The River

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Lies and videotape

I have a theory. It started when a friend and I were discussing movies. I asked him something about the latest M. Night Shyamalan movie, The Lady in the Water. He said it was awful. I told him about an interview on NPR where they were discussing the imminent release of said movie and how M. Night had become a household name director and his movies were greeted with much anticipation. We wondered why this was considering his movies are mediocre and formulaic. I mean, why these mediocre and formulaic movies, as opposed to all the others? My friend said they mostly follow the weird stuff happens and it’s all explained with a revelatory twist at the end, a la The Sixth Sense.

We also discussed the dominance of the superhero flick in recent years. These will be viewed as dated pieces o crap in short order, I speculated. Why’d people flock to these things? will be the question. Then the theory hit me. The superhero movies and the M. Night’s ouvre together tell the story. In one set of popular entertainments, we see America as the world’s superhero, standing up for good.

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... the united states with out a doubt has a good governemnt. we help those who need to be helped we heal those nations that need to be healed. we are a good nation with a governement that only trys to help. i under stand alot of ur logic in ur videos make sence but to blame a thing like 9/11 on the governemnt thats just crazy! were in afganistan and iraq for good reason and bad. but atleast were makein the world a better plcae.

source

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In the other, we get an increasingly uneasy feeling that everything our eyes tell us to be true isn’t, and that waiting for us at the end is a shocking revelation that it’s all been illusion, and the opposite to what we believed is the truth. Evil has been lurking all along.

Here is a YouTube video proposing that the Osama video confession, made public on December 13, 2001, was fake. The video, as well as other questionable audio tapes, are the source of quotes that Bush has been touting recently to bolster war support.

One of the greatest lies every perpetrated – Al Qaeda pulled off 9/11 – has only led to a deluge of lies, a glurgefest known as the “War on Terror.” And get ready, a "documdrama is coming to network television to shortcircuit the public's thought process. With United 93 and World Trade Center, this latest fiction, The Path to 9/11, only serves to reinforce the feeling that you are merely a viewer of a simulation of reality.

What would it take, what twist could cause the brain to begin to function with a whole new perspective?

Or do you look beyond the propaganda, only to retreat to the comfort of a movie. Sure, it’s dreadful and menacing, but there’s nothing you can do about it. You can’t walk up to the screen and change the ending.

Comments:
Though I used to have loads of love for M Night, he started to lose it with the Village, and then just completely blew it with Lady in the Water .. this arrogant bit of piffle is easily the worst movie I've seen this summer
 
Bruce,

I would like to extend an invitation to you to join in on a collective blogging section of our upcoming winter issue of Reconstruction

Here is the original call:

Theories/Practices of Blogging

Our intent in this section of the issue will be to collect a wide range of bloggers and link up to their statements in regards to why they blog (something many of us are asked) and any statement they have on the theories/practices of blogging.

If you already have a post on this you can feel free to use it, or, if you are interested, you can submit a new one.

We will link to each statement from the issue at our site, with the intent of creating a hyperlinked list of statements on blogging that can serve as an introduction to blogging (or an expansion of knowledge for those already blogging).

If you are interested please contact me at mdbento @ gmail.com
 
thanks for the invite Thivai. I'll think about it.

I haven't kept up with M Nigh, Reel Fanatic, but my friend the movie critic keeps me up to date. Thanks for the comment.
 
Another benefit of the new 9-11 movie is that it provides lots of fodder for obsession with trivial details for each ridiculous "side" to get het up about.

As usual, A Tiny Revolution goes to the heart of the matter -- corporate rule and its following the dictate to keep the masses in the dark, which in matters of this magnitude even transcend the immediate, though not long-term, profit potential.
 
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