Maleficent

&

Frozen

Two Stories of Sismance1

Movie Poster

Spoilers!!

Recently Disney gave us two different stories based on classic fairy tales. In the case of Maleficent it is the Disney retelling the tale of its own Sleeping Beauty. This time from the point of view of the central villain, Maleficent. In the case of Frozen we get the story of the Snow Queen suitably and quite thoroughly disneyfied and turned into a tale of two sisters.

A Silly Series of Lists

Part 1

Last year Entertainment Weekly published a special issue called The 100 All-Time Greatest. The issue was composed of several lists, of “Best” movies, TV shows, music, plays and novels.1 Now to be blunt top 100 lists are basically usually little more than indication of personal taste. And this magazine of lists is little better than that.

The End

Nevil Shute’s On the Beach

Book and Films

Book Cover

In 1957 Nevil Shute, 1899-1960, 1 published his novel about the after effects of nuclear war and the immanent coming of human extinction in the aftermath.

The novel is in many respects typical of the end of the world novel but in other respects it is not typical. For one thing this novel is very bleak it ends quite emphatically with the certainty of human extinction. There is in other words no hope of human survival whatsoever.

Nightmare

Movie Poster

Spoilers!!

What would be your worst nightmare upon sleeping? What would be the worst thing that could happen to you that you could think about upon waking up? I suppose not waking up at all would be the worst, but perhaps almost has bad would be waking up and finding out that you had been ripped away from family and friends and imprisoned. And that imprisonment is intended to last the rest of your life.

Brick Wall 

Brick Wall - Duh!

The following is a revised version of a comment I posted at a website concerning the 2006 movie The History Boys1 with added references.

Ironed Out

Movie Poster
Iron Man 1

One of the most interesting phenomena’s of the last decade has been the truly astounding success of the Iron Man franchise. The movies have been incredibly successful earning in excess of two billion dollars.1 Also to a surprising extent the films work as movies even though they are basically popcorn action flicks.

Lord of the Rings

A Critical Note

Map of Middle Earth / Arda

In a previous posting I reviewed the first of The Lord of the Rings movies; here I will discuss some aspects of the novels.1

It is well known among Tolkien fans that J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) started writing about his fantasy universe before the First World War and that he continued to do so right until his death. Further that his fascination with Anglo-Saxon, Germanic and Celtic mythology, along with making up languages just for the hell of it made him interested in Anglo-Saxon and started his academic career by which he eventually became a Don at Oxford University. Other things about Tolkien and his fantasy universe are less well known.2

Serial Killers

Has a Cultural Artifact

Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lector
in Silence of the Lambs

We have seen in the last two generations the rise of the serial killer as a cultural artifact. In the past serial killers were fairly rare although it should be noted that crime statistics are historically very unreliable. Now it appears that compared to the past serial killers are no longer rare but “common”. Just why this is so is subject to dispute. What is not in dispute is that serial killers have become part of the very fabric of our society and culture just why that is so and what effects it has on our culture are matters worth exploring.1

The Lord of the Rings Movies

Part I

The Fellowship of the Ring

Movie Poster

Peter Jackson’s trilogy of films based on Tolkien’s three part series is undoubtedly one of the most successful movie franchises ever and not just from a financial point of view. For to a surprising extent the three movies are artistic successes and are excellent examples of successful epic movie making that works artistically.

Star Trek Insurrection

A Movie Review

Movie Poster

This is a review I did shortly after the film Star Trek Insurrection (1998) came out. As you will read I was less than impressed.

Time Trap

The Canonical Planet of the Apes films 



Scene from The Planet of the Apes 

MASSIVE SPOILERS

AHEAD

One of the most successful bits of popular culture of the late 20^th century in the west was the Planet of the Apes film franchise and to this day it has seeped into our popular consciousness to such an extent that parodies and references to it are instantly recognizable. 

Ordinary Guys



Movie Poster



Massive Spoilers

AHEAD!!

In February I saw the movie Chronicle and frankly I was blown away. It takes a very simple idea and works it on a whole different level.

Silence is Golden



Movie Poster



Spoilers!!

You have been warned!!!

The Artist, (2011), a French film directed by Michel Hazanavicius is a truly remarkable film in many ways.

This is your Brain on Star Trek

Cast of S.T.T.N.G.

