2.27.2007
MASH
It may be time for a new generation to discover Robert Altman's MASH, the 1970 movie about the Korean War that was really about the Vietnam War. But it's really about the absurdity of war in general and the joys of tweaking the nose of authority. Like most people my age (pushing 30 in 2006), I'm most familiar with the long-running television series starring Alan Alda, whose Hawkeye was always a bit smug and Groucho Marx-y for my taste. So, this turn with Donald Sutherland and Elliot Gould as Hawkeye Pierce and Trapper John McIntyre.
The movie starts with Pierce and another newly drafted doctor, Duke Forrest, played by Tom Skerritt, starting their tour of duty at a field hospital during the Korean War. During the course of the movie, they encounter like-minded draftees (nearly all the other nurses and doctors) and regimented military types, like head nurse Maj. O'Houlihan, played by Sally Kellerman, and the hypocritical Maj. Frank Burns, played by Robert Duvall, and patch people blown up by grenades and torn apart by bullets in extremely gory hospital scenes. (Several real Korean War doctors who are featured in a documentary included in the DVD said the scenes weren't as bloody as it was in real life.)
The movie is not perfect. There really isn't a dramatic story arc and the story is told in a series of sketches. It's more like an essay about about war. Unfortunately, that causes the movie to drag a little bit in the middle, to the point where I was checking the clock. Then the movie gets sidelined by what seems to be a pointless football game that comes out of nowhere. I read someone justify the game by saying that it showed that the team of doctors could come together for a common cause (even if it involves cheating). But we already see them do that in almost every operating room scene, where McIntyre, Pierce, O'Houlihan and Lt. Col. Henry Blake end the snarking and focus on wounded.
Altman's style juxtaposes the toilet humor in the camp with the gruesome reality of people's bodies getting chewed up by war. For the most part, it works. The operating room scenes seem to get more and more graphic as the movie continues and the audience begins to see what's driving the intense anger behind Pierce and McIntyre's bad attitudes. Whatever their political beliefs (and reportedly, the writer of the novel on which MASH is based was politically conservative), they (and actually, most of the rest of the camp) are rebelling at the absurdity and the outcome of war. But their rebellion never distracts them from the job at hand. It's an interesting take on the idea of hating the war, but supporting the troops.
Date: 10/7/06, DVD
(0) comments for "MASH"
The movie starts with Pierce and another newly drafted doctor, Duke Forrest, played by Tom Skerritt, starting their tour of duty at a field hospital during the Korean War. During the course of the movie, they encounter like-minded draftees (nearly all the other nurses and doctors) and regimented military types, like head nurse Maj. O'Houlihan, played by Sally Kellerman, and the hypocritical Maj. Frank Burns, played by Robert Duvall, and patch people blown up by grenades and torn apart by bullets in extremely gory hospital scenes. (Several real Korean War doctors who are featured in a documentary included in the DVD said the scenes weren't as bloody as it was in real life.)
The movie is not perfect. There really isn't a dramatic story arc and the story is told in a series of sketches. It's more like an essay about about war. Unfortunately, that causes the movie to drag a little bit in the middle, to the point where I was checking the clock. Then the movie gets sidelined by what seems to be a pointless football game that comes out of nowhere. I read someone justify the game by saying that it showed that the team of doctors could come together for a common cause (even if it involves cheating). But we already see them do that in almost every operating room scene, where McIntyre, Pierce, O'Houlihan and Lt. Col. Henry Blake end the snarking and focus on wounded.
Altman's style juxtaposes the toilet humor in the camp with the gruesome reality of people's bodies getting chewed up by war. For the most part, it works. The operating room scenes seem to get more and more graphic as the movie continues and the audience begins to see what's driving the intense anger behind Pierce and McIntyre's bad attitudes. Whatever their political beliefs (and reportedly, the writer of the novel on which MASH is based was politically conservative), they (and actually, most of the rest of the camp) are rebelling at the absurdity and the outcome of war. But their rebellion never distracts them from the job at hand. It's an interesting take on the idea of hating the war, but supporting the troops.
