Mubarack is Gone
February 12, 2011Spirited Away
February 11, 2011
Spirited Away, by the Japanese director, Hayao Miyazaki, is a 2001 anime film. It tells the story of Chihiro, a young girl who is moving to a new town with her parents. On the way, they get lost and stumble upon what appears to be an abandoned amusement park. They find a food stand with hot food but no one around. Chihiro’s parents start eating, but Chihiro is frightened and runs away. When night falls, it becomes clear that the place is populated by spirits. Chihiro finds that her parent have been transformed into pigs. She runs into a boy, Haku. With his help, she gets a job working at a bath house that serves 8 million gods. It is presided over by a sorceress named Yubaba. She renames Chihiro Sen. By taking away her name, Yubaba makes it impossible for Chihiro to return to the human world. Chihiro is determined to rescue her parents and escape from Yubaba.
Spirited Away is a fantasy that touches upon themes of environmental degradation, the corrupting influence of consumerism, and the malleability of identity. In one scene, for example, Chihiro has to prepare a bath for a spirit who is covered with filth. She notices a thorn in his side. When she removes it, a stream of discarded trash (old tires, washing machines, etc.) comes pouring out. The spirit is then revealed to a river god who has been purified of the human waste that has built up in his river.
The characters are complex, none of them are completely bad or completely good, unlike your typical Disney movie. The result is that this film offers a richer and more satisfying experience than your typical fantasy adventure. Spirited Away is beautifully made. Some of the scenes are just gorgeous. At the end of it, one feels as though one has emerged from a dream.
Another Year
February 8, 2011
Another Year, a film by the British director, Mike Leigh, portrays events in a one-year period in the lives of several people. The central characters are an elderly married couple, Tom (Jim Broadbent) and Gerri (Ruth Sheen). Their house serves as the setting for most of the film. Here we see the various people who drift in and out of their lives: Mary (Lesley Manville), a lonely divorcée; Ken (Peter Wight), who eats, drinks and smokes too much; Ronnie (David Bradley), Tom’s brother, who is mourning the recent death of his wife; and Joe (Oliver Maltman), their son. Tom and Gerri seem content and well-adjusted, yet they are unable to be of much help to the unhappy people around them.
I’m told that Leigh’s approach to making a film is to first have his actors improvise scenes, and then he constructs a script based on these scenes. This approach is clearly very effective in Another Year. Everything in this film seems real and convincing. There is none of the contrived melodrama of The Kids Are All Right (which has received four Academy Award nominations, believe it or not). I found myself caring about the characters and what happens to them. This film is subtly tragic, yet there are also funny moments.
The screening I went to was sold out. The audience was mostly older people. I think this shows that there is an audience for films that aren’t just about young people.
CNN
February 7, 2011I turned on CNN on Sunday. Don Lemon was interviewing one of the organizers of the Super Bowl half-time show. Lemon asked him if there was a danger of a “wardrobe malfunction” during the show. The organizer assured him there was no possibility of that happening, because they had managed to “merge fashion with technology”.
The night before I saw Piers Morgan interviewing a woman who claimed her mother had 10 exorcisms.
I’ve been told by some people that CNN is considered a serious news channel. Surely, they’re pulling my leg, aren’t they?
The Illusionist
February 6, 2011
The Illusionist is a French animated film directed by Sylvain Chomet, based on an unproduced script that Jacques Tati wrote back in the 1950’s. He reportedly wrote it as a “personal letter” to an estranged daughter. It tells the story of an unsuccessful stage magician who goes on a tour of Britain. In a small town in Scotland, he meets a young girl, Alice, who believes he actually possesses magical powers. She runs away from the town and follows him to Edinburgh, where they develop a father/daughter relationship.
Anyone who has seen a Tati film will recognize his approach in this movie: understated comedy with moments of pathos. There is very little dialogue. The main character is a well-intentioned, but hapless, outsider who can never quite fit in wherever he goes.
This film is beautifully animated. There is a scene of Edinburgh seen from above that I found just breath-taking. Overall, I found this film enchanting and subtly moving.
Chris Williams
February 4, 2011
Chris Williams, a professor at Pace University, spoke at the University of Oregon recently. He was promoting his new book, Ecology and Socialism. He began by talking about the recent uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. He pointed out those uprisings were in part a reaction to the rising cost of food, due to the rising cost of oil (one calorie of food requires ten calories of oil), and in part a reaction to the revelations in Wikileaks, which revealed the corruption in U.S. policy in the Middle East. He then went on to point out that Wikileaks documents show that the U.S. is not serious about fighting climate change. He criticized the U.S.’s behavior at the recent climate conference, pressuring countries to accept the U.S.’s terms. He pointed out that climate change is making the weather more unpredictable. “If you can’t predict the climate, you can’t grown any food,” he said, since farmers have to know when to plant their crops.
