Hero?

I saw the new Zhang Limou/Jet Li movie Hero on Saturday. It's certainly one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen. And the acting was quite good, and the fights were spectacular, if overlong and overmany.

But.

At the end the whole film took a decidedly disturbing turn, one which seems to endorse the current Communist regime's brutal repression of dissent in China. Joshua Tanzer, in his review at OFFOFFOFF, also notices this ugly political message.

Plenty of people will just sit back and enjoy the fast-paced action, charismatic actors and lush colors of "Hero," so why get stuck on this one issue? Well, this question about how to respond to pro-fascist film has been around almost as long as film itself — we still debate the merits of the pro-slavery "Birth of a Nation" and the pro-Nazi "Triumph of the Will." (I would even throw in the less overtly pro-Jim Crow "Gone with the Wind.") And the answer is that films help shape our visual, psychological and intellectual instincts, and this is a film that teaches beauty, violence and authoritarianism at once. A beautiful film that exalts killing opponents of the state is a beautiful parchment on which is written, in the most elegant calligraphy, a manifesto for evil.

(hero)


8/31 update: Two readers' letters to salon.com about Salon's review of Hero

...and Jerry Mathers as Robin, the Boy Wonder.

Mike Sterling's Progressive Ruin has a rather amazing find: two comics fans' letters, published in JLA #17 (July 1963), casting a hypothetical JLA movie.

---

Dear Editor: I think that the Justice League of America ought to be in the movies. Here are my ideas about who should play who:

     Aquaman - Troy Donahue
     Wonder Woman - Carole Wells (with black wig)
     Flash - Edd Byrnes
     Batman - Vince Edwards
     Green Arrow - Bobby Darin
     Snapper Carr - John Ashley
     Martian Manhunter - Gordon Scott (with make-up)
     Superman - Efrem Zimbalist
     Green Lantern - Roger Smith
     Atom - Michael Landon (with help of trick photography)

Jim Dismukes, 2141, Walz Drive, Savannah Ga.

(How's this for a remarkable coincidence - which really happened, as contrasted to a fictional one that no one would ever believe: in the same mail, we received two letters -- both from Georgia -- suggesting a cast of characters to portray the JLA in the movies! We offer them both for our readers to compare and deliberate over. -- Editor)

***

Dear Editor: I like the JLA so much that you should have them in the movies. Let me know how you feel about my selections:

     Green Lantern - Edd Byrnes
     Flash - Troy Donahue
     Martian Manhunter - Steve Reed
     Wonder Woman - Tuesday Weld
     Green Arrow - ?
     Aquaman - Lloyd Bridges
     Atom - Dean Martin
     Batman - Robert Taylor
     Superman - ?
My original choice for Green Arrow was Clark Gable, but he has since passed on. And I can't think of anyone to replace the late George Reeves in the role of Superman.

Joe B. Allen,
350 Altoona Place, SW, Atlanta 10, Ga.

A Letter to the New York Times

Sir -
In your story, The Boys From "South Park" Go To War I came across the following passage: "His partner, Mr. Stone, glumly agreed: 'We're so dumb.' (Except that he added a four-letter word. Many of their sentences include four-letter words.)" Later, we read, "'We hate both of them,' Mr. Parker confirmed. 'They're both retards. We have to choose between a' — four-letter word — 'sandwich and a' — same four-letter word — 'sandwich.' O.K., so they're not exactly nuanced." And finally, "'It's just a dumb puppet movie.' (Except he added a four-letter word.)"

Which four-letter word do you mean? I do like to consider myself well-versed in most current obscenities, profanities and vulgarities. But the only term I find it likely that Messrs Stone and Parker would have used, in each instance, the adjective form of the legendary "F-word", is seven letters. So I went and checked my copy of The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage. Under the entry for "obscenity, profanity, vulgarity" I read the following:

The Times also forgoes offensive or coy hints. An article should not seem to be saying, "Look, I want to use this word, but they won't let me." Generally that principle rules out telltale strings of hyphens or dashes (The prosecutor is full of ----). Editors may sparingly allow paraphrase of a term, if it truly sheds light on a serious question. But a phrase like the legendary barnyard expletive, ambiguous about the animal to which it alludes, may raise questions as distracting as those it answers.

(You do have a copy, right?)

If there is a new four-letter adjective obscenity, profanity, or vulgarity that the Hollywood in-crowd is using, I think it is the Times's obligation - nay, duty! - to inform the American public.

C'mon, at least give us a hint...

Yours,
MRJEFF3000

PS -- "Blame Canada" was not so much the theme of the South Park series, as it was of the movie, South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut.

Eagle Rock, Topanga State Park

All the cool bloggers hang out at Eagle Rock in Topanga State Park...

Super Special Bonus Secret Extra Credit Questions: Who's that fellow in the white T-shirt in the foreground? And what the heck has he got on his head?

Danny Boy

News from the mysterious East!

It's not often that MRJEFF can do his small part in this whole corrupt networking/logrolling thing, but longtime chum Dan Renkin sends word of recent career doings:

New York, NY: Caucasian Chalk Kurosawa (fight direction) "There are cool sword fights (by Dan Renkin and Brad Lemons), and grade-A nifty plastic-and-fishnet costumes (Virigina Tuller) and a healthy dose of East Village Wierdness."

Bridgeport, CT: Shakespeare at the Zoo - A Midsummer Night's Dream (Nicholas Bottom) "I would be remiss if I did not point out that the entire cast did an outstanding job. Dan Renkin as Nicholas Bottom, the pompous actor who is turned into a donkey, delivers an absolutely hilarious performance. Thanks in large part to his performance, the park not only was filled with exotic sounds and sights, but also with the happiest sound in the world - children's laughter. Every time Bottom hee-hawed or spoke donkinese, children in the audience laughed without reserve."

Boston, MA: As Bees in Honey Drown "Fight choreographers Brad Lemons and Dan Renkin construct a very convincing melee."

monkeyview.net

Random photo sites provide a voyeuristic thrill. Some people are artsy and talented, while some are...well, they have a rawer talent.

(Monkeyview.net)

Brouwerij Henri Maes

Brewery sign, Brugges, Belgium
01 August 2004

The Atomium

Atomium (8/2/04, modified photo)

Statue of Bela Bartok, in Brussels, Belgium

(8/2/04, modified photo)

Meanwhile, in Boston...

PS - all this time I have been pretty well insulated from the news. So, sadly, I have missed all the Dem convention coverage. I really hope C-Span (and/or its website) will continue to make the speeches available.

PPS - it's kind of annoying traveling with a bunch of goddamn red-staters who think that George W. is just the cat's meow, and who interpret an attack on the ability of the man to be president as an attack on the USA and on themselves personally.

In fact, while Europeans are almost universally against the re-election of Bush, there is a very positive attitude toward America and Americans here.

So: Go Kerry! Go USA! Go World!

Still in Europa

Well, we have come to the end of the biking portion of the journey, and are back on the bus. MRJEFF is blogging from Brugge, Belgium right now.

It has been a rough week for your old pal, as he either caught a bit of a bug, or encountered some mild food poisoning. Either way, it's no way to spend one's vacation. Luckily this hasn't kept a trooper like me down and out, at least not both at the same time.

By the way - if this is Europe, where are all the undraped breasts at? You'd think they'd be everywhere, the way this place is advertised.

Anyhoo, that's it for now. More when I get back to the other side of the ocean. Pictures, too.

MRJEFF
Brugges, Belgium
01/08/04 2:09 PM