Why The West Must See Ukraine Victorious

 

First off let me make clear there are numerous reasons why the Russian aggression in Eastern Europe must be repelled and repelled without Russia gaining material benefits from invaded its neighbor.

Aggressive wars of conquest must have consequences and that must be uniformly negative, or we invite other nations to follow in that profitable lead.

The horrors that have been visited upon the Ukrainians, which echo the history of the 20th century, must be answered. Ukraine was forcibly integrated into the communist empire by the Russian Bolsheviks and suffered greatly as subjects of the evil soviet empire as well as Nazi atrocities during the second world war. By both malice, such as the Holodomor when the Soviets starved millions of Ukrainians to death, or by incompetence such as when lies and budgetary short cuts instigated the greatest civilian nuclear disaster in history with Chernobyl the Ukrainians have suffered at the hands of the Russian and they deserve their freedom.

But there is another reason the Ukrainians must win, and it is a reason that matters to every person on this blue-green planet.

In 1991, when Ukraine declared its independence which shattered the USSR it took with it a massive collection of nuclear weapons, the third largest armory of these in the world, along with the technological ability to design and create more. The world stood on the precipice of a rapidly expanding number of nuclear armed states.

1994 Ukraine surrendered its nuclear arsenal and committed itself to non-proliferation. As part of that commitment Ukraine received security assurances that most importantly the UK, the USA, and ironically Russian would provide assistance should Ukraine be subject to an act of aggression. They walked away from nuclear weapon on our promises.

If Russia topples the Ukrainian government or seizes large elements of its territory the lesson heard around the globe will be clear. Those without nuclear weapons can be subjugated by those with them. A lesson made crystal clear by Iraq and Tunisia and now if true for the second largest nation in Europe one that cannot but inspire a scramble for the only safeguard against the superpowers of the world, your own nuclear weapons. A world where Ukraine falls or loses great swaths of land may very well lead to world where more and more nations armed themselves with nuclear devices. And the world becomes a powder keg that endangers us all.

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Movie Review: X

 

Well, it has finally happened A24 has released a film that utterly disappointed me.

X, and man I would have worked for a better title, is the story of five twenty-somethings and one

A24 Studios

forty-something traveling to a secluded rural Texas farm in 1979 to film a pornographic film and the night of terror, violence, and murder that ensues.

The sub-genre that X best fits into is hicksploitation, represented by such diverse films as Deliverance and Gator Bait and of course the movie X is most often compared to, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, X has been overly praised.

The characters of X are sketched in only the barest contours and what is there that passes as characterization does little to endear much sympathy. I do not believe that this is the fault of the performers but rather of the script. There is little to recommend this film beyond Mia Goth’s dual performance as characters separated by more than 60 years in age. (From this point onward, I will be revealing spoilers, though not the ultimate ending, for the movie.)

The movie repeatedly shattered any suspension of disbelief I might have possessed. The character RJ has artistic aspirations of making a ‘good dirty movie,’ referring to avant-garde French Cinema and yet he is making a movie without any lights, reflectors, or even a single tripod. The movie hangs a hat on this incongruity when Wayne, the old man and producer, yells at Maxine for being absent and that RJ is ‘losing the light’ as the sun sets but then everyone rushed into a darkened barn to film, where there is no fricking light.

Later in the movie, after RJ feels betrayed and has attempted to abandon everyone his girlfriend and sound recordist enlists Wayne’s help in searching for him. Wayne wanders out into the Texas brush, at night, wearing one underwear and no shoes. Because apparently not one of the native Texans has ever heard of ‘chiggers’ (bush-mites), snakes, fire-ants, or even just thorns.

In addition to displaying a lack of any concern about insects or plants the film to hampered by situations around the character of Jackson Hole, the sole male performer in their ‘dirty movie.’ As a black man, engaging in interracial sex, and deep in rural Texas, with a shady elderly white man prone to brandishing a shotgun showing little more than antipathy towards these young people, he acts far too cavalier about his own safety to be anything other than a cinematic ‘professional victim.’

X boasts one really nicely crafted scene of dread and suspense amid it jarring editing and reliance on jump scares. When Maxine goes skinny dipping in a pond and is hunted by an alligator the entire sequence plays out beautifully but ultimately only serves to establish the ‘gator so that it can be used later in an attack that possess none of the slow stalking dread exhibited earlier.

