One of your most prized possessions
My wedding ring.
Thirty Day Challenge: Day Twenty-five
Something for Thursday
Here’s a favorite song of mine, sung by Tony Bennett: “Stranger in Paradise”.
The song is from the musical Kismet, but the melody actually goes back farther than that, being actually taken from the Polovtsian Dances by Alexander Borodin.
How do I feel about mining classical music for melodies for popular song? Generally I’m fine with it, actually. Especially since it has often gone the other way, as well, with many great classical composers creating masterworks out of their own native folk songs.
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Thirty Day Challenge: Day Twenty-four
IDOLatry in Action
My thoughts on American Idol last night, as posted stream-of-consciousness to Facebook and now revised and extended:
:: Sinatra night on Idol! Time to document the atrocities.
I was a bit nervous about Sinatra night, and my fears were ultimately born out. My concern was that the contestants would stick with the Sinatra Cliche, rather than try to grapple a bit with Sinatra the Artist. What is the Sinatra Cliche? It’s the guy in the dark suit, loose tie, and maybe the hat, standing at a microphone, singing a swing-style song with a jazz band or combo behind him as he’s snapping his fingers. Sinatra was so much more than that — he left his mark on most of the genres of popular music over his years, but sure enough, the show stuck with the Sinatra Cliche.
And then I had a minor computer issue that required doing a System Restore, so my computer was doing its thing while I watched the show. When I finally got on again I started to catch up. Aaron had started the show:
:: So: Aaron. Picture a 16-year-old kid who’s on the small side, putting on a tie and trying to belt out some Sinatra. That’s exactly what it was. Nobody in their right mind would pay to watch him.
It’s exactly what he was: a kid trying to croon. Utterly, utterly lame and forgettable — but the judges praised him as they do each week. For some reason Randy seems convinced Aaron is a country singer, even though there is absolutely nothing in his voice or what little style he has to indicate any country chops at all.
Next came Casey:
:: Casey: My God, what happened there?! Was he forced to sing a swing-style arrangement with a band? Couldn’t he say “You know, this style isn’t in my wheelhouse and I’d like to do it a different way?” (News flash, folks: Frank Sinatra was SO MUCH MORE than finger-snappin’ “Mr. Cool” jazz-band stuff.)
Casey had been pretty good up ’til now, but last night’s performance was a train wreck. I honestly wonder if he was basically forced into a style of singing he simply is not cut out for, as from what I’ve seen of Casey this season, I think I’m safe saying that in an entire musical career, there is zero chance he would ever elect to sing a swing-band song with a jazz band. Harry Connick Jr. or no.
Casey’s performance also exposed Kara Dioguardi’s total uselessness as a judge. I’ve heard all season that Casey has a pretty strange warble for a vibrato, and I wager he knows it too, because he has steadily avoided big notes and long sustains that would put his odd vibrato on display. Last night, with the style of song he had, he had no choice but to try for a big held note, and the results were not encouraging. This was when Kara noticed his odd vibrato. Finger on the pulse, that one has.
Batting third was Crystal:
:: Crystal: Best yet. Not HER best, but she was still better than either of the two who came before. And unlike the happily-departed Siobhan, she was able to disagree with Simon without sounding pouty or whiny and actually make a point.
What impressed me about Crystal is that she really seems to think through what she’s doing. It’s not always perfect, it doesn’t always work exactly well, but you can always tell that she’s got an artistic thought process for each song. When Simon critiqued her, she was able to respond to him with an actual intelligent statement about the song itself. Contrast that with Siobhan, who would pout and sulk her way through her responses to Simon. Crystal’s performances aren’t just good, they’re smart.
In the power slot was Mike:
:: And now Mike. Aside from “New York New York”, that may be the most clicheed song from the Sinatra songbook, and he did a purely clicheed version of it. He’s got a good voice, but that didn’t impress me all that much. (Still liked it more than Aaron or Casey.)
He did “The Way You Look Tonight”, complete with fedora. Nothing about it stood out in any way to anyone who’s heard (a) any number of Sinatra imitators, or (b) Sinatra himself. The judges sure gushed over it, though. The theme this whole season seems to be “Judges divorced utterly from reality”.
