CITIZEN KANE (1941) Review

Lauded by some as the greatest movie ever made, this exuberant hit piece against one of America’s wealthiest men is a true classic. But it ended up destroying the meteoric career of the young prodigy who made it, Orson Welles, and revealed more about its creator than the target. This made the film a tragedy in ways far beyond what Welles intended.

The attitude of the production is set right at the beginning of the film as the stark open face type appears silently in brilliant white against a solid black background. In a darkened movie theater, the effect must have been very dramatic. I could have typed “tone of the production,” but attitude is the correct word -- for the le’infant terrible known as Orson Welles was all attitude at all times. Not quite shock effect, but a clear and loud demand for attention is made by this opening title. Which turns out to fit the story of Charles Foster Kane very well as the story unwinds.

The atmosphere becomes film noir, if not that of a horror film in the first scenes shown of a decaying palatial estate shrouded in fog. With Bernard Herrmann providing the score, a feeling of unease is generated. Having always heard of the greatness of the movie, I can remember wondering just what I’d gotten myself into the first time I watched it. This was not the kind of beginning I was expecting. “What is this, a Universal Pictures horror film?” I mused.

Then the most famous single word line in movie history is uttered and it happens to be the first word in the movie.

Fortunate of me to have forgotten to turn off the captioning, eh? With that softly spoken word, the man who utters it dies and drops a snow globe he had been clutching. As it rolls and shatters on the floor, the mystery that drives the story begins.

A newsreel covers the death of Charles Foster Kane and provides the broad strokes of the life of one of the most wealthy men in America, from his humble youth to uncountable riches and fame to finally dying a recluse. It is his failure in politics that catches the eye the most, especially his declaration that there “will be no war in Europe.” In itself, this is an impressive sequence that speedily tells us about the main character.  Despite that, Kane is hard to peg down, being a man called a communist by business and a fascist by labor.  There remains a sense of mystery about him. The date is 1941.

The newsreel ends and we are introduced to the reporter who will be our proxy in investigating the mysterious tycoon. Jerry Thompson will be our eyes and ears trying to find out who this mysterious “Rosebud” is. It is his interviews with associates of Kane that form the narrative of the movie in what can be a dizzying shift of times and settings. It is all executed with great gusto and is never confusing, which is no small trick.

That’s William Alland playing Thompson on the right.  Interesting how he doesn’t get his face shown in the credits like the rest of the cast. But if he is our stand in, it makes sense. But it is more likely he was more comfortable behind the scenes since he became a producer of famous and not so famous B-movies of the 1950’s including The Creature from the Black Lagoon.

After the first failure to interview Kane’s second wife, a drunken singer in a nightclub, Thompson finds his way to the memorial archives of Walter Parks Thatcher. The “bookends” set in the present time are good, snarky fun with the archives looking like something out of a German silent film as the beleaguered reporter deals with the woman in charge. Allowed to read one section of Thatcher’s memoirs under a strict time limit in the vast and lonely room, Thompson gets a glimpse into the young Charles Foster Kane from 1871.

What we get to see is an overly energetic boy who comes off as something of a brat despite his poverty. Thatcher is the banker who comes to take the boy away as his mother Mary Kane has come into unexpected wealth. Determined that Charles have a completely different life, she signs him over to go live in Colorado. Not having been warned about this, the boy does not take it well.

So begins his resentment against the banker put in charge of his life. It is something that will motivate him for years to come.

Mary Kane’s actress, Agnes Moorehead, is best known for being the scheming mother-in-law in the Bewitched television series, but like most of the cast made her film debut in Citizen Kane. She was a much better actress on the silver screen than the idiot box.

As the stuffy and disciplined Thatcher, English actor George Coulouris made an indelible impression that launched a long career as a character actor. His often exasperated performance made for an excellent foil against the resentful Welles.

Next person for Thompson to visit is Mr. Bernstein who still manages the newspaper syndicate Kane built up. There we insight into the young man who was Charles Foster Kane since Bernstein was there from the beginning.

When Kane comes into his inheritance he has no interest in being the dutiful head of a corporation. Instead, he wants to play with a small newspaper, The New York Enquirer. Why? Because it would be “fun.” That care free attitude makes the scenes of taking over the staid little paper great fun. There is a gleefully manic energy that suffuses every moment, making them sparkle.

Lest you think there isn’t any drama, it is also here that Kane establishes himself as the protector of the little guy against big business. But it also shows his growing narcissism and willingness to say or do anything to accomplish his goals. Not to mention his great ambition and even greater appetite for excesses.

A scene with dancing girls at a celebratory party for the newspaper’s success is a good illustration of Kane’s narcissism. It is ridiculously over the top with a song sung about him (that becomes a musical motif for the rest of the film), but that isn’t enough attention for the man.  No, he has to dance with the girls and become the literal center of attention.

The charisma, hucksterism, and theatrical flair make him compelling fun for his employees and us, the audience, to follow. I can’t imagine another actor being able to pull this off the way Orson Welles did.  Hard to believe that he was only 24 when he made this movie.

The interview with Mr. Bernstein concludes with Kane marrying his first wife, the niece of the President of the United States. Who was Rosebud?  Bernstein doesn’t know, but he does offer an interesting theory.

Everett Sloane’s performance as Mr. Bernstein is a delight in every scene he is in. A warm sense of humanity pervades him and I couldn’t help liking the man. Sloane went on to some success in television but tragically committed suicide in 1965.

Another member of the Mercury Theater troop was Erskine Sanford. His part as editor in chief Carter is brief and purely comedic. But like every actor in this film, he gets his moments.

