WISDOM OF THE SAGES
EPISODE V: SPRING 2024
Hello People of the World;
The weather is warming. And as ever, we are sooooo caught off-guard by it. Like the turning of the Earth is too fast for us. Sheesh. Hey, it looke like I am all caught up on Wisdom of the Sages. Hooray. I guess. I have stated many times that I know, that no one is reading this, but I keep it up to keep in the practice of writing on a monthly deadline, and to work diligently to get caught up.
As always: Stay safe. Stay home.
All right, let’s get going:
1:[ This virus really showed how equal we all really are: we are okay with mass deaths until it affects us personally and directly. Look at Gaza.
2:[ MOVIE REVIEWS:
Le Samouraï
Directed by Jean Pierre-Melville
One of my Top Ten Favorite Films of All-time. I am kind of happy I finally get to make a review of it. This was a new 4K restoration of the film. It looked beautiful.
The effortlessly cool story that had been adapted, at least twice, (John Woo's "The Killer" and Jim Jarmusch's "Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai", if you're interested.) and gave rise to the mythical killer figure recently display by "John Wick". Due mainly to Alain Delon's portrayal of Jef Costello, a hitman who must try to shake the dogged pursuit of the Police, as well as, discover who set him up to be killed instead of paid, and his near-silent portrayal throughout the film.
A French production, so don't think it's all gun battles and talks about what a mythical figure the Killer is. Nope. There is no "That f*cking nobody, is Jef Costello" nonsense. In fact, it is low-key and slow-paced. Many without the patience would call it 'boring'. But I like some films like that. Hou Hsiao-Hsien's "The Assassin" is another beautiful film like this and would consider another remake. (I would love a double bill with "Le Samouraï" and "The Assassin"!) Plus, I have seen films where so much is happening and it's still boring.
Whereas "The Killer" deals with the heroic violence of not being a ruthless murderer any more, and whereas "Ghost Dog" leans in heavily on the false pretenses of samurai culture, here, Costello knows he is a ruthless killer. When asked why he was doing a job, his response, "I was paid to" is clear. It is also clear that he is running toward his death rather than from the police.
It is that kind of film.
One of my Top Ten Favorite Films of All-time.
HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Directed by George Lucas
Made May 4th a double-feature day by capping it off with the first episode of the Star Wars Saga.
This was once considered the worst of all the Star Wars movies. Glad to see it's getting some shine from this new generation that didn't live through the hell of the Lucas Bashing Era. Heck, I don't even dislike the Sequel Trilogy, I mean, they're a bit corporate, I mean, they're just movies, but the kids seem to like them. Daisy Ridley is a great lead and I'm glad she's getting her own Star Wars movie. Looking for to "The Acolyte" because it's something different!
Here, Jedi Knights played by Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor, as young Obi-wan Kenobi, must try to prevent the escalation of war during a trade embargo. While they work to keep up with events that spiral out of control, the elder Jedi Qui-gon Jinn (Neeson) comes across a young slave boy who might be the living embodiment of the Living Force and key prophetic figure, Anakin Skywalker.
I saw this when it was first released 25 years ago! I went to see it with my family and a friend from work. This time, I went with Char, who'd only seen on on DVD. It was an experience seeing this with her and of people her age and younger. There was the occasional dad dragging their daughters with, but I guess that I am now lumped in with that group.
We were entertained, we knew the story and where it goes, we knew the quotes, we found Jar Jar less annoying, the politics never got in the way, we saw the ET's in the Galactic Senate (!), and the pod race was still exciting, so it is a very good movie all in all. Definitely not as bad as people made it out to be. This was because what we had in our head for prequels never materialized because it was never our story to tell. So we got mad. But I would recommend this as good as any Star Wars film. We enjoyed it.
HIGH RECOMMENDATION
PS: SPOILER - BE READY TO BE INSULTED
I really don't care what order you watch them in. But if you are making your kids suffer through these, screen them in episode order, please. Respect the Maker. Then, the whole story will all make sense to your kids. With the advent of the K-Drama, the kids these days prefer episodic media. Because if you're trying to live vicariously through your kids to relive some childhood feeling? Don't. Don't use your child thus. Let them have their own experience. Your childhood is gone and is now an unreliable memory. We all know Darth Vader's his dad and trying to get your kid to relive that for you is evil mind control. Plus: Don't think that the order you saw them as a kid will somehow make your kid a better person, or worse, someone like you. Face it: we turned out trash.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Directed by Wes Ball
One half of the TOP REVIEW TEAM went to catch the latest in the new Planet of the Apes Saga.
This takes place three hundred years after the time of Caesar. Here, the ruination of the world is covered over with the regrowth of Nature and the Apes have evolved into clans and community groups. Noa (Owen Teague), a young ape of the Eagle Clan of apes have been living in their own world for serval generations. As he readies for his Connection Ceremony, with his friends Soona (Lydia Peckham), and Anaya (Travis Jeffery), they come upon a human scavenger, which leads another group, this time Gorillas, into their home. They are attacked and Noa is left for dead and his father is killed and family, friends, and clan taken.
He pairs with the human scavenger Nova, and a kind orangutan Raka (Pater Macon), who is the last to remember the true teachings of Caesar of the first trilogy. They encounter Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand), the leader of a coastal clan bent on attaining human technology and using Caesar's philosophies as a tool of control.
