit
Above all, don't wobble
In the film, the Aborigines walked and sat, while the whites wobbled.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Mishima: A LIfe in Four Chapters, a film
Yukio Mishima has been a favorite writer of mine for some time now. I've read a number of his novels, including "The Sea of Fertility" quartet--an ironic title, for it refers to Mare Fecunditatis, a region of the moon, which, of course, is dry, barren, and lifeless, and not fertile at all. Therefore, when I heard about this film, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, I was curious about it. I knew little about his life, except for his rather dramatic death.
On November 25, 1970, Mishima and four members of the Shield Society, his private army, dressed in full uniform and drove to the Ichigaya Camp, the Tokyo headquarters for the Japanese Self-Defense Force. Once there, he and the others took the Camp Commander hostage. He addressed the soldiers gathered below and tried to inspire them to rise up, overthrow the government, and restore the powers of the emperor. He was mocked and jeered at by the soldiers. He then went back into the Commander's office and committed seppuku.
I was even more intrigued when I read that Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas were the producers and that Philip Glass wrote the original music for the film, parts of which were played by The Kronos Quartet.
The film has one of the most unusual disclaimers I've ever seen. It agrees that Yukio Mishima was a real person, but it goes on to state that nothing in the film is based on real people or real events. This being said, while the dialogue and actions on the day of his death are obviously the work of a screenwriter(s), the overall course of events are accurate.
The film consists of four chapters-Beauty, Art, Action, and Harmony of Pen and Sword. It has three rather episodic narratives, each interrupted by the sequence of chapters.
The first tells of the events of November 25, 1970, the day of the failed coup and his suicide. It is in color and naturalistic. It begins with Mishima dressing and getting ready for the day.
The second is in black-and-white. It consists of flashbacks of Mishima's life, which appear to be films taken of him while he was growing up.
The third narrative is in color and relates dramatized scenes from three of his novels: The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Kyoko's House, and Runaway Horses. However, the scenes are stylized, perhaps in the manner of Japanese theatre. The dialogue is declaimed, rooms are indicated by panels, and forests suggested by a line of obviously artificial trees.
I had read The Temple of the Golden Pavilion and Runaway Horses, the second book in the Sea of Fertility quartet, so I was able to relate the dramatized scenes to Mishima's life. In both books, the main characters commit suicide, a clear relationship to Mishima's own life. I haven't read Kyoto's House yet, so the relationship is not as clear as it is with the other two.
Overall Reaction: I found it very interesting. Philip Glass' music is the perfect choice, and it adds a persistent driving tension to the film. While it is in no way a comprehensive account of Mishima's life, it does suggest parallels between his life and his work. I have it on my list of films to be seen again.
On November 25, 1970, Mishima and four members of the Shield Society, his private army, dressed in full uniform and drove to the Ichigaya Camp, the Tokyo headquarters for the Japanese Self-Defense Force. Once there, he and the others took the Camp Commander hostage. He addressed the soldiers gathered below and tried to inspire them to rise up, overthrow the government, and restore the powers of the emperor. He was mocked and jeered at by the soldiers. He then went back into the Commander's office and committed seppuku.
I was even more intrigued when I read that Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas were the producers and that Philip Glass wrote the original music for the film, parts of which were played by The Kronos Quartet.
The film has one of the most unusual disclaimers I've ever seen. It agrees that Yukio Mishima was a real person, but it goes on to state that nothing in the film is based on real people or real events. This being said, while the dialogue and actions on the day of his death are obviously the work of a screenwriter(s), the overall course of events are accurate.
The film consists of four chapters-Beauty, Art, Action, and Harmony of Pen and Sword. It has three rather episodic narratives, each interrupted by the sequence of chapters.
The first tells of the events of November 25, 1970, the day of the failed coup and his suicide. It is in color and naturalistic. It begins with Mishima dressing and getting ready for the day.
The second is in black-and-white. It consists of flashbacks of Mishima's life, which appear to be films taken of him while he was growing up.
The third narrative is in color and relates dramatized scenes from three of his novels: The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Kyoko's House, and Runaway Horses. However, the scenes are stylized, perhaps in the manner of Japanese theatre. The dialogue is declaimed, rooms are indicated by panels, and forests suggested by a line of obviously artificial trees.
I had read The Temple of the Golden Pavilion and Runaway Horses, the second book in the Sea of Fertility quartet, so I was able to relate the dramatized scenes to Mishima's life. In both books, the main characters commit suicide, a clear relationship to Mishima's own life. I haven't read Kyoto's House yet, so the relationship is not as clear as it is with the other two.
Overall Reaction: I found it very interesting. Philip Glass' music is the perfect choice, and it adds a persistent driving tension to the film. While it is in no way a comprehensive account of Mishima's life, it does suggest parallels between his life and his work. I have it on my list of films to be seen again.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Combination Plate 16
Warning: I will discuss significant plot elements and endings
Fred Saberhagen: Octagon, an SF novel
A Walk in the Sun, film
Albert Sanchez Pinol: Cold Skin, a novel
Robert Silverberg: A Time of Changes, an SF novel
Breakfast at Tiffany's, a film
=========================
Fred Saberhagen: Octagon, an SF novel
Octagon was first published in 1981, and it shows its age when the plot concentrates on computers. References to such "super" computers as the Cray 4 and desktop versions such as the TRS-80 bring back long forgotten memories. The plot involves a war game in which a computer is used to handle the bookkeeping. Participants in the game mail postcards or letters with their latest moves to the game headquarters and await responses from their opponents, also by mail. This is pre-email, of course, and shortly before the growth of the BBS network (electronic bulletin board system), which died shortly after the Internet emerged. The name of the company that runs the war game is Berserker Inc., an obvious reference to Saberhagen's own well-known series about the organic life-hating killing machines.
Prior to the beginning of the novel, two friends, Bob Gregory and Henry Brahmaguptra, had worked together in developing a computer network system by which computers in many different locations could communicate and interact. Fearing that this system might someday fall under the control of either a hostile country or a future dictatorial government, they built in a "back door" which would allow them or someone they designated to regain complete control of the network or even shut it down if that seemed necessary.
Opening the "back door" required two passwords, one for each of them, and since neither knew the other's password, they had to agree that the situation was serious enough to need their intervention. Unfortunately, political differences between Henry, the "bleeding heart" liberal, and Bob, the "reactionary redneck," resulted in their eventual estrangement. Now, it seems that someone has gained control of the system, and each suspects the other of unwisely sharing the password with others (the far left or the far right), which would give partial control of the system. And, along with records mysteriously disappearing or false records appearing, someone or something is murdering participants in that war game.
Saberhagen's novel clearly is tied to the events and the atmosphere of the time in which it was written. The increasing use of computers in everyday life and the first appearance of the personal desktop computer in the late 70s and early 80s (I think I got my first Trash 80 clone in 1981) provide the background for the novel. In addition, fears regarding the control of our lives through computers was becoming stronger, with not only individuals or governments assuming control, but also the possibility of computer AIs developing and becoming a threat on their own. Kubrick and Asimov's 2001: A Space Odyssey came out in 1968 and popularized the idea of sentient but malfunctioning computers as a potential threat to humanity. Saberhagen's novel is another version of this theme for, in this story, an AI has been unknowingly created. Unfortunately, it has adopted the rules of the war game as its perspective on reality: enemies were to be eliminated.
Trivia: Henry Brahmaguptra's last name is almost the same as that of India's most famous astronomer and mathematician of the past, Brahmagupta, who lived from 598 to 665 AD. I doubt that this is a coincidence.
Overall Reaction: interesting tale from an historical perspective about the growth of fear of the new electro-mechanical Frankenstein's monster, along with trends concerning the growth of the personal computer into everyday life. In addition, there's an interesting climatic battle scene at the end featuring metal monsters on both sides.
=========================
A Walk in the Sun, a film
A Walk in the Sun is a WWII film that came out in 1945 and is adapted from a novel by Harry Brown. The novel was published as a serial in Liberty Magazine in 1944. The film follows the actions of the Lee platoon of the Texas Division on the first day of the Allied invasion of Italy at Salerno in 1943. Their mission is to capture a farmhouse about six miles inland and then destroy the nearby bridge.
This is not a typical wartime propaganda film starring a big name who engages in superhuman heroics in the defense of the freedom-loving peoples of the world against an enemy notable mainly for its stupidity, brutality, and cowardice. The film illustrates the common saying about war being moments of terror midst hours of boredom and tedium. Once the platoon gets off the beach and inland, most of the time is spent walking and talking and griping, as the men get to know each other and become a unit. However, there is a war going on and the platoon has several encounters with the enemy before they get to the farmhouse.
Once such encounter is with a German mechanized reconnaissance patrol. The US platoon defeats the patrol, but not because of any super heroics but because the Germans were unaware of the American unit in the area and so were taken by surprise. In addition, the Germans were outnumbered. Careful planning, the element of surprise, discipline, and superior numbers were the significant elements, and it was clear that if the situation had been reversed, the Germans would have come out ahead. The victory had its costs as several were wounded, and in spite of the platoon's mantra, "Nobody Dies,"some do die. In addition, they had to use up all of the shells for their bazooka. This plays a role in the upcoming battle for the farmhouse. This isn't a 'Hollywood" platoon with unlimited ammunition. It has only what the men can carry with them.
Eventually, the farmhouse is taken and the bridge is destroyed. It's not a major victory that will win the war, but just one small action that will hinder the German attempt to bring up reinforcements to this area. This, therefore, allows the Allies to safely land more troops and material so that they can engage the Germans with a greater chance of defeating them when a major battle does occur. It is the combined results of small engagements, such as this one, that set the tone for the coming battles.
It's an all male cast, with not even the usual obligatory flashbacks to scenes back home of wives and girl friends and parents. Part of the fun of the film was spotting familiar faces among the soldiers: Dana Andrews (probably the star, if one needs one), Lloyd Bridges, Richard Conte, John Ireland, Sterling Holloway, Huntz Hall, Steve Brodie, and Burgess Meredith as the narrator.
Overall Reaction: a more realistic war film about WWII than most of those that I have seen. Superheroes are fun, but in the real world it's the average person who is forced to get the job done--the clerks, the mail carriers, the junior executives, the teachers, the welders--none of whom have superhuman powers.
=========================
Albert Sanchez Pinol: Cold Skin, a novel
translated by Cheryl Leah Morgan
A young man (unnamed) has arrived on a small island near the Antarctic Circle to take on a job as a weatherman for a year. He is to record the intensity, the direction, and the frequency of the winds there. The captain of the ship that has brought him is in a hurry to leave. Consequently, when the weatherman who has just completed his yearlong tour is not there to greet them, they go to look for him. He is nowhere to be found. The lighthouse keeper, who is the other inhabitant of the island, knows nothing.
The captain is puzzled, but he must leave. The young man settles in. He has taken this job because of the isolation. He also sees it as an opportunity to educate himself, so he has brought along numerous books and writing materials.
This is what I had read about the book before I borrowed it from the library. It sounded like a mystery to me and the premise was intriguing. Where was the previous weatherman? Was the lighthouse keeper responsible for his disappearance? Was there someone else on the island? It wasn't long before I realized I had wandered into the universe of a different genre--the horror story. The first night, swarms of humanoid creatures swarm ashore and attack his house. Fortunately, his house is sturdy and he is armed.
This short novel, somewhat less than 200 pages, is one of the strangest novels that I've recently read. Who are the creatures? Why do they relentlessly attack, night after night, regardless of their losses? Did they kill the missing weatherman? What is the lighthouse keeper's role in all this? Why is the lighthouse keeper reluctant to join forces with him against the creatures? And, what is the lighthouse keeper's relationship with what appears to be one of the female creatures?
By day, the young man struggles to find the answers to these questions, while at night he struggles to defend himself against the persistent attacks of the creatures. When he eventually forces the lighthouse keeper to allow him to move into the lighthouse (a much sturdier and more easily defensible structure), his questions still go unanswered. He also finds himself strangely attracted to the humanoid female.
The ending is a shocker, or at least, it was for me. I didn't see it coming, although other, more perceptive readers might. At the end, he does get some of the answers, but not all.
Overall Reaction: not a pleasant story, but one that drew me in and I had to stay with it until the end. Would I reread it? I think so, for it would be a different story then, and I'm curious about what it would be like at a second reading.
=========================
Robert Silverberg: A Time of Changes
Winner of the Nebula Award for Best SF Novel of 1971
Hugo Nominee for 1972
The novel begins with a very traditional series of events. Centuries in the future, humankind has colonized a number of planets. On one of them, Borthan, the people have created a society where the self is despised. It is considered obscene to use the pronouns "I" or "me" or "my." Instead of saying "I would like to . . .," the people of Borthan say "One would like to. . ." Talking about oneself is forbidden and eventually would result in social ostracism. Extremists would go one step further and say "Doing . . . is pleasurable" which eliminates any reference to an individual.
