Okay, this is the first poem I'm posting here; I wrote it while I was in Austria, mostly while waiting for class to start. It's intended as a tribute to my favorite artist, William Adolphe Bouguereau. It seemed to me that here was a classical artist of the renaissance or baroque school (although I don't know enough about differing art styles to specifically label him) who lived after his time had passed; the impressionists, post-impressionists, cubists, and 'they-just-don't-seem-to-care' artists were taking over and he was the last great one of his breed. It's written in the Ballad format (which I find to be the easiest and most fun to write in).
Just a side note: I don't want people to think that I hate impressionists and the like; I don't. I generally enjoy Van Gogh, Monet, and their ilk, and I find Dali's stuff to be fascinating in a nightmarish kind of way. The thing is, for me, they're generally curiosities and 'one-shot' fads; their fine on their own, but I'm disturbed by their techniques taking over the art world completely. I much prefer the more 'traditional' artists like, well, Bouguereau.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
The Last Artist
The Last Artist
A man is painting portraits
In garish gold and red
Another gives us paintings
Of nightmare dreams instead
Still others paint the city
As seen through powdered glass
But the last great artist in the world
Paints children in the grass
A kind old man from Paris
Paints flowers in the fall
And many dull and sad young men
Paint nothing now at all
A cruel man in the city streets
Paints ugly broken shapes
But the last true artist in the world
Now paints true love’s escape.
Now men paint only simple shapes
Or paint an empty wall
They try to draw like music sounds
Or do not try at all
To all who paint now listen well
Look back across the years
The last great artist living drew
Madonna all in tears.
A man is painting portraits
In garish gold and red
Another gives us paintings
Of nightmare dreams instead
Still others paint the city
As seen through powdered glass
But the last great artist in the world
Paints children in the grass
A kind old man from Paris
Paints flowers in the fall
And many dull and sad young men
Paint nothing now at all
A cruel man in the city streets
Paints ugly broken shapes
But the last true artist in the world
Now paints true love’s escape.
Now men paint only simple shapes
Or paint an empty wall
They try to draw like music sounds
Or do not try at all
To all who paint now listen well
Look back across the years
The last great artist living drew
Madonna all in tears.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
RE: Mst3k and other things
Hi. I know all five of you are probably wondering when the Mst3k reviews are going to resume. Well, frankly, I don't know; I recently had the reconfigure my computer and lost most of my files, including my reviews in progress. What's more, YouTube, my main source of episodes, has apparently taken down the majority of their episodes, so the reviews are on hold until I find another source or someone else starts posting them on YouTube. Sorry.
The good news is that I'm planning on posting other things; specifically some of my own works of fiction-in-progress (some of which has been seen before on Facebook, others will be new).
The good news is that I'm planning on posting other things; specifically some of my own works of fiction-in-progress (some of which has been seen before on Facebook, others will be new).
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Historical Anecdote 2
Okay, my plan for doing 'one a week' of these things is pretty much dead (it's been what, four or five months since the last one?). So now I basically will do them when I can/find an interesting one.
This one is another ancient Greek account, although not quite so ancient. Phillip II of Macedonia (Alexander's father) had conquered pretty much all of Greece, except Sparta, which by then had lost most of its former presitge. He sent a message to the Spartans demanding their surrender, saying "You are advised to submit without further delay. If I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city." The Spartans sent back a single word in response:
'If.'
Neither Phillip nor Alexander ever attempted to invade Sparta. So, let's hear it for sheer pride, fortitude, and clear speaking.
This one is another ancient Greek account, although not quite so ancient. Phillip II of Macedonia (Alexander's father) had conquered pretty much all of Greece, except Sparta, which by then had lost most of its former presitge. He sent a message to the Spartans demanding their surrender, saying "You are advised to submit without further delay. If I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city." The Spartans sent back a single word in response:
'If.'
Neither Phillip nor Alexander ever attempted to invade Sparta. So, let's hear it for sheer pride, fortitude, and clear speaking.
Friday, January 30, 2009
MST3K – Episode 206: Ring of Terror (With Short: The Phantom Creeps; Episode 3)
(Introductory note: As I am currently in Austria, I won't have the chance to continue my MST3K reviews until I return. However, I had started three reviews before I left and may post them, depending on how complete they are and whether I think I can finish them without reviewing the episode.)
Ring of Terror is a pretty middle-of-the-road episode, notable mostly for the rather disastrous experiment of following the movie with a short instead of the other way around. This does not work at all; shorts help us ease into the movie, rather like an appetizer or a salad. Putting it after the movie is only tiring; once the main feature’s credits role, we’re ready to go home, so springing a short on us doesn’t work.
