Land of Oz

Sex & Violence

I'm a Netflix user and one of the last DVDs I rented was a Tales from the Crypt: Season 1. I can't say I enjoyed it all that much. The stories were pretty cliche, with the bad guy/gal doing something bad to someone and then getting their just rewards by the end of the episode. I often read the reviews and this was no exception. The Netflix listing made this NR, for not-rated. Of course, there's always those people who think something like this would be good as a baby-sitter. And of course, they're going to complain about the DVD soon after.

But what they complain about is always the language and sex. Tales from the Crypt uses the F-word pretty often and, horrors of horrors, occasionally shows a bare boob - or two. It should be noted that this volume also contained a wife slamming a fireplace poker into her husband's head, a slightly deranged executioner electrocuting a slew of victims (one of whom had a bared breast, so I suppose she deserved it), a newlywed chopping her newly betrothed into bloody bits with a battle axe, and a doctor transplanting the nine-life organ into a guy's head.

But you know what? The only complaint for the kiddies was the bare-boob (and quite a nice boob at that) and the profanity. The blood and guts, and hacking and slashing, and shooting and burying didn't seem to be a problem. One of our problems in this country is that we seem to be more accepting of murder and violence than sex. OK, I don't have any kids, so I really don't know how I'd treat my own, but I do think I'd rather have my kid run around naked than chopping up people with an axe.

Labels: crime, movies

50s Movies

Yo - Gort!

There's some stuff lately that has me thinking about some of our more paranoid (in a good way) movies of the fifties. The Day the Earth Stood Still brings to mind our recent satellite shoot down. Along with our satellite the Chinese did the same last year ago (when we griped at them a lot for doing it). And then a couple of years we splattered a friendly asteroid with a 800 pound chunk of copper. Anyway, all this brings to mind Klattu's posthumous speech just before he left:

It is no concern of ours how you run your own planet, but if you threaten to extend your violence, this Earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder.

So don't forget how to say: Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!

POWs and Mom

While I'm on the subject of fifties movies, Republican nearly candidate John McCain brings to mind another movie, The Manchurian Candidate, from the early sixties. If you haven't see it, it's about a group of American POWs, from the Korean war, not Vietnam, who get brainwashed by the Chinese. Sometimes afterward one of the POWs is supposed to assassinate the USofA president after being triggered by the Queen of Diamonds - and whose mom just happens to be the agent who controls him. We all know of course, that this could never happen. But McCain did spend about five years in the control of VietCong/Chinese military as a POW. So how much better than assassinating a USofA president would it be to be the president.

Labels: government, movies

Fame and Peons

Here's a CNN story I read today about an accident in Germany. It had to do with the film crew in Tom Cruise's film about the Hitler assassination attempt in World War 2. I guess while a truck was rounding a corner, a side broke and eleven people went tumbling onto the road. My understanding was that several had to go to hospital with severe, though not life threatening injuries. What gets me is the way the accident was reported, "'We have no findings to suggest anyone famous was involved in the accident,' said a police spokesman, ... Eleven people were injured when they fell off the back of a truck during the shooting of Tom Cruise's latest film in Berlin..."

It's as if, if you're not famous, you don't count. Eleven peons get injured, and it's like, so what, nobody famous was involved. Just think what kind of news report there would have been if Tom got his pinky hurt. There would have been reporters from all over the county camped outside the hospital. CNN would have around the clock the coverage and Inside Edition would be crapping their pants with excitement. As it is, who cares - nobody famous - go on with life. Stupid celebrities.

Labels: gripes, movies

300

First, let me say I like this movie a lot. But then again, I've also owned a copy of the 1962 version, 300 Spartans, for a couple of years now so obviously I'm prejudiced. Be that as it may, 300 does have a plot and it does have acting. The movie grabbed me early and didn't let me go until it finished. It was the quickest two hours I've spent in quite some time.

As to many of the complaints I've been hearing. Yes, it's a bit over-the-top and graphic. Seeing how it was based on a comic book (which I haven't read yet), I would have been disappointed if it was anything but. I felt it was very well crafted. The early scene where the horses jumped the hill was amazing - a brief couple of seconds that still stick in my mind. I loved the scene where King Leonidas was calmly eating an apple saying, "there's no reason why we can't be civilized about this (quoted more or less)," while standing knee deep in wounded Persians his men were finishing off. There were many scenes like this that lasted for seconds yet held more information and detail than anyone could hope to grasp the first time around. I'm looking forward to a second watching.

Yes, the Persians came off as less than an idealized civilization. First, see my comic book comment, and second, who cares, you always need over-the-top bad guys. As to historical inaccuracies, first - yeah, comic book, and second, it was 2500 years ago!! However, I'll be among the first to admit there were many. Like the King bad-mouthing the boy-loving Athenians while in fact, the Sparta military were the ones to take fellowship-in-arms to a whole different level. You know? I really don't care. It was a fun movie and hell, we can't even figure out how Anna Nicole Smith (good link fodder) died and that was only last month.

People have to stop taking movies and books so seriously. First, it's entertainment and it's fiction based on an historical event. I just don't understand why people have forgotten what fiction is. If the product is selling itself as a true story, then it can be held to higher standards - as if you can prove those standards after 2500 years. How can you expect factual perfection for something that's based on a comic book that was suggested by a 2500 year-old story that was written by the victors?

Labels: movies