Jesus Killed the Radio Star

I've always enjoyed the work of Robert Zemeckis (especially Contact, Death Becomes Her and the Back to the Future Trilogy). He's not Spielberg, but he's not trying to be either. Like Spielberg (or more accurately Cameron and Lucas) however, technology fascinates Zemeckis and he's always pushing the boundaries. Since the days of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Zemeckis has been developing tools to expand his ability to create worlds for his characters to inhabit. I never get the sense that he's incorporating all this technology just because he can; it's almost always integral to the story.

Beowulf with respect to technology, picks up where The Polar Express left off. I never saw the latter, but I remember how eery the characters looked. The conductor modeled after Tom Hanks looked a bit frightening because of how glassy and lifeless his eyes appeared. There is a psychological-effect that arises from observing a creature that looks more human than not. As the mimicry approaches perfection, the more troubling the doppleganger appears to the viewer. Maybe they remind us of dead bodies; I'm not sure, but I know it freaks people the hell out. Beowulf doesn't suffer from this problem to quite the degree that The Polar Express does. For the most part, I marveled at how photo-realistic the CG characters were. Anthony Hopkins' King Hrothgar impressed me the most. It seemed to capture the essence of Anthony Hopkins completely and if you just happened to glance at the screen for a few seconds, you might actually mistake the animated character for the flesh and blood person. The technology is that good (with the exception of the Robin Penn avatar who looks a little too soft and less detailed).

Ray Winstone's Beowulf is an achievement, but for all of us who remember Ray Winstone in this:

"I...AM...BEOWULF!!!"

It's not just a little bit hilarious to see him portrayed like this:


Okay, so enough about how cool the movie looks. Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary have taken a much hallowed mythopoeic text and created a worthy interpretation not merely accessible to modern audiences, but relevant as well. (I don't mean relevant to the Iraq War or current credit-implosion driven economic woe, but "relevant" as in relevant to modern schools of thought and sensibilities.) The movie is a deconstruction (in the popular sense, not the way-above-my-head Derrida sense) of hero-worship and looks at a crucial moment in history where humanity underwent a paradigm shift in how we create/worship our deities. The importance of stories is stressed throughout the film. In the world Beowulf inhabits, the story defines the man. He is literally nothing without it. Our early introduction to Beowulf reveals him to be somewhat of an embellisher; as a narrarator he's unreliable. He's a braggart, but this isn't a necessarily negative quality in his world. He's the type of guy who might have killed a giant, but in the re-telling speaks about how he killed five, with his bare hands, naked, while shaking off a hangover. Either way, he's no coward and his actions speak just slightly less loud than his words.

The other theme that arises in the movie is how Jesus Christ came to supplant not only the old Nordic gods (Tyr,Odin, Thor, etc.--shoutout to the Norse gods for giving us the days of the week!), but the for-all-intents-and-purposes human gods such as Beowulf. Prior to Christ, in order to achieve immortality (which when you think about it is the baseline definition of a god) a man needed his name to live on in story, song, etc.; he needed some way to have his identity forever entwined in the collective human consciousness. The advent of Jesus meant that anybody could become immortal. All they had to do was accept Christ. Beowulf laments this development, stating with a measure of moroseness in his voice something akin to, "Back in my day, you had to earn it, guldarnit!" Not bad for what most people will dismiss as a 90 minute overly violent cartoon.

Gaiman has plumbed these depths before with the seminal Sandman series and in his novel American Gods. He's perhaps the best post-modern storyteller we have today. If I had my druthers, I'd teach Sandman in a college lit course. Yes, it's that good. And that's all I've got to say about that for now.

Go check it out. Preferably in IMAX 3-D. You live in a terrible and wonderful age.