The next stop on Thompson’s quest for Rosebud is at a nursing home where Kane’s former best friend, Jedediah Leland resides. Age hasn’t been kind to the man who was once closest to Kane and there is much bitterness as well. Perhaps he holds the key to the mystery?

From Leland, we find out about the darker side of Kane… and perhaps what motivates him as well. After the whirlwind romance and marriage to Emily Monroe Norton, the two lovebirds slowly drift apart in an inventively staged sequence showing their breakfasts together over the years. Deftly done with attention to wardrobe and makeup conveying the passing of the years, it gives a real sense of slow building alienation between two people. Pay attention to the newspapers they are reading at the end.

While his marriage is deteriorating, Kane’s political ambitions are growing. Not content, no… never content with the amount of attention he is getting, the wealthy man desires office and believes that he will be President one day. But like far too many powerful men, he falls prey to a weakness in the form of a younger woman.

Enter Susan Alexander, or Susie, as Leland calls her. A chance meeting on the street introduces the powerful man to a pretty young thing suffering from a toothache. What follows would be charming and sweet except for the infidelity involved and something more disturbing.  Watch how Susan flirts with Kane, playing him perfectly despite her pain.  She is cold, calculating, and seductive right off the bat. There may not be much going on upstairs, but Susie knows what she is doing.

In his quest for power, Kane decides it is time to run for governor of the state of New York. He’s the “fighting liberal” out to take down “Boss” Jim Gettys so the poor will be protected. So confident is Kane that he promises his first act will be to prosecute Gettys for corruption.

Problem is that someone has informed Emily about Susan.  Confrontation follows in Susie’s apartment and here Kane’s arrogance manifests to the point of madness. Offered a way out where only he will be hurt and others protected, Kane refuses to give in because he simply won’t do what someone else tells him to do.

And with that, we see what a selfish monster Charles Foster Kane truly is.

Though we open the movie with Kane’s death, there is an air of creeping dread about what follows after this reveal. The luster is gone, the charm is gone, and so is any likeability. So it is no surprise that Leland’s friendship becomes a casualty of Kane’s infidelity, though the final stake is driven through it by an opera review. That scene alone is worth the ticket price… err, rental fee.

The first movie role for Joseph Cotton was a meaty one as Jed Leland. He would later go on to other acclaimed roles but is best remembered for this and his starring turn in The Third Man (which also had Welles in it.) Jed is charming and is Kane’s failed conscience. You get the feeling he hits on the nurses despite his age.

Playing Kane’s first wife, Emily Monroe Norton was Ruth Warrick. She is best remembered for her much later television soap opera starring roles. With a regal presence, she is very believable as a President’s niece. Or what you would like a President’s niece to be like!

Though only briefly in the movie as Jim Gettys, Ray Collins was another rookie who ended up with a long career in movies and television. Though a tiny role compared to others, he delivers one of the most prophetic lines of the film.

Now comes the final act in this American tragedy and for that Thompson goes back to Susan Alexander who finally grants him an interview. The sad and apparently alcoholic singer lets him know that she never wanted to be a singer. It was Charlie who wanted it. As the flashback unfolds, we get to see how terrified the untalented girl was before going on stage. But the real story is played out in the reactions of two people in the audience.

The reactions are by Charles Foster Kane and Jed Leland.  Obsessive and utterly dedicated to watching Susan, Kane goes from a smile on his face to a much more interesting expression as the show goes on. On the other hand, Jed starts out plastered and bored. He stays that way until the curtain falls.

Welles is riveting in this scene and this animated GIF of his forceful applauding captures it well.  It is no surprise that it spread across the Internet and full credit goes to the anonymous creator. Used to getting his way, Kane acts as if he can applaud Susan to stardom. His indomitable will forces her to keep performing even as her misery increases. Never one to listen, it takes extreme measures by his wife to change his mind.

 

After that, Kane retreats to his vast castle that he has built in Florida. Named Xanadu after Kubla Khan’s city, it is an opulent and never finished hermit’s cave. Oh there are guests, but it is clear he has retreated from the world and has no wish to re-engage with it. Every scene there is filled with emptiness and echoes, like a mausoleum for someone who hasn’t quite managed to die yet. Young and still vibrant, Susan is miserable there and spends her time putting together jigsaw puzzles. Many jigsaw puzzles.

It is clear things can’t last and after a disastrous “picnic,” Susan leaves the aged tycoon. He doesn’t take it well to say the least, after all it is about how he will look after this gets out.  Enraged, Kane destroys her bedroom only stopping when he picks up a snow globe. Yes, that snow globe.

At this point, Thompson realizes that he is starting to feel sorry for Mr. Kane. I’m not sure I do.

Turning in a star making performance as Susan Alexander, one would have thought that Dorothy Comingore would have had as bright a career as the rest of the cast ahead of her. But the former Hollywood bit part actress passed up too many roles and then found herself blacklisted as a communist in 1951. Like Susan, she ended up an alcoholic and died at the age of 58.

With no one left to interview, Thompson arrives at Xanadu where all the treasures collected by Kane are being organized and prepared to be sold off. The oily valet, Raymond, is the last hope the reporter has to find out who or what Rosebud was to the deceased tycoon. All the man can give is a small hint, for he does not know either. Now joined by other reporters, Thompson wanders through the wealth and ponders that all he got were pieces to a puzzle.  Frustrated, he leaves and we, the audience, are the only ones who get the answer.

Another small but memorable part was that of Raymond, played by Paul Stewart. He was a man you could distrust on sight, which made for a good career on screen and television before adding directing to his resume.

Bet you thought I was going to give the big reveal away, didn’t you?

