Stuff White People Like

‘K., I’m only up to #40 or so, and I’m lovin’ this:

• The Typical White-person DVD rack is hilarious: I’m gonna say there’s a 75-80% overlap with my taste. (Hilarious, in a “even a broken clock’s right twice a day,” sort of way, of course. ;-) )
• Then there’s the White Annotated Bibliography: a coworker (yup, a white one :-) ) loaned me a copy of Infinite Jest, and I tried to get through it, I really tried. :-)
• I love the way he’s reading a big Simpsons book in the photo under “Not Having A TV.”
• Another coworker (yup, another white one) loaned me a copy of Arrested Development about a month ago; they couldn’t recommend it enough. (And I love Twin Peaks. :-) )

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The Kingdom

Just watched this again. Man, that has to be one of the best openings I’ve ever seen: it’s fast-paced, exciting, and really damn informative.

Watching some of the deleted scenes and other features really gave me a feel for how much editing director Peter Berg does: he mixed and matched all sorts of dialogue in that briefing to the Attorney General, and you have no idea; it looks like one take. Same goes for the car crash: so many cameras! And the only cuts are the ones that pump you up.

I didn’t know Michael Mann was involved in this one. Berg says Mann’s office is just down the hall from his. That must be one who’s who of a water-cooler.

Just a great flick; and all the sweeter for $6.99 off the previously-viewed wall at Blockbuster. :-)

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Kagemusha

What a powerful movie. A few of my favourite moments:

• The opening, of course; how could you not be completely transfixed by such an… otherworldly scene? The thief’s gesticulations at being accused of murder by a murderer of thousands were priceless.
• That moment after the impostor’s guards and pages introduced themselves, and he asked, “How is this?” So beautiful, with the music rising and the guards coming to attention in spite of themselves, the pages beginning to break down again — masterful.
• When the doctor was taking the impostor’s pulse, and you hear the drumbeats in the background as they prepare for war.

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The TV show ‘institution’ problem: knowing you’ll have “170-odd episodes”

A friend of mine recently bought a pile of Star Trek: The Magazine back-issues, and was kind enough to offer me a dozen or so that he was less interested in. Volume 1, Issue 24 immediately caught my eye because I was a fan of Gul Dukat; that interview was all well and good (his character really rose to prominence after I stopped watching the show, apparently), and I read a few more articles before coming to Creating the Bajorans.

While that article had some interesting points, I couldn’t help but note this growing annoyance in me as I worked my way through it. It wasn’t ’til I got to this quote by Ira Steven Behr, holder of the “creative reins” with his team of writers (according to the article), that I understood its source (my emphasis):

“When Winn became the Kai, it came as a total shock to us. It was one of those epiphanies that we had. It seemed so clear all of a sudden; what were we doing? We were moving in this one direction: Bareil must become the Kai. Then we think, “What the hell would we get from Bareil being the Kai? Just terms of drama, just in terms of a TV show that has to have 170-odd episodes, where does that help us?”

Now, I understand that authors can be surprised by the turns their stories take while they’re writing them, but could you imagine Joss Whedon or JMS saying that about a major twist in their shows while they were in production? This is at the heart of what I’ve called the ‘institution’ problem in television.

If you’ve been guaranteed a number of seasons (and I couldn’t have conceived that the number could be as high as 170 prior to reading this article) on nothing more than concepts, I would suggest your chances of producing greatness are considerably reduced. There’s little fear of the end; no fire under your seat, as it were. Plus, worst of all, you’re happy with open-ended story lines that wander ad infinitum as a fail-safe when the dramatic story arcs don’t come to you.

Oh well, no Star Trek series is on the air now, so one could say I’m railing against a problem that’s been solved. Really, I think I’m just lamenting the loss of Firefly, and the seven years’ worth of material in Whedon’s head.

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Kwaidan

The Black Hair was definitely the creepiest one of the four stories; probably because I wasn’t expecting it. The reunion was going suspiciously well, but that just had me thinking that he might wake up next to his wife, or worse, in his old house in Kyoto, now empty and abandoned. The combination of his stark-white complexion, the naked skull of his ex-wife, and her long, black hair actually caused me yell out (in a manly fashion, though, of course). And was it just me or did her hair undulate like something possessed as he screamed at it? Amazing. I’m glad that story was finished by the early afternoon. (Hey, I know my imagination, O.K.?)

