I saw Defiance with my friend Leslie from the campaign. It’s against my morals to sneak candy into the movie theater, and really I have so few, so I stopped at Kroger and picked up Reece’s Pieces and Sour Patch Kids for Leslie and I. I needed a soda and since I am a boy who doesn’t carry a purse I had to buy one inside – this is the equalizer to my sneaking in candy: the soda cost $4.25. I looked at the soda and said, “Michael,” the clerk’s name, “this is too small! You should have up-sold me!” Much grumbling ensued and he took the extra quarter dollar it took to make the soda a reasonable size for the price of twenty-four sodas at Kroger. I concluded with, “Thank you, Michael, have a nice day.” There is nothing stranger to me than using the person’s name on the nametag as if I know them in a scolding manner. Mainly because I never scolded my students, I never had ridiculous problems from them like that. Michael, you’re an idiot.
The movie had a lot of elements I was afraid of in a movie: Nazis without Indiana Jones, subtitles, and ‘based on a true story.’ However, they managed to tell a true story in a way that was honest, shooting Nazis is an acceptable pastime (even Dick Cheney will cap one in the face), and the subtitles were few and far between. The movie ended on a note that was alternately happy and historically accurate which is all that a person can ask for in life.
For instance, Casey didn’t like Elisabeth Jurchen: The Golden Age because it wasn’t dramatic enough but I liked it because it was historically accurate. You have no idea how many times I’ve seen a Jurchen thrash someone screaming, “my [five letter word for female dogs, starts with ‘b’] wear my collars!” The Jurchen aren’t dramatic but they’re deadly in their effectiveness. It’s all in how you are raised and what your morals are, those suit mine. One of the most important things to know is how to take everyday conversation and turn it into a history lesson about the Jurchen.
What I want to know, and I rarely comment on cinematography because I feel I expose my ignorance enough already, is this: how do they cast the actor fitting the bill of, ‘creepy date-rape guy with bad teeth.’ Who reads the script – and it has to describe it that way – and says, “you know what, I do look like someone people cross the street to avoid, excepting dentists who want to know how they can bilk me for all I’m worth?” Who does that? I realize that some people are good actors and can turn it around and make your skin crawl. Other people just naturally appear like the person who’d make you reach for the whistle or mace in your pocket. Who takes that job? The guy who played Kramer on Seinfeld certainly felt typecast but there are worse things that being the wacky neighbor. I’d hate to spend the rest of my career being the person who made you put on another pair of underwear in the morning.
Can I pass judgement with you? I love your new layout:):) oxooxo
Posted by: iidlyyckma | Tuesday, 27 January 2009 at 03:59 PM