Thoughts

What a film! Once again I have to state my amazement that a 24 year old made this movie and also turned in one of the greatest acting performances of all time. Not once do you doubt Kane’s age no matter what part of his life is being portrayed. The rest of the cast are exceptional for Welles was an actor’s director, to be sure. Overlapping dialogue and extremely creative lighting are some of the little things that make this movie sensational in the true sense of the word. The whole production is a tour de force with innovative editing, camera angles, makeup, and even special effects.

Yet it is the story that makes this film so brilliant.  The structure is very clever, with the interweaving accounts over different era’s in the main character’s life. In of itself, the story is a compelling one and audaciously told.

But when you understand that it is an attack on William Randolph Hearst and his mistress, Marion Davies, all while that powerful man was still living it becomes more than audacious. My DVD is the two disc special edition of Citizen Kane and the second disc explains the real story behind the scenes. The American Experience episode, The Battle Over Citizen Kane, lays things out very accurately and is a must see.

With Welles versus Hearst, we finally get the answer to the age old question of what would happen when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. That answer is ruination for both. Hearst had his pride and reputation damaged while Welles became a has been overnight. But like all clashes, it is usually someone else who gets injured and the actress Marion Davies was very unfairly maligned by the character of Susan Alexander. While she was raised to be a gold digger, she was intelligent, witty, warm, and ended up falling in love with Hearst despite herself.

Not that I’m out to defend Davies as a moral paragon – she clearly wasn’t, being a kept mistress and promiscuous to boot. But she wasn’t the shrill, whining child shown in the movie. It was probably that depiction that set William Randolph Hearst off and motivated him to destroy Welles. In fact, he nearly succeeded in having the film copies physically destroyed!

While Citizen Kane is considered a classic, it was a complete bomb in 1941. While it managed to get just one Oscar for Best Screenplay out of nine nominations, it actually lost money at the box office. It is no wonder RKO Pictures shelved it after its initial run. Fortunately, it saw a revival in the 1950’s and has risen in regard ever since.

However, there was one thing that struck me as I watched the movie again. It is eerie how much Kane’s life ended up predicting Orson Welles’ life later on. Somewhere in the making of the film, Kane stopped being Hearst and became Welles’ from the future. Charismatic, a hustler, a user of others, never happy unless in the spotlight, and ultimately alone in the end… These were shared characteristics of Kane and Welles.

That’s what really makes this movie a tragedy.

Is it the greatest movie ever made? Not in my opinion. It is brilliant and well done, but there are multiple movies I’d put above it. But I’ll never fault someone for saying it is, for it is a great movie indeed.

Also, keep an eye open for the use of reflections in multiple scenes. It makes me wonder if Welles was just enamored of how they looked or intended some hidden meaning.

Citizen Kane is not for children due to it being immensely boring to them. Intellectual teens and up will appreciate it, but don’t expect any heroes in the story. If you are an adult who likes older movies this is a must see.

Technical

This DVD was mastered from an amalgam of the best existing prints that could be found since the negatives were destroyed. As a result, some scenes seem sharper than others, though “beauty” filters are employed in some close ups. Visible hairs will annoy you once you see them and I can’t understand why they didn’t digitally erase them.

Sound is nice and clear, which is needed with the overlapping dialogues and Bernard Herrmann’s excellent score.

In September, a new Blu-ray edition is coming out and I hope they restore some of the visuals better for that.

Health 6-22-2011

Awakened with bleeding sinuses and an inflamed throat yesterday morning. The sinuses are still bad, but not bleeding and the sore throat persists. Swollen glands have reduced somewhat. Feel very brain dead aka spacey. Plans to do things this week have been derailed, so nothing positive to report so far.

And that is why I hate writing about my health. There is nothing entertaining about it.

So those of you who read my blog – please feel free to ignore all my health posts!

Back to writing the Citizen Kane review, I hope it will turn out to be coherent. Or at least show some signs of sapience…

Riders on the Storm

Well, the weather refuses to stop being a topic of discussion. There may be various traits defining Midwesterners, but talking about the weather has to be a dominant one.  Why? Probably because we get all seasons here – sometimes in the same day.

Driving home Saturday night was quite interesting since it was in a torrential downpour the likes of which I’d never driven in before. I thought the storm in Nova Scotia I drove in back in 2005 was impressive, but this topped it. Visibility was blizzard like with ten feet being the norm from Hokah to Yucatan. At first, I thought I’d gotten myself into hail, but it turned out the rain drops were simply huge. In the reflected glow of the headlights they looked like luminous hailstones. Thankfully, there were not or the car would be a mass of dents right now.

The drive also was the first time I’d experienced the Subaru Outback hydroplaning on all four wheels. With it being such a reliable mountain goat and with new tires, it was surprising. Good thing I’ve had a little experience steering a boat.

The current forecast is for heavy rains and potentially severe weather today and tomorrow. Yay. Like the garden needs to be more saturated than it already is. We are going to need a monster truck to navigate in it at this rate.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to edit the screen captures from Citizen Kane between storms today. It’ll be an even bigger task to weed them out, since I took far too many for a review!

Health 6-20-2011

Another Monday where I’m slow moving because the weekend takes it all out of me. But it was a good weekend, so I’m willing to pay the piper.  Pain index was high at 7 again, better today. I’d say I’m at 4-5 so far. Lower back is the main culprit but a slight headache is present. 

Being a human barometer, I could tell the weather was going to be bad today.

Them Changes

The old layout was looking dated and was always meant as a stop gap, but ended up never being changed. So looking around at Blogger’s templates, I realized they’d changed completely. Time to change things, methinks.

