Sick Culture?

In light of the Aurora, Colorado shootings during the showing of the latest Batman movie, we need to question what kind of culture America is handing the world. Has it become too bleak and dark, providing no counter example to death and violence; no way out?

Curiously, instead of seeing “The Dark Knight” last week, I went instead to see a showing of the 1963 flick “Bye Bye Birdie” in a movie house. In pure joy and fun the classic satirical musical is the polar opposite of “The Dark Knight.” Darkness needs on occasion to be balanced by light.

Better Culture

Western civilization can’t compete on the global level by denying the greatness of its past ideas and replacing them with disgraceful nonsense. The worlds of art and literature in the west in this postmodern age no longer hold glittering appeal, but instead, a kind of anti-appeal, celebrating every gross, sick, and evil aspect of mankind, as if to say to the rest of the world, “This is what to avoid.”

Breitbart

Andrew Breitbart stated often that his activities were in reaction to the all-encompassing intolerant secular Left that he found in Los Angeles, most specifically in Hollywood. How much of radical Islam is a reaction to that same aggressive secularism? It’s a question that should at least be asked. In life and nature, one extreme often leads to the opposite extreme.

The Big Screen!

I notice that "The Artist" is favored to win the Best Picture Oscar next week. It should-- the flick is a remarkable movie experience. But I wonder how much of that is due to seeing the film on a movie screen? So much of the movie's impact is due to effective use of close-ups. The surprises and juxtapositions wouldn't have nearly the impact otherwise.

Kudos

Kudos to Newsweek magazine for their February 13, 2012 cover story about Islamic crimes against Christians.

“Westward the Women”

In a recent post I mentioned the 1951 William Wellman movie “Westward the Women,” a neglected classic which provides a tremendous, and very emotional, film experience.

What I didn’t mention is that it’s likely the best movie about the trek west, the crossing by wagon train of the American continent. I know of no movie which better depicts how arduous that journey was.

In this day of political correctness the settling of the American continent is at best scorned; at worst presented as a criminal event. Anything but! This vast country sat virtually empty, its few million inhabitants living at a subsistence level. The natives’ short lives were short and brutal. Crossing the frontier was one of the great feats of human history. I drove to California and back, and was amazed by the distances, impressed by how difficult the crossing of the continent by the pioneers truly was. This tremendous movie conveys some of that.

Film or Digital?

Word is that standard movie theaters are converting to digital, that within a year or two, new movies will be available and screened only in that format. This should increase the value of, and need for, repertory movie theaters which show classic movies on film, the way they were meant to be shown. Nothing matches the film experience. Film as a medium is subliminally warmer, clearer, and more colorful than the digital format. “El Cid” shown on film exemplifies this, which is why I still plan on presenting, someday!, this greatest of all movies the way it’s supposed to be viewed.