Author Archives: Bob Evans

Quick Hit

Automobile emergencies have stolen some of my morning posting time away from me so today’s posting will be brief.

I have decided as an experiment and practice to do something I have not done in quite a while, write a screenplay.

I used to primarily think of myself as a screenplay writer. Films are a passion of mine and if you have read Vulcan’s Forge you can see that passion represented in the plotting of the novel. While I haven’t sold a screenplay, I have written and co-written a few and I find the form to fun to work with. For the last several months I have been listening to the podcast Scriptnotes and I am exciting to incorporate some of the things I have learned about screen writing.

So, this week I started a screenplay with no intention of selling it. To keep from spinning wheels, I decided that the best form of this experiment is to adapt my novel Vulcan’s Forge. It should be fun.

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Sunday Night Movie: Back to the Future

1985 was a very different time and the middle of a decade of film that reverberates to this day. So many geek favorite films and franchises were completed, started, or concluded during the 80s and one of the most beloved and important was Back to the Future, the third collaboration between Steven Spielberg, already a powerhouse of genre cinema, and Robert Zemeckis. Friends for year previously their earlier two joint projects, Used Cars directed by Zemeckis and starring Kurt Russell and 1941 co-written by Zemeckis but directed by Spielberg, had performed poorly at the box office leading Zemeckis to fear that another failure would endanger their friendship. Back to the Future dominated the summer’s box office propelling Zemeckis’ career to new heights and launching a trilogy of films with groundbreaking special effects.

Marty McFly (Michael J Fox) is a teenager struggling with his own self-doubts and a family whose prospects are dim. His mother Loraine (Lea Thompson) is lost in an alcoholic fog, his father George (Crispin Glover) is bullied by a co-worker and unable to assert himself, and Marty fears failure so much he is unwilling to really try. Marty’s strange but touching friendship with the town’s eccentric inventor Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) leads him to be involved with Brown’s time machine invention and eventually trapped back in the hazy and distant past of 1955 where Marty inadvertently disrupts historical events threatening his own existence.

Budgeted at 19 million dollars and becoming the most successful film of 1985 with a box office take of 381 million Back to the Future was a monster of a movie. In addition to Zemeckis the film helped, along with another summer movie Teen Wolf, make a star out of Michael J Fox and favored a powerful symphonic score by Alan Silvestri over the decade’s trend of using pop songs in a music video style, usually in montages. While the movie had a few popular songs and they featured heavily on the soundtrack album the film itself leaned heavily in a more traditional manner on underscoring and the symphonic sound that had returned in the 70s with prominence of John Williams’ work on Jaws and Star Wars.

While Back to the Future is a prime example of an 80s whimsical movie, heavy on fun and never in danger of taking itself too seriously with a heavy political message it is no without its own darker undertones. When we meet Loraine in 1985 she’s a woman that seems withdrawn and fearful of life a fear she is passing down to her children, but Loraine of 1955 is outgoing, confident, and unafraid of life. There is no doubt that Lorain of 1985 is a survivor of untreated trauma and while that exact nature of that trauma is never directly revealed the unsettling and threatening relationship between Loraine and George’s bully Biff, played brilliantly by Thomas F Wilson who would steal scenes with his range in the next two sequels, hints that an unspoken sexual assault hides in the unexplored familial history.

Back to the Future is a movie that plays as well in 2020 as it did in 1985 and well worth any re-watching during these dark and frightening times.

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The Weird Ways I Dream

With the recent passing of actor Brian Dennehy, I got to thinking about the weird way I sometimes dream. Don’t worry those two disparate concepts do eventually tie together.

People when they are asleep dream in sorts of manners. My sister has told me that her dreams are in black and white and only in two dimensions like something from an old television show. Personally, I dream in full color three-dimensional glory in absolute fidelity. In fact, when I awaken from a dream there may be several moments when I have to sort out what is reality and what was dream. We’re not talking delusional things like nightmarish monster and the like but if I dreamt of eating an apple then I will wake up with the taste still lingering in my mouth and I have to take note that I was not actually having one. But full realism is not where I find that my dreams are the oddest.

Sometimes I dream movies.

I don’t mean that I dream about movies, though that has happened but rather my dreams become films. Occasionally I will be in one of the film dreams as a character but there have also been instances where I never appear in the story at all and I’m observing it like any other movie.