It was about this point in the show that I started to tire of Ellen Degeneres’s jokes directed at Harry Connick Jr. One joke was funny (“I think the piano was a little pitchy”) but the rest was dull overkill.
And then it was time for my least favorite contestant, Lee:
:: Lee: He’s trying to act the song. He’s trying to swagger like he’s had four martinis. HATE HATE HATE this. (To be fair, I’ve never liked this song, even when The Chairman of the Board sang it.)
The judges adored this performance, and in one of the most inexplicable displays of judicial nonsense ever uttered on IDOL, someone — I believe it was Simon, of all people — said that Harry Connick Jr. had actually managed to unlock Lee’s real personality, or some such nonsense. My jaw hit the floor, because the performance was hammy, fake, insincere, and completely unconvincing. It was as if Lee had specifically planned each and every hand motion or stagger-step he did beforehand. There was nothing, nothing, real or convincing about it. But for some reason, the judges are as sold on Lee as they were on David Archuleta (who has now disappeared into the same oblivion that awaits all IDOL runners-up who aren’t named Clay Aiken).
:: Wow, folks — Paula Abdul leaves, so now we apparently have FOUR judges who are stoned as opposed to just one. But again, why did everyone have to go big and swing with every song tonight? Where were the quieter songs, the ones with strings? I’ve lived to see Sinatra become a big cliche, and that saddens me. (Oh, and Lee SUCKED.)
Just had to get that last in there. But really, where was the sensitive Sinatra who could record an album like Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely? No one could manage “One For My Baby (and One More for the Road)”? “Love’s Been Good To Me”? And aside from Crystal, no one even tried to do what really set Sinatra in a class by himself: to approach each song as a story and tell that story.
One final complaint that I didn’t air on Facebook: Five singers, and they’re still only doing one song each? Really? Time was when they’d do multiple songs at this point. (One great moment of Paula Abdul-on-drugs came in an episode where the contestants were doing two songs each, one now and one “later”. So when David Cook finished his first song, Paula said some stuff and then continued, “And as for your second song….” Simon had to point out that he had not, in fact, performed two songs.) More music and less judges and padding would be welcome. (Or, actually, given this batch of contestants, maybe not. I’m sure not looking forward to Lee’s three songs in the finale.)
By way of predictions, I honestly expect Crystal to be sent home either this week or next. I don’t think she reaches the finale; I’m expecting a Lee-and-Aaron showdown. Will I watch something so awful? Doubtful, but who knows. This is IDOL‘s worst season.
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A Random Wednesday Conversation Starter
So, obviously I forgot to put one of these up this morning. We’re going through an annoying bit of flux here at Casa Jaquandor. Nothing major, but The Wife’s days off from work have changed from Thursday-Friday to Wednesday-Thursday, and this is the first week of the change, so we’re all accustomed to Tuesday not being her “Friday” and her not being home on Wednesday, so this whole day has felt Thursdayish. Weird.
In that spirit, are your weekly routines easily upset by stuff like this, or are you pretty much able to adapt instantly to changes in schedules?
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Thirty Day Challenge: Day Twenty-three
Fixing the Prequels: Attack of the Clones (part 12)
part ten
part nine
part eight
part seven
part six
part five
part four
part three
part two
part one
And after a brief layoff, we’re back and exploring Attack of the Clones. First, though, something interesting, in the form of something that I never thought I’d see happen: in comments to one of the Fixing the Prequels: The Phantom Menace posts (specifically), I was taken to task not by someone incredulously asking how I can possibly profess to like the Prequel Trilogy, but by someone who doesn’t think I like it enough.
The reader, whose blog is called “Felice’s Log” even though her Blogger profile says “Juanita”, says this:
Do you honestly think you can “FIX” the Prequel Trilogy? Do you honestly think you’re a better writer than George Lucas?
God! The arrogance of all this!
This is definitely the first time I’ve ever found someone who holds the Prequels more dearly than I do. It’s an odd feeling.
