Frankenstein

Moral Humility, Movies

 

 

What is a monster?

As I have been commenting on how in nearly all of the films I have been reviewing that were nominated for Best Picture by the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts, and Sciences for 2026 I have been struck by the fact that many of them depicted insane devotion to unreasonable goals.  The film Frankenstein certain complies with this analysis.

 

In 1857 a large ship is entombed in the ice of the far frozen north. In a very cold hell. No other word captures the utter madness of the endeavour. It was bound for the North Pole, on some mad chance for no rational purpose other than to be the first crew that accomplished this insane goal. The men are muttering, sensibly, because it seems hopeless. Only mad men would continue. And, of course, the Captain insists that they do what they signed up for. The men shout their compliance. Just as insane as the officers. Why do men do it? Why are men blinded by their goals. I do not have the answer to this question, and never will.

 

But there is an even madder goal in this film—creating a human life from dead parts.  How sensible is that?

 

The ship is surprised by an explosion a mile or so further out on the frozen sea.  A man near dead is seen freezing to death. The crew of the ship rescue the man, but a monster of a man or beast, comes out demanding Victor. Victor is the beast’s creator. He “made” him.  The monster kills 6 of the crew whose rifles are ineffective at killing the giant. 6 sailors die in the attempt. Victor wants the Captain to promise to release the monster to him. Why would he recklessly invite such danger? The only reason is men are mad. And watching this film will make you believe exactly that.

 

 

The man introduces himself as Victor Frankenstein, and tells the Captain, “I had determined that the memory of my evils should die with me. Some of what I tell you is fact. Some is not, but it is all true.”

 

He says his name means “conqueror. One that wins it all.”   He says, “Yes. It all started with me.” But what is he winning?

 

Young Victor, named after victor his Father, is punished by his Father with a whip against his face. Victor’s mother dies. And young Victor says, “she who was life was now death…her smile feeding the cold earth. Part of the universe had been hollowed out and the firmament was now permanently dark.”

 

Victor’s younger brother, William, grew out of sunshine and smiles. He was of a calmer, gentler, disposition, clearly favoured by my father… He was the breeze; I was the storm cloud. He was all laughter; I was all frowns.”

 

His mother died while being attended to by the finest surgeon in the land, his father.  Victor blamed him for failing. His father said, “No one can conquer death.” Does that not seem totally rational?  But young Victor, says, “I will, I will conquer it.” One more mad goal.  Among so many mad human goals.  Victor says I saw for the first time that night, “Dark Angel.”

 

He had a vision that he would be given the power over life and death. The vision was clearer than anything he had ever seen before. But it was made, of course, like so many human goals.  It was monumentally mad.

 

He told a group of scientists:

 

“We are not gods, are we?  But if we are to behave as immodestly as gods, we must at least deliver miracles. Ignite a divine spark in these young student’s minds. Teach them defiance rather than obedience. Show that man may pursue nature to her hiding places and stop death. Not slow it down. Stop it entirely.”

 

The young students clapped and cheered madly. Yes truly, madly.

 

One of the lords asked the question: “How exactly do you propose to teach what is impossible?”  The lords of the court declare his task, “unholy.” “An abomination.”  One Lord tells Victor that “God takes life and God takes it.” But Victor is not dissuaded. He says, “Perhaps God is inept.” Men should correct God’s mistakes. He urges the students, “Don’t let old fools extinguish your voice. The answers only come when coaxed by disobedience, free of fear and cowardly dogman.”   I actually agree with that. To some extent. It was the voice of every stroke of genius. But also, the voice of madness. He demonstrates to the Lords and students that an electrical current can bring life to a dead body.

 

 

Frankenstein’s brother comes to visit him with his lovely fiancé, Elizabeth.  She is not, as one might expect, and as Frankenstein suspected, a dimwit. She has bought a book in a bag and he guesses it is a romance. But it is a book about insects. She is interested in science for see wants to see and learn about the “The Rhythms of God.”   For the first time Frankenstein became a little more interest in life, and a little less interested in death.

 

Frankenstein was working hard on his research until “life interrupted.” Elizabeth showed up. He tells her that they both have “a belief in the marvelous.”

 

He believes that they have a bond between him, but she says, “believing it does not make it so.”  Now there is wisdom. Elizabeth says choice is from God. And she has chosen, and her choice is not him.

 

The creature said, “I want to know who I am. Where do I come from?”  The old man says, “Forgive. Forget. The true measure of wisdom to know you have been harmed by whom you have been harmed, and choose to let it all fade.” Don’t become a monster.

