by Bob Martin | Apr 4, 2014 | Art, Directors, Movies
Gillian Anderson “The Fall”
Women criminal investigators have become a staple for television series. In most cases, they are seen as having some unusual or rare ability, like Poppy Montgomery in Unforgettable or Emily Proctor in CSI: Miami. Gillian Anderson as Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson might be a bit upsetting for viewers in the US. She has no special talents other then her ability to think and being unapologetic about being a woman. Bravo.
“We don’t Judge”
People who do dreadful things are more complex then we could ever imagine and The Fall, a British Crime Drama about a serial killer is full of complexities. He is the kind that person, when found out, will shock his neighbors, family and have cable news reporters resort to the list of former FBI Profiler to recite their poorly conceived rhetoric about what goes on in the mind of a killer. This is being played out today (shooting at the Navel Facility in DC) and the truth is that dangerous psychopaths are never profiled until it’s to late.
Real crime investigators judge people and that is the reason why there are so many mistakes made. They are looking for what they know and not for what they can learn. In The Fall, there are a ton of opportunities to follow old and proven patterns, and the writers have very cleverly moved us off that track. The first five episodes have not brought us any closer to understanding Detective Gibson or our serial killer Paul Spector, played by Jamie Dornan. There is a new season underway for 2014 and I hope that the writers continue to avoid the “usual traps” and keep things fuzzy. It makes for a bigger mystery and maybe something we can learn about our own judgement.
by Bob Martin | Mar 3, 2014 | Actors, Education, Movies
Photo by Anne Marie Fox – © 2013 – Focus Features
Over the years, actors who’ve transformed their bodies, in a commitment to a role, have been awarded for the changes in physical appearance. In the Dallas Buyers Club, both Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto look to have also sacrificed their personal well being and I wonder could the story have been told without the physical trauma? Leto and McConaughey are both brilliant, and this story was or could have been much bigger.
The story takes place in the late 1980’s.One of my favorite parts of the movie was when the Woodroof character has to use a microfiche reader to find out which drugs were effective in treating HIV around the world. This was all pre Google and WebMD and most everyone prayed that they had a knowledgeable doctor who had time to care and worry about their health, and that getting a second opinion might be seen as a sign of betrayal. Woodroof’s time (he was not the only person) was our awakening to our own responsibility for our health. Doctors know what they know and they know that they don’t know everything.
Ron Woodroof was a big deal and he was a part of a revolution whose impact can be seen today in the sometimes unreasonable debate on healthcare and it’s cost. More than 80% of all prescribed medicines are manufactured outside of the USA (China, India, etc.) and these same drugs can be purchased in other countries at a fraction of the cost we pay in the States.
I wish that the movie had the resources to tell more about the number of people who benefited from his uncompromising commitment to living. The Dallas Buyers Club is a good movie and I am glad that it finally got made. Congratulations to McConaughey and Leto.
by Bob Martin | Dec 19, 2013 | Culture, Directors, Film, Movies
Lupita Nyong’o
The film “12 Years a Slave” is a remarkable film and different from previous films that I’ve seen about slavery. The injustices of slavery are evident and yet unknown to its practitioners. It’s a world they live in, because someone said it was OK.
There is no righteousness in “12 Years a Slave”. Steve McQueen is not relentless in his depiction of the cruelty of slavery in America. He is not gratuitous with the use of words, sex or violence. It is an even portrait of the times. We get the picture quickly, cruelty is what human beings have learned and now practice. We do what we can get away with or mimic what has been done to us. It is how we’ve learned, sadly. Unlike Sgt Witt in the “The Thin Red Line” we don’t question ourselves before we act. Why are we doing this?