The Woman of the Snow was breath-taking: I couldn’t believe the skies! The rich ochres, lighter yellows and pinks as they ran through the fields, the many eyes throughout… There were some tense moments too, of course: the way Kobayashi held a shot for such a long time, particularly on the back of the woman’s head near the beginning and end of the story: you’re certain this mask of terror will greet you when she finally, finally turns around. And the use of lighting throughout the stories was just amazing; I’ll talk about the last two in a moment, but in this piece, the transitions from warm colours to white and deep blue complemented the close-ups perfectly: it’s all you need to know what’s going on.

Hoichi, The Earless was probably the best story of the lot: it had humour, adventure, and a happy ending of sorts. The wards painted all over (well, almost :-) ) Hoichi’s body were an impressive sight. Again, the use of lighting, exposing his ears, was excellent; such a simple, yet powerful, technique.

In a Cup of Tea rounded out the collection on a disturbing note: again, the use of lighting made the scene that much more tense, as first the woman, and then the publisher, approached the bucket of water. I also loved the shot as the main character brought the cup of tea up to his face for the third time, the frame off-kilter like we’re sure his mind is by then.

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I, Mudd

O.K., this has to be one of my favourite episodes to date. Harry Mudd was absolutely superb; one of the most entertaining guest stars to grace the show, in my opinion: a big brute of man, but always with a jovial smile and many a “laddie-buck!”

Other points:

• As usual, my mind wandered back to The Next Generation, since it’s the show I’m most familiar with; in this case, I started thinking about the Bynars fairly early on, and there are certainly parallels between this story and TNG episode, 11001001: a logical ‘race’ takes over the Enterprise, not as a malicious act, but to help its own ‘people’. Again, as usual, however, I, Mudd is a superior episode (and I say that as a big fan of Minuet, incidentally).
• Minor point: Norman’s double-fisted upward swing into the chin of one of the officers in Engineering has to be one of the most effective (looking, anyway) blows I’ve seen in this heavily-choreographed series; and then you find out he’s an android. Ouch!
• Lots of great quotes: Spock’s “seems rather redundant” in response to learning of the numerous identical models.
• This is another one of the four times that Kirk (with lots of help in this particular case) talks a computer to death.
• Finally, from the celebratory dance — and its score, in particular — on, I felt like I was watching a David Lynch dream sequence. :-) Scotty and McCoy reciting those lines, ending with fingers on chins; just hilarious! At other times it was like Monty Python’s take on performance art in The Meaning of Life (called The Middle of the Film, the Wikipedia entry has reminded me). :-) I don’t know; it may not be for everyone, but those moments made the episode, for me.

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Catspaw

• I was surprised by Chekov’s hair; according to Memory Alpha, this was his first appearance on the show.
• DeSalle was also a surprise: when Kirk said his name in the ship’s log, I thought, “Who?” Apparently, the actor, Michael Barrier, joined the US Coast Guard in the late 60s. (There’s good trivia associated with this episode, incidentally).
• My first thought when I saw the witches was “Very Macbeth,” which made Spock’s initial comment (i.e., “Bad poetry”) all the more funny.
• My first thought upon seeing the cat?  “Isis!” ;-) (Memory Alpha has an extensive entry on the many cats in Star Trek, incidentally.)
• I loved that shot in the first dungeon scene, where Kirk is looking over McCoy’s shoulder at a skeleton in the foreground, quickly correcting his “Bones!” exclamation with “Doc.” :-)
• I like the idea of sensation driving someone mad; The Next Generation explored that well with Data too.
• Finally, a note on Sylvia, as played by Antoinnette Bower: I found her to be absolutely captivating; I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

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Hellboy II: The Golden Army — No spoilers

In typical style, I’ll open with a tangent: I propose that movies like Hellboy II will be the Star Wars of their generation; not to the same degree, obviously, since there’s so much more fantastic (in the literal sense of the word) stuff available these days, but as something that will inspire, and continue to inspire, the kids of today as they grow up and choose their way in the world.

I’m a big fan of Star Wars. I had to see them on television, but still, few were more pumped than me to see the theatrical releases of the remastered versions in the late 90s. Seeing The Phantom Menace at the old Somerset Theatre is a memory I will cherish for the rest of my days. However, having said all that, I understand why many of the kids of today are underwhelmed (to quote Sloan, although my spellchecker seems fine with it — strange) with the series. I imagine it’s tough to get past the limitations of the day to see the adventure beneath. Add to that that as an adult I’ve come to realize that you don’t want to look too closely under the hood of these movies, and you can hardly fault these kids.

Then you see Hellboy II, with beautiful creatures like the elemental, and terrifying ones like the angel of death, and you think, outside of Jim Henson’s mind, where are you going to find that much creative genius packed into two hours? And then you add in lots of adventure, camaraderie, sympathatic villians, and, wow, you’ve got one heck of a ride. (Especially when it’s all about moving the story along; so many great effects ruin the moment because they’re clearly about the production team showing off; none of that here.)