There is much to unpack with this. It is good. It is a differing flavor of the first three. But just as engaging and the right amount of different. Not only in establishing the new series on its own terms, but in the burying of nostalgia for the Caesar Trilogy (as I will call it) and for the Sixties series. That is a tightrope it manages very well and tricks the audience in not really thinking about it while we make the subtle connections to them. Very good.
High RECOMMENDATION
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Probably one of my most favorite Ghibli films.
In the distant future, humanity lives in a post-nuclear world, after the "Seven Days of Fire", where giant humanoid bioweapons set the world aflame and creating the Toxic Jungle, a poisonous forest that is home to mutant insects. The forest is growing year after year. The people of the Valley have learned to live near the toxic waste.
Princess Nausicaä has been exploring the Toxic Forest in hopes of finding a way to help humanity to coexist. The militaristic Tolmekia soon invade after a plane of theirs crashes killing its precious hostage and revealing its deadly cargo, an embryo of a Giant Warrior, the bioweapon that destroyed most of the Earth. Now, Naisicaä must race to halt the Tolmekia's plans to unleash the Giant on the Toxic Forest while the Pejite people actively fight against them.
This is one of the great "post-apocalyptic" films ever. When folks hear that word, they think Mad Max and that nonsense. (And sometimes actively strive for it. Because every dudebro thinks they're Max in that scenario. Sheesh. I'd rather be Nausicaä.) It has its own aesthetic, cultures, and ideals beyond anything George Miller came up with. I know, heresy.
Still a fine, quick-paced epic.
HIGH RECOMMENDATION
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Directed by George Miller
I have no clue why this is so hated, other than sexism.
George Miller adds another stellar film to the Mad Max Saga, this time, telling the story of Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron in "Fury Road". Here, Anna Taylor-Joy take the lead and makes it her own in a legendary telling of how Furiosa ended up the Imperator for Immortan Joe.
It is broken into chapters which follows the aesthetics of a saga being read or spoken.
George Miller is very interested in this idea that Max and Furiosa's stories are retellings long into the future. Which is why there is barely any continuity in the stories. For instance, Max's V8 reappears in Fury Road, much like his daughter, though in the original film from 1978, Max has son.
One of the best concepts taken out of the Fury Roads script was Max, after Furiosa and the Mothers leave across the salt plain, Max crosses paths with an old Aboriginal man walking in the other direction. When Max tries to explain his situation, the man stops him say, “I’ve heard your story before” and raises his hand to his forehead, in the motion that later saves Max from taking an arrow to the head. Max notes they never met before to which the old man just walks away.
This is from reality, when the production crew wanted to film on Ayer’s Rock for “Beyond Thunderdome” and spoke with the Aboriginal people about filming there since it is a sacred site for them. As the producers told the story of Max, including the original film and “Road Warrior”, the elders stopped the and said they have many stories like this in their lore. This impressed them enough to allow filming, but the producer decided that the site was too sacred to film at after all.
Here, we follow Furiosa as she is taken from the Green Place of her youth by Dementus, a wasteland warlord bent on surviving but also taking over the Citadel from Immortan Joe. Furiosa, must navigate Joe's system to get into a position that she can make a run for home, as she promised her mother long ago.
I have no idea why this is getting hated, expect for sexism.
It's a great movie. I will see it again in theaters as soon as I can.
BEST OF 2024 (So far.)
HIGHEST RECOMENDATION
3:[ This Month’s Short Essay:
My brother Allen's birthday was the day after my mom's. Yet, I remember only celebrating my brother's birthday as a kid. It's been over two years since he passed. But I have been away from him for over 24 years. We sporadically saw one another on my visits home since I left. He would ask for a ride to town or just say Hi and leave with his church group. Mostly, he would be off partying around.
It is funny how time changes things. But it should never be surprising, should it? Things change over time, as do people. I keep thinking that I am the same person I was when I felt like a person during my teen years. When I started to think things for myself, kind of. You know how you get as a teen. But looking at my beliefs and philosophy and ideals, and how they've changed, I am a different person than that left the Wind River.
But Allen seemed unchanged. He was always joking, always jovial, always stubborn, always contrary, always twenty-nine years old (at least he'd say so), and he never seemed to NOT be Allen when I was back home. There was something comforting in that. Comforting as those sugar cookies he used to make me when I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep. We would go to the kitchen, he'd mix up a batch as fast as lighting, and throw them in the oven. He would bake four, two for me and two for him. They were more like biscuits. We would eat them, and go back to bed. It is one of my strongest memories from our old house.
I don't have any recent pictures of him to share nor any old ones for that matter. But he mattered to me when I was little. He was fun, he played, he shared, he scolded when needed. I don't know if he was ever satisfied with life but he never showed that that bothered him.
He was my brother Allen, "Un" as we called him.
My brother Allen's birthday is this month. And I still miss him.
4:[ Observation: Getting so tired of the meme - "This generation will never know the struggle" and it's something stupid and superfluous. They're dealing with the destruction of the planet and corporate overreach into all aspects of our lives, and religo-political control of the same. Who cares if they didn't have Trapper Keepers in grade school?
5:[ We cannot go back to “Normal” all after this: thinking that fresh water is an 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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