The Dawn of economic misogyny

My morning started fairly well.  It was a sunny winter’s day, which I enjoy. I had a coffee from the cheerful Cuban man from the hole in the wall coffee place. I enjoyed drinking it as I watched the music video for Kim Jong un. Little did I know what evil it portended? 

Kim Jong Un the back up son

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/jul/06/north-korea-kim-jong-un-song-video?newsfeed=true 

Last week I was with some friends and we were chatting about that classic 1984 film Red Dawn.   Despite it being a seminal film of the early 1980’s it turned out that none of us had seen it. So I decided to watch it over the weekend.  Now that I have seen it I can imagine how a contemporary audience would find the cold war paranoia laughable, but at the time it played upon real fear of the ‘commie threat’.  But watching it now the  realisation that Dirty dancing defeated the Soviet Army made me smile (Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze were in both films, also starring was a very young Charlie Sheen and Lea Thompson). 

Dance practise became quite competitive

There is a chap at work who shares my love of film and we are usually on the same page in regards to taste. Many tedious days have been lightened by an intelligent conversation about cinema.  This week I told him that I had recently watched Red dawn.   He then maliciously told me that they are remaking it.

Seriously? I mean however silly it may seem now, at the time it was a reflection of the common place paranoia. But that time has passed. The cold war is over, and we live in an economically depressed post 9/11 environment.  Surely a modern 2012 Red Dawn would not have the Russians and the Cubans invade America? I mean they do, but as prospective taxi drivers and drug smugglers not as an occupying military force. 

To be fair the creators of the remake realised this. No the vicious heartless new threat to American soil is the tea party!

 Sorry just kidding, although that idea would make a better movie. No the invaders were the Chinese.  Yes apparently this new super power is gearing up to invade the US and institute it’s new industrial capitalist….  Are you buying this? No I don’t think you will. Not only is that not very plausible, but China is a grand new market for Hollywood productions.  Interestingly in the original film China allied with the USA against the Russians.  But the creators decided that China was a realistic viable threat to the US. 

Information about the movie was leaked in 2010 and there was a backlash not only in China but amongst Chinese Americans. From this blog the awl (http://www.theawl.com/2010/05/real-america-red-dawn-remade-china-is-coming-for-our-children). I quote Jeff Yang, a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle.

“The action genre tends to be Manichaean – there's good, evil, and little or nothing in between – and archetypal – characters are drawn big, iconic, and cartoony to eliminate anything that might distract from the mayhem. Your catharsis comes from rooting for the pure-hearted heroes and hating on the corrupt, inhuman villains.”

I have heard “it’s just a film” said more than once about a variety of topics. And to be clear some movies should be taken at face value as simple entertainment. But if you class Red Dawn as just a film and it is not anti-Chinese, then you could also argue that D W Griffiths   Birth of a Nation does not advocate for the Klu Klux Klan and the insidious threat of African Americans. I agree with Mr Yang, films are vehicles for ideas if you make Chinese people the villain’s then you are vilifying them. 

Just another film

 The Studio decided that the film was a viable threat to its distributors profit margins and Chinese US relations so the creators have succumbed to pressure and common sense and decided to not have the Chinese as the bad guys. 

So now the  villains are North Korean.

Que for Kim Jong uns theme song.

Now while it is daft and insulting to suggest China is about to invade North America, at least they have a capacity to give it a good go. They are large country with a serious military presence. But the creators of the film would have us believe that the North Korean military could successfully invade the USA.

 I am not even convinced that they could make it to the west coast of America before breaking down let alone successfully invade.  But assuming that they would make it, they then have to defeat the sizable US pacific fleet. OK fine Let’s assume that they have a navy that can make it and the entire West coast US navy has suddenly entered a worm hole through to Narnia (because that is the only plausible concept of a North Korean naval victory)  then they invade the US and defeat the US Army, Air force and Marines.  Again with the Narnia. Perhaps that is North Korea’s secret weapon, massive wardrobes?