Taking this at face value (and I see little reason to do otherwise), well, obviously no, I can’t fix the PT, because the PT is done. It’s there. George Lucas has made the movies and is now doing other stuff. Still Star Wars, but other stuff. As for me being a better writer, well…maybe I am, maybe I’m not. George Lucas is the one sitting on an enormous pile of money by virtue of his having created something that is one of the great cultural touchstones of the last fifty years; I’m a blogger who does this as a hobby. But hey, maybe I’m a late bloomer! Maybe my own cultural touchstone project is still to come!
But seriously, I hope that Juanita/Felice reads a little deeper into this series of posts and into some of the many other posts I’ve written on the subject of Star Wars over the years of this blog. I yield to no one in my respect and admiration for George Lucas and what he has created over the years, even before Star Wars — American Graffiti is also a long-time favorite movie of mine. But such admiration surely need not preclude me from admitting that the Prequel Trilogy, as good as I believe it to be, simply isn’t perfect. It’s got problems. Some of the problems are bigger than others, even if I don’t think any of them are fatal problems which completely undermine his story. I don’t find the acting across-the-board awful; I don’t find Jar Jar Binks distracting to the point of loathing; I don’t find the dialogue uniformly bad. I’m not one of those people who sneers “I was bored during the opening crawl of TPM when it started talking about taxes and stuff!”
But the films are flawed, in my opinion. There are spots throughout the PT where Lucas doesn’t step soundly, and this series of posts is my examination of all such spots. But this exercise isn’t simply about that, however; this is, I hope it will be obvious when one reads the posts, certainly not a long-form critique of everything wrong and horrible and awful with TPM or AOTC. For that, you can go to YouTube and watch that guy who did those long “reviews” of both films*. For all my focus on the flaws that I perceive in the PT, this series is also about its strengths. I go out of my way to point out all of the places where I think Lucas gets things mostly, or even completely, right, and I’ve always felt that the moments of “rightness” far outnumber the moments that are less than perfect.
I remember back in 1999, when I realized that the prevailing opinion on TPM was turning out to be negative, and how quickly that negative view seemed to strengthen and intensify. Reading commentary on that film back then, it was almost as if every person felt the need to out-do the previous person in saying how bad the movie was. Every time I see any of the Prequels mentioned on just about any website that gets any kind of traffic at all, the result is the same: a chorus of voices, unanimously united in their abject hatred of the movie in question and the Prequels in general. And these discussions always veer into people saying mean things about George Lucas and keeping the happy myths going, such as the old canard that “Star Wars is best when Lucas doesn’t have much to do with it”, on the basis of The Empire Strikes Back and yet somehow ignoring Return of the Jedi (which was written again by Lawrence Kasdan and directed by Richard Marquand, and not Lucas).
These posts are part of a long effort of mine to establish somewhere online the notion that the Prequel Trilogy is not a disaster from pillar to post, and that there is, in fact, a great deal in the PT to love. By highlighting a number of problem areas and showing – or attempting to show, at least – how most of those problems could be solved by either re-writing existing scenes or creating some new ones, I hope to illustrate also the parts of these films that work quite well indeed. And there are a lot of those.
I’d finally point out, before getting back into AOTC, that George Lucas has always himself maintained that the writing is his least favorite part of filmmaking. All of the movies which are credited with Lucas as the writer saw uncredited script doctoring to some degree: Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz helped out with A New Hope; Carrie Fisher pitched in on TPM; and Tom Stoppard reportedly helped out with RotS. Lucas has always held up writing as his area of weakness – even if I don’t think he’s that bad a writer, he is clunky at times.
So that’s what we’re all about here. And with that, back to Attack of the Clones!
(But first, Felice/Juanita is running a pretty interesting blog herself — lots of in-depth reviews of movies and teevee shows there. Check it out.)
When last we left, Anakin and Padme were leaving Tatooine in direct defiance of the Jedi Council’s orders for them to stay right there, and heading to Geonosis to attempt to help Obi Wan. Meanwhile, back on Coruscant, the government is now very nervous at the evidence Obi Wan has presented that the Separatist movement is preparing for war. The scene, with material not actually in the film in red:
INTERIOR: CORUSCANT, CHANCELLOR’S OFFICE – DAY
BAIL ORGANA: The Commerce Guilds are preparing for war…there can be no doubt of that.
