Don't be silent -- vote on the silents before the poll closes!

Last call to vote in CineVerse's current poll, which asks, "What is the greatest silent film of all time?" Visit the left sidebar on our home page to cast your vote (deadline is June 30).

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Sharpening the edges of "Blade Runner"

Last evening, CineVerse had the pleasure of exploring "Blade Runner," one of the finest sci-fi flicks of the 20th century. If the film intrigues you, here are some of the discussion talking points that may open up new doors to better understanding the movie.

 

HOW IS BLADE RUNNER UNIQUE, INNOVATIVE AND INFLUENTIAL AS A SCIENCE FICTION FILM?

• It combines the best elements of science fiction with film noir, in that it utilizes noir elements like:
• A gritty, shadowy urban landscape littered with violence and intrigue
• A femme fatale who lures men into danger
• An ambiguous moral perspective of the antihero
• It is a “thinking man’s” sci-fi movie in that it challenges you to question things, explore moral issues and themes, and interpret ambiguities
• It is prescient in its vision: it predicts the onset of global warming, rampant animal extinction, environmental decay, overpopulation, cultural mixing, and pollution; omnipresent media and marketing; genetic engineering; massive global corporations; and the cyberpunk movement
• It creates an unforgettably strong visual futuristic world that:
• is “retrofitted” with contrasting images of low technology and high technology
• is dark, rainy, bleak and overpopulated, which is in contrast to prior sci-fi films with clean, plastic, glassy looks like Star Trek and Star Wars
• The conclusion is open-ended, and the obligatory conflict/fight scene between Deckard and Roy goes against the grain of most action movies

THEMES EXPLORED IN BLADE RUNNER

• The impact of technology on humanity and the environment
• What it means to be human. Who acts more human and compassionate? Arguably, the replicants; as the story progresses, Deckard can be seen as becoming more dehumanized, and the replicants as becoming more tender, sympathetic and compassionate.
• Is it wrong to fall in love with or kill a replicant? Is Deckard simply throwing out the robotic trash, or killing living things with souls?
• The nature and reliability of reality
• The difference between authentic and artificial memories
• The moral and real-world repercussions of tampering with life and creating artificial humans
• The absence of natural life
• Paranoia: corporate power dominates, the police are everywhere; lights probe out every corner
• Eyes and the visions we choose to see: eyes become a repeated motif, as demonstrated by the red glint in artificial eyes; Tyrell’s bespectacled eyes, which are pushed in by Roy; the eye grower who is killed

HOW DO YOU INTEPRET THE ENDING OF THE MOVIE?

• Is Deckard a replicant himself? There are clues to suggest yes, such as the fact that he has a dream about a unicorn, and Gaff later leaves an origami unicorn in Deckard’s home, insinuating that Gaff knows about Deckard’s dream, which, in that case, would have to be an implanted memory (see other clues in the Reflections handout). Ridley Scott has stated that he intended Deckard to be a replicant.
• Why does Roy allow Deckard to live? Perhaps he doesn’t want to die alone, reinforcing his more human than human qualities, and ensuring that the memory of Roy will live on with Deckard, thus keeping his “memory” alive
• What is the meaning of the flying dove? Perhaps it represents Roy’s “ascending into heaven” and biblical transformation from previously being like Lucifer-like fallen angel to a redeemed spirit; he also becomes a Christ-like figure by sacrificing himself for Deckard and driving a nail into his hand.
• One more question, which Roger Ebert asks: why does the Tyrell Corporation make its androids so lifelike? Why make it so difficult to identify the rogue ones?

CAN YOU CITE ANY WORKS OF FILM, TV OR LITERATURE THAT BLADE RUNNER MAY HAVE BEEN INSPIRED BY OR HAD AN INFLUENCE ON?

• Frankenstein
• Metropolis
• Things to Come
• Greek dramas and tragedies, especially those that involve the theme of hubris
• Neuromancer, the essential cyberpunk tome by William Gibson
• The Terminator, another renegade robot
• I, Robot
• Battlestar Gallactica TV series
• Brazil
• Dark City
• Gattaca
• Total Recall
• 12 Monkeys

OTHER FILMS BY RIDLEY SCOTT

• Alien
• Thelma and Louise
• Gladiator
• Black Hawk Down
• American Gangster
• Prometheus

OTHER STORIES WRITTEN BY PHILIP K. DICK

• Total Recall
• Minority Report
• The Adjustment Bureau
• A Scanner Darkly
• Screamers

 

 

 

 

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Sci-fi meets noir--Ridley Scott style

CineVerse is overdue to explore a quality science-fiction movie. That oversight will be resolved on June 27 when we conclude our monthly cult film spotlight series with an examination of “Blade Runner” (1982; 117 minutes), directed by Ridley Scott, chosen by Len Gornik.

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A sane look at "The Gods Must Be Crazy"

If you enjoyed CineVerse's exploration of "The Gods Must Be Crazy" and wanted to delve even deeper into what makes this movie tick, here are some talking points from our discussion last evening.

WHAT STRONG IMPRESSIONS DOES THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY LEAVE YOU WITH?

• The film plays like a playful homage to the slapstick silent comedies of old, those of the Buster Keaton, Keystone Cops, Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin era: there are pratfalls, artificially sped up motions, sight gags, and funny misunderstandings
• It’s obviously a silly comedy that shouldn’t be taken too seriously, yet it’s structured to resemble a documentary, especially with its voiceover narration
• There are 3 different plot threads:
• The Bushman and his quest to discard the Coke bottle
• The clumsy scientist/inventor who accompanies the pretty schoolteacher to her new location
• The violent political coup that involves mercenaries and revolutionaries
• The movie intends to romanticize our preconceived notions of Africa as a warm, colorful, exotic and generally friendly country with satisfied, peaceful natives.

