The Devil's Nest: The Dictator & Structures Of Power

Sacha Cohen Baron's The Dictator is crude, yet there are too many golden nuggets buried within the tasteless jokes to not take notice of the important points being made, and the fact that the type of audience member attracted to this type of humor is probably the same one who has no idea what has been going on in America the last three years, makes it plausible that Baron slips them a healthy dose of reality they might not get otherwise. From the power structures of Feminism to the dehumanization of masturbating and abortion, Baron seems to hit all the major moral issues, including the way the press censors news in America.

Aladeen actually was not the rightful heir to his kingdom, Tamir (Ben Kingsley) was, but Tamir arranges to have Aladeen assassinated, then turn the country into a democracy and start selling off the huge oil reserves to the US and Chinese to become immensely wealthy. Tamir's plan fails, of course, but at the signing of what should have been the country's new constitution, Aladeen gives a very blatant speech on how Americans should not be so disgusted with dictatorship because of all the advantages it provides, a clear indication of who The Dictator is aimed at: President Obama. Hearing this "constitutional signing speech" is exactly like listening to Loki from The Avengers talking about people really wanting to be oppressed because we can't handle freedom. This is part of the great flow of ideas that adversity creates: when art is working against something, similar ideas are inevitably shared, validating the catharsis of those also fighting against the same forces, but demonstrating that the evil and oppression aren't imagined, everyone sees it.

I've mentioned before that comedy, far from "revealing" interesting conflicts within society, is more interesting because of the conflicts it continues to hide... I agree with Sigmund Freud and his masterful work Jokes and Their Relation To the Unconscious that jokes do reveal to an audience a confrontation between something forbidden to discuss in society and the inner-need of individuals to release what is being oppressed. With Baron, however, he manages to do that and point to a door that continues to hide what we are unwilling-or unable-to discuss, and those are specific moral issues that I was quite shocked the comedian took up.

The Supreme Ruler in bed with Hollywood actress Megan Fox (playing herself, as Edward Norton plays himself later in the film). In the trailer, there was a clip of Megan growing through her "compensation" and she held up a small gemstone and asked, "Is this a ruby? Are you kidding me? Do I look like a Kardashian?" and Aladeen replies, "No, you are much less hairy." That part isn't in the film, there is a far more sexually explicit comment, involving a diamond Rolex.

Let's start with the celebrities mentioned in the film first. In the beginning of the film, Aladeen is in bed with Megan Fox, and, upon finishing the sexual act, announces to her, "Now you have herpes." She gets out of bed and wants her "compensation," and mentions that "Katy Perry got a diamond Rolex," and Aladeen replies, "That's because she let me $@#R% in her face" and then Miss Fox poses for a Polaroid with Aladeen after refusing to "cuddle" with him for awhile. After she leaves, Aladeen places her Polaroid with hundreds of others of famous people who have prostituted themselves with Aladeen: Lindsay Lohan, Oprah Winfrey and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Later, the Chinese delegate will talk about buying property next to George Clooney on Lake Cuomo, and how much it would take to pay Clooney to have sex with him, and names Harvey Keitel as all ready giving into him; the Chinese delegate later walks out of a bathroom with a tearful Edward Norton who has obviously just engaged in oral sex with him. What does this mean? All these celebrities are Democrats and supporters of President Obama (with the exception of Arnold, discussed below).

Aladeen and Megan Fox posing for the Polaroid for Aladeen's "memory wall."

Lindsay Lohan, for example, wanted to be a spokesperson for the Obama 2008 election campaign (she was turned down based on her personal life) and Megan Fox is on record for talking about how she thinks Obama is "sexy." Oprah Winfrey, of course, had the Obamas on her talk show and gave the then Senator substantial funds to get him elected. George Clooney has supported Obama and been a driving force in his bid for re-election funds, and Harvey Keitel and Katy Perry both publicly supported Obama's election bid as well. Edward Norton was actually making a movie about Obama. This supports what I wrote last year in Martha Marcy May Marlene about Obama "seducing" people with his rhetoric and promises and how, just like Megan now having herpes, she will go on to infect others by continuing to support "the dictator." (Please remember, I didn't make this film, this is Baron speaking, not I).

The great problem with dictatorships is the lack of competition generating better products and conditions. Aladeen's Olympic races illustrates in his awarding all 14 gold medals to himself that similar allegory of America and the Soviet Union in the Cold War, the arms race, symbolized frequently in the 1960s by "drag races" (think of American Graffiti and Carnival Of Souls). The lousy quality of this race illustrates the lousy quality of nuke warheads Aladeen's nuclear program makes (pictured below).

What about Arnold Schwarzenegger?
It could be said that Arnold, a Republican, leaving the state of California in such financial straits prompted the way for Obama, but given the morality of the rest of the film, I think it predominantly alludes to Arnold's marital infidelity: if you break the bond of matrimony, you're sleeping with everyone, and the scandal of Arnold's personal-life-made-public aided in an easy Democrat/Socialist win (I am not saying, by any means, that Baron himself is a Republican, I certainly don't think he is, however, one Republican who has had a terrible scandal in the midst of a plethora of Democrats supporting Obama brings out Arnold's poor qualities and how his decisions effected the country).

Aladeen inspecting his nuclear warhead at his nuclear development facilities (yes, it's a barn). Aladeen is upset that his warhead is so small, but he's reminded that he had Nadal, the previous head of nuclear development, executed (Nadal, consequently, is the one who aides Aladeen in undoing Tamir's plot because anyone Aladeen has ordered executed has instead been sent to New York to foster an underground against Aladeen). In a speech in the opening of the film, Aladeen says that his pursuit of nuclear technology is "solely for peaceful purposes, clean energy and medical advancements" while, of course, he's trying to keep from laughing, and then he attempts to add, "It won't be used to attack Isr--oh, boy,..." and starts laughing.