OK So in this North Korean fantasy / Lewisiannightmare they have occupied the USA. Who can save us now? 

The white witch denied any such alliance with Kim Jong Un

Well apparently it’s the inhabitants of summers bay.  Yes Chris Hemsworth and Isabel Lucas from Home and Away will be leading a rag tag rebellion of teenagers to defeat the evil invaders. I suspect that perhaps the children are more familiar with the works of C.S. Lewis and will not be fooled by the North Korean wardrobe trap.  So Thor will ride in on his surf board and save the day. 

Tash and Kim preparing for the invasion

It is all I can do not to spit the bile from my mouth out onto the carpet.  

What beggars belief is that this project got the green light over the Black Widow film.  I mean I understand that Studios are more likely to produce a remake of a successful film then to produce a new idea with a female protagonist where historically action films with a female lead have not been successful in the box office.  But sure the success of Avengers and Brave can show that audiences will accept and support a female lead. All we really want is a good script and story.  Give Joss Whedon the Black widow project; he is good at writing strong female characters.  Scarlett Johansson did a great performance as Black Widow, give her the job again.  I understand the movies industry is worried, but there are a lot of intelligent women out there and a lot of them like movies. I am sure that they might be more of a market than romantic comedies. And I am certainly sure that more of them would be interested in a black Widow movie than the ludicrous premise for a rehash of Red Dawn.

Brave

Three very important ladies in my life were very excited to see this movie. As two of them are of Scottish descent, a Pixar movie about a wild Scottish Princess caused a great deal of excitement. Their enthusiasm and enjoyment was so great, even the fact that the sweets and drinks cost almost as much as the tickets themselves didn't phase me. (But no I won't be doing that again)

Scottish supporters through and through

And here is the synopsis of Brave:

Princess Merida is the oldest daughter of King Fergus and Queen Elinor. All her life she has endured her mothers lessons in etiquette. What she really wants to do is explore the highlands, practise her archery and ride her horse Angus.With all the endless lessons in needle work, history, and manners and the fact that her naughty wee brothers are free to cause as much miscued and mayhem as they like, Merida doesn't doesn't really think that her life is very fair. But then her mother tells her some news which makes her realise that her life is about to get much worse.

Que Highland Hijinx

Pixar have a good pedigree of films behind them;  WALL-E, A Bugs Life, The Incredibles, Finding Nemo,  and of course  Toy Story  to name a few. The reason they make such good movies is that they write excellent characters that are credible and have a lot of heart. (A friend of mine once said she could not believe she was crying so much over a little robot like  WALL-E.)  But they also use cutting edge technology, good voice talent and have great stories.And Brave is an excellent addition to Pixar films.

Kelly MacDonald played Merida, with Billy Connolly and Emma Thompson playing her father and mother respectively.  Kevin McKidd, Robbie Coltrane and Julie Waters all give their voices to a grand cast of characters. And they all do an excellent job.  Kevin McKidd  played both the parts of Lord MacGuffin and also Lord MacGuffins son, the unintelligible young MacGuffan. Apparently he spoke an actual Scottish dialect known as  Doric, which is spoken in Kevin McKidds home town. A wee bit of trivia for you.

In regards to the story it would be easy to dismiss the story as the same old hackneyed theme of a young woman feeling constrained by societies role for her. A young independent woman who wants more to life than what fate has set out for her. But Merida's tale is not a tired rehash at all, this is her storey and she owns it. Unlike the many modern depictions of independant women in movies, you believe in Merida and you want her to pull through in the end. Also unlike many repetitive versions of this theme there is more substance to it. But I won't give any spoilers away.

This is the first Pixar film to be a period piece and also with a female lead. But Pixar is a company that is always trying new ideas, and as usual it has paid off. I found  Brave to be engaging, funny and at times rousing, and above all entertaining.

