tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13294573.post7445591287260136575..comments2024-03-28T11:52:29.432-04:00Comments on Cockeyed Caravan: Storyteller's Rulebook #192: Tap Into Real Life National PainMatt Birdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07319984238456281734noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13294573.post-53639330878430189182013-10-17T10:07:41.168-04:002013-10-17T10:07:41.168-04:00I see what you mean. I like your distinction betw...I see what you mean. I like your distinction between timely and topical. <br /><br />I enjoyed re-watching "Pulp Fiction", so I don't want to put it down, but I must point out that "better than 'Family Guy'" is a phrase that applies to everything in human history except "Family Guy", so we need a higher standard! <br /><br />Matt Birdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07319984238456281734noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13294573.post-18551367273874104572013-10-17T03:07:19.017-04:002013-10-17T03:07:19.017-04:00It might be useful to make some kind of distinctio...It might be useful to make some kind of distinction between authentically timely (and therefore ultimately timeless) vs. merely topical.<br /><br />Take FIRST BLOOD (both the novel and the film) vs. RAMBO. The latter might reflect a Reagan era fantasy of resurgent U.S. power getting a Vietnam do-over, but it's facile and forgettable and nobody but a grad student writing about 1980s cinema wants to rewatch it now. FIRST BLOOD, on the other hand, actually does grapple with the real pain of a vet returning from fighting a losing war. He's got PTSD, the deadly skills of a Specal Forces soldier, an alienation that makes him feel more at home in the forest than on main street, and a chip on his shoulder for being treated by the cops like the dirty hippies who spat on him and called him a babykiller when he got off his freedom bird.<br /><br />We'll have to disagree about PULP FICTION. I find that Tarantino's ecstatic remixing of pop culture dates pretty well, especially because it's almost never about pop culture references that are strictly married to the moment of the film's release but instead about a wild scavenging throughout previous decades, genres and media. Compare what Tarantino does -- for example, the highly stylized Leone-esque repurposing of surf rock on the PULP FICTION soundtrack -- to the neverending deluge of literal, disposable references in FAMILY GUY and even those later SIMPSONS seasons start to look brilliant in contrast.j.s.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13294573.post-17320082910697739982013-10-16T15:40:07.291-04:002013-10-16T15:40:07.291-04:00But I would say that the best way to be timeless i...But I would say that the best way to be timeless is, paradoxically, to be topical. <br /><br />Compare a timely-but-timeless classic like "Sullivan's Travels" to "O Brother Where Art Thou", a movie that I greatly enjoyed at the time but which I can now barely remember. That movie had nothing to say about the year 2000, since it was entirely focused on abstracted and (literally) filtered memories of other movies/songs/novels about another time entirely, so there should be nothing to "date it", but it nevertheless feels out-of-date in my mind. <br /><br />"O Brother" was a smart commentary on the myths and meaning of the Great Depression in pop-culture, but it had little to say about the actual Depression, and nothing to say about the culture of its own time. The problem is that attitudes towards pop-culture are far more ephemeral than attitudes towards real events, so movies about pop-culture (including "Pulp Fiction" which I just rewatched), date the worst of all, while movies that reference real topical events, like the "Terminator" films, as you mention, get stronger every year. <br /><br />If I may engage in a lofty metaphor, a connection to timely events gives those movies stronger roots in their own time, but the deeper they sink those roots, the longer their limbs are able to reach out to us as the years pass. Movies without roots in their own time, by contrast, just get washed away by the tide.Matt Birdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07319984238456281734noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13294573.post-69828166417876342182013-10-16T14:13:15.858-04:002013-10-16T14:13:15.858-04:00I have to agree with Jasmine. Who knows if we'...I have to agree with Jasmine. Who knows if we'll still be watching BRIDESMAIDS in another ten years, but the appeal of the films you've listed that are truly time-tested transcends their zeitgeisty first impressions. I just rewatched Preston Sturges' SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS (from which I know your blog takes its name) with a younger relative who was seeing it for the first time, and we both loved it even though our experience couldn't be farther removed from the Great Depression.<br /><br />I don't know about you, but if anything the first two TERMINATOR films only grow in their impact with every passing year. Because, while they may have been tapping into Cold War angst upon release, that reading strikes me both as superficial and as not taking the films seriously enough on their own terms. The whole mythology of those films is based on a realistic fear of the next logical step in the progression of machine technology. Without getting all Unabomber about it, the Singularity is coming and it doesn't care about us humans. One day sometime in the next 50-100 years, it's very likely that a computer will come on line that's roughly as intelligent as the most intelligent human. And who's to say that when this real-life HAL is born it won't choose to also become Skynet?j.s.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13294573.post-79334013562117091312013-10-16T09:57:03.145-04:002013-10-16T09:57:03.145-04:00Jasmine: One result of these movies is that they a...Jasmine: One result of these movies is that they allow these events, and the cautionary tales learned from them, to not be totally forgotten. When Americans today first read of My Lai, or Ted Bundy, we can feel a little of the chill because we've been put in versions of those situations by movies from that time that we still watch. <br /><br />QED: I agree, and I love that movie. Matt Birdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07319984238456281734noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13294573.post-21705721557682159602013-10-16T08:46:48.408-04:002013-10-16T08:46:48.408-04:00Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country is one of th...Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country is one of the often over looked films in the series but does a great job of looking at the end of the Cold War through the change in relationships between the The Federation (the west) and The Klingons (the Russians). QEDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17173674436409268142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13294573.post-24064831684059059102013-10-16T03:09:17.419-04:002013-10-16T03:09:17.419-04:00Sounds good, but those are classics. They long out...Sounds good, but those are classics. They long outlived their political atmosphere.<br /><br />I love Star Wars, The Terminator, and Silence of the Lambs - but I never experienced any of those events.<br /><br />I'd suggest the fan base of Star Wars would be 95% people who are either too young or not from the US, yet they love it all the same.<br /><br />My interpretation of Star Wars is that it's a metaphorical coming of age story. A bunch of rebellious friends versus an all-powerful authority figure. No coincidence the empire is represented by none other than Luke's father.<br /><br />The same metaphor is used all the time in movies like The Matrix, Serenity, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc - The phase of life where you transition from having your life run by your parents to going out on your own is one we all share. Much more common than a powerful government.Jasmine Russhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05764866007022926273noreply@blogger.com