Phy
05-24-2008, 07:46 PM
I've seen three exceedingly entertaining films this summer. The latest installment in the Indiana Jones chronicles is not one of them.
Iron Man hit the right note of a self-absorbed megamillionaire finding remorse and perhaps meaning in his life when he saw how his family's products caused death and suffering in the third world. He was touched by the kindness and the selfless sacrifice of a muslim stranger, and it changed his life. In the process of the film, I laughed, was moved, and ultimately embraced the lifechange from shallow American playboy to mechanized champion. Iron Man is my new favorite live action superhero film. (The Incredibles remains my overall favorite.)
Speed Racer, from the Wachowski Brothers, was a grown-up anime complete with an overcharged color palette and preposterous videogame racing sequences. However, the film was very effective in displaying three critical values; the importance of a strong family, the evils of heartless corporate culture, and the triumphant worth of one person committed to standing up against greed, manipulation, and selling one's soul in order to guarantee success. It was framed as a live-action cartoon, but at its core, Speed Racer was a wildly entertaining morality play that overcame my deep cynicism and game me the wildest, most satisfying ride of the summer thus far. It is my favorite live action anime film, and should be required viewing for movie-loving families of all kinds.
And the Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian... wow. It pulled the most gravitas and yearning out of arguably a thin book, and in the process created the most deeply interesting and satisfying fantasy I can think of. Yes, surpassing even LOTR, in no small part because of the meaning infused throughout. I'm cheerfully biased here because I am a man of God, and I loved a film that didn't deny the pain and fallenness of life lived apart from, or in defiance of God, while showing four very human siblings struggling to embrace the greatness they could achieve if they kept their eyes on God. They wrestled with temptation, fear, anger, and their own legends, becoming in the process warriors who did not shy from violence where necessary to combat evil. This notion is not politically correct, and I found the depiction of righteous resistance refreshing. There are times for non-violent agape love, and there are times when one must take up arms to deny implacable evil. It may not be up to us to always know when to what, but that's what serving one wiser than one-self is all about, isn't it? Prince Caspian took me away from this world so thoroughly that I felt a strong and lingering pang of anguish when the story was over and I had to quit the theater. It evoked in me sehnsucht, a nostalgic sense of wonder and yearning, not unlike that yearning I have as I wait for heaven. That's saying something coming from a Disney film. (Yes, I know, Disney just distributed it, and it's really from the excellent Walden Media, and Disney won't be doing further CoN films. Their loss.)
You'll notice I haven't actually written anything about Indy 4 yet. Ok, here it is - it is a deeply silly film, and I didn't like one bit of it.
Professor Alan and I had an exchange in the Speed Racer thread in which I said one can understand a film, but if they weren't entertained, they didn't 'get' it. Whether you agree with my definition or not, I can tell you that I understood Indy 4, but I completely didn't 'get' it. It did not entertain me, it did not evoke in me any sense of wonder, and the more I watched, the more I wanted it to be over. I found myself checking my watch, something I hadn't done for the prior three films I've seen.
What went wrong? I think it happened when George Lucas changed the name from Raiders of the Lost Ark to Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Looking back, I loved Raiders, but despite their best efforts, I didn't like Temple of Doom or The Last Crusade quite as well. In fact, after talking with Paul Christian Glenn, I think the truth must now be revealed - my affection for Raiders colored the sinking feeling that none of the others worked for me.
In fact, I now must accept the hard truth - Raiders of the Lost Ark was lightning-in-a-bottle for me, a story that satisfied on all levels. However, Lucas and Spielberg lost the thing I loved about RotlA and concentrated on the parts of the formula.
It is the same problem I had with Pitch Black and the resulting Chronicles of Riddick - the lighting in the bottle from PB was completely lost in CoR when they focused on the tangential elements - the Furion with the eyes that see in the dark - missing the one thing that worked in PB, the triumphant message of sacrifice and redemption.
Indy 4 suffers from the same problem for me - all the characters are back, all the formula remains, but the spirit of that first film is long gone, and I realize that I'm not the only one who doesn't get Indiana Jones. George Lucas, himself, has once again demonstrated that he can achieve lightning-in-a-bottle in a cooperative effort with others, but when he takes control, he cannot, himself, recapture that magic.
