Tag: Movies

  • Z Is For… Zombies!

    Contributed by Evilynne.

    In the horror genre, zombies are used as a metaphor for ‘xenophobia’, that is fear of ‘the other’.  This is a logical fear as the unknown is always just that, unknown.    Writers and directors work to create art that resounds with others.  “Let’s make a movie, write a story, paint a picture about it.  Everyone responds to fear.”  Zombies have become a useful, and evolving, creature in this art form.

    In the black and white horror movies of the 1950’s zombies were depicted as black slaves, usually from Haiti, most of them entranced by a witch doctor.  They were forced to obey their master; they moved slowly and had no thoughts of their own.  Their circle of influence was very small, within a few miles of their creator and they died when their master did.

    Looking at those first movies we can see ‘the other’ was usually a black man, and we don’t need to make a reach to see the Civil Rights Movement of the time feeding these fears — especially considering the witch doctors often used their zombies, dirty from working the fields and dressed in rags, to kidnap blond, white women, dressed in flowing white gowns.  What a terrifying image: the vulnerable, unconscious landowner’s wife thrown over the shoulder of a black man and carried away into the night.  Not only did it look great on the black and white film of the time but tapped into the upheaval that movie goers lived with in their daily lives.

    Now let’s fast forward to the modern zombie movies. In their newest incarnations zombies are the reanimated dead; horrible and unnatural as that thought is in and of itself.  Most are brought back by a disease, a comet from space or some government experiment gone wrong — common fears of recent times.  The ‘newer’ zombie’s hunger for human flesh and will find and attack any human to get what they desire, often in the most fast paced, claustrophobic, and gory way possible.  And these monsters don’t die when their creator does, instead they create more zombies through their bite, making their numbers grow exponentially, infecting not just our country, but eventually the whole world.  As for killing them, most movies rely on killing the brain by shooting, beheading, or a knife through the eye.  The genre must now use extra violence to compete with the wars and crime that are seen every evening on the news.

    Yes, the most recent zombies reflect the immigration problem at the Mexican border, terrorist attacks from the Middle East and diseases like Covid and Ebola.   These ‘frightening people’ and the diseases they bring are now a part of American society.  “They will take our jobs, put a drain on the economy, overthrow our government and take over our culture, and heaven forbid, most of them don’t even speak English!” is a frequent fear expressed by some.    Not only will these monsters kill us, they will bring down our whole nation and civilization. Images of survivors wandering a vast cityscape of empty ruined buildings, foraging for food and safety, prey on our primal fears of being alone, vulnerable and desperate.  Without our technology and the help of others we are forced to be our own police, food provider, mechanic and doctor; we have become very specialized in our culture and most are not prepared to learn all of these skills.  More vulnerability awareness.

    Zombies just hit the spot when you want to scare someone, don’t they?  Who knows what zombies will look like in the future, what they will do?  I believe they will echo the fears of the period.  So, next time you are watching a scary movie, especially one with zombies in it, try to figure out what it is about the monsters that triggers you.

    The writers and actors have planned on your reaction. Were they successful?

  • Writer Wednesday – Going with the Flow

    I had a post due yesterday for Writer Wednesday and didn’t have the heart due to the anniversary of the 9/11 travesty.  Today, though, I realized that life should move on in honor of those we lost.  And so, here is a little tidbit I’ve postdated.

    Films are a passion of mine.  To my delight, some of the most iconic bits from my favorite flicks were happy accidents due to circumstance or a great ad lib.  In a different example, the crew members in “Alien” reacted with natural horror during that famous dinner incident.  Filmmakers cued only John Hurt in to the details regarding his character’s final scene.  It gives me ever greater appreciation for the process that is movie magic.
    Writing can benefit from such happenstance, as well.  While there is plenty of greatness that comes from scripting and outlines, we artists should never automatically toss out an idea just because it goes against our grand scheme.
    Sometimes we need to go with the flow.  Stumped on where to take the story next?  Follow a plotline on an odd tangent and see how your characters react.  The departure might result in an exciting direction no plan could foresee.
    I hope you free your mind to create something new, wonderful, and unexpected.  Now I need to go follow my own advice.  Happy writing!
    Oh, and if you want to check out some of these great movie moments, here you go.  Enjoy.  You’ll want to expand the video to full screen for the all important captions.  Oh, and there is adult language.  Sorry about that.

  • Rest in Peace, Tony Scott

    While this is no longer fresh news to the internet world, the undisputed suicide of British-born film director and producer Tony Scott has left a distinct sadness in my household.  And yet I find inspiration from him still, even as I wish his family and friends all the best in their time of grief.

    According to website IMDB.com, Mr. Scott said about “Days of Thunder”, which  failed to reach the critical acclaim or financial success attributed to many other of his works, “… you always have to get a story and you’ve got to get character first, and we hadn’t.“

    Wow.  So simple, and yet so important.

    According to Mr. Scott’s tell, putting 1990’s era Tom Cruise behind the wheel of a race car was all creators thought it would take to sell “Days of Thunder” to moviegoers, and that vein struck fool’s gold.  I believe all writers kind enough to read this know better, but I still felt the point worth sharing.