But two of the celebrities are specifically linked to the Chinese: George Clooney and Edward Norton. In supporting Obama as fully as these two have done, and the Chinese delegate specifically mentioning sexual relations with them, Baron makes the point that supporting Obama is supporting what he supports, which means, through practice if not in theory, the Chinese ownership of America. When Aladeen parades down New York's 5th Avenue, he says, "Ah, America, built by the blacks and owned by the Chinese," referring to two policies created by Democrats that have nearly ruined this country: the Democrats forcing the Civil War over the issues of slavery in 1861 (led by Democrat Jefferson Davis) and the immense American debt accumulated by Democratic agendas during the Obama Administration. (It's important that Baron brings this up because we will be discussing this again on Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter). To participate in the Obama Administration today is to participate in the selling-off of America to the Chinese.

In the trailer at this part, Aladeen says, "Ah, America, the birthplace of AIDS" (which we have all ready discussed, was actually in Africa, where Aladeen is from, suggesting the scapegoat tendency of Muslim nations blaming the US for everything, and Aladeen does call America "The Devil's Nest" as most dictators would). In the film, however, he says, "Ah, America, built by the blacks and owned by the Chinese."

It's not enough, however, to remind the audience of the Democratic Party's historical and current failures, Baron even takes out the one "credible" achievement of the Obama Administration: the assassination of Osama Bin Laden. Throughout the film, Aladeen remarks several times that Bin Laden is staying in his guest house and floods the bathroom. The "flooding bathroom" refers to Bin Laden's (excuse the expression, please) "shit" blocking the pipes which has caused problems, but not in the Middle East, in America, because of the deaths, the loss of the twin towers as financial centers, the psychological impact it has had on Americans, the hassle today of air travel, the expense to New York City tourism and the additional expenditures on homeland security (and the lawsuits which result from "racial profiling"). Osama Bin Laden has flooded our bathroom, in the USA, and Baron goes so far as to suggest that Obama didn't even get him.

The first reference made to abortion is when a woman unexpectedly goes into labor in Zoey's grocery store and Aladeen tells them that he was Wadiya's number one surgeon (just as Aladeen is Wadiya's number one everything) so Aladeen delivers the baby. When it finally comes out, Aladeen looks at the father and says, "Oh, I have bad news, it's a girl. Where's the trash can?" and prepares to throw the baby away. The second example of abortion comes towards the end when Zoey and Aladeen have been married and Zoey announces she's pregnant; Aladeen asks her, "Are you having a boy, or an abortion?"

But Baron makes a surprising argument against Obama's most popular platform (with Feminists, at least) and that is against abortion. Twice in the film, Baron reminds the audience that if Feminists are so pro-woman, it's usually female babies that are aborted and if Feminists are supporting a political platform that kills women, they are not only in a serious state of contradiction, but are doing more harm to women (the female babies) then the dictators of countries they campaign against.

The double (to protect Aladeen from assassination) is literally the double of Aladeen because the double shows how Aladeen's treatment of women is reducing them to the level of animals (when the double starts milking the breasts of a woman as if she is a goat) yet this is exactly in line with "sexual liberation" which Feminists are preaching: that they should not be held by artificial standards of sexuality (which Zoey's whole character is about) and that's why the "talents" of the female virgin guards assigned to pleasure Aladeen's double French kiss each other, their sexuality has been codified by a code of "liberation" (they aren't sexually liberated unless the two women kiss each other, which comes down to an enforcing of sexual conduct, not a liberation from it).

In this shot, Aladeen claims that someone left a bottle of Nair and women's razors in the tip box, insinuating that Zoey needs to shave her armpits. Zoey has politicized everything and everyone in her grocery store, even the act of how a person goes to the bathroom (the lesbian's bathroom). Zoey's growth of her under-arm hair mirrors the non-liberation of sexuality discussed above, that is, if a woman in today's world is really liberated, she doesn't shave her arms. In the end of the film, she says that she will shave her arms for Aladeen, which is probably nauseating to Feminists, but also mirrors Aladeen's need for facial hair to be a leader. The lesson, in terms of hair, can be that hair helps to identify us whether we realize it or not, in how we wear our hair/body hair, or don't, and even that in today's world has become a sign of our political being.

Which leads us to the very graphic birthing scene in the film. As previously mentioned, a woman goes into labor in the grocery store where Aladeen covertly works for Zoey and delivers the baby. During delivery, the camera goes inside the woman's womb to see the baby, as well as the cell phone Aladeen answered during delivery and then Zoey goes into the womb to help Aladeen help pull the baby through. Aladeen and Zoey end up holding hands in the woman's womb and have a moment of bonding, Nadal talking on the other end of the cell phone still within the woman's womb. The point is, the hand-holding between Zoey and Aladeen clearly demonstrates the real purpose of sexual intercourse, the bonding and the procreation of humanity; anything besides that is as foreign to a woman's body as the cell phone inside her.

In the beginning of the film, (as in the trailer at the start of this post) we are told that Aladeen changed words in the language to Aladeen, his own name. For example, instead of saying "stop" or "go," one would say, "Aladeen" or "Aladeen," whichever one you meant. Why? What purpose does this serve? In the policital landscape, it seems there has been the same type of language change, that words such as "hope" and "change" become "fear" and "socialism" and charges to "take courage" really means "shut up." At one point, Aladeen and Nadal go into a funeral for the "father of Harlem," a black leader who obviously was very revered, and they intend to cut his beard off so Aladeen can have a beard again (more on this below), but members of the mourning party realize something's going on and tries to stop them, so Nadal cuts the black man's head off and takes it with them. Nadal himself was supposed to be executed for telling Aladeen how nuclear weapons work (Nadal disagreed with Daffy Duck, basically) so Aladeen ordered Nadal beheaded, only to find that he wasn't. So what's the point of taking the head, and of Aladeen playing with it throughout the film? the head symbolizes the "governing function," for example, Christ is the head of His Body, the Church; because Aladeen turns the decapitated head into a "talking head," there really isn't any other way to understand the "decapitated leader" as being other than President Obama.