There are two exceptions to this rule. Apparently the founders of Borthan recognized that complete self-containment would be unhealthy, so they created the drainers and the custom of bondkin. Drainers were those who would listen to anyone without judging and keep secret whatever they were told, similar to the seal of the confessional in the Roman Catholic Church. Shortly after a child was born, the parents would arrange with other families to develop a relationship with a male and a female child of the same age. These would then be the child's bondbrother and bondsister. Only with one's bondbrother and bondsister could one reveal oneself, could one be truly open with another person.
Kinnal Darival is the son of the ruler of Sala. Unfortunately he is a younger son. It is strange but true that, on Borthan, younger sons of rulers do quite well until the father dies and the oldest brother takes the throne. At this point, the life expectancy of younger brothers suddenly drops to something less than a year. However, another strange fact is that the life expectancy of younger brothers suddenly increases to that of the normal population once that younger brother has traveled to a foreign country. Taking account of these statistics, Kinnal Darival leaves Salla several months after his brother has assumed the throne.
Darival, after several adventures, arrives in the province of Manneran. With the help of a relative, he gains a government position and within a decade or so, he has managed to become highly respected and powerful. He has wealth, power, prestige, and an advantageous if not a happy marriage. He then meets and becomes friendly with an Earthman, Schweiz, a merchant.
Schweiz attempts to break through the cultural walls that isolate each inhabitant on Borthan. He finds a listener in Darival. Eventually Schweiz tells him of a drug that will break through the social isolation and actually allow those who have taken the drug to share each other's consciousness for a short time. They take the drug and Darival decides that this must be shared with others. He and Schweiz travel to Sumara, the source of the drug, and bring back a large quantity. Darival then begins to convert others and soon a significant number of people are taking the drug.
The ruling powers however see this as a threat, and Darival is forced to flee once again. He returns to his home province of Sala, where his brother agrees to let him live, as long as he does not attempt to introduce the drug. Darival eventually finds this impossible, and at the end of the story is captured by his brother's troops. Darival's consolation is that he has written his story down and gotten it out to friends, who will spread the good word to others.
As I mentioned earlier, this novel was published in 1971. I'm sure this is just a coincidence, but during the 60s and early 70s, psychologist Timothy Leary became very prominent through his research on LSD. Like Darival, he was highly regarded in his profession. Like Darival he preached the use of a mind/consciousness expanding drug which would provide emotional and spiritual benefits. Leary also had to travel to a foreign country, Mexico, at first to acquire the mind expanding drug. And, eventually Leary lost his position in academia and was harassed by the authorities. Leary at one point had various prison terms adding up to 90+ years and actually spent some time in prison. President Nixon once described Leary as "the most dangerous man in America."
Overall Reaction: As I mentioned earlier, the novel began as a traditional adventure tale but then became as much if not more of a novel of ideas than of an action-oriented story. It's the story of a highly successful, wealthy, and powerful man who eventually went to war with his culture. As with so many who have radical ideas, he won't be around to see the results of his actions.
Another issue here is the efficacy of the drug. While it does break down the barriers between the minds of those using the drugs, does it produce any lasting changes after the drug wears off. The same question was asked of LSD which reportedly produced the same consciousness expanding results in a few hours as did years of meditation or of a mystical experience of some inexplicable nature. In short, were there any long-lasting beneficial changes to those who took LSD?
========================
Breakfast at Tiffany's, a film, probably labeled a romantic comedy
The Plot: can a young girl from a small Texas town find happiness in New York City? I should probably define happiness as Holly Golightly, our heroine, sees it. Actually Jane Austen, many years ago, said it better than I ever could: It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. Holly is looking for that single man in possession of a good fortune who will want her as his wife. Holly isn't being totally mercenary here, for she has a brother, Fred, who is getting out of the army shortly. He's a bit slow, she tells one and all, so she has to be responsible for him.
Given this inane plot, one could only wonder why the film was so popular. What does it have going for it that would have viewers ignore the silliness?
Well . . . It has the following going for it:
Cat, who plays the cat in the film with to the utmost, Cat is the epitome of catness--self-centered, determined to get its own way, always being around when it's not wanted and seldom being around when it is.
The Theme Music: words and music by Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini respectively. "Moon River" was extremely popular and one couldn't turn on the radio without hearing it at least once or twice a day. For days afterward I kept humming or hearing it.
George Peppard: a handsome, young male with lots of white teeth. What was needed for the role was a handsome, young male with lots of white teeth: he was available. He was there when necessary and not there when not needed.
Patricia Neal: her great but too seldom seen portrayal of Mrs. Failenson, the society matron whose boytoy, George Peppard, lived in the apartment above Holly's. Her acceptance of being dumped by George for a younger woman was a classic--rueful to some extent, but as she left, one knew that she was already thinking about his replacement, and that wouldn't be an impossible task, either--just call central casting.
But, most of all, what the film really has going for it is Audry Hepburn.
Overall Reaction: It stars Audrey Hepburn; what else needs be said?
Fred Saberhagen: Octagon, an SF novel
A Walk in the Sun, film
Albert Sanchez Pinol: Cold Skin, a novel
Robert Silverberg: A Time of Changes, an SF novel
Breakfast at Tiffany's, a film
=========================
Fred Saberhagen: Octagon, an SF novel
Octagon was first published in 1981, and it shows its age when the plot concentrates on computers. References to such "super" computers as the Cray 4 and desktop versions such as the TRS-80 bring back long forgotten memories. The plot involves a war game in which a computer is used to handle the bookkeeping. Participants in the game mail postcards or letters with their latest moves to the game headquarters and await responses from their opponents, also by mail. This is pre-email, of course, and shortly before the growth of the BBS network (electronic bulletin board system), which died shortly after the Internet emerged. The name of the company that runs the war game is Berserker Inc., an obvious reference to Saberhagen's own well-known series about the organic life-hating killing machines.
Prior to the beginning of the novel, two friends, Bob Gregory and Henry Brahmaguptra, had worked together in developing a computer network system by which computers in many different locations could communicate and interact. Fearing that this system might someday fall under the control of either a hostile country or a future dictatorial government, they built in a "back door" which would allow them or someone they designated to regain complete control of the network or even shut it down if that seemed necessary.
Opening the "back door" required two passwords, one for each of them, and since neither knew the other's password, they had to agree that the situation was serious enough to need their intervention. Unfortunately, political differences between Henry, the "bleeding heart" liberal, and Bob, the "reactionary redneck," resulted in their eventual estrangement. Now, it seems that someone has gained control of the system, and each suspects the other of unwisely sharing the password with others (the far left or the far right), which would give partial control of the system. And, along with records mysteriously disappearing or false records appearing, someone or something is murdering participants in that war game.
Saberhagen's novel clearly is tied to the events and the atmosphere of the time in which it was written. The increasing use of computers in everyday life and the first appearance of the personal desktop computer in the late 70s and early 80s (I think I got my first Trash 80 clone in 1981) provide the background for the novel. In addition, fears regarding the control of our lives through computers was becoming stronger, with not only individuals or governments assuming control, but also the possibility of computer AIs developing and becoming a threat on their own. Kubrick and Asimov's 2001: A Space Odyssey came out in 1968 and popularized the idea of sentient but malfunctioning computers as a potential threat to humanity. Saberhagen's novel is another version of this theme for, in this story, an AI has been unknowingly created. Unfortunately, it has adopted the rules of the war game as its perspective on reality: enemies were to be eliminated.
Trivia: Henry Brahmaguptra's last name is almost the same as that of India's most famous astronomer and mathematician of the past, Brahmagupta, who lived from 598 to 665 AD. I doubt that this is a coincidence.
Overall Reaction: interesting tale from an historical perspective about the growth of fear of the new electro-mechanical Frankenstein's monster, along with trends concerning the growth of the personal computer into everyday life. In addition, there's an interesting climatic battle scene at the end featuring metal monsters on both sides.
=========================
A Walk in the Sun, a film
A Walk in the Sun is a WWII film that came out in 1945 and is adapted from a novel by Harry Brown. The novel was published as a serial in Liberty Magazine in 1944. The film follows the actions of the Lee platoon of the Texas Division on the first day of the Allied invasion of Italy at Salerno in 1943. Their mission is to capture a farmhouse about six miles inland and then destroy the nearby bridge.
This is not a typical wartime propaganda film starring a big name who engages in superhuman heroics in the defense of the freedom-loving peoples of the world against an enemy notable mainly for its stupidity, brutality, and cowardice. The film illustrates the common saying about war being moments of terror midst hours of boredom and tedium. Once the platoon gets off the beach and inland, most of the time is spent walking and talking and griping, as the men get to know each other and become a unit. However, there is a war going on and the platoon has several encounters with the enemy before they get to the farmhouse.
Once such encounter is with a German mechanized reconnaissance patrol. The US platoon defeats the patrol, but not because of any super heroics but because the Germans were unaware of the American unit in the area and so were taken by surprise. In addition, the Germans were outnumbered. Careful planning, the element of surprise, discipline, and superior numbers were the significant elements, and it was clear that if the situation had been reversed, the Germans would have come out ahead. The victory had its costs as several were wounded, and in spite of the platoon's mantra, "Nobody Dies,"some do die. In addition, they had to use up all of the shells for their bazooka. This plays a role in the upcoming battle for the farmhouse. This isn't a 'Hollywood" platoon with unlimited ammunition. It has only what the men can carry with them.
Eventually, the farmhouse is taken and the bridge is destroyed. It's not a major victory that will win the war, but just one small action that will hinder the German attempt to bring up reinforcements to this area. This, therefore, allows the Allies to safely land more troops and material so that they can engage the Germans with a greater chance of defeating them when a major battle does occur. It is the combined results of small engagements, such as this one, that set the tone for the coming battles.
It's an all male cast, with not even the usual obligatory flashbacks to scenes back home of wives and girl friends and parents. Part of the fun of the film was spotting familiar faces among the soldiers: Dana Andrews (probably the star, if one needs one), Lloyd Bridges, Richard Conte, John Ireland, Sterling Holloway, Huntz Hall, Steve Brodie, and Burgess Meredith as the narrator.
Overall Reaction: a more realistic war film about WWII than most of those that I have seen. Superheroes are fun, but in the real world it's the average person who is forced to get the job done--the clerks, the mail carriers, the junior executives, the teachers, the welders--none of whom have superhuman powers.
=========================
Albert Sanchez Pinol: Cold Skin, a novel
translated by Cheryl Leah Morgan
A young man (unnamed) has arrived on a small island near the Antarctic Circle to take on a job as a weatherman for a year. He is to record the intensity, the direction, and the frequency of the winds there. The captain of the ship that has brought him is in a hurry to leave. Consequently, when the weatherman who has just completed his yearlong tour is not there to greet them, they go to look for him. He is nowhere to be found. The lighthouse keeper, who is the other inhabitant of the island, knows nothing.
The captain is puzzled, but he must leave. The young man settles in. He has taken this job because of the isolation. He also sees it as an opportunity to educate himself, so he has brought along numerous books and writing materials.
This is what I had read about the book before I borrowed it from the library. It sounded like a mystery to me and the premise was intriguing. Where was the previous weatherman? Was the lighthouse keeper responsible for his disappearance? Was there someone else on the island? It wasn't long before I realized I had wandered into the universe of a different genre--the horror story. The first night, swarms of humanoid creatures swarm ashore and attack his house. Fortunately, his house is sturdy and he is armed.
This short novel, somewhat less than 200 pages, is one of the strangest novels that I've recently read. Who are the creatures? Why do they relentlessly attack, night after night, regardless of their losses? Did they kill the missing weatherman? What is the lighthouse keeper's role in all this? Why is the lighthouse keeper reluctant to join forces with him against the creatures? And, what is the lighthouse keeper's relationship with what appears to be one of the female creatures?
By day, the young man struggles to find the answers to these questions, while at night he struggles to defend himself against the persistent attacks of the creatures. When he eventually forces the lighthouse keeper to allow him to move into the lighthouse (a much sturdier and more easily defensible structure), his questions still go unanswered. He also finds himself strangely attracted to the humanoid female.
The ending is a shocker, or at least, it was for me. I didn't see it coming, although other, more perceptive readers might. At the end, he does get some of the answers, but not all.
Overall Reaction: not a pleasant story, but one that drew me in and I had to stay with it until the end. Would I reread it? I think so, for it would be a different story then, and I'm curious about what it would be like at a second reading.
=========================
Robert Silverberg: A Time of Changes
Winner of the Nebula Award for Best SF Novel of 1971
Hugo Nominee for 1972
The novel begins with a very traditional series of events. Centuries in the future, humankind has colonized a number of planets. On one of them, Borthan, the people have created a society where the self is despised. It is considered obscene to use the pronouns "I" or "me" or "my." Instead of saying "I would like to . . .," the people of Borthan say "One would like to. . ." Talking about oneself is forbidden and eventually would result in social ostracism. Extremists would go one step further and say "Doing . . . is pleasurable" which eliminates any reference to an individual.
