Skyfall (Sam Mendes)

6/25/15

I had a better experience with Skyfall than remembered. The beginning was great, we got some classic Bond scenes.... and then it turned to drama halfway through. As I have iterated before, I do not need the Oscar villain, nor the Oscar villain Oscar entrance.... I would rather have 100% James Bond MI:6 espionage and terrorist tracking, etc., without a Hollywood villain to distract from the Character Himself, who is now becoming a distinguished object of affection for me in film. I now have essentially all of the Daniel Craig movies under my belt, fully watched, experienced and analyzed, and my love for the character has grown in great strides. The only positive news for the "Skyfall" business in this film and the evil brother business in the next is that we are able to see the boy in Bond, the child he once was and how that has evolved into the best secret agent in the world. This was a good experience for me. Getting a peek into his childhood was terrific... it was quite dark and beautiful, I think.

I call Skyfall decent, and praise its exposure of his backstory. This was an emotional piece for me. The rest of it involves some good classic material and a lot that can be disposed of, including, I'm pretty certain, Javier Bardem.

On my favorite "people" in cinema

I often talk about my favorite "people" in film; this is Christopher Plummer as Capt. von Trapp, Jennifer Lawrence as Joy, Ryan Gosling as Luke and Dean from the Cianfrance movies... They are not actors that I prize, nor characters, but a combination of the two that's greater than the sum of the parts. These are situations in my experience that transcend categories of "film" as art and entertainment, where a character/actor combination takes on a human identity of its own -- where I look at this performance/fiction as I look at the souled human beings around me. I call them my favorite "people" in cinema. The believability of the film execution has to be so tremendous that I naturally see Capt. von Trapp without seeing Christopher Plummer nowadays, for instance in Beginners; that I see Joy without seeing Jennifer Lawrence's public persona; see Gosling on the screen under a brilliant director (which is one of the most consistent and perfect things in film) without seeing Gosling cheapened under a bad director (Ganster Squad, Crazy, Stupid Love). I become entirely immersed in this portrayal/person, and of course this has something to do with my subjective state going in. I must in my own self have some pre-contained keenness toward a kind of person, some idle affection toward a kind of person, that draws me and blinds me toward a particular person I see onscreen.

These "favorite people" are not my "greatest performances", nor "greatest filmic characters", nor "greatest characters as moral people". These are the people I watch onscreen and have the greatest love for, connection to. It reflects well who I am bound to have the greatest affection for in real life. If I met a Joy I would be stricken; if I met a Luke Glanton I would give up my life to follow this man. It is presumed I have never met people like this, but that they could reasonably exist. They are indeed written, crafted; but there are many people in the world, and I have met so few, and it is no stretch of reason to posit that my sample size is disadvantaged.

I did not generate this idea of "people" through some crafty inspiration or cleverness -- it was unavoidable for me. This is one of those instances in life where either my subjective experience is structured uniquely or I have a uniquely refined ability to identify the structures. It was unavoidable that I was drawn to these people in film -- perhaps that kind of outgoing love is unique to me, or perhaps my ability to identify the precise nature of the favor outgoing is what is unique. I'm not sure, but in either case this idea isn't the product of intellectual cleverness for me -- it's an automatic experience that I have identified with an idea, because it took an idea to identify this unique experience.

To clarify: this is largely subjective. I am not citing character/actor combinations that I believe transcend film as artificial reality-- that would be an overused archetype, and I would be ashamed to say it. These are transcendent experiences of mine, of people in film, where the stilted world falls down as it---

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

I also want to briefly mention another experience I had on that day, which was of the seventh Star Wars film. I only got I'll say a couple sections in, but I was surprised and disappointed with the juvenility and glut of it all. I guess it's a pure thing, being that it's so childish, but it's excessively indulgent nonetheless. I just couldn't get behind the Finn acting like a Disney Channel character, and there being only one Storm Trooper who's insecure or self-conscious, and his having a strong moral consciousness immediately after being rescued, "Because it was the right thing to do", despite seemingly not having it before and despite being born into the business, which will in all reality brainwash him at least a lot.




I know what's happening. With this review and the last I have been soaking too deeply into my thoughts, drowning in one and being blind to the others, because I am extremely tired, and am paining myself to keep my eyes open, because of the combination of jet lag and climbing a mountain today.

I'm sorry for the inaccurate representation. We are all flawed.. We're just human.

The Sound of Music

I want to talk a little about my experience with The Sound of Music this week, because it was one of my most pleasurable film experiences in recent memory. I very humbly and sincerely like this movie, and this was quite an astounding discovery as the movie progressed this Tuesday.

For about a year until recently I had a very important person in my life, to whom I was considerably close, and this person introduced me to the simple pleasures of the classic American musical. There's a kind of joy, for the somewhat aged soul in the modern era, in watching talented people dance well and sing well and play characters, that's nearly unparalleled. I don't think I appreciated this until introduction by this important relation in my life, but during The Sound of Music I found myself utterly happy whenever an actor revealed his or her dancing prowess, or sang a melody particularly skillfully. Few things in life I would say induce happiness; I tend to be extremely conservative in my use of that word that I consider so universally idealized or misunderstood.

Indeed, I felt totally borne out of the Silent Generation in my enjoyment of these themes, and I felt wonderful at that feeling.

The two lead actors in the musical have instantly become two primary objects of affection for me, within the film medium. The performances were brilliant and true, passionate, joyous, full of love. Both actors emanated this kind of love and goodness, and both exhibited tremendous skill. Julie Andrews as a voice is utterly phenomenal, and her acting otherwise impressed me greatly. I loved her completely. And Christopher Plummer is strong, cool, deep and sincere --- he as Capt. von Trapp instantly becomes one of my favorite performances/people in film I have ever witnessed.

My experience here is on that plane of whose occupants I am extremely protective. I'm anxious about hearing other people relate themselves to the movie -- anxious to change in any way the fantasy world in which this movie lives in my mind. I also feel a distinguished melancholy in referring back to the movie now; this is probably me living in my thoughts for too long, romanticizing everything to unrealistic degrees... But the love is there, of that I am sure.

Yes, "Edelweiss" and the image of Plummer with that guitar started overriding my thinking, and I started wanting to 'be' that. That wasn't what my experience of the movie was like. Mostly I just thoroughly enjoyed the movie, I smiled a lot, laughed some, loved much, watched it as an external world, did not try to become it. Just appreciated it from the outside, sat in amazement and sheer joy at the talented people, the quality of the writing, the quality of the execution. I haven't mentioned yet the writing, so I should do that.

The quality of the writing blew me away. I've heard Rodgers/Hammerstein stuff I'm not enthusiastic about, but this amazed me. Not only did I like the music a lot, against my expectations -- I was also considerably impressed by it. Musicians must do a lot to impress me, in the way of artistry, emotion, and originality. Rodgers and Hammerstein impressed me.

So did the actual writing of the movie. This is much better a movie than most of these musicals that lay aside consistency and maturity and like things for shallow displays of talent. I recall Singin' in the Rain, I believe...?

I should also mention an entirely individual impact the movie had on me. Just a few minutes in Maria runs into the Abbey late and has a talk with the Mother nun who questions wisely Maria's decision to join the sisterhood. It was a beautiful revelation for me. Later when the conversation is reprised more insight comes and it is joyous and full of love and hope. I had a seriously meaningful experience of these discussions.

I also cried at one point during this movie, and that is a special occurrence.

I love The Sound of Music, and can't wait to go back to it soon.