Dennehy appeared in one of my nightmares. This is one of those movie dreams where I watched and did not find myself inside of it as a doomed character. Dennehy, Anthony Perkins (of Psycho, though he had already passed when I had this nightmare) and a woman whom I did not recognize take a small boat into icy waters to retrieve cannisters of toxic waste that they had illegally dumped. They have to move the barrels before authorities discover the crime. The woman really really hates Dennehy’s character but the backstory reasons are never revealed. Diving for the waste they are attacked by eel-like monsters. Perkins is killed and the two survivors end up stranded on a rock jutting from the sea trapped by the eel/monsters.

I used the nightmare as inspiration for a short story “Araceli” that appeared in my collection Horseshoes and Hand Grenades: Tales of Technology and Terror. I have always felt that nightmares are gifts for my creativity.

 

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Post Release Thoughts

So, it hasn’t quite been a month, ten more days for that mark on the calendar, since my first novel Vulcan’s Forge has been published and I have a few reactions to the whole process.

Naturally I was a little bummed that the sole event tied to its release a signing at Mysterious Galaxy was canceled due to the stay at home order issued here in California just seven days before the book’s release but I’m happy our governor took the action as our state is weathering the crisis better than nearly any other.

Amazon seems to be utterly unreliable as a source of sales information. Though I know for certain books were sold via Amazon directly and more from other sources neither Amazon nor Bookscan is reporting that information so I have no idea how well or poorly the sales numbers are.

The Blog Tour where a different book blogger reviewed the book each day of its release week was quite enjoyable. All of them gave the book varying levels of positive reviews which is nicely gratifying for a novel that I wrote entirely to my own personal tastes.

Speaking of reviews a few have popped up on Amazon that are not from the blog tour and reading those has been informative. It’s quite interesting to see the various lenses and filters people bring to the process. All of the reviews have been positive, 4 and 5 stars so far, but eventually it will land in the hands of someone who hates it.

Overall especially dealing with this pandemic I have been very happy with the novel’s debut.

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Noir Review: The Sniper

Recently a friend and I watched The Sniper as part of The Criterion Channel’s March programing of Columbia Noir. This movie, released in 1952, is shockingly relevant today and presents a story and complexity about its central character well ahead of its time.

Directed by Edward Dmytryk, who also gave us one of my favorite films The Caine Mutiny, and written by Harry Brown, The Sniper is focused on Edward Miller a troubled young man recently released from prison. Miller struggles against a deep-seated hatred of women and after a couple of attempts to get help fail and he is romantically rejected Miller loses control and begins a murderous spree as a sniper killing dark haired women. The police led by Lieutenant Frank Kafka and his partner Joe Ferris are nearly helpless to catch Miller. Stuck in a mindset that looks for motive their focus on peeping toms and men with a history of sexual assault their investigation gets nowhere until the department’s psychologist Dr. Kent, redirects their attention by use of what would eventually become psychological profiling. In a final inversion of classic film tropes, the ending doesn’t rely upon exciting gunplay but instead leaves the viewer with a haunting image of a man in pain.

When we decided to watch The Sniper with its subject matter of random murder we expected a film that leaned heavily towards the exploitive but instead we were treated to a thoughtful, though occasionally didactic, and serious treatment of the problems American society has, then and now, in dealing with psychological trauma and the use of a prison system in lieu of hospitals. Aside from one scene where the plot is brought to a full stop to allow for speechmaking by the filmmakers The Sniper does an excellent job of presenting its themes within the context of a compelling narrative. This one is well worth seeking out and watching.

 

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2016 versus 2020

Barring extraordinary circumstances, and really how likely is that (*cough cough*) we have our contenders for the 2020 United States presidential contest this fall, Trump and Biden. As we look forward to the elect it is instructive to look back at the last cycle and consider some of the things that worked in Trump’s favor in that election and ask how they may have changed for this one.

First off, Biden is not Hillary Clinton. For whatever reason and however large a part misogyny may have played a part in it, Hillary Clinton carried 30 years of vicious political baggage going into that November. Clinton’s candidacy provoked intense reactions that appear to be absent, fairly or unfairly, with Biden. I am not diagnosing why, only observing the effect. Biden is not attempting to counter such levels of visceral hate robbing Trump of that advantage.