X proved to be a waste of my evening but at least with the AMC A List subscription it cost me no extra money. My advice is to wait for streaming or cable and then miss it.

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Streaming Review: Moon Knight

 

I find it difficult to adequately review a story where the ending has not yet been revealed. So much hinges upon a tale’s ending and a poor one, yes I am looking at you Game of Thrones, can wreck all that came before it. However, to build conversation Disney+ and Marvel Studios have opted for the week-by-week release format and so here are my thoughts on Moon Knight with just two episodes released. (It seems quite wrong to refer to them as ‘aired’ when they exist on a streaming service and not a broadcast one.)

Freed from the shackles that had once forbidden reference magic or time travel, both elements now firmly embedded with the greater MCU, Moon Knight embraces mysticism and ancient gods

Image: Marvel Studios

as the titular character is an avatar for an Egyptian deity devoted to justice. An additional level of complexity and complication is that the story’s protagonist suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder, (DID), commonly known as ‘split personality’. Steven Grant is a quiet, unassuming English gift shop employee with an interest in Egyptology, but when asleep or under stress, the personality of Marc Spector, and tough capable American Mercenary, emerges. Chased by enemies Marc has instigated by stealing a mystical artifact from a secretive Egyptian cult, Steven learns that not only is his world unlike anything he has imagined but that everyone’s fate may be tied to his own.

Oscar Isaac delivers a subtle but large performance at Steven/Marc with only minimal changes to his hair styling as a visual cue to the currently dominate personality. Ethan Hawke is charming, controlled, and fanatical Arthur Harrow, devote to rival Egyptian god, and the leader of the cult pursuing Steven/Marc. The supporting characters as of episode two have had only cursory development but the writing is strong enough that they hold promise we can hope will be fulfilled.

Overall, the series is engaging, mysterious, and worth watching more episodes. We can hope that they don’t muff the ending. After the disappointment of Eternals is it good to see that Marvel can still launch a new cast of characters now the question is can they land them?

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My Latest Blu-Ray Acquisition

 

Last week I purchased Shout Factory’s 4K Blu-ray release of 1982’s The Sword and the Sorcerer a low budget fantasy movie of warring kingdoms, evil sorcerers, and a muscle-bound hero there to set everything right.

Produced on a budget of just 4 million dollars and grossing nearly 40 at the box office The Sword and the Sorcerer was, despite perhaps cinema’s silliest sword design, a very successful independent feature. Upon its release, I adored the film, not because it is great cinema, no one will ever count it among cinema’s masterpieces, but rather because no film before or since has captured so perfectly the mood and fun of an over-the-top Dungeons and Dragons adventure like this movie did.

Yes, the film is a complete mishmash of culture from medical England to the middle east, yes, it had anachronisms galore, and yes, the characters exist only to move the plot along, but it is also fun. At a spare 99 minutes the movie doesn’t waste it’s time and for such a limited budget, even by 1982 standards, every penny they spent is up there on the screen.

This release, mastered in 4K from a fresh negative, and packed with bonus feature is a joy and I am quite happy to add it to my library.

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Finally Getting Back my Rhythm

 

The last month has been quite hectic. Early in March my Sweetie-Wife underwent a total hip replacement for one of her hips and I took two weeks of paid family leave to look after my sweetie as she recovered.

She has recovered and the medical procedure went swimmingly, so all is good there.

Before the surgery I was writing north of 1000 words a day on my next Military SF adventure novel but braked to a complete stop as I transitioned to care giver for the recovery period.

When I did return to work, I found it difficult to regain my writing’s momentum. This is a fact of my writing process. A project that gets paused or halted becomes very difficult to restart. It is why I cannot write more than one project at a time. One with always end up the preferred one and the project ‘paused’ simply dies.

Last week I was averaging 800-900 words a day but yesterday I passed the 1000 words at lunch mark. The momentum is back and now I just have to keep the thing rolling.

It’s a particular challenge right now because a second surgery will be taking place and my mind has been racing on a new novel idea that has me very excited but requires a ton of research.

 

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My Favorite April Fool’s Joke of 2022

Mostly April Fool’s jokes are tired tedious and not for me. Howvere this year there was one that I throughly enjoyed.