There are two exceptions to this rule. Apparently the founders of Borthan recognized that complete self-containment would be unhealthy, so they created the drainers and the custom of bondkin. Drainers were those who would listen to anyone without judging and keep secret whatever they were told, similar to the seal of the confessional in the Roman Catholic Church. Shortly after a child was born, the parents would arrange with other families to develop a relationship with a male and a female child of the same age. These would then be the child's bondbrother and bondsister. Only with one's bondbrother and bondsister could one reveal oneself, could one be truly open with another person.
Kinnal Darival is the son of the ruler of Sala. Unfortunately he is a younger son. It is strange but true that, on Borthan, younger sons of rulers do quite well until the father dies and the oldest brother takes the throne. At this point, the life expectancy of younger brothers suddenly drops to something less than a year. However, another strange fact is that the life expectancy of younger brothers suddenly increases to that of the normal population once that younger brother has traveled to a foreign country. Taking account of these statistics, Kinnal Darival leaves Salla several months after his brother has assumed the throne.
Darival, after several adventures, arrives in the province of Manneran. With the help of a relative, he gains a government position and within a decade or so, he has managed to become highly respected and powerful. He has wealth, power, prestige, and an advantageous if not a happy marriage. He then meets and becomes friendly with an Earthman, Schweiz, a merchant.
Schweiz attempts to break through the cultural walls that isolate each inhabitant on Borthan. He finds a listener in Darival. Eventually Schweiz tells him of a drug that will break through the social isolation and actually allow those who have taken the drug to share each other's consciousness for a short time. They take the drug and Darival decides that this must be shared with others. He and Schweiz travel to Sumara, the source of the drug, and bring back a large quantity. Darival then begins to convert others and soon a significant number of people are taking the drug.
The ruling powers however see this as a threat, and Darival is forced to flee once again. He returns to his home province of Sala, where his brother agrees to let him live, as long as he does not attempt to introduce the drug. Darival eventually finds this impossible, and at the end of the story is captured by his brother's troops. Darival's consolation is that he has written his story down and gotten it out to friends, who will spread the good word to others.
As I mentioned earlier, this novel was published in 1971. I'm sure this is just a coincidence, but during the 60s and early 70s, psychologist Timothy Leary became very prominent through his research on LSD. Like Darival, he was highly regarded in his profession. Like Darival he preached the use of a mind/consciousness expanding drug which would provide emotional and spiritual benefits. Leary also had to travel to a foreign country, Mexico, at first to acquire the mind expanding drug. And, eventually Leary lost his position in academia and was harassed by the authorities. Leary at one point had various prison terms adding up to 90+ years and actually spent some time in prison. President Nixon once described Leary as "the most dangerous man in America."
Overall Reaction: As I mentioned earlier, the novel began as a traditional adventure tale but then became as much if not more of a novel of ideas than of an action-oriented story. It's the story of a highly successful, wealthy, and powerful man who eventually went to war with his culture. As with so many who have radical ideas, he won't be around to see the results of his actions.
Another issue here is the efficacy of the drug. While it does break down the barriers between the minds of those using the drugs, does it produce any lasting changes after the drug wears off. The same question was asked of LSD which reportedly produced the same consciousness expanding results in a few hours as did years of meditation or of a mystical experience of some inexplicable nature. In short, were there any long-lasting beneficial changes to those who took LSD?
========================
Breakfast at Tiffany's, a film, probably labeled a romantic comedy
The Plot: can a young girl from a small Texas town find happiness in New York City? I should probably define happiness as Holly Golightly, our heroine, sees it. Actually Jane Austen, many years ago, said it better than I ever could: It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. Holly is looking for that single man in possession of a good fortune who will want her as his wife. Holly isn't being totally mercenary here, for she has a brother, Fred, who is getting out of the army shortly. He's a bit slow, she tells one and all, so she has to be responsible for him.
Given this inane plot, one could only wonder why the film was so popular. What does it have going for it that would have viewers ignore the silliness?
Well . . . It has the following going for it:
Cat, who plays the cat in the film with to the utmost, Cat is the epitome of catness--self-centered, determined to get its own way, always being around when it's not wanted and seldom being around when it is.
The Theme Music: words and music by Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini respectively. "Moon River" was extremely popular and one couldn't turn on the radio without hearing it at least once or twice a day. For days afterward I kept humming or hearing it.
George Peppard: a handsome, young male with lots of white teeth. What was needed for the role was a handsome, young male with lots of white teeth: he was available. He was there when necessary and not there when not needed.
Patricia Neal: her great but too seldom seen portrayal of Mrs. Failenson, the society matron whose boytoy, George Peppard, lived in the apartment above Holly's. Her acceptance of being dumped by George for a younger woman was a classic--rueful to some extent, but as she left, one knew that she was already thinking about his replacement, and that wouldn't be an impossible task, either--just call central casting.
But, most of all, what the film really has going for it is Audry Hepburn.
Overall Reaction: It stars Audrey Hepburn; what else needs be said?
Friday, June 4, 2010
Fata Morgana: a film by Werner Herzog
Fata Morgana is my nominee for the strangest film I've viewed this year. It came out in 1971, but I just recently noticed it and decided to give it a viewing. Werner Herzog is the director, and this is one of his earliest films: the third to be exact. In the commentary included on the DVD, Herzog said that this film contains many of the themes that he explored in greater detail in his later films. I watched the film twice; the second time with the commentary by Herzog. If you do watch the film, I highly recommend watching the commentary version at some point. It helps.
The title, Fata Morgana, is an Italian term that refers to an unusual and very complex type of mirage. It refers to Morgan le Fay, from the Arthurian cycle, and suggests the belief that the mirage is produced by witchcraft. Several mirages are presented throughout the film, some of which I didn't realize were mirages until it was pointed out during the viewing with the commentary turned on.
The film has no plot, at least not in the accepted sense of the term. In addition, Herzog states that this is not a documentary. I agree with him--at least, again, not a documentary in the usual sense. Herzog also insists that "there is a coherence there which is inexplicable but somehow there." Ultimately, I consider it unclassifiable. For the most part it is a series of short scenes and images shot in the northern Sahara Desert. The dialogue is almost non-existent, consisting of short voice-overs: readings from the Popol Vuh, which is the Mayan creation myth, and music ranging from classical ecclesiastical works to songs by Leonard Cohen.
Herzog says that initially it was to be an SF film. Aliens land on a planet and film what they see. This was to be a photojournal of their visit. However, he quickly dropped the idea and decided that he would just present the film images without the story.
The film has three parts: "Creation," "Paradise," and "The Golden Age." One commentary I read stated that on the surface, the titles appear ironic in contrast to the film images, but are not ironic at a deeper level. Unfortunately I am unable so far to get to that deeper level.
The film opens with an airport scene: we see a number of planes landing, each one getting more and more blurred and distorted as the day warms up.
Part I: Creation
As we hear a woman's voice reading the Mayan creation myth in German (English subtitles) we see images of the desert with buildings off in the distance, sand dunes, an oasis with palm trees, and huge storage tanks. Other scenes include a wrecked plane, an oil field perhaps burning off natural gas, and a flat landscape with sand and brush. One might almost call it a collage of images.
People occasionally appear in brief glimpses, but with no discernible purpose. Herzog commented that he couldn't communicate with them, so they were free to do what they wanted. Some just glanced at the camera and walked on. Others stood there and stared back. One man gestured with his hands, first pointing in one direction, then another, and then shrugged his shoulder and walked off.
I was startled when lush vegetation and once a beautiful waterfall appeared. These were not from the Sahara but scenes shot later in the Canary Islands. Again, the commentary was helpful here. However, there seemed to be no attempt to draw any conclusion from the juxtaposition of the barren scenery and the waterfall. It was up to the viewers, I guess, to make of it what they would or could.
Part II: Paradise
Again, a series of images that contrast with the usual concept of a Paradise. There are people again engaged in inexplicable, to me anyway, activity. A man and a woman approach the camera, both taking very short steps. He wears a coat that has many medals and begins speaking. There is no translation, and Herzog commented that they had no idea of what he was saying. During this segment Leonard Cohen sings two songs, one of which is "Suzanne." One scene is of a German researcher who is holding a monitor lizard that obviously fascinates him. He wears what appears to be swim or diving goggles. At one point a man appears holding a very worn and creased letter that is falling apart. He says, in German, that he is going back to rejoin his people in Germany. He got the letter over 25 years ago. Other images are of a Moslem cemetery, a military camp, and the site of a French test of a nuclear weapon.
Part III: The Golden Age
The most striking image in this section consists of a man and a woman on a small stage: she plays the piano and he sings and plays the drums and cymbals. He is singing in Spanish, but the sound quality is so bad I couldn't tell what language it is. The music and the movement of the two are so repetitive that I wonder if it is just one short clip of ten or fifteen seconds that has been repeatedly copied and spliced together. But, in spite of the repetition and monotonous tone, it is strangely compelling. Even now, almost a week after I watched the film, I can still recall that scene.
At one point, a voice intones that there "the landscape was as God commanded it to be." The scene was of a military camp. Another scene is of a huge unfinished factory building, only the structural girders have been installed. It is surrounded by desert; there is nothing, absolutely nothing to be seen for miles. Who built it? Why was it built there, in the middle of nowhere? Who was supposed to work there? Nobody knew anything about it.
Fata Morgana reminds me of a type of psychological test called a projective test: the Rorschach and the Thematic Apperception Test, for example. They consist of ambiguous images which the individual is supposed to interpret and say something about. What the person says about the images is supposed to reveal some aspects of that individual's personality.
Overall Rating: It's one that I put back in the queue for another viewing, perhaps next year. I'll leave it sit and percolate in my subconscious for awhile.
The title, Fata Morgana, is an Italian term that refers to an unusual and very complex type of mirage. It refers to Morgan le Fay, from the Arthurian cycle, and suggests the belief that the mirage is produced by witchcraft. Several mirages are presented throughout the film, some of which I didn't realize were mirages until it was pointed out during the viewing with the commentary turned on.
The film has no plot, at least not in the accepted sense of the term. In addition, Herzog states that this is not a documentary. I agree with him--at least, again, not a documentary in the usual sense. Herzog also insists that "there is a coherence there which is inexplicable but somehow there." Ultimately, I consider it unclassifiable. For the most part it is a series of short scenes and images shot in the northern Sahara Desert. The dialogue is almost non-existent, consisting of short voice-overs: readings from the Popol Vuh, which is the Mayan creation myth, and music ranging from classical ecclesiastical works to songs by Leonard Cohen.
Herzog says that initially it was to be an SF film. Aliens land on a planet and film what they see. This was to be a photojournal of their visit. However, he quickly dropped the idea and decided that he would just present the film images without the story.
The film has three parts: "Creation," "Paradise," and "The Golden Age." One commentary I read stated that on the surface, the titles appear ironic in contrast to the film images, but are not ironic at a deeper level. Unfortunately I am unable so far to get to that deeper level.
The film opens with an airport scene: we see a number of planes landing, each one getting more and more blurred and distorted as the day warms up.
Part I: Creation
As we hear a woman's voice reading the Mayan creation myth in German (English subtitles) we see images of the desert with buildings off in the distance, sand dunes, an oasis with palm trees, and huge storage tanks. Other scenes include a wrecked plane, an oil field perhaps burning off natural gas, and a flat landscape with sand and brush. One might almost call it a collage of images.
People occasionally appear in brief glimpses, but with no discernible purpose. Herzog commented that he couldn't communicate with them, so they were free to do what they wanted. Some just glanced at the camera and walked on. Others stood there and stared back. One man gestured with his hands, first pointing in one direction, then another, and then shrugged his shoulder and walked off.
I was startled when lush vegetation and once a beautiful waterfall appeared. These were not from the Sahara but scenes shot later in the Canary Islands. Again, the commentary was helpful here. However, there seemed to be no attempt to draw any conclusion from the juxtaposition of the barren scenery and the waterfall. It was up to the viewers, I guess, to make of it what they would or could.
Part II: Paradise
Again, a series of images that contrast with the usual concept of a Paradise. There are people again engaged in inexplicable, to me anyway, activity. A man and a woman approach the camera, both taking very short steps. He wears a coat that has many medals and begins speaking. There is no translation, and Herzog commented that they had no idea of what he was saying. During this segment Leonard Cohen sings two songs, one of which is "Suzanne." One scene is of a German researcher who is holding a monitor lizard that obviously fascinates him. He wears what appears to be swim or diving goggles. At one point a man appears holding a very worn and creased letter that is falling apart. He says, in German, that he is going back to rejoin his people in Germany. He got the letter over 25 years ago. Other images are of a Moslem cemetery, a military camp, and the site of a French test of a nuclear weapon.
