1) It was released in 1976, but is still a culturally relevant, and incredibly prescient, film. As one reviewer noted, it seems that Paddy Chayefsky predicted the popularity of shows like Jerry Springer - trite garbage masquerading as human drama.
2) It is a very dark comedy that doesn't pull punches or make an attempt at a happy, tied-together ending. Some may find it depressing to an extent, but to me the dour ending rings true and loud, a warning against the sort of communal degradation that comes from being members of the Cult of The Tube.
3) The acting! Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall, et al - magnificent acting all around. The three acting Oscar's the film won were well deserved - Faye Dunaway and Peter Finch both won for best actress and actor in a leading role, respectively, and Beatrice Straight won Best Supporting Actress. She still holds the record for shortest on-screen time of a female Supporting Actress winner, almost 40 years after the film was originally released.
4) The monologues! Holy shit, the monologues! Written and delivered perfectly - biting, satirical, and dramatic. In fact, 9 of the 10 best film speeches of 1976, as listed by filmsite.org, are from Network. Here's the list, if you're feeling like practicing your angry-speech-giving skills.
http://www.filmsite.org/bestspeeches28.html
5) And speaking of monologues..."I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!" is a rallying cry for the ages - and when everyone starts to shout it from their windows - what a memorable moment! This speech, along with the image of poor Howard Beale, battered and defeated by the rain in his long, drab coat - have become symbols of a new age of shit-stirrers, the age of broken promises and disillusioned citizens.
6) This movie is a virtual onomasticon! Expand your personal lexicon by watching it! Even with a Bachelor's Degree in English, I still found myself occasionally stumped by a turn of phrase. Despite the verbosity of this film, it never really comes across as heavy-handed or pretentious. Howard Beale and Co. are an intelligent group - yet being part of the intellectual elite doesn't preserve them from the machinations of global capitalism and power struggles.
7) The social commentary in Network doesn't start and end with journalism. Rather, the film is an indictment against many societal ills - messianic madmen masquerading as bastions of journalistic integrity; the emergence of a "scripted" reality - children raised on television become a lost generation of "actors" without lines; the sensationalizing and branding of ideologies - even those ideologies, like socialism, which are averse to the very idea of marketing and target audiences; gendered power structures - women can only become leaders when they adopt the attitudes and appearance of men. So many social and ideological issues crammed into a single movie, your puny human brain will barely know where to start!
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Review - Nemo: Heart of Ice
If I had to sum up this graphic novel in six words I'd say: least favorite Alan Moore book ever.
Yes, that bad.
I love Alan Moore, and I love Kevin O'Neill, and I love League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but Nemo: Heart of Ice was a waste of my time and money.
I like the basic concept at its core - N:HoI is a one-off story line about a side character from the League series. So, while it is tangentially connected to persons and events from LOEG, it can explore other worlds and time periods and characters with a sort of freedom that the main books from the series don't quite have. While LEOG spans time and space and even multiple dimensions, it is usually focused on the lives of Mina Murray, Allan Quartermain, and their associates. While I wouldn't call this approach "limiting" per se, I do like the idea of giving other, lesser characters their own stories in the form of mini-series or one-off graphic novels.
That being said, I haven't the slightest idea why Janni Dakkar was the first choice for this sort of endeavor. She is the daughter of Prince Dakkar (more commonly known as Captain Nemo), and has taken his place as dread pirate of the seas and captain of the Nautilus. In Janni's earlier appearances in the LOEG series, she is painted in a fairly sympathetic light. But in this most recent misadventure, she is pretty awful - vindictive, self-centered, uncouth, reckless. Her motivations seem to rest solely on her deep-seated need to surpass her father; to prove some point to him, although he has long since been dead. And although, in the end, Janni regrets the actions she has taken - actions that directly led to the deaths of several loyal members of her crew - her regrets simply aren't enough to make her a sympathetic character. And while I don't expect every character in every book to be sympathetic or likable, I would hope that the protagonist either has some redeemable characteristics, or displays some sort of inner turmoil beyond "if my father were here what would he think?". A slew of daddy issues does not an interesting character make.
And beyond the distressingly annoying main character, the plot of this story blunders along, lost in its own wandering pretension. While I'd generally characterize the storytelling ability of the O'Neill/Moore team as excellent, this book really lacks coherence, from the panel-by-panel level on up. The basic plot involves some free agents attempting to retrieve stolen goods from Janni Dakkar that were taken from an African queen. They chase Dakkar and her crew into the Antarctic, where they encounter some pretty weird shit, to put it mildly. Most of the men (from both camps) are killed in the attempt. Janni Dakkar is severely traumatized by the things she's seen and done. In the end, it is essentially a wash - the queen's items are never retrieved, Dakkar goes on with her life. Nothing much is accomplished or proven, but many lives are lost in the interim. And while I give Moore and O'Neill credit for using some experimental and unusual artistic choices to convey the confusion and delirium Dakkar's party experiences on their Antarctic trek, I do feel that the convoluted story-telling fails to fully engage the reader. I was too busy wondering what the hell was wrong with the out-of-order panels to realize that the mistakes were intentional, and for a certain effect. It was an interesting choice, but badly executed. Beyond that, there are some other clarity issues that arose from an apparent discord between story and art - there were several times where I struggled to determine which character to attribute certain pieces of dialogue to. Some passages I had to read three or four times before I understood the flow of the conversation. Having to consistently backtrack, re-read, and scrutinize threw me out of the story - I lost interest in the plot about halfway through, and only finished due to my completionist attitude about book series, and a general respect for the work of Moore and O'Neill. I really did expect it to get better.
