Ides of March

It shouldn’t be a surprise that this movie features political wheeling, dealing, and backstabbing.  With a title that refers to the betrayal of Julius Ceaser, “Ides of March” is interesting, intelligent, and provocative.  While it is entirely fictional, it provides insight into the American political process, (and really reminded me of the book “Game Change,” because I came away from both thinking that all the decisions are really made by a select few, behind closed doors, bargaining over circumstances that the general public is never aware of.)  It is certainly worth watching, for mature audiences.

This is one of my favorite movie posters ever. At least for this year.

One of the perspectives that I took away from this movie was how incredibly difficult it is for politicians to remain uncorrupted, when they are surrounded by so many people willing to make crooked deals and blackmail them for their own gains.  Although, I think I can offer a pretty good hint to any would-be political aspirers out there—it is probably a lot harder for people to blackmail you with your indiscretions if you don’t have any. ***SPOILER ALERT*** Gov. Morris says he doesn’t want to “play those games,” but ultimately, he does, and it’s because he slept with a woman who was not his wife. To quote the Govenor himself, “Integrity matters.”  Yes, it does.  It matters even when you think no-one is watching. That’s the very definition of integrity. ***END SPOILER***

The story is centered around young and talented campaign aide Steven, (Ryan Gosling).  Steven says that he will do or say anything to win, “but I have to believe in it.”  He’s legitimately inspired by and excited about the idea of his candidate, Democrat Governor Morris, (George Clooney), as President.  He’s honestly convinced that it’s the best thing for the country.  But at a certain point, that ceases to be his primary motivation.  Oh, he still spouts it, maybe even in part to convince himself. But he’s clearly, clearly taking actions that are motivated by his own self-seeking desires.  The story may be told against a political backdrop, (so we get a lot of rhetoric spouted by Morris, some of it laughably simplistic, such as an assertion that terrorism will stop if America simply stops buying foreign oil,) but it’s really a story about one man’s descent into ever-murkier moral waters. Director George Clooney said as much himself:

”I don’t really find it to be a movie about politics,” says Clooney, who co-wrote the script — based on Beau Willimon’s play Farragut North — with producing partner Grant Heslov. ”It’s about a guy doing anything to win at the cost of his soul. Those are universal themes you could play with in any genre or in any workplace. It’s just that the political arena is so much fun to work in.” –EW

At one point, Steven dismisses a junior campaign staffer, and when the decision is questioned, he responds, “Because you f–ked up!  This is the big leagues, it’s mean.  When you make a mistake, you lose the right to play.”  But when Steven himself confesses that he “made a mistake,” he’s asking for himself to be given a chance, but is told, “No, Steven, you didn’t make a mistake, you made a choice.”  It’s a very clear theme throughout this film that choices, and actions, have consequences, and one person’s choices may drastically affect another person’s.

Steven describes their negative campainging strategy as "we do research, we feed it to the press and see if it sticks."

***HUGE SPOILER ALERT***  Steven discovers that Gov. Morris impregnated an intern, and she is now asking for money to help get an abortion.  He ‘helps’ her, in order to protect the Governor’s campaign, but he has no regard for her emotional needs.  She believes, (with good reason, because he is in fact willing to do it, and bartering to do it at the very moment she finds out,) that he is going to tell the press about her affair, pregnancy, and abortion, because she hears he has been fired and was proclaiming that he would “take everybody down with him.”  He doesn’t contact her, he doesn’t answer her calls, and she kills herself out of desperation.  Now I am not saying that he is totally responsible for her suicide, but I think that even he realizes his actions directly affected her decision. He f–ked up. Actions have consequences, see?  And although he is sobered by her death, instead of altering his course, he chooses to leverage her demise for his own gain, just like he is willing to manipulate everything and everyone else in his life if it can advance his own career.  It’s so tragic, both what she does to herself and what he does to his own soul.  It’s also very well-acted, and well-written!  When Steven discovers that he was played by the competing campaign just to take him out of play, he shouts in frustration, “this is my life that you’re talking about,” completely oblivious to the fact that his own selfish, manipulative games are literally devastating someone else’s life.  ***END HUGE SPOILER***

The Govenor at one point says, "Every time I draw a line in the sand and then move it...fundraisers, union deals, negative ads...I can't on this one." But will that prove to be a stance he can maintain?