And this builds off an earlier scene: Aladeen masturbating for the first time. He wants to have Zoey perform sexual acts upon him, and she tells him that he needs to "take care of that himself" and that most mature adults do it. She puts him in a room and coaches him... after Aladeen climaxes, he comes out of the room and tells everyone about it in very graphic terms (I told you it was crass) but this is part of his point: if it's not proper to discuss in public--as it obviously isn't--neither is it proper to do. This goes back to Zoey and Aladeen holding hands in the woman's womb, because Aladeen makes a big deal about how he had used that hand to... well, enough said.

Why does Aladeen always hold Tamir's hand? It's a false show of friendship on Aladeen's part. It's the forging of a fake bond with his real political rival. Why does Aladeen's beard get shaved off? The beard is either a sign of the appetites or it is a sign of a hermit/old wise man because, in their pursuit for wisdom, they have given up the worldly pursuits symbolized by growing a beard, and this later understanding is why Aladeen refuses to wear a "fake beard" and wants the beard of a leader and distinguished man to wear to make himself look distinguished because the image of a dictator is the dictator.

Lastly are the issues revolving around Israel. Baron's own mother is Jewish and while Baron doesn't consider himself Orthodox, he does go to the Synagogue twice a year. The repeated slurs against Israel and Jews which Aladeen makes is meant to draw sympathy to and awareness to the precarious situation of Israel within the hotbed of Middle East politics and the ways in which Israel is "dumped upon" by other countries wishing to bring an end to the state of Israel and the Jewish people.

The terrible irony is, these female guards are meant to guard the life of Aladeen, but he doesn't guard them, he exploits them for his own sexual pleasure. In this scene when Aladeen enters The Lancaster Hotel, he complains about having to pay $20 a day for internet access (not that we have seen the Surpreme Ruler on the internet) but it's typical that those who rip off others, don't like to have the same treatment applied to themselves. Which now brings us to the scene where the man hired to protect Aladeen is actually going to assassinate him after torturing him. Seth Rogen's character goes through a whole display of torture devices and Aladeen tells him why each one is deficient, because Aladeen has used them all and knows all the techniques.

Obviously, a film about dictatorship involves power structures and structures of power. Zoey's own Feminist politics are themselves dictorial because she reduces everything to "power": either someone steals power from someone or someone has been politically dis-enfranchised. The moment Zoey best communicates with Aladeen is when she hugs him, when she makes an act of love that even a ruthless dictator needs, and that's a total undermining of power structures because everyone has the power to love. Zoey and Aladeen getting married is the necessary conversion of the two of them because they each have to make sacrifices for the other, and that's the only time love really exists.

The Dictator is really packed full of fabulous, well-constructed political messages, it's just too bad that most people won't be able to enjoy them because of the disgusting jokes throughout the film. I'm glad the film was made, validating a number of points I have been talking about, but I wish it were available to a wider audience for viewing consideration.

New James Bond Trailer: Skyfall, The Great Gatsby, The Master, The Good Doctor, The Words, End Of Watch

I am still working on my post for The Dictator; out on video this week is The Woman In Black, This Means War, Red Tails and The Secret World Of Arrietty, all of which I have reviewed but for Red Tails. Here is the trailer for James Bond in Skyfall (November 9 USA release date). We know that M's (Judi Dench) past has come back to haunt her and Bond has to save MI6 from the threat it faces regardless of the personal cost.

Maybe you caught this? A train wrecking through a room (which we saw in Hugo and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close with the re-creation of 9/11 and the airplanes crashing through the World Trace Center) but all three films allude to an engine (two trains and airplanes) crashing into interior areas where they don't belong. It's obviously to early to tell anything about Skyfall, but from previously released set photos, we do know that  villain Silva (Javier Bardem) will be dressed as a cop, and a villain doesn't belong in a cop's uniform, either...
Due out Christmas Day is The Great Gatsby:

It appears that a wonderful actor has made a return to the big screen: Joaquin Phoenix is set to star in The Master (October release) taking place in America in the 1950s about a charismatic intellectual known as "the master" whose faith-based organization starts to catch on and Freddie Sutton (Phoenix) becomes his right hand man (the film has all ready been aired for Tom Cruise because it mimics the life of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard):

With a heavy-weight, all-star cast, including a personal favorite, Jeremy Irons, Bradley Cooper's story of a writer at the peek of his literary success discovers the costs of stealing another's story (September release) in The Words:

"We're cops, everyone wants to kill us," provides a good idea of what End Of Watch (September release) will center upon. Two cops stumble upon a discovery that makes them the most wanted in the city:

Oslo, August 31 (no US release date yet set) is the 24-hour story of a young man recovering from drug addiction taking a day from rehab for a job interview and to catch up with some old friends:

OC87: The Obsessive Compulsive, Major Depression, Bipolar Asperger's Movie is a documentary from a man who wanted to be a film maker but mental illness interrupted that dream:

Beasts Of the Southern Wild (no US release date yet set) is about Hushpuppy, whose father is in failing health. A pre-historic set of beats are released onto the world, so she goes in search of her mother:

Mr. Oliver Stone is quite the liberal, and his newest film Savages being released July 6 is apt to reflect that:

Due out in August, The Good Doctor stars Orlando Bloom, a doctor going to unethical extremes to keep a patient; this could easily have political ramifications if we understand the "patient" to be the United States...

