Raping American Women: Gone

Director Heitor Dhalia's and writer Allison Burnett's Gone  provides a voice for American women who are feeling trapped by liberal political rhetoric telling them about birth control and how they should view sex. The film obviously foresaw what has come to the political discussions this week with talk show political conservative Rush Limbaugh calling Sandra Fluke a slut because she wants the government to pay for her birth control. The liberal government would have all women believe as Nancy Pelosi preaches, that 98% of all Catholic women use birth control.  What Gone does, is provide--in a secular context (so it doesn't have anything to do with religion)--a voice and description of the harm done to women who do engage in casual sex. By giving a subtext of how women have been politically raped--forced into believing something they intuitively know is harmful for them--Gone finally delivers a real political message: just as "the lady vanishes" in This Means War, so "gone" are the girls that have spoken against casual sex and have tried to protect themselves and others.

Jill Parrish (Amanda Seyfried) was abducted from her bed one night; drugged and her hands bound with gray duct tape, she was thrown into an earthen pit where she found human bones; the abductor, Jim (Socratis Otto), came down to kill her but she was able to use a bone she found and stabbed him in the shoulder and escaped. A year later, she's still edgy about being abducted again; when she comes home and finds her sister Molly (Emily Wickersham) gone, Jill knows Jim has come back for her and she has to find Molly or Jim will kill her; the police never believed that Jill had been abducted because they couldn't find the hole and there was no scientific evidence verifying her story so they believe she's crazy.

Jill in the earth pit holding the bone she will use as Jim (off screen) climbs down to kill her. Please note, just to Jill's left is a dog food bowl and a matching dog water bowl is also off screen. That dog food is what women are "fed" to make them believe that sexual promiscuity is natural and if you are not engaging in sexual activity, something is wrong with you.

There are two reasons to approach this film from a psychoanalytic perspective. The first is, everyone's pointing out that Jill's crazy, she's been in a mental institution and at the end, she says, "It was all in my head." The second reason to approach it this way is because that is how Jill follows Jim's trail: whenever someone in a film or story is tracking down clues that is an invitation from the film makers to track down the clues within the story to find the real message. So what are the clues? The abundance of sexual references made within the film revealing how women are treated sexually today.

Molly studies for an econ test the next day when Jill comes home. The parents of the girls died, which, symbolically, indicates their patriotism and their faith (the founding father and holy mother church). In normal circumstances, this would be a bad thing, but given how the political atmosphere has been charged the last year (and even more so now with the birth control mandates) having a purely secular heroine is actually a benefit because it demonstrates that sexual morality does not hinge upon religious morality, that a woman can know sex is bad for her even if she isn't siting religious reasons for it. Molly used to have a drinking problem. When Jill arrives home before going to work during the night at a diner, Molly realizes that Jill had been at Forrest Park, the place where Jill was found and claimed to have been thrown into the pit (she was looking for evidence to verify her story). Molly says, "How would you like it if I came home drunk?" because Molly correlates Jill trying to find out what happened as a bad thing. Whereas Molly's drinking was a disordering of Molly's appetites that led to her downfall, Jill learned a lesson that is keeping her safe and protecting her.

These are all the references to Amanda's sexuality and sexual encounters she has to put up with in the 24 hours in which the film takes place. The guy she "fights" in her self-defense class pushes her hair back and calls her sweetheart (which is what Jim called her when she was in the pit), when she's at the diner, she's stared at by a customer who ends up being Jim, the cook behind the counter smiles at her, insinuating he wants her to be nice to him, a young teenager asks her if they went to the same school and his friend tells him to give it up while his girlfriend is sitting there. When Jill goes to the police, the lieutenant tells her that an honors student had gone missing but was found with a guy in a hotel room; a female detective tells Jill that Molly might have had two boyfriends instead of just one; Detective Hood (Wes Bentley) says that Jill should move in with him because he likes them a little crazy.