PALPATINE: Count Dooku must have made a treaty with them.
BAIL ORGANA: We must stop them before they’re ready.
JAR JAR: Exsueeze me, yousa honorable Supreme Chancellor, Sir. Maybe dissen Jedi stoppen the rebel army.
PALPATINE: Master Yoda, how many Jedi are available to go to Geonosis?
YODA: Throughout the galaxy, thousands of Jedi there are. To send on a special mission, only two hundred are available.
BAIL ORGANA: With all due respect for the Jedi Order, that doesn’t sound like enough.
YODA: Through negotiation the Jedi maintains peace. To start a war, we do not intend.
ASK AAK: The debate is over! Now we need that clone army…
BAIL ORGANA: Unfortunately, the debate is not over. The Senate will never approve the use of the clones before the separatists attack.
MAS AMEDDA: This is a crisis! The Senate must vote the Chancellor emergency powers! He could then approve the use of the clones.
PALPATINE: But what Senator would have the courage to propose such a radical amendment?
MAS AMEDDA: If only Senator Amidala were here.
JAR JAR steps forward from the back of the group.
JAR JAR: Mesa mosto Supreme Chancellor… Mesa gusto pallos. Mesa proud to proposing the motion to give yousa Honor emergency powers.
This is a good scene. I do wish some of the stuff about the limitations of the Jedi had remained in the finished film; maybe not specific numbers, but something like that to highlight the fact that the Jedi are simply not able to fight a Galaxy-spanning conflict. I do appreciate how, in the final film, Jar Jar’s last line is left out, and we just see him standing there, thinking on what’s just been said, instead of him stepping up and pledging to be the guy who basically introduces legislation to start the Republic on its final road to ruin. (I always thought that was a neat conclusion for Jar Jar’s character arc, by the way.)
One other thing I always loved about this scene is that even though the script indicates it takes place during the daytime, in the final film it’s set in early evening, when night is falling over the Capital part of Coruscant. The final debate over what to do about the clone army is underscored by being set at night; we are literally watching the darkness fall over the Republic. George Lucas has always done a good job with his progressions of color schemes through his films; note how in ANH the prevailing colors go from the bright desert yellows and oranges early on to more silvers and grays and blacks as the final confrontation with the technocratic Empire looms, and how after an hour or so of that, we get a brilliant dose of green when we finally meet the Rebellion. Or how, in TESB, the action on Bespin takes but a single entire day – dusk as the Millennium Falcon arrives on Cloud City, dawn the next morning as Leia is fretting over where C-3PO has disappeared to, mid-day as Luke is arriving and as Han is being frozen, and dusk again as Luke is being nearly destroyed by Vader.
Anyway, after this scene we cut to Geonosis and what is one of the best scenes in any Star Wars movie, a near miracle of a scene, considering George Lucas’s utter inability as a director. (Yes, that last is sarcastic.) Count Dooku visits a captive Obi Wan Kenobi:
INTERIOR: GEONOSIS, PRISON CELL – DAY
COUNT DOOKU walks into the cell holding OBI-WAN. OBI-WAN is suspended in a force field, turning slowly as blue electric bolts restrain him. COUNT DOOKU circles OBI-WAN as they talk.
OBI-WAN: Traitor!
COUNT DOOKU: Hello, my friend. This is a mistake. A terrible mistake. They’ve gone too far. This is madness.
OBI-WAN: I thought you were the leader here, Dooku.
COUNT DOOKU: This had nothing to do with me, I assure you. I promise you I will petition immediately to have you set free.
OBI-WAN: Well, I hope it doesn’t take too long. I have work to do.
COUNT DOOKU: May I ask why a Jedi Knight is all the way out here on Geonosis?
OBI-WAN: I’ve been tracking a bounty hunter named Jango Fett. Do you know him?