Which is all well and good, but I’m sure you’re wondering what in the world made me think of Star Wars: I think it started with the troll market. It’s the Mos Eisley Lucas dreamed off. (I think I even heard a sound similar to a Wookie cry as the scene opened, but that could’ve been my imagination.) Then you have the shrouded princess in desperate need. And who can honestly say that Abe Sapien’s mannerisms (in this movie, anyway — don’t remember the first one that well) don’t reek of C3-PO’s? :-)

I just loved this movie. I could go on about the dichotomy of the barbaric Mr. Wink, and that awesome goblin amputee, but you get the idea.

A final note on the Death Race trailer: I hadn’t seen it before, and let me just say my confused grin turned to peals of laughter when they got to the part with the female convicts. :-D It was a parody of itself. I’m telling you, it would’ve fit perfectly between Tarantino’s Planet Terror and Death Proof. I don’t know if I’ve ever laughed so long or hard at a trailer.

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The Doomsday Machine

• The image of the wrecked USS Constellation was pretty disturbing. (NCC-1017; I noted the low number, and wondered if it was the first Constitution-class ship that was commissioned; Memory Alpha suggests that it was.)
• William Windom gave a fantastic performance! My spine was tingling as he choked out how his entire crew was killed by the machine while he stood helpless. (I was surprised to learn that that monologue was ad lib; I wonder whether there are other gems in the footage that was cut.)
• The machine itself was immediately familiar to me. I couldn’t find any reference to the footage being used in another television show or movie, so maybe I just caught a few minutes of a re-run at some point.
• Decker’s the second Commodore I’ve seen take over command of the Enterprise (the first being Stocker); the rank is getting a bad reputation. ;-)
• Some great quotes: Kirk’s second-guessing his joy at getting the machine’s attention: “I think it’s great. Scotty, get us out of here!” and Spock’s deadpan: “Vulcans [and half-Vulcans, apparently —JJ] never bluff.”
• And what a tense finale!

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Wolf in the Fold

I immediately recognized John Fiedler, but didn’t know from where; after looking through his Memory Alpha entry, I would guess it was his guest appearance on Three’s Company as Morris Morris: I remember that episode (I was a huge fan of Three’s Company as a kid), and I can almost picture him introducing himself (to some confusion, of course). Much to my chagrin, I did not recognize him as the voice of Piglet. :-/

Fiedler was excellent as Mr. Hengist.  Sharp and efficient, he hid himself well. I loved it when he finally interrupted Kirk’s inquistion of the other two suspects with his, “May I continue…” It’s only his job, after all. :-) While I’m discussing him, I’ll skip right to the finale: is it just me, or did they tranquilize a corpse? And if Redjac could animate a corpse, I don’t see how a traquilizer could inhibit that ability. A more distasteful explanation is that McCoy was mistaken when he pronounced Hengist dead, and Kirk and Spock murdered him in order to destroy Redjac (which is initially what I thought they were doing, incidentally).

Skipping back to the beginning, I found the discussion around Scotty’s possible resentment of women to be a bit hokey. I liked the concussion angle, and felt that that should’ve been sufficient for the plot. (It wasn’t like we’d believe Scotty could commit murder, no matter what they fed us.) Incidentally, I thought Scotty’s anguish was excellent, particularly as he’s being grilled after Lt. Tracy’s death.

I was surprised when Kirk suggested the insanity defence; as it turns out, this defence has a much longer history than I’d suspected.

The technological advances of the day were prominently displayed in this episode: in addition to the psycho-tricorder that was not used, the computer was front and centre in exposing the murderer. I found it interesting that physiological indicators were still considered the best method of detecting deception — of course, the lie detector was probably still in its heyday in the late 60s — despite their ability to access some sort of data in the conscious and subconscious mind (using a psycho-tricorder, as I understood it). That sort of sophistication brings to mind scenarios from Robert J. Sawyer’s Neanderthal Parallax, where an up-to-the-minute archive of this data prevents anyone from getting away with a crime (i.e., an alibi archive).

The computer really shone when Spock asked it for hypotheses based on the previous five-minute conversation. Awesome! I hope I live to see that day. :-)

Other tidbits:

• Spock certainly dated the episode when he suggested that women were clearly capable of experiencing deeper horror than men;
• I couldn’t believe how efficient their tranquilizer distribution was: they had people distributing it and then tranquilizing themselves, and the transporter operator was totally loopy when they arrived with Hengist. A marvel! :-)

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