The Moral Responsibility of Film

I write this in the wake of the massacre at the Colorado cinema, in respect for those that died I will also be delaying a piece on the Dark Knight Rises.

[SPOILER ALERT] A while ago I discussed the emotional disconnect that is becoming ever apparent in films, yesterday whilst at a showing of the DKR I witnessed this first hand. The scene opened with Batman and Catwomen heading through the sewers and continues with Batman's first confrontation with Bane. As the Bat was being brutally beaten the scene becomes emotional and serious, the violence is meant to shock and is emotionally anchored to ensure full effect. It is perhaps one of the best scene in the film, in this respect. But behind me, a women giggled. As the scene continued I realized that this women was giggling at the film, she was laughing as Bane twisted the proverbial knife ever deeper, she misconstrued every word, every image, every moment as a sarcastic joke. 

The pattern of big budget blockbusters fueled by explosions, violence and death, with little or no regard for morality or human life is far too prominent in film today. Films should be a break from reality but the destruction of an entire city should not be complimented by sarcastic wit, they should at least contain some acknowledgement, some morsel of respect for human life. One of the saddest things about this weeks shooting is Nolan's Batman has always been one of the great mainstream exceptions, the Dark Knight always emphasized a moral responsibility, whether that be to the people of Gotham, or the people in the audience, any violence was always met with a semi-realistic ethical dimension that so many contemporary blockbusters lack. As the debate begins over the effects of movie violence, we wait to here whether or not James Holmes was inspired by a film or perhaps some misguided political ideology, what ever the outcome I think it is safe to say his motives were catalyzed by insanity and delusion.

I think whether his motive includes a film or not, this incident provides an opportunity for change and reform. Iv said before that I completely oppose the colonial qualities of family orientated entertainment, and of course it is wong to desensitize children too early in life, but I think if you are going to make a film that contains violence and is going to be viewed by broad age ranges, then you have the responsibility to ensure your film has at least some moral essence. When a police officer dies, you remember his family, when you blow up a building, you do not forget about the people inside, when a crazed gunman massacres 12 and injures 58, you remember that a caped crusader isn't always there to save the day.

Film is perhaps the most beautiful and effective form of art and communication that we have, and its about time it was used responsibly. Sadly the idea that anything will actually change is about as misguided as James Holmes. Maybe it could be achieved in some imaginary world, projected on to the big screen, but this is reality and in real world there is a far greater lack of moral responsibility than film could ever have. There is however one thing both worlds do posses and it is always present, and that is hope. Whilst we have that, and much like film, anything is possible.              

Breaking Bad (2012): The End Justifies The Extreme

I usually make some effort to come up with a witty pun when writing a tittle for a post but for this I simply use the shows tagline, mainly because I do not think I need make attempt to get your attention, and also I cant be bothered.

I guess this has been a long time coming, a review of a TV show that is, and what a better choice. Breaking Bad has of course started up for a new season and in some ways it really has been desperately needed. The season 5 premiere in a nutshell: better than anything that has graced a cinema screen this year, all 42 minutes of it! When I started this blog at the end of last year I speculated and salivated over some of the films we had to look forward to in 2012, I can now say, with more than half the year already gone, I was wrong. 2012 has so far been nothing but a disappointment in terms of film, despite so much excitement my favorite film of this year has been Chronicle, and I didn't even know what that was until I watched it. TV on the other hand has been having one of its finest years ever! The quality and diversity of television has been ever increasing as budgets get bigger, production values improve infinitely and what better proof than Game of Thrones, and more and more talented individuals including well known film makers flock to HBO and AMC to release their creative juices, I need not list the countless number of writers, directors and actors that are continually involving themselves in televised projects.

TV has become Hollywood's exclusive brothel, where anything goes, and terms like family orientated lie dead and infected with chlamydia. The intelligent and hilariously crude humor of shows like Girls can share the airwaves with Tween Wolf (a possible typo my have occurred but I stand by my words). Spartacus can sever heads and Aaron Sorkin can write episode after episode of inspirational speech. And Breaking Bad exists! I consider the season 2 finale of the West Wing to be the greatest hour of drama ever written, the Sopranos end finale has a better ending than sex itself, and Breaking Bad deserves to be the first TV show ever awarded an Oscar because it is better than all other forms of entertainment that currently exist. The writing, direction, acting, cinematography and even editing are at a standard that most films will never achieve because they are too concerned with appealing to a family audience or converting to 9.54-D, all in order to make money. Cinema is what is wrong with film at the moment. But that is for another time.