Well, anyway, Ring of Terror. The film is bookended with a crazy doctor/grave-keeper (I think) leading into our story from one of the tombstones (I suspect this was going to be the pilot for an anthology horror series, but it wasn’t picked up). The story proper concerns Lewis Moffitt (“Sat on a toffit…”), a surprisingly old med-student who is the only guy not squeamish during dissections (you’d think med students would have stronger stomachs, but I guess not). He’s got a girlfriend, who gets mad at him for no reason, and everyone thinks of him as the guy who is never afraid. Turns out he’s really afraid of the dark. Anyway, the fraternity he wants to join (why is never explained) decides a good hazing trick for him would be to send him to the cemetery to steal a ring from a recently dissected corpse (you’d think they’d take that off before the dissection). Anyway, a cat scares him and the dead-guy’s hand snags on his sleeve, so he dies of fright and the narrator seems to find this quite amusing.
Then there’s the Phantom Creeps, which I simply cannot follow at all; the poor film quality certainly doesn’t help. There’s some rather cool effects scenes in this one (especially the climax with power-lines blowing up), but nothing much else; I’m glad they decided to stop doing the serials eventually; they’re just not very well suited for this sort of thing. And I’m REALLY glad they learned their lesson from the episode and never followed the movie with the short again.
Thoughts while watching:
Opening: fake movie sign. We actually see where Joel goes during movie sign (down a side-chute) and we see Crow try to press the button.
Invention exchange: Mads; the real operation game; a little over campy for me, but still fun. Joel; pin-bolus (you play pinball with your kidneys, internal organs and swallowed food). Pretty funny. Big medical week this time.
I rather like Servo’s reading from a film guide about the film.
And I love their panicking as they get too close to the gate.
Weird pretentious narrator.
Servo (on the weird narrator): “Mr. Magoo, what happened to you?”
The bit with the narrator looking for his cat, Puma, will be reused again and again in the series (it’s frankly boring as hell here).
And the guy drops the cat and steps on it, so the chase is on again! Arrgg!
Joel strokes the cat and reassures it.
And we segue into the story proper.
Servo (as Moffitt reads a med-book): “Let’s see, where was I…oh, yeah, see Dick, see Dick make a lateral incision…”
And Moffitt’s girlfriend talks about him with her friends.
Numerous ‘old’ jokes on the surprisingly elderly college students.
Joel (as Moffitt’s date): “Oh, the dump again?”
Really stilted dialogue.
Moffitt: “I’m studying medicine because…”
Servo: “I’m old, I’ve got a practice, I’ve been a respected doctor for twenty years.”
I love Joel’s ‘snake’ voice!
Crow (after Moffitt kills the snake): “Ah, now where were we? I believe I had my tongue down your throat.”
Wait, there’s a dance floor and stage in the cafeteria? What kind of med school is this?
First Host Segment: The Old School; a university for the elderly as seen in the film ‘Ring of Terror.’ I’m not much of a fan of ‘old people’ jokes, but this is pretty funny.
Wait, his girlfriend is name ‘Betty Crocker?!’
Joel takes the last of the fat couple’s drink!
Servo (on the fat couple’s dance): “An interpretive dance showing how plate-tectonics work.”
Crow: “We’re thinking of taking advantage of the freshmen’s osteoporosis.”
I think the copy I’m watching skips a few scenes…grrr…Okay, I switched to a better-looking copy. Now I can really appreciate the ‘old student’ jokes.
Joel does some great ‘other-side’ dialogue for the phone scenes.
Padded scenes leading up to the autopsy…
Servo: “City Morgue; we deliver!”
I rather suspect they’re making a rather bigger deal of this whole ‘autopsy-nausea’ scene than generally happens in real med-schools.
Does the showing the corpse’s hand really warrant the horror chord?
Doctor: “John Doe left this world with one possession…”
Crow: “Dibs!”
Fat guy faints…and again…because it’s SO FUNNY!
Servo: “Say, uh, doctor guy, could we have some of those tools? We’ve got another one up here…”
Their quips during the autopsy montage are great.
Look, the hand with the ring is not inherently scary.
And Moffitt has a nightmare.
Kid: “Alice won’t even look at me.”
Crow: “Can you blame her, pug-boy?”
And the girls are randomly mad because the guys dumped them to go to A CLASS the last night! Come on, the girls in ‘Catalina Caper’ had a better reason!
Guy: “That’s right, the barbeque!”
Servo: “They’re gonna eat the body?!”
Second Host Segment: Mr. Hoover’s autopsy. It’s a HILARIOUS parody of the film’s scene; one of the best segments so far this season.
Guy: “Hey, what’s the story on you, Moffitt?”
Servo: “I’m a serial killer.”
Okay, so Moffitt’s afraid of the dark.