    Whatever you create, though, enjoy the process first and foremost.  That’s a lesson we can all take to heart.  I can only hope that Anthony D. L. Scott is at peace now and enjoyed his success while he had it.

  • Food For The Soul

    I’ll admit it. From the moment I saw the previews for the movie Julie & Julia, I wanted to see it. I cut my teeth on Julia Child’s PBS show. My grandfather was a fan and we rarely missed it. Years later, she did some shows with Jacques Pepin, another favorite chef of mine, and I was glued.

    I loved the movie. It tells the story of Julie Powell, a blogger who set out to cook her way through Child’s The Art Of French Cooking in one year. She had a lot of ups and downs but eventually made it, blogging all the way about her experiences. They interspersed the modern day story with episodes from Child’s life in France starting in the 1940’s when she began to pursue cooking and attended the prestigious Cordon Bleu school.

    It follows her life through the long road of writing the book with her collaborators, but more than this, it told the story of her life with her husband Paul. They led a close and touching life together, and a long one. And while I enjoyed the parts about Powell, I was far more drawn to the story of Julia’s life. She was strong-willed and determined and refused to give up her dream. Eventually she got exactly where she wanted. A great lesson in there for all of us.

    I also greatly enjoyed all the food talk in this movie. Yes, I am a foodie. I freely admit it. I should get a t-shirt to warn people so they won’t wonder when I am in a restaurant and admire the sauce or swoon over the way my dinner is arranged on a plate. My husband is just as bad. He has a habit of arranging things on plates and never fails to delight. I asked him once why he never became a chef and he replied that it would then become a job and not as much fun. I, on the other hand, have been a restaurant manager in one of my former lives. I did it all from bartending, to overseeing wait staff, to paperwork, to filling in on the line when we were short a cook. It was a fun, chaotic, and exhausting time but I’m glad I did it. I learned a lot about food and cooking.

    I suppose it hails back to my southern upbringing. Cooking was not something we did for utility purposes, it was a labor of love. We cooked in big batches, just in case anyone stopped in. We baked cakes and pies and delivered them to friends and neighbors ‘just because’. When tragedy struck, we were there with food so the family would be spared that job to focus on what was important. We believed that good food fed the soul.

    I still do. So, I’ve since pulled out my copy of The Art Of French Cooking. Once my current work in Progress is done, and the rush is over, I’m digging in.

  • At what point is an obsession unhealthy?

    Did you guys know that I have the spot for blog posts the first Saturday of every month? I certainly didn’t.

    My attempt at sarcasm and humor aside, I was actually thinking that my first post would be due next week. Imagine my surprise when I realized that the first Saturday of the month was actually today.

    Anyway, I have no real idea what to do for this one, so I’m just going to talk about what has been on my mind for the past several weeks.

    Jesus Christ Superstar.

    I suppose it all began when I stumbled across a post on the Highlander Message Boards talking about a Phantom of the Opera sequel that mentioned JC Superstar (which features music by Andrew Llyod-Webber, as well). I had seen it three or four times before, but it never really made that much of an impression on me, but I recalled really liking the first song of the show (called “Heaven on their Minds”).

    A quick Youtube search later and I immediately fell in love with the song. That is when the obsession started. I put it on my iPod and listened to it, on repeat, for the couple of hours I spent cleaning the apartment (all by myself, but that is a totally different rant) the next day. I’ve been rather obsessed with songs before, but not that much.

    When I went home for Spring Break, I decided to watch my father’s VHS copy of the original 1973 film adaption of the show (there’s also a 2000 film adaption, which I don’t care much for) and realized that there are some damn good songs on the soundtrack.

    I decided to record my father’s vinyl record of the original recording (which came out before the stage show) and basically listened only to that on my entire five hour drive back to campus. I only changed the CD once to a different mixed album that I only put in because it had the recording of Heaven on their Minds from the first film version (I prefer that Judas to the one on the original recording).

    Since then, I don’t really think I’ve deviated from the JC Superstar playlist that I have on my iPod and am even now listening to it.

    So, I guess the whole point of this is to raise the question: at what point does an obsession become unhealthy?

  • Batman-The Dark Knight

    The new Batman movie has garnered many excellent reviews and in my opinion deserves all of their praise and more. The movie delivers on the clichéd ‘summer blockbuster’ action front as well as a deep character driven morality play, fraught with symbolism and tragedy.

    In this new installment of the caped crusader, we find Bruce Wayne fighting crime in Gotham City. He is tolerated by the policemen for his help capturing criminals, but there is an unease about the mysterious figure whom some believe is actually just a new brand of bad guy. Even the public views him with distrust and suspicion, hence the name ‘The Dark Knight’.

    Bruce wants to give up his nocturnal exploits to marry his beloved Rachel, a lawyer who is aware of his secret identity and refuses to be with him as long as he continues to be Batman. For now, our hero has given up her love to protect the city; it needs him and his special brand of justice to keep it safe.