The Lucky Star Diner where Jill works the night shift with her friend, Sharon. Jim, the man who had abducted Jill, has just let the diner (unknown to Jill) and left her a $100 tip and left Sharon a $100 tip as well. Jill gets upset because he had been staring at her, but the guy just on the other side of the counter from Jill and Sharon will smile at her in an inviting way, then one of the customers will try picking up on her even with his girlfriend right there.  That these references take place in Jill's workplace demonstrates what didn't happen in the history of Feminism: as a result of working alongside men in the labor force, women were supposed to have earned more respect, and that's not what has happened, it has just exposed them to more sexual dangers.

When Molly's boyfriend Billy (Sebastian Stan) is talking to Jill about Molly's disappearance, Jill tells him what pajamas she was wearing and Billy says he knows Molly only had one pair (because they have been sleeping together). When Jill starts looking for clues, the locksmith she talks to (Ted Rooney) offers her a stick of gum (we might not think this is sexual, but it is enough to Jill that it triggers a flashback). Jill goes to see if Molly has spent the night with Try (Hunter Parrish) from her econ class and finds that he was sleeping with another guy. Two cops (one male, one female) are talking in their squad car about the male cop having sex with his sister-in-law that has continued into his marriage. Jill is trying to avoid detection by the police and she talks to some young girls about Justin Bieber, the singer, taping into their desire for him to keep herself hidden. Jill talks to a "skate rat" who lives with his girlfriend and claims that Jim has "rapie eyes" (a rapist). The janitor from whom Jill rents his car calls her a five-minute girl and refers to her being a prostitute.

When Jill gets home and realizes Molly is missing, she spots one of Molly's earrings on the floor. The erring, a diamond, symbolizes that Molly has heard what Jill couldn't say, i.e., the reason Jill was reluctant to go to dinner and it's when Molly herself has been put in that position that she's able to understand what Jill has gone through (Billy wanting to come over and spend the night even though Molly has a big test the next day). Molly reflecting on these things (her cleaning her teeth while Billy is on the phone means she is cleansing herself of her appetites, including the ones for him) is what puts Molly in Jill's position, bound and gagged.

Jill goes to her friend's Sharon's house (Jennifer Carpenter) and Sharon has two little boys but isn't married; further, Sharon is the type of girl who takes a strange man's phone number (Jim gives it to her). These are all examples of sexuality outside the normal realm (that is, between a husband and wife) the film offers up. The second aspect of the film to consider is the story Jim tells Jill as she's going through the woods to meet him: there was a man who lived in a cave with his daughter in Forrest Park, and she didn't go to school because he taught her all she needed to know and they were very happy together... what does this "story" mean? The father would be a founding father, like Uncle Sam, the legislative body of this country; the little girl symbolizes the future of this country. The two of them "living naturally" translates to them living according to nature, not according to the spirit (please think, for example, of The Tree Of Life) and Jim is arguing that women like Jill should live naturally, not according to the spirit and what they have learned, rather, according to the appetites, like rabbits. This is how Jim wants Jill to be, but she's not, she's fighting it. How can we know this is a reliable translation of the film?
Because of the incident that triggers everything.

Billy, Molly's boyfriend, who thinks that Molly disappeared because Molly has started drinking again. That Billy insists Molly only has one pair of pajamas means that he only sees her in one way: his girlfriend, that's why he wants her to come spend the night with him instead of studying for her econ test the next day, because he doesn't see her as having any being outside of his girlfriend, i.e., his bed partner.  Specifically, the difference between the pajamas Billy is used to seeing Molly wear and the ones she wears when Jim breaks in and takes her is the blue stripes on the ones she wears when she is abducted. The presence of the blue stripes means wisdom, though it's not always in everything Molly does, but Billy, revealingly, usually doesn't think of Molly as having any wisdom.

Prior to Molly asking Jill to come have dinner on Sunday and meet Billy's cousin, Jill doesn't have any flashbacks of when she was abducted. The minute Molly wants Jill to go on a date, Jill has a flashback of being in the pit and having tape over her mouth and her hands bound. Now we are in a position to understand what this is about:  the earthen pit is Jill's vagina, her sexual organs, because that's all that guys see her for, sex, and there is no way for her to get out of that "pit." The sex she doesn't want to engage in is what makes her dirty.  Jill knows that if she gos to dinner with Billy's cousin, he will probably press her for sex and that's why her flashback of being bound and gagged is triggered: she can't say anything because women are expected to perform sex when a man takes them out to a $15  dinner and if she resists she's labeled "crazy."

