Re: OT: art and language and THE DAVINCI CODE

From: "Tim May" <butsuri@...>
Subject: Re: OT: Re: art and language and THE DAVINCI CODE


> michael poxon wrote at 2003-06-03 12:08:10 (+0100)
>
>  > I watched The Matrix a couple of weeks ago on the TV. It was
>  > followed by a much less well-known film called something like
>  > "White Squall" about a group of teenage boys on a sailing ship (one
>  > of those 'go in boys, come out men' plots). I watched this largely
>  > because of the presence of Jeff Bridges who has become one of my
>  > fave actors ever since the brilliant 'Starman'. No flashy special
>  > effects, no martial arts - and I know which of these two films I
>  > would pay to watch.  Mike
>  >
> But you are a thinking person, and _White Squall_ is neither
> science-fiction nor a blockbuster action film, so it could never
> qualify for either category.  I don't think anyone here will disagree
> with the proposition that there are better films than _The Matrix_.
Of course.  Just so long as everyone understands that _Hopscotch_ and _Erik
the Viking_ are the greatest movies of all time, we'll be fine discussing
other, lesser titles.

On that note, a friend and I just had an interesting discussion about
culture and points of view (stemming from a translation problem, which I'll
be posting about soon).  For those of you who haven't seen _Erik the
Viking_, it's...well...a movie about Vikings.  More or less.  It's made by
some of the Monty Python bunch, so that should give you a sense of things.
But our argument was that _Erik the Viking_ is a movie about Vikings from a
_Viking_ point of view.  Consider the strange instrument that they played on
the island in the movie - we believe that it was actually a pipe organ, as
described by a Viking who heard about it from his grandfather, Erik, who
actually saw a real one.  Given that perspective, the movie is even _more_
fun to watch!

Then again, we also realized that about 95% of people absolutely hate the
movie, and about 5% love it.  Would that you belong to the 5%, and we'll
have more in common.