just a reminder

from: http://unpretentiouslitcrit.blogspot.com/2009/01/january-20th-2009-redux.html


what today feels like:

in case you wanna watch it

paramount just released the official, high-res versions of the new star trek trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/startrek/

here, at the end of all things

this blog is essentially defunct (i'll post up my last couple stories from the dying sun someday, but not tonight), but i needed to share with someone.

i don't even really like this movie. but, uh, well, everything's kind of, uh, well...

good night.

"it's a sign, alright!"

so of course, i loved the dark knight. and afterward, i thought to myself, "when has a hugely successful summer blockbuster ever been this good before?"

and now i know the answer:






NEVER FORGET.

a funny thing and a terrifying thing

first, the funny thing: the guys at spill.com come up with the dark knight, as done by michael bay. spoiler — boobs.

then, the terrifying thing: peter maass argues that equatorial guinea's teodoro obiang might be worse than mugabe.

i finally watched "v for vendetta" (thoughts on britain and dystopiae)

i held out for years, on principle. i'm not sure why, given that i was never the biggest fan of the original comics (they're lesser alan moore works, and i think he's acknowledged as much, in the past). i guess i just didn't want to see another moore creation tarnished.

anyway, it was fine, i guess. horrible ending. really, ending credits? you had to play "street fighting man," even though you nixed one of the best lines of the book, which is V entering the bishop's room and quoting "sympathy for the devil"? and of course, natalie portman's accent was awful and john hurt sort of phoned it in. blah blah blah, you can read such criticism elsewhere, and elsewhen.


my question was this: why do british dystopias fascinate me so much? i'd say "fascinate us so much," but i'm wary of generalizing. no american dystopia has gripped me in the way that "children of men" or "nineteen eighty four" have. or "brazil" and "blade runner," for that matter—both directed by brits (terry gilliam and ridley scott, respectively).

i've spent all of seven days in the united kingdom, and yet it is the british dystopiae that most fascinate me. i'm tempted to say that the fascination stems from the fact that britain is already like a parallel universe to me—very recognizable, but significantly different. but i don't think that's the whole story. i even love pink floyd's "the wall," with its weeping protagonist begging the audience, "does anybody here rembember vera lynn?"

maybe i'm with slavoj žižek on this one: britain is the only major world power without a written constitution. therefore, the law and freedom are both based on collective memory. in a fallen world, when memory is lost, britain is lost. as an entity, it no longer really exists. it is the purest form of dystopia, because it is the negation of the society as it once was. no more memory, so no more britain. well, the britain that remains is but a rump state, no matter its geographic span. it has quite literally lost its ideological soul. in the US, there will always be documents of the law, even if someone tries to shred them. so perhaps britain is the more pure ground for dystopia.

anyway, i also have to wonder: if conditions continue to improve in iraq, will dystopiae be as necessary as they were when "children of men" came out? because back then, i swear to god—there was nothing more powerful than that film. it retains nearly all of that power, but there's a slight chip away at the armor, now that it doesn't seem like the whole world will become like iraq circa late 2006.

the horrible man inside me doesn't want the dystopias to go away.

"He can’t mope. He can’t have a self-indulgent angst."

comicbookresources has posted part one of their extended interview series with the creators of the dark knight.

part one is with director christopher nolan, and fans of comics and/or mythology will love it. the man's very, very bright, and seems to get what the batman/joker dichotomy is all about.

some choice quotes:

Is The Joker a force of nature?
He is a force of nature, and once you start thinking of the character as a given -- that he is just who he is -- then the psychology of that becomes immediately very obvious, and the idea that he’s a very unusual character, a very anarchic character in our society does seem to me quite obvious. We very much took the view in looking at the character of the Joker that what’s strong about him is this idea of anarchy, this commitment to chaos. He’s not just a bank robber or an ordinary criminal who’s only in it for material gain. His chief motivation is that of an anarchist. I talked to Heath a lot about it even as we were finishing the script, and we both agreed that the most threatening force society faces is pure anarchy, someone who wants to do harm for its own sake and for his own entertainment.

There's a quote attributed to you that said Superman is sort of the way that America views itself and that Batman is the way that the rest of the world views America.
That’s fantastic that’s attributed to me, but it’s not my quote, it’s Michael Caine’s. He said that to me the first time I met him, I thought it was very interesting. It was a very interesting point of view. I agree with that only in the sense that Superman is an ideal of something. I think that Batman, being a more human character, is not as ideal, and is having to deal with the consequences of his actions in a more relatable and a more human and in a more political way. That’s what I love about the character, because it means the story gets messy. It’s not always easy to figure out what is the heroic course of action, what is it okay to do? What’s the line you can’t cross as a vigilante or as somebody who works outside the law? This story gets to really explore those issues.

ugh why isn't this movie out now.

harsh wordz!

at a fundraiser in philly last night, obama hella quoted (or, i guess, paraphrased) sean connery's famous (and hella confrontational) line from "the untouchables"!

“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” Obama said. “Because from what I understand folks in Philly like a good brawl. I’ve seen Eagles fans.”

he should have kept going with the full quote!

"He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He puts one of yours in the hospital, you put one of his in the morgue. That's the Chicago way."

or better yet, done some more quotes from the movie!

"You just fulfilled the first rule of law enforcement: Make sure when your shift is over you go home alive."

"The Lord hates a coward."

(and of course) "All right, enough of this running shit!"