 

Frankenstein had never considered what came after creation. He created a creature. What now? Too often great minds ignore the consequences of what they do. Madness again. Elizabeth tells Victor, “Only monsters play God.” This is a film about monsters. Ordinary monsters. People like us. The essence of his story is that he is not a monster.  His maker, Frankenstein is the monster.  As Gary Kasparov said, “humans have a monopoly on evil.”

Only humans are monsters. Don’t be one. Be humble instead.

Hamnet

art, Drama, Movies

 

 

Hamnet is actually the same name as Hamlet in England at the time of Shakespeare. So we are told right at the outset. This is confusing. Maybe it is meant to be confusing. Is Hamnet really Hamlet?

 

Agnes was reputed to be the daughter of a forest witch.  She asks William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) to tell her a story that moves him.  Will writes Romeo and Juliet: “What light through yonder window breaks?”  That’s a pretty good response.  He also writes about “the envious moon.”  He tells her, I must be handfasted to you. No one else will do.” That means sort of stuck together. Lovers.  Both are rebels feeling constraint by conventional rules. Will knows her family won’t approve to a marriage but he doesn’t care, because “I have no talent for waiting.” He can’t wait to make love to her either.  And when his family finds out about it, because Agnes is pregnant, he insists “there is no sin in it.” How could there be?

 

Agnes’s mother came out of the woods. Like her mother and her mother’s mother before her. Agnes says, “The women in my family see things that others don’t.” as a result, she is a pretty good match for Will. Meanwhile Will gets her pregnant and her brother, Bartholomew, wonders why she wastes time on a pasty-faced scholar. “What use is there in that?” Agnes says, he’s got more inside of him than any man I’ve ever met.” She asks Bartholomew, “What would our mother say to us if we were afraid or uncertain. He replies, “To live with our hearts open. To shut it not in the dark but turn it to the sun.”  That is living.  Agnes adds, “He loves me for what I am, not for what I ought to be.” He responds, “Then marry him you shall.” Seems simple doesn’t it?

 

Nothing is simple in the land of Shakespeare.  Her mother tells Agnes: “you defy the horror that stalks the land.” Wow. Don’t we all wish we could do that?

 

In the pain she remembers her own mother who died when she was young. The second child, a girl, dies. Agnes vowed when her mother was dying that she would go to her church but would not say a word there. She feeds her son. She is told her daughter went to heaven but she does not believe that. She nurses both to life.

 

Will and his father argue and the father hits the son.  Then makes it clear to him, “that is the last time you ever hit me.”  It turns out his father is a brute. Will is afraid he is also a violent and dangerous man like his father, but Agnes insists he is a good man. He says, “I’ve lost my way.” It sure looks like Shakespeare has lost his way, but not really.   Agnes knows that he needs distance from his father. She wants him to go to London. Will needs the world. He’s got a lot inside of him, as she knows. And he needs his art.

Will got a job making gloves for the theatre. Not good for the finest writer in English history, but it’s a job and Will turns out to be a good business man as well as a great playwright. How is it possible to be both a great businessman and great playwright? Shakespeare did it. Meanwhile the kids are running around yelling, “Fair is foul and foul is fair”, sounding like one of Shakespeare’s witches.

Later as Judith, the second daughter lies sick with the pestilence, Hamnet gives his life to save his sister. He promises that he will be brave and save her. Like he promised his father, Will. In the morning Hamnet is sick and Judith is better. He blows into his hands and sees the hawk up high. But it is too late for Hamnet. But he was brave. As he promised he would be. He tricked death by changing places with Judith when it came for her.  A true tragic hero. He uses his talent to defeat death. Some say artists can do that too.

Agnes thought Will was wasting his life because he was missing his children’s lives. That might be true. It could be one those insane goals I have been talking about as I posted about the 10 films nominated for best picture this year. But a man who can write Hamlet deserves some slack. But how much?

Will said he is “crawling between Heaven and earth?” No perfection there. But sometimes life requires hard choices. Don’t make bad ones. You may regret them.

When Agnes goes to see Will’s home, she expects a mansion. She was told he had the largest house in the city? But he lives in a hovel of an attic. Why is that?

A man who has lost his son to death when he was not there to comfort him or say good bye to him, cannot live in a mansion. Just like my great Uncle Peter could not go to LaBroquerie to hang out in a bar when he had lived through the Russian Revolution. Both would be desecrations. Shallow responses won’t do.

When Agnes sees the play he wrote after his son died, she begins to understand. Her husband is not a dud. It was hardly a waste.

Will has brought Hamnet back to life. He has shown him. This reminded me of what Jeff Tweedy of the band Wilco said, “Creativity eats darkness.” That is what art can do. It can trick death.