In 2016 for those inclined to be charitable Trump was an unknown. There existed in the air the expectation that the immense responsibilities of the office could not leave any person unchanged and that would lead to Trump becoming ‘presidential.’ I think that there was also an attitude that disregarded all of the troubles reporting on trump, his behavior, his disregard for the truth, as simply part of politics and thus turned such things into a non-factor. After a term as president, Trump character is fully revealed and his approval number show that he’s had a difficult time convincing anyone beyond his base of his worthiness.

Perhaps the most important difference between the 2016 and 2020 elections is that it is no longer considered an impossibility that Trump can win.

Five Thirty-Eight on the eve of the election gave the odds of a Trump victory as 1 in 3 and they were roundly mocked for that assessment as so many thought it was by far too generous to Trump.

The L.A. Times predicted an electoral college victory for Clinton of 332 to 206.

Fox News favored Clinton in the E.C. with 274 to 215.

The Associated Press had her at 274 to 190.

The accepted consensus view was that the election was a mere formality to Clinton claiming the presidency and that the evening would prove to be terrible dull of political watchers.

What happened was that by a margin of about 70,000 votes in three states Clinton lost the electoral college. How many people stayed home because they ‘knew’ the outcome? How many people didn’t bother to vote because they ‘knew’ that there was no need to stop Trump because he had already lost? If you ‘know’ that the lying, racist, fool can’t win there’s no need to put yourself through the psychological trauma of ‘holding your nose’ and voting for someone you dislike. It doesn’t matter.

But of course, it did matter.

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Sunday Night Movie: Ghost Stories (2018)

Two years ago the British anthology horror film Ghost Stories was released to a limited run the States; a run that my sweetie-wife and I missed. The movie is currently on the streaming service Hulu and last night we gave the horror film a spin.

Written and Directed by Andy Nyman & Jeremy Dyson with Dyson also playing the lead character Phillip Goodman the film is an adaptation of their stage play about Professor Goodman’s investigation of three paranormal events as he tried to debunk them into rationality.

You would not know that this is an adaptation from a live theater event. Nyman and Dyson have done a terrific job of translating the material for the visual media of film. The movie is filled with delicious and unsettling imagery and many segments build suspense masterfully. The framing device of Goodman’s post event investigation is tried and true cinematic method of linking what would normally be three unrelated narratives. In Ghost Stories though it turns out that the three stories are not unrelated but rather share a central narrative that is an outgrowth of Goodman’s own issues, guilt, and motivation.

Sadly, that is where Ghost Stories fails me. While there are others that count this as their favorite horror film of 2018 (or 2017 if you are looking at UK release dates) it falls apart at the ending. Endings are a critical time for all narratives, it is where the point and meaning if the story comes into clarity and conflicting themes are finally resolved. Nyman and Dyson do that but in such a manner that I found it frustrating and wholly unsatisfying. To reveal this exact shape of this failure would require venturing heavily into spoiler territory but I will say that my sweetie-wife predicted the ending a good ten minutes before it resolved. Naturally your mileage may vary on how well the ending does or does not work for you but for me it ruined what had been a very enjoyable ride with a destination that was a thrilling and exciting as depilated bus terminal.

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Bernie Blew It

Senator Bernie Sanders (I) failed for the second time to take over a political party of which he was not a member. The reasons for his failure are not something that is easily testable. Every election is a one-off with many unique variables but I think there are few reason assumptions that can reached.

Sanders did quite well in the 2016 primary battle against Hillary Clinton but the vote level he achieved were not an indication of his own or his ideas popularity but a mixture of those who supported him for his stands and those voting for him because he was not Clinton. I don’t think Bernie ever quite understood just how much of his success, and that success was still less popular than Hillary Clinton’s, was an expression of a desire for someone, anyone, other than the former Secretary of State. This led Bernie into thinking that for 2020 he had a much higher base to build upon and feeds into his misguided plan of attack to win the nomination, a popular political revolution.

When asked throughout this extended campaign season how he was going to enact his seeping and revolutionary policies Sanders responded that his candidacy was going to energize and mobilize a vast number of people who had never participated in the political process. This wave of new voters would sweep into power not just Sanders but an entire new class of elected officials that shared his philosophy and would remake the face of American politics.

Bernie’s army never materialized at the polls.

Without his mythical army of new voters Sanders exposed as a factional candidate and he failed to adapt to this. Instead of seeing that his core message and support was limiting his ability to grow his voter base and win the nomination Bernie ‘doubled down’ on his message and relied on stubbornness and his own power of personality to take over the Democratic party. You can respect him for staying committed to his ideals, to refusing to show any sign of compromise, but in the Democratic party as it is currently constituted that is far from enough to win majority support.