“This great evil. Where does it come from? How’d it steal into the world? What seed, what root did it grow from? Who’s doin’ this? Who’s killin’ us? Robbing us of life and light. Mockin’ us with the sight of what we might’ve known. Does our ruin benefit the earth? Does it help the grass to grow, the sun to shine? Is this darkness in you, too? Have you passed through this night?” ..Witt, The Thin Red Line
The Hero’s Journey
Solomon Northup’s is metaphorically Pinocchio or more correctly following an abbreviated version of “The Hero’s Journey“. Solomon is naive because he believes that he is free and will be treated like all free men. He is unaware of the evil that lies in the south (The Unknown), because he can’t see it in the north (The Known). McQueen paints a picture of reality. The sky in the south is no less beautiful than the sky in the north. There are no visual manipulation or distinct musical cues. The people in the south believe that they have been given the right to own other people. The people in the north believe they have the right to declare others free. Where do these “rights” come from?
What is gracious about this film is that it avoids the temptation of Revenge. The audience doesn’t cheer at the end. The “evil people” (the people we are not like) don’t get there upcommance.
Edwin Epps, 12 Years a Slave: Sin? There is no sin. Man does how he pleases with his property.
There are automatic triggers that surface when the subject is slavery. People pick sides, assign blame, responsibility, declare ownership, causes, and race becomes the topic debate. Slavery is at times thought of as a unique and horrific American event, that happened in the past and no longer exist. None of which is true, we call it something else now like Human Trafficking, Unlawful Imprisonment or Forced Labor. Slavery may no longer be legal in the world and people still do what they can get away with.
by Sandy | Dec 12, 2013 | Blogroll, Film, Movies
Saying that line anywhere, while on a treadmill in the gym, at a Sunday brunch, after a boring mandatory office meeting or in the middle of a wine tasting, will get you nods/smiles of recognition – “yeh”.
The Godfather films by Francis Ford Coppola based on the books by Mario Puzo lives on. Parts 1, (1972) and 2, (1974), re explode every 6, 12 months on some TV channel. A cable channel just ran a marathon it called, the “Godfather Saga” with re edited parts 1 and 2. It went from 9am to 6pm on a Sunday. If you didn’t have 8 hours to devote to this great American story, you could plug in whenever, meal times, in between telephone calls or text messages and remember dialogue and revisit scenes that have soaked into our bones without even knowing it:
“It was never personal Michael, it was just business”
“I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
“I know it was you Fredo, your broke my heart!”
“Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.”
.
Never gets old, still one of the best films ever. The Godfather is #2 with a bullet on the American Film Institute list of 100 best.
(I like to think of 1 and 2 as a neat package, one experience. I never mention part 3)
by Bob Martin | Jun 12, 2013 | Actors, Movies
Mickey Sumner and Greta Gerwig
After two seasons of “Girls” any movie that is about a maladroit young woman has my brain going “copycat” especially when Adam Driver shows up in one of the earliest scenes and I then spend the next 15 minutes looking for Lena Dunham It is times like these when I need to ask my brain to take a time out. I am afraid I missed a lot of this movie playing “One of these things is not like the others, One of these things just doesn’t belong, (Sesame Street)” in my mind.
Frances Ha was worthy of more of my attention and I’m looking forward to seeing it again so that I can enjoy it completely. Frances Ha is not Girls.
Little movies like Frances Ha offer their audience a banquet of opportunities to learn something new, or to be reintroduced to something we’ve forgotten. They are seldom copycats or sequels. Nothing gets blown up and the end of the world is not around the corner. (See “The Women are Gone”) Little movies are usually about something you recognize in yourself. They come close to being real.
by Bob Martin | Jun 11, 2013 | Art, Directors, Film, Movies
Just watched (again) The Thin Red Line and the question asked is “Who is Killing Us” I get caught in that question. Are the crimes we inflict each other for some reason and/or for someone. It’s seems insane to think that we do this daily for no reason at all. So what is it about and who is it for? Or are we just simply insane. I wonder why we are so afraid of one another, that there is no middle ground, someone has to lose. Even the winner loses.
Why can’t we, collectively, say we are done.
Terrence Malick..voice over narrative is like someone whispering in our ears while we sleep. But it not a nightmare, it is what we’ve done.
“We were a family. How’d it break up and come apart, so that now we’re turned against each other?”
It use to be that it took many generations for history to align itself with the truth so that the regrets and apologize can acknowledged . The truth is showing up a lot quicker now and I wonder if we will think war is still worth it.
