Mini trailer review: People who seek retributive justice

Also known as avengers.  Teaser trailer has gotten many people excited, to say the least.

I've been skeptical about this project since it was announced, but having seen this I'm earnestly looking forward to it when it comes out in the summer next year.  Maybe a little tentative about how all these big characters will fit together for a cohesive storyline-- especially for Bruce Banner/the (Incredible) Hulk, for whom I have an inexplicable soft spot.  But, really, if it ends up as a 100-minute version of this GIF I'll be thoroughly entertained.

On "Beauty and the Beast"

Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" was my favorite Disney princess movie while I was growing up.  Now, Pocahontas, Mulan, and "The Princess and the Frog" heroine Maddie are up there as well.  It's kind of depressing to think about, though, considering how dark that movie is and the implications of the turn of events at the end:
1.  Belle says to the Beast (whose name, Adam, is never revealed in the film) that she loves him
2.  The rose is deflowered with the last petal floating magically down to the table
3.  The Beast (animal, base) becomes a Man (noble, gentle but strong)

Not to mention that this version justifies domestic violence in framing the female protagonist as the one who sees beyond the masculine one's abuse and endures it, ultimately transforming him through her love and patience and other feminine virtues.

There are many iterations of this story, both in text and film.  I have seen and read many of them:
- Cocteau's La Belle et la Bête (1946)
- Panna a nevtor (1981) from Czechoslovakia
- Cannon Movie Tales' musical version (1987) starring John Savage and Rebecca De Mornay
- Faerie Tale Theatre's Beauty and the Beast episode (1984) starring Klaus Kinski and Susan Sarandon
- the first season of the CBS drama Beauty and the Beast (1987) with Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton
- of course, the Disney version from 1991 (but not any of the sequels or spin-off straight-to-VHS movies)
- haven't seen it but I have the soundtrack of the Broadway musical version of the Disney version
- the Hellboy movies, with Ron Perlman, include a bit of "Beauty and the Beast" undertones
- ...as do werewolf stories (and probably vampire ones too, but I don't want to get into that)
- any sitcom with a hot wife and schlubby/not conventionally attractive husband counts as an addition to this list

I've felt conflicted about my passion for this story, but I've come to accept it for what it is-- patriarchal teachings to pubescent females-- and can't help but appreciate the storytelling and, well, the romance of it all. Oh, I'll have to watch some of those movies again and write a post in response to each one; there's just so much for me to analyze.

thoughts on movie violence...

It's hard to say which I think is less bad: stylized violence or realistic violence.  I'm going to refer to the Kill Bill  films as examples of stylized violence and The Departed as one that has violence that is over the top but still too realistic for me to call it stylized.  (Spoiler alert for the movies).  Stylized violence exists for the audience to enjoy, where the Bad Guys and Good Guys are clearly delineated.  I shied away from watching any Tarantino film for a while because I heard about how violent they were, yet when I finally got around to watching one I found out that I liked them.  The story-telling and dialogue are whip-smart, but also the violence is stylized and unrealistic so I could sort of distance myself and remind myself that it was just a movie I was watching.  On the other hand you have “The Departed”, which is very much set in the real world, where people get beaten up and shown to be in pain, real pain.  The violence is over the top because the situations are over the top, and the violence serves to emphasize just how badass and cold-blooded the characters can get.  What’s better: hand to hand violence or gun violence?  I could argue that the former is better because it is more real, but then the latter evens the field a little more; you don’t have to be physically fit to shoot someone.  But “The Departed” has a lot of non-gun violence in it as well.  At the bottom of it, these are action movies—but with great dialogue!  In horror movies the whole point is to shock or gross out the audience with stylized violence. 

I can’t tolerate horror movies.  I know that the kind of violence portrayed in these movies is also very stylized and unrealistic, but I don’t get anything out of watching people get tortured and scream in pain.  That kind of violence isn’t warranted, to me; oftentimes it’s senseless killing and there’s nothing that smart or thought-provoking about it...

Smitten?

Alright, so back in the day kidsWB had a show called "Batman and Superman", which was my first foray into watching Bruce Wayne and his alter ego.  Twas fun to watch during those Saturday mornings.  But then "Batman Beyond" came along and the character of Batman instantly became one of my favorite characters of all time.