    Enter Harvey Dent- the new flawlessly moral, incorruptible District Attorney. His reputation for justice precedes him. Eager to find corruption where ever it may lie, he chases murderers, drug dealers and bad cops with equal fervor. He forms an uneasy alliance with Batman and Commissioner Gordon to bring a ring of mob bosses to trial, thus causing the press to name him the ‘White Knight’.

    Bruce Wayne sees salvation in Harvey Dent. He feels he can put away his cowl and leave justice to the new DA. This leaves the city with a protector and him free to marry Rachel. The only problem is, Rachel is now engaged to Harvey, and the mob bosses are after her as retaliation against the DA. Batman finds he must continue to wear his cape and work with his rival for Rachel’s well being.

    The Joker, a new criminal mastermind, surfaces against the back drop of the convoluted love triangle and Bruce’s internal battles about his identity and purposes. He is vicious and maniacal in a way that disturbs even the crime bosses of Gotham City, assembled to decide how to best protect their investments. He performs a ‘magic trick’, making a pencil disappear from the table in front of him in a particularly gruesome manner. Watch for this particular scene in the movie, I can guarantee the whole audience will give a collective ‘Ughhh’.

    The Joker, brilliantly played by Heath Ledger who will no doubt receive a posthumous Oscar nod for this part, manages to confuse everyone. Why does he do what he does? He shows no signs of desiring either money or power as proved when he burns a pyramid of money as an unexpected way to kill a rival. It falls to Alfred, Bruce’s butler to name the Joker’s particular vice; he just wants to watch the world burn. Each time he kills someone, he tells a different story about how he got the tell tale scars on the corners of his mouth, giving him the garish appearance of a grin. He goes about killing, burning and causing mayhem with a vengeance that is reminiscent of Alex in ‘A Clockwork Orange’.

    When Joker speaks he smacks and licks his lips in a distracting manner, his makeup is always smeared and smudged, suggesting decadence and decay. He brings a horrifying ‘joie de vivre’ to his work that is impossible not to stare at. In a particularly memorable scene that has him in a nurses’s dress, complete with white hose and shoes, he skips gaily down a city street, blowing up buildings in his wake with a remote control. The implied reference of ‘helping’ in the uniform of a care giver and the destruction of a previously imagined ‘safe place’ –a hospital, is poignantly ironic, not to mention disorienting in its absurdity.

    This movie is aimed at adults, even though children and teens will flock to it and enjoy it. However, for those interested in the characters and their motivations this movie will satisfy those tastes as well. It remains true to the Batman mythos, and actually makes fun, in a ghoulish manner, of costumed Batman wannabees who try to help the caped crusader with his vigilante efforts. I’m not sure how the collective group of ‘fan boys’ will take that insinuation, but I’m willing to be they’ll be honored to be included. 🙂

  • Review for the movie ‘Wanted’

    On Friday, ‘Wanted’ opened and I must tell you I was impressed with this movie. It has been a long time since I wanted to stand up and cheer during a movie. This show had me caught up in its unrelenting pace and breathtaking action sequences. I let it take me away and just enjoyed the ride.

    Of course, I had to suspend a lot of belief as well, no matter how special these assassins are, there really is no way to make the path of a bullet curve… but once you get past that and immerse yourself in the ‘universe’ that the writer has created it’s a complete thrill.

    The story centers around a boring and ‘insignificant’ man who is taken advantage of by everyone. His girlfriend cheats on him, his boss picks on him, basically he’s a doormat. He’s filling a prescription for depression of all things when beautiful Angelina Jolie shows up and ‘saves his life’ from a mysterious killer.

    Once he’s ‘safe’, she tries to convince him he’s an assassin with ‘special talents’ and he’s of course less than accepting of her revelations. Frightening events do begin to happen and finally make him believe that he is the ‘one’ they have been looking for and he joins the fraternity of assassins.

    The action sequences in this movie are over the top, especially the train episode at the movie’s climax. But that doesn’t make them unenjoyable, if anything, it adds to the comic book experience. If you don’t enjoy a bit of bloodshed, skip this flick. The violence is gratuitous- the movie is about a bunch of assassins- but is more about ambiance than splattered gore, though there is plenty of that too.

    There are at least three ‘twists’ in the movie, they leave you wondering if you really know what’s real and what’s another lie. Paranoia and fear abound, and leave the audience unsure of who to trust, keeping us in the mindset of our hero who remains quite sympathetic throughout despite becoming a cold blooded killer.

    I enjoyed watching the ‘adorable’ James McEvoy change from a ‘doormat’ complete with panicked eyes and a blank stare of apathy into a steely eyed killer with a conscience. His face became that of a different man, more attractive and with a purpose, his posture and gait more self-assured. I was also impressed with his ability to lose his Scottish accent and sound like a Midwestern American.

    My favorite scenes were when our newly confident hero comes back to confront his cheating girlfriend, boss and best friend. All of these characters deserve their comeuppance and it’s satisfying to watch McEvoy give it to them in spades.

    So, in summary, leave your thinking mind at home when you go to see this show. Enjoy it for what it is, a living, breathing comic book with little basis in reality. It’s escapism at its best, and isn’t that why we go to summer movies in the first place?