MANN ON FILM
It's a Mad World and other essays
S.E. Mann
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 2010 S.E. Mann. All rights reserved.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
* * * *
It's a Mad World
by S.E. Mann
Back in the days before the world looked so bleak, the world looked pretty darn bleak. American movies answered the call to arms to prepare the public for the things that were certainly to come: Utopia, but gone very, very wrong. Of course many of these themes, and actual stories came from much earlier times, and were fashioned for the present, as these things tend to go. It’s the way of things, the endless adaptation of the works of previous eras, taking things from back when they didn’t know anything. I’ve always wondered how it is that all those past generations which are notorious for their bumbling and naivety on such matters as the environment, social equality, education, science, medicine and politics, seem to have accomplished so much that we in our enlightened times can’t resist copying every chance we geniuses get.
Could our hope in the future have anything to do with it? Hope springing eternally from the well of residuals, that is. Don’t get me wrong, the idea of getting paid for one’s labor is a grand one. And one that I subscribe to. Greed is good and all that. Ok, maybe that’s going too far, quoting Gordon Gecko, but, like his character pointed out after that great line, greed, competition are the pillars of improvement. And so profit is not inherently a bad thing. In fact it’s a pretty spiffy thing when it comes to things like movies. Think about it, if there was no profit to me made in making movies, they’re be no movies to be made. Sure, there’d be some non-profit documentaries chronicling how naive and bumbling past generations were and how we’re fixing all that now, or other non-profit documentaries described as being made with no money, when in fact gobs of it were funnelled into the venture in order to, you guessed it, club past generations over the head like baby seals. Yes, there would be those, and if we are to subscribe to Douglas Adams' theories, they’d even make it all the way to colonizing the next world. But still, without profit, there would be no popular cinema, no movies for everyone, for the average joe or bloke, for the common clay, you know, for us morons.
Yup, morons like you and me and everyone who loves movies, fun movies. No, I don’t mean love them like that idiotic pandering ad campaign American Movie Channel uses to explain why the once great cable channel stinks now. No, forget that. I’m talking about real people who love movies who aren’t obsessed with impressing others about the fact. Picture that scene in Annie Hall, the one on the movie line with the college professor. If you haven’t seen it, well, I won’t ruin it. If you have seen it, you know what I’m getting at. And if you have seen and still don’t know what I’m getting at it, well, American Movie Channel is waiting for you! But I don't think we have to be so drastic.
So why did so many depressing movies get made if the public loves fun movies? One has to go back to an earlier time in American cinema to Preston Sturges’s wonderfully iconic “Sullivan’s Travels” for a possible answer. In it, a movie director, a very successful movie director, tired of his success, sets out on a quest to find the true America, to pull back the covers on what makes America tick, to peel away the tin and get to the meat of the nation, the American theme, the serious nature of what it is America wants. Through much adventure and turmoil, heartache and anguish, as well as a bunch of laughs along the way, he figures out what America wants: yup. It’s simply just a bunch of laughs along the way. People want to be happy.
If Joel McCrea figured it out in 1941 how did we forget it all over again? I guess each generation thinks it’s got the goods on the truth, on the spam in the can. In any case, the false utopia film saw a resurgence in the sixties. At first glance, that seems appropriate, a time of rebellion and all, but when one considers that at least half of America was hooked on the idea of an Eden - the rebellious half, it turns out - a paradise on earth, where split- ends, tunics and waifish young lasses would frolick in the afternoon sun, then the logic behind releasing a film showing dark, brooding views of our future is a bit surprising. Very surprising that those films even got greenlighted.
How do you know you’re in a false utopia, a dystopia, as it were? There’s something that a dystopian film needs: it needs a history. That’s right. We, as the audience, need to know what happened before things got all screwy, even if the film waits until the very last few frames of celluloid to tell us, as “Planet of the Apes” did, with perhaps the greatest killer ending of any film in history barring that darn sled in the fire. Many folks might not realize that Rod Serling was a major force behind that script, even though we didn't see him walk out from behind a cave wall or stuffed former astronaut to tell us so. I haven’t read the original novel by Pierre Boelle, but I’m going to guess that the ending doesn’t come with that signature Serling gut punch so prevalent in his famous series, “The Twilight Zone”.
Ok, we got history. Yes, we need that. But along with that history the film needs someone to tell it, or, in many cases, keep it from being told. Often this teller or keeper of the secret is an old, bedraggled character, like Peter Ustinov in “Logan’s Run”, charismatic and powerful as Richard Burton’s Benjamin of “1984” fame or kindly, but equally dangerous, as the Cyril Cusack’s captain in “Fahrenheit 451”. In any case, we need someone who knows the past, who read about it, heard about it, or actually lived through it. Someone who is no fool, who is there to make the nightmare complete. Because how much more horrible can things get, really, when you find out the one sane person in the world who actually knows of how things used to be, is either trying to keep it quiet, keep you from learning it, or just plain old trying to kill you. That’s when you know you’re in a dystopian film.
Another element crucial to the telling of the falsetopia (ok, I made that word up, but I think it has a nice ring to it) is the time period. Since we’re talking of futures, it makes sense that almost all dystopic flicks are set there. Again, not surprising since it’s a lot easier to convince people the world is going to end, than trying to convince them they bought the farm before they even bought their ticket and they’re watching said film like Griffen Dunne in “An American Werewolf in London”.
So far we need a history, a keeper of that history, we need to set it in the future, and what else? Why, of course, what is a darktopia (that’s mine, too) without the fuzz? That’s right, you need authority, good old fashioned oppressive authority. Government control. Now, the wonderful Ray Bradbury replaced the police in his story “Fahrenheit 451” with the always trusted and beloved figure of the fireman, making his vision of a false utopia, a horrific future, a nightmarish topsy-turvy world as clever as it gets. Well done, Sir Bradbury.