This is also a stop gap template and I may create a new background from my own photos if I find something that will work.  My concern is keeping the bandwidth down to speed loading. While dialup may be all but gone, I still believe in optimizing! This new background for the text will be easier on the eyes as well, another concern.

If I could figure out a way to make an easy on the eyes scheme with one of these pictures as a background, I would:

It is hard to beat the local scenery in Houston County. Since I took these, I have the larger originals that I can edit to the size needed.

But I doubt I’ll get around to it.

Health 6-17-2011

Since I’m trying to keep some kind of record of my health, I decided on a title format for it. Not remotely creative, but highly practical.

Been having a large increase in lower back pain dating about a week before the shingles outbreak. What’s bad about it is that it is stretching down the legs and is clearly a pinched nerve problem. Pain levels in general are still much higher since the outbreak with headaches becoming an almost daily occurrence.

Managed to do a 2.5 mile walk today – it has been a long time. Went better than expected, but barely dragged myself home once I hit the hill back. It took me over half an hour to stop shaking, which is worse than usual.

Pain levels are ranging from 5 to 7 out of 10 since the shingles. It looks like I need to rededicate myself to a daily meditation routine rather than a semi-regular one. Weather has not helped with storm systems bothering my back and joints.

An Era of No Trust or Too Much Trust?

I find myself pondering on how we live in an increasingly confusing time for most people. With trust in governments foundering world wide and growing here in the United States, uncertainty in the future is increasing the distrust of authorities. Well, that and their corrupt actions with Weiner being only the latest public figure to go down in flames. But on the other hand, there is still too much trust in the wildest of conspiracy theories and even more insidious to my thinking, the so called “experts” on any given subject.

The inability to sort fact from fiction has become something of a hallmark of our entertainment driven culture. Reality television is often very scripted (often at a pro wrestling level of sophistication) for one example. Hollywood has always distorted history in favor of drama and that has continued unabated in its junior sibling, television. 

Watching Citizen Kane and the accompanying documentary, talking to some friends about the new Area 51 book, and reading various stories in newspapers that spin facts into fiction has me thinking hard about people’s ability to discriminate what really is going on. I had hoped the worldwide Web would make it easier to find out the truth about things and it has to a very limited degree. With arm chair and accredited experts willing to make stories up out of whole cloth and/or lie to promote an agenda, there are far too many unsubstantiated “facts” available on the Internet. To counter this, it takes skill and an understanding of logic to sort out what is factual versus what is not. That’s a big problem.

Most people don’t make or have the time to dig deeply into a subject even if they knew how to. Human tendency is to leave work to others and then listen to an expert in the field. This is easier and far more convenient than jumping into trying to understand an unfamiliar subject. Add in the catastrophic failure that is our public education system that churns out illiterates from our high schools and colleges when we desperately need critical thinkers… Ugh.

Meanwhile, it is a big assumption to trust that an expert really does know what he is talking about in the first place. We have a lot of theoreticians espousing theories as proven facts or science all over the media. That’s how we get specious junk science such as anthropogenic global warming, mercury in vaccinations causing autism, and Keynesian financial stimulus packages. Note that all three have had proponents with a financial interest in their theory being accepted.

On a lesser, but still disturbing level are conspiracy theories that have gained considerably traction. Examples include Obama not being born in Hawaii, Trig Palin being Bristol’s child, the CIA being behind JFK’s assassination, AIDS being created by the US to wipe out Africans, and any number of chain emails that end up in your inbox. It seems like there is rarely a week that goes by that I don’t see some easily disproved thing in an email. But woe be unto you who try to counter with the truth!

The more dramatic the lie, the more easily it seems to be believed. And once that lie is believed, the harder it is to convince someone of the facts. I know a lot of good people who believe things that are completely untrue and get very upset when informed otherwise. Not upset at being deceived, but at me for challenging things. I admit that I’m burned out on trying to straighten things out and don’t try to as much as I once did.

So people are putting a lot of trust into untrustworthy things even as their trust of institutions dwindle. It makes me wonder if there is such a thing as a law of conservation of trust, where trust lost in one thing has to be transferred to another. We are choosing to trust in things we shouldn’t as a reaction to having our trust in institutions broken.

One thing is for certain, I’m seeing a lot of fear in people’s eyes these days and it really shows up when you start bringing up facts. It may simply be that people are running away from reality.  With a culture mired in perpetual adolescence, I really shouldn’t be surprised by this. So the moral of the story is that we need to be more skeptical and really devote attention to the things that matter. We have entered a time where running away may not be an option for much longer.

In Which I Write About Non-Disastrous Weather

It is nice to talk about the weather and not be complaining. The sun is shining and it is around 65 F out as I type this out.  Or more accurately, typo this out – thank you Windows Live Writer’s spellchecker. A week ago we were suffering from high 90’s and hit 100 on Tuesday with humidity to match.  Today is supposed to hit 75 F with 51% humidity which makes it nearly an ideal day, especially since it isn’t raining.  I’ve had enough rain this year to make me think I live in Seattle.

Snooky, our resident white cat, is wanting me to hold her again. This happens many times a day and she can get quite persistent about. The suggestion to go play outside was ignored, so I’m ignoring her in return.

But back to the weather! It has been a strange year with spring barely making an appearance and the transition to summer being abrupt. So it is nice to have temperatures as low as we are having at the moment. Well, nice for humans, not so nice for plants in the garden or crops in the field.  We hit 48 F for a low yesterday and are seeing lows in the 50’s.

From what I’ve been reading, wheat and corn crops are in trouble this year, so expect shortages and price increases. The wet and low temperatures have set back planting badly in the Midwest, while drought and flooding down south are adding to the woes. Not quite disastrous, but worrisome nonetheless.

