So, movies are important. We talked a little about one movie yesterday, and it elicited a discussion of many. What do movies mean?
Movies are stories. Some people think movies and other forms of visual entertainment like TV shows are inferior to reading books. I think that's sort of true. If your mind is forced to picture something that has been transmitted to you by the written word, the gray-matter horsepower it takes to make the picture in your head improves its effect somehow. Even a story spoken to you is like that a little. Having all the visual work done for you dulls the effect. It attenuates other effects, though. It's a form of mind control. You'll see my story the way I want it seen, or you won't see it at all.
It's the same for writing. Writing a word with a pencil on paper makes you understand it better than selecting it on a tablet computer. That's one of 6,176,158 reasons why is our children not learning.
Movies aren't more sophisticated than text. I think movies are actually closer to the normal way our pit-scratching, mammoth-pestering ancestors communicated ideas and feelings. The parts that work are a throwback. A pantomime by the firelight. Show, not tell. Or at least, tell, not labor over commas. People are affected by movies and television. Or more to the point, people are influenced by movies and TV.
There's a reason why everyone wears their hair like Laura Petrie one day and talks like Dirty Harry the next. There's a reason why the same people we used to treat like lowlifes -- because they are -- get made into griots and petty Caesars, raised on a pedestal of their residuals. There's a reason why colleges had toga parties in the early sixties, and then again in the eighties when Animal House reminded everyone of reminding everyone about sword and sandal epics like Ben-Hur. Our behavior, mores, speech, and appearance are affected by what we see on the screen. Unfortunately, right now, what we see is pandaemonium.
Let's see what Pandora's up to these days:
Who Wore the Most Iconic Sunglasses in Movie History? A Venice Optometrist Has a List
Wow, there are actual male humans on that list. I thought it would be Audrey Hepburn 10 times. It's a little light on Clint Eastwood, though, isn't it? You had to wear Dirty Harry glasses in the '70s. It was like a law.
Mel Gibson on 2006 Anti-Semitic Remarks: ‘I’ve Never Discriminated Against Anyone’
Mel Gibson must be rehabilitated because he makes money in Hollywood. He kisses their ring, and they kiss his ass. Simple, really.
U.K. High Court Orders ISPs to Block 13 Additional Film, TV Sites
Wait until governments start enforcing the terms of service for internet companies instead of the law. Oh, wait, that was five years ago.
Sherlock Holmes 3 team gathering writers' room for new script
The script is an afterthought. Remember that next time you're in a movie theater. Moviemakers have that much contempt for you.
Kevin Costner sues for $3.85m over film festival 'fraud'
Go figure. Kevin Costner's name in the same sentence as "fraud." Must be a day that ends in Y. Of course, he's on the receiving end for a change, instead of the audience. He always sounds like he's reading a phone book with a bite from a peanut butter and Seconal sandwich in his mouth to my ear.
Every Marvel Movie To Date, Ranked
Like I said yesterday, "Four Dozen Julia Roberts Legal Thrillers You May Have Missed."
AFM: Independent boards Joan Collins comedy
Joan Collins? Joan Collins! I'm not in to necrophilia, thanks.
U.S. Senate Sets December Date For Time Warner-AT&T Merger Hearing
Where is the The Crimson Permanent Assurance when you need them?
Hitchcock and the Ticking Time Bomb: Are We Doing It Wrong?
Actually, he was. Two-and-a-half hours of suspense, with Bernard Hermann banging away like a tinknocker, and then the bad guy trips on the stairs and dies like an actor in a kindergarten pageant.
As the Internet Mourns, Vine Experiences a Revival: The 10 Best Vines (a Subjective List)
Vincent Van Gogh, Emily Dickinson, Vivian Maier: artists who received the recognition they deserved only after their deaths. With the uproar that echoed across the internet with news of its death, it appears Vine will be joining their ranks.
Oh, brother. That little piece of purple prose is appended to a ranking of the best 6-second video clips on a defunct service cancelled by a soon to be forgotten caterwauling service. That's Remembrance of Things Past to a Millennial.
Lessons for the post-EU British film industry from the collapse of the Soviet Union
I can't see a British film producer managing to take over the Crimea. They're kind of toffs.
Actor who played Darth Maul 'assaulted a woman at his hotel after a comics convention'
Dude, people who make money in the entertainment world can act as they like. People who earn money in the movies can't. Ask Kramer about that one.
Well, that's the links for today. Vote for the best pair of sunglasses in the movies in the comments.
