Game of Thrones
Excellent Game of Thrones strikes me as excessively grim. I guess
that was life like in the Middle Ages if you throw out theological
debates, building of the great cathedrals, emerging science, engineering
inventions and geographic discoveries: just power struggles between
princes, murders and rape.
The society, invented by
Martin has a social structure of Europe in the X Century but the
resources and warmaking techniques of the XIV-XV Centuries. Thus, it all
degenerates in unbelievable carnage. Naturally, the disordered
societies of the Dark Ages had little resources to field large armies
and fleets (probably, most "armies" numbered a few hundred men and a few
dozen riders) and had little mobility because of the primitive
logistics and poverty of the land. Population density was low and
forests and rivers--impassable, so that, probably, many of the
"conquered" tribes got aware that they were conquered only after several
decades never having to meet their new overlords in flesh and blood.
The warfare of the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Europe was
supported by denser populations but it was tampered by many strictures
of the contemporary society: essentially extraterritorial nature of the
Church, developing diplomacy, rise of the power of mercantile classes, etc. etc.
My blog reviews movies as political, historical or social commentary with intentional disregard for their artistic or cinematic value. One foe of American political scientists and economists is that they ignore movies as sources to inform them on changes in American culture, view exoticism as a hallmark of "foreigness" and, at the same time, impart American values and judgment to foreign movies.
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Zero Dark Thirty
Zero Dark Thirty
Ms. Kathryn Bigelow was disingenuous that her film does not endorse torture. She claimed that she simply showed things as they were without moral assessment.
Yet, the image of the torturer--intelligent, sensitive, animal-loving guy--which she created is her fantasy. Torture changes not only the tortured but also the torturers. All accounts tell that these positions very soon are becoming occupied by constitutional sadists and psychopaths for whom precisely the power of application or withdrawal of deadly force constitutes the main attraction of their occupation. While exceptions always exist, the art has a generalizing property which inevitably reflects on the artist.
In the end, as Group Captain Lionel Mandrake told General Jack D. Ripper about his Japanese captors "they were not interested in my answers. They were kind-of having fun." When Napoleon, the mass murderer and Jacobin General, instructed Marshal Berthier to prohibit torture he did so not out of humanistic impulses but because he insisted on unreliability and worthlessness of the whole procedure.
Ms. Kathryn Bigelow was disingenuous that her film does not endorse torture. She claimed that she simply showed things as they were without moral assessment.
Yet, the image of the torturer--intelligent, sensitive, animal-loving guy--which she created is her fantasy. Torture changes not only the tortured but also the torturers. All accounts tell that these positions very soon are becoming occupied by constitutional sadists and psychopaths for whom precisely the power of application or withdrawal of deadly force constitutes the main attraction of their occupation. While exceptions always exist, the art has a generalizing property which inevitably reflects on the artist.
In the end, as Group Captain Lionel Mandrake told General Jack D. Ripper about his Japanese captors "they were not interested in my answers. They were kind-of having fun." When Napoleon, the mass murderer and Jacobin General, instructed Marshal Berthier to prohibit torture he did so not out of humanistic impulses but because he insisted on unreliability and worthlessness of the whole procedure.
K-19, the Widowmaker
K-19, The Widowmaker
Image property of Paramount Medien (C )
The only Western film I know not showing "Russkies" as villains and/or bumbling idiots. It was rejected by the American public precisely because of that but also by survivors of the K-19 who were used to portrayal of Soviet military/navy in overtly heroic terms. Since Kathryn never mentions this movie in her interviews, it seems that she was bruised by this reception. That is what you get for being honest.
The flick by Kathryn Bigelow is painstakingly accurate to the minor details. Once looking at some submarine gauge, I registered--now I know what the factory my mother worked on was making--in silent feel of satisfaction. Uniforms are accurate; military ranks, decorations are accurate--Kathryn really did her homework. Both Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson are perfectly believable as the Russians of their generation.
Image property of Paramount Medien (C )
The only Western film I know not showing "Russkies" as villains and/or bumbling idiots. It was rejected by the American public precisely because of that but also by survivors of the K-19 who were used to portrayal of Soviet military/navy in overtly heroic terms. Since Kathryn never mentions this movie in her interviews, it seems that she was bruised by this reception. That is what you get for being honest.
The flick by Kathryn Bigelow is painstakingly accurate to the minor details. Once looking at some submarine gauge, I registered--now I know what the factory my mother worked on was making--in silent feel of satisfaction. Uniforms are accurate; military ranks, decorations are accurate--Kathryn really did her homework. Both Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson are perfectly believable as the Russians of their generation.
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