Mark Scandrette: July 2008 Archives

Last week we had a few days off from the tour and Tony and I went to see Dark Knight, the new Batman franchise film. Indeed this film was more sinister and melancholy than so many super hero movies--and yet more realistic in terms of the ambiguities involved in trying to be a helpful contribution to the world.

For the next four days we have a documentary filmmaker traveling in the RV with us recording our every movement and conversation (ala. Cinéma vérité technique). He joined us yesterday and has filmed us doing the show, loading up the trailer, talking with one another, getting lost trying to find an RV park, and lying in our underwear exhausted on our beds...

Recent articles in both Newsweek and The New Yorker have discussed the changing face of evangelicals in the American political landscape--particularly younger evangelicals who seem unwilling to carry on the hard-line, single agenda politics of their predecessors...

After learning that we dress up as old-timey revivalists for the Church Basement Roadshow, some have supposed that we are making fun of American religious tradition. This could not be further from the truth...

Over the weekend I went with one of our house mates to see "Wanted" the new action thriller staring James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie and directed by Timur Bekmambetov. Action movies are one of my guilty pleasures and on the way to the theater it occurred to me that despite the fact that I am opposed to violence in life, I sometimes enjoy action-violence on screen. Suspending this inconsistency I was drawn to this film by the trailer I saw while taking my kids to see Prince Caspian six weeks ago. At the risk of sounding cliche, the best parts of the movie were included in the trailer-- amazing images of slow-motion spinning bullets and other cgi stunts executed by attractive people. What bothers me about several of the films I've seen this summer is how unbelievable they are-- assasanation orders from a loom, waxy miracle healing pools, characters who survive a three thousand foot free fall train wreck. I noticed this with the latest Indiana Jones sequel, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as well-- surviving three waterfall crashes and a nuclear bomb-- to say nothing about the aliens. Despite amazing cinematography and an all-star cast, both Wanted and the Indian Jones film took five or six turns that made them corny, juvenile or utterly outlandish. Of course we like to see films that have an element of the impossible, but this ingredient must be used sparingly. I guess this goes to show how difficult it is to make a really effective film that has a clear plot, good writing, cinematography, acting and visual effects. I think that if these films were shown to a focus group they could easily point out the avoidable flaws that made them unbelievable. But perhaps the complexities and rapid time-lines of the film-making process make this feedback loop impossible. Or, the director has such confidence or ego about their singular vision that feedback is not well received. Everyone needs someone who can tell them, "that's stupid!"