Posted on 08/20/2009 9:30:34 AM PDT by AreaMan
Example: the terrific movie 'Gosford park' is 50% about the divisions caused by class. The murder mystery is almost incidental. It is a film about class.
Class warfare, OTOH, is about socialist envy of property. If a film portrays rich people as evil and the taking of their property as good, then it promulgates class warfare.
It was a great piece of pure cinema. Like a silent film made with modern special effects.
We just saw “Ponyo”. While Hayao Miyazaki has always made environmental type films (he was a marxist hippy type before it was cool), Disney had to take it one step farther. Knowing what the characters were saying from Japanese fan subs, I had to shake my head when the father of Ponyo spouted humans pollute the oceans, instead of humans take the fish and kill them.
And people wonder why I would rather watch these movies with subtitles instead of the Disney dubs.
That’s not surprising, but still disappointing. My daughter and I love his films.
Wow, that looks amazingly bad. The graphics don’t look quite right, and once the aliens came in, it looked like a bad “straight-to-DVD” Disney movie. I will not be seeing this one until it comes out free on cable, and I have time to kill. She’s a clunker.
Its’ funny, I didn’t read your comment before I watched the trailer, but I got the exact same impression you did.
Boooo! Earthlings (Americans) and their military machine are baaaaaad!
Yaaay! Subsistence, earthy, hunter-gatherers are gooooood!
Boooo! The war-loving Marines and their killing machines are terrorizing the nature-loving beings!
Yaaay! The native wildlife hates the Marines, too! Look, an animal ate an eeevil marine! Yaaaay!
I think I’ll watch Schwarzenegger in Predator in response.
Again, it’s a common trait of fiction from the era.
You missed his point :O)
To paraphrase: if a film makes an objectionable statement, such as 'White people are bad', or 'the Catholic Church invented Jesus', or 'Vice Presidents who don't believe in Global Warming will destroy the world' then it is not a defence to claim that the film portrays only fiction, and that the rest of us should just get over it.
Political statements made by films should be defended on their merits, if they have any: not regarded as being above discussion by reason of being conveyed in a fictional wrapper.
Clarifying example: Apocalypto. I (and many others) maintain the historicity of this account of the butt-end of Mayan civilisation. We don't run around saying 'its only fiction'
You will love Ponyo.
See it on a big screen if you can. You can actually see the medium the artists worked with. This one was done in watercolors.
It’s more along the line of Totoro than Princess Mononoke. Sweet and cute.
The voices are actually okay. Not like when they dubbed Totoro with the Fanning sister or “Lilo” voicing Chihiro. (those high squeaky voices bug me) but, of course, they add tons of extra dialog and music where it’s not needed.
All in all, it was very good.
A ‘Night to Remember’ - made much closer to the real event than Cameron’s film - had no hangups with Class Warfare. It was also more realistic.
Shoot-em-ups which portray the military as heroes do well at the box office. (eg, the latest Transformers despite bad reviews from Lefty reviewers). Shoot-em-up movies that portray the military as evil don't do as well at the box office.
This wasn't a country 'til the Europeans came over and made it one. Had it actually been a 'country' in those days, the result would have been far different because the locals would have united and at least made the conflict difficult (or have dissuaded the colonists from trying to take over so completely).
and how much would you like to bet that Avatar makes more money than Transformers?
Old Dickens fan here.
Dickens actually had a very complex and nuanced view of class. He was no socialist or even much of a “leveler” in his novels.
Titanic didn’t set out to be realistic. It’s a Romantic Melodrama in the old style.
All the movies you are referring to take place with humans on earth.
Avatar is pure fantasy. It has as much in common with Bugs Bunny as it does Apocalypto.
I enjoy her music, finding it very relaxing. I think she had a great voice, and was sorry to see her die so young.
Sure about that?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.