When I was ten, my family picked up an exchange student from the Regina airport. It was Winter. As the South American boy rode with me on the van bench, across an open prairie between Regina and Moose Jaw, he asked how many people lived in Wood Mountain. I replied proudly, “Forty people live in […]
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PostArctica: The Searchers
I like discussing influences which may also be a way of simply saying I am not ashamed to admit where it all comes from….anyway, took a shot of a “back […]
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The Rape/Revenge Genre’s Gender Revelations
“Rape/revenge is replete in tension and bloody cathartic release; there is terrifying violation, and then there is revenge you can feel good about. The films use women’s trauma to justify stereotypically male pleasures of hyperbolic violence. So Thelma and Louise get to pick up guns and shoot people like they’re in a Western, while Furiosa […]
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: The Force Awakens: One Big Politically Correct Recycling Machine
The Force Awakens: One Big Politically Correct Recycling Machine Given all-time box office records for The Force Awakens, it’s pretty obvious almost all comic-con and Star Wars fans in particular do not bemoan in the least the lack of innovation in the latest franchise installment. In fact many seem to have enthusiastically
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: The Force Awakens: One Big Politically Correct Recycling Machine
The Force Awakens: One Big Politically Correct Recycling Machine
Given all-time box office records for The Force Awakens, it’s pretty obvious almost all comic-con and Star Wars fans in particular do not bemoan in the least the lack of innovation in the latest franchise installment. In fact many seem to have enthusiastically embraced Abrams & Co’s decision to rework, with some new – but not too new – clothes of course, essentially the same trite story material of earlier films. For these fans, familiarly breeds praise. Still there is a considerable contingent of Star Wars fans who are deeply disappointed by this installment, arguing in fact that the film betrays the legacy of the original trilogy, IV, V, and VI, and is profoundly formulaic and unoriginal. The most analytic of these comes from Nicholas Spargo, whose youtube video, Why Stars Wars The Force Awakens is Worse than the Prequels, has gone viral.
But it’s hard to deny that Stars Wars: The Force Awakens, no matter what the film’s audience reception, is one big mother of a recycling machine. And not just in storylines and innocuous themes culled from the first two movies in particular, which in turn culled from countless other recycling literary and film factories, but in obvious character types who have not – as they could have been – repurposed, including a recycled dark side guy called Kylo Ren, with a redesigned black mask but the same flowing black cape and megaphonic voice (the flip side of the dark side father, a dark side son) but with a politically correct cast: one young black male lead (Finn), one young “strong” woman lead ( Rey, the flip side of Luke), two old people (four if you count the bonus characters, Lor San Tekka and Maz Kanata (named after a suburb of Ottawa [lol] and the the flip side of Yoda), one a woman (Princess Leia) and one a man (Han Solo) – both played by purposely recycled actors – one (two if you count the new flip side of Darth Vader, Kylo) young white dude (Poe, channeling Luke in the Top Gun sequences even as Ray and Finn channel Luke in countless scenes), one unintelligible tall hairy purposely recycled endearing guy (Chewbacca) and of course a cute recycled asexual droid standing in functionally for a plucky, courageous child, BB-8 (the flip side of R2-D2).
So what politically correct categories can we safely check off? Racism, gender balance, feminism, ageism, token young and old white males, big hairy guys, and very short rotund asexual droids.
May I suggest, then, that in addition to the strategy to recycle familiar-to-fans story material, which will inevitably turn out to be a mistake I predict, such adroit character choices might have something to do with marketing the film to every conceivable being – including hairy guys and droids or at least people who dress up like that – in the entire film galaxy?*
*Despite this obvious effort to be politically correct, notice the absence of a gay character – no doubt also a marketing decision for various reasons.
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But it’s hard to deny that Stars Wars: The Force Awakens, no matter what the film’s audience reception, is one big mother of a recycling machine. And not just in storylines and innocuous themes culled from the first two movies in particular, which in turn culled from countless other recycling literary and film factories, but in obvious character types who have not – as they could have been – repurposed, including a recycled dark side guy called Kylo Ren, with a redesigned black mask but the same flowing black cape and megaphonic voice (the flip side of the dark side father, a dark side son) but with a politically correct cast: one young black male lead (Finn), one young “strong” woman lead ( Rey, the flip side of Luke), two old people (four if you count the bonus characters, Lor San Tekka and Maz Kanata (named after a suburb of Ottawa [lol] and the the flip side of Yoda), one a woman (Princess Leia) and one a man (Han Solo) – both played by purposely recycled actors – one (two if you count the new flip side of Darth Vader, Kylo) young white dude (Poe, channeling Luke in the Top Gun sequences even as Ray and Finn channel Luke in countless scenes), one unintelligible tall hairy purposely recycled endearing guy (Chewbacca) and of course a cute recycled asexual droid standing in functionally for a plucky, courageous child, BB-8 (the flip side of R2-D2).
