Some Words

I had heard for some time about an animated Earthsea movie. Le Guin was not very happy with it. It was supposed to be directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Then, at the last minute, his son directed it. Miyazaki was supposedly not happy with this development. The whole storyline of the production is a bit muddled when it comes to who did what when.

This, unfortunately, turned out to be the case with the movie as well. I hunted it down because curiosity got the better of me. Now I somewhat wish I hadn’t. The movie is like the plots of every Earthsea book put into a blender, then reconstituted into a dull porridge. The entire plot of the first novel is warped a little and given to a supporting character. The second book is a footnote in what is nominally the third book. I generally try to be supportive of changes made to adapt things to the screen, but this is totally out of hand. I seriously cannot follow what is going on because I get distracted by how randome characters from random books keep cropping up. The first book would have been a fine movie, had they wanted to make it.

They also change Sparrowhawk to a very tan white guy, which I don’t get. I cannot tell what lightening the color of the skin gains the plot.

Sadly, I am left with this. That’s two recent adaptations, both of which make the main character white for no reason, and both of which fail.

It has been an very warm early autumn in Minneapolis. Today I could walk around in short sleeves if I wanted to. It was raining, so I didn’t, but it was nice to tell myself that I had the option. Hopefully this will lead to a more even change of color on the trees (it won’t, I’ve been told that temperature has nothing to do with this).

After going on a short three day binge of video games things have gotten back to normal. I’ve been watching all the Akira Kurosawa movies that I’d never watched before. Today was the first half of Red Beard, a his last film with Toshiro Mifune. This is a film in which Mifune was forced to wear a red beard for the filming, despite the fact that it was done in black and white. This meant that he could not get other work, and Kurosawa dragged out the filming. When it was done, Mifune took a role in Shogun, because he was almost broke. Kurosawa held that against him for the rest of their lives, and they never worked together again. So yeah, Kurosawa, a bit of a dick.

Also, the Criterion Collection, by virtue of not having the principals do the commentary, actually manages to have commentary that doesn’t suck. Usually you get a bunch of stuff like, “Oh, that was filmed by Ted. He’s a really nice guy.” Movie critics can be a bore a lot of the time, but they seem to have bothered to learn most of the interesting stories about a movie.

From Mr. Gaiman’s blog, I hear that the movie version of his book Stardust has a trailer now. Having watched it now? Meh. It’s not that I didn’t like the story, or think that it could be made into a good movie, but I actually finished the trailer less interested in it. It just looks so very… Hollywood. It starts out with a needless cgi star falling to earth. It may not even be in the movie, but wouldn’t a shooting star across the night sky be enough? Do we have to have “shooting star cam” as it careens into the planet? Do you need need water effects when he crosses the wall, and a little “whoooom” sound to go with them? As I watched it I could hear some Hollywood ad guy saying “Yes… can you ad more of a ‘Wow, exclamation points!’ feel to it?” All of which might not have any effect on the movie, but is dispiriting.

While I was home for the holidays, I had a chance to check out the TV that my mother had bought. It was a wide screen HDTV. I took the opportunity to watch some classic movies on TCM. There is something about old movies, and I am not alone in this, that makes me sit still, almost regardless of how bad they can be. The wide screen only added to this effect. This leaves me in the position of contemplating a shiny new TV, to watch old grainy black and whites. There’s something about them, and I can’t help thinking that the nostalgia for the experience that movies used to be is it.

The latest New Yorker had an article on the state of the movies. It contemplates movie theaters where I might get a good martini, sit for a while and chat or read a book. Then I’ll wander into the theater and watch a movie. Not only does that appeal to me, (Cocktails and the movies? Together?) but it also makes me excited, like the author, and probably naively, for a future in which the movies can something close to what nostalgia tells me I wanted them to be, with smaller budgets, that don’t risk as much money, and some better plots wouldn’t hurt, but who am I to talk.