The following is several numbered, humorous, lists regarding Star Trek. I found them on my computer and I think I've been carrying them around in my data files for over ten years. I'm not sure if they are still available on the web. So I'm putting them up here. They are in some cases a bit dated but still funny.

Enjoy.

Hollywood

and

Canada

Movie Poster

One of the "joys" of being a Canadian is taking pleasure in how ignorant Americans are of Canada and of course at the same time being annoyed at the ignorance.

Caste

And

Class in the South



Movie Poster



SPOILERS AHEAD

YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!!

I recently saw the film The Help, based on a book by Kathryn Stockett.1 The movie was directed by Tate Taylor and stars Viola Davis as Aibileen and Emma Stone as Eugenia and Octavia Jackson as Minny in the main roles.

Killing your Grandfather is the least of your problems

Some notes on Time Travel

The Time Machine from the 1960 movie

The Time Machine

Time travel into the past although it is a stable of much Science Fiction and Fantasy writing does have certain problems.

Imperial Overstretch

 Movie Poster for The Eagle

SPOILERS AHEAD!

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!

Recently I saw the film The Eagle, which concerned the efforts of a young Roman military officer to get back the lost Roman Eagle of the Ninth Legion Hispana.

In the story Marcus, the Roman military officer is the son of the Commander of the 9th Hispana Legion that was lost in the northern Britain, (modern day Scotland) late in the reign of the Emperor Trajan or early in the reign of Emperor Hadrian, (c. 117-120 C.E.). Young Marcus is appointed a commander of one of the garrisons along Hadrian’s Wall in the north of Britain and in repelling an assault by local Britons he is seriously wounded.

Night Descending

Movie poster for Agora

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Recently I saw the movie Agora (2009) directed by Alejandro Amenabar and staring Rachel Weisz as Hypatia, Michael Lonsdale as Hypatia’s father Theon, Oscar Issac as Orestes, Max Minghella as Davus, Rupert Evans as Synesius and Sami Samir as St. Cyril.

The movie takes place in the late 4th century C.E., in the city of Alexandria, then part of the Roman Empire. Hypatia the heroine of this movie is a philosopher and teacher at the University or Mouseion attached to the library attached to the temple of the God Serapis called the Serapeum. Later I will discuss the historical veracity of this movie.

In Hypatia’s class are two students, Synesius and Orestes who are in love with her. Also in love with her is her slave Davus. Tension between Christians and Pagans is rife in Alexandria leading to incidents of violence between the groups. Theon whips Davus when he takes the place of a slave who has a cross in her possession. Hypatia tries to keep peace between the Christians and non-Christian among her students.

Things come to a head when a Christian mob egged on by Cyril, then a priest, start pelting the statutes of pagan gods with filth and rotting vegetables / fruit. The Pagans at the Serapeum egged on by the chief priests and with the approval of Theon arm themselves and attack the mob killing many. The Christians rally and receiving reinforcements drive the Pagans into the Serapeum which they besiege. The pagans take some Christians as hostages. Hypatia pledges to protect her Christian students.

After a short siege the people in the Serapeum are promised amnesty by the emperor, but only if they abandon the Serapeum to the Christians outside. Hypatia and her father with the aid of the various librarians of the library try to save as many books as they can before fleeing. Davus stays behind and joins the Christians. Subsequently Hypatia frees him. The Christians destroy the statue of the god Serapis and then destroy the library.

Shortly before the destruction of the Serapeum Orestes endeavours to court Hypatia and asks her to marry him, she refuses by giving him a cloth soaked with her menstrual blood. Thus establishing that Hypatia as no interest in ever getting married.

During the siege Hypatia becomes interested in the question of does the earth move and starts to reconsider the old abandoned idea that the Earth moves around the sun.

Many years have past and Orestes is now Governor of Alexandria and a Christian, at least nominally. Theon is dead. Davus is a member of a Christian militia group guilty of many outrages against both Pagans and Jews. The remaining non-Christians on the governing city council are being pressured to become Christians. Synesius is now Bishop of Cyrene, and Cyril has become Bishop of Alexandria. Hypatia continues to teach and to research the heavens. In one scene she conducts an experiment and notes that on a moving ship a weight falls as if the ship was not moving.

Cyril and Orestes are involved in a violent power struggle over who actually controls Alexandria and Cyril continues to incite violence in his bid for power. The attacks by Cyril’s militia against Jews incites a violent retaliation that in turn leads to a pogrom against the Jews and many leave the city. Meanwhile Cyril uses Hypatia as a stick to beat Orestes with including stage managing a scene designed to humiliate Orestes after which Orestes gets hit with a rock by a monk in a rioting mob.

