Don’t I Know that Yellow Cloak?

Anyone who glanced at the cover of the New York Times this morning might have noticed an eerie resemblance between the cover photograph and a recent much-maligned M. Night Shyamalan film.

Which Tolkien race are you?

Rohirrim

To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?
brought to you by Quizilla

Kubrick would be Proud

Darren Aronofsky’s latest film, The Fountain, according to this interview with Ain’t It Cool News, still has no defined release date. Who is Aronofsky? He’s the young Brooklyn-born Jewish filmmaker behind Pi (1998) and Requiem for a Dream (2000), as well as the screenwriter of Below (2002). His new film stars Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz, and is as he describes it, “a psychedelic fairy tale.”

Anyway, the teaser trailer is out and it’s totally trippy. Go check it out.

Back to Munich

Spielberg is back. This time, though, it’s not with aliens or con men, but with the sobering real story of Israeli agents sent to assasinate Palestinian terrorists believed responsible for planning the 1972 murder of the Israeli Olympic team in Munich, Germany. If you don’t know much about this, head on over to Wikipedia and read up on it. Also a few years back there was a terrific documentary made of this called One Day in September. Definitely go check that out for the whole story and historical background.

After being rumored to be way behind schedule and potentially unable to meet the awards deadlines this year, the trailer for Munich was released yesterday on the film’s official web site. Unfortunately it is only available in horrible low quality, which, together with the fact that many of the scenes are quite dark, makes for a less than optimal first experience with the film.

The New York Times covered the production of the film back in July, and you can read that here(caution:PDF). The article covers many of the reasons this film will be seen as quite controversial and may pit America’s most well-known Jewish entertainer against the very Jewish organizations he worked with on Schindler’s List and the Shoah Foundation.

So what about his movie will be controversial? Here’s the breakdown:

1. The movie is about the five Israeli Mossad (like CIA or MI-6) agents who were tasked with assasinating a list of Palestinians who were believed to have been involved in the planning and executing of the Munich massacre. Spielberg’s interest is in the conflict within this group over their actions and the internal conflict of the leader (Eric Bana) in particular. Spielberg wants to pose the question of what society justifies doing and why, and make us think about our values and ethics when it comes to responding to terrorist attacks (quite a timely issue for Americans).
2. The first problem people will have is that many will debate the validity of the internal questioning of the agents period. As the Times article discusses, there is a feeling on the right that those actions were undertaken with complete moral clarity and with a clear conscience and that for Spielberg to show otherwise is not only a betrayal, but also a complete falsehood.
3. The second problem is that many more moderate Jews, Israelis, or friends of Israel will be concerned about the effect such a movie will have around the world. As the Anti Defamation League (ADL) concluded about Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, the film may not be explicitly anti-semitic, but the effect most assuredly will be. After all, this film will be portraying some of the most vile notions about Jews and Israel that exist around the world onscreen. Israel is made to seem all-powerful. The Mossad is evil and travels around the world killing people. All this coming from an “insider,” as Spielberg himself is Jewish. If people were worried that the Passion would spark anti-Jewish riots, they should be concerned about this film as well.

For my own part, I believe this film is important and timely, seeing as where we are in the “War on Terror.” I do worry about the last issue though, and it begs the question: As a liberal democracy, can we question some of the more difficult things we do in the name of our country or does that just lend fuel to the fires of our enemies?

Kong is Here!

Go check it out.

Erin, my fiancée, had the best reaction to this trailer — "Wow!"

Without any shred of doubt, I agree. Any doubts I had as to whether Peter Jackson could make us care about a huge gorilla vanished as I watched him blink in that first scene. Remarkably, the man who brought Tolkien's classic Gollum character to life to an extent that none had thought possible has done it again. It is absolutely astounding how much emotion they have been able to get out of Kong just in the shots in the trailer (which doesn't even really included much interaction with Naomi Watts). The scope seems just right, and they managed to convey the weight of the various creatures through camera, animation, and sound so we actually believe we are watching something that huge and heavy — and not just the wireframe animated skeleton that really exists behind the image onscreen.

Wow. Really.

A Fabulous Destiny, Indeed…

Here is an absolutely terrific piece of music.

See if you can place it.

 

(Windows: Right-click on image and select “Save Target As…” Mac: Option-click on the image)