COUNT DOOKU: There are no bounty hunters here that I’m aware of. Geonosians don’t trust them.
OBI-WAN: Well, who can blame them. But he is here, I can assure you.
COUNT DOOKU: It’s a great pity that our paths have never crossed before, Obi-Wan. Qui-Gon always spoke very highly of you. I wish he were still alive. I could use his help right now.
OBI-WAN: Qui-Gon Jinn would never join you.
COUNT DOOKU: Don’t be so sure, my young Jedi. You forget that he was once my apprentice just as you were once his. He knew all about the corruption in the Senate, but he would never have gone along with it if he had known the truth as I have.
OBI-WAN: The truth?
COUNT DOOKU: The truth. What if I told you that the Republic was now under the control of the Dark Lords of the Sith?
OBI-WAN: No, that’s not possible. The Jedi would be aware of it.
COUNT DOOKU: The dark side of the Force has clouded their vision, my friend. Hundreds of Senators are now under the influence of a Sith Lord called Darth Sidious.
OBI-WAN: I don’t believe you.
COUNT DOOKU: The Viceroy of the Trade Federation was once in league with this Darth Sidious. But he was betrayed ten years ago by the Dark Lord. He came to me for help. He told me everything. The Jedi Council would not believe him. I tried many times to warn them but they wouldn’t listen to me. Once they sensed the Dark Lord’s presence, it would then be too late. You must join me, Obi-Wan, and together we will destroy the Sith.
OBI-WAN: I will never join you, Dooku.
COUNT DOOKU turns to leave.
COUNT DOOKU: It may be difficult to secure your release.
What’s so great about this scene? Well, for one thing, it’s just two good actors talking to one another. I’m of the opinion that there’s far more of that to be found in the Prequels than most seem to believe, but that’s neither here nor there. The scene is even better because in a short time it establishes a lot of ground. We learn something about Qui Gon Jinn that we hadn’t known, a possible source of some of his rebelliousness, if his own teacher was a Jedi who eventually left the order entirely. And how fascinating that the first time any of the Jedi learn that a Sith Lord is behind the political machinations in the Republic is from the lips of that very Sith Lord’s apprentice. Seriously, what a masterstroke that was: Obi Wan is actually hearing the truth, but because he knows the man he is talking to is a villain, he disbelieves it.
I also love how Lucas returns to a small thread that was mentioned originally in The Empire Strikes Back, in the way that Dooku (whom we later learn is actually “Darth Tyrannus”) tries to tempt Kenobi into joining him. It seems that one of the problems with the Sith lies in the way that apprentices are always planning to topple their masters, and it’s cool how Palpatine deals with this by always seeming to have his next apprentice either lined up or on the way; he treats his apprentices as disposable, so that they can never really get moving on their own schemes to topple him.
Next we go back to Coruscant, where in a night-time session, the Senate is taking up the matter of what to do about the immediate threat of the Separatist army. As Mace Windu and Yoda look on, Senator Jar Jar Binks is rising to the occasion and offering legislation to give “emergency powers” to the Chancellor, who immediately pledges to build “a grand army of the Republic” to deal with the Separatists. The road to war is now paved. Yoda and Windu agree that Windu will go to Geonosis, while Yoda plans to travel to Kamino to see the army for himself.
After this scene, we cut to Anakin and Padme arriving on Geonosis. After making their landing, they make their way through a back entrance into the droid factory. This leads to a very frenetic action sequence as they make their way through the factory assembly lines, with robotic machines whipping this way and that, giant buckets of ore being filled and dumped in the forges, and entire armies of droids being built.
I’ve thought about this quite a bit, and I honestly wouldn’t change any of it, save one thing: I never much liked the way C-3PO falls into the arms of a flying droid. I have no problem with him ending up on the assembly line himself, with his head replaced with that of a battle droid and a battle droid’s head replaced with C-3PO’s, but the way this unfolds is treated a bit too comically for my tastes. I’d cut out some of his one-liners through there – “It’s a nightmare!”, foremost – but other than that, I’m fine with the whole thing. R2-D2’s flying never bothered me, either. I know that a lot of Star Wars fans kvetched a lot over this, on the basis that he was never shown flying around in the Original Trilogy, but then, there weren’t any scenarios in the Original Trilogy that I can remember in which R2 flying would have been desirable, and having an astrodroid able to fly for short periods of time is fine with me. If your ship is damaged and drifting in space and your astromech droid can’t reach the thing that needs fixing from his assigned spot, then being able to propel himself in space a bit would be really useful, right?