Part III: The Golden Age
The most striking image in this section consists of a man and a woman on a small stage: she plays the piano and he sings and plays the drums and cymbals. He is singing in Spanish, but the sound quality is so bad I couldn't tell what language it is. The music and the movement of the two are so repetitive that I wonder if it is just one short clip of ten or fifteen seconds that has been repeatedly copied and spliced together. But, in spite of the repetition and monotonous tone, it is strangely compelling. Even now, almost a week after I watched the film, I can still recall that scene.
At one point, a voice intones that there "the landscape was as God commanded it to be." The scene was of a military camp. Another scene is of a huge unfinished factory building, only the structural girders have been installed. It is surrounded by desert; there is nothing, absolutely nothing to be seen for miles. Who built it? Why was it built there, in the middle of nowhere? Who was supposed to work there? Nobody knew anything about it.
Fata Morgana reminds me of a type of psychological test called a projective test: the Rorschach and the Thematic Apperception Test, for example. They consist of ambiguous images which the individual is supposed to interpret and say something about. What the person says about the images is supposed to reveal some aspects of that individual's personality.
Overall Rating: It's one that I put back in the queue for another viewing, perhaps next year. I'll leave it sit and percolate in my subconscious for awhile.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Combination Plate 13
Warning: I will be discussing significant plot elements and endings.
Edith Wharton
The Reef, a novel
The Reef is one of Edith Wharton's shorter novels and also now one of my favorite works by Wharton. I have enjoyed a number of her novels and short stories, but this one and 'Ethan Frome" are the ones that I would choose to read again if asked. I wouldn't mind rereading others, but these two are special.
The basic story of The Reef is quite simple, but the interactions of the four major characters are among the most complex that I've seen in Wharton's works. George Darrow is a member of the British diplomatic corp who, after many years of separation, has just encountered Anna Leath at a party. She is now a widow, with a daughter, Effie, and a stepson, Owen, with whom she is quite close. The fourth is Sophie Viner, formerly a social secretary to one of the women in George Darrow's circle.
In the beginning of the novel, Anna invites George to stay at her place while they decide their future together, but she puts it off for awhile and then delays it once again. Darrow is understandably upset by this. He is uncertain about what to do but decides to go to Paris (her home is in France) anyway. On the trip across the Channel, he meets Sophie Viner whom he vaguely remembers as part of the background at various house parties. She is no longer employed and is traveling to France to visit some friends and hopes to be able to stay with them while she figures out what she is to do next.
Darrow decides to show her what Paris has to offer: plays, opera, museums, restaurants. She puts off contacting her friends, and he remains in Paris for about ten days as he plays tourist guide. His leave is up and he returns to London while she plans to get in touch with her friends.
Months later, Anna Leath again writes him, finally issuing him an invitation.
Upon arrival at Anna's home, he is shocked to discover that Anna has hired Sophie Viner to be the governess for her daughter Effie. Just as he's recovering from this shock, he learns that Owen Leath, Anna's step-son, is planning to marry Sophie, against the wishes of the family matriarch, his grandmother. Anna has decided to support Owen in this family struggle and attempts to enlist George's aid.
Life becomes a series of crises and resolutions. One problem arises, and it is resolved, only to have another appear, which is soon solved, supposedly. This results in an extremely high level of tension throughout much of the work, especially after Darrow finally is allowed to visit Anna. This is something I usually don't find in her novels.
Eventually George and Sophie's prior encounter comes out, and this has an effect on Owen's feelings towards Sophie. Moreover, Anna finds she can no longer trust George, even though she loves him. She realizes that she can't tell when he is lying and when he is telling the truth.
One can see some interesting parallels in the work. The POV character in the first part is George while Anna is given that role in the second part. In the first part, both George and Anna are closely involved with young and attractive people--George with Sophie and Anna with Owen. In fact she decided to put off George's visit because she wanted to spend some more time with Owen. And, ironically, it was this brought George and Sophie together, just as her decision to hire Sophie as governess brought Owen and Sophie together. Also during the first part, George needs to meet with Sophie several times to clarify some ambiguities in their relationship, while in the second part, it's Anna who finds it necessary to meet with Sophie for clarification.
The Reef is the perfect title for this work because a reef is a hidden barrier, rock or coral, that would sink a ship that runs across it. And, so it is with this novel. Anna's letter that put off George's visit has tragic consequences for all four people.
There is a film version of this, but unfortunately it is not yet available on Netflix. Guess I'll just have to wait awhile.
Overall Rating: one of my favorite works by Edith Wharton.
========================================
The Guns of Navarone, a film
Based on the novel of the same name by Alastair MacLean
This is a World War II adventure film. The British fleet must rescue several thousand British troops from an island in the Aegean Sea. Unfortunately the only approach to the island is controlled by two huge radar-controlled German guns. To attempt a rescue with those guns operable would be suicidal. Bombardment by sea and from the air has proved ineffectual. Somebody is going to have to go there and destroy them--a j0b for the Mission Impossible Team. And as in all good caper films, a team is made up, each member having a special talent.
It's a good solid war action film, which lacks the usual superhuman stunts frequently found in such films. The problems are realistic and they survive because the Germans are human also, and not Teutonic supermen nor, and the other hand, are they the mindless dolts often found in war films. The team just barely survives a storm which destroys their boat, and they lose much of their equipment. It also becomes evident that the Germans are aware of their plans because every place they go, the Germans are there, waiting for them. The question is whether there was a spy at the British HQ where the plans were made or there is a traitor among them.
Racking up the tension level a few steps higher is the relationship between the Peck character and the Quinn character. They have a history and at the beginning of the mission, when Peck and Quinn meet, Quinn says that after the mission is completed, he will kill Peck.
What makes this film stand out is its cast: Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, Irene Pappas, David Niven, Richard Harris, Anthony Quayle, Stanley Baker, and Gia Scala.
Overall Rating: good solid action film, with a sufficiently satisfying and explosive ending, and a great cast, who could read the telephone book and make it worth the price of admission.
=====================================================
Malla Nunn
A Beautiful Place to Die
Mystery Novel, police procedural
South Africa
A Beautiful Place to Die is Malla Nunn's first novel and is a very good first novel. I'm looking forward to the second in the series.
The place is Jacob's Falls, a small village outside of Johannesburg, South Africa, and the time is the early 1950's, shortly after the apartheid laws were passed by the parliament. Detective inspector Emanuel Cooper has been sent from Johannesburg to Jacob's Rest, for the white captain of the local police force has died, and Cooper's job was simply to make a report to his superiors. Upon arrival though, he finds that Captain Pretorius has obviously been murdered.
Cooper is now in a difficult situation; he must investigate the murder of a police officer in a small town which, like all small towns, views outsiders with suspicion.
Cooper's job is made more difficult by the separation of the races by the newly passed laws. Fortunately Shabalala, the black constable (and probably destined, because of his color, to remain a constable forever) was a close friend of the captain, having grown up together, and proves to be an invaluable aid to Cooper whenever he had to deal with the black Africans.
Another obstacle is the presence of members of the Special Branch Section, who are little better than thugs with badges. They believe the murder was committed by communist black agitators as part of their plan to instigate a revolt against the rule of the white Afrikaners. Consequently they ignore any evidence that points elsewhere. Fortunately Cooper is ignored by them and is able to conduct his own clandestine investigation under the cover of a search for a peeping tom who has been active for several months. Constable Shabalala, since he is assisting the Special Branch investigators, manages to work with Cooper and provides information about the "official investigation" of the SB officers.
As could be predicted, Coooper's investigation reveals the many dark secrets that lurk in the closets of most of the people in Jacob's Falls, and some of those secrets are relevant, while others, of course, are embarrassing but have little to do with the ongoing investigation. Even Cooper himself, we find, has his own problems that while quiescent now could mean the end of his career.
One of the most perplexing secrets isn't revealed in this volume; all we get are a few clues about the puzzle that is Zweigman, the Jewish storekeeper. Cooper discovers that Zweigman has some medical training. As his investigation proceeds, Cooper realizes that Zweigman, in fact, is a trained surgeon. This is not simply a case of an immigrant with medical training that is not acceptable in his new home. Zweigman has been licensed to practice medicine; therefore it is his choice to run a small store in a very small town. We never do find out his story, but at the end, he has decided to take up a medical practice and is preparing to leave for Johannesburg. Since Cooper also lives and works in Johannesburg, I hope he will play a role in the next novel.
Nunn skillfully interweaves the apartheid setting into the plot, so that it isn't just something included for atmosphere but an integral part of the investigation. The apartheid laws were intended to maintain a separation among the whites and the black Africans and the Asians in South Africa, but it was too late. Cooper's investigation demonstrates just how closely the races are intertwined. While the laws were designed to keep the black Africans in their place, the laws also handicapped the whites, for they also had lost a certain freedom because of the laws.
The second book in the series, Let the Dead Lie, is due out in hardbound and trade paperback editions on April 20, 2010.
Overall Rating: The novel has a sufficiently, but not overly, complex plot and several interesting characters whom I hope will be in the second book, and I'm definitely going to read the second book.
=======================================================
Bruce Sterling
Involution Ocean, an SF novel
Moby Dick meets Dune.
This is a slender novel, barely 180 pages in length. It lacks the depth and complexity of many of Sterling's other works, Schismatrix for example, but it is a satisfying read.
The story takes place on the planet Nullaqua, which perfectly describes the planet--no water. The ocean is actually dust. With strong winds and sails, ships sail across the dust as ships on earth do on water.
John Newhouse, the POV character, is persuaded by those living in his boarding house to sign aboard a dustwhaler in order to get a supply of syncophrine. Syncophrine is a mind altering drug, highly prized for its highs, even though long usage leads inevitably to death. Syncophrine is the product of the dustwhales, who live only in the great sea of dust on Nullaquam, as spice is produced only by the great sandworms in Herbert's Dune.
Captain Desperandum of the good ship Lunglance, though no Captain Ahab, still has his obsession, which like Captain Ahab's, is bound to result in a tragedy. Deperandum's obsession is science. On board he conducts various scientific experiments that take them away from the dustwhale habitats. Moreover, his experiments frequently are dangerous and often put various members of the crew, as well as himself, at risk. Desperandum, like Ahab, is doomed by his obsession.
And, as on so many planets, things aren't what they appear to be. Humans, Newhouse discovers, aren't the only sapient creatures on the planet. Something, unknown so far to the humans, lives beneath the surface of the dust.
Newhouse also finds love aboard ship. Dalusa, an alien birdwoman, is the lookout for the ship. Their romance is mostly platonic for she is highly allergic to enzymes produced by human bodies and will break into a painful rash if touched by humans. At the end, Newhouse, like Ishmael, decides it's time to leave and goes his way the same way he arrived on Nullaqua, alone, but changed.
Overall Rating: This is Sterling's first novel, according to the Wikipedia entry, and while it isn't a complex or as well-developed as Schismatrix or some of his other works, it is an interesting and intriguing read--what appears to be a skillful blend of an 19th century classic and a 20th century SF novel.
Monday, December 14, 2009
IKIRU: a film by Kurosawa (1952)
Ikiru (to live) may not be the first foreign film I ever saw, but it's certainly the first one I remember seeing. I watched it over 40 years ago in a small movie theatre on the far north side of Chicago and now have viewed it twice since retiring several years ago. It was also several decades later that I discovered that it was directed by Kurosawa. Ikiru is just one of those films that I rent again and again. I'm now thinking about getting my own copy for my very small DVD collection. Christmas is coming....hmmm. Perhaps a subtle or not so subtle hint?
Watanabe learns that he has stomach cancer and might have six months to live. The shock of his impending death forces him to take a long clear look at himself. His son and daughter-in-law, who live with him, see him as someone to be used. They have decided to get their own apartment and have no qualms about asking Watanabe to deplete his retirement annuity to finance it. At work, his greatest accomplishment is having worked for almost 30 years without a taking single day of sick leave. That doesn't say much about his presence in an organization for three decades if the best one can say is that he was there every day.
Watanabe looks back and decides he hasn't lived and is going to make up for it now. He samples the night life of Tokyo and discovers this is not for him. He then tries to recapture his youth by associating with a young woman who had worked in his section, for he sees that she has youth and life. Perhaps she may influence him. This doesn't work either.
His third idea is to do something that would make a difference, one that would say he really had existed. It was then that he decided that he could make a difference--not by trying to become what he wasn't but by becoming what he was to the fullest extent possible. He was a public servant, but he had never really served the public. He had been a time-server, one who spent his days, like so many of his colleagues, doing his best to avoid doing anything but the minimum required to keep his position.
He remembered a problem brought to his section by a neighborhood group. There was an empty lot that was being used as a trash dump. It was unhealthy and dangerous for the children who played there for they had nowhere else to go. All that the people wanted was to have the place cleaned up and kept safe for the children. They had been getting the usual runaround--it was a problem for the parks dept--see engineering--see the health dept--see their local city council representative. Watanabe now decides to do something about it.
Warning: I will bring up important plot elements and the endings for both the film and Tolstoy's novella.