Men In Black III is being released this weekend, I expect that to be a pro-Democrat film. Rather similar to Dark Shadows, MIB3 goes back to 1969, when Richard Nixon became president, the battle known as "Hamburger Hill" started in the Vietnam War, the first steps on the moon were taken by Buzz Aldrin, the Chappaquiddick Incident involving Ted Kennedy took place, Woodstock, the Chicago Eight trials and the begining of the Unix Epoch, among other things. Because the film involves the attempt at stopping an assassination by an alien, I expect it to be the exact opposite of Battleship, that the aliens are the socialists and the real aliens are capitalists... we'll see!

The Chernobyl Diaries, on the other hand, I expect to be anti-socialist because it a communist government that permitted the disaster to take place and the "people" to be found on the site ar ethe "ghosts" of socialism. But wel'll see, I might report that both films were the exact opposite of what I thought they would be and that's part of the fun!

In God We Trust, All Others We Track: Battleship & the US-Japanese Fight Against Socialism

Once again, not everyone will be saying that director Peter Berg's action thriller Battleship is "a direct hit" because of the obvious pro-America and pro-capitalist message of the film: calling upon the deep, buried history of cinema, Battleship reminds us of where we have been so we know why we are going where we are (and it's not in the direction of socialism).

When we first meet Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch), it's his 26th birthday and he's celebrating with his brother Commander Stone Hopper (Alexander Skarsgard) of the Navy. Alex has long hair, no job, no money, no running vehicle and doesn't seem to care; his brother obviously has far more sense of responsibility, being an officer in the Navy, and, presenting a cupcake to his brother and lighting the candle for his birthday wish, tells Alex that he wishes him "Success, growth and happiness" because "Adversity is the state in which man can best come to know himself." At this moment, Sam (Brooklyn Decker) walks into the bar, wanting a chicken burrito but the "kitchen" is closed. Alex blows out the candle on his birthday cupcake, making his birthday wish on her. He ends up breaking into a convenience store to get her the chicken burrito, being tasered by police and arrested. Stone, disgusted with Alex's dissolute lifestyle, forces his brother to join the Navy, which Alex does, rising quickly because of his talents and skills. Alex's poverty (in more ways than one) in the beginning is clearly a reminder of the American dream and the options and potential open to Americans in finding a better way of life, not only for themselves, but for the country and the world.

For those of you who were so patient and full of faith in me as I took you on a seemingly unimportant journey through the science-fiction films of the 1950s, your faith has paid off! For those who have read my post Jaws & the Cleansing Of America, you remember that the monster shark Jaws symbolized American guilt over the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; you might also recall the bit regarding Godzilla, and how the United States' fears of Imperial Japan wrecking havoc on the world was mirrored when the Japanese created the monster Godzilla who symbolized for them the United States and the destruction we brought. However, there was also a conversion for Godzilla, and Battleship hasn't forgotten it. (Importantly, when we see the ships under water in the Pacific, we first see a large shark swimming around them).

Alexander Skarsgard as Commander Stone Hopper, Alex's (Taylor Kitsch) brother who forced him to join the Navy after living on his couch for so long, Stone couldn't take it anymore. Why is their last name "Hopper?" Because the opportunities in America allow them to "hop" from one social class to another. While they didn't appear to have come from much, their devotion to the Navy has allowed them to "hop" from the bottom to the top (rather like in John Carter with John "jumping" from the bottom of society to the top). After he informs Alex that Alex will be discharged from the Navy when they return to Hawaii after the RIMPAC exercises, Alex tells him to call someone to work it out for him and Stone replies, "Who do I call to teach you humility?" an accurate critique on what can definitely be attributed to an American pride that does need to curtailed when it prevents us from effectively participating in international peace-keeping teams (we see the international team in Captain America and American cockiness in Thor). Yet it's Alex who survives the film, not Stone, and we know that whenever a character dies in a film, it's because that character is all ready dead and we have to understand what the film tries to communicate to us philosophically about that death. When the alien ship blasts out all the glass from the USS Sampson, and Stone gets blasted in the face, that's an important commentary on him, because glass symbolizes "reflection" and being able to understand what is happening; Stone doesn't understand the full gravity of the alien ships and the face he's lost (compared to Alex "losing face" when he's kicked in the soccer match, then fails to make the goal) Stone--who is steadfast and reliable like a "stone"--is also inflexible and unable to "make the goal" that will need to be made but Alex can, because Alex is named for Alexander the Great who can "cut through" the Gordian Knot of conflict and politics and the problems of defeating the goliath aliens. Proof that Alex invokes Alexander the Great? Both have a passion for Homer, and Alex completes the quote from The Odyssey, Book XII, Admiral Shane begins, "Keep the ship out of surf and spray," and Alex completes, "or before you know it, the ship will veer to the far side, and plunge us to destruction."  Admiral Shane lets Alex know it disgusts him that Alex knows Homer that well, why? Because it's also a disgust with the way Fate favors those we don't really see as deserving favor. Without doubt, there are those who have many poor qualities, such as Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr., Iron Man) but who seem to get all the breaks. But like the Greek hero Odysseus, whom the film makes a point of quoting, Alex too must be broken before he can be fixed and fulfill the destiny that is his to fulfill. Why is this important for Americans? Because, ultimately, we, too, are called to fulfill a fate like Alex's, for we have been invaded by "undesirable aliens" and we have to rid our country of them, too (please see below for one more Alexander the Great comparison with Alex). 