Crow (on an establishing shot): “Here at the coliseum, the vomitoriums are cleaned and readied for the day’s activities.”
And the frat-boys decide on what ritual humiliations they’re going to put the kids who for some reason want to join them through. I just don’t get fraternities.
Girl: “It’s the way you’ve been acting.”
Crow: “Woodenly.”
Moffitt and girl make up (still unclear why they were angry in the first place).
Joel’s right; the fat jokes were never funny and now they’re getting really stupid.
They’re trying to get someone to kill the annoying frat-boy.
(as the frat-boys dump water on the guy)
Servo: “And a bucket of battery acid!”
Crow: “I think the only plot was back in the graveyard.”
Joel: “There’s a million bushes in this naked city, and a million naked people behind them.”
Crow (as Moffitt’s girlfriend): “Oh, how I love that manly man o’mine! Well, off to find someone else…”
So, Moffitt goes to the cemetery for his hazing. Again, why do people go through this for some stupid, arbitrary group?
Crow (the hero pulls up in a cemetery): “Oh, he’s gonna go around to the drive-in window.”
I love their muffled ‘corpse’ voices as Moffitt walks through the graveyard.
They call back to ‘Puma! Puma!’ already!
(as Moffitt walks through the graveyard)
Crow (singing): “The hills are alive…oh, I guess not.”
(in a mausoleum)
Joel: “Hey, it actually says ‘you stab ‘em, we slab ‘em.’”
And Moffitt dies of fright when the cat screams and the corpse’s hand snags on him.
The narrator’s back to deliver the ironic epilogue. I’m guess this was intended as a pilot for an anthology horror series, but it wasn’t good enough.
Third Host Segment: Ram Chips for a good-and-bad thing about the movie (the keep dropping requests for Ram chips). It’s pretty good; their Ram-chip requests are great; especially Servo. Then they cut down the Deep 13 to introduce the short.
And back into the theater for the short!
You know, it was a really bad idea to put the short after the movie; I suspect they did it as an experiment, but it doesn’t work; it’s like serving the salad after the main course.
Odd moment where Joel claims that Willis Cooper was Eddie Haskell; that’s not even close to Eddie’s actor (Ken Osmond) or, frankly, any other ‘Leave it to Beaver’ cast member.
Another ‘Star Wars’ esque opening crawl.
(reading the opening crawl)
Crow: “’…by using a device which makes him invisible’ a contract to appear on the comedy channel!”
Man, they must have been feeling their oats that day!
So, the resolution of the cliff-hanger is that his unconscious body fell out of the car?! That’s the best they could do?
(hero misses and hits a tree)
Servo: “Oh, good Bob, you killed a sequoia.”
Bela steals a random guy’s car.
And more characters show up!
Guy 1: “Who do you think they are?”
Guy 2: “That’s what we’re gonna find out!”
Crow: “That’s not what I asked!
Good point…Servo just pointed out that all these guys look the same.
Bela shows off the ‘source of all his power’ it’s pretty vague.
And we wander around the three or four plot lines…
Evil Spy: “With it, we can conquer the world!”
Servo: “Then we start thinking big!”
Sidekick tries to control the robot; doesn’t go very well. At least it doesn’t try to kill him.
Crow: “Not even chauffeurs can resist the rich taste of ultimate power.”
You know, that robot does look a LOT like Richard Kiel…
And the heroes catch the sidekick who had been trying to smuggle the ‘source of ultimate power’ away.
Servo: “Yeah, let’s clown around with something we can’t possibly understand.”
Rather humorously, the heroes accidentally destroy all power sources around them, leading to the cliffhanger where a power-line tower falls across the road.
Final Host Segment: Song: “If Chauffeurs Ruled the World.” Frank is great here! Then Dr. F. tries to stop him by dropping the car on his head. He finishes anyway.
Stinger: “Weird. Yeah, I guess that is the word for it. Weird.”
Really good; a perfect, odd little moment; the sort of thing stingers were made for.
Movie Quality Rating:
1. The Crawling Eye
2. The Black Scorpion
3. Mad Monster
4. Rocketship XM
5. Moon Zero Two
6. The Crawling Hand
7. Catalina Caper
8. Jungle Goddess
9. The Corpse Vanishes
10. Ring of Terror
11. Untamed Youth
12. The Slime People
13. Project Moonbase
14. The Sidehackers
15. Women of the Prehistoric Planet
16. Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy
17. Rocket Attack USA
18. Robot Holocaust
19. Robot Monster
Conclusion: A lame, stupid little movie with decent riffing makes this a decent episode, though marred slightly by the poorly-conceived experiment of following the movie with the short.
Final Rating: 6.5/10.