There are plenty of films that make people not laugh, or stop them from laughing if they happened to be engaged in that activity for whatever reason when they entered the theater. Some of my favorites of the 'Keep 'em from laughing' genre are “Zardoz”, “Planet of the Apes”, and “Logan’s Run”. Let me explain why I don’t include “Metropolis”, “THX-1138”, “Brazil”, and “Blade Runner”, excellent films all, and in one sense or another a direct take on “Brave New World” and “1984” the twentieth century accountants in the law of depressing returns. I think for a dystopia film to be true to the cause, it has to have one, a cause that is. The characters that people that imagined world have to believe that it’s a great place. The story has to be confident, arrogant even, in its present day, with it’s characters proclaiming that the past is not merely prologue but problematic, a nuisance if even acknowledged at all. The best isn’t yet to come, it’s here and now and now is always and that’s just fine. The characters in “Brazil”, “Blade Runner”, “THX 1138” (when they’re not doped) all, for the most part, realize they’re in a lousy place and it isn’t going to get any better. For them and their world, life sucks.
Ray Bradbury’s “Farhenheit 451”, directed by Francois Truffaut is a delight. I spoke to Mr. Bradbury about this film in the mid 90s. Then, there was talk of a remake, with Mel Gibson helming the project as he had purchased the rights at that time. This was ironically before Mel himself got into all sorts of trouble with our own present day firemen of political correctness. All the books, Mel. All the books. Ray had told me he wasn’t crazy about Truffaut’s interpretation of his story, and was looking forward to seeing what Gibson was going to bring to the table. He was quite animated about it, as if it was a brand new story project about to be put to paper all over again. He didn’t hate Truffaut’s version, exactly, but he didn’t love it either. He was, I gathered, simply not thrilled. He did, however, make it known that the sinfully atrocious “The Illustrated Man” with Roy Steiger was completely awful. He even looked angry when he spoke of it, and rightly so, noting they had changed the entire story on him. One has to ask, why would you meddle with a Ray Bradbury story?
As for the casting in the Truffaut version, Oscar Werner’s performance in this film is remarkable, as is Julie Christie in both of her roles. Cyrill Cusack, one of my favorites is an absolute joy to watch. His exquisitely sinister tones and yet reasonable assessments and logic make him equal to the literary Benjamin of “1984”, perhaps an inspiration. By contrast, the filmed Benjamin and the treatment of Orwell’s famous dystopian tale, though with a great cast, Richard Burton as Benjamin, John Hurt as Winston Smith, as well as plenty more astonishing talent, never really impressed me as it should have. I think we’ll have to wait for another generation to take on that classic and give it the quintessential version we yearn for. With that let me share a couple of my favorite bits of “Fahrenheit 451”.
THE PRODUCTION DESIGN. I believe this film, like “Forbidden Planet” and “2001: A Space Odyssey” visually resembles no other. A great look, unequalled.
FABIAN. Every shot of the wonderful Anton Diffring is perfect, including the hilarious shot of him as ‘the headmaster’ snottily watching Montag and Julie Christie walk down the empty school hallway after school boy Robert runs away and before her belongings are scooted down the hall in a furushiki like bonnet screaming to her, ‘don’t come back. Ever!’.
THE HIDDEN LIBRARY. The lecture Cyril Cusack gives as the Captain is one of the great speeches of film, though it largely goes unnoticed in reviews. The Captain’s explanation of why books must be burned is priceless for its relevance to our world today. Every actor wishing to portray a role with such conflicting traits, and every actor should, would be wise to study this tour de force, and not just the usual cardboard charcterizations of good and evil usually served up in acting classes and film schools. “The only way to be happy is for everyone to be equal. We must all be the same. So we must burn the books, Montag. All the books.” as he holds up a copy of "Mein Kampf". “Why anyone who put pen to paper was bound to win some award sometime.”“This one had the critics on his side, lucky fellow.” Marvelous.
THE BERNARD HERRMANN SCORE. It is said that Bernard was going for something along the lines of The Beatles' “Eleanor Rigby” when he wrote this score. Whether that is true or not, I cannot say, but it does make sense. I think the poignancy of Montag’s existence and discovery is brought out poetically in the last couple of scenes in the film. Some have poked fun at the ending. I happen to love it. Here, the score is moving as it is memorable.
UP THE FIREPOLE. Again, this notion of an upside down world, coupled with overtones of believer and non-believer, the faithful and the sinner - one of us, or one of them is comically illustrated with this successful effect. There are not many American directors who could have pulled this off as the Frenchman Truffaut did. Terry Guilliam comes to mind as one who would and could get away with it.
THE BURNING BOOKS. No one, Ray included, can deny that the image of beautiful destruction of the books is not captivating. Pages curling up, blackening and disappearing revealing the next page underneath, and repeating, wiping out the memories of that author’s vision and our future ability to embrace it. Powerful images for powerful ideas. We simply cannot look away. It's fascinating in the true sense of the word.
There's one more thing that many dystopia films do contain while others distinctly lack: Hope. Ray’s tale ends in hope, the book people, the outcasts, vagrant and powerless are nonetheless an enduring image of who will inherit that earth after, to paraphrase Montag, it burns itself out.
The film “Logan’s Run” also contains this positive outlook, this happy ending moment, along with a fairly promising start at a revolution. As does “THX 1138”, and some might argue, from a certain perspective, “Brazil”. Yet “1984” contains no such sentiments. As far as hope goes in that story, it’s all over, folks.
