1. A week or so ago, my wife and I watched Dallas Buyers Club on NetFlix. We hadn't caught it when it was in theatrical release in 2013, even though it had grabbed a trio of Oscars. Pretty good film - and pretty topical in some ways: it tells the story of a 1980s-era AIDS patient who is stymied by the federal government from getting medications to treat his infection. So he goes to Mexico and other international locales to smuggle in effective medications from other countries. He then sets up a "buyer's club" as a sort of legal construct which allows him to share the drugs with other AIDS patients without falling afoul of anti-trafficking laws. The main character, played by Matthew McConaughey (winner, Academy Award, Best Actor), is an intolerant redneck with other massive character flaws, but he proves to be a plucky and shrewd entrepreneur, and he undergoes enough personal growth that we end up rooting for him. In this and in other ways, it's a surprisingly Republican film. His character's assistant in the business, a trans woman, also issue-y but sympathetic, played by Jared Leto (winner, Academy Award, Best Supporting Actor), may have been more transgressive of mainstream American mores in 2013 than she would be now.
The parallels are palpable with our time of COVID-19, as the country waits on tenterhooks for a vaccine to come, while the federal government is seen as a bungling obstacle to progress. Whether the NetFlix powers that be were attuned to the Zeitgeist and made their programming decision accordingly, or if it is just coincidence that the film is available now, it's worth watching in light of our current situation.
2. Although it has been a lot of years since I've sat down to watch it all the way through, Jaws (1975, perhaps unfairly passed over for major Academy Awards) also seems to be a film for our time. The great white shark as a symbol for the coronavirus is apt. And the town's reluctance to shut down for the summer season, with the resulting carnage, hits too close to home for comfort.
Any other cinematic or literary works from other eras that seem fresh again?
Well, there's always Michael Crichton's "Andromeda Strain", both the book and the movie. It was even scarier, 100% fatal. Unless you were a Sterno-drinking addict. Or a food-deprived baby.
ReplyDeleteAnd H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds". Our germs killed the alien invaders.
We went to the 1975 Jaws when it came out. What I remember is coming out of the theater afterwards, and suddenly relaxing. Until then I hadn't realized how tensed up I was.
Here are my excerpts from A Journal.if the Plague Year: https://www.librarything.com/topic/318666
ReplyDeletePale Horse, Pale Rider is Katherine Ann Porter's novella about the 1918 flu pandemic.
The Strain (Guillermo del Toro), I am Legend (Richard Matheson), and the Joe Pitt series (Charlie Huston) treat vampirism as a medical pandemic.
Well, right now I am in escapist mode. The last thing I want is to read a book or watch a movie that will just depress me further.
ReplyDeleteWe are starting on old movies, but not war movies or aliens or too much thinking movies. Lighthearted movies only. Tonight we watched Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief. Neither of us had ever seen it. Tomorrow will be Roman Holiday with Cary G again and Audrey Hepburn. Haven’t seen that either. In fact we might do a whole series of,Audrey Hepburn. Maybe followed by Katherine Hepburn movies. We haven’t seen most of the old movies, and even fewer of more recent movies. Never saw Jaws. Did see Jurassic Park - not as scary as America under trump .
Audrey Hepburn was good. My mom and I watched Roman Holiday, and Breakfast at Tiffany's.
DeleteSound of Music and South Pacific I could always watch again.
Sometimes stuff I enjoyed as a kid, like Wizard of Oz, is fun to watch again.
But some things you can't go back to. When I was in 7th grade a friend and I sat through King Kong vs Godzilla twice. Once tried to go down memory lane and watch it as an adult, but couldn't. Way too cheesy monster flick.
My grandfather had seen a silent-film version of The Phantom of the Opera when he was a kid - he was old enough that it may have been during the film's original theatrical release. Some 25 or so years ago, he and I were together in my mom and dad's family room, and the same movie was on television. He shared the memory with me that, in a particular dramatic scene, I believe where the Phantom is polaying the organ and spins around on the bench to face the camera, it had frightened him so much as a young boy that the hairs on his arm had stood on end. He still had a vivid memory of the sensation, some 70 or so years later. As we continued to watch the movie, the same scene came up on television a few minutes later - and it happened to him again; he showed me his arm so I could see the now-white hairs standing on end.
DeleteThat was sort of in character for him; in general, he could never let go of things, much more serious things, that had traumatized him. I think he was a grudge-carrier, too, although, like any good Catholic, it left him writhing with guilt that he wasn't able to forgive.
"Well, right now I am in escapist mode. The last thing I want is to read a book or watch a movie that will just depress me further."
DeleteI can relate. I started the stay-at-home era with ambitious reading plans, but I've more recently snapped back to comfort reading. I've been re-reading some Nero Wolfe mysteries - currently I'm reading the early-1950s vintage.