This movie shows us almost exclusively behind-the-scenes campaign action, but it doesn’t really need to give us the view of how this is being portrayed to the everyday folk (through the newspapers and talking TV heads) because we’re already so familiar with this circus.  We’re seeing a version of it play out in real life right now.  It just makes you wonder about how much goes on behind the scenes in every other election, that most people may never hear about. Or if we do hear a scandal, is it some campaign manager like Steven or Duffy leaking it to the right sources, dredging dirt up by playing dirty, raising just enough doubts that the opponents can’t quite shake them, or purposefully sabotaging the other sides’ staff?  It’s not hard to imagine.  But it’s also hard not to believe the allegations after so many politicians before have turned out to be guilty.

This is ultimately a tragic movie–a terrifically well-written, well-acted movie, but a tragedy nonetheless—about a man who compromises. Everything. To “win.”  This film’s bleak ending echoes the wisdom of Jesus, who said, “what good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” (Matthew 16:26).

Puss in Boots

Loved it! I wasn’t sure this movie was going to be any good.  You can never tell with spin-offs, they often seem like unnecessary and lazy attempts to make more money off the success of a legitimately good film.  But “Puss in Boots” was certainly not lacking in quality, and though I may have sat down with an “eh, might as well watch this” attitude, I walked out singing, toe-tapping and high-clapping praises. Like a flamenco dancer. A feline flamenco dancer, of course.

This story is meant to be a prequel of sorts to the Shrek movies, but it doesn’t feature any of the Shrek characters except Puss. (It’s his backstory.)  It’s predictably fun, incorporating new variations of fairy-tale motifs and characters, and features almost totally positive messages. I absolutely recommend it.

This cat's got swagger.

In the opening sequence, Puss describes himself as “a bad kitty, a fugitive searching for a chance to clear my name.”  Later, we see just how a misunderstanding, a deceitful friend, and Puss’s own naivite and choice to ignore another character’s warnings to “be careful of the company you keep”, (advice that echoes Proverbs 13:20), led to Puss losing “everything that I cared about; my brother, my honor, my home.  All I thought about was the disappointment in my mother’s eyes, and I have been running ever since.”

A reunification with his old partner in crime, Humpty Dumpty, seems to provide Puss with a chance to redeem his mistake, (which resulted in the loss of the townspeople’s money).  The plot involves magic Jack-and-the-Beanstalk beans, with Humpty plotting, “we go up the beanstock outlaws, and we come back legends!”  Of course everything doesn’t work out just exactly according to plan.  Or, there may have been more than one version of the plan, I should say.

Humpty is a pretty rotton character throughout most of the film.  He’s devious, bitter, vengeful, and just plain mean.  Although I feel bad for the way Humpty was bullied and ostracized as a child, I think it’s clear that much of his isolation, especially into adulthood, was of his own making.  He chose to be bitter and unforgiving, and to act selfishly and dishonorably, despite his adoptive mother and best friend/adoptive brother encouraging him to be “better than this!”

The “Mama” character provides a good moral compass for the protagonists of this story.  At one point she tells Puss, who has his sword drawn and is surrounded by the Comandante’s men, “Pequeño!  Do not fight them, please.  No more running.  Please stop breaking my heart, and face what you have done.”  This speech is successful in convincing Puss to surrender, but even while Puss is misbehaving it is clear that Mama carries an unconditional love for him, but that she disapproves of his choices.

Towards the end, after Humpty’s evil schemes have come to light, Puss urges him to help fix the disaster he has created, saying, “It’s never too late to do the right thing!”  This is a terrific message!  It makes me think of Samson, who after all his mistakes asks God to grant him undeserved strength one last time.

Puss joins forces with Humpty Dumpty on a quest for the magic beans.

