Mr. Helmsing’s Backyard

From time to time I hope to post thoughts for your consideration about one of my passions - film.  I visit our local cinemas frequently (usually with my fellow film connoisseur Mr. Phibeck and at times with other film aficionados Ms. Sandberg, Mr. Aiken, Ms. Loser and even Ms. Sweeney and Mr. Chaffin have been known to take in a flick with me). 

Sunday evening I viewed Apocalypto, the new ‘epic film’ by Mel Gibson.  As I suspected, the theatre was not packed.  I suspect it might be due to the public out-lash at Gibson’s recent media blemishes, or because of the absence of English in the film, but it could also be due to the excessive amount of violent bloody fighting.  Its the last that sticks with you long after the film reel ends.  To know anything about the Mayan civilization is to know they vanished mysteriously without any conclusive evidence of how.  Modern anthropologists are unsure as to how their civilization died out, but from viewing this film, it’s easy to see how.  The focus seems to be on the brutality and ritualistic atrocities that come across as completely unacceptable by modern Western cultural standards.  Yet the idea of human sacrifice, like any good text - movie or book- is full of possible metaphors.  Some have said the film’s theme on human sacrifice and violence is analogous to the war in Iraq (sure to get political pundits in an uproar) while others claim it is commenting on American’s evaporating sense of community and family unity.  The film was made in Mexico with an almost completely Mexican cast of actors.  It’s visually enthralling, but the narrative is confusing…and speaking of confusing narratives…

 …I saw Stranger Than Fiction today after school.  It stars Will Ferrel and the superb English actress Emma Thompson with supporting roles by Dustin Hoffman and Queen Latifah.  The film is difficult to explain, except that it has some vague similarities to films such as Adaptation and Being John Malkovich.  Emma Thompson’s performance is wonderful, but the film drags in the middle after an interesting end and before a fulfilling ending.  You might have to be a literary buff (or at least have some comfortable understanding of terms like narrative, plot, subtext, etc.) to enjoy some aspects of the film.