Some thoughts...

Many have questioned my tastes in movies and my love of them. “You take them too seriously”; “you should just enjoy them” etc. Well man is the dominant species on this planet because of our minds. Bears are stronger, cheetahs are faster, birds can fly, but humans have their mind. The power to think and to create, or do bears write poems? That being said, why should I ignore the one thing that makes us who we are when I watch a movie? I guess I should just turn off my mind when I watch certain movies. But who can tell when to do that?

Even if you could tell when, I would suggest you don’t. Art imitates life, typically the time period in which it was created. If you watch classic movies, and by that I mean black and white films, you would notice that most of the men wear suits and ties. Well that is because men were expected to dress up when going out. Slowly we have lost that trait, and I am not sure if we are better for it. We do have more freedom of expression, which should lead us to some great art! New art. Art we have never seen before. Films are one of the greatest forms of art. The reason: They contain stories (writing), music (songs), acting (theatre), set design (sculpting, painting) and camera work (cinematography). Film is really a melding of all the arts. And thus it is the most accessible to the masses. You may not like paintings, or theatre, but you may like an actor, or the music in a movie (everyone knows Superman’s theme, and Star Wars etc). But all films represent the time period in which they were created and judging by what we had to go on, we should be making the greatest films of all time.

In 1968 Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke created 2001: A Space Odyssey, which is, in my opinion, the best film ever made (Conan The Barbarian is my personal favourite, but 2001 is the best.)

This film was created before the actual moon landing on July 20 1969, and at that time the year 2001 was the far future. Kubricks & Clarke’s vision of that future was that we would be manning spacecrafts to Jupiter, and beyond. They envisioned the ultimate destiny of mankind as evolving to a higher plane of existence as a “star child”. We would overcome hatred and greed and petty jealousies. We would come to expect the very best in ourselves and be a better world for it.

Unfortunately it seems we are moving further away from this…at least that’s what I get from watching current forms of art. My field is movies, so that’s where Ill state my case.

In recent memory, films like The Hangover, 40 Year Old Virgin, and Transformers (Bayformers that is) are showing me that we are on a downward spiral into stupidity. These films are regarded as “Funny”, “Entertaining”, nothing to be concerned about. But the level of “love” these films are generating is scary. When we watch and love these movies we are accepting what is depicted as being ok. We are saying it’s normal for men to get drunk and do stupid things. It’s funny isn’t it? Tell that to someone who lost his or her child to a drunk driver. Now, before I get bashed here, I am not saying that this movie is condoning getting drunk, or that people who watch the movie will go out and get drunk and kill someone with their car. I AM NOT SAYING THAT AT ALL!!!!!

What I am saying is that this movie and the love of it, is saying that on some level, it’s not that bad for that to happen. It can be funny. I love South Park. South Park is the crudest show of all time. But think of the genius of it. It portrays itself as a child’s cartoon, but in fact, it is for adults. They depict all sorts of crude behaviour and make fun of everything from the Handicapped to Aids. It doesn’t get more offensive. But the writing of South Park is so witty that we almost forget how vulgar it is. The fact that it depicts true occurrences in the media, shows that the MEDIA is vulgar, not South Park for showing it.

Consider that South Park doesn’t shy away from any topic. There is always a point to South Park if you actually watch it. Most like it for fart jokes, but they make fun of people who like that kind of humour with Terrence and Phillip. In South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (The Movie – The title is a pun in itself), we see that the kids learn to swear via the Canadian show Terrence and Phillip. When the parents find out they blame Canada, but it is really the parents at fault. They refuse to teach their kids manners…why? Because they themselves don’t have any. So what is South Park actually saying here? That parents today should take up some responsibility, and do some parenting. What is The Hangover saying? Getting drunk is funny.

South Park is reflecting the same times as Hangover, but doing it in a witty way to make you think its about something else, when they are really making fun of the world and showing us how stupid we have become. Hangover is making us think that the stupidity is ok; it’s just for fun!

As the times change those of us who loved these new movies will grow up thinking they were classics and will show our kids who will think that we should be even more outspoken…freedom of speech is fine, but that doesn’t mean we should go around telling people to f-ck off because we have the right to do it?

In fact, you don’t have the right to freedom of speech. You have the right to your opinion, and to voice your opinion, but an opinion only matters if you back it up with something. Every week the Titans write reviews on movies, some agree with us, some don’t. Sometimes we don’t agree with each other, but hey, we argue with points, not with simple statements of “this sucks”, or “I loved every second of it.”

Really, you loved every second of transformers? Did you watch the entire end credits? No, you got up and left after 2 mins of them…well the credits continued didn’t they? So that means you didn’t love every second? Are you going to buy the DVD and chapter to the fights? Think about that for a second. Think about anything for a second.

Ill leave you with this point…you can win almost any argument by asking the person why? And to give examples.

I loved Transformers.
Why?
Because it was wicked man.
Why? Explain more, tell me some scenes you loved? Explain what about the characters you liked, the story?

Well, I just like it ok.

Yeah ok.

--J-KraKen--[>