So I’d tone down the C-3PO-related comedy in this sequence a bit, and if possible, have Anakin trying to get to Padme, instead of just trying to survive the assembly line. The way the sequence ends, with Anakin’s lightsaber being destroyed and his sheepish line, “Ohhh, not again. Obi Wan’s gonna kill me” is really good. I like that a lot.
In the film, at this point we cut to the great Arena on Geonosis where the executions of Obi Wan, Anakin and Padme are to be carried out. There was a scene filmed to take place before this, however, and the scene was cut due to the ever-present concerns about running time. It’s a good scene, though – well-written, and it shows Padme’s attempts to use diplomacy to defuse a bad situation as she meets with Count Dooku:
INTERIOR: GEONOSIS, CONFERENCE ROOM – DAY
COUNT DOOKU sits at a large conference table with PADMÉ on the far side. ANAKIN stands behind her with FOUR GEONOSIANS GUARDS standing behind him. JANGO FETT stands behind COUNT DOOKU, and SIX GEONOSIAN GUARDS stand behind him.
PADMÉ: You are holding a Jedi Knight, Obi-Wan Kenobi. I am formally requesting you turn him over to me, now.
COUNT DOOKU: He has been convicted of espionage, Senator, and will be executed. In just a few hours, I believe.
COUNT DOOKU smiles.
PADMÉ: He is an officer of the Republic. You can’t do that.
COUNT DOOKU: We don’t recognize the Republic here, Senator. But if Naboo were to join our Alliance, I could easily hear your plea for clemency.
PADMÉ: And if I don’t join your rebellion, I assume this Jedi with me will also die?
COUNT DOOKU: I don’t wish to make you to join our cause against your will, Senator, but you are a rational, honest representative of your people and I assume you want to do what’s in their best interest. Aren’t they fed up with the corruption, the bureaucrats, the hypocrisy of it all? Aren’t you? Be honest, Senator.
PADMÉ: The ideals are still alive, Count, even if the institution is failing.
COUNT DOOKU: You believe in the same ideals we believe in! The same ideals we are striving to make prominent.
PADMÉ: If what you say is true, you should stay in the Republic and help Chancellor Palpatine put things right.
COUNT DOOKU: The Chancellor means well, M’Lady, but he is incompetent. He has promised to cut the bureaucracy, but the bureaucrats are stronger than ever, no? The Republic cannot be fixed, M’Lady. It is time to start over. The democratic process in the Republic is a sham, no? A shell game played on the voters. The time will come when that cult of greed, called the Republic, will lose even the pretext of democracy and freedom.
PADMÉ: I cannot believe that. I know of your treaties with the Trade Federation, the Commerce Guilds, and the others, Count. What is happening here is not government that has been bought out by business… it’s business becoming government! I will not forsake all I have honored and worked for and betray the Republic.
COUNT DOOKU: Then you will betray your Jedi friends? Without your cooperation I can do nothing to stop their execution.
PADMÉ: And what about me? Am I to be executed also?
DOOKU: I wouldn’t think of such an offense. But, there are individuals who have a strong interest in your demise, M’Lady. It has nothing to do with politics, I’m afraid. It’s purely personal, and they have already paid great sums to have you assassinated. I’m sure they will push hard to have you included in the executions. I’m sorry but if you are not going to cooperate, I must turn you over to the Geonosians for justice. Without your cooperation, I’ve done all I can for you.
JANGO FETT: Take them away.
Yes, I would have included this scene. I like how it draws the political lines a bit more sharply and shows more of the roots of the conflict that is about to engulf the Galaxy. I especially like that Dooku calls Palpatine “incomptent” – does Dooku know that his master, Darth Sidious, actually is Palpatine? That’s an interesting question.
