WISDOM
OF THE SAGES
EPISODE I: WINTER 2017
EPISODE I: WINTER 2017
Hello
People of the World;
Here
we are in the new year that we stupidly thought would magically make
celebrities stop dying because last year was the “worst year ever.”
The
one thing that never changes is that people are still constantly caught off
guard by the slow turning of the earth and that it is supposed to be cold in
the winter. People still bitch like somehow, it is supposed to grace their
particular presence with a constant temperate state wherever and whenever they
go.
All
right, let’s get going:
1:[ Let me speak to the genius that is John
Carpenter’s “Escape from L.A.” How ahead of his time was he with this film?
Think about it. We live in a time of constant remakes and reboots, movies and
television that try to revive past media either in name or concept but mostly
entirely in nostalgic callback. In the last ten years alone, we got movies
based on everything from comic books, to old TV series like “Miami Vice”,
“CHiPs”, “Baywatch”, “21 Jump Street” and more, and cartoons like GI Joe and
The Transformers. We are inundated yearly with wholly unoriginal concept
movies, which is what they are in the end, that we dare not strike out into
anything original for fear of being left out of the rock ’n’ roll, geek tip.
“Escape
from LA” was Carpenter’s sequel to his underground cult hit “Escape from New
York”. Carpenter has always been a filmmaker ahead of his time, with “Escape
from New York” only gaining popularity on cable and home video. The rest of his
Kurt Russell team-ups follow the same pattern. “The Thing” failed at the box
office (Thanks to “E.T.”) but is now hailed as one of the great horror films of
all time. “Big Trouble in Little China” also failed, but has since gained a
hardy following thanks to its insouciant attitude towards the action genre,
honoring of the marital arts genre that is balanced with great characters,
great comedy, and a great twist on leading man action heroes.
In
1996, there were all together, including “Escape from LA”, about a dozen
remakes, comic book movies, sequels, remakes, and reboots, and aside from “Star
Trek: First Contact”, “Mission: Impossible”, “A Very Brady Seuqel” and
possibly, “Muppet Treasure Island”, not a one was successful. We are talking
“Lawnmower Man 2”, “Flipper”, “Diabolique”, “SGT Bilko”, “Barb Wire” “The Phantom”,
and “The Crow: City of Angels” to name the rest. Sure, one or two may have that
hipster appeal now, but back in the 90’s we barely cared about remakes, sequels
and movies based on old TV shows.
“Escape
from LA” was a film much demanded by the fans of Carpenter’s works. It had been
16 years since the release of “Escape from New York” and the movie and the character
of Snake Plisken grew in such adoration, that fans of the movie demanded a
sequel to continue the adventures of their new hero. Now, Carpenter had never
done a sequel before, or since. But once again, he was so ahead of his time. What
he did with “Escape from LA” needs to be appreciated now in the light of our
modern remake/reboot movie glut that we are in the midst of today. How would have
thought that such a film could have predicted this slate of unoriginality in filmmaking
that would happen over 20 years later.
When
released, the film was met with such disdain not only from critics, but also
from the very fandom that praised Carpenter. What we got instead was a retread
of the first film almost beat-for-beat of the original. (Sound familiar now?) “There
is nothing original here,” we cried, yet, that is the very point of any sequel,
not matter who made it or what genre it is. That is the point Carpenter is
making with the great “Escape from LA.”
Think
of it this way; “Escape from LA” is to “Escape from New York” as is “The Force
Awakens” is to “A New Hope” – a long-delayed sequel produced only to appeal to
and capture the adoration of the fandom that surrounded the original by
practically remaking the first film with enough modern touches to set it apart.
Looking on “Escape from LA” with this new lens, you see how much satiric glee
that Carpenter bastardized his own film, to make a very subtle point about the
point of remakes. Though this new perspective, I find that the genius of John
Carpenter remains truly ahead of the game and over the head of the very fans
that worship him.