The first clue Jill gets is a neighbor having heard the car horn honking during the night when Molly was taken. Why a "lock smith" van? Jill has locked away her memories of what happened and she needs the key to open them again and find out. When the film first opens, Jill is in the forest, walking a long a path. The forest has always symbolized a dark spiritual trial and the path she follows is the path of life.

This is the second reason why the film must be explained psychoanalytically: if we take the events out of Jill's mind, they don't make sense. For example, how did Jim get into Jill's house to get Molly? He didn't, the house is a metaphor for Jill's mind, but if we take this literal, it doesn't make sense. Why is Molly put under the house (but then she can't go back the way Jim placed her there, she has to break a board to get out? That doesn't make sense) because she's being put in the same kind of place that Jill was put, and because the porch is the "entrance" to the soul and the mind, Molly being under the porch means "she's beginning to understand and enter into" what Jill went through with Jill's devastating sexual experience.

The police force who refuses to help Jill. The reluctance of the force to even believe Molly is missing reveals the deeper problem that women have to endure: that because some women "behave badly," all women behave badly, and it's no one's fault, far from it, it's everyone's right, but those who do not believe in acting that way are "crazy," i.e., fanatics.

The second subtext of the film is, why does Jill lie so much? If she wants people to believe her, shouldn't she be telling the truth? Jill tells the truth to the police and they don't care; she tells the truth to her neighbor lady who doesn't seem concerned. So when she's having to explain why she needs information, she  puts it in monetary terms because Jill reasons that people will care about property more than they will care about a young woman, and Jill is right, they do.

Jill has blond hair and blue eyes. This references a certain "type" of woman that Alfred Hitchcock was fond of: the angel. Jill's big blue eyes and long flowing blond hair emphasizes purity and innocence, qualities not associated with women anymore. It's from her desire to protect herself and the other women who have been lost in the same "hole" she was that her strength comes.

There is a second aspect to her "lying," and that is, if we are reading the story psychologically, then they aren't lies, they are encoded descriptions of what has really happened to her, just different ways of telling the story, and they all involve theft and damage: in other words, she's telling the truth, but what she says is a story using different symbols to communicate in a way her audience will understand.

The female detective on the left is an interesting character because of her hair. This is the officer who tells Jill that Molly might have two boyfriends. Hair symbolizes thoughts, and her hair is always crazy, almost like a rat's nest, and that's because she's a "modern" woman, wearing men's clothes. If we compare her crazy hair to Jill's that's washed, combed, pulled back and basically disciplined, then we can see, in this female cop's appearance, what being "undisciplined" does to a woman: she becomes like a man. Something that's interesting is when Jim comes to abduct Molly and he takes an old high school picture of her; that's probably when Molly lost her virginity and the time that Molly is remembering as she starts "listening" to what Jill is saying by not saying it and remembering her own bad sexual experiences.

Why does Jill stop taking her medicine?
We see her taking her meds when she's working at the diner, then when she's on the bus, trying to find Molly, she decides not to take the medicine. The medicine symbolizes "what they are feeding her" because her therapist will call and tell Jill a lie to get Jill to come in so they can keep her from looking for Molly. Jill realizes that her understanding of what is happening is superior to the cops and everyone else, she trusts her instincts, she knows that she's not crazy, even though the "powers" that be (the name of the main cop who is tracking her down) don't want Jill to think for herself because there is "no evidence" to prove her story.

Detective Powers.

Why, in the pit, did Jill stab Jim with the bone?
The bone is what Jill finds "within herself" when she's trapped, and that leg bone symbolizes her will. But as Jill points out, the bone has been split in two, so what happened for it to be split in two? If Jill wasn't raped, she was at least in a sexual experience that was not only unwelcomed but psychologically damaging and that damage is what split her will and fragmented her identity. That she is able to use it to stab Jim in the shoulder (as a part of the arm it symbolizes strength, so his strength over her) the very fact that Jill knows she is wounded makes her want to heal and that strengthens her so she can fight the spiritual battles she needs to fight.