Hypatia continues her research on the movement of the planets. Davus is meanwhile getting disillusioned with his overly fanatical friends. Finally Synesius and Orestes plead with Hypatia to become a Christian. She refuses with the line:

You don’t doubt your beliefs. I must!
The night before, Hypatia in a moment of inspiration, concludes that the orbit of the planets is an ellipse and discovers Kepler’s first law of planetary motion.

As Hypatia returns home she is set upon by a mob who take her to the Serapeum, now turned into a Church, to kill her in front of the alter. Davus has tried to warn her but is unable to get to her in time. Helplessly he has followed her to the Serapeum. The mob leaves to gather rocks to stone her with. There is however no escape except the blocked entrance. To save Hypatia the agony of being stoned, Davus suffocates Hypatia to death. Hypatia’s last sight is the ellipse shaped opening in the ceiling of the Serapeum.

Davus leaves never looking back. A brief text records that none of Hypatia’s writings survived and that shortly afterwards Orestes disappeared and that Cyril became St. Cyril.

That is the movie what does history say?

Amazingly the movie is actually quite accurate on many things. For example its depiction of the events that led to the destruction of the Serapeum, which occurred in 391 C.E., is quite accurate. Although in actuallity the desecration that served as a provocation by the Pagans to attack the Christians is not what is depicted in the movie. Also the involvement of Hypatia, Theon, Orestes and Synesius is not historical fact. The picture of Alexandria divided into different religious factions perfectly willing to kill each other, with the Christians in a position of dominance and using that dominance to impose their faith is accurate.1

The order of the Emperor that the Pagans evacuate the Serapeum and it being sacked and then turned into a Christian church is accurate. And yes the Pagans were besieged in the Serapeum after taking some Christians as hostages.2

Hypatia was almost certainly not teaching at this time in Alexandria. It is believed that she was born between 450-470 CE, with the later date more likely. It appears that she started teaching in Alexandria in c. 400 C.E., after the sack of the Serapeum.3

It is unlikely that the Serapeum had much of a library to be destroyed in 391 C.E. It appears to be the case that the library had ceased to exist in the Serapeum due to neglect, deterioration and lack of funds and people removing scrolls by 370 C.E. Although it is possible that some remnants of the former library existed to be destroyed in 391 C.E.4

However it is to the credit of the script writers and director that one of the characters mentions that the main library had been destroyed many years before. The destruction of Library of Alexandria as been alleged to have been caused by the soldiers of Julius Caesar setting fire to it, (48 B.C.E.) by the fighting between the soldiers of the Emperor Aurelian and Queen Zenobia of Palmyra in 274 C.E., the above mentioned attack on the Serapeum in 391 C.E., and by the Arabs in 642 C.E.5

It appears that the fire caused by Julius Caesar’s soldiers may have destroyed some scrolls stored near the harbour only. The main library or Mouseion was apparently completely untouched. It appears that in fact the Mouseion or least the library associated with it was in fact destroyed during the fighting between Aurelian and Zenobia in Alexandria, (274 C.E.). After that the center of learning and research in Alexandria shifted to the Serapeum and its smaller library. As mentioned above it appears that their was little or no library to destroy in 391 C.E., when the Christians took over the Serapeum. The story of the Arabs destroying the library in 642 C.E. is a complete fabrication.6

Hypatia has I indicated above apparently began teaching in Alexandria in c. 400 C.E. Her father Theon, a renowned mathematician was called the “the man from the Mouseion”. Which indicates that part of the Mouseion, from which we get the word museum, still existed at the time. It was probably closed in 391 C.E., at the same time as the Serapeum was turned over to the Christians. For this was also the same time that Theodosius I decreed the closing of all Pagan temples in the Empire and turned over many of them to the Christians.7

Hypatia worked in astronomy and mathematics and was apparently a Platonist, and yes a Pagan. She did teach Orestes and Bishop Synesius of Cyrene. She wrote several commentaries and a text called The Astronomical Canon, which did not survive, along with editing what became the most common version of Ptolemy’s work the Almagast, which was the central text of Western and Middle Eastern astronomy for over a thousand years. So the movie showing her interested in astronomy and math is in fact accurate.8 The whole bit about her discovering Kepler’s first law of planetary motion is sadly almost certainly fiction. It is not however, impossible.8

