Lol! Lula's gonna tickle you til you squeel in a minute! well..... it's a good antidote to analysis!
which by the way I really enjoy, forums are a space for myriad expression, i am prone to rambles and the odd soliloquy myself, and from my perspective it's inspiring and exciting when people go exploring and it stimulates ideas and discussion! So go for it Sprocket and thank you for stirring the sparkles in the snowglobe i'm enjoying watching them dance.
Thank you so much for mentioning the forum, it is very appreciated.
Now to your wonderfully written piece. I just don't want the internet-going public's appreciation of Cage to boil down to a semi-ironic smirking over his most macho moments taken out of context.
yes, Yes and thrice YES.
Exactly! Add 'and out of the box' after macho. Nicolas Cage is not a one note actor, neither in expression or genre. It is this that makes him, for me, the best actor. He plays all the notes, in different styles...sometimes breaking into jazz..but switching to romantic, tragic, classic, sarcastic, fantastic, within the same piece. I won't drivel more about that but if you are interested my only foray into attempting to write something 'proper like' is here
See now i've already written an essay of a post but i've only just warmed up!
I fear i expose my naivety with my next comments, but it's my experience so here goes. For me some of the reaction to this movie demonstates how numb the movie going world has become.
Nic's own comments in an interview about Wicker man recently did not sit right with me either..not the ones you quote.
Yes it is absurd wearing a bear suit, but when i watched the movie i didn't experience it that way, rather that is was within the very weird context of the movie and the dystopian (for the men at least but possibly utopian for the women?) world of Summerisle.
Looking back, and with all the comments on it being comedy, I can watch with different eyes, but for me it was still a horror movie, albeit one that had a mid life crisis! The element that failed, and the reason the punching the female characters and the torture scene somehow seemed absurd or have since been conceived as comedic, is because the beginning half of the movie wasn't quite eerie enough, or somehow it was as if it had been diluted (i read that alot was cut out that would have given a better context for the horror elements later on) and there was a strangeness to the flow. It was as if they wanted to make it a PG, but changed their minds half heartedly near the end.
I don't mean I personally wanted more horror, I am trying to explain the way the elements people comment on the most seem comedic, when in fact for me they are horrific.
Have we become so hypnotised into normalising violence in movies that we do not consider a torture scene where a man has his legs smashed and a swarm of bees stinging him to near death, and his ultimate demise as horrific? How is it purely comedy?
I admit, there is the absurd, in the true meaning of the word, in various elements of this movie, absurd can be disturbing, and that generates an emotional response which sometimes could involve laughter..but... really? People feel absolutely nothing else at all at watching that and other scenes? That was pure horror for me...and possibly more potent because of the seemingly, to me, swift change in tone (although it did kind of fit with the increasingly losing it character arch.)
This is a horror movie, where the character punches or kicks the female characters is part of that horrific tone, but it seems absurd because of it's sudden appearance in the movie which was having an identity crisis.
About the violence... Was Neil Labute making comment about our numbness to violence against men in cinema, by switching the norm? was he making a comment about the inequality of how violence in general is perceived from a gender perspective? Let me state categorically violence against anyone is a crime to humanity and to the very soul of me. I do not think this movie is in any way shape of form condoning violence against women! I think it cleverly deconstructs the familiar..and exposes it to us to question our own acceptance of violence not only in the world but in cinema to both men and women.
The only part that i have disagreement on, if Labute was indeed making any such comment, is that while we will all unequivocably agree on the abhorrence of violence in general and specifically towards women, so we can brush it aside in the movie by saying it's not real, there is no escaping the gender tone to the movie against a backdrop of a world that is not an even playing field, it is fine to raise awareness of perception of gender differences in violence but in the context of a world where domestic and other violence towards women, and men, exists, it is somehow difficult to remain within the context of the summerisle paradigm.
But, the movie in a sense indirectly raises awareness of this too, by generating discussion like these and provoking thought.