Contrary to what film schools and snobby cinemestas say, people don’t go to the movies to think so much as to feel. Giuseppe Tornatore's “Cinema Paradiso” showed this successfully like no other film I can think of. We want to laugh. Not just at humor, or in a humorous way, but to laugh at life, how life is really one big comedy. A neverending Duck Soup, to borrow from “Hannah and Her Sisters”. It’s not to be taken too seriously, especially at serious times. And there is nothing wrong with that. So next time a film professor tells you that American films tend to get too silly, or too meaningless, or pure escapism, agree with him, knowing that exactly the reason they exist, not to impress, but to make us laugh. To make us happy.
* * * *
The Boggy Nature of Fear
by S.E. Mann
Halloween is a time of fright and fear. It’s a favorite time of year for many kids. Of course the candy helps, but that’s not all of it. It’s really about the feeling. The leaves are falling, the skies are darker, the weather is getting colder and there’s still more cold to come. It’s a time for spookiness, mystery and the unknown. So, as I write this, on a dark and stormy night, well, actually, it’s the afternoon, but it is very dark and very stormy outside. My mind turns to this season, to Halloween, to fear.
There are a lot of films that scared us as kids, and still scare us. Many of the films today are far too graphic for my tastes. Heck, most of television is, too, for that matter. So, I should say right at the outset that I’m not a fan of gore, not in any way shape or form. I know some folks out there are big on the stuff, but not me. Sure, I’ve seen some, the classic Herschell Gordon Lewis, Romero and Savini works, but none of the modern multi-sequel films that grace our theaters with single word titles. I don’t mind being scared. As most would agree, we all need a good scare every now and then. It’s good for you. It’s thrilling. But gore isn’t thrilling for me. It’s sickening. I like to be thrilled, I don’t wish to be sick. Besides, I’ve seen enough of the footage and descriptions of films like “Saw” and “Hostel,” which I rebel against, regardless of how “intelligent” or “clever” they are reported to be.
So, as I began to write this essay, as the wind and rain hit my window, I started to think on things that scare me. Matt Damon came to mind. Not because he’s scary or anything, of course, but because I noticed just the other day that the popular actor announced, quite out of the blue, that he’s not interested in working on films that have gratuitous violence in them. Here's Matt:
“I always look at the violence (in a script). I don’t want it to be gratuitous because I do believe that has an effect on people’s behavior. I really do believe that and I have turned down movies because of that.”
Wow. I had to stop for a second after I first saw that, since I associate him with films which contain explosive, deadly violence. Right now, there are very few characters more lethal than Bourne for their efficiency in killing people to death, at least in the main stream. Obviously I wasn’t the only one who noticed the incongruity between his words and his roles. Damon’s statement that aside from Bourne, he has turned down many-a-script that contained violence could very well be true. I have to take him at his word, since I’m sure he receives tons of scripts every day that have him climbing, kicking and wrenching the feathers out of very bad good guys from Finland to Fuji. So, I asked myself why would he take this suddenly public stand? This was the first time I had seen an A-list actor, a very liberal A-list actor, at that, confessing such a view in public and to a news outlet, no less. Stunning. No other word to describe it.
Two days later, I saw a small news piece where Nicole Kidman was basically saying the same thing, not that she turns down violent scripts, but that she believes media influences behavior: “Asked if the movie industry has “played a bad role,” Kidman said “probably,” but quickly added that she herself doesn’t. “I can’t be responsible for all of Hollywood but I can certainly be responsible for my own career,” she said.
Wait a minute. So here were two very big stars, stating in no uncertain terms that media influences behavior, and can do so in bad ways, two days apart. This, after years and years of denying it and ridiculing those who believe media plays a huge part in influencing behavior, our culture, they come out with this. Two days apart! As long as I can remember remembering, I’ve read and heard from professors, media experts, authors, artists and filmmakers, from friends and foe alike that media doesn’t influence. Period. End of story. Get over it, etc..
To be fair to those two actors, they themselves didn’t deny it or ridicule others specifically, but their industry, Hollywood, has made that denial, that firm stance, the unmovable rampart against the charges that their product, their message is increasingly detrimental, that it’s screwing up our kids and us.
So, I had to wonder why would not one, but two big celebrities come out with very similar statements mere days apart. All I could think of was they want to be on the right side of the facts when some soon-to-be-released study by an organization embraced by Hollywood, such as Harvard, Yale, or Jon Stewart hits the net or news stands. Who knows? But, as I looked out through the glass at the dark foreboding skies, I suddenly remembered something. I remembered the recent news on severely declining box office receipts and DVD sales. I remembered Big Hollywood's essay by John Nolte and all the others on the subject. And then it all clicked. “I know what’s going on here,” I said to my reflection in the window. Fear is what’s going on here.
Which leads me to something almost as scary as Hollywood actors making statements to the press. A movie that scared me with very little more than fear. No blood or violence or graphic anything. Just good old fashioned fear.
I’m not a huge fan of “The Blair Witch Project,” but I do give the filmmakers kudos for their idea, for their execution of it, and for their spunk. I hate spunk (No, just kidding, I love spunk, but I can’t hear that without thinking of Lou Grant’s famous reply to Mary). Anyway, the filmmakers of “The Blair Witch Project” mentioned some of the things that inspired them in their “fresh approach” to producing their now famous hoax film. Among the lot was an overlooked little film of the 1970s. I had noticed the similarity of the film that they mentioned and their own hugely successful project right off the bat. I noticed it minutes into their wooded project. So, I was glad to see they acknowledged it at least.
