Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
The photoshopping job you see at the right is extremely amateurish and crude. You can take it as my artist’s conception of the Wonder Woman costume Joss Whedon would have used in the upcoming movie. I never did hear about an actress confirmed for the title role. From what I know about Whedon, whatever the selection was going to be, it would have made a powerful and provocative statement about empowering women.
Meaning of course, the way I interpret it — and you can tell that from my artist’s conception — let’s go really light on things that might appeal to straight men.
Well, he’s off the project. I guess Rosie O’Donnell will have to stick to her regular job.
From what little I know about Whedon, his departure is a good thing. I’ve seen Firefly — it does have some pretty women in it. And they’re both cute. One of them runs around fully clothed all the time and the other one is a filthy whore. Great job Joss.
I’m still not sure what I saw. I know there are a lot of people who are more interested in Firefly than I am, and I’m glad they’ve found something they like. I know I spent a lot of time watching these characters, and at the end, I really didn’t give a crap what would happen to them next. I’m left with the impression that Mr. Whedon was trying to make a statement about something, and this impacted his ability to tell the story in an engaging way.
That is not to say I’m unhappy with what he was trying to say. The fact of the matter is, I have no clue what it is. I don’t even know for sure that I’m correct about him trying to say it. I couldn’t possibly care less.
It was a snoozer.
I hope his replacement goes back-to-basics and leaves the social engineering out of it entirely. The Wonder Woman I know, has strengths and weaknesses. A credible argument could be maintained that my vision is overly warped, mutated as it is from William Moulton Marston’s bondage/masochism figurine by 1970’s feminism.
She’s physically strong, mentally capable, creative, resourceful, agile and fast. She would be unforgettable, and possibly harmful, in the sack. But she might very well be a virgin. She’s like Lara Croft, nobody really even knows what her sexual preference is, or whether she has one at all. Six foot three with her boots on, an even six or 6’1″ barefoot.
Being highly intelligent, she understands men are watching her lustfully everywhere she goes, and that she could tone this down by dressing differently. But she doesn’t care because she has work to do. Her legs are long, muscular and sensual, her hips are round, her waist is wasp-like, her tits are enormous. Anybody clucking their tongues over that just needs to get the hell over it.
I should add that the point here isn’t quite so much to get me to watch the movie, the point is to make it into a commercial success. How much of a sensation does Warner Brothers want to cause with this? Something on par with the first Batman movie…or…something more like this one.
That’s the question. Some kind of answer to be forthcoming shortly, I’m sure.
Perhaps this is a good place to jot down the “Deer In Headlights” theory of action movies. This is, I believe, one of the reasons why movies with female action heroes almost always fail…that, and the reluctance to allow the story to make it into production without a thick coating of social commentary. Deer in the headlights works like this: If the action hero seems to have the situation under control, the audience will stop caring about what happens to him. They’re going to watch the screen to see how he is going to handle the danger and stop watching it to find out if he’s going to handle it.
For this reason it’s important to show his doubts. If he doesn’t have doubts that are made visible to the audience in some way, all you’re doing is dazzling people with athletics and special effects. That puts the whole movie on par with a cheerleading or dance squad routine.
Look at some of the best moments out of Indiana Jones. He doesn’t know if he’ll outrun the boulder. He doesn’t know if he’ll find Marion’s basket. He doesn’t know if he’ll catch the truck. He flies by the seat of his pants, and part & parcel of that is ignorance toward what will happen next…and real fear.
Does Hollywood have what it takes to find an athletic, strong, tall woman with great-looking legs, and put her in a movie in which she shows real fear just like Indiana Jones, enduring the slings and arrows of political correctness that will come flying in afterwards? I dunno. I’m doubting it.
Some movies enjoy success without following the Dear in Headlights rule. Maybe that’s the most promising route Wonder Woman can take. But you have to do a lot of things right in order to pull that off, and in any case, following the rule always makes for a better action film. So in this sense, the poor Amazon is doomed to a potential for success that is limited, if not made impossible altogether.
Update: I guess this is “I’ve been dismissed” day in superhero-world. David Goyer is no longer working on The Flash.
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- House of Eratosthenes | 02/06/2007 @ 09:57