Last year, I didn’t get to enjoy summer very much thanks to my health and I’d hoped for a better year in getting outside. So far that hasn’t worked out between health and rain. On good days it rains, on bad days it is sunny out and it seems I can’t win. I am turning into a literally whiter shade of pale.

At least the mild temperatures will allow some more time in painting miniatures and models upstairs in the un-air conditioned work room!

Misleading Ads and Dayton’s Shadow PAC

Starting this week, I’ve been getting targeted ads in several places I visit on the Net.  They all say “Tell Sen. Jeremy Miller to stand up for the middle class.”  Next to the white text on a somber black background is a poorly dithered grayscale portrait shot of Jeremy with a “Click to learn more.”

Click on it and it takes you to a dishonest video attacking Senator Miller and extolling our rather strange governor’s plan -- which isn’t a balanced budget but instead features massive spending increases.  It is fascinating seeing a rookie Republican State Senator come under attack this way. To me, it shows he is doing a good job at being fiscally responsible in a very bad economic situation. That’s more than I can say about Governor Dayton as he’d rather have a shutdown than not pander to the special interests that got him elected.

This soak the rich campaign shows how utterly out of touch the socialist Democratic Party people have become. You will never hear someone talk about how a poor man gave them their job… Wait, there is one way for that to be true. Overtax and over spend and pretty soon everyone will be poor except the politicians and unionized government workers.  Technically, the public is supposed to be the employer, right? So if we are all poor… Well you get the picture.

Funny how the Alliance for a Better Minnesota is a union funded PAC out to help Mark Dayton. Are they looking out for the best interest of the people of Minnesota or their own pocket books? The answer is pretty clear.

Senator Miller is standing for the middle class, the people who have to balance their budgets and don’t have infinite credit to borrow from.

Comic Books and Economic Realities

Back in high school, I was a serious collector of comic books. Financial problems for the family compelled me to sell off my collection for a pittance in 1987 and that always haunted me.  But after reading this article at The Weekly Standard, I don’t feel so bad now.

It is a very good article on the perils of speculation and what happens when the bubble bursts. The lessons of it apply to many types of industries and even government programs.  Loose credit is a dangerous thing when it artificially boosts business with nothing concrete to back it up. 

The money quote of the article:

As painful as it was for some of us, the comic-book bubble teaches two important lessons. First, bubble-mania is not always the fault of buyers and sellers. Sometimes it’s caused by intermediaries. Second, sometimes markets don’t “come back.” People who owned blue-chip comics took a hit in 1993. People who owned modern-era comics were wiped out, the value of their collections never to return.

That’s something to keep in mind. The same thing happened to baseball card collectors around the same time period. As mentioned, housing may see the same results and that will take a lot of banks down – not to mention people’s futures. Go read the whole article.

Oh and I had that #1 issue of The New Teen Titans too.

The Last Airbender

or How to Completely Screw Up an Adaptation

Watched The Last Airbender, the live action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series, last night on DVD.  If I felt flippant, I’d say I was recovering from the trauma.  But the truth is that the movie isn’t just bad, it is also utterly boring.

Listing the cons first:

The casting was terrible and the actors looked like they had no clue as to what they were doing in the movie. Wooden doesn’t begin to cover it with only the actor playing Soka even looking like he was trying. But I’m not going to blame the cast for it.

The directing by M. Night Shyamalan was absolutely terrible. Not only did he fail to get the best out of the actors, the camera shots ranged from pedestrian to very bad while the pacing was glacial. Which was an amazing feat given how much stuff was shoved into the film.

The fights were terrible and slow. Not just slow motion bits, but the actual fights took forever for each move to be executed.  The bending took way too many moves to make an element “bend.”  One scene in particular typifies how ludicrous it got:  a group of Earth Benders do an elaborate series of moves that takes a small eternity to make one small rock the size of a melon fly through the air. Oy…

The effects were okay, but suffered from “look at me, I’m in 3D!” syndrome.

The ending was 180 degrees from Aang’s emotional state in the original material. Instead of being utterly enraged, out of control and becoming an object of terror, he was made a pure serene pacifist. But that also reflects the lack of lessons learned that made the series so endearing.

That leads to the lack of character development in the movie. Avatar was heavy on character development and well defined personalities, neither of which are present in the movie.  Aang gets the worst of it. He was a stubbornly irresponsible kid always looking to have fun and constantly laughing in Book 1: Water. Here he is presented as a guilt ridden and morose boy. When you botch the main character, you blow the whole concept.

Finally, there was no sense of adventure or fun. Part of the appeal of the cartoon series was exploration and discovery. There was none of that in this as it was a race from plot point to plot point, often with dull voice over narration. How the movie pulled off being shallow and too serious is something I can’t quite comprehend.

The Pros:

None.

I’m going to stress again that I don’t hold the cast responsible. With a better script and director, this could have been something special. Instead it is a boring mess that was tedious to sit through. The movie bombed at the box office and deserved to.

M. Night Shyamalan’s career has to be viewed as a cautionary tale. I can’t recall another director hit such heights only to completely fall apart as a story teller. It is hard to believe the same man directed The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs.

The Last Airbender is not even worth renting to make fun of. Go watch the television series for a real treat.

This Is Tuesday, Isn’t It?

When I got up, I could have sworn it was Wednesday, the hardest day of the week to spell.

It is going to be blazingly hot and humid, so I’ll be working on reviews for the blog.  Fractale Episode 7 will most likely be finished today, while Citizen Kane is on hold until I watch the documentary on Disc 2.  Then I’ll get on the half a year delayed TRON: Legacy review. At least I’ll be able to include screen captures now.