Breaking Bad is the epitome of a good television and other than maybe the Dark Knight Rises there really isn't anything else id rather watch so then surely the end really does justify the means? It is uncompromising, brutal and relentless and that is what makes Breaking Bad so damn good, it does not care what stands in its way, much like Mr White himself, it takes us to the extremes, the extreme of what good viewing is and should be, however they should choose to end the show I can confidently say that the creators will not alter from these truly admirable principles, and that I standby.      

   

Full Metal Jacket (1987): Love You Long Time

Yes, why I am quite fine thank you, no you too? Really?

Enough small talk, it has indeed been too long since my last post, but I think this time we will just skip the pleasantries. At some point last week I found myself with a lingering fetish for some Stanley Kubrick (we've all had that right?), I was flicking through my library, I eventually found the 'Great' for Kubrick section and then I had quite the dilemma, which film? How do you decide which Kubrick film to watch, Lolita is pretty ground breaking in terms of story, A Clock Work Orange has one of cinemas best characters, 2001: A Space Odyssey is...well its the greatest odyssey of cinematic artistry ever created, then there is Full Metal Jacket, a war movie, but with a distinct lack of all out war.

This ladies and gentleman is why I chose FMJ, because its a war movie, with a distinct lack of war. I could go into what the film is about and why it is an example of cinematic greatness but if you are reading this then you should already know and if you don't, then get your pathetic little maggot ass back to your Mommas house and go watch the film! Where was I? War. Most war films that we see today feature a lot of heavy battle scenes, huge explosions, and Michael Bay holding a small nuclear device with a manic look on his face. FMJ really breaks the mold in that it moves away from the traditional long shot of 100000000 tanks sweeping across France...its always France. We open in a military boot camp in the US , but instead of shipping our heroes out to experience 'the horror, oh the horror' of war that too often features as a secondary theme in most past and present war films, we get real men fighting as soldiers in a horrific series of events, the Vietnam war.

Kubrick can only be applauded for his bravery in brutally conveying the real horror of war, and that horror is that men become soldiers, and those soldiers too often lose the qualities that anchor them as men. Despite being so established and applauded, I struggle to think of few decent contemporary war films that confront this human toll of conflict and do not also feature an over arching hero complex, that dominates the film. Today we expect our war films to play a game of Call of Duty. In a society that preaches peace why is it that audiences actually want P.O.V camera shots that emphasise the blood splatter of a marine killing a generic terrorist. Why is it our taste in cinema swings between the most PG big budget blockbusters and vile homicidal fantasy. Why is it that mainstream film has evolved or should I say devolved to become completely and utterly emotionless and disconnected from eyes to screen?

FMJ is the film it is because I believe Kubrick purposely creates a brutal and emotionless atmosphere that takes characters, men with personalities and turns them into nothing more than mindless instruments of destruction inside the barrel of a gun. Guns only have one purpose. What is more FMJ not only provides a legitimate philosophical insight into the morality of war but also the morality and ethics of cinema: without emotion and without feeling we become nothing more than mindless zombies. This is my popcorn, there is much like it, but this is mine.

Long live the post-empire...

     

Antichrist (2009): Damned if you Dont

The Antichrist stars William Defoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg as parents that have recently lost their son, in an attempt to grieve they take a trip to a picturesque cabin in the woods (a little too cliché?), both deliver wonderful performances in what is Lars von Triers creepy attempt at horror. The end result is something quite special, not
necessarily in a good way but in a Trier kind of way.

The Antichrist explores themes of evil, nature, feminism and sex. And when I say sex I do mean real I simulated sex. Very few films venture into such a realm, but personally, I can only applaud those that have the bravery to do so. The sex is this used creatively and tastefully, some may say the sexual violence is at times too much, but I think it is used for great effect. Whether that effect is used efficiently enough is certainly questionable, and at times it detracts from the complex and intelligent, Freudian imagery that fills this film, the fox of chaos, being my favourite, nonetheless the sexual imagery gives Antichrist a unique and almost voyeuristic appeal.

All of that said the film also deals with even more controversial issues, that is once you have looked passed all the genital smooshing. Grief, and to be precise, the grief that comes with losing a child, this is what Antichrist really concerns itself with. The biggest
criticism here is that because of the more, shall we say, noticeable elements of this film, the grief is lost and one may even go as far as saying wasted.

In Triers’ mind perhaps the provocative parts of this film somehow emphasise the pain of the loss that the parents feel, but I couldn’t help but find that it both distracted from and complicated what could have been a very powerful and complex idea (complex as in simple yet complex). Is it to say that we are all just too dumb to quite understand the genius that is von Trier? I do not think it is. I just think that this film perhaps took a step too far. That being said is undeniable that Lars von Trier is a true genius of
film, and that is the best reason I can give you to go and watch Antichrist, simply because to understand genius, you must look at the bigger picture, to understand Trier you must look at his work as a whole, and it is phenomenal (even though Antichrist may not be).