At the end when Jill says, "It was all in my head," she's referring to the spiritual battle she has fought to gain back her confidence and heal the wounds she has suffered. She has fought to keep society out of her brain, when they tell her nothing happened, but she knows that it did. All the missing girls that "no one is looking for" are girls like Jill who do not want to have sexual relations regardless of the pressure and propaganda society puts on them. When "slut pride" is being paraded by the Liberals, it's more than refreshing to see a film that understands the damage that can be done by engaging in sexual relations outside of marriage. That the political powers who be want to insist that sex is nothing but a physical activity, and women who do not believe so are being oppressed by religious institutions, is a form of political rape that can't stop soon enough.

Frankenweenie, Tim and Eric, Project X

Here's the story line to Tim Burton's Frankenweenie: "When young Victor's pet dog Sparky (who stars in Victor's home-made monster movies) is hit by a car, Victor decides to bring him back to life the only way he knows how. But when the bolt-necked "monster" wreaks havoc and terror in the hearts of Victor's neighbors, he has to convince them (and his parents) that despite his appearance, Sparky's still the good loyal friend he's always been."

That reeks of Obama propaganda.
The attempts, like in The Vow, to bring back those old feelings that got Obama into the presidency because they have died must be a genuine fear in the liberal camp: despite the havoc and terror in the hearts of American voters, because of the artificial means used to sustain the dying economy, Obama is still the friend of the people (please see The Vow & Obamacare). Like in The Vow, it's a vehicle causing of the disaster the film focuses on, so we can deduce that the "vehicle" gaining speed in American politics has, indeed, killed Obama and his campaign is trying to bring him back to life. (The part where Sparky wags his tail and it falls off, may be a reference to the 1997 Dustin Hoffman political drama Wag the Dog).

Scene of hell and general disaster from Project X.

On the other hand,...
Opening this weekend is Warner Brothers Project X and I think I will have to see it. I am not particularly looking forward to it, but I am hoping that it may be an undermining tool to Frankenweenie, that is, the Liberals have had their ultimate party, and now that the neighborhood is burning down, it's time that the adults come back and take charge:

You know the part where "my dad's car" gets driven into the swimming pool? Maybe that's a reference to the "tanked" auto industry and the "bail outs" (the car will have to be pulled out of the swimming pool).

Yep, an image is worth a thousand words.

It's very possible that the neighbor coming over threatening to call the police, and caught on camera punching "that little child in the face" are the Republicans who are threatening to bust up the party and are being held hostage by the liberal media who "shows only what they want to be seen" on videos and other social media.

The American Dream today.

The importance of Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie is obvious in the tagline: "The greatest movie someone else's money could buy."

Here's the full story: "Two guys get a billion dollars to make a movie, only to watch their dream run off course. In order to make the money back, they then attempt to revitalize a failing shopping mall." Okay, who else was given a whole lotta money to make something work, it flopped, and now he's trying to do something else instead? This film could go either way, Democrat or Republican, but I am hoping that the insane number of a billion dollars to make a movie will mean that it's a Republican film talking about the waste the government has committed in trying to revitalize the economy like the mall they are trying to revitalize. It's scheduled for a March 2 opening.

Rainbows and dollar signs refer to the Democrats.

I am getting my post up today on Gone (I got in the second screening and it was so worth it!) then this weekend I am seeing Project X, The Lorax and A Separation, the Iranian film which won the Oscar.

Obama's Latest Trip To Chicago

I wouldn't have known this, but it appears Obama went back to his home base in Chicago this week and got stuck in a major traffic jam; the news, however, failed to report the protests taking place, but, fortunately, someone had a camera! You might want to email this to a conservative friend to cheer up their day!