After the play is over, and Hamlet is dead, first Agnes, his mother, and then everyone wants to touch and connect to Hamlet before he dies. Perhaps he lives on through them “The rest is silence.” Maybe they can trick death too.

Agnes smiles at Will. She has seen her son again, through the miracle of art. Her Hamnet has tricked death again.

 

Marty Supreme

Movies, The American Dream

 

 

The film goes from the mundane to the ecstatic in the first 2 minutes—from selling shoes and dealing with an unhappy customer to joyous uninhibited sex.  From low to high in a flash.

 

This film is about the American dream. Winning it all. Or not. This is sort of a sports film, but really unlike any sports film you have seen.  Marty Mauser played with boundless energy by Timothée Chalmaet, is supremely confident; supremely arrogant.  He claims to be “Hitler’s worst nightmare” because he is Jewish and on top of the table tennis world.  It’s only a start according to him and no one else. Ignoring his girlfriend for the moment, he meets Kate a famous movie star much older and more famous than he is, and thinks she will want to go out with him, even though he is a pimply faced 23- year-old obnoxious kid. Extremely obnoxious. But extremely confident. In fact, he is supremely confident. He is American brash. He invites Kay the star to his penthouse Royal Suite and amazingly, she accepts. Even though she has a wealthy husband and family that chain her down until she bursts out of those chains.

 

Marty  cons everyone. Friends, relatives, loved ones. It makes no difference in the insane pursuit of his goals he cons anyone who stands in his way or could help him out, voluntarily, or not. This is what happens when we have insane goals. Like becoming the best surgeon in the world and bringing dead people back to life, as in Frankenstein. Or a revolutionary, as in One Battle After Another Or becoming the world champion table tennis player as in Marty Supreme. Or a secret agent as in Secret Agent.  Ora racing car driver long past one’s best by date. Our goals and desires can kill us.  Lying going to war in Iran without a hint of a plan. Insane, but Americans, or at least a lot of them seem to like insane.  That’s for sure. Supremely insane.

 

But Marty is nothing if not brave. He is a rebel. He is lightning that refuses to stay where it belongs. Which is true. He is disgusting. And he is what he said he was—a confidence man. He sells confidence. Supreme confidence.  He sells faith. People believe. So it must be true.

 

Marty is playing in a world championship, and of course expects to win. The American is a lout. A poor sport. Sort of like their current President. The Japanese player is stoical. Humble, gracious.  The Japanese  player with a very unusual serve, that mysteriously he is unable to return. Now he is no longer supreme. Only very good. How will be handle that?

Watch the film!

 

 

Sentimental Value

art, Movies

 

 

There is a character in the film Sentimental Value that is an object. A House actually. A house with a deep flaw. A crack that runs right through the house. It is a house in Norway. But the crack is important. Nora Borg (Renate Reinsve) lived in the house. The director of the play goes to coax the nervous Nora to come and perform. He assurers her she knows her lines. Like the house she is damaged. But she is too scared to go on stage until the director persuades her to come to the theatre. Nora is backstage but too nervous to go on.  At Nora’s request a backstage staff person slaps her. It does not help. Finally, she runs away, too stressed to perform, but staff run after her. The audience is restless. Nora says she is ready. She goes on stage. She looks terrified. No one knows what she will do. There is a long moment of very awkward silence. Nora performs brilliantly and the audience gives her a standing ovation at the end. Art cures all.  End of story. Right?  Not quite.

 

 

Agnes Borg Petersen (Inga Ibsdott)  is the sister to Nora Borg. Their father Gustav Borg ((Stellan Skarsgård) a film director shows up and wonders why the funeral of their mother was in a church.  Did his wife find religion before her death? No, the children just thought it would be nice. A dead parent and religion. Now we are clearly in the realm of Swedish cinema. But this is Norway. Aren’t things more sunny in Norway? Sometimes.

 

The father tells his daughters that their mother was “as sharp as hell.”  How sharp can that be? And she was beautiful like her daughters. And “she was always right.” Perhaps that is the first crack in the house. Just like a wife to be right all the time. Right?

 

Gustav is a film maker. Is he God? If this was a Bergman film he would be God. He shows Nora a play he has written for her. He wants her to be the lead? The film will be made in their old house. She won’t accept the role, she says, because her father and her can’t even communicate.  How would it work if he tried to direct her? She won’t even read the screenplay. She wants no part of it.

 

 

Rachel Kemp is an American  actress who says she will play in the film, but at the last minute backs out. She said, “praying isn’t really like talking to God. It’s acknowledging the despair.”  Things are too weird for her after all.