The second part of the film takes us forward to shortly after Watanabe's death. It takes place at the memorial for Watanabe, at which we see the deputy mayor, various members of the city government, the employees in Watanabe's section, and his son and daughter-in-law. We learn that, in spite of all opposition and with no help from any others, Watanabe not only succeeded in getting the empty lot cleaned up but also in having it turned into a park with playground equipment for the children.
The park has been so successful and popular with the people that everybody is now busy scurrying about, claiming credit for it, and dismissing Watanabe's own role. At the opening ceremony for the park, Watanabe had sat in the back row of the section for city employees and wasn't even mentioned by any of the speakers. All, including the deputy mayor, have forgotten their own initial rejection of Watanabe's plans and now insist that only the parks dept., the engineering dept., the health dept., or the deputy mayor's office could have been responsible for the park.
Kurosawa, in a stroke of genius, then brings in the people of the neighborhood, and their honest grief and respect for Watanabe provides the great possible contrast between them and the hypocrisy of the self-serving city officials and politicians. When I first watched the film, I focused, of course, on Watanabe and his struggles and accomplishments. It was only while watching it several days ago that I realized that Kurosawa had also strongly and effectively indicted the wastefulness and the indifference of the city government employees and officials.
Kurosawa had commented in an interview that Tolstoy's novella "The Death of Ivan Ilych" was the inspiration for the film. "Inspiration" is probably the best term for it certainly is not an attempt to transfer Tolstoy's novella to film. There are similarities: both Ivan Ilych and Watanabe Kanji are government employees--Ilych in the Russian judicial system and Watanabe in city government in Japan. Both learn that they have a short time to live, even though both are lied to by their physicians. Moreover, both are perceived by their respective families as obstacles to their families' happiness. And, both are forced to face the truth about themselves: they have wasted their lives in trivialities and the deadening routine of work.
However, there is a most significant difference between the two, one that may reflect differences between the East and the West.
Ilych's struggles after he realizes that he is dying are singular and solitary. He must accept that his life has not been a good life. His salvation comes at the end when he finally admits to himself that his life has essentially been a failure. Once he accepts this, he is able to die at peace with himself. His insight is singular, known only to himself, and affects no one else. On the other hand, Watanabe's salvation comes through helping others, by standing up for the people and getting the park built. His salvation benefits not only him but also the neighborhood residents and their children.
Does this difference suggest the more individualistic aspect of Western society and the group oriented Eastern society?
I'm not certain about this, for I sometimes wonder if Kurosawa had been "inspired" by two of Tolstoy's works--"The Death of Ivan Ilych" and Resurrection.
If one puts together the two stories, one then gets a much closer approximation of Ikiru. In Resurrection, Nekhlyudov, a nobleman, decides to help a woman whom he had, years ago, seduced and abandoned. She is in prison awaiting transportation to Siberia. He visits her, and, while there, is asked for help by another prisoner. He agrees and visits various government agencies where he is shocked to learn of the cruelty and indifference of the officials. On each subsequent visit to the prison, another prisoner asks for help, and much of the novel is spent following Nekhlyudov as he visits various government officials and discovers the extent of corruption and cruelty and indifference that exists. This is similar to the way Kurosawa portrays Watanabe as he goes from office to office and encounters, and therefore exposes, the same attitudes among various city officials.
I wonder if Kurosawa combined the death sentence and struggle for salvation found in Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilych" and the attempt to right a wrong which results in exposing the indifference and corruption of high officials in various governmental agencies in Tolstoy's novel, Resurrection.
One last comment about the film: the most striking scene in the film is Watanabe, sitting on a swing in the park, with the snow falling about him, quietly singing his favorite song. While one character said that it was terrible that he should die there alone like that, freezing in the snow, it seems obvious that Watanabe himself chose this death, with his monument about him.
Overall Rating: One of the best.
Watanabe learns that he has stomach cancer and might have six months to live. The shock of his impending death forces him to take a long clear look at himself. His son and daughter-in-law, who live with him, see him as someone to be used. They have decided to get their own apartment and have no qualms about asking Watanabe to deplete his retirement annuity to finance it. At work, his greatest accomplishment is having worked for almost 30 years without a taking single day of sick leave. That doesn't say much about his presence in an organization for three decades if the best one can say is that he was there every day.
Watanabe looks back and decides he hasn't lived and is going to make up for it now. He samples the night life of Tokyo and discovers this is not for him. He then tries to recapture his youth by associating with a young woman who had worked in his section, for he sees that she has youth and life. Perhaps she may influence him. This doesn't work either.
His third idea is to do something that would make a difference, one that would say he really had existed. It was then that he decided that he could make a difference--not by trying to become what he wasn't but by becoming what he was to the fullest extent possible. He was a public servant, but he had never really served the public. He had been a time-server, one who spent his days, like so many of his colleagues, doing his best to avoid doing anything but the minimum required to keep his position.
He remembered a problem brought to his section by a neighborhood group. There was an empty lot that was being used as a trash dump. It was unhealthy and dangerous for the children who played there for they had nowhere else to go. All that the people wanted was to have the place cleaned up and kept safe for the children. They had been getting the usual runaround--it was a problem for the parks dept--see engineering--see the health dept--see their local city council representative. Watanabe now decides to do something about it.
Warning: I will bring up important plot elements and the endings for both the film and Tolstoy's novella.
The second part of the film takes us forward to shortly after Watanabe's death. It takes place at the memorial for Watanabe, at which we see the deputy mayor, various members of the city government, the employees in Watanabe's section, and his son and daughter-in-law. We learn that, in spite of all opposition and with no help from any others, Watanabe not only succeeded in getting the empty lot cleaned up but also in having it turned into a park with playground equipment for the children.
The park has been so successful and popular with the people that everybody is now busy scurrying about, claiming credit for it, and dismissing Watanabe's own role. At the opening ceremony for the park, Watanabe had sat in the back row of the section for city employees and wasn't even mentioned by any of the speakers. All, including the deputy mayor, have forgotten their own initial rejection of Watanabe's plans and now insist that only the parks dept., the engineering dept., the health dept., or the deputy mayor's office could have been responsible for the park.
Kurosawa, in a stroke of genius, then brings in the people of the neighborhood, and their honest grief and respect for Watanabe provides the great possible contrast between them and the hypocrisy of the self-serving city officials and politicians. When I first watched the film, I focused, of course, on Watanabe and his struggles and accomplishments. It was only while watching it several days ago that I realized that Kurosawa had also strongly and effectively indicted the wastefulness and the indifference of the city government employees and officials.
Kurosawa had commented in an interview that Tolstoy's novella "The Death of Ivan Ilych" was the inspiration for the film. "Inspiration" is probably the best term for it certainly is not an attempt to transfer Tolstoy's novella to film. There are similarities: both Ivan Ilych and Watanabe Kanji are government employees--Ilych in the Russian judicial system and Watanabe in city government in Japan. Both learn that they have a short time to live, even though both are lied to by their physicians. Moreover, both are perceived by their respective families as obstacles to their families' happiness. And, both are forced to face the truth about themselves: they have wasted their lives in trivialities and the deadening routine of work.
However, there is a most significant difference between the two, one that may reflect differences between the East and the West.
Ilych's struggles after he realizes that he is dying are singular and solitary. He must accept that his life has not been a good life. His salvation comes at the end when he finally admits to himself that his life has essentially been a failure. Once he accepts this, he is able to die at peace with himself. His insight is singular, known only to himself, and affects no one else. On the other hand, Watanabe's salvation comes through helping others, by standing up for the people and getting the park built. His salvation benefits not only him but also the neighborhood residents and their children.
Does this difference suggest the more individualistic aspect of Western society and the group oriented Eastern society?
I'm not certain about this, for I sometimes wonder if Kurosawa had been "inspired" by two of Tolstoy's works--"The Death of Ivan Ilych" and Resurrection.
If one puts together the two stories, one then gets a much closer approximation of Ikiru. In Resurrection, Nekhlyudov, a nobleman, decides to help a woman whom he had, years ago, seduced and abandoned. She is in prison awaiting transportation to Siberia. He visits her, and, while there, is asked for help by another prisoner. He agrees and visits various government agencies where he is shocked to learn of the cruelty and indifference of the officials. On each subsequent visit to the prison, another prisoner asks for help, and much of the novel is spent following Nekhlyudov as he visits various government officials and discovers the extent of corruption and cruelty and indifference that exists. This is similar to the way Kurosawa portrays Watanabe as he goes from office to office and encounters, and therefore exposes, the same attitudes among various city officials.
I wonder if Kurosawa combined the death sentence and struggle for salvation found in Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilych" and the attempt to right a wrong which results in exposing the indifference and corruption of high officials in various governmental agencies in Tolstoy's novel, Resurrection.
One last comment about the film: the most striking scene in the film is Watanabe, sitting on a swing in the park, with the snow falling about him, quietly singing his favorite song. While one character said that it was terrible that he should die there alone like that, freezing in the snow, it seems obvious that Watanabe himself chose this death, with his monument about him.
Overall Rating: One of the best.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Friedrich Durrenmatt: The Pledge, novel and film
Friedrich Durrenmatt
The Pledge
Mystery, police procedural?
The description for the film, The Pledge, sounded interesting, so I rented it. It is a mystery story, but the focus is more on the detective than on the killer. A detective, played by Jack Nicholson, takes on the case of the murder of a child the day before he had intended to retire. The cast is also one of the inducements for viewing it: Jack Nicholson, Helen Mirren, Vanessa Redgrave, Sam Shepard, Aaron Eckhart, and Robin Wright Penn.
While researching the film on imdb.com, I learned that the film is based on a novel by the same name by Friedrich Durrenmatt, whom I had never heard of. Some of the comments about Durrenmatt included statements that he was one of the most significant European writers and dramatists of the second half of the 20th century. It was then that I discovered that I had encountered Durrenmatt once before, some 45+ years ago in fact. I had seen his play, The Visit, on stage with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontane.
I have never forgotten the play. A small town is dying. The company that was responsible for its economic life had closed down. A visitor comes to town. She had left this town many years ago, driven out, in fact, in disgrace when her lover denied being the father of her child. She has returned, one of the richest women in the country, and offers financial inducements in return for revenge. Her offer is refused, at first...
The Pledge is a subtly constructed novel about a promise made by Matthai, the police officer. Even though he supposed to leave the next day to take a job as police chief in Jordan, Matthai promises the mother of the murdered girl that he will catch the killer. The story is of that pledge and its effects upon the officer who has no life outside of his police work.
Suspicion falls upon an individual seen in the vicinity of the body. This individual, unfortunately for him, has a past record and is taken into custody. However, Matthai does not believe this man is the killer, so he starts his own investigation. Apparently two other young girls, both resembling the recent victim, have been killed within the past several years. While each was from a different small town in the mountains, there is an intersection in which the roads to each of the small towns meet and, moreover, one must come to this same intersection if one comes from outside the area. At this intersection is a gas station with a few rooms for travelers. Matthai buys the station and waits.
While this does seem to be an example of an excessive commitment on his part, especially since the police and citizenry are satisfied that the killer has been caught, I didn't think it actually had reached the stage of being an obsession. It wasn't until later in the film that I began to feel uneasy about his behavior, for everything he did made sense. His behavior made sense, but at a certain point he crossed the line beyond which no rational person would go.
There are some significant differences between the novel and the film but none that affect the overall theme of the novel. The differences are more about timing, about the presentation of information, and the focus of the theme--just how far should one go, even in attempting to prevent more murders in this case--remains the same.
Warning: What follows is information about significant events.
In The Pledge, like his play which I mentioned earlier, Durrenmatt gives us a situation in which an individual is placed at risk in order to benefit the group. One of the significant differences between the novel and the film is the way the officer sets up his trap for the killer.
In the novel, Matthai, now on inactive duty, goes to an orphanage and attempts to adopt a young girl, but he is refused. He then hires a local woman to clean the place and help him with customers. She has a young child, a girl about the same age and description, even to having blond hair, as did the previous victims. This might be a coincidence, except that now he has the girl always with him out in front, by the side of the road where drivers can't miss seeing her.
In the film, this is handled somewhat differently. One night, a young woman whom Nicholson had befriended in the past, comes to the station, seeking protection from an abusive ex-spouse. Nicholson lets her stay the night and then offers to let her stay if she will help out with the place.
Her appearance here with her young daughter then is a matter of chance. In the film then, there is always the possibility that her unexpected and unplanned appearance gave him the idea, whereas in the novel, he clearly plans to use the young girl as bait.
In the film version, Nicholson buys her a swing and puts it up in front of the station, in full view of drivers. When asked, he explains that it's safer out front where he can see her, whereas if he installs it in back, where there are no windows, anybody could come up out of the woods and he wouldn't be able to see him.
I don't want to reveal the rest of the story, so I'll stop here. That there is a killer who preys upon young children is horrifying enough, but that the detective is willing to use a young girl as bait to lure the killer into a trap is just as horrifying. What is most chilling is that when confronted with what he was doing, the officer is confused, for he doesn't see the problem. The killer is a threat and must be stopped. Nothing could happen to the young girl for she was well protected.