I've already gone over the fantastic title sequence.  But another aspect that got me coming back for more every week was the main character Terry McGinnis.  Aside from being Awesome from having Bruce Wayne take him under his wing (pun intended) and train McGinnis as his protege Batman, I was...kinda smitten with him.

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He has that same moody, dark, sometimes surly attitude but his heart is in the right place.  He's athletic and nimble.  He has his own moral code and powerful drives-- the same qualities that make Bruce Wayne/the original Batman so attractive and swoon-worthy, except that Terry is a teenager and therefore more impulsive and prone to making bad decisions.  But that just made him even more attractive, I guess, in that he's a good guy but also kind of a bad boy.  This was a character that my dorky little tween heart became smitten with, and I'm only half as embarassed about this as I think I should be.  I still look back and thoroughly enjoy the character and other characters and the storytelling, but suffice it to say that I no longer have a crush on this cartoon protagonist.  Also it's a little jarring to realize that Terry's voice actor was the same person who played Corey Matthews' brother Eric from "Boy Meets World". 

Still, I think he gives a great performance and it's a testament to his versatility (or something like that) as an actor that he's so goofy in one show and so brooding in another.

Raiders anniversary

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Today marks the 30th anniversary of the release of Raiders of the Lost Ark (12 June 1981).  This is my favorite film in the trilogy series, which is why I think it is the best.  So many classic scenes and characters: Harrison Ford as Dr. Indiana Freaking Jones! Melting Nazis! Asps! (Very dangerous--you go first).

Digression: I think somewhere in the black hole that is my family's VHS collection lies this film.  I'm not sure why I don't have a DVD of it even though I count it as one of my all-time favorite films.  Five or six summers ago I went through a George Lucas/Harrison Ford binge by watching the (original) Star Wars trilogy and the (originally a trilogy) Indiana Jones movies at least twice.  I was struck by how Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl borrowed from Raiders scenes.  When it comes to the female lead:
1) Both are damsels in distress, but not so completely and utterly useless.  Marion Ravenwood wields a mighty frying pan, and Elizabeth Swann at least attempts to get that sword off its mounting when the pirates are pursuing her in her mansion.
2) Both are forced by their respective captors to wear dresses...  Marion a white (wedding?) dress, Elizabeth a dark ruby-black dress ("it matches your heart!" she spatters.)
3) ...then allowed to eat with their respective captors...
4) ...then conceal a dinner knife and distract their captors by acting against their true feelings... Marion pretends to get drunk (cuz, you know, them women dunno how to hold their liquor); Elizabeth acts the lady
5) ...then seize what seems like the opportune moment to take the knife and threaten the man with it, but it doesn't help in the end.
6) Both their fathers had an big influence in shaping the future and character of their love interests/the male lead and protagonist.

I didn't know this until I came across this article, but Dr. Jones' seems to be based at least in part by a real life archaeologist.  Aside from Sherlock Holmes, who was loosely based on the real Dr. Joseph Bell,  I cannot readily come up with a hero who is equal parts brain and brawn, scholar and adventurer.  (I'm sure there are other fictional men and women out there but my brain is just too much in a fog and I feel like shoehorning a reference to the illustrious detective).  Both even have iconic hats!  Although that has more to do with actor Basil Rathbone than the original book description.

I know I'm on thin ice if I even suggest that I enjoyed Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; but I think that, even after that, adventure's name is "Indiana Jones".  And yes, if when the fifth film comes out, which was once rumoured to be set in/around the Bermuda Triangle, you can bet your bullwhip that I'll go see it in theaters and still keep Raiders on my favorites list.

Batman and beyond

This, ladies and gentlemen, is how I learned the word “apathy”.

Aah, Saturday morning cartoons on kidsWB...I thought this was the coolest title sequence evv-arr when this show first came out.  It’s a good representation of the moody, futuristic tone of the series.  This series is responsible for my fascination with Batman—I didn’t grow up reading comic books or anything like that; Batman has always struck me as particularly interesting.  He bears a lot in common with my other male literary heroes:  The Scarlet Pimpernel, Sherlock Holmes, the Count of Monte Cristo.  All employ disguises and live double lives, interpret the law in their own way and have a strict moral (or amoral) code or sense of justice and righting wrongs.