 

The father and two daughters own the house with a crack, but no one can afford to buy the others out. So it will have to be sold.  Agnes who is occupying the house, tells Nora she can have anything she wants from the house. There are many things in the house with sentimental value. Nora wants nothing. Nothing has sentimental value for her.

 

The Mother was imprisoned for 2 years during the war. Gustav used to say, “There is nothing more beautiful than shadows.”  And he imagined his childhood home filled with shadows. Like Swedish film makers he seems to be allergic to the light.

 

Gustav’s wife was Sissel who was a therapist and mother of Nora and Agnes, but they had many fights.  After the divorce Gustav moved out. Then the house grew lighter and lighter.”

 

 

Gustav and his daughters argue at a party while he is making his film he wrote for Nora.  He suggests she should have children because his 2 daughters were the best thing ever in his life. Nora asks why wasn’t he around then? She has obvious resentments about her father and his chasing actresses around and disconnection from his daughters. He tells them, “It’s hard to love someone who’s so full of rage. It’s not good for the art either.” He also thinks she is wasting her time playing roles written centuries ago. So, he puts her down. A hard way to get love. But fathers do that sometimes. Like so many films I saw this year, he too might have irrational goals. He seems obsessed with art.

 

 

The father also wants his grandson to be in the film but Agnes does not want her son to be a part of it. She stood up to her father and was proud of that, but then she read the script and realized it was great. Gustav sits in the rain and gives the finger to God. So it seems to me at least That’s what characters do Swedish films. Maybe Norway is like that too.

 

 

Agnes wants her sister Nora to read screenplay because the  story is about her. After a lot of coaxing from her sister, she reads the film script and realizes it is good.

 

I think the film is really about art. This is a very artistic and dysfunctional family. Cracked like their house. But, surprisingly the film script wakes them up so they see each other for the first time.

 

Nora realizes, that maybe, just maybe, for the first time her father saw her. And she saw him.  That is what art can do. It can open the heart. Art can help us see.

 

The art also helped Agnes and Nora to see each other for the first time. Nora realizes that Agnes created a family and a home, while she, Nora was screwed up.  Agnes explains to Nora that the one difference in their being brought up was that Agnes had Nora her older sister who helped her and cared about her. Nora though had no one. Nora thought she was always selfish and alone but Agnes tells her she was a big help for her. And now thanks to the art they can see each other too. That is what art does. It helps us to see the world as human. As something we are a part of. Even a cracked-up family can benefit from art.

 

There is a brilliant scene at the end that I do not want to give away. All I will say is that I wondered if was real or is it part of the film. You decide.

 

 

The Secret Agent

Movies, Revolution

 

This Brazilian film is set in Brazil in 1977, “a period of great mischief.” In other words, a time of revolution and counter-revolution when up is down and down is up and reality is on vacation. Armando stops at a gas station in rural Brazil and finds a dead body lying under a carboard cover with his feet sticking out. He is told by the owner not to worry about that because the man came to steal oil and “got what he deserved.” The body smells because it has been out in the sun for a few days. No one comes to clean it up. The owner says, “I’m almost getting used to this shit.”  Who would want to get used to it? He had phoned the cops and they said they would come by Ash Wednesday, but they are too busy because of carnival.  First things first in times of revolution or counter-revolution. Mongrel dogs show up and the owner at least gets rid of them. Finally, the police show up with horns blaring. Why? After not being there for the better part of a week why are horns necessary now? This is the higgeldy piggledy world we are in. The time of Carnival and revoloution.

One member of the police has a blood stain on his shirt that looks like a bullet came into his body where his heart would be. Maybe he doesn’t have a heart. Neither police officer pays any attention to the corpse. They want to see Armando and his car. One cop just smokes nonchalantly. He has no interest in any of this. The other is very interested in the fire extinguisher in the car. Why? One cop asks if he has drugs or a gun? “Nope”. Then asks for a donation to the police force carnival fund. Armando says he no money left he said. He offers a couple of cigarettes instead. Is it that easy to get rid of corrupt cops?

Flies buzz around the body. Dogs return sniffing around the corpse which no one else is interested in.

Armando passes a truck with sign: “Driven by Me. Guided by God.” Could these be one of the revolutionaries? Or counter revolutionaries? Another truck has sign “Macumba is the Poor Man’s Twist.” What does that mean? Then we see a man dressed in costume of a dog with lots of fur who tries to bite the car.  Must be from Carnival. Or perhaps from the revolution.

