The Inland Imperialist

If GRINDHOUSE has any message at all it's a not very subtly politically correct, deadeningly familiar one about death-mad white-male culture (i.e., traditional western civilization in a supremely decadent phase) relying on the cultural other (symbolized here by women, in particular by non-white or monstrously phallicized women) for redemption or rescue.  Ever since 9/11 and the initial reaction to it, our culture generally and young moviegoers specifically have been subjected to an increasingly high-volume message that everything we do is wrong, that our civilization, rather than being worth fighting for, is in effect the source of horrendous violence.  In that way, GRINDHOUSE is just a fantasized version of the mainstream media, bringing the old news that the world is full of meaningless horror, and if it's anyone's fault, it's ours.  You may even believe that to be true, but you shouldn't be surprised if it doesn't sell very well, and doesn't strike audiences as particularly novel.  In addition to paying homage to '60s-'70s culture, GRINDHOUSE also seems to carry the period's ideological freight.  The point of view which once seemed novel, part and parcel of the '60s youth revolution, is now mainstream, in effect reactionary.  For young people trying to find their way in the world, young males in particular, GRINDHOUSE presents more of the same abuse and alienation they get from the evening news, college civics classes, and the Democratic Party:  It tells them that they're useless, that being male and aggressive (and white or white-oriented or white-aligned) is virtually synonymous with being psychotic and evil.  300, by contrast, compliments them on their heritage, and rather unambiguously affirms them for what they are and might dream of being. 

Posted by: CKMacLeod at 10:10:57 | No Comments | Add Comment
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Interesting article on Tarantino and what's gone wrong for him here:  "Pap Fiction," by Mark Harris
Harris misses a few important things, and, given the state of things, it's not very surprising that the tip-off is a cursory dismissal of 300 - predictably as a piece of comic book violence that somewhat mystifyingly interested audiences more than GRINDHOUSE did.  In the article, as in almost any critical discussion of Tarantino, the theme turns instead on a comparison between what the director is currently up to and PULP FICTION - his signal achievement, and clearly an important if arguably overrated film.   

Though no one expected or, as far as I can tell, today believes that PULP FICTION really was about much of anything, it reinforced a kind of optimism about American popular culture that was very fitting to the post-Cold War, post-Rising Sun '90s.  Typically, it was one of the first films that benefited greatly from internet-generated word of "mouth" (word of hand?).  GRINDHOUSE comes at a vastly different cultural moment.  One of the reasons that audiences, even and especially the much-derided but evidently quite sizeable 300 audience, have rejected it is, in my opinion, that it is so self-consciously not about anything other than meaningless violence. 

Those who refuse to accept that 300 was a message movie as much or more than it was an ode to "bloody comic-book violence" are perhaps less likely to understand that, in these times, cultural expressions that make moral sense of warfare fill a need, a pressing and deeply felt need.  (You don't necessarily have to accept the themes to acknowledge their attractiveness.)  Meanwhile, seemingly everywhere else in the mass media, in politics, at school, all of the real violence in the real world is portrayed as at best senseless, at worst "our fault."   For a young man told everywhere he goes that he and those like him are in the wrong, 300 must have been like a sip of water to someone dying of thirst. 

In that sense, GRINDHOUSE offers more of the cultural same - more empty self-hatred, more cynicism, more senselessness, more evil white men in a universe where redemption comes only by the heroism of the cultural other.  In contrast to GRINDHOUSE, and contrary to the hype, the violence in 300 is rather antiseptic, especially in comparison to what might have done with the same subject matter.  More important, it remains subservient to the theme of bravery, unity, integrity, and sacrifice for a greater good, one that is emphatically not separate from or counter to democratic civic values.  That's a message which Hollywood, with only occasional exceptions, has largely given up on, or completely forgotten how to tell.    >>

Posted by: CKMacLeod at 05:17:11 | No Comments | Add Comment
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When I was waiting for the movie to begin I was reading a review of  "Grindhouse"in one of the free newspapers that are available in the  theater's lobby. The reviewer coddled and made excuses for the movie as  if it was an infant-thankfully the room darkened and I sat back and saw  "Blades of Glory," which has been repeatedly snubbed by critics because  it is doesn't cater to their pretensions. However, if they stepped back,   they'd see the movie for the not quite ice masterpiece that it is: a  mix of  "The Odd Couple" and a Billy Wilder screwball comedy that is  allowed to indulge in good natured homophobia. I belly laughed at the  succinct silliness of it all. Figure skaters are self parodies of  themselves anyway-but Will Farrell plays a Jim Morrison like skater.  The anti-figure-figure skater. Jon Heder portrays what you would expect  a male skater-to be like: sexually ambivalent, lithe and narcissistic.   All the situations are stock and predictable like comfort food-you know  what the meat loaf will taste like and when you eat it you are happy.  However, there is a qurkiness and a truth to this feature. Figure  skaters are as inbreed as a pedigree greyhounds-thin-nervous and  superficial.   The Will Farrell charachter announces early on that he  is a sexual complusive, later on in the narrative he is trying to  control his impluses, he chants the "Serenity Prayer" it is slight and  funny passage. The scrpt is peppered with such instances and  inferences. For example, Will Farrell and Jon Heder start off as  enemies and eventually become close friends. Will goes so far as to  have a tatoo of Jon inked on his shoulder-and when Jon kisses the girl  love interest for the second time in the movie, she remarks what a good  kisser, he now is. Jon explains that the Will Farell taught him a few  pointers on how to kiss. The deduction being that Will and Jon started  sleeping together sometime in the later part of the story. Not a big  deal, but it is certainly no surprise if you analyze their sodomite  routine which was nothing short of hilarious. It was such a funny movie  I forgot how pathetic I am. This movie deserves to be the top grossing  movie in the past fornight. I walked out of the movie satisfied like  you are supposed when you leave the lobby and the presumptious free  periodicals behind.

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A bomb goes off in Baghdad - trolls erupt on conservative blogs...  The comments are familiar, and only occasionally related to whatever post happens to attract them. 

The usual stuff from Monty Python's Trolls of the Surrender Caucus: "People have to wear armor in a prime target area - run away!"  "They assassinated a politician - run away!"  "They attacked our soldiers - run away!"  "They murdered civilians with a car bomb - run away!"  "They used a word for casualties that hurts our feelings - run away!" 

Are they putting up points on some phantasmagorical political scoreboard?  "Posted a trite jibe, and used the term 'chickenhawk' on the Hugh Hewitt board - chalk up 2 for 'jessicalange.'"  Even as they put themselves on the same side as the terrorists, they imitate terrorist tactics.  It makes them pathetic rather than evil, I suppose, but only because what they do is so insignificant.  What a waste of pixels...

Posted by: CKMacLeod at 09:09:35 | No Comments | Add Comment
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So we talked about going to see GRINDHOUSE for free at the Vista, where Jimbo still gets in for free, but that was a fantasy, as I don't have the time to drive all the way into Hollywood just to see a movie, free or not.  The next day, he e-mailed me under the title SAW GRINDHOUSE which doesn't have anything to do with SAW but who knows may be relevant down the line:

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