Category: Culture

Christ Is Kewl

Hollywood may have been unwilling to honor Mel Gibson for his blockbuster The Passion of the Christ, but it is definitely willing to cash in on the success of his movie by scavaging religious imagery to plump up otherwise thoroughly secular films:

"In the summer blockbuster movie Mr. & Mrs. Smith, from 20th Century Fox, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie play godless suburbanites and professional assassins. But when they steal their neighbor’s car for an extended chase scene, a crucifix hangs conspicuously from the rear-view mirror, and in the next scene the actors wear borrowed jackets that read ‘Jesus Rocks’ as they go on the lam.

"’We decided to make the next-door neighbor, whose crucifix it is, be hip, young, cool Christians,’ explained the movie’s director, Doug Liman. ‘It’s literally in there for no other reason than I thought: This is cool.’

"Liman isn’t alone. Mainstream Hollywood, after decades of ignoring the pious — or occasionally defying them with the likes of Martin Scorsese’s revisionist Last Temptation of Christ and Kevin Smith’s profane parody Dogma — is adjusting to what it perceives to be a rising religiosity in American culture."

GET THE STORY.

Uh huh. Sure.

What these Hollywood types don’t seem to understand is that Mel Gibson’s movie succeeded because it was sincere. It wasn’t aimed at milking the presumed "religiosity" of a target audience. (Had it been so crassly targeted it would have been far less overtly Catholic in its appeal to an overwhelmingly Evangelical Christian audience.) But draping a crucifix on a mirror and stuffing pop icons into "Jesus Rocks" jackets is so patently patronizing as to be immediately scorned by the audience whose bucks Hollywood wants.

Christians, in the eyes of Hollywood studios, are handy milch cows but are not worth taking seriously.

Harry Potter 6

Down yonder, a reader writes:

Read it myself.

I think we need a spoiler warning thread or we will all burst.

Your wish is my command.

One spoiler-warning thread coming up.

Abandon all right to complain about spoilers, ye who enter here.

SPOILER WARNING ON THE COMBOX!

UPDATE: Comments on this one are still going strong, so I’m bumping it up in the stack so folks who want to interact won’t have to scroll so far down to get to it.

Midnight Madness

For laffs and for lack of anything better to do that evening, I decided to try and pick up my pre-ordered copy of Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince at the “Midnight Magic” party my local bookstore was throwing to celebrate the release.  By the end of the evening, I wasn’t laffing and I was wishing I’d found something better to do with my time.  The only perk was actually getting the book.

The procedure called for picking up wristbands to claim your spot in line at 6 PM.  By the time I got there after work, people were already queuing up.  The bookstore’s café offered itty-bitty samples of Starbucks-esque coffee to the hot and cranky crowd, which was nice.  I nearly choked on my vanilla frappacino when a small boy of about eleven said solemnly to the brother he’d been roughhousing with, “Violence is never the answer…. Except in virtual reality, where violence is definitely the answer.”

Worried about parking hassles if I waited too long to come back to the store, I returned to the store around eight, figuring I’d grab one of the comfy armchairs and spend the evening reading.  With the exception of being continually distracted by hordes of screaming children running around the store in capes, Potter glasses, and homemade wands, I managed to get a lot of reading done.  About a half-hour before the sale, my eyes were drooping, so I decided to cruise around the store checking out the games and crafts stations.  The crowds made it impossible to see what was going on at those stations, of course.

Around fifteen minutes to midnight, I noticed a large group of people starting to crowd around the registers.  Interrogation of individuals in the crowd yielded the information that this was how we were expected to get the books.  Despite assurances that wristbands would be checked, it became obvious that the wristbands were a polite fiction.  I could have cruised into the store at 11:45, told the clerk distributing wristbands that I had pre-ordered, and then worked my way through the crowd to the register to present myself as first in line.  Fortunately for me and for the store, I was out within ten minutes with my copy, so there was no need to complain about the situation.  Next time though, when Year 7 is released, I’ll go the next day to pick up my copy.

This past weekend was spent reading Year 6.  All in all, very good.  I’m still bleary-eyed from the last couple of late-night reading marathons.  Despite the frustrations with the "Midnight Magic" brouhaha, the new Harry Potter book was well worth the wait.  It’s difficult to discuss my specific thoughts about the book without revealing huge, honking spoilers that would disappoint those who haven’t yet read the book, so that post will have to await a future date when more people have had a chance to finish the book themselves.  In the meantime, all I can say is that the climax is problematic, but I am hopeful that Rowling can play it out in Year 7 without destroying one well-loved character and another character for whom I’ve always had a grudging admiration.

Just Like a Fine Wine

RedhatAs an artist, I feel an obligation to look for beauty in the world and draw attention to it. Beauty deserves praise, and people benefit from giving praise where it is due.