Perhaps I'm being overly sensitive here, but I don't think there's any justification that could justify putting a young child at risk. An adult could weigh the risks and decide whether to allow this to happen, but not a young child.
I wonder--am I being overly sensitive here?
Overall Rating: Nicholson and a great cast give us an excellent film version of a very chilling novel.
The Pledge
Mystery, police procedural?
The description for the film, The Pledge, sounded interesting, so I rented it. It is a mystery story, but the focus is more on the detective than on the killer. A detective, played by Jack Nicholson, takes on the case of the murder of a child the day before he had intended to retire. The cast is also one of the inducements for viewing it: Jack Nicholson, Helen Mirren, Vanessa Redgrave, Sam Shepard, Aaron Eckhart, and Robin Wright Penn.
While researching the film on imdb.com, I learned that the film is based on a novel by the same name by Friedrich Durrenmatt, whom I had never heard of. Some of the comments about Durrenmatt included statements that he was one of the most significant European writers and dramatists of the second half of the 20th century. It was then that I discovered that I had encountered Durrenmatt once before, some 45+ years ago in fact. I had seen his play, The Visit, on stage with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontane.
I have never forgotten the play. A small town is dying. The company that was responsible for its economic life had closed down. A visitor comes to town. She had left this town many years ago, driven out, in fact, in disgrace when her lover denied being the father of her child. She has returned, one of the richest women in the country, and offers financial inducements in return for revenge. Her offer is refused, at first...
The Pledge is a subtly constructed novel about a promise made by Matthai, the police officer. Even though he supposed to leave the next day to take a job as police chief in Jordan, Matthai promises the mother of the murdered girl that he will catch the killer. The story is of that pledge and its effects upon the officer who has no life outside of his police work.
Suspicion falls upon an individual seen in the vicinity of the body. This individual, unfortunately for him, has a past record and is taken into custody. However, Matthai does not believe this man is the killer, so he starts his own investigation. Apparently two other young girls, both resembling the recent victim, have been killed within the past several years. While each was from a different small town in the mountains, there is an intersection in which the roads to each of the small towns meet and, moreover, one must come to this same intersection if one comes from outside the area. At this intersection is a gas station with a few rooms for travelers. Matthai buys the station and waits.
While this does seem to be an example of an excessive commitment on his part, especially since the police and citizenry are satisfied that the killer has been caught, I didn't think it actually had reached the stage of being an obsession. It wasn't until later in the film that I began to feel uneasy about his behavior, for everything he did made sense. His behavior made sense, but at a certain point he crossed the line beyond which no rational person would go.
There are some significant differences between the novel and the film but none that affect the overall theme of the novel. The differences are more about timing, about the presentation of information, and the focus of the theme--just how far should one go, even in attempting to prevent more murders in this case--remains the same.
Warning: What follows is information about significant events.
In The Pledge, like his play which I mentioned earlier, Durrenmatt gives us a situation in which an individual is placed at risk in order to benefit the group. One of the significant differences between the novel and the film is the way the officer sets up his trap for the killer.
In the novel, Matthai, now on inactive duty, goes to an orphanage and attempts to adopt a young girl, but he is refused. He then hires a local woman to clean the place and help him with customers. She has a young child, a girl about the same age and description, even to having blond hair, as did the previous victims. This might be a coincidence, except that now he has the girl always with him out in front, by the side of the road where drivers can't miss seeing her.
In the film, this is handled somewhat differently. One night, a young woman whom Nicholson had befriended in the past, comes to the station, seeking protection from an abusive ex-spouse. Nicholson lets her stay the night and then offers to let her stay if she will help out with the place.
Her appearance here with her young daughter then is a matter of chance. In the film then, there is always the possibility that her unexpected and unplanned appearance gave him the idea, whereas in the novel, he clearly plans to use the young girl as bait.
In the film version, Nicholson buys her a swing and puts it up in front of the station, in full view of drivers. When asked, he explains that it's safer out front where he can see her, whereas if he installs it in back, where there are no windows, anybody could come up out of the woods and he wouldn't be able to see him.
I don't want to reveal the rest of the story, so I'll stop here. That there is a killer who preys upon young children is horrifying enough, but that the detective is willing to use a young girl as bait to lure the killer into a trap is just as horrifying. What is most chilling is that when confronted with what he was doing, the officer is confused, for he doesn't see the problem. The killer is a threat and must be stopped. Nothing could happen to the young girl for she was well protected.
Perhaps I'm being overly sensitive here, but I don't think there's any justification that could justify putting a young child at risk. An adult could weigh the risks and decide whether to allow this to happen, but not a young child.
I wonder--am I being overly sensitive here?
Overall Rating: Nicholson and a great cast give us an excellent film version of a very chilling novel.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Combination Plate 9
Several short comments about some books I've recently read and films I've recently watched.
Run Lola Run: a film
German import in English
Live action with cartoonish inserts
Director: Tom Tykwer
Lola: Franka Potente
I hadn't heard of the film and I'm not even sure why I rented it, but it was a wonderful accidental discovery. It's mostly live action, but cartoon imagery is used very effectively sporadically throughout the film. It adds a lighthearted touch to the goings on in the film and reminds the viewer that this really is not for real.
The plot is simple: Lola's klutz of a boyfriend is trying to break in with the mob. As a test, he is given 100,000 marks to transport from Point A to Point B. He loses the money and calls Lola to tell her the sad news. I guess Lola's feelings for him demonstrate the old adage: love is blind (possibly not too bright either). As he sees it, his choices are limited: rob a grocery store or get terminated by the mob if he doesn't hand 100,000 marks over to his contact in about 20 minutes. Lola tells him to wait, for she's going to see if she can raise the money in that 20 minutes.
Now, Lola begins to run. As she runs, we get brief glimpses of the future lives of the people she runs into, some literally. Rather than spoil the plot, I'll stop here. The film does not end when Lola finally reaches her boyfriend some 20 minutes later, for the film is a fantasy that gives us the opportunity that we never get in real life: if we could only do it again, how different it would be. In fact, Lola gets three chances to do it. Each trial is different in some ways, with the effects on the others she encounters differing each time, and also producing changes later which result in a different conclusion each time.
Overall Rating: very high. I've seen it twice and will probably see it again.
====================================================
Mari Jungstedt: The Inner Circle, a novel
Mystery: Police Procedural
Protagonist: Inspector Anders Knutas
Setting: the Island of Gotland, just off the Swedish coast
This is appears to be the third novel in the series set on Gotland with Inspector Knutas. In this novel, a young archeology student on a dig in a Viking settlement has been murdered. Does this have anything to do with the decapitated horse found several days ago? Moreover, there seemed to be a suspicious lack of blood where the horse was found. It seems clear that there is a ritual element to this murder--a human sacrifice? As the body count increases, the tension rises, among the police who have no clues to go on and among the archeology students who are at the dig and also among the general populace.
It's a well-told story with a intriguing plot. The denouement is satisfying and fair--no last minute twin or sudden insertion of a character in a late chapter or a flash of insight that leaves the reader wondering where that came from. It's a good smooth translation also.
My only quibble is a personal quirk: mysteries should focus on the mystery. This one, well--to quote the back cover comment from the Svenska Dagbladet, "she succeeds in combining a fascination with macabre acts of violent crime with a focus on relationship drama..."
That's my problem--the "relationship drama" has little to do with the plot, except that it involves the secondary POV character Johan, a reporter who decides he will investigate the crime himself. As part of the "relationship drama," the reader is suddenly blessed with a chapter or two with Emma, the reporter's love interest, in the birthing room as she gives birth to their child, and then on the effect this has on their relationship.
Overall Rating: good--I would especially recommend it for those interested in reading crime fiction from other countries.
=================================================
Javier Sierra
The Secret Supper
Historical mystery: set late 15th century Italy
Focus: Leonardo da Vinci and The Last Supper
What secret code, if any, did da Vinci incorporate in his painting, The Last Supper? This novel is bound to draw comparisons with the more famous one by Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code. However, this one is better, by far.
Agostino Leyre is a monk in the Order of Saint Bethany (OSB?), a super secret group buried within the Dominicans. The Order was "set up to examine government matters that might allow the Holy Father to foretell the movements of his many enemies. Any scrap of news, however minuscule, that might affect the status quo of the Church would immediately pass into our hands, where it would weighed and transmitted to the pertinent authority. That was our sole mission."
The Vatican has received several anonymous letters warning them of da Vinci's intention to insert heretical symbols in The Last Supper. Leyre is sent to Milan to investigate the claims and also to identify the sender of the anonymous letters. Then, the murders begin, and the hunt is on.
The usual suspects are present: The Last Supper, da Vinci, Mary Magdalene, St. John, the Cathars, the Gnostics, and Church/State politics. I don't remember the Templars making it into this one, though.
Overall Rating: good--nice depiction of the historical setting, interesting code set up for the interpretation of the painting, and characters that are a bit more than two-dimensional.
========================================================
Nine Queens: a film
Argentina, subtitles
a caper film
Two con men, the old wise experienced Marcos and the young inexperienced Juan, stumble into a swindle involving the Nine Queens, a sheet of rare and incredibly expensive stamps. Their target is a rich businessman whose hobby is stamps. However, he has to leave the country the next day, so he won't be able to give the stamps the thorough testing he normally would. That's the con men's advantage, for the stamps are forgeries, good ones, but they won't stand up to thorough testing.
The film follows the two as they desperately attempt to put their scam across. At each turn, there's a new and unexpected hurdle, each one threatening disaster for their plan. The fun is, of course, watching them struggle with each new potential catastrophe.
Overall Rating: good, a enjoyable couple of hours, with the usual twists and turns and crosses and double-crosses and triple-crosses that one would expect. One might wonder if there really
is honor among thieves. Nine Queens makes me reflect on what other gems might be awaiting discovery down there.
===========================================================
The Producers
A Mel Brooks film
This is one of my favorite goofy movies of all time. Zero Mostel is a producer who has hit bottom. His most recent plays have all been flops. Gene Wilder plays the naive, innocent accountant whose consciousness is raised by the wily and unscrupulous Mostel.
After doing Mostel's books for his latest flop, Wilder discovers that several thousand dollars are still in the account. But, since the show was a flop, everyone assumes all the money is gone. Mostel sees the golden opportunity and persuades Wilder to go along. They will select a play that is a surefire loser, raise money from backers, spend as little as possible, and close out the books when it flops. Overall, they manage to sell several thousand percent of the proceeds to various backers, mostly little old ladies charmed by Mostel.
Their choice for flop of the year: Springtime for Hitler, written by a Nazi who attempts in his play to present the "real" Adolf Hitler, not the evil one portrayed by Allied propagandists. This, they are convinced, absolutely can not fail to fail.
They select a director and cast that hasn't enough talent to be even second-rate. Dick Shawn is a brain-damaged old hippie who is selected to play Hitler. I think his portrayal of Hitler can best be described as surreal.
One of the great scenes in the movie is that of the audience who are open-mouthed in shock as the play opens with the first song:
"Springtime for Hitler and Germany,
Winter for Poland and France.
Bombs falling from the skies again,
Deutschland is on the rise again."
Sheer lunacy. Warning: it's a catchy tune, so you might find yourself humming it days later.
Overall Rating: Great. If you haven't seen it yet, then go rent it somewhere. If you have seen it, then perhaps it's time to see it again.
Run Lola Run: a film
German import in English
Live action with cartoonish inserts
Director: Tom Tykwer
Lola: Franka Potente
I hadn't heard of the film and I'm not even sure why I rented it, but it was a wonderful accidental discovery. It's mostly live action, but cartoon imagery is used very effectively sporadically throughout the film. It adds a lighthearted touch to the goings on in the film and reminds the viewer that this really is not for real.
The plot is simple: Lola's klutz of a boyfriend is trying to break in with the mob. As a test, he is given 100,000 marks to transport from Point A to Point B. He loses the money and calls Lola to tell her the sad news. I guess Lola's feelings for him demonstrate the old adage: love is blind (possibly not too bright either). As he sees it, his choices are limited: rob a grocery store or get terminated by the mob if he doesn't hand 100,000 marks over to his contact in about 20 minutes. Lola tells him to wait, for she's going to see if she can raise the money in that 20 minutes.
Now, Lola begins to run. As she runs, we get brief glimpses of the future lives of the people she runs into, some literally. Rather than spoil the plot, I'll stop here. The film does not end when Lola finally reaches her boyfriend some 20 minutes later, for the film is a fantasy that gives us the opportunity that we never get in real life: if we could only do it again, how different it would be. In fact, Lola gets three chances to do it. Each trial is different in some ways, with the effects on the others she encounters differing each time, and also producing changes later which result in a different conclusion each time.
Overall Rating: very high. I've seen it twice and will probably see it again.