Kind Sir, please add my name to your listing:

TED 2023 & Prometheus

This is weird, I knew not to trust Ridley Scott.
The below is a short directed by Luke Scott which is not a part of the Prometheus film, but a backdrop to help explain the context in which the film exists. Ladies and Gentlemen, Guy Pearce:

Well, we do know more now than we did before. Prometheus is set for release on June 8.
Let me explain what I meant about trusting Ridley Scott: if the information contained in the mini-film above is important, than it should be in the film; if it's not important enough to be in the film, then they should not have made a mini-film. While I am hoping the hubris displayed in the mini-film is what will be targeted by the feature film, Scott's bizarre use of a mini-film to introduce us to information we require for the film makes me seriously question the reliability of the film's continuity.

An image from the film; is this a Buddhist graveyard?

I completely support expanding the vocabulary of film and giving film makers the right to use all the tools they can to most effectively communicate to the audience; is a mini-film effective communication? I like the static and the use of noise in the original trailer here (the opening with the wavy lines and the sounds of someone talking but you can't make out what they are saying):

Anyway, it is what it is.
But now for something completely different: the trailer for Avatar II (for 2016)

Personally, I think this version of Avatar II looks much better:

Have a great day, I am seeing Gone for the second time now; thanks to a lot of attacks on Rush Limbaugh for saying a law student was a slut because she's having so much sex she can't afford all her birth control, I am really going to work hard on this anti-female sexual activity film now.

Blood Car, Resident Evil, Black Gold and Adopted

This is the newest Avengers trailer (release date May 4), wow there is some serious conflict here, which probably refers to the political landscape in America:

I am responding to some comments that have been posted, including on Chronicle: A Death Foretold, and I am going to try and get in that second screening of Gone. Here are a few more trailers I just found today, and two of these are really rather important. The first is Blood Car:  it appears the film was made in 2007 but is just being released this month in the U.K. In the near future, gas is over $35 a gallon and no one can afford to drive. Vegan geek Archie accidentally invents a car that runs on blood; since he can drive, he gets the attention of Denise, and will resort to killing to keep his car running (there is some foul language in this trailer and some suggestions of nudity):

Blood Car, like Resident Evil: Retribution hinges on what we discussed about in the last Mission Impossible: entropy.

I am confident it's not an accident that Resident Evil has an opening date of 9/14, invoking the anniversary of 9/11 and the consequences. Entropy, in different branches of science has different meanings, but in chaos theory entropy regards the ratio of a society's advancing complexity with its inevitable downfall (please see Nuclear Endgames: Mission Impossible). In Blood Car, the escalation of something like the price of oil has untold consequences for all of society, and in Resident Evil, while the exact triggering mechanism of "blacking out" civilization isn't relayed in the trailer (as in The Darkest Hour, for example) it offers us an apocalyptic forecast. In the same vein of entropy is the Antonio Banderas, Mark Strong film about the 1930s Arab oil boom and how two warring princes will fight over a small strip of desert: Black Gold.

Now that we have taken a look at how the smallest incidents in other parts of the world can have huge impacts on our own lives, we can understand a little better this next trailer, Adopted:

We have not really had a chance to talk about comedy, heretofore, but as I said in relation to The Dictator, comedy is actually a unique form of censorship, because it talks about certain things to avoid talking about other things; it targets discontinuity, for example, in Adopted, the idea that life in the West is better, but would it be better with a guy like Pauly Shore? Would it be better with a guy who is dehumanizing you because you are from Africa? While we think comedy is cathartic, it actually keeps our thoughts in by releasing some pent up energy (nervousness, anxiety, fear) only to help us hold in the most important part of it.

Keeping that in mind is the Neighborhood Watch trialer just released today. (I wasn't able to find a version I could upload directly, sorry). What does the background rap music and the stylized filming of Ben Stiller, Jonah Hill and Vince Vaughn in a mini van convey to us? Fears about gangs patrolling neighborhoods. Supposedly these suburban dads uncover a plot to destroy the world, and this may be very close to truth: would destruction of the middle class, and their ability to retain their middle class identity be the end of the world? Well, it could certainly mean the collapse of the economy, and if anyone would know what was happening, that would be the bread-winners of the middle class and what is keeping them from being able to win that bread.