To that end, I would like to call your attention to the man in the red hat. No, that is not the late Gene Scott, and no, this is not the beauty that I spoke of earlier. The man in the red hat is Gerry Rafferty, and it is his music to which I would like to call your attention.

Let me back up a bit… 1978. Disco was all over the radio, and punk had fought back, kicking and gouging. The New Wave had not yet broken. I had my favorite songs, like everyone, but there was one song that could turn me in to a road hazard every time I heard it on the car radio: Gerry Rafferty’s "Baker Street", which sported the most arresting hook and spine-tingling sax line ever devised in pop music. I often pulled over just to listen to it (ah, to be 17 again…). It was completely unique, and sheer genius.

So a couple days ago I’m poking around on Google, playing a round of "Whatever Happened To…" when I thought of Rafferty and decided to see what he’s been up to lately. Fortunately he has been making music, and his skills have not dulled, but matured. His new release, Another World, is a masterpiece. You want to talk about melodic structure? Vocal harmony? Spiritual depth? You don’t listen to this music, it just washes over you. But I’m gushing.

You can find out more about Mr. Rafferty and his music at his website, which features several free music downloads, including two traditional Christmas carols. If you have ever heard the National Anthem butchered by a showy vocalist (and who hasn’t?) you will appreciate his beautiful, understated harmonies.
Did I mention he also has a free download of his rendition of the Kyrie Eleison?

Enjoy…

I Need a Shower…

Berlusconi_200From our I Am Not Making This Up department, the Financial Times of London reports:

The Italian artist Gianni Motti has provided the latest scandal in the
name of art. His recent work “Mani Pulite” (”Clean Hands”) is a bar of
soap that he says is made from Italian prime minister Silvio
Berlusconi’s liposuctioned fat. After it was exhibited last month at
Art Basel, the world’s most influential art fair, a Swiss art collector
bought it for E15,000.

There is some doubt, however, as to whether this is really fat belonging to Berlusconi. The "artist" says he is open to DNA testing of the bath product in question.

Meanwhile, the Daily Planet reports that, in a recent development, Motti is working on designs for a candle made from the brain cells of the collector who purchased the Berlusconi piece.

He wasn’t using them, anyway.

GET THE STORY.

Didgeri – Do’s and Don’ts

Didgeridoo_1In a move that is sure to bring consternation to accomplished didgeridoo players the world over, Reuters has revealed the secret to getting the most from the enigmatic instrument.

It seems it’s all in the glottis, that little flap of skin at the back of the throat. According to a group of Australian scientists:

"We conclude that a major difference between a novice and an experienced player is a learned, but usually subconscious ability to
reduce the glottal opening…"

And all this time I thought it was all in the uvula! Ah, well… now I can take my trusty old didgeridoo out of mothballs and play my children to sleep as I have always dreamed of doing.

THE "SECRET" REVEALED!

JIMMY ADDS: Hmmmm. . . . As a result of practicing Semitic languages like Arabic, where glottal stops are considered a consonant, I’ve been practicing closing my glottis on command rather a lot. . . . Maybe I should take up the digeridoo.

Didgeri – Do's and Don'ts

In a move that is sure to bring consternation to accomplished didgeridoo players the world over, Reuters has revealed the secret to getting the most from the enigmatic instrument.

It seems it’s all in the glottis, that little flap of skin at the back of the throat. According to a group of Australian scientists:

"We conclude that a major difference between a novice and an experienced player is a learned, but usually subconscious ability to

reduce the glottal opening…"

And all this time I thought it was all in the uvula! Ah, well… now I can take my trusty old didgeridoo out of mothballs and play my children to sleep as I have always dreamed of doing.

THE "SECRET" REVEALED!

JIMMY ADDS: Hmmmm. . . . As a result of practicing Semitic languages like Arabic, where glottal stops are considered a consonant, I’ve been practicing closing my glottis on command rather a lot. . . . Maybe I should take up the digeridoo.

Peeking At Potter

Hpbritcover_1 Did you know that the latest installment in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince is on store shelves already?  Fourteen people managed to snag copies of The Half-Blood Prince before a Canadian store realized its mistake in selling before the July 16 release date and pulled the copies.

You’d think that this wouldn’t be an earth-shattering event.  After all, I’ve seen books sold in bookstores before their release date all the time.  It’s not kosher, but it’s routinely done.  Only if you’re a publishing industry superstar do you rate an iron-clad "no sale" prior to the official date.  When you’re J. K. Rowling, you rate a Canadian judge ordering the fourteen early-buyers to keep their mouths shut about the book’s contents:

"A handful of people in Canada got a sneak peak of the latest Harry Potter book, but a British Columbia Supreme Court judge ordered them to keep it a secret.

"The book was sold to 14 people who snagged a copy of J. K. Rowlings’ much anticipated Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, when it landed on shelves last Thursday at a local grocery store.

