Movies

“Thor”: Norse Mythology Mediated by Christianity

May 16, 2011
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“Thor”: Norse Mythology Mediated by Christianity

By Lars Walker I think it’s generally agreed that I’m the conservative blogsphere’s go-to guy for all matters Norse, so I felt a sort of civic duty to see the movie Thor this weekend, and to let you know what I thought of it. Briefly put, it’s pretty good. Considered on its own terms, as a fantasy/comic book/special effects actioner, it succeeds extremely well. It doesn’t scale the heights of Batman Begins or The Dark Knight, but I’d rank it somewhere near the top. Kenneth Branagh’s direction elevates the script (not a bad one at all), and the cast is uniformly excellent. Chris Hemsworth, in the title role, will doubtless break many female hearts, and he ought to become a big star if there’s any justice in Midgard. Thor is the son and heir of Odin (Anthony Hopkins), the high god of Asgard. Asgard, in this version (more or less based on the Marvel comic books) is explained in S.M.D. (Standard Movie Doubletalk) as one of nine dimensions, or alternate universes, or something. The “gods” are able to travel to the other “worlds” by means of the bridge Bifrost, explained as a sort of organized wormhole (Bifrost, the rainbow in

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“A Somewhat Gentle Man” Is Interesting, Quirky, Repellant

May 11, 2011
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“A Somewhat Gentle Man” Is Interesting, Quirky, Repellant

By Lars Walker What do you do when you’re recovering at home from a medical test, still under the influence of a mild sedative, and have stupidly left your Kindle at the office? If you’re me (which is admittedly doubtful) you go to Netflix and stream a Norwegian movie you’ve heard interesting things about. That movie was A Somewhat Gentle Man, directed by Hans Petter Moland and starring Swedish actor Stellan Starsgård (in a marvelously underacted performance). Titled En Ganske Snill Mann in Norwegian (I’d have translated it A Rather Nice Man myself, but this translation is good), A Somewhat Gentle Man was marketed as a “hilarious” comedy according to the DVD box. I think it’s more of a quirky, updated Noir, including large doses of black humor. Instead of the angular shadows of classic Noir, this is a Film Gris. The whole world of Ulrik, the film’s antihero, is gray, from the gray Norwegian winter sky, to the gray concrete buildings of Oslo’s seedier side, to the gray basement room he rents (almost indistinguishable from the prison cell from which he’s just been released) to his gray clothing and gray hair. Occasional flashes of color, especially red, compel the

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Dueling Economists: Johnny Raps Freddie, Freddie Raps Back

May 3, 2011
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Dueling Economists: Johnny Raps Freddie, Freddie Raps Back

By Mike Gray “Fear the Boom and Bust” — Run time: 7 minutes 32 seconds. Here are the lyrics: We’ve been going back and forth for a century I want to steer markets, I want them set free There’s a boom and bust cycle and good reason to fear it Blame low interest rates. No… it’s the animal spirits John Maynard Keynes, wrote the book on modern macro The man you need when the economy’s off track, Depression, recession now your question’s in session Have a seat and I’ll school you in one simple lesson BOOM, 1929 the big crash We didn’t bounce back—economy’s in the trash Persistent unemployment, the result of sticky wages Waiting for recovery? Seriously? That’s outrageous! I had a real plan any fool can understand The advice, real simple—boost aggregate demand! C, I, G, all together gets to Y Make sure the total’s growing, watch the economy fly We’ve been going back and forth for a century I want to steer markets, I want them set free There’s a boom and bust cycle and good reason to fear it Blame low interest rates. No… it’s

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Right Villains, Wrong Heroes — P. J. O’Rourke Sizes Up the Shortcomings of ‘Atlas Shrugged’

April 25, 2011
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Right Villains, Wrong Heroes — P. J. O’Rourke Sizes Up the Shortcomings of ‘Atlas Shrugged’

No attempt is made to create a “future of the past” atmosphere as in the movies about Batman (a very unRandian figure, trapped in his altruism costume drama).  Nor is any attempt made to update Rand’s tale of Titans of Industry versus Gargantuas of Government. An update is needed, and not just because train buffs, New Deal economics and the miracle of the Bessemer converter are inexplicable to people under 50, not to mention boring. The anti-individualist enemies that Ayn Rand battled are still the enemy, but they’ve shifted their line of attack. Political collectivists are no longer much interested in taking things away from the wealthy and creative. Even the most left-wing politicians worship wealth creation—as the political-action-committee collection plate is passed. Partners at Goldman Sachs go forth with their billions. Steve Jobs walks on water. Jay-Z and Beyoncé are rich enough to buy God. Progressive Robin Hoods have turned their attention to robbing ordinary individuals. It’s the plain folks, not a Taggart/Rearden elite, whose prospects and opportunities are stolen by corrupt school systems, health-care rationing, public employee union extortions, carbon-emissions payola and deficit-debt burden graft. Today’s collectivists are going after malefactors of moderate means. Hence the Tea Party