WWII in real time is a Youtube channel that is following the events of the Second World War week by week. (They are currently in April of 1943.)

This was the special episode that aired on Friday April 1st. (I particularly like the David Hasselhoff deep cut.)

youtube placeholder image

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The Desperation of the Oscars

 

I am not going to talk about violence at the 94th Academy Awards but rather about the Academy’s pitiful attempts at popularity with its fan voted unofficial categories.

Viewership, interest, and respect for the Oscars has been waning for a number of years. As massively popular films, nearly always genre franchise movies, fail to achieve artistic recognition while smaller quieter films, nearly always dramatic films with a historic or social commentary goal, are showered with accolades. With the collapse of the mid-budget film leaving theaters with small artistic projects and massive franchise spectacles the Academy’s bent toward the dramatic while sidelining the genre opened a chasm between the films it honored and the ones beloved by the viewing audience it desperately wanted.

In 2018 the Academy announced its plans for a new category, Best Popular Film, a brazen attempt to have their cake and eat it too by giving blockbuster franchises a ghettoized Oscar. The backlash to the patronizing proposal proved as predictable as Newton’s laws of motion and the new category never appeared.

Instead, this year that unveiled the brilliant idea for a twitter poll drive for Fan Favorite Film and Fan Favorite Moment. Not actually new categories mind you, but a pat on the head for the comic book fans, a seat at the kiddie table while the real films are recognized elsewhere.

Had the Academy looked to the recent past with Fan driven award, particularly when there is a small but devoted and determined coordinated base of individuals, then they should have seen the outcome of their twitter voting.

Sunday, the Fan Favorite Film went to Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead, and the Fan Favorite Moment went to ‘The Flashe enters the Speed Force.’ (Mind you I go to comic book movies, and I have seen both versions of the Justice League movies and I had absolutely no concept of what scene won this momentary award.)

The Academy’s desperation for acceptance while remaining elite and aloof doomed the entire enterprise to failure. There are already several fan voted awards and it is wrong for the Academy to dilute their brand by trying to be popular.

Either widen you voting audience so the nominated and winning film appeal to a wider population or stay in your elite rarified air, but you cannot win trying to do both.

 

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Series Review: HALO

 

Adapted from the 2001 Xbox game HALO: COMBAT EVOLOVED Paramount + debuted yesterday the pilot episode of their Sci-Fi series HALO.

While I have played the game and its sequel I have never dived deeply into the lore or worldbuilding for HALO and as such my interpretation of the series is not a comparison but as a new viewer.

Set in the distant future of the mid 26th century, HALO is concerned with both a conflict between the Interstellar human government, breakaway rebel/insurrectionists colonies the war between the humans an alien coalition known as the Covenant. The story centers on a cybernetic warrior Spartan 117 ‘Master Chief,’ part of an elite unit of cybernetic fighters.

When the Covenant attack the separatist world of Madrigal, the Spartan intervene and discover in addition to a sole survivor of the massacre that the aliens were seeking some device on the colony. Factions with the human government splinter and contest each other for the best methods in dealing with both the Covenant and the Separatists with Master Chief, acting on an element of his reawakened humanity, finding a measure of independence from his programing.

HALO boasts impressive production design and special effects with many of the game elements both faithfully reproduced visually and credibly for today’s discerning audiences. The storyline is not a direct adaptation of the game’s plot and I believe I read somewhere that the show runners have no intent to adapt the already existing lore and story from the games.

The pilot episode seems to be unable to make up its mind what it wants in terms of tone. The action sequences are fairly well staged and fast paced but with the tangled political plotlines leaving the viewer without any clear faction to support the action is undercut. In the pilot it is unclear if any of the factions deserve the viewers sympathy or emotional investment.

Pablo Schreiber performed quite well as Master Chief but with and without his helmet. However, I found Natascha McElhone’s performance as Dr Halsey, creator of the Spartan Program, stiff and unconvincing. Several times we have her looking directly down the camera lens and I was at a loss to understand just what emotion or thought she was attempting to convey. This may be a directorial issue as I had no such troubles when she was in the American version of Solaris.