Politics and Entertainment: The Force Awakens: One Big Politically Correct Recycling Machine
The Force Awakens: One Big Politically Correct Recycling MachineGiven all-time box office records for The Force Awakens, it’s pretty obvious almost all comic-con and Star Wars fans in particular do not bemoan in the least the lack of innova…
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Star Wars and Snow
I brushed the snow off my solar panels a couple times on the weekend, and it helped with their production a fair bit. The full sun came out, and melted the remaining flakes off too. We watched Star Wars episode IV [8/10] and Empire Strikes Back [9/10] (Have them both on VHS), and several Star […]
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Flying Beavers and Other Technological Advancements
Air drop beavers to repopulate a species? OK, said the late 1940s. We’ll need something better than flying beavers to survive climate change, says Bill Gates (who was once a great innovator out to get rich). Now he’s a rich person out to get innovative. Maybe flying/falling tree planting? After
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Flying Beavers and Other Technological Advancements
Air drop beavers to repopulate a species? OK, said the late 1940s. We’ll need something better than flying beavers to survive climate change, says Bill Gates (who was once a great innovator out to get rich). Now he’s a rich person out to get innovative. Maybe flying/falling tree planting? After
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Killer Robots By Accident or On Purpose?
It’s There are companies like Lockheed Martin making autonomous killing robots, and there are companies like Google making self-driving cars (which kill people by accident or poor design). At least cars don’t tend to kill on purpose, and the Google self-driving car hasn’t had a deadly accident (or one it
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: ConCalls: Documentary Underway
I was interviewed for the E-Day documentary film being wrapped up this Summer. What’d I say? You’ll have to wait until it’s been all put together. I can’t wait! https://t.co/vXIDfiLnwi Inky Mark running in #elxn42 as an Independent http://t.co/ZCvw2lX8Kg #votersuppression https://t.co/YJ73Qu4IIL — @EDayFilm (@edayfilm) June 4, 2015 Road trip video
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Megamind Time Machine
We kicked off a Netflix addiction with “The Croods” [5/10] last night, and “Megamind” [8/10] this morning. At Christmas we replaced a tube TV with a more modern LED version that can get free broadcast channels and hook up to a laptop. Cutting the cable was made possible also with
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: The Hobbit Ends
I saw the last Hobbit [8/10] movie on Friday, with Jeri. We had food at Montana’s just before. I had the veggie feta burger and it was very good, it tasted just like a meat burger. My distant cousin ended up being seated at the table next to us. The
Continue readingPostArctica: The Mystery of the Leaping Fish
Douglas Fairbanks as the greatest drug addict/detective in the history of cinema! Brilliant film from 1915 with a postmodern ending and you can see that being friends with Chaplin really, really rubbed off… And read more here at Dangerous Minds.
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Giving Movies a Bad Rap: Jurassic World Park Something
From Executive Producer Steven Spielberg, and a lack of imagination… comes a film event of a lifetime… unless you’ve lived longer than 19 years. It’s apt that Jurassic World and #Ferguson trend at the top together on Twitter. Some things should be left in the past, like racism, dinosaurs, and
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: ConCalls: Make The Documentary of #ElxnFraud in #cdnpoli
Alison at Creekside has a much better summary of what’s happening behind the scenes on the RoboCon movie than I could hope to write. Warning: If you keep reading though, you may feel the urge to spend $20 or more dollars toward exposing Canada’s most effective election fraud criminals. Ten
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Oz
“Oz: The Great and Powerful” [9/10] made me think the TV was malfunctioning when it started, because it’s at half the screen size and black and white. This is by design, to give it an old and otherworldly appearance. It’s a clever movie though, and if you enjoyed Wizard of
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: The Wolf Is Real
“The Wolf of Wall Street” [8/10] is a gross movie about the excess of American greed. It’s not excessively gory, it instead depicts non-violent financial crimes, and drug abuse. == The Riders are trying to complete a comeback after being down 24-0. It’s tied in the 4th quarter at 24
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Gasland Part II – Fracking Hell
Watched “Gasland Part II” [9/10] on HBO on demand, and it is something you have to see. The case it makes against fracking is a very strong one, and it shows the depths of corruption in the US system that has allowed the poisoning of water tables across America. ==
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Feminist Quote of the Day – My Least Favorite Movie Trope
Many thanks to Elizabeth Bear for today’s comment on our culture. “My Least Favorite Trope (and this post will include spoilers for The Lego Movie, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Matrix, Western Civilization, and—cod help me—Bulletproof Monk*.) is the thing where there’s an awesome, smart, wonderful, powerful female character who by all rights
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