Contaminating the ether...

This is fascinating, and strange, and perhaps the reason that we have not been contacted by extraterrestrials since the 1950's:


From Abstruse Goose, via Strange Maps.
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Sheer genius

The Lord of the Rings as a 1940's Bogey vehicle:


Why is it that this nine-minute wonder captures more of Tolkien's mythopoesy than Peter Jackson's twelve-hour monstrosity?

Tip o' the hat to Donald McClarey.
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Behold the true Jedi masters

I've been told that there are some who hate the movie, "The Men who Stare at Goats". I'd like to meet them. I'd like to know what there is to hate about this movie.

Now, I'll grant you that it's no "Casablanca". It's no "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". But it's a movie that I certainly wish George Lucas had made instead of "The Phandom Menace" and "Attack of the Clowns".

It is a journey, if not into a larger world, at least into a stranger one. "Inspired by" rather than "based on" the book of the same title by Jon Ronson, the film follows the misadventures of Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor), a small town journalist trying to prove his manliness both to his wife and to himself by attempting to cover the lead-up to war in Iraq in the early 2000s. He runs into Lyn Cassady (George Clooney), a putative salesman but secretly a former member of the New Earth Army.

Now, the New Earth Army was the brainchild of Lt. Col. Bill Django, who thought that the New Age movement would provide the solutions to war and conflict in the world. He sought to create a special forces unit within the U.S. Army that would be in tune with Earth and Nature and would fight battles with psychic powers rather than conventional weapons. They called themselves Jedi Warriors.

At first, Wilton is skeptical. And so was I. But the film presents everything with a perfectly straight face, leaving the viewers to follow where they will. As both the journey through Iraq and the journey through the development of the New Earth Army progresses, the lines between reality and delusion, between belief and insanity begin to blur - yet the lines between good and evil emerge with stark clarity.

I have not read the book, and I have no idea how much of the film is rooted in actual persons or events. I saw it with my dad, who served in Vietnam, and who told me, "That's the kind of [stuff] that really happened." Well, at least with regard to the availability and use of LSD and other drugs.

In short, belly-laughs were frequent, usually occasioned by questions of historical and metaphysical nature. It's the kind of humor I like best: the kind that sends you to a library to learn some more.
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Movie: Blood Money

A friend sends along this link to the film Blood Money. There's also a trailer on YouTube. It's an exposee on the abortion industry in general and on Planned Parenthood in particular. Well worth a look.

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Perry Hotter and the Bathtub Rinse

I think it may have been a mistake to have read the Harry Potter books before seeing the movies. It's next to impossible to see the film as a work in its own right. I can't help but notice what's missing from the book.

Now, Half-Blood Prince easily wins my top prize among the Harry Potter novels. It reaches more deeply than any of the others into the loves, conflicts, and hopes of the characters. It explores the dynamic of its magical world more fully, and defines the lines of the central conflict between Voldemort and Potter. It even displays a depth of moral discernment not found in the rest of the series.

And I'm afraid that's what I missed from the film. I found myself too busy wondering where the dynamics of relationship and morality were to take more than passing notice at the quality of acting (still improving with each movie; I'm finally accepting Michael Gambon in place of the late Richard Harris) or the flashy special effects (well-executed, but lacking imagination). The film payed passing lip service to the moral questions around Harry's use of the Half-Blood Prince's textbook, and failed entirely to look at the issue of the sectem sempera spell. Regarding Dumbledore, the film portrays only what is needed to keep the action moving, so his role as wise father-figure is lost. Even the jealousy dynamic between Ron and Hermione, and Harry and Ginny, feels perfunctory and tacked-on, whereas in the novel it is at least somewhat integrated into the other moral quandaries the teens face.

Now, I'm not a huge Potter fan. I enjoyed the books, mostly, but on the level of light entertainment rather than as real literature. Rowling has a rightly acknowledged gift for inventive language and playful bits of magic. But her grasp of human nature and morality tends toward the shallow; at her deepest, she merely raises questions rather than truly exploring them. She's no Dostoyevski or Tolkien.

On the other hand, she's no Philip Pullman, either. She's not to blame for the rising popularity of "witchcraft" and occult magic. She's not out to destroy humanity or the Church, and the stories don't even have that unintentional effect -- except that they do ride the tide of popular ideas common in our culture today, such as: intention is the main factor in morality; authority is usually wrong, especially when enforcing rules; victory is ultimately in our own hands; etc.

Still, I did enjoy the movie, and did not wish for my money back. I think I'm hard on Harry because I develop such high hopes -- for characters, for insights, for drama -- and then am disappointed when I find the actual book or film falling short. Perhaps I, like Dumbledore, simply ask too much of Harry.

2hr 33min; Directed by David Yates; rated PG.
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Free movies: Dead Again

On Hulu: Dead Again is the film that first made me fall in love with Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branaugh. Their personal lives have been something of a disappointment, but this film shows the amazing chemistry they had, and Branaugh's talents as a director. Rated R for violence, I suppose.
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Rabbert Reviews: Up with "Up"!

I've rarely had the combination of free time, good company, and ready cash to go see films on opening weekend. But the stars aligned and I found myself sitting in a packed theater this evening for a showing of "Up", presented in 3D no less.

Now, I have long been a Pixar fan, mainly because the studio puts at least as much emphasis on crafting a story as they do on pushing the technological limits of CGA. Still, when I saw the teasers for this film, I wondered if even Pixar could make a story about an old man and a flying house anything more than a gimick.

I should have known better than to doubt. Indeed, "Up" shed light on my own assumptions about what makes a story engaging or an adventure exciting. I fall too easily into the cultural trap of thinking that adventure is a game for the young, that the interesting parts of older people's lives lie in the past. But "Up" posits that the more we cling to the past and the more we tighten our grip on youth, the more opportunities for life and love will slip through our fingers.

Indeed, this is the first time in recent memory that I've seen a film in which the wisdom of the older generation is portrayed realistically: far from infallible and often stuck in the past, but also full of experience and common sense, forming a valuable foundation for life. He hands on what he has learned, even if he has trouble letting go of the lesson. Meanwhile, the child picks up bits and pieces of the wisdom provided, as kids are wont to do.

Compared with "Gran Torino", Clint Eastwood's recent meditation on a similar topic, "Up" offers a lighter and therefore more true-to-life take on the relationship between the generations. Melodrama rarely enters real life; more often, I find myself in a strange mix of the bizarrely silly and the profoundly personal. "Up" walks this tightrope of for-the-fun-of-it frivolity (watch and listen for the gratuitous Star Wars homages) and moral discernment with near-perfect balance. Moreover, the voice performances are spot-on, and the writing hits a surprisingly archetypal note.

My solitary critique is that the 3D didn't add much to the story being told. But perhaps that's my typical insensitivity to special effects and spectacle.

Simply put, "Up" announces the presence of adventure in everyday life.
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