[Magdalen] The Force Awakens

James Oppenheimer-Crawford oppenheimerjw at gmail.com
Sun Dec 20 03:43:13 UTC 2015


I keep hearing of folks who thought some film was "revelatory," but never
met one. I have a real affection for the Star Trek films of various types,
even including "Enterprise." I enjoyed Star Wars, but never looked at any
more of them, since it seemed to be a kind of carefree appraoch, much like
the Indiana Jones movies (think of the wonderful scene where Jones and a
Nazi soldier are wrestling for control of a vehicle, nearly crash, and
barely missing, grin at each other with relief "Wow! That was close!" and
then suddenly realize, oops, we're supposed to be fighting here, and resume
their battle)

Star Trek was good sci fi, and with a thought-provoking idea generally
thrown in.  But make no mistake: it's entertainment.  I hear about the SNL
when Shatner let a fan have it ("Tell me, have you ever made [etc.]?").

If they brought back ER again, I'd watch that too.

The one I have heard had a real story was Babylon V or whatever it was. I
never got into it, so I have no idea.

There is one thing I think might be revelatory, and that is the way certain
people intensely like a show, and not others, and other folks just prefer
something entirely different.

What causes a division in this particular house is that one person who
shall be nameless seems to like all of those shows where the plot is driven
by some victim being killed in some very nasty and gruesome and very
unusual way ("Let's see. We showed a person half consumed by acid last
week. How can we out gross ourselves this week and still keep the illusion
of decency?") I find that the shows strive to make the gore as bad as they
dare, and generally they also throw a lot of gratuitous sexual deviance
such as really horrible torture, etc. I find this gratuitous gore and
violence a bit much. I don't find much on that has anything to say. The
comedy stuff is weak or lame or both. I find myself watching stuff like
"How it's made" and the various house renovation shows (Oh yeah, we used to
get a kick out of House -- just how socially inappropriate can he be? Uh
huh. He topped himself yet again.)
We liked Ghost-whisperer and Medium, and years before, we really enjoyed
Picket Fences, so of course they cancelled it.
We enjoy the various takes on the Holmes/Watson story.

I tend not to like one and detest the other. I liked both "Armageddon" and
"Deep Impact."



James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Sat, Dec 19, 2015 at 9:42 PM, Christopher Hart <cervus51 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I'm more of a Lord of the Rings guy. Despite the obvious deficiencies
> vis-a-via the novel it was a marvelously well done film trilogy.
>
> On Saturday, December 19, 2015, Scott Knitter <scottknitter at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Glad to hear you haven't been assimilated, Christopher! I don't plan
> > to see it. I've seen the Star TREK films and will continue to live in
> > that world. :)
> >
> > On Sat, Dec 19, 2015 at 4:33 PM, Christopher Hart <cervus51 at gmail.com
> > <javascript:;>> wrote:
> > > Would those of you who know me be more surprised that my wife and I
> went
> > to
> > > see the new Star Wars film this afternoon or that I was totally
> > > underwhelmed? My wife was less complimentary about it.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Scott R. Knitter
> > Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA
> >
>
>
> --
>
> Christopher Hart
>
> List Mail Address: cervus51 at gmail.com
> Personal Mail: cervus at veritasliberat.net
> Twitter: @cervus51
>


More information about the Magdalen mailing list