***SPOILER ALERT*** When Humpty, at the very end, decides to sacrifice himself so that Puss can save the baby goose and by extension the entire town, because “it’s the right thing to do,” he lets go of the rope they are dangling from.  Puss looks down and sees that amidst his cracked shell there is not a mess of yolk but a solidly golden egg.  “I always knew that you were good inside,” sighs Puss.  The Mother goose scoops the golden egg up with her and flies it and the baby away to their castle in the clouds.  It’s very beautiful and fitting, because when Humpty and the gang are breaking in to the beanstalk land, Humpty cries, “Look at this!  It’s egg paradise!  It’s so beautiful, I feel like I belong here!”  So in a very real sense, what is portrayed in this story is that Humpty changes his heart and his actions, and even though it is after a lifetime of rottenness he is rewarded by being taken to Paradise.  It reminds me of the Parable of the Workers in Matthew 20, where some labor all day and some only an hour, but God can reward everyone with the same price.  None of us deserves heaven, but all of us have the chance to earn admittance, (which can only be by the blood of Jesus Christ), as long as we are breathing.  It’s never too late to do the right thing!  **END SPOILER**

It gets a little confusing at the end, because Puss ends up still being an outlaw, running from the soldiers, even though I thought part of his whole lesson was to face up to the consequences of what he had done instead of running from them?  I mean, granted, it is way more fun to watch Puss and Kitty dance through the credits than it would be to watch Puss sit in jail and await trial during the credits, but still…it’s inconsistent with the main message. (Perhaps the ending is necessary to set up Puss’s eventual meeting up with Shrek and Donkey, in Shrek 2?)  The other bit of content that some might find objectionable in a children’s movie is the way Puss is repeatedly referred to as “a great, great lover of women.  Seriously, it is crazy!” but I think most of those references will go over kids’ heads.
Overall, this was a great film. I really enjoyed it. I saw it twice, and it will definitely be joining my DVD collection.

Puss leaves his mark, just like Zorro. (Ironically, Banderas has also played the role of the masked vigilante on the big screen).

Captain America: The First Avenger

“Who’s strong and brave, here to save the American way?  Who vows to fight like a man to defend what is right night and day? Carry the flag shore to shore for America, from Hoboken to Spokane?  The Star Spangled Man with a plan!”

The lines above are from a song featured in the film.

It’s Captain America!

This film. Was. So! Amazing!  Excellent storytelling!  I had a goofy grin on my face almost the whole time with sheer delight at how good it was.  It had a great cast, plot symmetry and character parallels, unexpected twists, an overly ambitious villain, (“his target is…everywhere!”), and an admirable hero!  Plus it was chock-full of fantastic dialogue.  I gave up trying to write down all the great lines, this is one I’m going to have to go see again, and it will definitely be joining my personal collection when it comes out on DVD.

This is a Marvel comic movie.  Marvel is doing a fantastic job handling their properties, tying them all together and making me eager to see more.  It really feels like you are watching a comic book universe come to life.  Did you see Iron Man and Iron Man II?  Did you see Thor?  And the tags at the end of them all?  If so, you’ll have an extra level of appreciation for Captain America, but you can totally enjoy and follow it even if you haven’t.

The good guy (Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, played by Chris Evans) is really good.  The bad guy (Schmidt, aka Red Skull, played by Hugo Weaving) is really bad.  And just like in X-Men:First Class, their character and choices define them, not their superpowers.  Dr. Erskine (Stanley Tucci) describes his transforming serum by saying, “[it] amplifies everything inside, so good becomes great, bad becomes worse.”  It’s why the pathetically weak and tiny Steve Rogers is chosen for the experimental procedure in the first place, and the Dr. asks him to promise that he will “stay who you are.  Not a perfect soldier, but a good man.”

Boy, is he good.  Chasing bad guys, saving innocents, respecting women, braving the odds, serving his country, and literally incapable of getting drunk.  Even though he’s beefed up for most of the movie, what I really loved about our hero was how heroically he acted before he got his strength.  How he would stand up against “bullies” even when he didn’t actually stand a chance, because it was the right thing to do.  He was principled.  It reminded me of 1 Timothy 4:12, which says,

“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.”

"Put a needle in that kid's arm, it's gonna go right through him."

It’s not exactly the same, but the idea that you can still set an example and make a difference even if people perceive you as too weak, small or young is inspiring and powerful.  And it’s reinforced by the fact that the other guys on Captain America’s team prove themselves to be just as heroic, effectively contributing to their missions even though they aren’t “super soldiers.”