In Valor There Is Hope: Act Of Valor

Mike McCoy's and Scott Waugh's Act Of Valor is definitely an aesthetic experience: a story line and characters that reach into your heart and inspire you with honor, patriotism and the very deepest gratitude for the unfailing line of defense protecting this country and it should be required viewing. At this time of election, when President Barak Hussein Obama (that's how his name appears on his birth certificate) wants to cut the military and veteran's benefits, Act Of Valor makes you realize what an "act of insanity" Obama wants to make. While there is plenty of focus on the great shoot-outs and technical marvels the Navy uses, there is also the story of the families who get left behind, the brotherhood the SEALS share and the incredible feats of heroism they have to pull off several times in every mission.

The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday.

When the film opens, one of the SEALS talks about his father liking abstract paintings, and the father would say, just as their is a body hidden in the painting, so there are threats hidden all around, and the world is covered in camouflage. By the end of the film, you believe that this is the gospel truth. Just as the deceased father says, "The worse thing about growing old is that others stop seeing you as dangerous," is really true about the United States: the older we grow in our role as a superpower (if we still are or are going to remain so) is that no one cares if they defy us and what the consequences will be, because one, politicians are afraid of what military action will do to their political careers and two, the media will decide to make a story out of something and do anything to get readers, regardless of what has to be said so the enemies of this country know all ready that they can count on the media to be on their side.

Shabel, wearing a mask, is a convert to Islam and has just driven an ice cream truck into a school with children, under the pretense of selling them ice cream, when a female suicide bomber, serving the kids, detonates her bomb and the resulting explosion is what you see behind him in the photo above.

When we are introduced into the conflict of the film (Jihadists who want to collapse the American economy through a series of acts of suicide bombing so the media will whip up panic and society will come to a stand-still) with Shabel driving an ice cream truck furiously down the road, a female suicide bomber in the back, sweating and nervous. He pulls into a school yard and children surround the truck; the girl in the back starts handing out ice cream while Shabel, still wearing his mask, acts like he's going to "get the kids," and then he walks off. He isn't wearing the mask to protect his identity, he isn't protecting himself from deadly fumes or even the stench in the air from burning bodies; Shabel wears a mask so he won't "take in" what he has done, so he won't reflect on the people he has killed and the methods he has used to do it.

CIA agent Dr. Morales. She is really an important character because she brings out in dramatic relief the differences in attitude about life and women between Jihadists and Americans. We see at least two women blown up (not to mention all the others put in harms way) and others who have volunteered for suicide bombing, but the SEALS are going into a highly protected compound to rescue this woman and save her. The comparison is even more dramatic when Morales tells Christo, "I save women who give birth to men like you," and she does.

The children running up to the ice cream truck, are like dumb people running after peace with Jihadists and willing to take whatever they offer (the word "dumb" appears in a following scene in a scrabble game between two CIA agents) because children are young--they don't have the age that provides experience--those who claim that there can be peace with Jihadists are those who haven't learned anything.

Just before Morales is kidnapped in the Philippines, one of the SEALS mentions that his dad died flying a B-24 Liberator bomber during World War II, which is when the United States lost control in the Philippines, so the symbol of his father dying acts as a political commentary that (perhaps) if we had maintained a greater presence, or at least been more concerned with the radical democracy developing there over the years, we wouldn't be in this mess now, or at least the mess wouldn't be as bad.

You know the SEAL whose wife is pregnant is the one who will die, and that holds true. Why? New life cannot come into being without sacrifice. The son he and his wife have, symbolizes the future of America, for which Rourke gave his life, and can only be guaranteed because of sacrifice, not just by the brave men and women of the military, but each one of us in our own ways.

When thugs break in on CIA agent Morales and her partner, the thugs wrap Morales in a carpet to carry her out. This clearly references Elizabeth Taylor's iconic role as Cleopatra (1963) and means to invoke in the audience's mind a history of women putting themselves in danger for the sake of their country's welfare.

Christo, the smuggler who swaps cocaine for weapons and makes sure the suicide bombers get across the border into America so that he can make money. He's the one Morales has been tracking and has her tortured. He's a really great example of someone who really hates Americans: he could care less who gets hurt or suffers, but he can't bear te thought of anything happening to his own family. A female suicide bomber is told by Sharbel that she will be re-united with her husband in heaven, but she doesn't think about the husbands and fathers she's taking away by blowing up the bomb strapped to her body.

