Movie Critique

This will be a place where I will make critical assessments of movies as well as rate them on a 10 point scale and compare them side-by-side with other movies.

Solarbabies - Favorite Childhood Movies

Childhood movies - My brother Kyle Kenny and I grew up on a number of movies in the 80's. I guess that I can understand why older people like black and white movies and people in my generation dont see the value in them as much. These movies bring me back to a time of innocence.

These movies are in no particular order of merit.

#1 - Solarbabies - Solarbabies is about a group of orphans who are locked away in a futuristic orphanage. 

They play this "skateball" game that is like lacrosse with skates. Solarbabies is the name of their team.

One day they uncover a cavern with this glowing ball named "Bodi" that has a personality and has healing abilities. 

Another of the orphans steals this ball and flees the orphanage to sell it to wandering maraders. The Solarbabies take off in pursuit of this ball also. 

This movie is portrayed in the future and the despotic government has gained power by trapping the water. The world becomes a desert wasteland and they have the only water to distribute. They find out about Bodi and steal it so that they can experiment on it to discover the source of its power. 

After a few misadventures including finding some of their long-lost relatives that are rebels against the government, they decide to break-into the government facility and both find bodi and release the water. This facilitates the commencement of the water cycle shown below and Rain ensues.

In the final moments of the movie they are dancing together with Bodi, mission complete.

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So why do I like this movie? Well first of all its from my childhood. 

Secondly, its probably the first dystopic movie that I have ever seen, my introduction to dystopia. Utopic/dystopic genre is my favorite in both film and literature. As a dystopic movie, it shows that a government can gain absolute power by controlling a necessary resource.

Richard Cory, what do you think?

I've been thinking about Richard Cory for sometime now, I dare say close to 10 years he's been on my mind. Do you remember Richard Cory...

"

WHENEVER Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,	5
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
“Good-morning,” and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich,—yes, richer than a king,—
And admirably schooled in every grace:	10
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,	15
Went home and put a bullet through his head." by Edwin Arlington Robinson

Before reading, post something about what you think or feel about this poem and then read on.

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I think originally teachers show this poem to their students because its short and it sparks instant conversation. Kids like me thought that it was cool, other kids thought it was sad. Some thought that it was about depression, others saw Richard Cory as the kind of man who has everything, and he commits suicide because life has nothing more to gain, nothing more to live for. Perhaps another theory is that the whole time we are thinking about how amazing Richard Cory's life is, he is thinking about us, about how nearly infinite are the possibilities of our life. This is a man who is perfect in every way, he was humble (he talked to people as equals, not less), he was schooled in grace or elegance, gentleman, clean cut, etc. 

Does this poem say something about the benefit of having flaws. As a man who has many, I would say "yes". I love my flaws, they motivate me to improve myself even in ways that don't specifically address said flaw. 

How movies make me feel

I think that the reason why I love movies so much, and any form of art in general, is because it expresses in words, actions, pictures, even in notes of a piece of music, what I feel, or how I felt but could not find the words to express it properly. 

I began to notice this when I started to read poetry in my college classes and the poets had a way of reaching out to me and helping me understand that I am not alone in thinking a certain way, or feeling a certain way. I wish that I kept a more detailed journal back then! Once I made the connection between my feelings and Art (I will have to dedicate a post to what I think is "art") then a new world opened up to me. Finally I started to believe in the Collective Unconscious - The Jungian idea that the human race (our species) shares similar expereinces that guides teh individual into a better actualization of his/her individualism. As I slowly began to look at the written and spoken word, picture (both still and moving) and music, as a conduit to explain my life. 

Maybe this isnt making any sense so I will illustrate it with some recent examples; I would have millions of examples by now if I was more diligent with journal keeping.

The Song "Up against the wall" by Boys like Girls. Perhaps a song that barely anyone interested in reading this has ever heard of, but this song is so key to how I felt when I was going through my divorce. 

"It's over

Look out below
And I'm wasted
I still taste it
Yeah it's so hard to let go
So breathe in now
And breathe it out
The forecast
A car crash
It's looking like another...