I’ll stop there for now. I’m not sure, but I may well finish up Attack of the Clones next time out – seriously, I have very few quibbles with the movie after the Naboo sequence, and what I’m doing here is more fleshing out bits of the film that I really like a lot. We’ll see what happens then. Tune in!
* On the new 90-minute review of AOTC, I watched about five minutes of it and stopped there, once I realized again that this fellow was saying things I’ve heard before and disagreed with before, many times in this space. I’ve got better things to do with my time than listen anew to the same old criticisms. As soon as he brought up the “Lucas made Return of the Jedi so he could sell Ewok toys” notion, I knew what was to come and shut the thing off.
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Thirty Day Challenge: Day Twenty-two
“Think they’ll have THAT on the tour?!”
After some debating as to whether or not she was ready for it, The Wife and I decided to take a plunge as regards The Daughter.
We watched Jurassic Park with her.
Which she promptly pronounced “very unscary” at the end.
Oh well. She got a kick out of the dinosaurs, at any rate.
I had to see Jurassic Park twice before I really appreciated it. The first time I saw it, I was living in Allegany, NY. At the time, there were only four movie screens in the town: three at the local mall (which were the nicer theaters), and one at a theater on the grounds of a local hotel called The Castle (which has long since been demolished).
The Castle Theater was…well, there’s no other way to describe it. It was an awful place to see a movie. In fact, several years later, I would decide to simply stop seeing movies there at all, and if something came to town that I wanted to see and that’s where it played, I’d go to Buffalo to see it instead. What was wrong with the Castle Theater? Well, so many things. First, it was run by a single employee. This fellow would sell some tickets until the concession line got too long, at which point he would slide over and sell some stuff over there. Then he’d go back to tickets when that line started piling up. And so on.
And he’d sell tickets or popcorn for so long that the movie would invariably start late. Sometimes it would start very late. I remember one movie starting thirty minutes late, because the single employee was still selling tickets and Cokes. He couldn’t get away from the counter to perform his third duty: running the damned projector. Ugh.
That was bad enough, but the Castle committed other awful Crimes Against Cinema. If you’ve read Roger Ebert for any length of time, you’ve seen one of his rants against theater operators who try to pinch pennies by turning down the brightness on the bulbs in their projectors. This results in daytime scenes that look like they’re taking place at sunset, and night-time scenes that are very hard to follow. In addition to that, they would keep the volume way down in that place, so movies tended to be very hard to hear during quieter segments. This tended to really hurt Jurassic Park because (a) the entire middle act takes place at night, (b) the film’s dialog mix is quite soft to begin with and occasionally characters are talking at the same time, and (c) because the projector could be heard whirring away during all but the loudest scenes.
So the theatrical presentation made Jurassic Park a very hard film to enjoy, so much so that my second viewing took place in a Buffalo theater. And it was almost revelatory: entire plot points suddenly made sense, and instead of a murky scene involving a giant blob, the T-Rex sequence became sharp and visible and, as a result, pretty harrowing.
At this point, I don’t have anything terribly new to say about Jurassic Park. Jeff Goldblum has all the best lines, and for some weird reason, I always thought that Laura Dern gets prettier and prettier throughout the film, as she gets dirtier and sweatier. (I don’t know what that says about me.) Sam Neill is always fun, as is Wayne Knight. Its effects hold up extremely well, and are enhanced by the fact that the film was made when CGI was only just becoming very powerful, so not every effects shot actually used it. For some reason, it struck me that no one in the film carries a cell phone. The kids in the movie are OK — not Spielberg’s best urchins, but not awful, either. Jurassic Park was an event movie when it came out, but now, nearly twenty years on, it’s what it always was: a very competent monster movie.
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Sentential Links #204
Linkage….
:: I am painting the attic, even though it takes time away from writing a decent blog post.
:: Describe exactly how, when, and where your accident occurred?
:: To nobody’s surprise, Jeffy’s breath carries the awful stench of death.
That’s about it. More next week.