There are two other important references to the science-fiction films of the 1950s which we explored: the scientists and Sam. In Howard Hawk's 1951 hit The Thing From Another World, it was the scientists who were anxious to be friendly to the aliens as the scientists are the ones inviting the aliens to earth in Battleship. The scientists' lack of concern for consequences goes hand in hand with the blurring of gender and sexual promiscuity also found in the film in the character of Nikki and is reincarnated in Sam. The many social consequences--and relationship consequences to a loss of intimacy--resulting in the US from World War II, caused a blurring of gender identity, aptly demonstrated in films with the "crossing over" of male and female names: Samantha becomes Sam,

Why is Alex celebrating his 26th birthday? Because, 26 years ago, the United States Justice Department declared that Austrian President Kurt Waldheim was an "undesirable alien" on US soil because of his rise and work in Nazi Germany; just as in The Hunger Games linking the 74th Annual Games to Hitler starting World War II, so Battleship links the aliens attack to socialists through the historical reference of Kurt Waldheim (who became an international problem regarding his work for the Nazis) and Alex's crew initially thinking the alien attacks were coming from the state-owned economy of North Korea.

While Godzilla symbolizes the horrors released upon Japan by the United States, later Godzilla films depict the Japanese calling upon Godzilla to save them from greater threats, such as Rodan and Mothra; what was the change of heart in the Japanese? As communism and the Cold War progressed, Japan knew its one-time enemy could be counted on--just like Godzilla--to protect them from the ravages of socialism taking over countries such as Russia, China, Cuba, Cambodia, Vietnam and North Korea. Battleship remembers the hostility between the US and Japan brought on by World War II so it can remind us of who emerged as the real enemy after the war: socialism and communist states.

Sam and Alex after the soccer tournament between the United States and Japan in Hawaii. Alex scored to bring to get the US on the board with Japan's 2 goal lead; he got kicked in the face by Captain Nagata (Tadanobu Asano) so received a penalty kick. Alex's brother Stone wanted someone else to take the kick because Alex was obviously suffering from the wound, but Alex stubbornly persisted that he could make the kick; then Alex misses the entire goal, he kicks it straight over the goal posts, losing the game. The kick in the face Alex receives from Nagata symbolically refers to the bombings of Pearl Harbor, when the US "lost face" by the attack (remember, please, this tournament is taking place in Hawaii and the Japanese Imperial flag is flying all over the ships watching the game); Alex's weakened condition also refers to how weak America was from the loss of men and equipment after Pearl Harbor and then the missed goal refers to the many failures of the United States in the early stages of the Pacific War. (More on Game Theory and Battleship below in the comparison with Moneyball, The Hunger Games and The Avengers).

This reminder is the reason why the "alien bombs" strike Hong Kong, China, first: Hong Kong is a leading financial center in the world because it is the greatest example of laissez-faire capitalism (free of intervention by the state) but only because of the 156 years Hong Kong spent as a British colony; had Hong Kong suffered the fate of the rest of China, it would not enjoy the economic prosperity it does (it was to Hong Kong that most fleeing the Communist Party fled), hence the reason for the aliens crashing into the Bank of China Tower: the Bank of China has been sited in the past for unfair favoritism in banking practices, which goes against the capitalist spirit of the country. The "alien bombs" striking the skyscraper and its crashing to the ground, people running away from the dust and debris clouds is a clear reminder of the devastation of 9/11 and puts the current attack by the "alien socialists" on par with the "alien jihadists" of 9/11. (This can be re-substantiated by the very next shot in the film: after the skyscraper falls, we see the Pentagon in the US, which was also a target of 9/11).

At his birthday "party" with Stone, Alex has a dilemma: does he blow out his birthday candle and wish for Sam, who just walked in, or does he blow out the candle and wish for a job? He should wish for Sam: it's very important to note, there are not any gay military personnel in the film (if this were a pro-Obama film, like The Pirates! Band Of Misfits) there would be references to homosexual military personnel because of the Obama administration lifting the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy; Alex's desire for Sam also re-enforces traditional masculinity (as opposed to the issues being brought up in the new documentary Mansome) because he will be providing for her--wanting to be with Sam means he wants to "court" her properly, which implies a job and his own means, not his brother's couch or car--and that he asks her father, Admiral Shane (Liam Neeson) for Sam's hand in marriage; this "outdated" tradition, as Alex calls it, means that it's still being done today because marriage as an institution, and traditional marriage between a man and a woman, is still being practiced despite some considering it to be "outdated." These conscious decisions being made by the film makers undermines many aspects of regrettable "social digression" which has taken place in America since World War II.

What's going on in the film?
The RIMPAC naval exercises (Rim of the Pacific) are to take place and Alex is aboard the USS John Paul Jones, his brother Commander Stone Hopper is on the USS Sampson and Admiral Shane commands from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (the only ship upon its christening to be named for a president still living). The alien aircraft have landed close to Hawaii because that's where the signal sent by scientists have come from and they need to be able to send the signal back so they have made a protection field sealing off Hawaii from the outside world; the USS John Paul, USS Sampson and Japanese ship Myoko are the only ships within the protection field, being sealed off completely from the outside world, hence, it's up to those ships to save the world.

A wonderful character presence in Battleship, Lt Colonel Mick Canales, retired, and a double-leg amputee. Sam is a physical therapist, and Mick has had great difficulty adjusting to being without his legs, which creates the situation of a fabulous Ronald Reagan film, King's Row, when Ronald Reagan's character has both his legs intentionally amputated by a bad doctor who wants to "keep him down," and Reagan responds, does he think I am my legs? And, in defiance, gets up and resolves to go on. Mick, on the other hand, lost his will when he lost his legs (because feet/legs symbolize our will and our "standing" in society) so when he and Sam have gone on a hike and encounter the aliens who have landed to use the communications satellite, he's found another war. Symbolically, however, Mick represents other ways the military has been "amputated" by the government, which I don't need to go into here,...