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The Attack of the Terminators Is Already Overdue

April 22, 2011
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The Attack of the Terminators Is Already Overdue

By Mike Gray They should have made the first film and forgotten about the sequels — but that’s not how Hollywood operates: The date 21 April 2011 has been prophesied in the Terminator series as Judgement Day, when the machines rise up and bring about the end of human society as we know it. When you mess around with history — but especially the kind that hasn’t happened yet — you’re going to get confusing discontinuities: TERMINATOR TIMELINE 4 August 1997: The date Skynet goes online according to the first Terminator film 29 August 1997: The first Terminator film claims this is when Skynet becomes self-aware and destroys human civilisation 25 July 2004: This is the date Judgement Day is pushed back to in Terminator 3 after the Skynet research is destroyed in Terminator 2 19 April 2011: The date Skynet goes online in The Sarah Connor Chronicles 21 April 2011: The date in The Sarah Connor Chronicles when Skynet launches its first missiles The creator of the Terminators thinks there’s something more worrisome than berserk androids: “Kyle Reese said in the first film that it was only one possible future — clearly,

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Atlas Drugged — The Addictive Essence of Ayn Rand’s Juvenile Philosophy

April 22, 2011
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Atlas Drugged — The Addictive Essence of Ayn Rand’s Juvenile Philosophy

By Mike Gray A recent film, derived from a novel, has excited comment, some laudatory, some highly critical: Rand is something of a cultural phenomenon — the author of potboilers who became an ethical and political philosopher, a libertarian heroine. But Rand’s distinctive mix of expressive egotism, free love and free-market metallurgy does not hold up very well on the screen. . . . . None of the characters express a hint of sympathetic human emotion — which is precisely the point. Rand’s novels are vehicles for a system of thought known as Objectivism. Rand developed this philosophy at the length of Tolstoy, with the intellectual pretensions of Hegel, but it can be summarized on a napkin. Reason is everything. Religion is a fraud. Selfishness is a virtue. Altruism is a crime against human excellence. Self-sacrifice is weakness. Weakness is contemptible. “The Objectivist ethics, in essence,” said Rand, “hold that man exists for his own sake, that the pursuit of his own happiness is his highest moral purpose, that he must not sacrifice himself to others, nor sacrifice others to himself.” If Objectivism seems familiar, it is because most people know it under another name: adolescence.

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Christian Movies, Secular Critics

April 20, 2011
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Christian Movies, Secular Critics

by Warren Moore A few days ago, we discussed the struggles over the amount of “Christian content” in the film Soul Surfer, currently chugging along in the marketplace despite generally hostile reviews. Interestingly, the movie seems to be doing just fine with audiences, with an 85% audience approval rating. However, at sixseeds.tv, Timothy Dalrymple examines the discrepancy between critical/elite opinions and the Christian audience. Asking why Christian movies get slagged by the critics, he moves beyond the pat answers pretty quickly and comes up with what I think are some real insights. For example: The producers of Soul Surfer and the Hamilton family (with an assist from Carrie Underwood) famously fought over the extent to which Bethany’s faith should be foregrounded in the movie. tells us that her faith is made “plenty explicit.” Now, I am generally of the “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar” camp, but I find the word “explicit” interesting here. Is there something vaguely offensive, even obscene, about public displays on faith? responds to faith-talk on the silver screen in roughly the same way that Christians respond to bare flesh. A certain minimal amount is permissible, after which one should hide

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Cowabunga! Studio Tries to De-Christianize True Story

April 13, 2011
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Cowabunga! Studio Tries to De-Christianize True Story

by Warren Moore You may remember the story of Bethany Hamilton, the surfer from Hawaii who lost an arm to a shark in 2003, and has made her way back to riding the waves. Her inspirational story has made its way to your local multiplex, in the form of the new movie Soul Surfer. However, keeping the “soul” in the movie was a challenge in itself, as CNN reports. Hamilton credits her Christian faith and the support of people at her church for overcoming her injury and returning to her surfing career. In particular, one important scene in the movie involves Hamilton’s youth group leader, Sarah Hill, counseling her in the wake of losing her arm. While Hill is likely pleased to have been played by Carrie Underwood, she was less pleased with what nearly happened on set: In one scene, Hill’s character is shown counseling Hamilton as she struggles with living as an amputee. She reads from Jeremiah 29:11 ” ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ “The morning they went to shoot that scene, said Hill,

