The Zen Kitchen

The entry first

I thought I would start my first post of my new blog with my least controversial passion - film. In this newest edition I plan on keeping a log of the movies I see, and particularly those that have an impact on me in some strongly positive or negative fashion. I'll start with two recent viewings.

The Great McGinty
There has never been a writer/director quite like Preston Sturgess. Over 50 years since he last worked on a film, no one has quite been able to make comedy quite like he did. His films somehow manage to deal with tragic events and circumstances and explore uncomfortable themes by largely using slapstick comedy. Even if I didn't know a particular film was directed by Sturgess, I would know a short time into it that he was the one who made the film purely on the basis of his style. Woody Allen is the only director I can think of who even comes close to a similar style, yet Woody never quite got the slapstick right, and Sturgess never whines nor is self effacing in his work.

The Great McGinty was Preston Sturgess' first film. Its a story about a corrupt man who rises to power through corrupt means, then loses everything when he tries to do the right thing for once. But, the story is told mostly through humor in typical Sturgess fashion. I would probably use this film as an introduction to Sturgess for the initiate. Not because its his finest work - far from it - but because it is solid, entertaining, a good example of Sturgess' style, and not his finest work, saving better for later.

The themes in The Great McGinty are quite daring for the period in which the film was made. Not so much on the political front, stories have been made about corrupt politicians since the days of the ancient Greeks, but, more on a moral front. It talks about marriage being a sham that is merely something society uses to approve of a person and not an instrument of love at all. It shows a single mother caring for children who don't really know who their father is, nor even whom to look to for a father figure. Its largely pessimistic about human nature, and leaves you wondering if the director was trying to say that its best to just not care about what happens to others if you want to get ahead in life.

This is a comedy, folks. A slapstick comedy. And, it is quite funny, though often dated.

Still, unlike The Lady Eve or Sullivan's Travels, two Sturgess films which I feel are superior to this one, this film is more about the themes than the humor.


Children of Men
As we walked out of the theater, the person I saw Children of Men with turned to me and said, "That was a really great film, but I'm going to have to warn the people I recommend it to that it's a Jesus movie." I found that statement odd at the time, but I thought about it, and I realize that this person was focusing far too much on one of the themes of the film - and misinterpreting the theme at that.

Children of Men is a film about a near future in which mankind has been sterile for 18 years. No children have been born in 18 years, and despair has taken over the entire human race. Most world civilizations have fallen to ruin and London is the only country left with some form of order, but that order is still a very militaristic and violent one. One man is taken in by a covert organization and given the task of escorting a pregnant woman out of the country. Not an easy task since not only are the laws for emigration and immigration incredibly harsh and enforced at gunpoint, but also because there are many organizations - terrorist and governmental alike - who want to use this woman and her child for their own agendas.

This is what brought up the Jesus comment. One of the stronger and more obvious themes of the film is one of religion and violence. A child is both the salvation of hope in mankind, and the cause of much violence. But, when you see images of people in an immigrant camp being tortured and killed under the Bureau of Homeland Security, when you see images of war from a single person's point of view, and when you see a divorced couple discussing how their lives would have been different if only their child had lived, how can you call a film a "Jesus flick?" It's so much more.

Children of Men is a film that will bother people who need everything explained to them. No one knows why mankind is sterile. The mysterious Human Project is never seen nor is it explained why getting the child to them is so important, other than that it will be away from the people who would use him to their advantage. Many things go unexplained. Not only is that unimportant in my opinion, but it really adds to themes of the film - which if I had to sum them up as succinctly as possible - are about hope. Religion, politics, marriage, family, friendship, all are dealt with maturely in the film and all show what the world would be like if we didn't have people to rely on. That is what the film is ultimately about. How we all help each other against the powers who would take away our hope.

posted by Shaun @ 7:06 AM