Then of course there’s the whole good-versus-evil theme.  It’s very clear cut, very black and white.  It is interesting, however, to note the 40s-era propaganda style featured throughout the film.  (I spent some time on my other blog deciphering the lyrics to the USO song featured in the film, and they are very…propaganda-y.)  It seems so obviously manipulative, and it makes me want to re-evaluate the things I’ve seen lately.  Do I recognize modern propaganda every time I see it?

Oh man, this move was so good.  And yes, you do have to sit through all the credits to get to the tag scene, but the music while you wait is terrific.  And you will be rewarded with a glimpse at Captain America, the first Avenger’s fellow assembly members.  Summer 2012!

"I don't want to kill anyone. I just don't like bullies, no matter where they come from."

Repo Men

This film came out in 2010, and I thought it looked like a very interesting idea for a story, but I didn’t get a chance to see it in theaters.  That turned out to be no great loss, because it wasn’t all that good.  But it did have one line that I really, really liked.

The premise: in the future, medical science has advanced to the point where artificial body parts are reliably mass-produced.  So there’s almost no need for anyone to die, ever, because they could just keep replacing everything as it wears out or gets sick.  But capitalism doesn’t work that way, and in this story no one can truly benefit from the wondrous technology because the company that sells the organs won’t make a profit that way.  The procedures and equipment are all incredibly expensive, but who can refuse to sign the payment contracts to get a new liver, knowing it means death if they don’t?  “You owe it to your family.  You owe it to yourself,” repeats a smarmy salesmen (played by Liev Schreiber).

He also states, “we can’t make money if people pay.”  That’s where Remy (Jude Law) and Jake (Forest Whitaker) come in.  They are the Repo Men, and their job is to repossess artificial organs on which the purposefully too-high payments have fallen behind, by cutting them out of the receivers’ bodies.  This typically means the person dies, but Remy and Jake aren’t bothered.  It’s “just a job.”  And they always read a statement asking if the patient would like an ambulance to be on hand before they cut them open, but it’s clearly a legality as Remy is shown reading it after knocking his victim unconscious with a taser.

Then there’s the twist that you see coming a mile away: Remy suffers an accident and has to get an artificial heart himself.  Now he’s on the other side of the system.  Suddenly aware of his own mortality, he can’t bring himself to do any more repo jobs, and therefore can’t make the money to pay off his own heart.  After that it’s pretty much just an action movie, running around trying to escape and fighting various people off, and the entire third act kind of falls apart story-wise, and the ending is really stupid. It’s like somebody had this great idea, and then it just became an excuse for stereotypical fight scenes.

Part of the message here seems to be a critique of the American health care system.  It says that doctors don’t care about their patients, that profits are more important than people, that hospitals are evil corporations and everybody could really be perfectly healthy if only the people at the top weren’t so greedy and corrupt.  Of course it’s all hypothetical, and in the real world things are not so extreme or so black and white, but sometimes fiction provides a safe place to talk about controversial subjects.  Despite it’s descent into illogical sequences of gun fights, knife fights, and fire extinguisher axe fights, Repo Men could be a good way to start a conversation about the flaws in our health care (and health insurance) systems, and what we can do to prevent this kind of future scenario.

My favorite line was something Remy said when he finally decided to quit his line of work, no longer able to believe in the mantra “it’s just a job” that he himself had once repeated. “But it’s not just a job, is it?  It’s who you are.  If you want to change who you are, start by changing what you do.”  That is excellent advice!  I don’t know of any Bible verses that specifically support it.  But C.S. Lewis dedicated a section to it in his book Mere Christianity (Book 4, chapter 7).  Here is an excerpt:

There are two kinds of pretending.  There is a bad kind, where the pretense is there instead of the real thing; as when a man pretends he is going to help you instead of really helping you.  But there is also a good kind, where the pretense leads up to the real thing.  When you are not feeling particularly friendly but know you ought to be, the best thing you can do, very often, is to put on a friendly manner and behave as if you were a nicer person than you actually are.  And in a few minutes, as we have all noticed, you will be really feeling friendlier than you were.  Very often the only way to get a quality in real life is to start behaving as if you had it already.