---

After being frustrated with my Ruger P94 being inaccurate, I’m going to tinker with it a bit.  Hogue finger groove grips are on their way, but I suspect the sights are off since I’ve seen reports of the exact same problems I’m having. Currently, I have to place the front sight dot on top of the rear dots in a pyramid layout to hit anywhere near what I’m aiming for.  While there are aftermarket adjustable sights for the pistol, the goal is the cheapest out to fix the problem.

---

The deer ticks are out in force this year.  I’ve pulled at least twenty off of our white cat, Snooky. She is also shedding at a rate I’ve never seen a cat do before.  Of course, I would have to be wearing an old black T-shirt today.

---

I’ve rejoined Netflix after two years of absence. With the current focus by the company being on streaming, to get DVD’s mailed added two dollars to the subscription. We only have a 1MB connection at the moment, so streaming looked like a poor option.  But being adventurous, I tried the streaming on a variety of movies to gauge performance.  The chief target is the low resolution of our old pre-digital television set.

First was an animated movie, Batman: Under the Red Hood.  I watched it on my PC and Netflix defaults to 720P in its attempts to stream.  Blocky to extremely blocky. Yep, time to check out the TV performance. It was entertaining, but nothing special and soon forgotten.

For a modern effects laden movie, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was selected.  Slightly better than VHS levels of quality were obtained, but with blocking becoming readily apparent during the more complex scenes.  Good movie, by the way – that surprised me.

Godzilla Raids Again, the second movie featuring the radioactive reptile, was chosen to represent older black and white films.  Performance was good enough, even if the movie was awful.  I assume this was the cut from the United States as it had all the monster scenes sped up to look like cat fights.

UHF was a test of a relatively normal movie (technically; it is insane otherwise).  Performance was okay with occasional blocking.  Still a lot of fun after all these years.

Finally, Brigham Young (1940).  An old school classic Daryl Zanuck production, it did just fine.  The movie itself was surprisingly good, if filled with historical inaccuracies and being very Hollywood. The sub focus on the United Order made it feel like a National Recovery Act film, but the acting was top notch and the script well done.  I may review this in depth in the future.

Final analysis:

Streaming to the PC is terrible at 1MB.

Streaming to the TV is much better.

Modern effects extravaganza’s and anything with really complicated imagery is going to perform poorly.

B&W movies of yesteryear work great.

Netflix streaming has better potential, but Hulu’s is superior for a lower speed connection.

We’ll be primarily using the DVD through mail option.

While I’d love to have a faster connection, it isn’t financially viable at the time.  I think 2MB would be adequate to the old TV set, but 3MB would be needed to the PC.

All I Have to Say on Rep. Weiner

Looks like the House will have more to say.

Pic and idea conveniently, if not shamelessly stolen from Ace of Spades.

Health and Attitude

I’m missing church for the second Sunday in a row and am not pleased with that.  Having lived with chronic illness for so long, the pain and discomfort bother me far less than the inability to do something I enjoy. For me, church isn’t a chore or a bore, but a place to get spiritually recharged by the Spirit and have a lot of fun.

Fun, you wonder?  Yes, I have fun at church. I love discussing the scriptures and practical principles of the gospel.  While there are a lot of people I’m fond of there, that and feeling the Holy Ghost are the main reasons why I go. I’m something of a purist when it comes to faith, so I do not mean to belittle my fellow Latter-day Saints – enjoying their company is a wonderful experience in its own right.

Heh, I wanted to write about how bad health doesn’t have to equal a bad attitude and I got sidetracked. It is a Sabbath day after all and still has my focus on God. Looks like I’ll be listening to conference talks, audio versions of the scriptures, and hymns here at home today.

But back on topic, or at least finally starting the topic!

I’ve felt physically terrible this week, more so than the usual thanks to the shingles flare up and aftermath. A lot of things I wanted to get done couldn’t get done.  So did I have a bad week?

The answer is no, not really.

Some people might think that strange and I admit it amuses me intellectually that there can be such a divorce between emotional and physical health.  Our current pop psychology influenced culture is so focused on victimhood and our medical culture on pushing off real ailments as being mental disorders that it has become an alien concept. Having had CFS for over twenty years now, I long ago recognized that I could enjoy things and be happy without feeling good physically. Thankfully, I listened to the old saying about taking pleasure in the simple things in life and took it to heart.

I do have my bad days like everyone else and loneliness is ever a challenge for those who are disabled by illness. But it doesn’t take away my capacity to enjoy things or appreciate how beautiful the world is. Once you allow yourself to feel the good on a regular basis it does wonders for your life.  When my life was first derailed by Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, I can safely say I didn’t see it that way. Anger, sadness, and bitterness dominated my soul.  But I’m a problem solver by nature and while I could never “solve” the illness, I did come to an understanding of what I could control.

That would be my attitude. Attitude matters in every facet of life and a bad attitude makes for a miserably difficult life. A good attitude makes for a happier, if still challenging, life. Even pain can be reduced by distracting yourself from it and there are good things that can do that. Helping others, reading something that makes you think, watching a movie that makes you feel good, exercising faith in God, and the simple joy of communicating with others for fun are all examples of things that are positive distractions.  There are many more.

At the moment I’m typing this, I hurt a lot through out my physical form. My body is being temperamental from my sinuses to my bowels and the itching isn’t quite gone from the shingles outbreak that has faded. I can’t go to church, which I enjoy so much. But I’m in a good mood.