Overall, I'd say this book is a definite bomb. Compared to the other League books, it lacks depth and heart. Janni Dakkar is as cold and ruthless a leader as Captain Nemo, but with none of the personality. The story is underdeveloped and ill-suited to the grandiose and world-bending League universe. Though Nemo: Heart of Ice was concluded in such a way that is obviously meant to set up a sequel, I have no interest in reading the follow-up story. It is my hope that Moore will bury and forget this story-line and continue exploring the lives of Mina, Allan, and Orlando - until then, I think I'll stick to Swamp Thing.
Yes, that bad.
I love Alan Moore, and I love Kevin O'Neill, and I love League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but Nemo: Heart of Ice was a waste of my time and money.
I like the basic concept at its core - N:HoI is a one-off story line about a side character from the League series. So, while it is tangentially connected to persons and events from LOEG, it can explore other worlds and time periods and characters with a sort of freedom that the main books from the series don't quite have. While LEOG spans time and space and even multiple dimensions, it is usually focused on the lives of Mina Murray, Allan Quartermain, and their associates. While I wouldn't call this approach "limiting" per se, I do like the idea of giving other, lesser characters their own stories in the form of mini-series or one-off graphic novels.
That being said, I haven't the slightest idea why Janni Dakkar was the first choice for this sort of endeavor. She is the daughter of Prince Dakkar (more commonly known as Captain Nemo), and has taken his place as dread pirate of the seas and captain of the Nautilus. In Janni's earlier appearances in the LOEG series, she is painted in a fairly sympathetic light. But in this most recent misadventure, she is pretty awful - vindictive, self-centered, uncouth, reckless. Her motivations seem to rest solely on her deep-seated need to surpass her father; to prove some point to him, although he has long since been dead. And although, in the end, Janni regrets the actions she has taken - actions that directly led to the deaths of several loyal members of her crew - her regrets simply aren't enough to make her a sympathetic character. And while I don't expect every character in every book to be sympathetic or likable, I would hope that the protagonist either has some redeemable characteristics, or displays some sort of inner turmoil beyond "if my father were here what would he think?". A slew of daddy issues does not an interesting character make.
And beyond the distressingly annoying main character, the plot of this story blunders along, lost in its own wandering pretension. While I'd generally characterize the storytelling ability of the O'Neill/Moore team as excellent, this book really lacks coherence, from the panel-by-panel level on up. The basic plot involves some free agents attempting to retrieve stolen goods from Janni Dakkar that were taken from an African queen. They chase Dakkar and her crew into the Antarctic, where they encounter some pretty weird shit, to put it mildly. Most of the men (from both camps) are killed in the attempt. Janni Dakkar is severely traumatized by the things she's seen and done. In the end, it is essentially a wash - the queen's items are never retrieved, Dakkar goes on with her life. Nothing much is accomplished or proven, but many lives are lost in the interim. And while I give Moore and O'Neill credit for using some experimental and unusual artistic choices to convey the confusion and delirium Dakkar's party experiences on their Antarctic trek, I do feel that the convoluted story-telling fails to fully engage the reader. I was too busy wondering what the hell was wrong with the out-of-order panels to realize that the mistakes were intentional, and for a certain effect. It was an interesting choice, but badly executed. Beyond that, there are some other clarity issues that arose from an apparent discord between story and art - there were several times where I struggled to determine which character to attribute certain pieces of dialogue to. Some passages I had to read three or four times before I understood the flow of the conversation. Having to consistently backtrack, re-read, and scrutinize threw me out of the story - I lost interest in the plot about halfway through, and only finished due to my completionist attitude about book series, and a general respect for the work of Moore and O'Neill. I really did expect it to get better.
Overall, I'd say this book is a definite bomb. Compared to the other League books, it lacks depth and heart. Janni Dakkar is as cold and ruthless a leader as Captain Nemo, but with none of the personality. The story is underdeveloped and ill-suited to the grandiose and world-bending League universe. Though Nemo: Heart of Ice was concluded in such a way that is obviously meant to set up a sequel, I have no interest in reading the follow-up story. It is my hope that Moore will bury and forget this story-line and continue exploring the lives of Mina, Allan, and Orlando - until then, I think I'll stick to Swamp Thing.
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