The story of Hypatia rejecting a suitor by giving him a cloth with menstrual blood on it is true. Although the suitor was almost certainly not Orestes as depicted in the movie.9

Orestes, who was indeed a Christian, did in fact became governor (Prefect) of Alexandria and engaged in a power struggle with St. Cyril who did in fact use Hypatia as a weapon against him. The whole incident in the Church in which Cyril tries to humiliate Orestes, is sadly not an invention. Also the Christian militia that attacked non-Christians along with the violence between Christians and Pagans and Jews is also not an invention. The slave Davus is an invention however.10

Hypatia was in fact set upon a mob c. 415 C.E., and killed. In the movie she is suffocated; in actuality she seems to have been flayed alive and then burned. A rather more gruesome death than the one in the movie. In the movie this is suggested, but they decide to stone her instead.11

The movie telescopes events together and makes Hypatia much younger than she actually was at the time of her death (at least 45). Orestes did indeed disappear soon after and St. Cyril did in fact come to dominate Alexandria.

The depiction of St. Cyril in the movie will probably attract criticism. St. Cyril is considered a Father of the Church and of course a Saint. His involvement in the violence that tore apart Alexandria and led to the death of Hypatia, mob violence etc., is contested. Unfortunately there can be little doubt that St. Cyril was an intolerant, bigoted and power hungry individual despite his sincere faith. It is also sadly true that the scene in movie whereby St. Cyril praises as a martyr to the faith and puts in a church the body of the monk Ammonius, who had in fact been part of a mob that tried to kill Orestes and had in fact thrown a rock that had injured Orestes, really happened. The penalty for an attempt on the life of the Prefect of Alexandria was death. So Ammonius was put to a rather grisly death under torture. This was right after St. Cyril’s attempt to humiliate Orestes. The movie gets that right also.12.

If St. Cyril comes across as an unpleasant individual that is because from our point of view he probably was.

It appears likely that while Hypatia taught some remnant of the library and Alexandria’s position has a center of classical learning existed. With her death it probably vanished along with the any other Pagan philosophers working there.

A more germane criticism of the movie is that the movie ignores largely the positive features of Christianity showing a picture of no-nothing fanaticism. The fact that many of the Christians are depicted as dressed in black while Pagans get lighter colours is too much of a cliché. The scene in the movie of Cyril and Davus giving bread to the hungry is undercut by the bread they are giving being Theon’s. That said the Pagans and Jews are also shown to be capable of intolerant murderous violence. For example during the Pagan attack on the Christians a Pagan Priest is urging a slave to stab and kill a injured man on the ground, in a screaming rage.

The movie relies less on CGI than you might expect and the sets, especially the Serapeum are impressive and convincing. Also convincing is the amazing accuracy and authenticity of the costumes worn, which are not only of the right cut of the time, but unlike most costume epics seem to be made not of modern fabrics but fabrics used at the time.

  Scene from the movie Agora  

The acting is generally just serviceable. Max Minghella as Davus especially seems to be just going through the motions.

Rachel Weisz performance is wonderful. She gives it the gravitas and seriousness that it requires. Given that Rachel Weisz is a very good looking woman, (as apparently Hypatia was also in real life); she acts her role with enough conviction and in a convincing enough fashion to take this Hypatia seriously as an intellectual. With Rachel Weisz’s performance you can believe that you are meeting a genius. The fact is given the still sexist ways women are regarded it takes some effort to overcome the deeply ingrained notion that a women is her looks. Rachel Weisz overcomes it brilliantly.

Michael Lonsdale as Hypatia’s father Theon is the other good to great performance. He is shown as a man exceptionally proud of his brilliant daughter and anxious for her happiness. He is also an old man ill at ease. The world as changed in ways he doesn’t like and so there is in him a great anger. He feels impotent to alter the way the world is going and he lacks his daughter's cultivated sense of intellectual ease and basic serenity. The result is he is subject to dangerous impulsive decisions. Michael Lonsdale gives an excellent performance of a man who hates the way the world is changing and wishes it had not.

The other performances are as said above are merely serviceable. St. Cyril for example is far too much a cardboard villain.