Lighting-in-a-bottle is practically a unique thing by definition. Lucas has been blessed enough to be a major part in two instances of it. But he has consistently looked at the projects he had a primary hand in and drawn out the wrong conclusion of what made those lightning-in-a-bottle films so very special. He is a man so powerful that even Steven Spielberg can't tell him he's guilty of believing his own press and misjudging what is important, what is entertaining, what works.
Indy 4 has all the elements; the fedora hat, the whip, the stereotypical bad guys, the otherworldly artifact. It has a keen eye for the period and for the beats, but in the process, all the pieces of the formula are there, with none of the spirit that made the elements in the first one so special.
I can't help but draw one conclusion - George Lucas is the luckiest man alive. He was part of two instances of creating lightning-in-a-bottle. But he is also a tragic figure, because while he counts his money, he has been blinded and now thinks that he owns the patent on lighting-in-a-bottle. It's like trying to patent the Muse. And in the process of trying to trap and own her, she has laid her fickle hand on the side of his face and regretfully banished him from her presence for life.
Don't get me wrong - he is a very good filmmaker. But he is not the alchemist he believes he is, and in the process of working out his mistaken belief, he demonstrates time and again how his ego has killed the continuing characters we immediately loved before he started to believe his own press, before he lost his way.
Lucas may be lost, but that doesn't mean I am. I look at Indy 4 and feel nothing but sorrow for what might have been. I'm not drinking that kool-aid.
At the end of the film, Lucas' Indy describes what the real treasure is, and I realized why Lucas doesn't get it - what he sees as the real treasure is a byproduct of genuine meaning. It is like receiving a shipment of gold and worshipping the crates that contained the precious metal. He's staring right at something of real worth, and then you realize with a start that he's looking at the wrong thing, blinded by his own ego.
Indy 4 left me deeply disenchanted with anything Lucas touches. Like King Midas, he has become gold itself, and has lost his heart in the process. He has been destroyed by his own success. At the end of the day, Indy 4 was a thoroughly silly film, and it left me cold.
Yeah, George Lucas will makes a lot of money from his films, but he has lost the magic. While he has enough money to buy anything he desires, he can't buy meaning. Without that, I have no interest to keep up with the Joneses.
Iron Man hit the right note of a self-absorbed megamillionaire finding remorse and perhaps meaning in his life when he saw how his family's products caused death and suffering in the third world. He was touched by the kindness and the selfless sacrifice of a muslim stranger, and it changed his life. In the process of the film, I laughed, was moved, and ultimately embraced the lifechange from shallow American playboy to mechanized champion. Iron Man is my new favorite live action superhero film. (The Incredibles remains my overall favorite.)
Speed Racer, from the Wachowski Brothers, was a grown-up anime complete with an overcharged color palette and preposterous videogame racing sequences. However, the film was very effective in displaying three critical values; the importance of a strong family, the evils of heartless corporate culture, and the triumphant worth of one person committed to standing up against greed, manipulation, and selling one's soul in order to guarantee success. It was framed as a live-action cartoon, but at its core, Speed Racer was a wildly entertaining morality play that overcame my deep cynicism and game me the wildest, most satisfying ride of the summer thus far. It is my favorite live action anime film, and should be required viewing for movie-loving families of all kinds.
And the Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian... wow. It pulled the most gravitas and yearning out of arguably a thin book, and in the process created the most deeply interesting and satisfying fantasy I can think of. Yes, surpassing even LOTR, in no small part because of the meaning infused throughout. I'm cheerfully biased here because I am a man of God, and I loved a film that didn't deny the pain and fallenness of life lived apart from, or in defiance of God, while showing four very human siblings struggling to embrace the greatness they could achieve if they kept their eyes on God. They wrestled with temptation, fear, anger, and their own legends, becoming in the process warriors who did not shy from violence where necessary to combat evil. This notion is not politically correct, and I found the depiction of righteous resistance refreshing. There are times for non-violent agape love, and there are times when one must take up arms to deny implacable evil. It may not be up to us to always know when to what, but that's what serving one wiser than one-self is all about, isn't it? Prince Caspian took me away from this world so thoroughly that I felt a strong and lingering pang of anguish when the story was over and I had to quit the theater. It evoked in me sehnsucht, a nostalgic sense of wonder and yearning, not unlike that yearning I have as I wait for heaven. That's saying something coming from a Disney film. (Yes, I know, Disney just distributed it, and it's really from the excellent Walden Media, and Disney won't be doing further CoN films. Their loss.)