I give it 7 and a half Gaelic Munkeys!

Fear and loathing in the civil service

Yes, it is that time of year again where budgets are spent hastily in philanthropic excess after months of shylockian restraint. Managers who consider employees a necessary evil in achieving their targets suddenly transform into inspiring enthusiastic leaders. It is the end of the financial years and I have to write my end of year performance document.

I loathe it.  I don’t think I am alone in this. Even the managers seem to despise the whole process. Still it is a necessary evil. Or at least an evil they won’t let us avoid.

I have no inclination or ability for self promotion. A previous manager of mine would constantly criticise me for sharing credit with other team members instead of expounding on my own achievements.  It is not something I have ever been confident about.
But my manager asked me very kindly for me to complete it on time so she could attempt to meet her objectives.  I may have several faults but I could set her up to fail so I knuckled down to write up my document for the year.

And by knuckling down I mean procrastinate.

But after I had almost exhausted every possibility to procrastinate, I really decided to have a go at completing it. But I knew that in the normal course of things I would get distracted by my colleagues asking for an opinion or for my assistance with a query. Knowing that I would happily discard my performance document at the first opportunity I decided to set up a process to avoid such distractions.

So I created  THE BOWL OF KNOWLEDGE 

 Inside the bowl was the potential answer to any question that a colleague would put to me. All they had speak their question out loud and then pick a answer out of the bowl.
Here are some of the answers. I have removed some as they are either too work related, or or mention people I should not mention on a public forum. Even if they do need a slap.

So here is an insight into the bowl of knowledge.

• You are making the baby Thor Cry
• Perhaps a milk shake and a pie will settle things
• Somebody needs a slap
• Bollocks to that
• That’s rubbish
• Genghis Khan knew how to resolve issues
• What would Lemmy do?

• Perhaps a five minute break would help?
• Raspberry slice is the ticket
• Daniel is on Crack Cocaine
• Ask Rachel
• No exceptions
• I doubt that would mitigate your concerns.
• And does that sound plausible to you?
• No I can’t
• Maybe for a beer?
• Maybe tomorrow
• Wild horses could not drag me to do that even with the promise of a meat pie and a beer
• No!
• I don’t want to!
• Stop it.
• If instructions say you may, then it is your discretion.
• I don’t care if it is just for sex, it is still a marriage
• Will that make a difference to the outcome?
• Harpoon!
• Try to be systematic
• Declines make me smile
• Their tears taste like champagne
• You and your hippity hop music
• What would Johnny cash do?
• What would Darth Vader do?
• Hippy!
• They don’t drink shandies in Valhalla
• Windows 7 sucks, but then most of our IT systems do.
• Perhaps Rome?
• Human trafficking, cigarette, guns and drug smuggling
• Army, police, Military, militia and government
• Unless they confess we will never be 100%
• Lying scumbag
• It’s arbitrary
• There is no logical reason. It’s better just to proceed
• Orcas are Dolphins not Whales
• That’s never genuine
• I wouldn’t trust him to put himself out if he was on fire.
• No I am Warldorf. Marty is Statler.
• Smash him
•  Red wine over white
• I’m more of a cavalry man
• AK 74
• Tea?
• Coffee?
•  The secret is to cook the meat slowly
• I think every which way but loose was a low point
• I suggest your ipod and loud music
• Angolia
•  No the other Rachel
•  You should always address the character issue
• Despite what the law says it can be around 14
• Pies are good for any meal
•  If you have tried twice is there any benefit to a third time? You are not Robert the Bruce.
• Have you tried turning it off and on again?
• It’s a combat zone.
• No NoNoNoNO!
•  Smash his face in
•  Winston Churchill
• Gustavus Aldolphus
•  Sweden

 

• Sausage
• Muppet!
• Have you asked the Library?
•  If you understand the history then you understand the problem
• A detailed chronology is always needed
• Woot!
• They need to provide satisfactory evidence
•  

I hope you enjoyed that. My colleagues certainly did. 

have a great Saturday.  