So let’s practice living like Christ.  Let’s change our character by consciously deciding to act how God wants us to.  Then when the Reap-o Man comes for our souls, we’ll be ready.

Oh well, at least the first two thirds of the movie were good.

X-Men: First Class

I loved this movie!  It was fantastic.  There was so much CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!  It was probably more enjoyable having seen the trilogy that this film is a prequel for, giving us perspective on things like the young Charles Xavier’s drinking beer and trying to pick up chics in a bar, when we know he grows up to be the carefully reserved and proper Professor X.  We also get to see how Mystique came to embrace her mutation, how complex Magneto’s intentions and goals are, how deeply the pain of losing his mother still affects him.  There was one scene in particular that nearly moved me to tears.  And the acting, all-around, was wonderful, (with the exception of January Jones as Emma Frost).  The score was exciting enough for the film but not something I would want to listen to on it’s own, it was a little too repetitive.

What are the messages of this story?  Well, macro evolution is pretty much essential to the plot, explaining why the mutants exist, and historical evolution is repeatedly referred to, (in terms of homo sapiens outliving and possibly killing off Neanderthals), as a way to describe the inevitable conflict between the mutants and the humans.  But none of that is really the point of the story, so if evolution bothers you just pretend there is a different explanation for the existence of the mutants.  It’s not like that’s really how evolution works anyway.  (A genetic mutation that makes you suddenly able to grow workable wings and spit flaming embers?)

Much more the focus is the other-ing of any ‘different’ group of people by any other.  This has been a theme in all the X-men movies, but it’s very clear in this one particularly because of the inclusion of Magneto’s holocaust experience.  When Charles tries to convince Eric not to destroy the ships that have just fired on them, arguing “there are thousands of men on those ships, good, innocent men, they’re just following orders!”, he counters, “I’ve been at the mercy of men who were just following orders.  Never again.”  He also voices his concern that their mutant location project will only lead to persecution of their kind, saying identification is “the first step” towards marking off a segment of the population for persecution, like the yellow stars his family was once forced to wear.  We see that the newly CIA-recruited mutants have undergone harassment due to their conditions, former stripper Angel so much so that she states she would rather be objectified, naked, then get the looks people give her when they know what she is.

Going along with this theme is Mystique’s journey towards self-acceptance.  In the beginning, she is reluctant to let people see the ‘real’ her, as her naturally blue, scaly skin and yellow eyes are considered freakish by normal humans, and even some of her fellow mutants.  She detests her appearance so much, she is initially excited about the possibility of a ‘cure,’ but by the time Beast has developed one positive reinforcement from Magneto has enabled her to embrace her true form, and by the end of the film she is repeating a mantra that she scoffed at earlier, “Mutant and Proud.”  In this instance it appears that Magneto is the better man, recognizing Mystique’s insecurities and supporting her self-esteem when Xavier, her close friend for many years, seemed insensitive and unsympathetic.

It’s not so simple, in this origin story, to label either Eric or Charles as “good” or “bad”.  When Eric takes his lethal revenge on Shaw, it is Charles that telepathically freezes his friend’s victim in place, not letting go even though he had passionately argued against the murderous outcome that was only possible with his involvement.  Is Charles just as culpable for Shaw’s death, then?

That leads to the third theme that can be found within X-Men: First Class, one that echoes a sentiment spoken by the wise Professor Dumbledore at the conclusion of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets; “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”  Although the humans at one point make a decision to regard all mutants as a threat, (an attitude that develops into intense mutant persecution in chronologically later films), Shaw and his ilk are clearly villainous while Xavier’s band is clearly heroic and Magneto’s position somewhere in between.  It’s wrong for the humans to lump all the mutants together, just as it is wrong for us to characterize any particular group as sharing the same quality of character.  That the mutants have abilities doesn’t make them good or bad, threats or assets; it’s how they choose to use their skills that informs those categorizations.

We shouldn’t be so quick to judge.  We should be willing to view all people, (including ourselves), as equally valuable and unique, with something to contribute to the world, and examine our own motives to ensure we are not misusing our gifts, even if ours don’t include flying, telepathy, controlling metal or producing super sonic sound waves.

Charles Xavier (Professor X) and Eric Lehnsherr (Magneto)