In the end the movie has it right night is descending and the long period of decay that characterized the early Middle Ages in Europe is coming. Learning and the search for knowledge would not reawaken in Europe until the Renaissance. Until then it would take tremendous intellectual effort just to preserve the remnants of Classical knowledge.

1. Canfora, Luciano, The Vanished Library, Vintage, London, 1987, pp. 87, 190-193, Wikipedia, Serapeum, Here, Library of Alexandria, Here, Hypatia, Here, St. Cyril Here.

2. IBID, Serapeum, Canfora, pp. 111-114.

3. Hypatia.

4. Serapeum, Canfora, pp. 137-144.

5. Library of Alexandria, Serapeum, For details regarding those alleged burnings see Canfora.

6. IBID, Canfora, pp. 66-70, 81-99, 109-118, 123-125, 137-144, 183-197.

7. Canfora, p. 87, Serapeum, St. Cyril, Wikipedia, Theon Here.
.
8. Hypatia.

9. IBID.

10. IBID, St. Cyril, Serapeum, Canfora, pp. 87-88.

11. Hypatia, St. Cyril.

12. St Cyril, Serapeum, Hypatia.

Pierre Cloutier

The Lizard is a Turkey
A Review of Godzilla: The Movie 

Poster for the movie Godzilla: The Movie 

More than ten years ago I saw Godzilla: The Movie (1998). What an experience that was! All bad!! The idea was to do an Americanized version of the low-budget Japanese camp classic films. The two guys who did this film were the same duo that brought us Independence Day. That should have warned us about what to expect. That and their quite public arrogance about what they were doing. They went on and on about how much better their film would be than any of the Japanese Godzilla movies. Well they blew it their film atrocity was worst than any of the Japanese Godzilla movies, but cost many, many multiples of all the Japanese Godzilla films put together. For not only was it lousy in virtually all respects it was no fun at all!!

This is, for Gods sake!, a Godzilla film so I didn’t go into the film with high expectations. I was expecting a silly, mindless and campy romp. What I got was something well below my lowest expectations and I had low expectations to begin with.

Poster of Godzilla: The movie 

To mention just a few of the films many shortcomings, the lizard is the T-Rex from Jurassic Park along with many scenes being carbon copy rip-offs of the same film. For example the chasing of the little Godzillas in the movie is copied from the fight with the Raptors in Jurassic Park. The plot is just plain dumb, like why the hell does Godzilla go to New York. Why does Godzilla not eat all the actors, I would think he would like turkey and ham sandwiches. Why does everyone behave like morons in the movie? Why is the editing so bad? Why does Godzilla not go to Hollywood and destroy the studio that inflicted this upon humanity?

The script and dialogue have to be heard to be believed, but then what can you say about a film whoose catch phrase is "size does matter". The acting is beyond pathetic, if you thought the wooden performances in Japanese Godzilla films is risible and bad just watch the performances in this film. The performances in the Japanese Godzilla film are at least funny, but in this film the performances are positively painful to watch. Also Godzilla's behavior makes absolutely no sense even in the context of the movie. Why the hell does Godzilla want to lay his / her?, eggs. (Whether or not Godzilla was male or female was something this movie could not make its mind up about.) however crazy the Japanese Godzilla pics they at least made sense in terms of the imaginary world created.

The two makers of this flick seem to have forgotten that a film of this type is not supposed to be "good", in fact it can be bad, but it MUST be fun. They forgot that and produced this abomination. Toho studios of Japan which made the Japanese Godzilla films had sold the rights to make this Godzilla movie. They were apparently so pissed off with the result that they swore never to sell off the rights to another Studio to make a Godzilla film ever again.

Ironically the cartoon series Godzilla: The Series,1 is in virtually every way superior to the movie even though it is a sequel to this thunderously bad movie. What is especially notable is that the acting (in this case the cartoon voice acting) is massively superior to the movie and most importantly the plots and scripts are a major improvement. But then it appears that our two makers of the film had little to do with the series.

Godzilla: The Movie, is the sort of movie for which I and anyone else who saw it should have been paid to see. A bad film can be quite enjoyable as the Japanese Godzilla films show; but this is beyond bad it was positively torture to watch.

DO NOT PAY MONEY TO SEE THIS FILM, RENT OR BUY THE VIDEO!

Scene from Godzilla: The Series 

1. For Godzilla: The Series, see Wikipedia Here, and The Ultimate Guide to Godzilla: The Series Here.

Pierre Cloutier