Bang bang and employment

Well what a week.

As of yesterday I have begun working for one of Herman Melville's fictional creations, and tonight I discovered that my Facebook page had changed my employment from government to a highly dodgy pyramid make up company. I had to fix my Facebook privacy settings, cook tea and write this blog, while sober!

Yes despite the title of my blog I am currently on a sabbatical from the temptations of Bacchus. Well for another four weeks at least and then Bacchus better strap in.

So when I next run to check on my Apricot chicken I will grab a ginger beer.

ANYWAY lets have a DVD review.

The Bang Bang Club

Greg Marinovich, Kevin Carter, Ken Oosterbroek, and João Silva, were four young photographers based in apartheid South Africa of the early 1990s.  Their photographs during this period were seen on the covers on newspapers and magazines around the world, but were not always published at home. The Bang Bang Club is the film based on a book written by the two surviving members of the Bang Bang Club, João Silva and Greg Marinovich who were also involved in the film.

The film covers the lives of the men and their struggles with their work photographing the violence between 1990-1994 and how that violence affected their private lives. Most of the story is told from Marinovich's perspective in the group and the events that unfolded from when he first met the others, until the death of Kevin Carter and Ken Oosterbroek.

The Pulitzer prize winning photograph by Greg Marinovich of the murder of a man in Soweto

The film stars Ryan Phillippe as Greg Marinovich, Taylor Kitsch as Kevin Carter, Frank Rautenbach as Ken Oosterbroek, Neels Van Jaarsveld as João Silva, and Malin Akerman as Robin Comley the newspaper  picture editor who was their friend, protector, and the lover of Marinovich. Greg Marinovich and João Silva were on location in South Africa assisting with the actors to coach them as to what it was like to be a photographer in a combat zone, and if the special features are anything to go by they also directed the cast and crew as well. I believe their involvement really added to the credibility of the actors performance.

All five actors gave a good performances in their respective roles. Phillipe and Kitsch especially showing the depth of their talent is considerably more then their looks. Phillippe as Marinovich with his drive to reveal the truth behind the violence jading him to the humanity of his subjects. And Kitsch as Kevin Carter a man with a passion to expose the reality of  apartheid but that exposure slowly eroding his soul.

The film examines the very nature of their work as journalists. Is there a social responsibility behind their occupation or are they just there to make money? At what point do they stop being observers and involve themselves in the events they are capturing, or is their role as photographers, exposing those events to the world involvement in itself? Clearly their work photographing the violence between 1990-1994  between the African National Congress (ANC )and the Inkatha Freedom party (IFP) and the suspected police involvement behind that violence did affect them. 

The pulitzer prize winning photograph by Kevin Carter of a child in Sudan

 The photograph above was taken by Kevin Carter when he and Silva travelled to the Sudan to photograph the rebels. Carter won the pulitzer prize for the photograph in 1994. Carter gained a great deal of recognition for the photograph but also a great deal of criticism for not knowing the fate of the child. It brought the whole profession into question, and these questions are still being asked today. While I looking for the photographs for this post I found a Nigerian blog which was still criticising Carter for not helping the little girl.

 I am not going to defend or vilify the role of the combat photographer, or any photojournalist in this post. But if the subject interests you then I think you will enjoy this movie.


I do not think the film glamorises the men, but instead tries to humanise them. it's not trying to tell the story of the end of apartheid, Nelson Mandela or F.W de Klerk but of these four men, and their real friendship.
I enjoyed the film. I enjoyed the performances, the story and the imagery, such that it is. I think that this is one of the most enjoyable DVDs I have seen this year.

7 monkeys from me.

oh and as a post script I note that the real João Silva lost his legs taking photographs in Afghanistan after the release on this film in 2010.

Ok well the gods have just sent an earthquake to remind me I have work in the morning so I will post this now before something else happens.

night