LNH: Untold Tales of the Looniverse #2

[Tom Russell]

Martin Phipps wrote:
> Tom Russell wrote:
> > Jesse Willey wrote:
> > > > Google "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy".
> > >
> > >   You know Tom-- if a movie, book, movie or TV show
> > > was made after 1975 he's going to hate it.  The
> >
> > What...?
> >
> > > further away from 1975 it was made the more he is
> > > going to hate it.
> >
> > Oh, you're trying to be funny.  But to be funny, your observations have
> > to have some basis in reality, Jesse.
> >
> > It's true that I appreciate the classics in all artforms.  But that's
> > because classic books, films, television, and comics usually have both
> > more substance and heart.
> >
> > I don't really enjoy frivolous art, and the whole MTV aesthetic
> > certainly turns me off.
>
> That's what I thought. :)
>
> The MTV aesthetic has resulted in things like Catwoman and Man on Fire,
> things that look good when they're a trailer but then you realize that
> the movie itself is just a ninety minute trailer and the fast cuts then
> start to give you a headache. :)
>
> > What I appreciate above all are those modern
> > works that don't kowtow to the modern attention span, but expect its
> > audience to be intelligent.  Works that expect you to have a little
> > life experience, and challenge you.  Works that have heart and depth
> > and truth.
>
> I still think Law and Order and CSI are the result of the MTV aesthetic
> applied to crime dramas.  I saw a CSI last night and four people got
> arrested.  FOUR.  That's one arrest every fifteen minutes.   Now, two
> of the four cases were interrelated (one lead directly to the other)
> but still that's pretty fast. :)

I can't vouch for CSI, but Law & Order is just plain damn good classic
storytelling.  It moves quickly, but it starts at the beginning and
ends at the end.

Tight plotting and MTV are not one and the same animal; if Law & Order
used quick cuts, weird camera angles, and pointlessly emo music
montages than, yes, that would be MTV.  But it doesn't.
>
> I think you must like Speilberg.  Few science fiction films are told

Actually, I hate about 90 % of Spielberg.  You want to know why?

> > What I appreciate above all are those modern
> > works that don't kowtow to the modern attention span, but expect its
> > audience to be intelligent.  Works that expect you to have a little
> > life experience, and challenge you.  Works that have heart and depth
> > and truth.

Bingo.  Spielberg's shit, mostly.  Does it look nice?  Sure.  But even
if you doll it up with a bunch of pretty colours and sparkle glue, shit
is still shit and it still stinks.

Didn't mind War of the Worlds, and I like Jaws.  That's about it,
really.

The only time I saw Schindler's List, I was under anesthetic.  It was
the funniest thing I had ever seen, and they had to turn it off.

(Not exactly proud of that.)

Maybe it's great and powerful and moving and true, but I haven't gotten
around to watching it again yet.

>   M. Night Shyalaman's Signs also
> told the story of an alien invasion from the point of view of a single
> family, albiet without as many special effects.

I liked SIGNS and UNBREAKABLE the best of his films.  Not so big on the
SIXTH SENSE, hated the VILLAGE, despised LADY IN THE WATER.  (In fact,
I'll direct you to my website, http://turtleneckfilms.blogspot.com ,
which features a review of LADY IN THE WATER just a few entries down.)

> Telling a story from a
> single point of view is a big risk IMO because, as you say, the modern
> attention span isn't tuned to following a single character around for
> the entire length of a movie, but that does seem to be the kind of
> story teling you like and, yes, sometimes it does work very well and
> make the story seem more poignant and less cheap.  I think we can all
> agree though that it is a fairly old fashioned way of telling a story
> in this fast paced age of ensemble casts, rapid cuts and quick
> resolutions.

I think, in general, it makes for better storytelling, certainly in
adventure-style fiction.

And there's nothing old-fashioned about good storytelling.

> 
> Martin

==Tom