The episode’s dialog is best described as serviceable. While the exposition is not as heavy handed slapped into your face as JMS’s on Babylon 5 there were repeated instances where the characters spoke more for the audience benefit than from any inner need.

Overall, there is enough there to hold my interest and bring me back for another episode, but the series has failed to truly hook and me and leave me with anything more than a mile interest. Hopefully that will change with more and better episodes.

A gentle reminder that I have my own SF novel available from any bookseller. Vulcan’s Forge is about the final human colony, one that attempt to live by the social standard of 1950s America and the sole surviving outpost following Earth’s destruction. Jason Kessler doesn’t fit into the repressive 50s social constraints, and he desire for a more libertine lifestyle leads him into conspiracies and crime.

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Nordic Noirs

Nordic Noirs

 

My sweetie-wife a few years ago introduced me to Nordic Noir crime shows and I have grown to really enjoy them.

Here are a few that we have watched and I have enjoyed. Some are available on Netflix, some on Amazon, and others we watched on disc thanks to my region-free player.

The Bridge (Bron/Broen) A Swedish and a Danish detective team up when a murder victim is found on crossing the border in the middle of the bridge between their two nations. The second season has very silly virology, but the lead character is utterly fascinating.

Arctic Circle A Finnish/German co-production the series is centered on a tiny town in the far north of Finland in the Lapland area. Another storyline that has suspect virology this series is great for its small town feel while having an international plot.

Rebecka Martinsson Another Finnish production, this one adapted from a series of mystery novels about the titular character a high-powered lawyer with a screwed-up life that returns to her Lapland hometown and becomes intwined in murder investigations.

The Chestnut Man A Danish series this show follows a pair of investigators, one on load from Interpol, as they attempt to unravel a series of grisly murders where all of the victims were mothers.

The Valhalla Murders an Icelandic series about murders tied to a foster/adoption home.

Trapped another series from Iceland, this time am ocean ferry is forced into port during a storm and the local police must untangle the murder mystery during the tempest.

Bordertown Returning to Finland this series about a cross border murder investigation between Finland and Russia.

The Killing is a Danish show with a twenty-episode story arc investigating the murder of a high school girl that becomes deeply entangled with city politics.

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An Abominable Adaptation: Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers

 

Before the essay gets rolling the subject and point of this piece is not to debate Heinlein’s novel Starship Troopers and whether it is or is not fascist. If your comments are about the novel and politics, save them. That’s not the issue at hand.

Verhoeven’s 1997 film is a piece of political satire, a cinematic tradition with a distinguished and proud linage including the likes of Doctor Strangelove” Or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb. Satire has a rich history and can be a great tool for arguing a case and it is not always about humor and laughter. Swift’s A Modest Proposal isn’t funny, but it is excellent political satire. So, the fact that the film Starship Troopers isn’t a comedy does not remove it from the category of satire.

What makes this adaptation abominable isn’t that it isn’t faithful to the novel threadbare and nearly non-existent plot or that the film is a satire where the novel is not. The issue is that it targets its satire directly on the novel’s argument while presenting itself as an adaptation of the novel’s argument. This is disingenuous and a perversion.

Consider a hypothetical counter example. Let’s stipulate a satirical adaptation of Orwell’s classic novel 1984. The setting is already very close to satire and Gilliam used it as a jumping off point for his own comedic satire Brazil but importantly created his own work rather than abuse another artist’s. So, in this 1984 adaptation we not only make it satire we make the target Winston Smith and ridicule his character and his outlook, raising Big Brother to a benevolent force concerned with the happiness and safety of its citizens. This would be a perversion of Orwell’s work and in my opinion it would be immoral. I think it is wrong to take another artist’s creation and twist it, mutate it, and abuse it to make it attack itself. We could do the same thought experiment with countless classic works, sch as transforming Fahrenheit 451 into a defense of ignorance and illiteracy but I think the point is made.

Obviously not only can you attack viewpoints itis good to challenge other ideas and themes. My understanding is that Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War is in part a direct answer to Heinlein’s Starship Trooper. Verhoeven often returns to the idea of fascism and the dangers it presents. I applaud him and his stand as an anti-fascist but inverting another artist’s work is a dishonest and disrespectful method. It is far better to craft your own piece and argument such as with The Forever War or Brazil than to engage in blatant distortion.

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