WISDOM OF THE SAGES
EPISODE VII: SPRING 2024
Hello People of the World;
Here we are again, more than a few months late. I am typing his intro on Labor Day. Things could be better, time of typing. But the weather out today is nice. So, let’s take a look back at the things that crossed my mind in July.
As always: Stay safe. Stay home.
All right, let’s get going:
1:[ This virus really showed how equal we all really are: Being tricked into the idea that getting the economy going is better than saving peoples’ lives….
2:[ MOVIE REVIEWS:
- Seven Samurai [七人の侍] (1954), Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Char had never seen this film. I try to watch it every Xmas but I have never seen it on the big screen. I missed a chance to when it screened at the Davis maybe seven years ago. But Janus Films had a 4K restoration made of the film and decided to run it in theaters. I asked Bonnie and Char to accompany me and away we were.
Who doesn't know this archetypal story of the seven ronin samurai hired to protect a village of farmers. Char encapsulated it the best, calling it the first "gathering the team for a job" movie, ala "Ocean's Eleven" and more.
This sits on my Top Ten All-time Favorite Movies list. (#3 BTW) It is strange as it is not my favorite Kurosawa film. That would be "Redbeard" [赤ひげ], his 1965 film and final collaboration with Toshiro Mifune. That is a touching film that I wish would get more attention. However, there are films that simply transcend their makers' names and enter a cinematic realm of timeless greatness. "Seven Samurai" is one of these films.
Starring Toshiro Mifune and Takeshi Shimura as ronin who take rice in exchange for protecting a farming village from a foreseen bandit raid. The seven ronin have become the known archetypes in many films since: The knowledgeable, compassionate leader, the loyal sidekick, the street wise knowledge-keeper, the comic relief, the peerless warrior, the young newcomer, and the rouge outsider. So fundamental was this film to the structure and archetype of many drama and actions films to come, that Char was recognizing them as she watched this three-hour epic with rapt attention.
We chatted about all of this and more - the class structure, the characters, that scene with the baby, the love story, the tropes, all of it. This was a film Char thought would be boring from catching snippets of it during my Xmas viewings, but all three of us were moved from seeing it on the big screen.
We will all three of us, probably watch it again on the big screen in the future.
HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION
- Deadpool and Wolverine, Directed by Shawn Levy
It's about what you'd expect. Basically “Cocaine Bear” for the MCU fan. I find the Deadpool character dull.
MEH.
3:[ This Month’s Essay: Why Do People Blame Audrey for David’s Life in “Unbreakable”?
I have seen too many “movie reactors” get mad at Audrey for David’s sad life in “Unbreakable”. I have to iterate that David was not fulfilled with anything he was doing, including football. That some viewers think Audrey forced this choice on him so she can be happy is unfair. The whole movie is about David not feeling he is doing was he is supposed to be doing. Which is why he gave up football: to have a family, which he thought he was SUPPOSED to be doing, not being a famous athlete, which is shallow valor. But having a family feels like a reward he doesn't deserve, so he puts his family at arms-length. He feels he hasn't earned it.
This is made clearer when Audrey states that "fate stepped in", because she is not aware that David had even made a choice to quit "No questions asked", because he is also supposed to be making his wife happy. He even thinks moving out will make her happy. There are tendrils of this ideal still lingering in David at the end when he signals to his son not to tell Audrey. He now has chosen to do what Elijah tells him he is supposed to do, "to save the rest of us", while trying to balance that with making sure Audrey remains happy now that it seems David and she are working things out. It's the standard "Superhero Conundrum" subtly told.
Remember, only once David “saves” the kids, does he feel he has “earned” Audrey, and take her up to their bedroom.
4:[ Observation: The reason why we reduce Indigenous cultures to “Native American” or “Ind14n” is twofold:
1 - We are indoctrinated to be lazy about intellectual pursuits – we do not want to do the intellectual heavy-lifting of researching and learning about the over 1200 tribes in North America today. Those tribes have differing cultures and beliefs and though they share some similarities, all tribes consider themselves to be a People separate from other tribes. Paraphrasing Evelyn Ngugi, the Stereotype of the American is that we are uninformed. And that is by design. The US has made it difficult to learn about current events and the histories of people of color. Why would they do this and why do we willingly go along with it?
People like to think that they are not susceptible to propaganda, to thought control, to media indoctrination, to government control, but all we need to do is look at ourselves and see how uninformed we are about the Indigenous peoples of the Americas to see how susceptible we all really are.
2- We do not do the intellectual heavy-lifting precisely because we do not want to be responsible for it. Once you learn that this country you live in is not really a democracy and it’s still racist and sexist, and has structuring to continue to put certain peoples down and keep them there, and that a lot of us still benefit from that system – so, what do you do with that? I don’t know. Do you?
5:[ We cannot go back to “Normal” all after this: thinking that fresh water is a infinite resource.
That is it for this month.
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.”
2024 Ernest M Whiteman III
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