Ring of Terror is a pretty middle-of-the-road episode, notable mostly for the rather disastrous experiment of following the movie with a short instead of the other way around. This does not work at all; shorts help us ease into the movie, rather like an appetizer or a salad. Putting it after the movie is only tiring; once the main feature’s credits role, we’re ready to go home, so springing a short on us doesn’t work.
Well, anyway, Ring of Terror. The film is bookended with a crazy doctor/grave-keeper (I think) leading into our story from one of the tombstones (I suspect this was going to be the pilot for an anthology horror series, but it wasn’t picked up). The story proper concerns Lewis Moffitt (“Sat on a toffit…”), a surprisingly old med-student who is the only guy not squeamish during dissections (you’d think med students would have stronger stomachs, but I guess not). He’s got a girlfriend, who gets mad at him for no reason, and everyone thinks of him as the guy who is never afraid. Turns out he’s really afraid of the dark. Anyway, the fraternity he wants to join (why is never explained) decides a good hazing trick for him would be to send him to the cemetery to steal a ring from a recently dissected corpse (you’d think they’d take that off before the dissection). Anyway, a cat scares him and the dead-guy’s hand snags on his sleeve, so he dies of fright and the narrator seems to find this quite amusing.
Then there’s the Phantom Creeps, which I simply cannot follow at all; the poor film quality certainly doesn’t help. There’s some rather cool effects scenes in this one (especially the climax with power-lines blowing up), but nothing much else; I’m glad they decided to stop doing the serials eventually; they’re just not very well suited for this sort of thing. And I’m REALLY glad they learned their lesson from the episode and never followed the movie with the short again.
Thoughts while watching:
Opening: fake movie sign. We actually see where Joel goes during movie sign (down a side-chute) and we see Crow try to press the button.
Invention exchange: Mads; the real operation game; a little over campy for me, but still fun. Joel; pin-bolus (you play pinball with your kidneys, internal organs and swallowed food). Pretty funny. Big medical week this time.
I rather like Servo’s reading from a film guide about the film.
And I love their panicking as they get too close to the gate.
Weird pretentious narrator.
Servo (on the weird narrator): “Mr. Magoo, what happened to you?”
The bit with the narrator looking for his cat, Puma, will be reused again and again in the series (it’s frankly boring as hell here).
And the guy drops the cat and steps on it, so the chase is on again! Arrgg!
Joel strokes the cat and reassures it.
And we segue into the story proper.
Servo (as Moffitt reads a med-book): “Let’s see, where was I…oh, yeah, see Dick, see Dick make a lateral incision…”
And Moffitt’s girlfriend talks about him with her friends.
Numerous ‘old’ jokes on the surprisingly elderly college students.
Joel (as Moffitt’s date): “Oh, the dump again?”
Really stilted dialogue.
Moffitt: “I’m studying medicine because…”
Servo: “I’m old, I’ve got a practice, I’ve been a respected doctor for twenty years.”
I love Joel’s ‘snake’ voice!
Crow (after Moffitt kills the snake): “Ah, now where were we? I believe I had my tongue down your throat.”
Wait, there’s a dance floor and stage in the cafeteria? What kind of med school is this?
First Host Segment: The Old School; a university for the elderly as seen in the film ‘Ring of Terror.’ I’m not much of a fan of ‘old people’ jokes, but this is pretty funny.
Wait, his girlfriend is name ‘Betty Crocker?!’
Joel takes the last of the fat couple’s drink!
Servo (on the fat couple’s dance): “An interpretive dance showing how plate-tectonics work.”
Crow: “We’re thinking of taking advantage of the freshmen’s osteoporosis.”
I think the copy I’m watching skips a few scenes…grrr…Okay, I switched to a better-looking copy. Now I can really appreciate the ‘old student’ jokes.
Joel does some great ‘other-side’ dialogue for the phone scenes.
Padded scenes leading up to the autopsy…
Servo: “City Morgue; we deliver!”
I rather suspect they’re making a rather bigger deal of this whole ‘autopsy-nausea’ scene than generally happens in real med-schools.
Does the showing the corpse’s hand really warrant the horror chord?
Doctor: “John Doe left this world with one possession…”
Crow: “Dibs!”
Fat guy faints…and again…because it’s SO FUNNY!
Servo: “Say, uh, doctor guy, could we have some of those tools? We’ve got another one up here…”
Their quips during the autopsy montage are great.
Look, the hand with the ring is not inherently scary.
And Moffitt has a nightmare.
Kid: “Alice won’t even look at me.”
Crow: “Can you blame her, pug-boy?”
And the girls are randomly mad because the guys dumped them to go to A CLASS the last night! Come on, the girls in ‘Catalina Caper’ had a better reason!
Guy: “That’s right, the barbeque!”