“The Legend of Boggy Creek”
This little gem scared the dickens out of me as a kid. For those who haven’t seen it, I won’t ruin it, if that’s even possible, with any spoilers. But I will give you a very brief rundown of it, just so you know where I’m coming from and why. To a boy, it aroused tremendous fear; to an adult, I wonder about where that fear comes from.
The film starts out with a disclaimer that “This is a true story.” Right there, you got me. I’m already hooked. I’m not sure why that is – undoubtedly an expert psychologist can explain it with some long words that will take another expert psychologist to interpret. I’ll leave the business of that to them and just be satisfied with knowing it’s a swell gimmick with a set-up that can’t lose.
After a few dark, and yes, boggy images of a swamp, dead trees and scenes of late Autumn, a scene Andrew Wyatt or Charles Sheeler might paint on a depressing day, we get a young boy in denim overalls, the kind Opie would wear, and looking like a lot of kids looked in the 70s, running across a golden, sunlit field. He’s not goin’ fishin’ and he’s not havin’ fun. In fact, he looks terrified. We hear howls and hoots of various animals echoing off in the distance as he runs along. He makes it to a country store where the local gentry, the older men are sitting around chin wagging. Out of breath, he blurts out that his mama sent him to get help, because “there’s some kinda bayou man down by the woods and the creek.”
The men laugh it off and send the boy on his way, certain it’s just the overactive imaginations of mother and child. He runs back home across the same fields with the sun now setting and the spaces between the trees getting gloomier by the minute. Suddenly, he stops when he hears a sound echoing in the distance. We hear it too. It’s the angry howling of the beast.
In a narration reminiscent of Earl Hamner Jr., a comforting male voice-over describes his little town and how it was when he was a kid, that kid. The scenes are of pleasant fields, trees, and woods. It’s a picturesque though remote “neck of the woods.” Playful country music is used to make us feel at home, down home in this place known as Fouke, Arkansas, population 350. This, he tells us, is his recollection of what happened to that town back when he was seven years old. The comforting voice of the narrator goes on to welcome us in, in a neighborly way, describing the post office and the gas station, the school, garage, motel and a couple of cafes “where the men stop-by to discuss the fish they caught, or the duck, quail or deer they’ve hunted.” He then introduces some of the good sturdy folk of Fouke and how most are “farmers or ranchers.” Not exactly the kind that scare easily. Again, a good set-up. He sums it up with the killer line: “Fouke is a right, pleasant place to live… until the sun goes down.”
What happens after that isn’t so picturesque at all. We get a documentary style format showing a variety of the characters, real or imagined, that the story presents as true. All sorts of recollections of dead animals, mauled hogs, pet dogs and others that were either found scared to death, ripped apart like rag dolls or just plain disappeared. The characters whose names are displayed on screen all seem trustworthy and basic, simple folk, not the kind who want publicity. And it’s all shot as if it came off the same reel as that Paterson big foot footage we’ve all seen.
We are then treated to a variety of episodes where the creature, the Fouke Monster, as it came to be called, terrorizes the locals in various ways. These “reenactments” based on our trusted narrator’s words along with the very amateur quality of the production add to its realism. Descriptions by farmers of 200-pound hogs carried over barbed wire, dogs and cats slain wet our appetite setting us up for the real big hit, which doesn’t really strike us so much as it dampens, like wet socks or a soaked sleeping bag on a camping trip.The narrator further sets the tone with his ominous, “I doubt if you could find a lonelier, spookier place in this country than down around Boggy Creek.”
Sure, there are some sudden shocking moments, some classic fright magic, but it’s all a consequence of the set-ups we were treated to. Without them, the frights would not last much longer than the frames they took to show, which are minimal. The film really doesn’t show much at all, actually. But the implication of what is “out there” and “running on two legs” is clear and never far from our minds. A monster is stalking the woods at night. Is it man or beast? What does it want? Is it going to hurt us?
There’s no teen angst, no sex scenes and no hot tubs. There are no rowdy bullies who get their just desserts after picking on the cute couple. No car chases or explosions. No special weaponry or resourcefulness to make any. There isn’t even a gruff and disbelieving sheriff who always finds out the hard way how wrong he was to dismiss the whole thing. Nope, none of that stuff. What there is are very average, simple, vulnerable people in cabins or mobile homes, far from telephones or neighbors who all alone, or in small groups, get the stuffing scared out of them by something outside. There’s also fierce hunting dogs whimpering and turning back at the first whiff of the monster, motorists narrowly missing the creature as he runs across the road and more vignettes adding to the overall feeling of fear. There’s also a very odd musical segment that might very well be the scariest thing in the movie! The entire film is really nothing more than a loosely connected string of “documented” incidents described in a fashion not unlike a darker episode of “In Search of…” (which by no strange coincidence was another inspiration to the filmmakers of “The Blair Witch Project”).
I saw this film with my brother and sisters. I was a small boy, not unlike the lad depicted. And even though I exited the theater into a hot, hazy and bustling normal afternoon in the city, bereft of anything wooded or rustic, I was still very anxious to get home as fast as possible. I was certain that the Fouke Monster, that “huge hairy creature watching from the shadows” was somewhere out there, behind a parked car or hiding in a dark stairwell waiting to rip my neck out like he did those dogs, which we never actually saw him do. I really didn’t see much, did I? But, boy did it scare me. And perhaps, sometimes, when the sun goes down and the wind howls, like the now all grown-up little boy says in the film, “and it scares me now, too”
* * * *
I Keep Watching the Skies - B Movies and Me
by S.E. Mann
I have always been a fan of so-called B movies. I’m not sure I like that description because it implies that B movies are not as important as A movies, not as serious, not as good. Well, I’m not so sure about that. Of the B movies that I love, my favorites are, without a doubt, the science fiction monster movies. Yes, those wonderful creations conceived of by some of the most colorful characters in Hollywood and beyond. Studios like AIP, Toho, Daiei, Hammer and Universal are synonymous with creatures that crawl, creep and are able to stamp a city flat.