Little things this week added up to having a good week for me even as I was frustrated by health induced limitations. While a tough month financially, I got through it and actually had discretionary funds for some bargains. My finances have improved enough I can afford to subscribe to Netflix again, get work gloves for when I have moments of physical ability to trim trees and bushes (rare, but I enjoy them), and obtain some used books I wanted badly. I even managed to get out and do some home teaching, get seeds for the garden, and groceries. My efforts to start writing again have born some fruit as I’m finding it easier to write blog posts. All are little things in life.

Gratitude.  That’s what is needed for a good attitude.

There is a LDS hymn, Count Your Blessings, that goes:

When upon life’s billows your are tempest tossed,

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings; name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

To survive the difficulties of life, you need to be grateful for the good things in it you have. That may not be easy to do. In fact, I’ve found it takes active effort to recognize them.

Are you ever burdened with a load of care?

Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?

Count your many blessings; ev’ry doubt will fly,

And you will be singing as the days go by.

I can testify to the benefits of appreciating the little things in life. While I may not be getting any of the big things in life, a lot of little things do add up to something greater. Sadly, I can’t carry a tune in a bucket, so I’m not singing my way through the days. But I can do other things depending on how much energy I have on a given day – and choose to do those things. They carry over into the days I can’t.

In the end, I’ve chosen not to allow my health to keep me down. It is an active choice using my God given agency to take action (yes, I’m listening to Elder Robert D. Hales talk from October) by being grateful for and attentive to the little blessings in life. I am grateful to the Lord for what I have received.

I didn’t expect to give a testimony in this post, but it is fast and testimony in sacrament meeting on the first Sunday of each month. During these special services, members are encouraged to take the pulpit and give their testimony, or expression of faith. So I suppose it was something I was supposed to do even if I couldn’t make it to church.

When Too Many Rules & Regulations Kill

This is obscene.  Watching someone die for an hour because you won’t violate the workplace rules is morally and ethically wrong.  People will say he was killing himself so it didn’t matter, but the guy chose one of the slowest and easiest stopped methods he could. If that wasn’t a desperate cry for help, I don’t know what is. Oh and it was shallow water to boot.

I can’t help but think union rules were involved in the formulation of the regulations, given that this is San Francisco. The firefighters who were on scene are subscum. Wait, I take this back. That’s an insult to the lower varieties of scum. Their failure to act was truly evil.

This is also an object lesson of why one shouldn’t put faith in their government to save them or do the right thing. Sadly, the body was recovered by a civilian who swam out.  That says a lot about the direction the country is going, especially if you look to California as a model for the future.

Judging the Judge

Not talking about politics, but about the Taurus Judge handgun.  The idea of creating a short revolver that fired .410 shells for self defense sounded appealing when I first read about it, but the initial testing results I found on the Internet were not impressive.  To be effective, you needed to fire .45 long Colt out of it, not the shells and that kind of removed the reason for the firearm’s existence.  But it is a popular firearm and has branched out into carbine form lately.  Now specialty shells are being made for it and I’d hoped it would live up to its potential.

So Box of Truth revisited the Judge recently for further testing with a 3” barrel and the new rounds.  You can check out the results for yourself.  Me, I wasn’t impressed.  Maybe there is no potential to live up to after all.  For that size of a hand cannon, there should be more penetration.

I’ll stick to my .40 S&W Ruger P94, even if it need some work on its sights.

Muddlin’ About

Finally over the bout with shingles for the most part and a little frustrated with having even lower than normally low levels of energy. My hands have been too shaky to paint miniatures or work on plastic models, so that has rankled a bit too.

Just finished watching Citizen Kane for review purposes and once again was blown away by what a great film it is.  I’ll have to watch the documentary on the second disc, then do screen captures from both. It is a nice change of pace from the fantasy and science fiction I’ve been writing about and well needed.

Also received a Frank Herbert omnibus with Whipping Star, The Dosadi Experiment, The Santaroga Barrier, and Soul Catcher complete and unabridged in it.  Only read Soul Catcher many years ago and am looking forward to reading about the Bureau of Sabotage in the first two novels.  Glenn Reynolds mentioned the concept of it in a post over at Instapundit earlier in the week and I had to look it up.  Fortunately, I found a cheap used hardcover on Amazon and got it today.

I suppose I should write something positive about some of the good manga and anime out there soon, but I feel like procrastinating on that. It is too easy for me to get burned out on a genre if I have to deal with it for a lengthy amount of time.

Only Now Are They Getting It

There has been no economic recovery.  People need to get that through their heads.  The stimulus was based on the mad idea that you can spend your way out of debt when you have no savings to fall back on. Needless to say, it failed utterly.

Via The Drudge Report, CNBC has a headline that tries to downplay the content of the article.  What Drudge had up is the quote of the article that should have been used.

We’re on the verge of a great, great depression.

Duh. We’ve been in the opening stages of one for years now.  Smoke and mirrors can only get you so far and it looks like people are finally tumbling to the disaster that is already upon us. Take the latest job reports for example. Captain Ed at Hot Air has a good summary of what is going on with that.  Instead of 177,000+ jobs added to the private sector, 38,000 was the figure for May.

It isn’t surprising that the stock market is down from the latest data. What is surprising is how long it took for them to start noticing there was a problem. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they buried their heads in the sand again.  Look at the tone of the first article begging the bears not to rock the boat. It strikes me as desperate.

A great depression is the best case scenario, in my opinion. We may be seeing the eventual fall of the Modern West.

It Appears to Be Shingles, Again

Or how I despise the Herpes Zoster virus.

I’d preferred an allergic reaction, but now that I’m hurting like a band around the chest I recognize the symptoms.  At least it is a light case of it compared to the last time – that episode really hurt. It may be that the pain management I do is helping as well.  So I will have to ride this out, since I hate what prednisone does to me.

