Thoughts on Movies

[selenite0]

Work has gotten busy so I'm just now managing to post about last weekend's movies.

celticdragonfly and I got to see The Lake House as part of an actual date, with dinner and everything. It was wonderful, we have to do more of that. I'm grateful to Lee Ann for babysitting and letting us stay out late. It's a good movie for a date, very romantic in an old-fashioned style. The lovers are kept apart, only communicating through a magic mailbox (and I mean magic--there's not even an attempt to explain it). There's no sex (and only half a kiss) which is shocking for a Hollywood product. That's probably a carryover from the Korean original of the movie. It does stay true to Hollywood by having a happy ending, and by making the ending utterly shatter the previous logic of the story. The original (according to rumor) had gone for the tragic ending, and then been forced to change by the test audience.

We agreed that the happy ending was forced--the logic of the story was for the tragedy, and the happy ending was a horrible paradox. But Americans always want a happy ending. Which, thinking about it, is a good thing. Americans insist on happy endings. And we apply that to real life too. So instead of confronting some tragedy with a gallic shrug of acceptance, we wade in and change things. Slavery sucks? Abolish it. Europe overrun by fascists? Join in the war and beat them. Communists preaching the superiority of their system? Demonstrate anything they can do we can do better. Arab dictatorships spawning terrorists? Export democracy. Not that we always succeed, but I think our desire for happy endings gets better results than cynicism or fatalism.

Enough philosophy. The other movie of the weekend was Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. I liked it, but not as much as I did the original. I knew it was the middle part of a trilogy going in, so the ending didn't bother me. It's just that "Curse of the Black Pearl" was a sea story with some ghosts in it, while this was a ghost story that happened to take place at sea. I like the former more, it's the kind of story where the humans can make a difference through wit, hard work, and bravery, instead of depending on luck and fate. I'm still going to see the third movie. Hopefully it'll be a bit more on the human scale this time.

Comments

[jazz007.livejournal.com]

I saw The Lake House with a friend. I would have hated the movie if they had gone for the tragic.

I want precisely one thing from my movies, literature, and other entertainment: happy escapism. Titanic? Didn't do a thing for me. Same goes for a lot of movies - I'm fine with tears and all that in the middle, but no way do I want them at the end unless they're happy tears.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

Heh, LakeHouse did make me cry, but yeah, the end ones were happy tears.

I don't know that I agree that the ending was forced. Given the mailbox, one timeline change? Doesn't bother me that much.

[phoenixsinger.livejournal.com]

I have to agree with your views on Dead Man's Chest. Lots of twists and turns were explained only cursorily, and I had to suspend disbelief even more than in the first film. (To the point that I was consciously aware of doing it.)

I probably will go see the third film though.

[tmc4242.livejournal.com]

"I want precisely one thing from my movies, literature, and other entertainment: happy escapism. "

Good answer. I have no need of philosophy when I'm watching a movie. I just don't want to bother.

I am afraid I may be about to push the envelope in terms of escapism though. The voices tell me I have to go see "Talladega Nights." There's a chance all the good stuff is in fact in the previews, but hopefully not. Will Farrel is usually too far across the funny/stupid line for me, but the smacks at Nascar are too good to pass up.

As far as Pirates 2 - I need to review the first movie. I missed some things because I haven't see the first on in so long. Going back for a second viewing doesn't bother me at all though. I liked it. Maybe a little bit too long, but not bad. Need Pirates 3. Now.

[joyeuse13.livejournal.com]

I will point out that even the Gauls mainly don't "confront tragedy with a gallic shrug of acceptance." :)

[selenite.livejournal.com]

True for most of them. But the guys in sidewalk cafes reading Sartre are such a perfect stereotype I couldn't resist using them.

[joyeuse13.livejournal.com]

Actually, Sartre himself was an anti-Nazi activist in his writing. I read a lot of his anti-war stuff in college--very interesting.

[carbonelle.livejournal.com]

It may've been in the recent NRODT that I read a quote from a Swedish pol (the P.M.?) to the effect that "we must be tolerant towards the Islamists, so that when they are in the majority they will be tolerant toward us."

[cue rolling eyeballs]

Since it's buried nicely (in time and space) I'll add a spoilerific agreement to your comment on POTC: CotDMC; It miffed me more than I can say that they made Norrington into a cad and a buffoon. Quite spoiled most of my pleasure in the film, whacky-mill-wheel-driven hijinks not withstanding.