So yes, I do agree Spocket actually. And i'd extend it to other areas of the movie, but i think it generates discussion and provokes thought. Dystopias / utopias raise awareness because they defamiliarize the familiar, the irony being that is their strength and their weakness.... the effect of that within cinema or any art is we immediately contextualize it in the 'real world', so we lose our submersion within the art. and for me that worked on two levels...including a direct insight into our numbness to all violence in cinema. And this movie brings up conflicting emotions and reactions, i do find it difficult to understand, considering the way it so successfully brings the real world into view by contrast, how for some it is purely comedy.
Wow that was brilliant Lula! I'm going to be away for most of the weekend, but look forward to mulling over your eloquent post in more detail! Lebute's a strange fish... his early works like In The Company of Men are quite clear condemnations of workplace sexism and the most unpleasant elements of male culture, so it seems odd that The Wicker Man serves as a critique of a feminist community. Maybe he just wanting to try something different... or maybe he's had a radical shift in personal belief, I'm not sure.
I'm make sure to think a lot about your post where I write the review in full.
P.S. Obviously a lot of the feelings generated by the remake come from some pretty steely love for the original amongst fans. Personally I think that the original is great creepy fun and pretty upsetting in places, but not quite as good as some people say, there's quite a lot of scenes that meander and the naked dancing goes on way too long!
I'm not sure what Neil Labute was doing, can't speak for him really, but it seems that he's provoking a multilayered reaction by defamiliarising the familiar...so i don't personally feel it's as simple as critiquing the 'feminist perspective'.
I do enjoy reading your movie writings and musings, Sprocket and Lula, especially since I am not particularly good at analysing and writing about how movies affect me. I don't actually like analysing them too much, to tell the truth, takes away from the overall feeling a movie gives me.
I do feel that the bats*** video is great to give a taste of Nic's powerful abilities, but it is not giving the range of his work, like Lula's clip she posted from Adaptation.
I have only watched The Wicker Man once, it did make me laugh all the way through it, but I don't feel that I was denigrating it, I laughed in amazement and horror, and in shock too. The scene on the wharf is one of my very favourite scenes because of how Nic plays it. This movie does not play out the way any other horror movie of this type does; and it is standard fare really in it's description; so I actually enjoyed most of the movie, although I was confused by it too. Especially looking back at the beginning leading up to Nic going to the island. And I don't like horror movies.
au contraire dear meg, if i may observe, you express your feelings very well about the movie and far less confusingly!!
As you know, I too draw back from heavy analysis for fear I will be plucked from the depths of the experience....( and cringe when i look back on it but is that low self esteem i don't know ) And that's the first time ever I've commented in that way on The Wicker Man! bad Lula. See... it's a dilemma! The brain will think and the mouth will bloody well open. :blah:
I forgot to say Mr Spocket, I love the first Wicker Man too, but I see them as entirely separate movies.
I do not like blood and gore horror but suspenseful eerie horror I love..and vintage, and slightly cheesy horror too..hence my love of Vincent Price.
In a way, I was thinking ( must stop doing that ) if this video of out of context clips gets people into Nics' works, then it can only be a good thing!
I thought it was good commentary, from both of you. I agreed with most of what you said, Lula. Don't cringe!
And I agree it is a good thing if the bats*** video makes people seek out his work. Anything that increases the 'coolness' factor is a good thing, right?
Oh okay, it's to long ago I saw one, but I don't have time lately, you know school and stuff. But this weekend I'm with my father and I have nothing to do there so then I'll watch SA I think. And I hope you enjoy your movie :)
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My brain only works on one power... The power of Nicolas Cage!
Thanks, I will. SA sounds good too! Or maybe this could be the one to watch. But, who says, that it only has to be ONE movie? It`s a long night ahead of us. So, who knows?
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"When you think about magic, it is imagination plus willpower focused in such a way that you can create a conscious effect in the material world..."