Servo: “They’re gonna eat the body?!”
Second Host Segment: Mr. Hoover’s autopsy. It’s a HILARIOUS parody of the film’s scene; one of the best segments so far this season.
Guy: “Hey, what’s the story on you, Moffitt?”
Servo: “I’m a serial killer.”
Okay, so Moffitt’s afraid of the dark.
Crow (on an establishing shot): “Here at the coliseum, the vomitoriums are cleaned and readied for the day’s activities.”
And the frat-boys decide on what ritual humiliations they’re going to put the kids who for some reason want to join them through. I just don’t get fraternities.
Girl: “It’s the way you’ve been acting.”
Crow: “Woodenly.”
Moffitt and girl make up (still unclear why they were angry in the first place).
Joel’s right; the fat jokes were never funny and now they’re getting really stupid.
They’re trying to get someone to kill the annoying frat-boy.
(as the frat-boys dump water on the guy)
Servo: “And a bucket of battery acid!”
Crow: “I think the only plot was back in the graveyard.”
Joel: “There’s a million bushes in this naked city, and a million naked people behind them.”
Crow (as Moffitt’s girlfriend): “Oh, how I love that manly man o’mine! Well, off to find someone else…”
So, Moffitt goes to the cemetery for his hazing. Again, why do people go through this for some stupid, arbitrary group?
Crow (the hero pulls up in a cemetery): “Oh, he’s gonna go around to the drive-in window.”
I love their muffled ‘corpse’ voices as Moffitt walks through the graveyard.
They call back to ‘Puma! Puma!’ already!
(as Moffitt walks through the graveyard)
Crow (singing): “The hills are alive…oh, I guess not.”
(in a mausoleum)
Joel: “Hey, it actually says ‘you stab ‘em, we slab ‘em.’”
And Moffitt dies of fright when the cat screams and the corpse’s hand snags on him.
The narrator’s back to deliver the ironic epilogue. I’m guess this was intended as a pilot for an anthology horror series, but it wasn’t good enough.
Third Host Segment: Ram Chips for a good-and-bad thing about the movie (the keep dropping requests for Ram chips). It’s pretty good; their Ram-chip requests are great; especially Servo. Then they cut down the Deep 13 to introduce the short.
And back into the theater for the short!
You know, it was a really bad idea to put the short after the movie; I suspect they did it as an experiment, but it doesn’t work; it’s like serving the salad after the main course.
Odd moment where Joel claims that Willis Cooper was Eddie Haskell; that’s not even close to Eddie’s actor (Ken Osmond) or, frankly, any other ‘Leave it to Beaver’ cast member.
Another ‘Star Wars’ esque opening crawl.
(reading the opening crawl)
Crow: “’…by using a device which makes him invisible’ a contract to appear on the comedy channel!”
Man, they must have been feeling their oats that day!
So, the resolution of the cliff-hanger is that his unconscious body fell out of the car?! That’s the best they could do?
(hero misses and hits a tree)
Servo: “Oh, good Bob, you killed a sequoia.”
Bela steals a random guy’s car.
And more characters show up!
Guy 1: “Who do you think they are?”
Guy 2: “That’s what we’re gonna find out!”
Crow: “That’s not what I asked!
Good point…Servo just pointed out that all these guys look the same.
Bela shows off the ‘source of all his power’ it’s pretty vague.
And we wander around the three or four plot lines…
Evil Spy: “With it, we can conquer the world!”
Servo: “Then we start thinking big!”
Sidekick tries to control the robot; doesn’t go very well. At least it doesn’t try to kill him.
Crow: “Not even chauffeurs can resist the rich taste of ultimate power.”
You know, that robot does look a LOT like Richard Kiel…
And the heroes catch the sidekick who had been trying to smuggle the ‘source of ultimate power’ away.
Servo: “Yeah, let’s clown around with something we can’t possibly understand.”
Rather humorously, the heroes accidentally destroy all power sources around them, leading to the cliffhanger where a power-line tower falls across the road.
Final Host Segment: Song: “If Chauffeurs Ruled the World.” Frank is great here! Then Dr. F. tries to stop him by dropping the car on his head. He finishes anyway.
Stinger: “Weird. Yeah, I guess that is the word for it. Weird.”
Really good; a perfect, odd little moment; the sort of thing stingers were made for.
Movie Quality Rating:
1. The Crawling Eye
2. The Black Scorpion
3. Mad Monster
4. Rocketship XM
5. Moon Zero Two
6. The Crawling Hand
7. Catalina Caper
8. Jungle Goddess
9. The Corpse Vanishes
10. Ring of Terror
11. Untamed Youth
12. The Slime People
13. Project Moonbase
14. The Sidehackers
15. Women of the Prehistoric Planet
16. Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy
17. Rocket Attack USA
18. Robot Holocaust
19. Robot Monster
Conclusion: A lame, stupid little movie with decent riffing makes this a decent episode, though marred slightly by the poorly-conceived experiment of following the movie with the short.