Names like Ray Harryhausen, George Pal, Bernard Herrmann and H.G. Wells come to mind. As do those of Ken Toby, Less Tremayne, Paul Frees and Whit Bissell. Each of these names, plus thousands and thousands of others, can immediately conjure up a favorite film, a scene or even just a great line or look that impressed us as kids and perhaps continues to do so.
When I think about those elements that I love in my favorite sci-fi monster movies, my mind can easily dwell for hours on the creatures themselves, the settings, the art direction, the machinery and technology and everything in between. I never grow tired of that stuff. But I also love, with equal passion the characters that people the story. They are really what it’s all about. So, indulge me as I invite you to take a little trip through my memory, recalling some character moments that stand out for me in the B genre of scifi monster movies.
"The Thing from Another World"
This is without a doubt one of my all-time favorite movies, of any genre. There is so much great about The Thing, that I feel it should be used as a template of what to do right in making movies. Every character from Scotty the newsman to Tex the radioman to the scientists, including my own personal favorite Bob Cornthwaite’s unforgettable Dr. Carrington, is each wholly enjoyable and rich in believable detail, even if they lasted only seconds on screen.
My mind moves along as I recall this great film touching on some memorable moments. Some that come to mind are the constant problem solving by Dewey Martin joined with Captain Hendry’s humorous jabs on his subordinate’s expertise in all things resourceful. Newsman Scotty’s incessant, but enjoyable whining about getting his exclusive story out through the morass that is the military. Without Scotty, the viewer would have needed another in to the technical details of what happens. Scotty serves both as story chronicler and informer for the audience. When thermite is to be used to melt the ice, it’s Scotty who asks, for himself, but really for us, “What will that thermite do?” And it’s Scotty who soon after chastises the men for botching the job. “That’s just dandy. Standard operating procedure.” Brilliant.
How about that great sound cue from the Tiomkin score when the men recreate the shape of what lies beneath in the ice? The overlapping, excited utterances, “It’s almost…” “Yeah, almost a perfect….” “It is.” “It’s round.” “We finally got one!”, “ We found a flying saucer!” is priceless.
Speaking of scoring cues, another that ranks right up there is that great cut to Gort suddenly appearing on the ramp after Klaatu is shot by a nervous soldier in “The Day the Earth Stood Still”. Still another that comes to mind is an accented William Conrad uttering the dreaded Marabunta in “The Naked Jungle”. The cue itself practically brings Leinengen’s house down to the dirt. Yes, there really is nothing like a good sound cue to raise the blood pressure.
“War of the Worlds”
“This is amazing!” Gene Barry's character, Dr. Clayton Forrester exclaims at his first glimpses of how the aliens are able to move about. His excitement is that of a boy launching his very first model rocket from the backyard. This amazing film is a bounty of excellence in sci-fi monster movie making. As Stan Winston said, it has just about every special effect in it. He was more than right. The characters on display make the awesome visual spectacle a personal and lasting one.
There’s a throwaway moment in the opening at the ranger watch tower where one ranger while phoning in the ‘meteor’ is distracted while the other subtly takes a peek as his partner’s cards. Great stuff. Les Tremayne’s slow and deliberate sipping from the (empty?) coffee cup directly after uttering his ominous “once they begin to move, no more news comes out of that area” has never failed to stir in me that familiar excitement when watching a monster movie on a Saturday afternoon. Sure his drinking is a bit unnatural – his business a bit clunky, but who cares? It’s a great movie moment.
After the kindly Pastor is unmercifully smote by the alien’s heat ray after doing nothing more than just trying to be nice to the new neighbors, the Marine Colonel’s “LET ‘EM HAVE IT!” order to his men, unleashing the statement that no being, alien or native is going to get away with that kind of stuff. Our hearts join in as every man, religious or not, strikes back with all he’s got at that unprovoked act.
Most, if not all of the actors in these films can be seen and enjoyed in scores of other films as well. This, the B movie, was their bread and butter. But their prolific on-screen work had not only a monetary benefit to their careers, but it had an emotional one for the audience, as well. Their formidable repertoire of recurring and usually similar roles created a growing bank of emotion within us each time we saw them anew. It grew and grew. Actors we’d seen in television series or other films retained the decency and integrity they evoked each time and that we came to rely on. We’d see their name in the opening credits, or see their face on screen when they walked in the door or answered the phone and think… 'Hey, that’s the captain from The Thing. Now here he is in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. Boy, am I glad to see him!' Or, 'isn’t this doctor in “The Day the Earth Stood Still” the same guy who played the reporter in “Them!” - the one who wants to interview the mother of the missing boys? This linking of character and body of work helped forged a connection with the audience that is stronger than a block of KL 93.
Some people criticize B movies, calling them pure escapism. I say, so what? Isn’t all film pure escapism? Personally, I think that’s the highest compliment you could ever say about a film, that it’s pure escapism. By the same token one of the worst things you could say is that a film is so much like real life! Give me a break! Who wants that? As Ray Harryhausen said when remarking about the over reliance of CG in special effects, “You don’t want it to be too real.”
Another criticism of Bs often heard is that the performances are poor, cliched or just plain bad. Sure they are! Some of them, anyway. And that’s often why we love them. But some performances, some scenes, are not bad in the least, and I’d argue, are as moving, as powerful and as emotionally charged as anything else on screen or in print.
“Them!”