2:[ Now that I have a TV, I am fucking plagued
with shitty TV stations like, GRIT TV. Billing itself as “Television with Bank
Bone”, it caters to the 24 – 56 male demographic, with war movies, westerns,
old western TV shows and a shit-ton of “Walker Texas Ranger”. I mean do young
men today really watch old western TV shows? They are not even the great ones,
but dreck like “Laramie” and “Old Hands” and “Slipshod” (two of those I made up
to make my point). While I do enjoy “The Zane Grey Theater” because of its
stage theatrical aspect, I find it completely funny to the core that after a
robust promotional ad for their station, declaring “GRIT TV: Television with
backbone”, showing old timey cowboys getting gunned down one after another, it
then cuts to a catheter commercial. Surely, it knows its own demographic.
3:[ In the last month the old Redbox has assisted
me in catching up on a couple of films I missed last year; two different
stories of young teen males in their environments and how they react to the
situations presented to them by those environments. “Kicks” is a drama written
and directed by Justin Tipping and is about a young man, Brandon, who buys a
new pair of Jordan’s and then has them stolen. We follow him on his search to
get his “kicks” back and all of the trouble and danger he creates to do it.
“Hunt
for the Wilderpeople” is a comedy from Taiki Waititi about a young man, Ricky
Baker and his quest to stay with his new foster family after being scooted
around the juvie system. His decision to run away turns into a national manhunt
due to chance situations that he was not expecting. Sam Neil is great as his
“uncle” Hec, his new foster parent, who wants nothing to do with him, but they
soon become dependent on one another to survive in the New Zealand bush.
While
both are complete opposites of each other, they both convey the dynamic of a
troubled youth in their own environment and how that environment both shapes
and ultimately empowers them. For Brandon, it is about survival in his
neighborhood and that having the right pair of shoes can be a shield against
bullying. So, when he loses them, he must shed a lot of his childhood and
innocence to get them back. For Ricky Baker, he is a product of the juvenile
system of New Zealand, moved place to place, until he comes across Aunt Bella,
whom accepts him wholeheartedly, and when the system threatens to plug him back
in, he and Hec go one the run, both connected by their pasts in the juvie and
penal systems, respectively.
Both
films are non-normative narrative about youth in an environment. The gaze is
theirs to explore and both shine in their respective goals and conclusions. I
recommend both highly.
4:[ The Ringling Bros Circus is closing forever
and people are mad! Why? It’s just a fucking circus. It is an organization with
a very long history of torture and maiming of animals, yet we all cry about
because “our kids learned about elephants”. Give me a fucking break. If you
learned about animals at a fucking clown show instead of a school, then I can
only guess at why our country is in the state it is now. You don’t go to a
clown show to learn about anything. Grow up and open a biology book. Damn it!
5:[ It Just Hit Me: The Six-Fingered Man, played
by Christopher Guest, in Rob Reiner’s “The Princess Bride” has fingers THAT GO
UP TO 11! Why did it take me so long to get this joke? I blame all of you….
6:[ Returned to teaching at UWP last night. It
had been since the fall of 2014 that I last taught the course. I teach “Native
Americans in Media” at the University of Wisconsin Parkside. I taught it for
three semesters beginning in 2011. I try to introduce concept in HOW we view Natives
in films and media and how those perspectives inform our ideas and biases about
Natives.
This
seems like a good class, informed and ready to learn about contemporary Native people
and our representations in media….
That
is it for this month. I had this whole political diatribe written out but I felt
that, that does not need to be said. I have my own views and opinions on the
state of things, just as I had them during the last political eras that I lived
in. But I am the same person I have always been. I don’t know. Sooner or later,
I may break and write a bunch of political and other rants on here. Maybe the
times may demand it from me.
As
always, I invite you to comment, correct, or contradict anything I write here.
I am open to a critical debate. Thanks for taking the time to check out what I
write here and I will see you in a month.
Until
next time, remember “I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to
control everything really are.”
2016
Ernest M Whiteman III