Final Rating: 6.5/10.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
An Appreciation for The War of the Worlds
As I’ve mentioned before, I love the fifties in general and fifties sci-fi in particular. I don’t really know what exactly draws me to these films, except that they’re so fun, yet so innocent and wondrous. These are the kind of movies you would want to grow up on as a kid; not much cynicism, admirable heroes and, most of all, fantastic sights to jump-start the imagination. Plus, they're often quite good movies to boot.
There is something not often touched on with these films (generally if people feel they must see any deeper meaning in them, they just say ‘anti-communist propaganda’ and leave it at that). Despite the overwhelming number of films whose primary focus was the wonders and terrors of science, there remained in most of them a certain ambivalence about science. The films were generally not only about what science might be able to do, but also (and generally to a greater extent) what it shouldn’t do. The villains in these films were more often than not men (or aliens) who have let their lust for knowledge override their humanity. This can be presented either as a good thing taken too far (‘The Thing From Another World,’ ‘It Conquered the World,’ etc.) or as an actual loss of humanity and force of evil (‘The Brain From Planet Arous,’ etc.). Not only that, but almost always the threat in the film is either the end result or a side effect of some advancement in science. The Rhedosaur in ‘The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms,’ for instance, is awakened by a nuclear test. The monster in ‘It Conquered the World’ came to Earth by riding on a man-made satellite.
This ambivalence to science is perhaps best demonstrated in two of the era’s best films; ‘The War of the Worlds’ and ‘Forbidden Planet.’ In ‘Forbidden Planet,’ the question is what happens when science goes too far; when technology outstrips the ability and worthiness of the operator. ‘The War of the Worlds,’ on the other hand, is about nothing less than the limits of what science can offer.
‘The War of the Worlds’ is a film often criticized for its strong religious themes. This is understandable, to an extent, as author H.G. Wells himself was an avowed atheist. No doubt he would have been furious at the ideas imposed on his story. The themes of the novel have been discussed and interpreted many times (my personal favorite interpretation being Isaac Asimov’s contention that it is a colonial reversal story, with England being colonized as surely and ruthlessly as it colonized other lands). However, the book is most assuredly not meant to be about turning to God to face evil (indeed, the religious characters presented in the book are ripe-picking for the Martians). On the other hand, I’m sure Wells’ close friend, G.K. Chesterton, would have appreciated the film’s themes. Indeed, the film could perhaps be summed up as Wells’ story told from Chesterton’s point of view.
The story of ‘The War of the Worlds’ is familiar to most people; war machines, supposedly from Mars, land on Earth. The forces of humanity rally against them, but prove no match for the superior alien technology. Finally, when all seems lost, the aliens are defeated by the Earth bacteria which they have no defense against.
Most of the film is seen through the eyes of Dr. Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry), a scientist who is among the first to encounter the aliens. Initially, he is fascinated by them. “This is amazing!” he says, his voice dripping with excitement, as the war machines emerge. All his excitement and scientific curiosity is soon forgotten, however, as he beholds the terrible events of the war. Like all wars, the battle with the Martians causes Forrester to re-examine what is important in his life. In the end, this great man of science is left alone, beaten and disheveled, searching a deserted, besieged city for the one he loves.
In the end of the movie, the strength that men trusted; their science, their courage, all that they could do proves not enough. The military, for all its advanced weapons, proves utterly helpless against the far superior Martian machines (indeed, calling the events of the film a ‘war’ is generous; the Martians more or less walk right over the humans). Even an atom bomb, the most terrible weapon that man’s science could ever devise, has absolutely no effect on the alien invaders. After the a-bomb fails, Forrester comments that since they can’t beat the Martians machines, they’ll “have to beat them,” meaning a biological weapon of some sort. This too fails, however, not because of the Martian’s defenses, but because of man’s failings. As the scientists evacuate Los Angeles, intending to work on their new attack elsewhere, a looting mob waylays and destroys mankind’s last hope to save itself.
I commented that the film’s ambivalence about science is a Chestertonian idea. Along with that, the film has a rather Tolkien-esque subtext in its battle scenes; namely, a lament about the horrors of machine warfare. More than once the film applauds the courage of the military, both implicitly by showing their great sacrifice and courage in battle and explicitly by having the narrator (Cedric Hardwick) praise the defenders for their strength and tenacity.