To this day, I cannot watch the scene in the sewer pipes at the end of this movie without pure emotion welling up inside me. When James Arness consoles a mortally wounded James Whitmore who in his last breathes lets him know that the boys he rescued got out and are in the tunnel, it’s just too much. That moment and what leads up to it, chokes me up every time. Even writing about it now, I find I’m moved to the point where I have to take my fingers off the keyboard for a moment. That’s greatness. Aside from Greg Peck’s final stare at a departing Audrey, Montagu Love’s reading of Kipling to the three remaining and one gone, or pretty much every darn thing that happens after Jimmy Stewart finds Zuzu’s petals, there aren’t many other film moments that can evoke such an immediate and powerful effect on me just from memory.
When James Arness continues on in the tunnels and is trapped behind fallen earth and timbers it doesn’t look good. With nothing more than the rounds left in his Thompson he is all alone to fight off the giant ants that are now attacking from all directions. But just as the creatures close in, beams of light and firepower from the other soldiers breaks through the splintered wood and fallen earth and saves him with dramatic punch. Powerful stuff, and I’m quite sure Steven Spielberg lifted it for a scene in “Saving Private Ryan”, of course without the ants.
It’s true. “The Thing from Another World”, “War of the Worlds” and “Them!” and so many others were meant as escapism, as drive-in fare, as they called it, when there were things like drive-ins. But it’s undeniable to many of us that these films, that B movies contain moments that are special, very special for their genuine ability to move us and remain with us for a lifetime. And that’s what movies are all about, Charlie Brown.
* * * *
There IS Something Wrong With My Television
by S.E. Mann
The way I see it television needs, among other things, the following two things:
1. A worthy Science Fiction - Thriller - Horror channel
That's right, a short form/short film channel showcasing those genres. Independent producers, writers, creators could submit work to be aired. It wouldn’t have to be, nor should it be at the Sundance level of professionalism delivered on DigiBeta and starring Cameron Diaz doing a favor for the filmmaker because it’s her friend’s cousin, either.
We don’t want that. There’s plenty of that kind of venue and they turn down 99% of the stuff submitted anyway, mainly because it’s not the work of someone’s friend’s cousin. So forget that right away. It has to be underground, guerilla, shoestring and, most important, good. Very good. Damn good. But not expensive. How can you do that, you say?With writing.
By the way, what happened to writing? What happened to story? What happened to acting, for that matter? Not wallpaper-chewing acting, but competent, believable acting. What happened to it? These are questions I am not asking alone. No, James Lipton is not asking them; he’s busy with that ridiculous list of moronic questions no one cares about except the extremely annoying acting students in the audience, and even they don’t care, merely pretending to so he’ll notice them and maybe call on them later. No, James might be wondering where great acting went, but he’s not really looking in the right place.
Millions of viewers are, however. They’re asking these same questions every time they turn on the TV or go to the movies. What happened to good writing? Where are the movie stars? Where are the great character actors? People are asking. No one is answering.
The professionals are very good at the technical aspects of production. But when it comes to story, they can’t seem to get it right anymore. They can’t even get close to good. This is where lack of money helps. Focus on the writing, and of course the acting. Because good writing can be decimated by bad acting sure as there are little green apples and worms to ruin them. Then, people will take notice.
Now is a great time to write. Imagine trying to pen a script or play or short drama when Faulkner, Steinbeck, Hemingway, Hecht and the Epsteins were all at their typewriters doing the same thing. There’s no one close to that now writing for movies or television, or anywhere for that matter. No one even close. That statement will undoubtedly piss a lot of professional writers off after they read it. Again, so what? Pros should get pissed off. It's the only time they do quality work. But for those non pros out there, if you can write, or learn to, or want to, then start writing. The field is wide open. The problem is, no one is watching closely because they’re all trying to decide which movie to spend their money on that is least likely to disappoint and turn to regret before they’re back in their own driveway.
That’s not exactly the mindset the audience should be in, should it? That’s not the kind of thinking that the American movie-going public used to have, is it? We’re a nation of movie lovers because we were raised on the breakfast of champions, the Golden Age of Hollywood. The Golden Age is gone, but maybe not forever.
Back when the existing SciFi channel started, and it was still spelled the way Uncle Forry coined it, they aired a lot of really great stuff. Much of it was the 60s, 70s series we grew up on related to science fiction or horror (I mean the earlier horror, not the nauseating torture porn that defines the genre today). The channel aired well-known staples like “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, “The Twilight Zone”, “The Outer Limits” and later series such as, “Night Gallery”, “Tales from the Dark Side” and “The Ray Bradbury Theater”. There was also another show, not nearly as well known as those, called “Dark Room” which aired in the early 80s. Produced with a much lower budget, it featured stories playing on the same genres, also cast with aspiring actors, many of whom often getting one of their very first gigs. I think “Dark Room” was a good concept that would work on an even lower budget, non-union, level today.
In terms of broadcast quality, since many might be wondering how a shoestring production is going to be up to suitable standards to air on television. Well, here’s an example from Japan, not exactly a backward nation of media technology, in case anyone hasn't noticed. One of Tokyo’s major filmmaking schools has an hour long television show which airs student films. Films. Not digital video, film. Of course, they’re converted to analog or digital for airing. But these shorts were shot and edited on film. It’s wonderful, innovative stuff these students are producing with not a small amount of blood, sweat and fear. I realize there is no way you’re going to get American kids with iPhones working with a Bolex or Arri 16 today. Nor should we want or expect anyone to. It’s expensive, difficult and, obviously, there’s no need. I don’t want to do it again, either. But the concept of underground, unrepresented, amateur but polished works getting aired on television is needed. If creators, producers, writers, filmmakers know they have a chance at getting something shown where people can see it and respect it at the same time, and it’s in a mainstream venue, such as television, they will produce. Look at this column. If it wasn't going to be published online or in book form, either digitally or in paper, I wouldn't have written it. I would have spoken it, since I am constantly thinking on these things, but it would not have been written. Two things made it exist: an outlet and a deadline. Those two little buggers are more important for any creative endeavor than all the fancy tools or consultants you can think of.