A white man, the Chief of Police, with blood on his lip, meets his 2 sons. One is black. The other white. They stop at a school where there is a body of a shark on a desk and its mouth is crammed with leftovers of a human body and its bloody intestines while the human’s feet are  hanging out. This story has been creating a frenzy in the public. The revolution not so much. Perhaps this is all created by the political leaders to distract the public from the revolution. In a dream-like sequence corpse of the dog rises up and

The Police Chief’s sons dump the human leg into the river. Later it rises up from the water and becomes a walking leg that kicks a number of people in public carnal acts presumably to stop them. The  Police Chief and his son’s pick up the two hit men. In a park there is a walking leg and a woman walks by a number of couples engaged in carnal acts. The leg goes after some people and begins kicking them, presumably to stop the carnal acts.  Maybe it is just a story in the newspaper. It’s the hairy leg that is all the rage around town. But is it true? Obviously not. Remember, truth is on vacation.

There is a cat with 2 faces. Like a political leader? The two hitmen hired to kill  Armando sub-contract to a 3rd man who is so incompetent he kills the wrong man.

Dona Sebastiana tells the group during the War she lived in Italy where she claimed to be an anarchist or communist who was fighting fascists.

The men contracted to kill Armando killers hire a local impoverished killer to do it for them, but he is incompetent and kills someone else by mistake.

There are protesters in the street who “hail procrastination,” and “long live collective idleness!” Another says, “Paid love is cheaper than love for free.” “Glory means nothing. Neither does the skyline. What I see is an alley. Books, books for floatation. Take care of what’s yours before it runs away.”  This is the Orwellian language of revolution and its opposite?

Fernando tells his son Flavio that when he was young he wanted to see the movie Jaws, but his grandfather would not allow him to see it because the posters gave him nightmares. Then when he finally saw the film the nightmares stopped! Reality was less scary than the story. Art can do that.

This is another film with people with crazed goals where all sense and logic disappear in the violent uprising. I guess that makes sense. Not so sure about the film that apparently was well-received by critics.

I must admit I found the scenes of the revolution amusing, but as you might be able to tell, completely confused by the film. I guess that is the goal. Perhaps this movie without sense somehow makes sense of revolution? Sometimes no sense, makes a lot of sense.

Bugonia

Movies, Polarization, Rebellion and Resistance

 

 

In the film Bugonia, Teddy and his cousin, Don, who don’t appear to be very bright, have done something amazing. Based on stellar Internet research, they believe they have kidnapped someone from the Andromeda constellation and as a result, like so many whacky conspiracy theorists, they are going to save the world.  The constellation is a mere 2.5 million light-years away so to kidnap someone from there is a very big deal and yet, Teddy and Don, dropouts from the local high school, have done it! But before they start the rebellion to save the planet, they each chemically castrate themselves so they won’t be tempted by any Andromedan female look-a-likes. Like their captive.

 

To us, this alien looks like a pretty regular modern business woman. Beautiful. Smart. Sassy. Corrupt. And not very smart.  Her name is Michelle. She is part of a system of abuse and exploitation and Teddy believes her corporation has caused his bees and mother to die. She is the CEO of that business. A modern female executive. We don’t really have much sympathy for her, but Teddy and Don are not very sympathetic either. All the characters are flawed. OK, worse than flawed.

They kidnap her on her own yard, a long way from Andromeda, but they are sure that is where she is from.  They sedate her, grab her, and put her in their vehicle. They tie her up.  Treat her like an alien in other words.

She is upset. How dare they do this? They cut her hair and tied her to the bed. Teddy tells Don that “It is not in control any more. We are.” She is not human so is not treated like one.

All of this does not satisfy Don. He thinks he looks stupid in a suit that is too tight for him and was last worn by Teddy’s father.  He is right. He looks very stupid. When she wakes from her sedative, Teddy tells Michelle, shortly before torturing her,

“Welcome to the headquarters of the human resistance. Despite our general suspicion and disavowal of all extant governing bodies and despite the fact that you as an Andromedan are not subject to the human rights guidelines, detailed in the Geneva Conventions we nevertheless attempt to adhere to those guidelines out of humanist principles to which we aspire.”

 

They want her to bring them to “the Mother Ship” so they can stop the people from Andromeda from destroying our planet. From here on there is a battle of wits (or is it dimwits) between the 3 of them. They tell her “nothing you say is true.  Objective human truth has no value in Andromedan cognition.”  Unlike the world of whacky Internet conspiracy theorists of course. Teddy tells her,

“You are a high-ranking official in the royal Andromedan  court and you’ve aided your species in the techno-enslavement in the agro-corporate disintegration of planet earth. OK And we need you to bring us to your mother ship on the night of the lunar eclipse.”