====================================================
Mari Jungstedt: The Inner Circle, a novel
Mystery: Police Procedural
Protagonist: Inspector Anders Knutas
Setting: the Island of Gotland, just off the Swedish coast
This is appears to be the third novel in the series set on Gotland with Inspector Knutas. In this novel, a young archeology student on a dig in a Viking settlement has been murdered. Does this have anything to do with the decapitated horse found several days ago? Moreover, there seemed to be a suspicious lack of blood where the horse was found. It seems clear that there is a ritual element to this murder--a human sacrifice? As the body count increases, the tension rises, among the police who have no clues to go on and among the archeology students who are at the dig and also among the general populace.
It's a well-told story with a intriguing plot. The denouement is satisfying and fair--no last minute twin or sudden insertion of a character in a late chapter or a flash of insight that leaves the reader wondering where that came from. It's a good smooth translation also.
My only quibble is a personal quirk: mysteries should focus on the mystery. This one, well--to quote the back cover comment from the Svenska Dagbladet, "she succeeds in combining a fascination with macabre acts of violent crime with a focus on relationship drama..."
That's my problem--the "relationship drama" has little to do with the plot, except that it involves the secondary POV character Johan, a reporter who decides he will investigate the crime himself. As part of the "relationship drama," the reader is suddenly blessed with a chapter or two with Emma, the reporter's love interest, in the birthing room as she gives birth to their child, and then on the effect this has on their relationship.
Overall Rating: good--I would especially recommend it for those interested in reading crime fiction from other countries.
=================================================
Javier Sierra
The Secret Supper
Historical mystery: set late 15th century Italy
Focus: Leonardo da Vinci and The Last Supper
What secret code, if any, did da Vinci incorporate in his painting, The Last Supper? This novel is bound to draw comparisons with the more famous one by Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code. However, this one is better, by far.
Agostino Leyre is a monk in the Order of Saint Bethany (OSB?), a super secret group buried within the Dominicans. The Order was "set up to examine government matters that might allow the Holy Father to foretell the movements of his many enemies. Any scrap of news, however minuscule, that might affect the status quo of the Church would immediately pass into our hands, where it would weighed and transmitted to the pertinent authority. That was our sole mission."
The Vatican has received several anonymous letters warning them of da Vinci's intention to insert heretical symbols in The Last Supper. Leyre is sent to Milan to investigate the claims and also to identify the sender of the anonymous letters. Then, the murders begin, and the hunt is on.
The usual suspects are present: The Last Supper, da Vinci, Mary Magdalene, St. John, the Cathars, the Gnostics, and Church/State politics. I don't remember the Templars making it into this one, though.
Overall Rating: good--nice depiction of the historical setting, interesting code set up for the interpretation of the painting, and characters that are a bit more than two-dimensional.
========================================================
Nine Queens: a film
Argentina, subtitles
a caper film
Two con men, the old wise experienced Marcos and the young inexperienced Juan, stumble into a swindle involving the Nine Queens, a sheet of rare and incredibly expensive stamps. Their target is a rich businessman whose hobby is stamps. However, he has to leave the country the next day, so he won't be able to give the stamps the thorough testing he normally would. That's the con men's advantage, for the stamps are forgeries, good ones, but they won't stand up to thorough testing.
The film follows the two as they desperately attempt to put their scam across. At each turn, there's a new and unexpected hurdle, each one threatening disaster for their plan. The fun is, of course, watching them struggle with each new potential catastrophe.
Overall Rating: good, a enjoyable couple of hours, with the usual twists and turns and crosses and double-crosses and triple-crosses that one would expect. One might wonder if there really
is honor among thieves. Nine Queens makes me reflect on what other gems might be awaiting discovery down there.
===========================================================
The Producers
A Mel Brooks film
This is one of my favorite goofy movies of all time. Zero Mostel is a producer who has hit bottom. His most recent plays have all been flops. Gene Wilder plays the naive, innocent accountant whose consciousness is raised by the wily and unscrupulous Mostel.
After doing Mostel's books for his latest flop, Wilder discovers that several thousand dollars are still in the account. But, since the show was a flop, everyone assumes all the money is gone. Mostel sees the golden opportunity and persuades Wilder to go along. They will select a play that is a surefire loser, raise money from backers, spend as little as possible, and close out the books when it flops. Overall, they manage to sell several thousand percent of the proceeds to various backers, mostly little old ladies charmed by Mostel.
Their choice for flop of the year: Springtime for Hitler, written by a Nazi who attempts in his play to present the "real" Adolf Hitler, not the evil one portrayed by Allied propagandists. This, they are convinced, absolutely can not fail to fail.
They select a director and cast that hasn't enough talent to be even second-rate. Dick Shawn is a brain-damaged old hippie who is selected to play Hitler. I think his portrayal of Hitler can best be described as surreal.
One of the great scenes in the movie is that of the audience who are open-mouthed in shock as the play opens with the first song:
"Springtime for Hitler and Germany,
Winter for Poland and France.
Bombs falling from the skies again,
Deutschland is on the rise again."
Sheer lunacy. Warning: it's a catchy tune, so you might find yourself humming it days later.
Overall Rating: Great. If you haven't seen it yet, then go rent it somewhere. If you have seen it, then perhaps it's time to see it again.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Combination Plate 8
Kim Stanley Robinson
Vinland the Dream and Other Stories
Kim Stanley Robinson is one of my favorite SF writers, a result of discovering his The Memory of Whiteness and the "California Triad" (aka the "Orange County Triad"). I call it a triad because it's not really a trilogy, at least not in the commonly accepted sense, anyway. His short stories are also very good--some SF, some fantasy, some neither.
The quality of the tales in this collection is very high, as it should be, for this is sort of a "best of" collection. It's actually the best of two other anthologies, and that's the problem. All but one of the stories here have already appeared in The Planet on the Table (PotT) and Remaking History (RM). Only "Discovering Life" is not included in either of the two. In addition, there is an omnibus edition, Remaking History and Other Stories, which already includes all of the stories from PotT and RM.
The fourteen stories in Vinland the Dream range from future predictions to recreating the past, or in some cases rewriting the past, as in the title story "Vinland the Dream." In this story we see an archaeologist conduct an excavation to disprove a long accepted tenet, that of the discovery of Vinland by the Vikings.
In "A History of the Twentieth Century: with Illustrations," a historian is commissioned to do a coffee table work with this title. After researching the horrors of the twentieth century he comes up with a rather surprising conclusion.
"Venice Drowned" is the story of a future in which the sea level has risen sufficiently to cover Venice to the point that the shorter buildings are now underwater and the remaining residents have moved either to the upper stories of taller buildings or have build a shack on the roof. One such resident survives by taking sightseers on tours. He also guides and provides diving equipment for souvenir hunters who are busy looting the drowned city.
In the far future, some miners on far flung planets, all but slaves to the mining company, find release and relief in digging in the musical past in "Coming Back to Dixieland." This ragtag group of miner-musicians enter a contest, competing with professionals, with the grand prize an expenses paid series of gigs in the Solar System, one slim chance to escape the trap of the company owned mines.
The last part of the story tells of the concert the group played in the competition, and Robinson's word picture of that concert far surpasses any previous attempt I have ever read. At the end, I felt as though I had been there, immersed in the sounds of classic Dixieland. It reminded me of The Memory of Whiteness for that work also focused on a musician and his music. Robinson must be a musician for he writes so convincingly of music and musicians.
I believe Robinson is also a rock climber for this has played an important role in a number of his novels and short stories. In this collection is "Ridge Running," a story about three men who get together once again to go climbing. It is the first time out for one of them who has had a very serious accident and has suffered brain damage.
"The Disguise" is a neat little thriller, set on the stage in the future. Someone is killing actors on stage and no one knows who it is. Consequently, all involved in the production nervously watch everybody else, wondering if the killer is a part of this cast and crew.
"Mercurial" is a farce. It's a homage to "Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson"' and set on Mercury, in a city that reminds me very much of the city in Christopher Priest's strange little novel, The Inverted World. The city in both stories is set on railroad tracks and slowly inches its way across the landscape. Robinson has also dabbled in gender switching as the detective, Freya Grindavik, is a very tall (over 7 ft tall) lean woman whose arrogance approaches that of Holmes himself. Nathaniel Sebastian accompanies her somewhat reluctantly, which is understandable when he explains the life-threatening situations he found himself in as he reels off a number of her past cases. Sebastian also explains that the life of a "watson" (his term) isn't all that glamorous either.
Overall Rating: I would recommend anything with Kim Stanley Robinson's name on it.
==================================================
Michael Chabon
Gentlemen on the Road
Adventure tale, mostly
I had heard much about Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union, so when this title was suggested for a discussion in the SF group I belong to, I was looking forward to it. From what little I had heard, it appeared to be a "sword-and-sorcery" novel, much like Fritz Leiber's Fahrd and the Grey Mouser tales. Leiber's "Ill Met in Lankhmar" is, for me, still the classic tale of this sort. The heroes can best be described as gentlemen adventurers; "rogues' or 'thieves" or 'con men' sounds so harsh. They do get involved in a number of capers which would be unacceptable to law-abiding citizens, but they do it more for the excitement and the thrill of a well-plotted campaign than for any thoughts of pecuniary gain. They, of course, wouldn't reject any cash or jewels or plate that came their way.
There is generally magic involved, with the usual assortment of wizards, spells, incantations, demons, and all the usual assorted paraphernalia. Occasionally they will, unwillingly of course, do a good deed or two, usually when there's an attractive damsel in distress involved. The time of the novel would probably be closest to late medieval or early Renaissance. They don't wear armor, but if they did, they would be described as knights in tarnished armor.
Unfortunately, Chabon decided that wasn't exactly the sort of book he wanted to write. His two gentlemen on the road are con men and we meet them pulling off their usual scam. The planet is obviously Earth, and various references to other peoples and countries are mostly historical. The task they get saddled with is the restoration of a spoiled young man to his throne that has been usurped by his uncle.
The sword part is there but no sorcery. It's basically an adventure tale--well written but still a disappointment. However, I am going to read other works by him because he does strike me as a skillful writer with some imagination.
=============================================================
Primer: A film
SF, Time travel
According to a comment on imdb.com, this film was nominated for a number of awards and won two at Sundance. I can't figure out why, unless it was because it was so low-key, but "hurry-hurry-hurry" most of the time. The actors kept stepping on each other's lines, so it was hard to tell who was saying what. Moreover, when the time machine finally became functional, I found it impossible to follow the story line and was completely surprised by the ending.
Four friends combine their financial resources and develop a lab in a garage owned by one of them. Two of them stumble on a time machine and decide to keep it a secret from the other two. The story moves rather quickly and lucidly the first half of the film, until as I mentioned above, they begin jumping back-and-forth in time and eventually lose me. Moreover, a third man, one who wasn't one of the original four, somehow gets involved and begins doing a bit of time-traveling on his own.
Overall Rating: I would give it 3/5 rating, primarily for the first part which focuses on the initial discovery. This part, the discovery of the strange, unexpected effects of the device they were developing, and their attempts to find out just what is happening and what the implications are, is very convincing and interesting.
==============================================================
John Dos Passos
The 42nd Parallel, a novel
This is the first novel in John Dos Passos' "USA Trilogy." The other two novels are Nineteen Nineteen and The Big Money. The novel is set in the USA at beginning of the twentieth century.
It's structure is definitely experimental. Each section has three very distinct parts, distinct as to content and format.
The largest part tells of four or five individuals (three men and two women, in the first novel anyway)-- their lives, their accomplishments, and their fates. Or, at least we will learn this if we read all three volumes. All of the major characters leave home as soon as possible and strike out on their own, some to a large city to find work while others go on the road. Their fates are different, but Dos Passos manages at one point or another to bring most of them together, some briefly while for some it becomes a long-lasting relationship.
The second part is called "Newsreel," and it's just what the title suggests. It consists of headlines, which are presumably found in newspapers at the time: "Six Thousand Workmen at Smolensk Parade with Placards Saying Death to Czar Assassin" or "Riots and Streetblockades Mark Opening of Teamsters Strike" or "World's 'Greatest Sea Battle Near" or "Madrid Police Clash with Five Thousand Workmen Carrying Black Flag." This, of course, provides the context for the stories of the focus individuals mentioned above.
The third section is titled "The Camera Eye" and is the hardest part to follow. It appears to be semi-autobiographical fragments which are based on Dos Passo's life. What follows is the first part of a typical segment: "and we played the battle of Port Arthur in the bathtub and the water leaked down through the drawingroom ceiling and it was altogether too bad but in Kew Gardens old Mr. Garnet who was still hale and hearty although so very old came to tea and we saw him first through the window..."
My only complaint would be Dos Passos' style, which is somewhat flat, almost journalistic. However, he breaks the narrative up frequently with "The Newsreel" and "The Camera Eye" segments, so I wasn't faced with 400+ pages of flat prose. Perhaps that's why Dos Passos decided to break up the narrative portion as he did.