Recommended Bathroom Reading

It must be pretty gratifying to take a lame-@$$ character from the 80s and make him cool. Kudos to Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker (and David Aja whose cover art makes me wonder what Jae Lee is getting into these days). I breezed through "The Last Iron Fist Story" graphic novel and will probably get caught up with the current storyline when I get a chance. It's a good read (not better than Y, sorry) and might actually get me going to the comic book store on a regular basis again. Maybe I'll pick up some issues of Black Panther while I'm at it (the Christopher Priest issues anyway).

So Daniel Rand is the current in a long line of Iron Fists whose sole purpose is to, uh, do wicked Kung-Fu on all would-be enemies of their mystical homeland, K'un L'un. Okay, I can work with that. The only thing I remember of the original Iron Fist comic is him punching through the hood of a car, because his fist was, you know, as tough as iron. Fraction and Brubaker expand extensively on what an Iron Fist can actually do. Now we've got hypnosis, chi-powered weaponry, invulnerability and who knows what else. Okay, I'm on board.

My only gripe is the whole billionaire/vigilante angle. I don't know if that was in the original, but don't we have enough of those? Tony Stark, Bruce Wayne, Warren Worthington, Richie Rich...I guess it's about having all that free time.

Speaking of the Eighties, as I'm writing this, I'm watching Friday the 13th Part VI and the movie blows but has two highlights. First, there's a shot of a bunch of little campers in their bunks sleeping and one kid who looks about eight has Sartre's No Exit resting on his chest. Second, it has an awesome theme song in the credits by Alice Cooper called "He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)". Sample lyrics:

You're with your baby
And you're parked alone
On a summer night
You're deep in love
But you're deeper in the woods
You think you're doin' alright

Did you hear that voice
Did you see that face
Or was it just a dream
This can't be real
That only happens, babe
On the movie screen

Oh, but he's back
He's the man behind the mask
And he's out of control
He's back
The man behind the mask
And he crawled out of his hole

You're swimmin' with your girl
Out on lovers' lake
And the wind blows cold
It chills your bones
But you're still on the lake
That's a bad mistake

But the moon was full
And you had a chance
To be all alone
But you're not alone
This is your last dance
And your last romance

Wow...much like our beloved hockey-masked walking abattoir, the Eighties will never die.

Quit Your Day Job

Ben Affleck is far more interesting behind the camera than in front of it. Don't get me wrong; I've never had any particular dislike of Affleck or his acting abilities. He just never took any roles that made me take notice of him. He's good-looking in that sort of bland Hollywood way. The best I can say about him as an actor is that he's inoffensive. However as a director, he's distinguished himself as a mature talent with a strong voice who (if Gone Baby Gone is any indication) will have a great run.

About halfway through Gone Baby Gone, I sat there thinking: "Okay, not bad. This is a pretty competent film. Fairly engrossing." By the end of the movie, I kept saying to myself, "Wow. That was really good. Exceptional even..." Gone Baby Gone is one of those films that leaves you with something to chew on afterwards, a sort of moral quandary in the vein of Seven or In the Bedroom. It's impressive that Affleck would choose material that's this challenging for his first foray behind the camera. Then again, it seems many actors who choose to get behind the camera are fairly intelligent and not just looking to make vanity projects. Sean Penn, Robert Redford and Denzel Washington are just a few actor/directors who've made some seriously respectable films. (Penn's Into the Wild is a perfect example.) Affleck lets his scenes breathe and although his actors get intense at moments, they never become caricatures or just chew scenery (Okay, Ed Harris does a little bit, but I love Ed Harris. He can do whatever the hell he wants.). Casey Affleck also deserves special mention. He's the real deal. I didn't care enough about The Assassination of Jesse James etc. to really give his performance in it much thought. In Gone Baby Gone, he sells the character perfectly and he has to otherwise the conclusion of the narrative would have felt false.

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that Affleck pulls off his first directing job which such aplomb. He is after all the same guy who co-wrote Good Will Hunting, which required a certain level of skill to not come across as (too) contrived. He's obviously an intelligent guy. Regardless of how this film does, he'll have at least one paying customer willing to see his next. Word, son.