Sure, YouTube is excellent in this way, in providing an outlet, but it’s saturated with girls jumping on beds singing into their hairbrushes. And that’s the good stuff. No, there needs to be a better alternative between the exclusive, vast and varied festivals, so many now that even a winner at anything but the biggies may never be seen again, the high-end, yawn-inspiring programming on the misspelled SyFy Channel and the stuff that washes up on YouTube. Something professional that can expose the non-professional to the world of reviews, critics and, hopefully, agents and financing. It could work. Which leads me to something that did work and now painfully does not.
2. Actual Music Television
Yes, television with music videos. That’s right, the kind that used to play on that cable channel previously known as MTV before it was taken over by reality shows, soft porn, more reality shows and even more lesser-than-soft porn. The channel where they actually played music videos. Yeah, that one. It was also the same place where creative animators could contribute to producing music videos and even those short, inexpensive channel IDs that everyone loved and looked forward to seeing each and every time.
And speaking of inexpensive, remember when music videos were produced on a shoestring budget, looked like they were, and no one cared? In fact, they were all the more enjoyable for it. Look at any music video produced today. You’re talking about something that exceeds a budget for a major commercial for Nike, Nissan or Sony. And that’s really what it is, a commercial. Along with being too expensive to produce for a newcomer, they’re numbingly boring.
Seems to me, that with the proper contractual agreements, a small amount of palm-greasing, and a gun pressed against the right heads, so many of the great music videos from the past- and there are thousands (MTV only started with about 200) that are not being played anywhere but on YouTube, pending removal for copyright infringement, could and should be seen and enjoyed again on a television channel. As for those present up-and-coming musical artists, you don’t have to encourage them to produce their own music videos, they’re already doing that, but with little chance of MTV airing them, they all end up on, where else? YouTube! Again, not bad, but once again, they’re lost in the whirlpool of related videos of girls jumping on beds singing into their hairbrushes, part 2, 3, and 4. No, there’s got to be a better way, a better place.
Remember, there was.
Here's what you do: hire some of the old VJs that are still with us, (Rest in peace, J.J.) and add in some new blood to host those great music videos and some new unknowns as well, and that’s all folks want from a music channel. It really is. I constantly read, and I mean constantly, people posting comments on 80’s music videos on YouTube yearning like mad for their airplay on TV again and groaning at what became of the once great music television network and how it now leaves nothing to the imagination and everything to be desired. Does anyone aside from Ashton Kutcher actually watch MTV anymore? I mean, seriously, it’s complete and utter garbage. It would be healthier to air-drop a teenager into Chernobyl than to sit them down in front of today’s MTV for the same amount of time. Don’t get me started.
Yes, television clearly needs a lot more than these two improvements. But this a beginning. It’s true, we used to have these things, and lots of other things, too. With enough passion we can have them again, maybe even better. Then we won’t yearn for what once was. We won’t have the time. We’ll be too busy enjoying it.
* * * *
An Alternative to War
by S.E. Mann
Disclaimer: What you are about to read is fiction. It is a story about peace. Peace at any cost.
THE WORLD TODAY: A News Summary
BONN (EU News) – The current CSPEU administration has decided to increase productivity by lowering the age that children are required to enter the workforce from nine to eight years of age. The EU Vice Minister for the Interior states the lowering of the work age is due to an increased shortage of youthful workers. “It’s a reflection of the ongoing fighting between our peaceful union and the obstinate Russians.” Citizens and subjects in the 18-25 age bracket have seldom been seen in recent years. The Vice Minister commented on this by stating, “This temporary downturn in our youthful population is insignificant compared to the tremendous loss of life on the Russian side. Though our rockets delivering Vemork V weapons obliterated St. Petersburg and most of Moscow years ago, the Russians, though scattered and ill equipped, still choose to resist to this very day. It staggers the mind why they wish to continue their own misery.”
The Vice Minister added, “England, on the other hand, fell very quickly after we dropped only a mere one quarter megaton of heavy water (D2O) weaponry on their proud London back in 1946. Of course, we could continue to bombard the Russian outposts like we did London and where Paris once was, but it would contaminate any remaining soil. We’ve been trying to avoid this drastic measure. We are humanitarians, after all.”
The Vice Minister continued, “More to the point, it is vital to emphasize that the biological surrogate guardians of children reaching their seventh birthday are now required by law to enter their offspring’s identity number with a nearby STC (State Training Center) to begin the one year transition to the workforce. It is mandatory they comply with the new law. Penalties are harsh.”
EU News has faithfully reported in the past that administration policy is very clear on this issue. Biological surrogate guardians, bio-guardians, who refuse to surrender their unlawful offspring in a timely manner, will be sequestered by the administration’s Ministry of Adult Education for an indefinite period of time. Consequently, children found unattended will be conscripted into the workforce with any surviving surrogates losing visiting rights.
The Vice Minister added, “It’s in every bio-guardians’ interest to register the Fatherland’s children early. The earlier these children start their lives the easier it will be for them to make the transition from their surrogate households and purge those troubled lives from memory. It’s for their own good to cut those ties early. It’s natural and it’s the law.”