I will say that the two films I mentioned in the post, Dallas Buyers Club and Jaws, have their redemptive qualities. Watching them isn't all harrowing all the time; the experience can be a tonic for the stress we're feeling. In general, I don't think Americans have much taste for pure tragedy.
I saw Jurassic Park on television when it first was aired on broadcast TV, and it's been on a lot over the years, so it's one of the many films for which I'll watch for a few scenes and then flip to something else. If I'm not mistaken, the climax hinges on the Velociraptor habitat being located between the headquarters and the power plant, a design flaw which I just can't get past.
My dad liked to recall getting the creeps riding back from town in the dark past the cornfields after seeing The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He thought it was a football picture ...
DeleteTo be honest, I remember almost nothing about Jurassic Park. It was not traumatizing at all. The movie buff son dragged the whole family to see it on a big screen because he was blown away by the special effects. He s the currently unemployed freelance producer son. He always loved movies and was fascinated by how they were made. He made us watch the first three Star Wars movies too, but on VHS at home. Didn’t have to go to the movie theater. In our 47 years of marriage I doubt we’ve seen more than a five movies in a theater. Most movies we watched at home were movies our sons chose. Have watched very few movies since they left home. But now they are streamed so we’re trying a few of the older movies.
ReplyDeleteI’ve never even heard of the Dallas Buyers Club. Every year after the Oscars are awarded I am reminded of how out of touch we are with contemporary culture. We usually don’t recognize the names of the movies or of the actors who win the prizes.m
Anne, I hope your son is able to find work soon. I suppose if he was freelance he isn't eligible for unemployment. Hopefully some of the stimulus funds will be devoted to the plight of the self-employed.
DeleteWe see very few movies in the theater now. But saw a bunch of them when we were young. There wasn't much else going on in a small town, especially for dating couples. Back then there were drive-in theaters too. The scene of many steamed up car windows.
I am easily gripped and drawn into scary or tense scenes in movies, to the extent that I sometimes have to close my eyes. Funny story; years ago I was visiting family back home. My sister had promised to take her five year old daughter to a movie she wanted to see. But both she and her husband had a time conflict, and it was the last day the movie would be in town. So I offered to take my niece. It was a Disney animated flick, "Spirit", about a fearless and strong horse. There were some rather gripping scenes, and I must have gasped audibly. My niece said, "It's okay, Aunt Katherine, it's just a movie!"
ReplyDeleteI had a similar experience babysitting some kids and taking them to see "Old Yeller." No idea how it was going to end, and when I was sobbing in my Kleenex at the end the brats said disgustedly, "It's just a movie."
DeleteIt used to be that if you went to a Disney movie and saw a cute animal in the beginning, it was gonna be dead as a duck by the end of the show.
My boys were "Transformers" fans. In one of the movies, I think it was the second, they killed off a main character, Optimus Prime. Because being a shamelessly commercial venture, the wanted to introduce another main character, which kids would then clamor to buy the toy. My kids came out of the theater crying. There was such an outcry from fans that they had to bring Optimus Prime back to life in the next movie. I don't think very many kids bought the new character. So there, materialistic toy company, don't toy with young boys' affections!
Delete"It used to be that if you went to a Disney movie and saw a cute animal in the beginning, it was gonna be dead as a duck by the end of the show"
DeleteBambi dodged the bullet - literally.
The damned cat bought the farm in Cinderalla, though. (Spoiler alert.)
I don't think I ever saw Cinderella. Probably because my mother heard about the cat ... Was it sitting under the coach? It is stray cat season here, so I have to bang on the side of the car to scare off any cats before I get in.
DeleteAnd of course there was "Thomasina" the cat. She bought the farm too, but it all turned out okay, because she hadn't used up all her nine lives.
DeleteI read a short story a few years ago about a cat who lived in the rectory with a beloved older paster. But a malicious younger assistant pastor moves in. Wish I could remember who wrote it, or what it was called. It was in one of those best-American-short-stories anthologies which I checked out from the library.
DeleteRe escapist reading: I certainly understand that some people don't want more gloom and doom. However, A Journal of the Plague Year has many testaments to human decency, and a religious element we no longer have. The only really depressing aspect was comparing the response of the London city authorities in 1665 with Trump.
ReplyDeleteThe London city fathers were quick to act, had compassion for people, and saved thousands who otherwise would have died from starvation and civil unrest.
Then as now, people bucked quarantines, but London officials personally rode around to quarantined homes to check on people. They suppressed quack cures, distributed food and money, and published death stats every day so that people knew where the Plague was worst.
They solicited funds from residents who were rich enough to have homes in the countryside and distributed them where there was most need.
They sought advice from Italy, which had been hit hard by plagues in the recent past.
John Lawrence, Lord Mayor, must truly have been a saint.
That is impressive. Contrast with our valiant leader, who is so smart he seeks counsel from no wise person.
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