Now most people would go to the doctor over any little thing, but I don’t unless I can’t get an illness to end (exempting CFS, of course).  Bronchitis, pre-pneumonia, and sinusitis I’ve had so many times that I’m a pro at dealing with them.  That and antibiotics barely working on me anymore makes the choice to endure rather easy. Not to mention it doesn’t waste more tax payers dollars than necessary.

The itching is at a minimum, at least!

As much as I hate whining, perhaps it would be wise of me to document my health issues for posterity here on the blog.  Somehow, I doubt I’ll be consistent on it. Spreading negativity isn’t my idea of fun and it is inconsiderate of others. But hey, there aren’t that many readers, right? Have to find a silver lining somewhere…

Memorial Day 2011

It feels strangely like the calm before a storm and I’m not talking about the weather.  A feeling of melancholy lingers in the air as I listen to 60’s music while writing this.

While it has been decades since the Vietnam War ended, Memorial Day is reminding me of it and other conflicts, past and present. Names like Bosnia, Gettysburg, Mogadishu, the Ardennes, Bougainville, Restrepo, Fallujah, Normandy, Okinawa, and many more flit through my distracted mind, but Vietnam keeps coming to the fore.  I suppose that is because of my half-brother Steve, who served two tours there.  While he came back unlike those we honor today, he didn’t come back undamaged.

So many have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country and I’m deeply grateful for the lives they led and gave.  In an era of fewer and fewer serving in the military, a price has been paid by the general public.  That price is detachment from the sacrifices made as the burdens have fallen on a shrinking number of families. My prayers and thanks go out to those families.  Let the deaths of those soldiers not just be remembered – let them be not in vain.

Yarg.

Ill again, this time with a spotty rash that started on the face last night after midnight but has spread to the chest and back.  I feel punchy at best and while not having a fever I’m staying put until it clears up.  Hopefully it is an allergic reaction of some kind rather than something communicable.

This is what I get for going out to do things two nights in a row, I suppose.

Thor (2011)

I just got back from seeing Thor in 3D at the Spring Grove Cinema tonight.  It was better than I expected and Kenneth Branagh proved he can handle a big budget action film better than most directors. Clearly his directing got the most from all the actors and nobody acted like they were sleep walking through their part.

The cast was excellent and Chris Hemsworth was perfect as Thor.  But the real scene stealer was Tom Hiddleston as Loki, which is appropriate since Loki is always a scene stealer in the comic books and even the original Norse mythology.  I even like Natalie Portman in it, which is a first for me!  Anyone complaining about Idris Elba playing Heimdall just needs to go see the movie – he captures the gravitas of the character and is a proper guard of the Rainbow Bridge.

While there are plenty of explosions, vicious fights, and effects galore, the main story is very Shakespearean. At the heart of the movie is a classic story about two princes trying to be worthy of their father, Odin the king.  One is fair and foolish, the other dark and cunning, but both crave their father’s love and approval.  A shaky truces between races, old age, and intrigue complicate things enough, but the brash arrogance of Thor starts a tragedy.

Having proven himself to be stupid and vain, Thor gets himself a one way ticket from the realm of Asgard to Midgard, aka Earth, as punishment. Stripped of his powers and rank, he has to prove himself worthy to regain his godhood.  That sets up some of the drama and all of the comedy as we get to see the now mortal god deal with being a mere man. It also is chance for him to gain some humility and find out what really matters through his interaction with Dr. Jane Foster (Portman) and her colleagues.

Effects were excellent, if overwhelming at times.  One scene did annoy me greatly and that was because the humans hit with shattered glass came out of it uncut.  Nice 3D effect, but come on!  The 3D wasn’t that exciting to me and certainly not up to the standards of other films I’ve seen in the format. At least it wasn’t distracting.

Now for some comic book geekery.

The Destroyer was interestingly and well done.  In the comics, it was an engine of destruction capable of taking on gods and it lived up to that. It was a little fragile in this rendition, but it was faithful to the look and menace I remember as a kid.

The art design was a loving tribute to Jack Kirby’s designs and I saw hints of Walter Simonson’s renditions as well. Asgard and Jotunheim were both sufficiently alien to be believable.

The Warriors Three translated well into live action and were the characters I always enjoyed.  The SHIELD agent description of them and Lady Sif cracked me up.

The way Mjolnir was used was faithful in all ways to the comic and we pretty much got to see every variation except one: the ability to transport across dimensions.  Even the twirling was used multiple times.

Hawkeye’s unnamed cameo wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

All in all, Thor was a good movie. Not a great movie, but a good one. Worth seeing and stay after the credits for a very big hint about The Avengers movie it sets up.

What a Tsunami Does to a Nuclear Power Plant

Over at The Mainichi Daily News they have some amazing photos of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant being hit by the tidal wave. The car being throne up into the building is particularly impressive and give an idea of scale.  It truly shows how gigantic the wave was and it was amazing that events weren’t worse at the reactor – even as bad as they were. 

Looking at this and other articles there, I realized that I want to post about such events here and not on Facebook like I did in March. Things get lost there and aren’t easy to find again for posterity, since it is a very superficial place. Events like the devastation of Japan by the tsunami is not something to readily forget, but human memory is what it is and that is limited.

It will be interesting to see if I can divorce the reality of what happened there from the fantasy of Godzilla movies the next time I watch one. Watching the footage and viewing the photographs was surreal, because in a way I’d already seen things like that happen in Japan thanks to the movies.  These photos did not help with that and I wonder if I’ll be able to enjoy those films again.