The governing Commanding Socialist Party of the European Union has announced that they have apprehended another 2500 political criminals across the nation. These individuals will be held temporarily in one of the New Spandau prison system facilities outside the EU Capital Center in Bonn until such time that more permanent facilities can be arranged, if needed.
In other news, the incoming Director of the Ministry of Allocations and Provisions has announced new shipments of household goods to be rationed out to the populace beginning next month as part of the new modernization plan.
"Citizens throughout the inner Fatherland nations of Deutschland, Austria and Switzerland in residential blocks A thru F can once again begin signing up for bread, water, salt, kerosene, and toilet paper as promised.” The Director stated in an uplifting speech given earlier this week. ”Citizens in residential blocks G thru P can begin signing-up for potatoes, cloth, canvas, shoe leather, and slag metal. Citizens in blocks Q thru Z can sign-up for milk, cheese, and butter substitutes. These blocks will rotate. Everyone will eventually get a chance at all the household goods and items as required by law. Anyone found forging identity cards, ration coupons, altering their derma scancode, or cheating the system in any way will be dealt with harshly.”
The Director continued, “Subjects in outlying regions of old Europe, including territories referred to previously as Britain, Spain, France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Italy, Malta, Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, Scandinavia, Poland, Turkey, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Bulgaria will begin similar initiatives as soon as allocations within the inner Fatherland areas are completed and fully verified. The same waiting period applies to the new North and South Amerikan territories in accordance with the Colonial Affairs Ministry which has local jurisdiction for those continents.”
The Director concluded with these words of reassurance, “Subjects in frontier regions such as Afrika will begin an experimental allocation program. The details of which are not to be made public at this time. The difficulties in supplying the vast continent of Afrika are enormous, as many are aware. I urge our subjects in Afrika to be patient. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day and the pestilent Jews and gypsies weren’t purged from our streets in a week! These things take time, but as we know, they do get done. ”
In Asian news, the Empire of Japan stated there was a brief power outage at a Human Resources Productivity Center in former Ceylon. About 70,000 workers suffocated in one of the vast underground graphite mines when the air supply was interrupted for several hours due to the power outage. The mine was flooded with hydrofluoric acid to aid in the cleaning and speedy removal of remains. Relatives are reminded that religious services for the deceased are prohibited.
A high-ranking official with Human Resources stated (off-the-record), “It (power outage) was most likely due to attempted sabotage by rebels.” He added, “We get troublemakers stirring things up from time to time. They’re just pests. And we have experience dealing with pests. It will be dealt with.”
Within hours of that statement approximately four hundred suspects were taken into custody from the outlying region and are presently assisting HR with inquiries. Next of kin will be notified where appropriate.
In a related story, the highly decorated Imperial Swordsman Unit of the Empire’s Honor Guard, known for their much-prized ability to dispatch multiple opponents while on horseback, is no longer recruiting volunteers from the populace to assist the unit in training and practice.
In agricultural news, the expansive rice crop harvest in the region has shown high increases in yields due to the new extended work hours. A government source stated, ”We’ve seen an enormous growth potential in limiting the amount of sleep our workers receive. By modeling their sleep habits on other animals, such as dogs and livestock, and supplementing this with pharmaceutical conditioning we’ve been able to reduce the total sleep time per day to 2.5 hours per subject. It’s a tremendous achievement. We plan to implement our research into all other areas of the labor force. This is a very exciting time in the field of science.”
Other so-called outsider regions known previously as Korea, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and Burma, now generally referred to collectively as Gaidashu, have seen only moderate yields. GACPS has announced plans to implement more robust cultural and genetic reintegration of these outlying regions, stating, “Citizens of even the most outlying regions of the Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere must remember that the official language is Japanese and use of other, outsider, mongrel tongues is not only forbidden but is a direct insult to their role as subject in the service of the Empire. We have a no tolerance policy.” Violators of this policy, EU News has been told, will be transported to one of the following: Re-Education and Conscription Centers, dojos for assisting martial training of the military and to National Health Centers for volunteer work on pathogenic and contagious diseases research.
In a related story, the Empire’s successful testing of chemical and biological agents inside Manchuko, formerly known as China and Manchuria has yielded another 20 million liters of Cyanogen and Cyclosarin material necessary to ensure continued peace. Volunteers are still being recruited from the still mainly Chinese population in the area, eager to do their part in helping the Empire to attain its goals.
A government official remarking on a recent news blackout in the area stated, ”When testing such huge amounts such as we are required to do, accidents can and will happen. It’s part of the risk. Furthermore, we are announcing that several cities in the Sechuan area are off limits until further notice. Subjects who have relatives in these areas in former Southern China are reminded to be patient. Inquiries, as per government policy, will not be accepted. Trust is required. We are certain each and every subject understands this and will comply with regulations.” He warned, “Be advised. Causing any disruption over this issue, or any other, is bound to meet with the strictest and most severe disciplinary action.”
That’s the way it is, May 2009. Good night and good luck.
The information ministries of the Commanding Socialist Party of the European Union and Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere contributed to this report. This news summary has been translated from German and Japanese into English for educational purposes only.
Link: http://thereisnointernet.com/becauseitwasn'tinvented/
Copyright © CSPEU/GACPS 2009.
End of summary.
What you have just read never happened. It is not the world we are living in today. Thank you to all the men and women of the United States Armed Forces and all her noble Allies who gave their youth, their health and their lives over sixty years ago to prevent the nightmare such as the one depicted above from becoming not fanciful fiction, as depicted here, but today’s reality. Not only on Memorial Day, but other days as well, let us take time to reflect on all that we have gained from those who gave everything they had. The preceeding article was written for Memorial Day 2009.
Download this book for your ebook reader.
(Pages 1-25 show above.)