He discussed Obama’s State of the Union speech. Obama said his goal is to have 80% clean energy by 2035. Unfortunately, Obama considers “clean” coal and nuclear energy to be “clean energy”. In effect, the U.S. elite want to continue down a 19th century road to energy use. He pointed out that the Obama administration has approved zero solar energy projects and only one offshore wind project. The reason for the U.S.’s reactionary position is that the U.S. economy is based on the continual flow of cheap oil. There are plans to double oil production from the tar sands in Canada. He also talked about hydro-cracking, and it’s deleterious effect on the environment.
Williams went on to argue that capitalism is inherently anti-ecological and unsustainable. First of all, capitalism is based on continual expansion. Grow or die. This is a problem because we live on a finite planet. Also, under capitalism, exchange value is more important than use value. It’s more important to create things to sell than to create things for use. Also, because of the need to keep profits high, there is an incentive to cut corners, to build things that pollute.
Williams sees market solutions, such as cap and trade as false solutions. He was also dismissive of some technological solutions as capturing carbon in the ground. He was also opposed to the “blame ourselves” approach. He pointed out that only 2.5% of pollution is by individuals. The rest is by corporations and by the government. The U.S. military is the world’s biggest polluter. It produces more wast then the top 5 chemical companies.
Williams argues that by 2030 the world could be powered by renewable energy. In order, to achieve that, however, we need a world system that is not based on profit.
PETA’s “Veggie Love” Ad
February 3, 2011
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is trying to run a commercial in the Super Bowl. Women’s groups have denounced it, saying it “demeans women”. (You can find it here.) Basically the ad shows a group of women in bikinis who lick phallic-shaped vegetables and insert them into their mouths. The production values for this ad are those of a pornographic film. It’s clear that the makers of this ad wanted to create that association in people’s minds. If PETA wants to put across the idea that “vegetarians have better sex”, there are more subtle and less sexist ways they can do that. (Think, for example, of the feminist film, Like Water for Chocolate, in which eating is associated with sex).
PETA tried to run a similar commercial in the Super Bowl last year, and it was rejected. I don’t doubt that this new one will meet the same fate. Of course, some will argue that that is the whole point. The idea is to generate controversy and so draw people’s attention. As someone who is sympathetic to the idea of animal rights, I must say that this is a bad strategy. Men who seek out this video on the Internet (and it’s clearly meant to appeal exclusively to men) are not likely to be interested in vegetarianism. And I can’t imagine anyone seriously considering becoming a vegetarian as a result of watching it. As a failed vegetarian, I can tell you that maintaining that diet requires a major commitment, something that is not likely to be created by watching this ad.
This ad shows an extremely cynical attitude on the part of PETA towards the people that they are trying to reach out to, so much so that it’s actually insulting. I know it’s wrong to generalize, but this fits in with an impression that I’ve gotten over the years, which is that people who obsess over animal rights are, to put it in the politest possible way, unreliable.
Unstoppable
February 2, 2011
I’ve always been something of a railroad buff. I remember when I was a kid, my father built a model railroad set on a pool table in the basement of our house. It was complete with paper-mâché mountains with a tunnel going through them, and a little town. I was heart-broken when my father got bored with it and threw it out. So I just had to see Unstoppable, which is inspired by a real incident of a runaway train.
Due to a mistake by an engineer, an unmanned freight train, carrying toxic chemicals, is sent rolling out of a train yard. On the same day, Will Colson (Chris Pine), a recently hired railroad worker, shows up for work and is teamed up with a grizzled veteran, Frank Barnes (Denzel Washington). Immediately the two men come into conflict. (Does this sound familiar?) However, when they learn about the runaway train, they work together to attach a locomotive to it to try to stop it.
I mostly enjoyed Unstoppable, the action sequences are well done, although the personal conflicts in it are a little pat and familiar. The film touches upon the issue of corporate greed. When the CEO of the railroad is told about the damage a toxic spill from the train could cause, his first question is what effect this would have on the company’s stocks. We learn that the company has been forcing experienced engineers into early retirement, so it can hire younger engineers for less money. The working class heroes have to struggle against the stupidity of the management to avoid a catastrophe.
As I said before, this film was inspired by a real incident that took place in 2001. Not surprisingly, the real story was not quite as dramatic as the film, though the real-life train did carry toxic chemicals. Interestingly, in the film the engineer whose mistake causes the incident is portrayed as a buffoon. In the real-life incident, the engineer was a 35-year veteran who had a good record. This should remind us that even good people can make very bad mistakes sometimes.
I remember seeing a made-for-TV movie about a runaway train many years ago. Does anyone else remember it?