Date: 10/7/06, DVD
Labels: M
2.26.2007
a mighty wind
Jim bought "This is Spinal Tap" on DVD, and suddenly, I got a hankering to see "A Mighty Wind," Christopher Guest's spoof of folk musicians. I didn't even consider seeing this movie when it came out, so that was unusual for me. Even more unusual, I actually did something about it and hied myself to Hollywood Video to rent a copy.
"A Mighty Wind" surprised me by having a real plot with something at stake, and an emotional center provided by actors Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara, who play fictional folk duo "Mitch and Mickie." The duo were married in the 1960s, released a bunch of sweet folkie love songs, and then bitterly divorced by the 1970s. He goes mad and becomes a fried up ex-hippie; she marries a catheter salesman. The plot of the movie hinges around whether Mitch can get himself together in time to play live for a public television broadcast of reunited folk musicians.
Mitch and Mickie's scenes are funny but sweet as they get to know each other once again, but the film cuts through the sweetness with the appearances by a strange cult-like nine-piece singing group "The New Mainstreet Singers," in which the members we are introduced to all have a creepy and surreal back stories, and The Folksmen, a pretty straight-forward and typical folk-group that had hits with novelty songs featurings jokes and sing-a-longs. The Folksmen, played by the three main members of Spinal Tap, have some great lines, but their function in the movie seems to be the providers of the only coherent history and context of the surreal folk-world that exists in this movie.
An amazing amount of prepraration that went into this project -- the movie has "cover art" from all three bands and some of the actors had to learn how to play and sing well enough to get onstage. The DVD also has a public-television-like concert of the performances of the three groups --- with all the actors singing and playing live like real rock stars. The songs are appropriately silly send-ups of different aspects of folk music (which is something I actually don't care for).
I've never seen "Spinal Tap" from beginning to end, but what I've seen, while funny, seems often like improv actors trying to get their lines in. (I might change my mind if I ever see the whole thing straight through.) In "A MIghty Wind," the lines were also improvised, but the Mitch and Mickie plot turns out to be so well formed with a satisfying conclusion that is unexpected but perfect.
Date: 2/25/07, DVD
(0) comments for "a mighty wind"
"A Mighty Wind" surprised me by having a real plot with something at stake, and an emotional center provided by actors Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara, who play fictional folk duo "Mitch and Mickie." The duo were married in the 1960s, released a bunch of sweet folkie love songs, and then bitterly divorced by the 1970s. He goes mad and becomes a fried up ex-hippie; she marries a catheter salesman. The plot of the movie hinges around whether Mitch can get himself together in time to play live for a public television broadcast of reunited folk musicians.
Mitch and Mickie's scenes are funny but sweet as they get to know each other once again, but the film cuts through the sweetness with the appearances by a strange cult-like nine-piece singing group "The New Mainstreet Singers," in which the members we are introduced to all have a creepy and surreal back stories, and The Folksmen, a pretty straight-forward and typical folk-group that had hits with novelty songs featurings jokes and sing-a-longs. The Folksmen, played by the three main members of Spinal Tap, have some great lines, but their function in the movie seems to be the providers of the only coherent history and context of the surreal folk-world that exists in this movie.
An amazing amount of prepraration that went into this project -- the movie has "cover art" from all three bands and some of the actors had to learn how to play and sing well enough to get onstage. The DVD also has a public-television-like concert of the performances of the three groups --- with all the actors singing and playing live like real rock stars. The songs are appropriately silly send-ups of different aspects of folk music (which is something I actually don't care for).
I've never seen "Spinal Tap" from beginning to end, but what I've seen, while funny, seems often like improv actors trying to get their lines in. (I might change my mind if I ever see the whole thing straight through.) In "A MIghty Wind," the lines were also improvised, but the Mitch and Mickie plot turns out to be so well formed with a satisfying conclusion that is unexpected but perfect.