There's another dimension to Morales' torture that should not be overlooked. First, the thugs holding her drill holes, with an electric drill, into each hand and both feet, branding her a Christian after the Crucified Jesus. But her swollen eye, bloodied face, her weak limbs and chapped lips also symbolize America: America isn't being targeted for being Christian, we are no longer a Christian nation, but the enemy is drilling holes into our defenses: the holes in her hand symbolize holes in our strength, and with our military being cut and our outrageous deficit, that is certain. The holes in our feet are symbolic of our will: politician's, our so-called national leaders, are willing to pull our troops out of Afghanistan and other areas needing patrol because they are losing their will against the press and media. A swollen eye out of which we cannot see means we are "seeing only half" of what is going on in the world, because of reduced intelligence and because of the enemy's ability to hide and the chapped lips mean that our words are weak.

Seeing how unified and respectful, how dedicated and loyal these men are to their country, really brought out my contempt for cowardly, self-serving politicians. There aren't any of those in the film, we get a glimpse of only the very best this country has to offer, and it was nice seeing America the strong, America the proud, and not having any cynical liberals throwing tomatoes at you and calling you a fanatic because you love your country. One of the shots done particularly well is the spider in its web eating a bug. As the SEALS are moving in on the compound where Morales is being held, they work together and all their power, strength, intelligence and energy is put into one unified effort to save this woman, and they accomplish it as easily as the spider catching the bug.

If the threats and dangers of the world are in camouflage, then so are the US Navy SEALS, and as the world tries to tear us apart, the SEALS will be there to keep us together, no matter how little the Liberals appreciate them and Obama takes credit for their work.

One of the striking aspects of the film is the way it brings out how all these terrorists are driving American cars and using American weapons. But we see a small factory where vests for suicide bombers is made like an assembly line while some guy plays Brahms on his violin (read: great Western music, music of the very civilization they are trying to bring down). Whereas American ingenuinty has gone into the production of Fords and Chevys, Jihadist intelligence goes into weapons of mass destruction, suffering and terror.

In the back of an American truck from the terrorist camp.

The last thing I will discuss that the film does really well, is highlight the difference between men like the SEALS and the press. The Jihadists know that all they have to do is harness the power of the press, and the press will cause the American economy to collapse because the press won't think about what they are doing, or the consequences of it, they will only think of themselves and what they want to achieve. On the other hand, are the SEALS, the men of the very, very, very highest code of honor, conduct and sacrifice, who know why they make every move and every move is to achieve a unified goal for the safety of this country. When Rourke jumps on the grenade at the end, to protect his company, he is the one who is going to be a dad, he's the one who knows his wife is pregnant and needs him, and he knows he will die instantly by saving his fellow SEALS' lives, and he does it without thinking.

Reading the snide and shallow reviews of the film reveals the problem with Americans today: the very benefits of having been a superpower for so long have turned us into ungrateful brats. At the end of the film, a list of all the SEALS who have died just since 9/11 comes up on the screen, and I realized that professional critics weren't paying any attention to the FACT that those men died preserving the freedom the audience enjoys, those critics were thinking about imaginary standards of acting, or bizarre story lines changes they wanted, or entertaining the idea that the Navy was using this as a recruiting propaganda tool to get them to join up (who would never--even on the Navy's worst day--begin to qualify for service). With the loss of gratitude comes the loss of reality, and that's the battle the enemies of America are winning. The only real valor left in this country is in our military, which means that the only hope left for this country is with our military; our politicians certainly can't lead us anymore because they are too busy about re-election.

The reason the American CIA calls Christo Crisco instead, is because in Hebrew (which Christo is Jewish) Christo means "messiah." The agent calls him Crisco instead because he's really just greasy and slimy.