The problem is, it doesn’t matter. All the courage and skill of the soldiers of the entire world doesn’t matter because the Martians have better machines. It’s significant that the Martians have no foot soldiers; they fight entirely from their machines. To the audience, they effectively are their machines. We see the aliens themselves only twice, and briefly; once when one surprises Forrester and Sylvia (Ann Robinson), his girlfriend, while they’re hiding in an abandoned farmhouse, and again when the Martians fall and die, we see one Martian arm reaching out to touch the Earth it sought to conquer. In both instances we are not only repulsed by the aliens, but we feel sympathy for them. In the farm house, the alien seems more curious than anything and shields its eyes from the bright light of the flashlight Forrester trains on it. In this way, it seems almost like the Martians are themselves victims of their machine-dominated culture. They have sacrificed themselves entirely to their machines and not only can they do nothing without them, their machines actually separate them from the goals they use them to achieve.
Yet, the machines are ultimately controlled by the Martians, who are shown to be utterly merciless. The first casualties are three men trying to welcome the invaders with a white flag and words of friendship. Right before the first battle, Sylvia’s uncle, a local pastor, walks out with his Bible hoping to remind the invaders of their common creator, only to be annihilated in the middle of a prayer by the Martians’ heat ray. Right before this he commented that if the Martians were more advanced than us, “they should be nearer their creator for that reason.” This line calls to mind Chesterton’s comments on progress; that growing more advanced doesn’t necessarily represent real progress and to be civilized means more than technology.
So, in the end of The War of the Worlds, mankind’s science has failed in the face of the superior science of the invaders and the sinful nature of mankind itself. Man’s courage and will to live have proven no match for the soulless machines which their enemies send against them. In the end, all mankind can do is turn to God and pray for a miracle. In the end, the military flees and the men of science take refuge in a church, in the arms of those they care about.
Leading up to the end, Forrester searches for Sylvia in three churches. In each, everyone is praying on their knees for deliverance. In the Catholic church he enters, he finds two of his friends and colleagues praying together (there also is a priest highlighted leading some children in the Rosary). Finally, when he finds her, all they can do is hold each other as the implacable war machine bears down on them.
In the end, of course, the miracle comes. The soulless Martians are defeated, not by anything man can do, but by a literal act of God. They are defeated at the very gates of ‘God’s House,’ falling silently to the ground. “We were praying for a miracle…” Forrester says as he stands over the dead Martian machine. Earlier, Forrester had pointed out that as the Martians are mortal, they must have mortal weaknesses. They were, and they did, and they were struck down by the creator they had ignored or forgotten. The Martians, who seemed like gods, were destroyed by the one true God. In the end, the film says, there will be things we cannot do on our own; threats we cannot defeat with our tools; evil too strong and ruthless for us to face. In the face of these threats, all we can do is pray while holding on to what is really important.
There is something not often touched on with these films (generally if people feel they must see any deeper meaning in them, they just say ‘anti-communist propaganda’ and leave it at that). Despite the overwhelming number of films whose primary focus was the wonders and terrors of science, there remained in most of them a certain ambivalence about science. The films were generally not only about what science might be able to do, but also (and generally to a greater extent) what it shouldn’t do. The villains in these films were more often than not men (or aliens) who have let their lust for knowledge override their humanity. This can be presented either as a good thing taken too far (‘The Thing From Another World,’ ‘It Conquered the World,’ etc.) or as an actual loss of humanity and force of evil (‘The Brain From Planet Arous,’ etc.). Not only that, but almost always the threat in the film is either the end result or a side effect of some advancement in science. The Rhedosaur in ‘The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms,’ for instance, is awakened by a nuclear test. The monster in ‘It Conquered the World’ came to Earth by riding on a man-made satellite.
This ambivalence to science is perhaps best demonstrated in two of the era’s best films; ‘The War of the Worlds’ and ‘Forbidden Planet.’ In ‘Forbidden Planet,’ the question is what happens when science goes too far; when technology outstrips the ability and worthiness of the operator. ‘The War of the Worlds,’ on the other hand, is about nothing less than the limits of what science can offer.
‘The War of the Worlds’ is a film often criticized for its strong religious themes. This is understandable, to an extent, as author H.G. Wells himself was an avowed atheist. No doubt he would have been furious at the ideas imposed on his story. The themes of the novel have been discussed and interpreted many times (my personal favorite interpretation being Isaac Asimov’s contention that it is a colonial reversal story, with England being colonized as surely and ruthlessly as it colonized other lands). However, the book is most assuredly not meant to be about turning to God to face evil (indeed, the religious characters presented in the book are ripe-picking for the Martians). On the other hand, I’m sure Wells’ close friend, G.K. Chesterton, would have appreciated the film’s themes. Indeed, the film could perhaps be summed up as Wells’ story told from Chesterton’s point of view.