Alexander Hamilton: American hero?

Mr. Lin-Manuel Miranda puts up a pretty compelling argument, no?

"Poetry is just another way to rap"- Jack Donaghy, 30 Rock.
<-- but is rap just another way to...poetry?

The clip is from the White House Evening of Poetry, Musica and Spoken Word.  They really are very similar, aren't they?  Ach, the uncohesive ramblings of someone trying to put together some sentences to fulfill her self-imposed requirement for this post.

Happy Birthday Katharine Hepburn!

Note: The Blogger system was down for most of the evening of May 12th, during the time I typically write and post my entries.  The following is what I had written and intended to post for the day.

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Today is Katharine Hepburn’s birthday, and if she were still alive she’d be 104.  As it were, she died at the age of 96 and lived a spectacular life.  In a word, she was indefatigable, and one of my heroines.   I’d make a list of the ways she’s admirable but most of the points I would’ve made are compiled in this link.  One thing I'd like to draw more attention to is the fact that most of my peers think of the doe-eyed darling Audrey when it comes to the surname Hepburn-- especially when it comes to making with some serious sartorial statements (too much alliteration?).  But Katharine Hepburn made some of her own by opting to wear pants instead of dresses to her movie premieres, and I rather like that; I've written before of how I dislike wearing skirts. 

John Brown, American Hero?

There are probably lots of John Browns out there but the one I'm referring to is the man who launched the raid on Harper's Ferry in Virginia and essentially started the Civil War. I can clearly remember discussing this man in 11th grade when covering the antebellum era in my U.S. History class. (Side note: I'm not a fan of the song "Need You Now" by Lady Antebellum, which in turn makes me dislike the group's name choice. I heard that the members of the group liked the antebellum South as seen in "Gone with the Wind" and I cynically think "Oh yeah, I too am nostalgic for those good ol' days of sippin' sweet tea on the porch while watchin' the darkies work, singin' them songs so happy all day long, yessuh, slavery is good f'them." Ugh, that song just makes me want to stab my ears.)

The raid on Harper's Ferry was violent, poorly planned and executed, and very ballsy, daring. Brown had conducted similar raids but this one was his last, and though he didn't die during the raid he was tried and hung for his acts. While the most other abolitionists of his day wrote arguments against slavery, he actually took action and did something about it. He wasn't formally educated but had a number of meaningful interactions with slaves and othe oppressed groups, and had a very strong, Old Testament sense of justice and retribution. He had twelve children-- I think eight sons and six daughters-- and made sure that his daughters knew how to do outdoor work and his sons know how to cook and clean. He made it a point to travel to hear feminists like Lucretia Mott give lectures. He didn't crave violence but saw it as a necessary means to accomplish his goals.

I empathize with John Brown on some levels. I see him as an idealist, like me. While I'm a staunch pacifist and would pursue any physical or violent actions I have to admire John Brown for how passionately he felt about equality and taking matters into his own hands. He was sort of like a vigilante, with a bigger-than-life personality that makes him seem more like a historical fiction character than a real-life historical figure. My literary heroes include the Scarlet Pimpernel, the Count of Monte Cristo, Sherlock Holmes and Batman; to me, John Brown fits in with these men, except that he really existed and had a wife and children. For a while he was seen as a villain and a madman, and he's still a controversial figure in American history, but now historians seem to be relenting and even calling him a hero. I don't think he'd classify his actions as "heroic", per se, but insist that they were simply the right and necessary things to do. He had no regrets about the way he lived, and really, isn't that something we all want?

In an interview, I think it was with Charlie Rose, Quentin Tarantino named John Brown as the man on whom he'd do a biopic. I can see why Tarantino would be drawn to this man, and he'd do a great job telling Brown's story. Tarantino's already done revenge films, and his most recent one was a period piece, so I doubt that the John Brown movie would be in the works any time in the near future. I hope that someone makes a film about this man so that his life can be even more widely known.

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