A Few Quick Notes

I saw Act Of Valor and Gone  yesterday and loved them both; I expected Act of Valor  to be powerful, but I wasn't expecting as much depth in the story as what was delivered, so if you see ONLY ONE MOVIE this month, make it Act Of Valor  (posting on that today). I was shocked at the depth and width of Gone's message, so much so, that before the film was even over, I realized I was going to have to watch it again because it was creating a subtext that I missed. Honestly, you can probably wait for Gone to come out on DVD; the psychoanalysis is really done well, but that doesn't necessarily translate to entertainment value... for me, the psychoanalysis is the entertainment value, so you have been given fair warning. I have to see it again so I hope to post on Gone around Thursday or Friday.

A girl thrown into a dirty pit,... remind you of Silence of the Lambs? Just as the boys in Chronicle found a secret in the bottom of an earthen hole, so does Amanda Seyfried's Jill Conway in Gone.

I just found this new trailer today; you know what I was talking about yesterday in my post on Chronicle, about the person videotaping having power in a situation that the person being taped doesn't have?... yea, watch this:

Right now, Playback  is scheduled for release on March 9. Finally, The Moth Diaries  serves up my kind of English class:

Just a few notes on this, one of the main girls in the story is named Lucie (played by Sarah Gadon) and those who read my posts from October on vampires should recall our discussion on Lucy and Renfield from Children Of the Night: Dracula 1931. Secondly, like Jill Conway in Amanda Seyfried's Gone, Rebecca (Sarah Bolger) has lost both parents (given that her mother is a "wreck" she's at least absent) and that always translates as both a loss of the feelings of patriotism and one's faith.

Thirdly, the dominant role of the English teacher in the trailer, Mr. Davies (Scott Speedman) means that we are "being educated" by the film itself on what vampires are, but we aren't being educated by True Blood, Being Human, Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, Underworld or any other modern source; rather, The Moth Diaries goes back to the beginning, the origin from which these contemporary versions grew, the Gothic novel and whenever a movie sets out to educate its viewers about something, it's really setting out to re-educate its viewers. In other words, I am hoping that The Moth Diaries will make an attempt to debunk the popularity of vampires and show them for what they really are (and, if you can't wait until April 20 for its release, you can jump to For the Dead Travel Fast: Dracula which begins the series I did in October regarding the enemies of humanity).

This newest trailer for Pixar's Brave, being released in June, invokes the cult of the princess warrior, one of the most mis-understood and twisted literary devices ever. It's quite possible that Brave will continue this mis-representation, however, it's also possible that, given the subtle yet definite undercurrents trying to change how femininity is understood, Brave will contribute to to the traditional understanding rather than the Feminist political agenda (there is also both Snow Whites from Mirror, Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman coming out which will also utilize this device).

What's the traditional view?
Woman, as the pinnacle of God's creation, is a spiritual warrior because she was created from spirit so she is uniquely capable of holding the Spirit, Grace and that's why God created her, to be man's help mate because man, being made from the earth, would not be able to hold Grace as well, but his rib is what binds the two together. A woman portrayed as a warrior is supposed to mean a woman battling the spiritual evils besitting her so she will make a virtuous wife and be a glowing example to other woman; we don't really see that, do we? Instead, we see women demanding to be men's equals, and this reveals that women know not from whence they come, hence, not where they are destined to go. It could be very much the same from Brave, but I do have hopes.
And now for a bit of news about the economy:

Opening at the end of August, 7500, like the plane crash in The Grey, probably acts as a metaphor for the economy: the idea of the "ups" and the "downs" and the "crashes" and the "climbs" makes an airplane an apt vehicle for discussing capitalism, especially since that plane is destined for Tokyo, the capitol of a country with as much debt as we have.

Disney has finally given the green light to The Lone Ranger project, with big name Johnny Depp and Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski, but it's Armie Hammer (J. Edgar and Mirror, Mirror) who will play the masked cowboy and Depp will portray Tonto; Disney hopes to release the film in 2013. I may have spoken too soon. While I believed I had really reliable information for Paradise Lost being canceled due to the high costs of production, it's possible that Bradley Cooper may still pull it off (he's wanting to play Lucifer). I will keep you posted, as this sounds like it would be a theological disaster.
Lastly, The Weinstein company has made a deal with Netflix that when films such as The Artist and Coriolanus debut on TV, it won't be on cable first, it will go straight to Netflix streaming.