"The book, officially set for release this coming Saturday, has been shrouded in secrecy and its debut has been highly orchestrated to enable everyone — readers, reviewers, even publishers — to crack it open all at once. It’s the sixth in Rowling’s seven-book fantasy series on the young wizard.

"But the store slipped up and sold 14 copies before realizing its mistake."

GET THE STORY.

The individuals involved should be grateful that all that happened was that they were legally gagged by a Muggle judge.  A Wizard court would probably have made them drink one of Snape’s potions.

Fantastic Four: Movie of the summer?!

A few weeks back, when the best film of the summer, Batman Begins, opened, I posted expressing my hope that its opening weekend might end the worst U.S. weekend box-office year-over-year recession in 20 years.

Well, it didn’t… nor did any of a slew of other highly anticipated movies, including War of the Worlds, Revenge of the Sith, Cinderella Man, Kingdom of Heaven, and The Longest Yard.

According to studio estimates, though, the 20-week recession was finally broken… and to add insult to injury, the film credit with the achievement is another comic-book super-hero movie that’s as terrible as Batman Begins is great: Fantastic Four. (Get the story.)

So, what’s the lesson here? Why did Fantastic Four — an ensemble film with no star power from a fledging director based on a venerable but only moderately popular comic book — outperform Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise, Batman, Star Wars, Russell Crowe and Tom Howard, and Adam Sandler?

More pressingly, why did a lousy, badly reviewed film with only two tepid action sequences, one-note characterization, awful casting, mostly bad acting, dreadful dialogue, trashy humor, and lame special effects outperform an array of films that outshine it on almost every level imaginable?

Was I wrong to conclude in my earlier post that the message of the box-office recession was that moviegoers want better movies? Is the lesson here that quality doesn’t matter after all? That Marvel fans are a more reliable (or more forgiving) market than DC fans?

First of all, a plug: Jimmy and I will be discussing this and other movie-related topics today on Catholic Answers Live.

Second, a little perspective:

  • Fantastic Four’s opening domestic take of $56M is stronger than most of those other films — but not all of them. War of the Worlds actually opened much stronger, with a three-day opening weekend total of $64.5M — a figure that’s actually deceptively low, considering that much of its opening business wasn’t even in the Friday-to-Sunday period, since it opened on a Wednesday before the July 4 holiday (its six-day total was $112.7M).
  • Batman Begins likewise opened with a three-day take of $48.7M, somewhat lower than FF’s $56M — but here too Batman opened on a Wednesday, so its opening business wasn’t all concentrated into that three-day weekend total. Batman’s five-day opening take was $72.9M.
  • Fantastic Four isn’t single-handedly responsible for the end of the box-office recession. It was the convergence of FF plus continued strong performance from War of the Worlds and Batman, as well as other films. Had FF opened a month ago, likely it would not have broken the recession, and some other film would have.
  • It’s still too early to certify FF a hit. The figure that really matters now is the percentage of dropoff in the next week or two. Batman has been holding up well over the weeks, slipping a very modest 35% this past weekend to a $172.1M If FF tanks in its second or third weekend, as so many films do these days, it could still be a box-office turkey.

Still, with all that said, the question remains: Why did this film do so well?

Here is what I think is an important part of the answer:

Until FF, the big movies of summer have all — quite rightly — come with warnings not to bring the kids.

Even properties with built-in kid interest, such as Batman and Star Wars, have been the subjects of media and critical cautions that these films are too intense for young kids. And they are — and there’s nothing wrong with that.

As a result, though, the family market has been neglected. Yes, there have been traditional “family films” like Herbie: Fully Loaded and Madagascar. But families seem to crave films outside of the “family film” mold, i.e., cartoon-style comedies (whether live-action or animated) about children / families or anthropomorphic animals, cars, robots, etc, flatulence humor, kicks in the groin, etc.

Based on its marketing, FF, supposedly a “funny family action film,” seemed to fit the bill. Its initial success, like last year’s National Treasure (also not a great film, although much better than FF), may suggest that family audiences crave the same kind of thrills and action as teenagers and young adults, but without the heavy violence or sexual content. In fact, families may be so desperate for acceptable fare of this type that they will even embrace movies that are mediocre (National Treasure) or lousy (FF).

Unfortunately, it also seems, at least at the moment, that it may not be necessary that the movie be actually family-friendly — only that it be marketed and perceived that way. With FF, a running thread of trashy exploitative content, mostly in connection with the character of Johnny Storm, keeps it from being family-friendly, but it didn’t keep the studio from marketing the film to families.

And families, at least this weekend, seemed to buy it. Time will tell if word of mouth prevents the strategy from working in the long run… or whether family audiences really are the suckers some Hollywood studios think they are.

Listen today to Catholic Answers Live for more.