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| Thursday, February 3, 2005 01:46 PM |
| The Crazies Are Out |
 by Fëanor |
What about that Castro, eh? In a recent speech, he said that when he watched Bush's inauguration speech, he saw "the face of a deranged person." Then he said, "If only it were just the face." Apparently he said this to a crowd of educators from 52 different countries around the world, and they reacted with a roar of applause.
More political humor can be found on today's Tom the Dancing Bug comic at Salon. It still blows my mind that Christian religious leaders are seriously saying that tolerance is bad and we shouldn't teach it to our children. Where do these people come from? And if they don't support tolerance, does that mean I don't have to tolerate them? Can we kill them all, please?
On a happier note, last night I saw a fantastic film at movie night, courtesy the Pinkhaired One. It's a documentary made in 1997 called Fast, Cheap & Out of Control. I'd heard a lot about it, and about the director, Errol Morris, but I'd never gotten around to seeing it, or any of Morris's other films, until last night.
What an amazing movie. It basically consists of four people talking to the camera about themselves and what they do, interspersed with footage of the environments in which they work, and stock footage of things related to what they do. Doesn't sound too interesting, I know, but the four people Morris talks to are a wild animal trainer (Dave Hoover), a topiary gardner (George Mendonca), a specialist on naked mole-rats (Ray Mendez), and a specialist on robots (Rodney Brooks). Their fields are weird and varied, and they have plenty of interesting stories to tell and wild ideas to share. Each works in his respective field of interest with apparent skill, and with an intensity, passion, and single-mindedness bordering on obsession.
I say that Morris talks to them, but we hear him ask a question only once, and the film has no narration. Unlike other documentary filmmakers I could mention, Morris takes a hands-off approach and lets his subjects speak for themselves. He also lets the audience make what it will out of the film, offering no snappy summation at the end or clever interconnecting remarks. Instead, through clever use of editing and contrast of audio and video, he invites us to make our own connections among these four different men with their different stories, ideas, and obsessions. Playing behind footage of the naked mole-rats will be the voice of the robot specialist telling us about the rise of silicon-based lifeforms, and the possibility of complex systems and societies arising out of a group of simple elements. As we listen to the topiary gardener tell us about his giraffes and bears and the great amount of work and time and patience that go into creating them, we'll see actual bears doing flips at the lion tamer's circus. One story moves into another almost seamlessly; from stock footage of a movie with a killer robot, we switch to a scene from an old serial movie starring the animal trainer's mentor fighting off lions and hawkmen. Ideas and images swirl together in your eyes, ears, and mind, and often coalesce into some kind of synthesis, if you let them.
It's a completely engrossing movie, not the least because the men in it are so very engrossed themselves in what they're talking about. We learn near the end of the film that the naked mole-rat specialist actually lives with the animals; he has them in his home, and likes to take them with him everywhere. The robot specialist tells us about his vision of the future of the world, in which the human race is supplanted by a race of robots. He seems a little too excited about it, his eyes wide and staring with a frightening intensity.
These are fascinating men, full of fascinating ideas, and Morris has made a totally fascinating film about them. The folks at movie night who've seen FC&OC before tell me that on repeat viewings, the film yields up even more ideas and connections, and I can believe it. I'll have to see it again myself some day, and I definitely want to check out Morris's other films. The Fog of War in particular looks interesting to me.
Anyways, that's it from me for now. I've got a busy stretch ahead of me, what with game night tonight, the ballet with poppy tomorrow, a Hong Kong film fest on Saturday, and then maybe another movie and the Superbowl on Sunday. And I have to make sure I don't forget to tape "Battlestar Galactica" on Friday night. Or I could just stay up until 1 in the morning on Saturday and watch the rerun... |
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