Symbolically, the USS Sampson, named for William T. Sampson, invokes the Spanish American War in which Sampson won the final victory, ending the war for Cuba's independence (Cuba struggling for independence from Spain then is rather like the Jews struggling for freedom under Hitler in Captain America, and reminds the audience of the reason the US becomes involved in wars, the protection of people from tyranny; I know there are plenty of  liberals out there who will accuse the US of tyranny, but they can move to China for all I care). One reason the Spanish-American War would be sited is because it was a war forced by Democrats onto Republican President McKinley when he didn't want to go to war; likewise, in (the book) Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, although it's a socialist work, author Seth Grahame-Smith unwittingly reminds Americans how it was the Democrats who started the Civil War.

Captain Nagata who acts as a continual bane to Alex, first in the soccer match, then (in the scene pictured above) when they get into a fight in the bathroom. When war breaks out with the aliens, however, Nagata and Alex pull their forces together and willingly sacrifice their lives to save the world.

Alex, on board the USS John Paul Jones, is very much like the ship's namesake, American Revolutionary War hero and father of the American Navy, John Paul Jones, who always intentionally sought out danger.  Captain Jones' bravery and confidence in his and his crew's ability to to fight is the spiritual backbone of the US Navy, and what Battleship wants to remind Americans, of the US itself.

Alex with Petty Officer Cora "Weps" Raikes (Rihanna). When the RIMPAC exercises begin, Alex gives a aggressive speech to his crew that they are to win and destroy, and Raikes mutters under her breath how Alex is a mutation of Donald Trump and Mike Tyson; the comparison to Mike Tyson comes because Tyson compared himself to Alexander the Great in his post-Lou Savarese knock-out in June of 2000. Alex is likened to Donald Trump because of Trump's commercial and financial success but both Tyson and Trump could be called "the come-back kids" because both had huge career blows (like Alex in Battleship) but they came back stronger after them because they adapted and created new strategies.

To summarize heretofore, the "aliens" are socialists because after the protection field has been put up by the aliens, one of the crew members says, "It's the North Koreans, I'm telling you!" referring to the country's communism and the "protection field" is meant to divide the country (Hawaii is cut off from the rest of the world and Stone, Nagata and Alex are cut off from the rest of the fleet), a clever reference to the American Civil War because Obama's policies have divided the country more than any other president. But there is another reference to North Korea as well: at least one of the veterans on the USS Missouri wears a N. Korea veteran's hat, meaning, he helped to fight against the spread of communism in the North Korean war (which could regrettably ignite again any moment). It was in the Korean War that "Mighty Mo" sailed against the communist threat, and it's precisely for that reason it's called a floating museum, a "museum ship," (well, it is a museum, too)  but the Mighty Mo carries the history of the US and her cause with her everywhere she goes, including around Hawaii to destroy aliens sending the wrong signals.

This is a great moment for RihannaSentimental Journey which coincided with the end of World War II and the returning home of US veterans. With this simple line, the purpose of World War II has been officially re-instated because, as Nick Fury says in The Avengers, "We are at war," and Battleship gives us one of our most important weapons to fight it: US history, and the cause of why we did what we did (regardless of the thesis of The Hunger Games) and how we can win that same war again.

One of the recent films Battleship begs comparison with is Captain America, because it takes place during World War II, but also because, like Steve, Alex in Battleship reflects the trend of many films of the 1950s demonstrating how the US was nothing before WWII, and then became a superhero afterwards because of the heroic sacrifice of our men and women and the prodigious production capacity of our factories, fueled by the patriotism and determination to win the war and stop communism/socialism/fascism/imperialism (other films include, for example, Breakfast At Tiffany's and Annie Get Your Gun).

Great shot of the aliens, how they appear "nearly human" but have deformities, specifically, in the hands (pictured above) which have only four finger digits instead of five; why? Hands symbolize strength, so what the aliens stand for--socialism--means that it doesn't have the strength of capitalism. Just as the aliens first appear in the Pacific, so it was in that same area the spread of Communism threatened the United States during the Soviet Union's advancement of Communism in its satellite countries in southeast Asia (Korea, Cambodia, Vietnam). One of the crew members tries on the helmet of an alien and realizes it's like a big pair of sunglasses and, like lizards, they don't like light. Light symbolizes truth, because truth will set us free the same way as light frees everything from darkness, and so the aliens not being able to tolerate truth reflects how socialists are ignoring the truths about socialism empirically failing throughout history and how over 60% of Americans don't want it. Whenever light is shined into the eyes of the aliens, they become completely blinded and are easily defeated, and that's what we need to remember.

Because Battleship is based upon a game, we have to discuss game theory. ("Game" is based on rules, meant to enhance certain advantages of players all ready in power, like tall basketball players; "play" is the creative interpretation/understanding of the rules or circumstances to undermine the advantage created by the rules or inherent in the opposition's capabilities). Nagata introduces water displacement--monitoring the tsunami buoys caused by waves--to see where the alien ships are, reflecting methods of playing the actual Hasbro game. The Art Of War (a Chinese work) is finally understood by Alex and applied in the last battle sequence, "Fight the enemy where he is not," and through a cunning "fake out," Alex manages a sneak attack, winning the battle (please recall that all of RIMPAC is a "war game").

Alien bombs (the round objects) coming in for an attack. The bombs seem to adhere to certain "rules" as well, only taking out certain portions of highways and not killing children playing baseball.
But it certainly takes out our military.

This isn't the only means of understanding how Battleship employs game theory, however, because capitalism is very much a "game" as both Moneyball and The Hunger Games have taught us. The other understanding of game theory is that rules are good and necessary, and we can see this in the "chicken burrito affair," when Alex, desperate to score points with Sam, breaks into a convenience store to deliver her the sought after item.  Battleship, it could be said, is covering its bases, that there are means of "playing the game" which go against everyone's interest, even when it looks like it suffices, but the tazer marks on Alex's back the next morning reveals to the audience that the debacle of the previous night has "scarred Alex" and only re-learning the right rules so he can correctly play the game will redeem him.