Breakdown, rebound
This could be my last goodbye
You cross your heart, I hope to die

And I can't deny your eyes
You know I try to read between the lines
I saw a warning sign
And then you threw me up against the wall
Who said that it's better to have loved and lost?
I wish that I had never loved at all

No rewinds
No second times
And I won't break
I won't waste, everything you left behind
So don't follow
Just let it go
The weather's, been better
Don't let it be another...

Breakdown, rebound
This could be my last goodbye
You cross your heart, I hope to die"

This song is about a guy who is in a disastrous relationship and he is trying to break up with this girl. I really loved the line "I cant deny your eyes" because with my ex-wife, I couldn't say no when she started to cry, once I saw those eyes water up then I would cave in, every time and she knew it. I felt, but couldn't put it into words until this song, that "I wish that I had never loved at all." You are fed this idea that Tennyson originally penned, "It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all" (In Memorandum 27;1850). And when something bad happens, when something tragic occurs you instantly think about Tennyson's quote even though it completely contradicts your true inner feelings. Boys like Girls broke from that tradition and penned (so to speak) their feelings "Who said that its better to have loved and lost, I wished that I had never loved at all." I like to think that women are more complicated in our day and age. In the 1850's women did not have suffrage, in many 1st world civilized countries women were still seen as "less-than-equal" to a man. So I deduce that women, for the most part weren't as free-thinking (much lower college attendance) than women of today. But with free-thinking comes the ability to destroy a man more efficiently. Of course men have always had that ability for cruelty, Women only just caught up. :) So today, you have these situations like the song, like my experience where the woman has you trapped and you really do wish that you had never "fell in love." 

Another example of my point comes from the "Army Strong" theme song. 

This Commercial motivates me so much to do anything, really. Its funny that throughout my military training, whenever I have to do something that takes me out of my comfort zone, like being a 100 feet in the air, crossing between two towers on only one rope, I inevitably think of this song. Any Army soldier will tell you that this tune gets stuck in your head the moment someone starts to whistle it. It expresses in music, the desire to serve the nation. Mixed with written words and powerful moving pictures, you have the ultimate recruiting tool. :)

Well I will write down some more later as they come to me but I think that the point is clear that I love Art in all of its forms when it speaks things that I have only felt, but that I have never been able to capture in words before. speaks words of the soul.

Film teachers

In regards to your question about how film should be taught...
First off, I only read that question since it was in bold, perhaps my ideas coincide with yours, but I wanted to respond first so that I can say that I wasnt biased from your opinions. 

I think that eventually film will be exclusively taught as any other "art" form is currently being taught. You will have some professor who spent years in a top tier school writing some dissertation so that he can be the authority of costume wigs in elizabethan period pieces. Then they will give him a classroom and young maluable minds fresh for the molding, and have him teach some general survey class and, his instruction, his material, those "perfect" film pieces that he subjects his students to view will be biased because his utopic bliss is grounded in some hair-piece fetish.

I was once told, by my mentor (who taught English at BYU to not further my studies in English Literature, after I got my bachelors degree. After I told him how much I loved reading and studying books of all genre, he told me that graduate school will destroy your love of literature and essentially make you myopic. Your masters program is designed to narrow your view to a certain period- Elizabethan, for instance. Your doctorate work will further narrow your scope to one author and most times one peice of literature and one critical theory (marxist, formalist, feminist, etc). And you study and research for 4+ years on one inch of the miles and miles of literary beauty out there.

Perhaps this seems far fetched...I hope it does and I hope that it never happens, but it probably will. Man hasnt changed in academia since Socrates was sentenced to death by poison for "corrupting the youth." Thats what usually happens to those who fight against the prevaling wind. 

Sure there are the exceptions and I hope that anyone who is currently aspiring to be a teacher of Film will follow their dreams and teach their hearts out in their local community college! 

If this was a perfect world then teachers would nurture a love for film in their student. That means, even though we might have to bite our tongues once in a while, allowing our students to appreciate films based on "watcher-response"(adapted from literature's reader response). 

I dont know much about film theory, I do know that I love watching movies. A great movie is great when I feel like I'm the protagonist while Im watching it. I'm so absorbed in the character that when its over, I still feel like Im the character- like a dream, when you wake up its hard for a short while to distinguish between reality and imagination. 

But that's crazy talk, especially for anyone who doesnt have the imagination of a preschooler like I do.

(taken from my comments from http://janasworldofdew.blogspot.com/)