The story of ‘The War of the Worlds’ is familiar to most people; war machines, supposedly from Mars, land on Earth. The forces of humanity rally against them, but prove no match for the superior alien technology. Finally, when all seems lost, the aliens are defeated by the Earth bacteria which they have no defense against.
Most of the film is seen through the eyes of Dr. Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry), a scientist who is among the first to encounter the aliens. Initially, he is fascinated by them. “This is amazing!” he says, his voice dripping with excitement, as the war machines emerge. All his excitement and scientific curiosity is soon forgotten, however, as he beholds the terrible events of the war. Like all wars, the battle with the Martians causes Forrester to re-examine what is important in his life. In the end, this great man of science is left alone, beaten and disheveled, searching a deserted, besieged city for the one he loves.
In the end of the movie, the strength that men trusted; their science, their courage, all that they could do proves not enough. The military, for all its advanced weapons, proves utterly helpless against the far superior Martian machines (indeed, calling the events of the film a ‘war’ is generous; the Martians more or less walk right over the humans). Even an atom bomb, the most terrible weapon that man’s science could ever devise, has absolutely no effect on the alien invaders. After the a-bomb fails, Forrester comments that since they can’t beat the Martians machines, they’ll “have to beat them,” meaning a biological weapon of some sort. This too fails, however, not because of the Martian’s defenses, but because of man’s failings. As the scientists evacuate Los Angeles, intending to work on their new attack elsewhere, a looting mob waylays and destroys mankind’s last hope to save itself.
I commented that the film’s ambivalence about science is a Chestertonian idea. Along with that, the film has a rather Tolkien-esque subtext in its battle scenes; namely, a lament about the horrors of machine warfare. More than once the film applauds the courage of the military, both implicitly by showing their great sacrifice and courage in battle and explicitly by having the narrator (Cedric Hardwick) praise the defenders for their strength and tenacity.
The problem is, it doesn’t matter. All the courage and skill of the soldiers of the entire world doesn’t matter because the Martians have better machines. It’s significant that the Martians have no foot soldiers; they fight entirely from their machines. To the audience, they effectively are their machines. We see the aliens themselves only twice, and briefly; once when one surprises Forrester and Sylvia (Ann Robinson), his girlfriend, while they’re hiding in an abandoned farmhouse, and again when the Martians fall and die, we see one Martian arm reaching out to touch the Earth it sought to conquer. In both instances we are not only repulsed by the aliens, but we feel sympathy for them. In the farm house, the alien seems more curious than anything and shields its eyes from the bright light of the flashlight Forrester trains on it. In this way, it seems almost like the Martians are themselves victims of their machine-dominated culture. They have sacrificed themselves entirely to their machines and not only can they do nothing without them, their machines actually separate them from the goals they use them to achieve.
Yet, the machines are ultimately controlled by the Martians, who are shown to be utterly merciless. The first casualties are three men trying to welcome the invaders with a white flag and words of friendship. Right before the first battle, Sylvia’s uncle, a local pastor, walks out with his Bible hoping to remind the invaders of their common creator, only to be annihilated in the middle of a prayer by the Martians’ heat ray. Right before this he commented that if the Martians were more advanced than us, “they should be nearer their creator for that reason.” This line calls to mind Chesterton’s comments on progress; that growing more advanced doesn’t necessarily represent real progress and to be civilized means more than technology.
So, in the end of The War of the Worlds, mankind’s science has failed in the face of the superior science of the invaders and the sinful nature of mankind itself. Man’s courage and will to live have proven no match for the soulless machines which their enemies send against them. In the end, all mankind can do is turn to God and pray for a miracle. In the end, the military flees and the men of science take refuge in a church, in the arms of those they care about.
Leading up to the end, Forrester searches for Sylvia in three churches. In each, everyone is praying on their knees for deliverance. In the Catholic church he enters, he finds two of his friends and colleagues praying together (there also is a priest highlighted leading some children in the Rosary). Finally, when he finds her, all they can do is hold each other as the implacable war machine bears down on them.
In the end, of course, the miracle comes. The soulless Martians are defeated, not by anything man can do, but by a literal act of God. They are defeated at the very gates of ‘God’s House,’ falling silently to the ground. “We were praying for a miracle…” Forrester says as he stands over the dead Martian machine. Earlier, Forrester had pointed out that as the Martians are mortal, they must have mortal weaknesses. They were, and they did, and they were struck down by the creator they had ignored or forgotten. The Martians, who seemed like gods, were destroyed by the one true God. In the end, the film says, there will be things we cannot do on our own; threats we cannot defeat with our tools; evil too strong and ruthless for us to face. In the face of these threats, all we can do is pray while holding on to what is really important.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
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