Into the Abyss (2011): In and Out Unscathed

To some the prospect of watching a film about a death rowinmate is not all that appealing, and I should start by saying that if thiskind of film does not appeal to you, watch it anyway. Into the Abyss is adocumentary far more concerned with assessing the death penalty, but not in theconventional legal, ethical or even moral way, whilst these subjects are ofcourse covered this film really focuses on the human element.

Werner Herzog directs this piece with the subtlety such asubject requires, yet he also ensures we see and experience the deep emotionsthat both the prisoners and the victims’ families live through. I will not gointo detail about the crime that this film revolves around, needless to say it’stragic and in some way it challenges your perception of what you believe a murdererto be like.

What this film really provides is a balanced account of acrime in which the punishment was death, this allows us as a viewer to make apretty introspective evaluation on the death penalty, and whether we agree withit or not. I will not tell you what I realised about my own views on capitalpunishment, because I think it is important for you to make up your mindwithout any influences. This documentary has some unique features, theinvolvement of the director as a hidden force, the ease in which such controversialtopics are discussed, but most of all the simplicity. There is neither bravado,nor shock tactics, this is real film making around a real single issue, and I thinkthat is brave.  

However, whilst I do applaud this film on many levels thereis a part of me that says, if you look close enough then this film is biased,it is anti-capital punishment, and the director even says so. Yes, such a topicis difficult to balance correctly and this does a superb job, but there isstill a slight shift against the death penalty, which raises the smallestdoubts about this film.

Into the Abyss is a wonderful, insightful blend of great camerawork and what occasionally amount to a superb journalistic piece rather than a documentarywith any real ambition. Instead we get a open book that we are given to readand evaluate of our own accord, it is powerful but it lacks the resoundingimpact that some other films on the death penalty have had, and is some way thatis the films biggest weakness. Dare I say this but this but this may in facthave benefitted from a clear biased, simply for greater impact, but then againwith capital  punishment being thesubject that is, who am I to such a judgement.

      OVERALL RATING: 4 STARS

The Fellowship of the Disks

This is the first of what I hope will be a summer of reviews. I highly doubt this but I’m going to say it anyway. First on the agenda is Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, this may seem like an odd choicebut it just happens to be the last the film I watched. I had been meaning toget hold of the blu-ray trilogy for a while, and I managed to, just this week. After deciding I wanted to skip the first film because it takes so long for anythingto actually happen, by which I mean awesome battle scenes, I went with the Two Towers instead.

If you don’t know what the Two Towers is about then leave this page and head immediately to www.cave-dweller.com,you will find your own kin there. Obviously you want to know if blu-ray makes adifference, well of course it does. Does it make that much of a difference? No it does not. It is in my opinion that pre-Avatar CGI (and some post), is just…crap.Looking at Golem in HD, is like a close up of an old man’s prostate, it is justreally depressing, kind of intriguing, and then you start to feel your humanityslipping away. Do this for close to 4 hours and suicide by Dorito becomes a strangelyattractive option. The length of this film however, is not actually an issue. Itis certainly long and bum-numbing but a lot happens in that time, sure thereare a variety of stupid scenes where someone has a dream with absolutely nomeaning, perhaps we have to see Frodo walking around really depressed for toolong. But you probably already know that.

The best bit of this film is the second half, here we havethe lead up to the big battle at what reminds me of 

something I onceconstructed at nursery school, we have the stirring arrival of the cavalry justwhen all seems lost, and best of all we have that light humour that’s introducedbetween Orlando Bloom and the little ginger thing. It is here that you realisethat the quality of the picture becomes secondary, and I say that as a picture qualitysnob, the definition only goes to compliment what is the a great half a film. 

So what im really trying to say is, buy the LoR blu-ray trilogy.

A New Day Has Dawned

I speak to you now from the year of 2012, cars do not hover, I do not have GERTY running my life, and in general things are not quite as advanced as I imagined as they would be when I dreamt of 2012 as a child. The much profasised year in history has a lot to live up to, but you know what? I think it can do it. This year is gearing up to be one of the greatest years for film, in generations! It is our aim, here at The Popcorn Lounge to keep you clued in and up to date on all the developments. I say this now and by next month i'll have forgotten this place exhists, but lets just hope that doesnt happen! Until then, stay hungry!