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Review: Atlas Shines

April 13, 2011
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“This isn’t a movie, it’s a newsreel,” commented my Atlas Shrugged, Part I viewing companion – an old Mackinac Center colleague. Spot on. The film’s source material is more than a half-century old and its author, Ayn Rand, is often characterized as a Cassandra predicting dystopian outcomes for New Deal policies, ever-expanding government intervention in the marketplace, and rent-seeking corporations. In 2011, those predictions have bore fruit: a $14 trillion deficit; a government shutdown; regulatory bureaucrats run amuck; bailouts of banks and automotive companies; and corporate donors such as Google’s Eric Schmidt and General Electric’s Jeff Immelt receiving most-favored status at the presidential table. Our current situation is dire, and Rand – ever the scold even 29 years after her demise – speaks from her grave: “I told you so.” Full disclosure: I was never a fan of the 1,200-page doorstop Rand dared call a “novel.” Sorry, Randroids, it’s the lit major in me. The tome suffers from poorly drawn characters, plodding plotting, and stilted, didactic dialogue that could’ve been supplied by any given window washer at the end of the exit ramp. It may be one of the 20th century’s best-loved books, but while it succeeds as a novel

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Covering Up “Camelot”

April 11, 2011
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Covering Up “Camelot”

By Mike Gray Of course, there was a very real conspiracy behind The History Channel’s decision to dump the miniseries . It doesn’t take Glenn Beck’s blackboard to connect those dots. But after watching The Kennedys, I am completely at a loss to figure out why anyone seriously found the material objectionable. The broadcast broke no new ground. Likely, the keepers of the fictional Camelot flame simply didn’t want another reminder of the vast disconnect between calculated and conjured myth in the wake of Mr. Kennedy’s tragic death and actual reality. Whether one reads a good book about the Kennedy years or watches The Kennedys on ReelzChannel, one thing is clear—there were potential ethical and moral time bombs threatening his presidency. And there is a credible case to be made that had Kennedy lived beyond that fateful fall day in 1963, and had he managed to be reelected in 1964 (not at all a sure thing), he may not have survived a second term, politically. That’s right. As Hugh Sidey suggested before his death in 2005—the same Hugh Sidey, who as an editor at Time Magazine during the Kennedy years, was also a Camelot insider—JFK’s various and sundry moral,

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Real Life and Fiction Collide in Great Britain

April 8, 2011
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Real Life and Fiction Collide in Great Britain

By Mike Gray One in five Britons think Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple and even Blackadder were genuine historical figures Twenty per cent of Britons believe the likes of Sherlock Holmes and Blackadder are based on historical personalities, a survey has found. Others believe there was a real Captain Mainwaring leading the nation’s home defence during the war and that Dad’s Army was based on him. Others think Clark Kent and Indiana Jones were genuine people too, according to Ask Jeeves. The confusion between fact and fiction goes both ways, it has emerged, with other respondents to the survey believing Che Guevara, Florence Nightingale and outlaw Jesse James were fictional, not real. — Daily Mail, 5 April 2011 Which of these are real and which fictional?

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The Wit of Stillman

April 4, 2011
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The Wit of Stillman

By Lars Walker On Sunday I watched my weekly Netflix rental, this one a movie I’d only seen once before—Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan. I’m going to have to buy the whole Whitman trilogy, delightful films that yield increasing rewards with each viewing. Stillman is apparently a Christian of some kind (for years he’s been trying unsuccessfully to do a movie about believers in the Caribbean. Metropolitan opens with the chords of “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”). Stillman delights in turning cultural expectations on their heads. In Metropolitan, his first film, he portrays Manhattan “Yuppies” (one character insists they ought to be called “Urban Haute Bourgeouise”) as sympathetic and even mildly disadvantaged. In Barcelona, two American cousins, a businessman and a naval officer, deal with the European narrowmindedness and prejudice. And The Last Days Of Disco, set in Manhattan in a strangely ambivalent time period, celebrates the discotheque as a place of joy and a strange kind of innocence. At one point in Metropolitan, Tom Townsend (Edward Clements) quotes a Lionel Trilling review of Mansfield Park to debutante Audrey (Carolyn Farina), in order to explain his dislike for Jane Austen. Audrey asks him what books of Austen’s he’s read. He says,

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"Culture is the expression of the guiding philosophy of the day."—Murray Rothbard
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