Life is a battlefield (day 180)

I saw the movie The Hurt Locker last night.  I'm not sure what I think about it.  I experienced a kind of boredom and confusion throughout, like it wasn't fitting into any trope I was expecting except maybe a video game.  No soundtrack makes it deadpan.  Camera manipulation is slightly reminiscent of a home movie.  No story arc aside from the guy who's afraid to die and indirectly involves an unprepared officer in a dangerous situation.  The thread is a macho bomb diffuser who can't get enough.

I know I'm supposed to like it because it's directed by a woman and for a war film that's doubly amazing.  But honestly I didn't feel it.  If I'd had to guess I would have said 'directed by a man'.  I know I'm supposed to like it because it's a different kind of war film that is more 'real'.  I agree that it's different.  I'm not sure it's more real.  We are still only shown Americans doing their jobs.  I agree that it doesn't glorify war in the same way but in the end, the macho dude goes back to war because it's the only thing he loves.  I guess that ending is easier because he's a bomb diffuser, not just another soldier asked to kill or be killed. Before he goes back to war we are shown the comparison between choosing cereal in a large fluorescent-lit mostly empty supermarket, and diffusing a bomb.  Yes life is mundane sometimes but seriously, choosing cereal is not representative.  Then we are shown his son and the implication in the monologue is that he does not love him.  Yet the admission doesn't even seem callous because the baby is not of talking age yet, and the soldier shows almost no emotion.  The last shot of him returning to war again reminds me of a video game.

There is seemingly no value judgment about the war itself.  I would argue that making no value judgment leaves it to the default of the war film genre -- war is necessary and aren't our soldiers brave.  The fact that war is incredibly traumatic for all soldiers in the field has never been in question.  I don't think we need a film to bring that fact home.  What we need is a film that makes us think about why it's ok for a country to ask its countrymen to get a gun, put themselves at risk, and potentially kill someone.  In any other situation, killing results in life in prison.  So yes there is a big difference between regular life and war, but it's not found in the grocery aisle. 

A song for this post.

Avatar (day 116)

Color me blue.  I just saw Avatar.  We were first in line so we got the best 3D seats in the house.  The whole outing took 5 hours.  As long as a flight to Montreal.

Verdict:  Absolutely go see it, for the visuals.
Subtext: It's no Matrix but it will have a generational impact nonetheless...maybe similar to Toy Story.

Here are some observations in no particular order:

• Patriarchy in movies is getting really annoying.
• Beautiful visuals, light as a theme, networks, greens and purples.
• Headless robots as avatars for military men.
• Blue lithe bodies as avatars for peace-loving, planet-connected, people.
• The blue people never eat.
  
• Great body movements.  Wonderful choreography.
  
• Great flying scenes.
  
• Standard Hawks vs. Doves story.  Hawks attack doves, doves initially retreat, eventually become hawks.  No one really learns peace.  A sequel would be another war.
• Movie was long but not noticeably.
  
• 3D was extremely well done and for the most part, for good effect.

Getting out of the movie there was a feeling of coming out of a dream, like disconnecting from an avatar.  Christopher and I had a discussion about how long we would stay in a movie for, if there were options of say day long or week long movies.  An accelerated life, like Total Recall.  In fact, Avatar is very much in the same vein as Total Recall, Strange Days, Existenz, Matrix.  The difference is that Pandora is a world you might actually want to stay in.   And of course the possibility of fully letting go of your human body is different.  A rebirth from hawk to dove (ostensibly...though in practice the affect was not exactly that).

There are so many parallels to be drawn, it's hard to put a finger on why it misses the mark exactly.  It's a dark film with lots of suffering, lots of fighting.  You should maybe get out thinking about the earth differently but instead you wish to escape it, to go to a better place.  It seems hopeless at its core even though we are shown the protagonist finding his way 'home'.  Because the vast majority of humans are shown as vicious, and heartless, going back to earth -- no doubt preparing for another battle.

A song for this post.

The tragic story of Iraq as told by Evan Kohlmann

I'm posting this because it is perhaps the sanest account of what is happening in Iraq that I've seen to date. It really brings home the point that, having created an unfortunate chaotic situation, we have to engage with it with a view to regaining some sort of just and dignified position. I know it sounds completely idealistic but it seems to me that even if something was started on the wrong premise, there is always a chance to change our motivation. I say 'we' even though Canada is not fighting in Iraq because I feel we all bear the burden, and therefore responsibility, for the outcome of this war. It shouldn't have been started but there's no going back so let's think about how to make some space in this conflict -- some space to think about an ending that doesn't involve suffering for the next 10+ years. This is perhaps where the UN could make a difference. If it is incapable of dealing with this type of destabilizing influence then we need a different model for unity between nations. One of the most shocking quotes in the Salon interview is this:

"You know we're doing a bad job of communicating our own message when we're losing the propaganda war to people who cut other people's heads off on camera. Think about it: People in one of the most Westernized countries in the Middle East would rather trust al-Qaida than the United States. That's a terrible sign of things to come". -- Evan Kohlmann