None of this underscores the effect Sanders has had on American politics. He has dragged the Democratic party to the left and the policies proposed by other candidates and getting wide support are much further to the left than anything since before the rise of Reaganism and had Bernie himself been willing to meet the party part way he may have done better but he did not.

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To Hold onto Power the GOP is Willing to Kill You

We are living through a global pandemic and to gather in large crowds is to take a risk to your life a risk that grows greater with your age. Wisely, many states, though not all, have issues orders and guidelines for the population to stay in their homes, to avoid close proximity to other people, and take other precautions to void becoming infected or passing the virus to others. 2020 is also an election year and recognizing the importance of both our electoral and health civic duties many states have postponed their primary and other elections while also instituting procedures allowing people to vote by mail ensuring that both duties are honored.

Except for Wisconsin.

Wisconsin held an election this week, April 7th, 2020 to be precise. The Governor, Tony Evers, a Democrat, had called the legislature into a special session to deal with the electoral issue during their pandemic crisis. The Republican controlled body gaveled themselves into session and then immediately disbanded the session without taking any action or debate at all. They were equally unwilling to make voting by mail any easier even as the virus continues to spread throughout the nation and their state. Milwaukee normally has 180 polling station for an election, due to people fears of coming out and gathering in large numbers so many volunteer polls quit that the city was forced to conduct its election with just five polling stations.

The GOP sees this election as critical. The state is filling a spot on the Wisconsin Supreme court and if the conservative can win the seat it will cement a conservative majority on the panel. It is axiomatic for conservatives that low turnout elections benefit the Republican party and apparently, they are willing to do anything to depress turnout and win including placing the voting population in peril of a deadly infectious disease.

Here is Wisconsin Speaker of the Assembly Robin Voss and how he appeared at a polling station to advise the public it was ‘incredibly safe’ to show up to vote.

Photo from CNN

This portends badly for the November elections. The popular vote has been trending against the GOP for several elections and rather than adjusting their stands to conform with the public they would rather disenfranchise and kill voters. I hope this blows up in their face. I hope that in Wisconsin the voters brave enough and committed enough to show up and stand for hours with other people are the ones dedicated to seeing the perversion of democracy ended. Only time and the vote total will tell.

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Captain America: Was He Always Worthy?

This post will have spoilers for Marvel’s Avengers movies.

I recently started a re-watch of the MCU’s Avengers and Captain Americafilms. This has coincided with the one-year anniversary of the release of Avengers: Endgame and people are sharing videos of crowd reactions to key moment from that movie. A popular moment to share is when Captain America in the climatic battles against Thanos wield Mjolnir. It is a moment when the audience reacts wildly and enthusiastically and even after having seen the movie several times both in the theaters and at home one that still stirs my own blood.

Earlier in the cycle of MCU movies, specifically in Avengers: Age of Ultron, at a celebratory party various characters attempt to lift Mjolnir but the enchantment upon the weapon specifies only one who is worthy can wield the hammer and with it the powers of Thor. Character after character make the attempt and Thor’s hammer remains utterly immobile. When Steve Roger, Captain America and in many ways the moral compass of the MCU, tries the hammer rocks and Thor immediately reacts with apprehension but Cap doesn’t lift it and Thor relaxes.

The question becomes; When did Cap become worthy? Or Was he always worthy and chose not to lift the hammer at the party?

It can be argued that he was always worthy and felt the hammer rock under his grip and did not lift it to save his friend embarrassment. (Not to mention that Cap lifting it early in the movie would have undercut Vision’s wielding of Mjolnir and proving his worthiness to the Avengers when they doubted him.) Steve is a decent fellow and would be very considerate of Thor’s pride but I am not persuaded by this line of argument. I think at the time of Age of Ultron Cap was nearly worthy but not yet there.

In Captain America: Civil War Steve paternalistically keeps the truth of the murder of Tony Stark’s parents secret from Tony and this lie ruptures the Avengers. At the end of the film in his letter to Tony he confesses that really he wasn’t protecting Tony but himself. Steve too scared to confront the hard truth with Tony. It is this moment of self-realization that clears that last of the moral clutter away from Steve’s nature and I think allowed him to be worthy for that amazing moment in Endgame.

 

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