Aboard the "Mighty Mo," the USS Missouri, which fought in the Korean War. Battleship using the Missouri as a "game piece" in the film, and the "Sea Salt," the retired veterans, is itself an employment of game theory because it makes history--the Korean War and the goals of North Korea today--a major component to getting its point across regarding what socialism does.

In the greater context of films being released, this is an important moment in Battleship because Moneyball (2011, Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill) aptly taught the American public how the economy is like a game, we have to take what we have and make the best of it, and when we do that, we are bound to win; this certainly happens in Battleship when the destroyers have been destroyed and all that's left is the battleship the Mighty Mo, but they make do with it and, capitalizing on their advantages, still manage to win (please see Moneyball and the Great American Economy).

Contrariwise, is The Hunger Games, which--my interpretation of the film posited--suggested that, if it hadn't have been for Adolf Hitler starting WWII 74 years ago (when the Hunger Games were instituted to commemorate the great sacrifice made to end Hitler and Communism) the United States would be a far more socialist country today than it is (because of the Great Depression and Roosevelt implementing many socialist programs at the time). I willingly concede to The Hunger Games that this is a real possibility. Yet the film goes on to show humans trying to succeed in a game meant for enterprise, i.e., in the do-or-die world of capitalism, companies are either killed or they kill their competition; to make a case for socialism (which isn't a very good case) it tries to demonstrate how violent capitalism is. Battleship, on the other hand, in the very appearance of the aliens, tries to demonstrate how socialism has recognizable features but is still "alien" to us.

There is another aspect with The Hunger Games that Battleship shares, and with The Cabin In the Woods: the separated field of play. In all three films, there is an invisible force field/barrier separating the "game world" from the "outer world" and Battleship and The Cabin In the Woods share the orientation, while The Hunger Games has a different spin. In The Hunger Games, the field keeping the players within the "arena" could be said to be the government regulations artificially constructing a world where some are given advantages (like Katniss receiving medicine for her burns) but not all are when they need it (such as Rue dying). In this way, again, The Hunger Games tries to paint a picture of how inhumane our treatment of companies are and that everyone (companies) should be kept alive (i.e., all auto industries should be bailed out, all mortgages paid, no workers laid off, etc.).

Battleship and The Cabin In the Woods, on the other hand, show how we enter the playing field (the space cut-off from the rest of the world) with what we have and we have to make do (rather like Mad Max Beyond Thunderdom, an excellent example of play vs game). Because The Cabin In the Woods is a horror film, the assets of each "contestant" in the game is their moral integrity and ability to overcome their own weakness in the guise of the red-neck zombie torture family means survival or death.

Battleship puts this in similar terms because Alex doesn't have the humility he needs to survive in the outside world (the Admiral having Alex kicked out of the Navy after the war games are ended) but his exceptional skills "in the arena" of saving the world earn him an elevated place outside the arena (which is why many of our ancestors came over from other countries, so they could look forward to the possibility of class mobility for themselves and their children and Alex achieves this exact thing) but the "chicken burrito" affair is still remembered, as it should be, because in some ways, it mirrors the corruption of many (especially on Wall Street) who broke rules and brought about the melt-down of the economy from which we are still suffering.  But this leads us to our next comparison: The Avengers.

The credits song playing for Battleship is Credence Clearwater Revival's Fortunate Son, about the upper class and privilege which Alex in Battleship didn't enjoy, but was able to rise up to (becoming the Admiral's future son-in-law) because of his merit and skill. The Avenger's Tony Stark (Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr.) is a "fortunate son," because of having an immense inheritance, yet The Avengers clearly demonstrates the conversion of Stark from his self-absorption to self-sacrifice (Batman's billionaire Bruce Wayne will have a similar journey to endure this summer). Tony Stark starts out big because of his self-importance, but ends small because of his humility; Alex Hopper starts out small because of his self-importance, but ends up big because of his humility and both for the greater good of the country.

The "Goldilocks" planet discussed by the scientists in the featurette above, means a political world where it's not "too conservative, but not too liberal," and voters this November have to ask themselves if they really got the world of the choosing in the last election.

One last film Battleship bears a resemblance to: The Descendants. I thought The Descendants was done extremely well, an incredibly rich and intimate story, and if it weren't for the shared locale of Hawaii I wouldn't even have thought to compare them, but we can understand Elizabeth's skiing accident as a symbol for capitalism because it was a game in the form of a race (symbolically for wealth).  The death of Elizabeth, the mother, then symbolizes the death of the motherland, America, having died as a result of being capitalist and seeking only after "a better boat" (more wealth) and the "descendants" are of President Obama and his socialist state. Battleship doesn't let the mother land die, Battleship destroys the alien and protects the real descendants of the men and women who died in World War II, Korea and Vietnam preserving--not only freedom--but free markets as well, because "in adversity we come to know ourselves," as Stone tells Alex, so instead of creating a world wherein there is no adversity (socialism) Battleship encourages us to thrive upon it and adapt to it.

Battleship probably chose Hawaii because that is where President Obama is from and where he frequently vacations on his frequent vacations. The signal which the Beacon Project sent up began in 2006, coinciding with the voter dissatisfaction of the Republicans and then President George Bush; that signal of voter dissatisfaction was answered, and it invited the alien socialists to come and attempt a take-over in the name of "Hope" and "Change," (just like the scientists thought the aliens would come peacefully and in friendship) but instead, have waged war on the country and Battleship calls us to fight back "where the enemy is not" (to use socialist thought against itself) and fight socialism on the grounds of capitalism where it can't compete (and in terms of history).

Boarding the USS Missouri for her last battle with veterans standing ready to fight.