 

Teddy points out that she has killed his family, his community, and his bees. “So given that, you should appreciate how super professional I’m being right now by not gutting you.” Teddy, the brighter one (or not), assures Don that she is not a human woman so they need not sympathize with her.  Even if she was, she is “pure corporate evil. It’s killing our planet, cuzzie.” They are cousins in the midst of an insane conspiracy. “It only knows cruelty.” It is an alien, Teddy assures Don. She just looks human. “It’s trying to gain your sympathy.”

But, Don, supposedly the dumber of the pair, was having understandable doubts about what they had done. So, Teddy assured him that one day the world would see him as a hero, for kidnapping the executive. That was good enough for Don.

 

n the battle of the dimwits, we see a battle of a dim-witted capitalist and dim-witted rebels. The liberal at one end of the universe. The revolutionaries at the other, staring at each other over a continent-sized abyss. Yes I know that is the modern world.  She says there are options.

He disagrees: “There are no options. There are no rules. There are no deals. There’s no payoff. There is no money. There is no legal system. There’s no Congress. There is no America. There is no global democratic order.”  This conversation ends with her saying he is mentally ill and him smashing her in the face. This is the new world order the film portrays. Not that far from the truth. Isn’t that the American way?

But there is one thing Michelle and Teddy both agree upon. Earth’s most admirable creatures are honey bees.  Based on what we see here that’s probably true.

 

As Tim Jonze a reviewer for the Guardian who likes this film more than I did, said in his review: she some redeeming value in the final collage of Earthlings dying, perhaps from the  poisons from Michelle’s corporation, including lovers in the middle of intercourse, dead drivers in cars, and school children dead in their classroom. But nature survives. Nature always bats last. Great. Jonze said  this  was perhaps the most straight-forward of the films of the director Yorogs Lanthimos,  for

“It addressed very modern ailments, from corporate ecocide to the people on society’s fringes being sucked down the worst wormholes of the internet. The only question you’re left wrestling with is not how to save humanity from itself, but whether human beings are really worth saving at all.”

 

After watching this film, I think the answer is obvious. And as far as I am concerned, Jonze can have this film. I have had enough.

 

Sinners

Movies, Music

 

 

Sinners was not just nominated for best Picture this year, it was the most nominated movie in the history of the Academy Awards. It received 16 nominations, but it did not win the award for best pictures. As jambalaya is a jumble of seafood, spices, veggies and sauce, so this film is partly horror, action, philosophy, and music, but in my view not as tasty. Even vampires and machine guns could not do it for me. It has its moments, especially with the music, but I did not find it satisfying.

 

The narrator of the film makes an important comment near the beginning of the film: “There are legends of people born with the gift of making music so true it could pierce the veil between life and death.”  That would be music! Maybe the blues musicians of America qualify. They certainly have a lot of power and this film celebrates them and their power. I just did not think the film was that true.

 

In Clarksdale Mississippi Preacherboy Sammy attended a black gospel church where the preacher accused him of sinning but said he had come to the right place, because the people in the church had been called to be “fishers of men who sin” and he asked Preacherboy to drop his guitar and come to the lord and give up sin.

 

The day before the preacher had warned Preacherboy Sammy, “You keep dancin’ with the devil, one day he’s gonna follow you home.” All Sammy wanted to do was play that true music.  And he was willing to pay the price.

 

The film centres around the twins. 2 black men from Chicago named Stack and Smoke.  Gangsters? Maybe. The twins are both played by Michael B. Jordan, a competent actor. They come down south from Chicago to start a juke joint where music like that can release the joy of the Delta. One of those musicians, Delta Slim, said “I play and I get as much corn liquor as I can drink, a sinner can’t ask for more than that.” He also says, “White folks like the Blues just fine. They just don’t like the folks that make it.” When a friend of his was lynched and emasculated his reaction was to play the music and drink. What else could he do? Slim also said, “The Blues wasn’t forced on us like that religion. We brought this with us from home. Its magic what we do. It’s sacred. And big.” All of that is true.

Smoke advises Preacherboy to stop being a blues singer: “I met plenty of singers and never met a happy one.” Of course,  Smoke does not understand that no one sings the blues to get happy.

The film is filled with evil spirits in the film who talk nice urging us to be kind and “we is one people” but they are not nice. As Shakespeare said, “one can smile and smile and be a villain.” Smoke understands this saying, “Something ain’t adding up.” As one of the characters says, sometimes the soul gets stuck in the body and we are “Cursed to live here with all this hate. Can’t even feel the warmth of a sunrise.” When Pearline becomes a vampire she says, speaking like a true jihadi, “We’re family. After we kill you all we’re going to have heaven right here on earth.”