You'll notice I haven't actually written anything about Indy 4 yet. Ok, here it is - it is a deeply silly film, and I didn't like one bit of it.
Professor Alan and I had an exchange in the Speed Racer thread in which I said one can understand a film, but if they weren't entertained, they didn't 'get' it. Whether you agree with my definition or not, I can tell you that I understood Indy 4, but I completely didn't 'get' it. It did not entertain me, it did not evoke in me any sense of wonder, and the more I watched, the more I wanted it to be over. I found myself checking my watch, something I hadn't done for the prior three films I've seen.
What went wrong? I think it happened when George Lucas changed the name from Raiders of the Lost Ark to Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Looking back, I loved Raiders, but despite their best efforts, I didn't like Temple of Doom or The Last Crusade quite as well. In fact, after talking with Paul Christian Glenn, I think the truth must now be revealed - my affection for Raiders colored the sinking feeling that none of the others worked for me.
In fact, I now must accept the hard truth - Raiders of the Lost Ark was lightning-in-a-bottle for me, a story that satisfied on all levels. However, Lucas and Spielberg lost the thing I loved about RotlA and concentrated on the parts of the formula.
It is the same problem I had with Pitch Black and the resulting Chronicles of Riddick - the lighting in the bottle from PB was completely lost in CoR when they focused on the tangential elements - the Furion with the eyes that see in the dark - missing the one thing that worked in PB, the triumphant message of sacrifice and redemption.
Indy 4 suffers from the same problem for me - all the characters are back, all the formula remains, but the spirit of that first film is long gone, and I realize that I'm not the only one who doesn't get Indiana Jones. George Lucas, himself, has once again demonstrated that he can achieve lightning-in-a-bottle in a cooperative effort with others, but when he takes control, he cannot, himself, recapture that magic.
Lighting-in-a-bottle is practically a unique thing by definition. Lucas has been blessed enough to be a major part in two instances of it. But he has consistently looked at the projects he had a primary hand in and drawn out the wrong conclusion of what made those lightning-in-a-bottle films so very special. He is a man so powerful that even Steven Spielberg can't tell him he's guilty of believing his own press and misjudging what is important, what is entertaining, what works.
Indy 4 has all the elements; the fedora hat, the whip, the stereotypical bad guys, the otherworldly artifact. It has a keen eye for the period and for the beats, but in the process, all the pieces of the formula are there, with none of the spirit that made the elements in the first one so special.
I can't help but draw one conclusion - George Lucas is the luckiest man alive. He was part of two instances of creating lightning-in-a-bottle. But he is also a tragic figure, because while he counts his money, he has been blinded and now thinks that he owns the patent on lighting-in-a-bottle. It's like trying to patent the Muse. And in the process of trying to trap and own her, she has laid her fickle hand on the side of his face and regretfully banished him from her presence for life.
Don't get me wrong - he is a very good filmmaker. But he is not the alchemist he believes he is, and in the process of working out his mistaken belief, he demonstrates time and again how his ego has killed the continuing characters we immediately loved before he started to believe his own press, before he lost his way.
Lucas may be lost, but that doesn't mean I am. I look at Indy 4 and feel nothing but sorrow for what might have been. I'm not drinking that kool-aid.
At the end of the film, Lucas' Indy describes what the real treasure is, and I realized why Lucas doesn't get it - what he sees as the real treasure is a byproduct of genuine meaning. It is like receiving a shipment of gold and worshipping the crates that contained the precious metal. He's staring right at something of real worth, and then you realize with a start that he's looking at the wrong thing, blinded by his own ego.
Indy 4 left me deeply disenchanted with anything Lucas touches. Like King Midas, he has become gold itself, and has lost his heart in the process. He has been destroyed by his own success. At the end of the day, Indy 4 was a thoroughly silly film, and it left me cold.
Yeah, George Lucas will makes a lot of money from his films, but he has lost the magic. While he has enough money to buy anything he desires, he can't buy meaning. Without that, I have no interest to keep up with the Joneses.