Lastly, the post credits scene: in the Scottish Highlands three school boys, Angus, Ronnie and Thom, are walking home and see destruction caused to a silo and barn, seeing a rock-like structure half-buried in the ground. They attempt to open it and cannot. A Scottish man, Jimmie, pulls up in his truck and decides he's going to get it open, trying all manner of things, including a chainsaw and welding. We are suddenly inside the "rock" structure and can hear the boys and Jimmie outside, then see Jimmie removing a part of the structure. As he peers in, a religious medal can be seen around his neck, then a second medal which clearly has Mary, the mother of Jesus, on it. The subtle yet definite religious introduction suggests that (if there is a sequel) it will take on a more religious nature rather than the political/economic one of Battleship.

I Did See The Dictator

I was actually quite surprised by the number of political topics covered, and the conservative view taken of them; The Dictator aptly covers the idea of the power structure in society and personal relationships, including Feminism. I guess the problem is for all the crudeness (nudity, foul language and suggestions) I wouldn't really recommend seeing it but I am getting this post up and I'm glad the film was made.
It's really crude in areas though, and like 30 minutes too long; someone should have edited some of the dialogue out.

TRAILERS: Argo, A Fantastic Fear Of Everything, Gangster Squad, Killer Joe, The Paperboy, The Campaign, Step Up: Revolution, Mansome, People Like Us

There are still a great number of readers' comments to which I have thus far failed to respond; Grandma has been back to the hospital several times for on-going heart problems, so please, forgive me once more, it's beyond my control. The Dictator opens Wednesday so I anticipate seeing that in the evening and getting the post up the next day... well, you know how it goes.  Some great films are finally being released to disc this week: The Grey with Liam Neeson (The Grey: America's Dying Economy & the Politicians's Den) and the film that I absolutely loved writing about, Chronicle (I am adding some new concept art and observations to that post). The Woman In Black will be released May 22 and Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows will be released June 12!
On to the newest trailers:
Argo, set for release in October, comes from director Ben Affleck about attempts to free the American hostages during the Iranian crisis of Jimmy Carter's presidency:

In A Fantastic Fear Of Everything, Jack, a children's author turned crime novelist, becomes a paranoid wreck after he starts researching Victorian serial killers. It might not sound like much, but there is an important date mentioned: November 5, 1979, the date the orphanage where he grew up burns down, and it just so happens, the date that the Iranian hostage crisis highlighted in the Argo trailer above is taking place; given this information, that it's Jack's earliest memory, should we view the source of his anxiety as a metaphor for America's own anxiety about Iran's real or perceived hostility towards the US (like in The Dictator coming out tomorrow)?

Sometimes, movies start looking like other movies (case in point, Mirror, Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman) and Gangster Squad (no release date yet set) looks an awful lot like Lawless which we have all ready seen. This is important because it not only verifies trends and characteristics of society being documented in one film, but aides us in seeing multiple dimensions of it in another (and how one will express certain problems that the other film expresses differently, or not at all):

From director William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection) comes his newest starring Matthew McConaughey as Killer Joe (no release date) about a young man whose debt drives him to putting a hit on his evil mother so he can collect her insurance policy:

Also starring Mr. McConaughey and John Cusack is The Paperboy  about a reporter returning to his hometown to investigate the case of a death row inmate. Also starring Nicole Kidman (I thought she retired?) and Zac Efron, there is not a US release date set yet for the film.

And, North Carolina is in the media again, God bless them, this time about two rival politicians running for the same office; set for release on August 10, The Campaign may or may not accurately reflect the way the country runs its democracy:

Also due out in August from Disney is The Odd Life of Timothy Green:

The fourth in the installment, Step Up: Revolution due for a July 27 release. Regardless of the politics that may or may not be in the film (and I see quite a bit of clash and conflict in this situation) I am always in favor of films expanding the vocabulary of art (we have all ready seen this in both The Artist and Pina) so I will definitely be catching this:

The next two films are two different sides of women's lives: most of us will probably be able to get the Russian film Elena on disc, but I think it will be a drama that's worth it:

Hysteria is being released in theaters this week:

I am really sarcastic when it comes to films like Hysteria, I think they tend to make men idiots, hold up poor qualities as role models for women and slant--if not worse--accurate history. Besides, I just don't like sex jokes, I think they are always in poor taste. The invention of the first vibrator--the "feather duster" being likened to the "tool" women traditionally used for household work--is what many Feminists feel "liberating" and empowering, even politically; my view personally, so you know why I won't be watching/reviewing it, is that it not only dehumanizes the woman using it, but men in general because sexual intercourse, meant not only for the continuation of the species, but for the necessary bonding of husband and wife, has been reduced to the drive thru of a fast food resturant when "toys" are used "on demand" and the kind of callousness it builds up not only slowly kills a woman's emotional ability to bond with a man, but strips sexual experience of its human quality and makes it a mere matter of "performance" and "pleasure." Hence, in the trailer above, Elena, she and Vladimir not being married regulates her to a prostitute who basically isn't getting paid but is willing to rob for her children (creating all kinds of interesting scenarios).

But the dehumanizing aspect of technological sex goes both ways.

Jason Bateman's documentary Mansome explores what is "masculine" today:

So, what we see, is a basic switching of the genders: men becoming pretty, women taking on a penis. We saw Silent House (Elizabeth Olsen) earlier this year exploring the psychological effects of sexual abuse (and it's possible to say that Carolyn from Dark Shadows is the result of the same thing); when numerous artistic sources collide over the same topic, such as Lovely Molly, due out this month, there is cause for concern: 

Fortunately, there are still films being made such as The Intouchables reminding us how vulnerable we truly are beneath our grab for power and artificial facades: 

With an all, all-star cast, People Like Us (opening June 29) takes a hard look at what money problems and debt has done to this country, and how sometimes we only gain by sacrificing:

Lots of great films to look forward to (FYI, the Hansel & Gretl Witch Hunters starring Jeremy Renner has been moved to 2013, as well as Jack the Giant Killer; to bad, they won't be nearly as relevant next year).