 

But there are some real vampires. They are men who speak of “Uppity niggers.” There is even a resurrection of sorts involving members of the Klan, but Smoke arrives and like a true American hero shoots them all with an assault rifle. This is the American way with American superheroes. This is the way to solve all problems. Shoot them up.

 

At the end of the film, Stack says that day was the best day of his life. “For just a few hours, we was free.” Even though it ended in bloody violence. I endorse what old Preacherboy, played masterfully by Buddy Guy, does at the end of the film, when 2 vampires come into the bar and offer him a devil’s bargain. “I can make it so you can continue touring. No pain.”  But Preacherboy says, “I think I’ve had enough of this place.” By then I was like that.  I think I had enough of this film. Besides singers of the Blues need pain.

 

The film is filled with great performances, awesome power, and technical skill. It just seems to me it was all for nought. Maybe someone can tell me where I went wrong in my failed appreciation. It did however have one redeeming feature. I really liked the music. There is no holding it back. Even the violence can’t do that. The music made it all worthwhile. It was worth the trip. But did I have to go through hell and back to get there?

 

 

Train Dreams

Affinity, Movies, Philosophy/Ideas

 

There is another film that won my whole-hearted support this year.  It has not been in the news, but it should have been. It was not flashy, but it was truly meditative. It makes you think. I know not many people are interested in that these days, but I am.

There is a very interesting statement at the beginning of the film:

“There were once passageways to the old world, strange trails, hidden paths. You’d turn a corner and suddenly find yourself face-to-face with great mystery, the foundation of all things. And even though that old world is gone now, even though it’s been rolled up like a scroll and put somewhere, you can still feel the echo of it.”

 

There was a pair of old worn boots nailed into a tree with moss growing over them. Then you look up at an old tree, you can see it slowly falling down. That is the old world and it’s falling down.

 

Robert Grainier, the protagonist, who lived more than 80 years. He went west from Idaho to a place near the ocean, but never bothered to see the ocean. He didn’t need to see it. Why would he? He had lost his parents but he never how or why. No one ever told him. His connections were gone. One of his first memories is seeing the mass deportation of 100 or more Chinese families from town. Why was that necessary? No one has a good answer for that, just like none will have an answer for the current mass deportations either.  The narrator, who seems like the voice of God in this film, says, “Grainer was baffled by the casualness of the violence.” So am I. I know many people like it. I remember when I watched the 2020 Republican National Convention when people cheered with glee as Trump promised to bring about “mass deportation.” They loved it.

 

Graineir’s life was meaningless, until he fell in love with Gladys. Until then his life had little meaning. Suddenly it had some.  She told him, “She told him, “Right now I could just about understand everything there is.” Now that is meaning! The meaning of life. “All of a sudden, life made sense to Grainier, as if he’d been pulling hard the wrong way and was now turned around and headed down stream.”

 

He got a job working for a railway crew and wished he’d never done that. He saw a young Chinese man inexplicably pulled from his crew and tossed off a bridge into a deep ravine to his death. No one knew what he had done to deserve that.

 

The men built a bridge across a river and were told they had done something amazing.  But 10 years later a new and better bridge was built 10 miles away that rendered their bridge obsolete.  Amazing doesn’t last long. The old bridge was abandoned. Like old things often are.

 

As soon as Robert started to know he was back at home, it was logging season and time to leave again. “His work was populated with itinerant men. Most without homes, without families. They moved from job to job, state to state, as the work dictated.” Unconnected. Not rooted to the ground like old trees. “He once worked alongside a man for 2 months without saying a single word.” Trees talk more than that.  Someone asked the man if he had ever been to California and he just asked, “Is there no place where a man can get some peace?” And then he got up and moved. Those were the only words he ever heard the man speak.  Now that man was alienated. He had no connection with other men other than the work.  Words were no connection for him. He liked being unconnected.

 

One man lived in a hole in a big tree. Another faller, Apostle Frank, worked with Robert and kept talking continuously of God. And he spoke about the Bible as if he had been there when it was written down. Nice to have such certainty. As he told Robert, “Sometimes God has to find strange ways to tell you what you need to hear. Sometimes it’s a donkey talking to you.”

 

A logger, Arn, who came to blow up trees sang a song at night: “If the Lord was a redwood would you try to cut Him down? Or climb up His loving branches and look around?”