The King’s Speech
January 29, 2011
I went to see the British film, The King’s Speech. (I mistakenly believed the title was The King’s English. Personally, I think my title is more clever.) It was directed by Tom Hooper, based on a screenplay by David Seidler.
Prince Albert, Duke of York, the future King George VI (Colin Firth), suffers from a severe stammer. Since he is required to make speeches, this causes him some embarrassment. At the urging of his wife, Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter), he seeks the help of a speech therapist, Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). With Logue’s help, George VI’s speech improves. However, his biggest test comes when he has to give a long radio address to the nation after Britain declares war on Germany in 1939.
As mediocre British films go, I found this one painless to watch. It helped that the acting was mostly very good. Firth and Rush were especially convincing. The only bad performance was by Timothy Spall as Winston Churchill. He looked as though he had a severe case of gas, so much so that I almost expected him to explode.
There was one scene in this film that really bothered me, however. When Stanley Baldwin (Anthony Andrews) resigns as prime minister, he tells George VI that appeasement can’t possibly work and that war with Germany is inevitable. In reality, both Baldwin and George VI were firm supporters of appeasement (the real aim of which, by the way, was to get Germany to attack the Soviet Union). Now, it’s one thing if people want to make sentimental movies about the British royals, but it’s another thing when they falsify history. Clearly the film’s makers wanted to make George VI and Baldwin look better than they actually were. I think it’s legitimate to ask why they would want to do that.
Also Churchill is shown criticizing Wallis Simpson (Eve Best). He wonders what Edward VIII (Guy Pearce) sees in her. In reality, Churchill supported Edward’s right to marry her. Again, one has to wonder what is the reason for this falsification.
Another odd thing is that while Logue’s children grow older during the course of the film, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret appear to remain the same age.
The King’s Speech has been nominated for twelve academy awards, including best screenplay. It seems that after all these years the colonials are still in awe of the British monarchy.
Van Jones
January 27, 2011
Van Jones spoke at the University of Oregon the other day. President Obama appointed Jones as his Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, but he was forced to resign after a media witch hunt, mainly over his radical associations in the past. Jones began by saying we live in an era of “hope and heartbreak”, the hope being the election of Obama and the heartbreak being the Republican backlash against that election. He then talked about his family and his upbringing. He said that people have to advance themselves on their own initiative, but that they need to a have “a ladder they can climb up”.
He then addressed the young people in the audience. Discussing laptops and smart phones, he said, “Everyone of you is a walking technological superpower.” He then urged them, “Stop using technologies as toys and use them as tools.” Well, the young people in Tunisia and in Egypt have certainly been using their technologies as tools, but I suspect that’s not what Jones was thinking about. He then made some comments about the power of diversity and the need to handle our resources better. He then said we should get unemployed steel and auto worker to build wind turbines. He also criticized the food industry for using pesticides.
He then said, “We can’t afford left vs. right”. Never mind that left and right are reflections of very real material forces in our society. “I believe in markets. I believe in free markets, so much I want to see one.” You never will, because a truly free market is an impossibility. “I like market economies, not market societies.” Uh, so, what’s the difference? “A market society means everything is for sale.” Uh, isn’t that a free market? Could you explain please? “The stereotypical left is too cynical with regards to markets.” Speaking as a stereotypical leftist, may I say that perhaps I might be less cynical if people like you made some sense when talking about markets.
Jones then said, “This is still a moment of great hope.” Oh, we’re back to that. He then went on to say something about “two little Black girls playing on the White House lawn”. Funny, I equate hope with people getting jobs. “Democracy in crisis is a failure of imagination.” No, it is a failure of capitalism. He then urged the audience, “Dream big for America.” Uh, what about actually doing something?
During the question and answer period, someone from the audience pointed out that Obama failed to use the BP oil spill as an opportunity to push for renewable energy. In response, Jones said he was tired of people criticizing Obama. “We’re still struggling to get the model right for change under a progressive president.” He then explained how a progressive presidency functions. He said that during the 1960’s, the civil rights movement and the segregationists reached a “tie”. Lyndon Johnson then “broke the tie”. This is, to say the least, a highly eccentric interpretation of what happened during the Johnson Administration. A stereotypical leftist such as myself would say that Johnson tried to co-opt the civil rights movement. Anyway, Jones went on to say that we should try to organize based on the vague and historically dubious model that he just described.
Afterwards, a friend told me he heard Jones give mostly the same speech two years ago, only then he sounded much more radical. Perhaps the change in tone is due to Jones hoping once again to play a role in the government. You would think that after what happened to him, he would feel differently. Though perhaps that brief taste of power has proved addictive. After the First World War, people had a saying, “How can you keep a man down on the farm after he has seen gay Paree?”
The Spanish Prisoner 