Date: 2/25/07, DVD
Labels: M
9.24.2005
March of the Penguins
This movie, seemingly universally aka "the penguin movie," is not what it seems. I can't believe that it was released in France as a fictional drama between a mama, daddy and baby penguin. Luckily, that type of story has led to a structure that showcases the breeding-cycle of a penguin.
"March of the Penguins" has been used by religious conservatives as an argument to bolster traditional marriage and family values. Ironically, what struck me was how I have never seen such a simpler demonstration of why evolution is a genius. Antarctica's formerly tropical weather slowly grew colder as it drifted south, leading almost all other life to die off or flee. The flightless penguin, lacking other food, abandoned the skies and learned to swim. After feasting in the water for months, they waddle 70 miles to the penguin breeding ground, their short legs and fat bodies becoming the nest which protects a single egg from the 80 below zero temperatures which will buffet the area. The penguins live off their own fat for two months, as the pairs trade off protection duties and feeding duties. A penguin, quite literally, has been R&D'd over millenia to live in those harsh conditions.
At the risk of sounding like one of the overly religious, who see parables and object lessons everywhere and in everything, the filmmakers couldn't help but capture the essence of evolution --- the play between the accident of geography and biology. A traditional values pundit said on NPR that the penguins are devoted to their eggs "for no good reason," showing that she misses the point of evolution. The survival of the penguins' progeny is the only reason for trying so hard in such harsh conditions.
These traditional marriage people also miss the point, which is overtly stated in the movie, that the penguin pairs only shack up for one season, and then probably never pair together again. This is good biologically, because that means each penguin isn't sticking its genes in one pot, so to speak. This means that each penguin would have four or five other baby-mamas or baby-daddies and each penguin has a bunch of step-siblings with different parents, so it's more like Jerry Springer than the conservatives would like to think.
I don't mind all the conservative support for this movie. Let them bring their children to watch the penguins mate. And let the educators watch carefully. For when it is time to teach them about biology, those high school teachers can refer to the penguin movie. And a seed will have been planted.
(0) comments for "March of the Penguins"
"March of the Penguins" has been used by religious conservatives as an argument to bolster traditional marriage and family values. Ironically, what struck me was how I have never seen such a simpler demonstration of why evolution is a genius. Antarctica's formerly tropical weather slowly grew colder as it drifted south, leading almost all other life to die off or flee. The flightless penguin, lacking other food, abandoned the skies and learned to swim. After feasting in the water for months, they waddle 70 miles to the penguin breeding ground, their short legs and fat bodies becoming the nest which protects a single egg from the 80 below zero temperatures which will buffet the area. The penguins live off their own fat for two months, as the pairs trade off protection duties and feeding duties. A penguin, quite literally, has been R&D'd over millenia to live in those harsh conditions.
At the risk of sounding like one of the overly religious, who see parables and object lessons everywhere and in everything, the filmmakers couldn't help but capture the essence of evolution --- the play between the accident of geography and biology. A traditional values pundit said on NPR that the penguins are devoted to their eggs "for no good reason," showing that she misses the point of evolution. The survival of the penguins' progeny is the only reason for trying so hard in such harsh conditions.
These traditional marriage people also miss the point, which is overtly stated in the movie, that the penguin pairs only shack up for one season, and then probably never pair together again. This is good biologically, because that means each penguin isn't sticking its genes in one pot, so to speak. This means that each penguin would have four or five other baby-mamas or baby-daddies and each penguin has a bunch of step-siblings with different parents, so it's more like Jerry Springer than the conservatives would like to think.
I don't mind all the conservative support for this movie. Let them bring their children to watch the penguins mate. And let the educators watch carefully. For when it is time to teach them about biology, those high school teachers can refer to the penguin movie. And a seed will have been planted.
Labels: M