Robert asked Arn, “do you think bad things that you do follow you through life?”  Arn replied, “I don’t know, I’ve seen bad men raised up and good men brought to their knees. If figure that I could figure it out, I’d be a lot better-looking than you.” He did not feel connected to past mistakes.

The narrator said, “Grainier worried more and more that something terrible was following him, that death would find him out here, far away from the only place he really wanted to be.” That was his family. He was still connected but remotely.

When he got home and saw his daughter every time she seemed like a different person and he felt like he was missing his whole life. Which of course was true.

Even though money was tight, when he was home he later realized it was the happiest time of his life. Robert and Gladys just wanted to spend more time together with their daughter Katie.

Arn knew the work as hard. “That’ because it’s rough work, gentlemen, not just on the body but on the soul. We just cut down trees that have been here for 500 years. It upsets a man’s soul whether you recognize it or not.”  I agree. Lots of jobs are like that. Soul-destroying work.  Another logger said he would have $200 in his pocket after the work was done and that would not bother his soul. Who was right?

 

Arn said,  echoing John Muir, “This world is intricately stitched together. Every thread we pull, we know not how it affects the design of things. We’re but children on this earth, pulling bolts out of the Ferris wheel, thinking ourselves to be gods.”

 

Another logger said there were “enough logs to cut for a thousand years. And when the last ones cut, well the first one will be growed up as big as anything around today. Arn said he thought the same thing when he was young. Arn said, “My family is everywhere there is a smiling face. Never been somewhere I didn’t have some family there. Except for Kansas.  That state is filled with savage lunatics.” Unfortunately, much of the modern world is filled with savage lunatics, not just Kansas. They are all around.

 

One day a large of a tree hit him in the head and he was not the same. Somedays he could not remember his name. Yet, Arn  looked around and said, “It’s beautiful aint it?”  “What part?” asked Robert. “All of it, “ he said. “Every bit of it.”

 

Another day he was no longer a logger.  “The last few years he expected some great revelation about his life would descend upon him. But as of yet, none had. And he was beginning to doubt that one ever would.” He met a young lady, Claire, who said others had told her he was different.  Robert asked, “Ain’t everybody different?”  “No”, he said. She said, “It’s good to be different.”  I agree, but it’s OK if you’re not. She loved the valley because it carved out all the mountains. alleys. It’s where all the lakes come from. Referring to the time when massive gushes of water from melting glaciers cut deep into mountains and prairies alike, she said, “It must have felt like the world was coming to an end.” Yup, I think. Then she asked, “That’s where did all those myths come from, you know?  All those flood stories. All those different religions all over the world. It’s just the same story. Different slants…I don’t mean to be disrespectful about anything you believe in. The world’s an old place. Probably nothing it hasn’t seen by now.” They are all connected.

 

Robert told Claire how his wife and baby did not make it through the fire. He tells her, “Sometimes it just feels like the sadness is going to eat you alive.” She has a similar story. She lost her husband a year ago.

 

Claire tells him:

 

 “…And when it was over, it was like there was a hole in the world…I had more questions than answers…When you go through something like that, nothing you do is crazy…In the forest every least thing’s important. It’s all threaded together, so you can’t tell where one thing ends and another begins, if you really look at it. The little insects you can’t even see, they play a role as vital as the river. The dead tree is as important as the living one. There must be something for us to learn from that.”

 

Robert asks her, “What if you haven’t got anymore to give?” Claire replies, “The world needs a hermit in the woods as much as a preacher in the pulpit.”

 

One day he went to the big city and “wandered the city without much direction or purpose, as if looking for something he had misplaced a long time ago.”  Meandering. Then he went to a theatre of mysteries. They advertised that there would be “Sun Tzu, the holy man, will read your dreams.” Are those train dreams? The shill said, “pay you a dime to see a monster…Inside this theatre the mysteries of the world flit about like bats and insects. Here, all the answers to everything.” That’s a pretty big promise. The monster was only a boy in a costume. A puny monster. It made him cry. He saw his face in a mirror for the first time in a decade and could see the toll the years had taken. He felt that he was only just beginning to have some faint understanding of his life, even though it was now slipping away from him.

 

For $4 he got an airplane ride “to see the world as only the birds see it.’

He died in 1968.  As the narrator said,

 

“His life ended as quietly as it had begun. He’d never purchased a firearm or spoken into a telephone. He had no idea who his parents had might have been, and he left no heirs behind him. But on that spring day as he misplaced all sense of up and down, he felt at last connected to it all.”

He really was face to face with a mystery.

This is quiet film. Too quiet for most viewers who prefer loud action and computer generated mayhem. Too quiet to win the Academy award, but I like quiet films, that make you ponder. My kind of film.