Overall: very good. I have the second and the third books available, and I want to learn what happens to the focus characters, who have now reached a plateau in their lives and careers. They appear to be settled in for the duration, but there's those two other volumes waiting.
============================================================
Karin Alvtegen
Missing
a novel
Mystery? the accidental detective type
The blurb on the back cover reads as follows: "The New Queen of Scandinavian Crime Writing."
Nonsense.
Karin Fossum is a Norwegian writer, and Norway is considered part of Scandinavia. I think Fossum has a far better claim to being the Scandinavian Queen of Crime Writing than Alvtegen does.
Missing begins in media res. Sibylla discovers that the man she had been chatting up and manipulating to rent her a room at the hotel is found murdered. Of course, the police suspect her. The novel then spends considerable time detailing her abused childhood (what other kind of childhood can there be?) with the mother from hell and the absent father. Alvtegen fills numerous pages on Sibylla's pregnancy, the loss of the child through forced adoption (the mother from hell again), her time spent in a mental institution (well, she got away from the mother from hell, didn't she?), and life on the street after she left the institution.
Occasionally we return to the present and discover that there are multiple killings. Sibylla is now suspected of being a serial killer, who also (only vaguely described in the novel) mutilates the body and removes unspecified organs.
SPOILER WARNING: I will discuss significant plot elements and the resolution of the novel from this point on.
Buried within all this is a detective story as Sibylla decides that the only way to demonstrate her innocence is to find the real killer herself. Therefore, this is in the subcategory of smart citizen and stupid police. They should have called in Inspector Kurt Wallandar who would have solved the crimes in a few days.
In one of her hiding places, Sibylla meets a fifteen-year-old boy whose mother just happens to be a police officer. She convinces him of her innocence, and he manages to get access to his mother's computer at the police station.
I said above this was an example of the stupid police story. What else can one say when the police are unable to find a link among the four victims even though it's there in front of them, just waiting to be discovered by this homeless woman and a fifteen-year-old boy. For example. the police ignore the facts that all four victims had recently received a transplant. Not only that, they saw no significance in that all four had their operations within a day or so of each other. And, coincidentally, all four received organs from the SAME donor. Obviously, this must be a coincidence; it couldn't be a link among them. Of course not.
At the end, after she has solved the case for the police, she also discovers that her father died several years ago. He had a considerable estate and had left half to his wife and half to his daughter. Now, Sibylla learns that the mother from hell is trying to get her declared legally dead so she could get the millions of kronors that the father had left Sibylla. She finds a sympathetic lawyer, and now she will live happily ever after in that small cottage on that beautiful lake.
Overall Rating: I finished it because it was the choice of the mystery group I belong to. Once burned, twice shy, or something like that.
Vinland the Dream and Other Stories
Kim Stanley Robinson is one of my favorite SF writers, a result of discovering his The Memory of Whiteness and the "California Triad" (aka the "Orange County Triad"). I call it a triad because it's not really a trilogy, at least not in the commonly accepted sense, anyway. His short stories are also very good--some SF, some fantasy, some neither.
The quality of the tales in this collection is very high, as it should be, for this is sort of a "best of" collection. It's actually the best of two other anthologies, and that's the problem. All but one of the stories here have already appeared in The Planet on the Table (PotT) and Remaking History (RM). Only "Discovering Life" is not included in either of the two. In addition, there is an omnibus edition, Remaking History and Other Stories, which already includes all of the stories from PotT and RM.
The fourteen stories in Vinland the Dream range from future predictions to recreating the past, or in some cases rewriting the past, as in the title story "Vinland the Dream." In this story we see an archaeologist conduct an excavation to disprove a long accepted tenet, that of the discovery of Vinland by the Vikings.
In "A History of the Twentieth Century: with Illustrations," a historian is commissioned to do a coffee table work with this title. After researching the horrors of the twentieth century he comes up with a rather surprising conclusion.
"Venice Drowned" is the story of a future in which the sea level has risen sufficiently to cover Venice to the point that the shorter buildings are now underwater and the remaining residents have moved either to the upper stories of taller buildings or have build a shack on the roof. One such resident survives by taking sightseers on tours. He also guides and provides diving equipment for souvenir hunters who are busy looting the drowned city.
In the far future, some miners on far flung planets, all but slaves to the mining company, find release and relief in digging in the musical past in "Coming Back to Dixieland." This ragtag group of miner-musicians enter a contest, competing with professionals, with the grand prize an expenses paid series of gigs in the Solar System, one slim chance to escape the trap of the company owned mines.
The last part of the story tells of the concert the group played in the competition, and Robinson's word picture of that concert far surpasses any previous attempt I have ever read. At the end, I felt as though I had been there, immersed in the sounds of classic Dixieland. It reminded me of The Memory of Whiteness for that work also focused on a musician and his music. Robinson must be a musician for he writes so convincingly of music and musicians.
I believe Robinson is also a rock climber for this has played an important role in a number of his novels and short stories. In this collection is "Ridge Running," a story about three men who get together once again to go climbing. It is the first time out for one of them who has had a very serious accident and has suffered brain damage.
"The Disguise" is a neat little thriller, set on the stage in the future. Someone is killing actors on stage and no one knows who it is. Consequently, all involved in the production nervously watch everybody else, wondering if the killer is a part of this cast and crew.
"Mercurial" is a farce. It's a homage to "Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson"' and set on Mercury, in a city that reminds me very much of the city in Christopher Priest's strange little novel, The Inverted World. The city in both stories is set on railroad tracks and slowly inches its way across the landscape. Robinson has also dabbled in gender switching as the detective, Freya Grindavik, is a very tall (over 7 ft tall) lean woman whose arrogance approaches that of Holmes himself. Nathaniel Sebastian accompanies her somewhat reluctantly, which is understandable when he explains the life-threatening situations he found himself in as he reels off a number of her past cases. Sebastian also explains that the life of a "watson" (his term) isn't all that glamorous either.
Overall Rating: I would recommend anything with Kim Stanley Robinson's name on it.
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Michael Chabon
Gentlemen on the Road
Adventure tale, mostly
I had heard much about Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union, so when this title was suggested for a discussion in the SF group I belong to, I was looking forward to it. From what little I had heard, it appeared to be a "sword-and-sorcery" novel, much like Fritz Leiber's Fahrd and the Grey Mouser tales. Leiber's "Ill Met in Lankhmar" is, for me, still the classic tale of this sort. The heroes can best be described as gentlemen adventurers; "rogues' or 'thieves" or 'con men' sounds so harsh. They do get involved in a number of capers which would be unacceptable to law-abiding citizens, but they do it more for the excitement and the thrill of a well-plotted campaign than for any thoughts of pecuniary gain. They, of course, wouldn't reject any cash or jewels or plate that came their way.
There is generally magic involved, with the usual assortment of wizards, spells, incantations, demons, and all the usual assorted paraphernalia. Occasionally they will, unwillingly of course, do a good deed or two, usually when there's an attractive damsel in distress involved. The time of the novel would probably be closest to late medieval or early Renaissance. They don't wear armor, but if they did, they would be described as knights in tarnished armor.
Unfortunately, Chabon decided that wasn't exactly the sort of book he wanted to write. His two gentlemen on the road are con men and we meet them pulling off their usual scam. The planet is obviously Earth, and various references to other peoples and countries are mostly historical. The task they get saddled with is the restoration of a spoiled young man to his throne that has been usurped by his uncle.
The sword part is there but no sorcery. It's basically an adventure tale--well written but still a disappointment. However, I am going to read other works by him because he does strike me as a skillful writer with some imagination.
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Primer: A film
SF, Time travel
According to a comment on imdb.com, this film was nominated for a number of awards and won two at Sundance. I can't figure out why, unless it was because it was so low-key, but "hurry-hurry-hurry" most of the time. The actors kept stepping on each other's lines, so it was hard to tell who was saying what. Moreover, when the time machine finally became functional, I found it impossible to follow the story line and was completely surprised by the ending.
Four friends combine their financial resources and develop a lab in a garage owned by one of them. Two of them stumble on a time machine and decide to keep it a secret from the other two. The story moves rather quickly and lucidly the first half of the film, until as I mentioned above, they begin jumping back-and-forth in time and eventually lose me. Moreover, a third man, one who wasn't one of the original four, somehow gets involved and begins doing a bit of time-traveling on his own.
Overall Rating: I would give it 3/5 rating, primarily for the first part which focuses on the initial discovery. This part, the discovery of the strange, unexpected effects of the device they were developing, and their attempts to find out just what is happening and what the implications are, is very convincing and interesting.
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John Dos Passos
The 42nd Parallel, a novel
This is the first novel in John Dos Passos' "USA Trilogy." The other two novels are Nineteen Nineteen and The Big Money. The novel is set in the USA at beginning of the twentieth century.
It's structure is definitely experimental. Each section has three very distinct parts, distinct as to content and format.
The largest part tells of four or five individuals (three men and two women, in the first novel anyway)-- their lives, their accomplishments, and their fates. Or, at least we will learn this if we read all three volumes. All of the major characters leave home as soon as possible and strike out on their own, some to a large city to find work while others go on the road. Their fates are different, but Dos Passos manages at one point or another to bring most of them together, some briefly while for some it becomes a long-lasting relationship.
The second part is called "Newsreel," and it's just what the title suggests. It consists of headlines, which are presumably found in newspapers at the time: "Six Thousand Workmen at Smolensk Parade with Placards Saying Death to Czar Assassin" or "Riots and Streetblockades Mark Opening of Teamsters Strike" or "World's 'Greatest Sea Battle Near" or "Madrid Police Clash with Five Thousand Workmen Carrying Black Flag." This, of course, provides the context for the stories of the focus individuals mentioned above.
The third section is titled "The Camera Eye" and is the hardest part to follow. It appears to be semi-autobiographical fragments which are based on Dos Passo's life. What follows is the first part of a typical segment: "and we played the battle of Port Arthur in the bathtub and the water leaked down through the drawingroom ceiling and it was altogether too bad but in Kew Gardens old Mr. Garnet who was still hale and hearty although so very old came to tea and we saw him first through the window..."
My only complaint would be Dos Passos' style, which is somewhat flat, almost journalistic. However, he breaks the narrative up frequently with "The Newsreel" and "The Camera Eye" segments, so I wasn't faced with 400+ pages of flat prose. Perhaps that's why Dos Passos decided to break up the narrative portion as he did.
Overall: very good. I have the second and the third books available, and I want to learn what happens to the focus characters, who have now reached a plateau in their lives and careers. They appear to be settled in for the duration, but there's those two other volumes waiting.
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Karin Alvtegen
Missing
a novel
Mystery? the accidental detective type
The blurb on the back cover reads as follows: "The New Queen of Scandinavian Crime Writing."
Nonsense.
Karin Fossum is a Norwegian writer, and Norway is considered part of Scandinavia. I think Fossum has a far better claim to being the Scandinavian Queen of Crime Writing than Alvtegen does.
Missing begins in media res. Sibylla discovers that the man she had been chatting up and manipulating to rent her a room at the hotel is found murdered. Of course, the police suspect her. The novel then spends considerable time detailing her abused childhood (what other kind of childhood can there be?) with the mother from hell and the absent father. Alvtegen fills numerous pages on Sibylla's pregnancy, the loss of the child through forced adoption (the mother from hell again), her time spent in a mental institution (well, she got away from the mother from hell, didn't she?), and life on the street after she left the institution.
Occasionally we return to the present and discover that there are multiple killings. Sibylla is now suspected of being a serial killer, who also (only vaguely described in the novel) mutilates the body and removes unspecified organs.
SPOILER WARNING: I will discuss significant plot elements and the resolution of the novel from this point on.
Buried within all this is a detective story as Sibylla decides that the only way to demonstrate her innocence is to find the real killer herself. Therefore, this is in the subcategory of smart citizen and stupid police. They should have called in Inspector Kurt Wallandar who would have solved the crimes in a few days.
In one of her hiding places, Sibylla meets a fifteen-year-old boy whose mother just happens to be a police officer. She convinces him of her innocence, and he manages to get access to his mother's computer at the police station.
I said above this was an example of the stupid police story. What else can one say when the police are unable to find a link among the four victims even though it's there in front of them, just waiting to be discovered by this homeless woman and a fifteen-year-old boy. For example. the police ignore the facts that all four victims had recently received a transplant. Not only that, they saw no significance in that all four had their operations within a day or so of each other. And, coincidentally, all four received organs from the SAME donor. Obviously, this must be a coincidence; it couldn't be a link among them. Of course not.
At the end, after she has solved the case for the police, she also discovers that her father died several years ago. He had a considerable estate and had left half to his wife and half to his daughter. Now, Sibylla learns that the mother from hell is trying to get her declared legally dead so she could get the millions of kronors that the father had left Sibylla. She finds a sympathetic lawyer, and now she will live happily ever after in that small cottage on that beautiful lake.
Overall Rating: I finished it because it was the choice of the mystery group I belong to. Once burned, twice shy, or something like that.
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