IS THIS FILM GUILTY OF RACIAL PROFILING? DOES IT REINFORCE NEGATIVE STEREOTYPES?

• It paints with a very caricatured, broad brush and shouldn’t be taken too seriously
• The San tribe actually live in a very harsh, impoverished environment and many have come to embrace technology
• There is inherent violence in and around these territories with political uprisings, civil war, genocides, etc.
• The “saviors and redeemers” depicted in the movie are white; the natives can be interpreted as uneducated, uncivilized, and therefore of a lower class/station than the whites
• This is not meant to be a realistic depiction of the way this or any other African tribe lives: one evidence of this is that the “Coke bottle is the first hard object the San have ever seen.” Surely, they have used rocks, stones, wood and other hard objects.
• Detractors of the film could argue that the native peoples are simply part of the backdrop to the story perceived by many to be more important: the romance/comedy involving the scientist and lady schoolteacher.
• Keep in mind that this film was made by white filmmakers and intended for white audiences.

WHAT IS THE MORAL TO THIS STORY? WHAT THEMES OR MESSAGES DO YOU TAKE AWAY FROM THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY?

• Who are the gods? Americans and other supposedly “civilized” people, who are indeed “crazy” from the native African people’s point of view
• The dangers of consumerism, capitalism and civilization: What does the Coke bottle symbolize? How enticing yet corrupting greed, technology, jealousy, possession, and consumerism can be.
• Who is truly more civilized and happy? Those living in the modern world, with all its trappings, or those removed from the trappings of consumerism and technology?
• Different cultures view the world very differently

DOES THIS FILM REMIND YOU OF ANY OTHER MOVIES OR TV SHOWS?

• Crocodile Dundee, in that it’s an exotic export from another continent
• The Benny Hill Show

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Dinos on the big screen

by Erik J. Martin

From "King Kong" to "Jurassic Park," movie-going audiences have been fascinated with animated attempts to recreate dinosaurs. One glimpse of the spirited T- Rex in the new "Land of the Lost” movie shows just how far Hollywood has come at breathing new life into large lizards and their gargantuan, Godzilla-esque cousins.

Thanks to highly advanced technology, the era of what can now be perceived as cheesy, choppy giant monster special effects are about as extinct as the dinosaurs themselves. But for more than 70 years, frame-by-frame cel and stop-motion 3-D figure animation ruled the earth--or at least the big screen dino-domain.

The evolution of dinosaur animation began in 1912 with Winsor McCay's "Gertie the Dinosaur," which blended cel animation with live action for the first time. But the first recognized special effects wizard was Willis O'Brien, whose depiction of dinosaurs in the 1925 silent film version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Lost World" was a pioneering effort in 3-D puppet model stop-motion animation and compositing (taking two or more separate images and combining them onto a third piece of film).

O'Brien achieved immortal fame next in 1933 as the animator for "King Kong" and "Son of Kong," which both drew worldwide acclaim for their dazzling stop motion photography of flexible rubber models, realistic sets, and pre-filmed images projected in the background.

O'Brien's famous protégé was Ray Harryhausen, who perfected the art of Dynamation, a patented 3-D stop-motion matting process that combined a more seamless blend of animated models with live action, as demonstrated in films like "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" (1953); "Jason and the Argonauts" (1963); One Million Years B.C." (1966); and all the films in the "Sinbad" series.

Eiji Tsuburaya may not be a household name, but films featuring his more primitive special effects are, including "Godzilla, King of the Monsters," (1954), "Rodan," (1957) and "Mothra" (1962), most of which involved men dressed in rubber monster suits attacking miniature model landscapes.

"Go motion" animation, a technique that allows stop motion animators to record onto a computer the way they move puppet models, which are choreographed via a joystick and then simulated by the computer frame-by-frame to create a life-like blur, made its debut in 1981 with "Dragonslayer."

Finally, dino-flicks made a giant leap with "Jurassic Park," which employed a sophisticated blend of full-size robotic dinosaurs (metal skeletons covered with flexible molded skins attached to devices like air bladders to mimic breathing, and radio‑controlled servo motors to control facial motion) and computer generated images (CGI), all a la the work of George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic special effects company. The result? The most the most realistically textured, life-like dinosaurs ever hatched for the big screen.

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New CineVerse schedule posted

Eager to learn what we'll be watching and discussing at CineVerse in July and August? The new schedule is posted and ready for viewing by clicking here.

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Back from Hollywood

Your friendly neighborhood CineVerse moderator has returned from his California trip with plenty of pix of his sojourn to Hollywood, which included a stop at Grauman's Chinese Theater, the Dolby Theater (formerly the Kodak Theater, where the Oscars are held every year), and the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Check out some of the snapshots in my photo gallery, which can be viewed here.

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Go "Crazy" over a good flick

On June 20, World Cinema Wednesday returns to CineVerse with a fun film from South Africa: "The Gods Must be Crazy" (1980; 109 minutes), directed by Jamie Uys and chosen by Rose Krc. Plus, we'll also preview the July/August 2012 CineVerse schedule following our discussion.

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Viewer's choice cinema

The Oak Lawn public library will present the following movie free of charge: ??? In other words, it's Viewers’ Choice -- Thursday, June 14 at 2 p.m. Patrons will vote for their favorite based on a selection of three
fi lms related to the summer reading theme “Reading Is So Delicious.” Learn more by clicking here.

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