Rent - Theres only us. Theres only this.
So I was thinking about Rent. Its worth as a movie has grown on me a lot since I originally watched it. The music is catchy and it has enough balance in terms of types of songs to make it more than rewatchable.
There are things I don't like about it:
Its extremely biased and one-sided. (Though most good pieces of art need to be such. Including too much objectivity makes it too vanilla.) Most people hear that I consider myself Republican and assume a lot of things that point more to their own ignorance than to mine. With that, most of the values spewed out and the lifestyles overtly extoled I don't agree with. Sorry Bohemia is dead, the general anti-establishment 'individualistic' aura of the entire play is trite and overdone - even for the early 90s, I hate Maureen's character, I hate Maureen's protest, and defending tent village dwellers doesn't help anyone, least not the homeless. (Footnote 1) And I'm not exactly comfortable watching gay affection and I don't support gay rights. Sorry. (Footnote 2) And Rent is replete with gay affection.
Luckily, I'm not from Texas and I can still appreciate a good story. And this story is not about AIDs. True, its mostly a (over)reaction to the shock of the disease and the affect it had on that generation. But the heart of the story is not about AIDs. Its exactly what it claims to be about: Rent. Renting life; Renting love. The apartment rent is a clever analogy for life itself. AIDs shades the life of every character. Its the constant reminder of their tenuous nature of everything they have. This theme should pretty obvious from the lyrics in the love scene between Tom and Angel. Everyone with AIDs must live with the certainty of their death. I didn't understand the importance every other character seemed to place on Angel. Then I got it. Angel has it figured out. She had it figured out beautifully. AIDs itself isn't the point. Everyone faces death; even the characters without AIDs must own up to their own mortality. AIDs merely serves as death's reminder. Angel found freedom in that. She found freedom in knowing that her life could be snuffed out in a moment. It let her truly live every moment as if it were her last. She's a foil for the others, specifically Roger. Roger let his AIDs confine him, trap him. Like a hermit too afraid to bask in the sun for fear of a little burn. She also served as a foil for those who forget the fragility of life in general. For example, the lesbos didn't have AIDs, they forgot death, so they let pettiness ruin their love. Like any great story, it is marked by character development. The move that we're seeing here is essentially everyone coming to embrace the temporary nature of their lives: that we never own life or love, we only rent it.
Theres other ideas in the movie, independence, measuring life, coming of age, tolerance, the terror of unchecked capitalism, uncertainty and et cetera, et cetera. But these all serve to further the main theme of rent. And the abundance of these other themes certainly makes the storyline a lot richer. The idea using love to measure life reinforces the theme. You could alternately say their epiphany teaches them to measure life in love.
And the fact that they made the purest love between the two gay guys reminds those who would listen that love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love. The love of two gay cowboys has no less truth than the love of Johnny and Jane. But its definitely gayer...
The biggest criticism that its dated has its own flaws. Critics try to say its dated because they take the AIDs obsession in combination with the pretty obviously early 90s musical influence (Hello Roger) and see that, why yes, this speaks of another time. But that doesn't make it any more dated than Achilles' use of a sword rather than a gun makes the Iliad dated. If anything, the early 90s scenery affords us a greater chance to remove us from our own perspective for a while. I liked that Roger was pretty much Bon Jovi. Rather than being dated, I think Rent rises above and becomes the marker for an entire generation of people. Those, as Mark said, living at the end of the millenium.
I put footnotes in livejournal. I am a douche and I should be a poly sci major.
1 - Something interesting I read recently was an article claiming that a good number of homeless choose that lifestyle and the rest have truly fallen on hard times or are mentally insane. At first it seemed a crazy notion. But the argument was pretty cogent. They're simply people who value independence extremely highly, so they eschew typically living to maintain total freedom. And this article claims some of these people can pull in 40-80k a year. Obviously nothing you can prove. But from the conversations I've had with the 20 or so homeless people who are on my front lawn - in SCS - every morning waiting for the bus, it seems like the argument could have merit.
2 - I watched brokeback recently. I ended up thinking it was really good. Which means it really is good because I had intended on watching it and hating it. Heath Ledger foiled my attempt. Thank God the first gay sex scene was filmed dimly. Jake definitely took.
No Day But Today.
There are things I don't like about it:
Its extremely biased and one-sided. (Though most good pieces of art need to be such. Including too much objectivity makes it too vanilla.) Most people hear that I consider myself Republican and assume a lot of things that point more to their own ignorance than to mine. With that, most of the values spewed out and the lifestyles overtly extoled I don't agree with. Sorry Bohemia is dead, the general anti-establishment 'individualistic' aura of the entire play is trite and overdone - even for the early 90s, I hate Maureen's character, I hate Maureen's protest, and defending tent village dwellers doesn't help anyone, least not the homeless. (Footnote 1) And I'm not exactly comfortable watching gay affection and I don't support gay rights. Sorry. (Footnote 2) And Rent is replete with gay affection.
Luckily, I'm not from Texas and I can still appreciate a good story. And this story is not about AIDs. True, its mostly a (over)reaction to the shock of the disease and the affect it had on that generation. But the heart of the story is not about AIDs. Its exactly what it claims to be about: Rent. Renting life; Renting love. The apartment rent is a clever analogy for life itself. AIDs shades the life of every character. Its the constant reminder of their tenuous nature of everything they have. This theme should pretty obvious from the lyrics in the love scene between Tom and Angel. Everyone with AIDs must live with the certainty of their death. I didn't understand the importance every other character seemed to place on Angel. Then I got it. Angel has it figured out. She had it figured out beautifully. AIDs itself isn't the point. Everyone faces death; even the characters without AIDs must own up to their own mortality. AIDs merely serves as death's reminder. Angel found freedom in that. She found freedom in knowing that her life could be snuffed out in a moment. It let her truly live every moment as if it were her last. She's a foil for the others, specifically Roger. Roger let his AIDs confine him, trap him. Like a hermit too afraid to bask in the sun for fear of a little burn. She also served as a foil for those who forget the fragility of life in general. For example, the lesbos didn't have AIDs, they forgot death, so they let pettiness ruin their love. Like any great story, it is marked by character development. The move that we're seeing here is essentially everyone coming to embrace the temporary nature of their lives: that we never own life or love, we only rent it.
Theres other ideas in the movie, independence, measuring life, coming of age, tolerance, the terror of unchecked capitalism, uncertainty and et cetera, et cetera. But these all serve to further the main theme of rent. And the abundance of these other themes certainly makes the storyline a lot richer. The idea using love to measure life reinforces the theme. You could alternately say their epiphany teaches them to measure life in love.
And the fact that they made the purest love between the two gay guys reminds those who would listen that love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love. The love of two gay cowboys has no less truth than the love of Johnny and Jane. But its definitely gayer...
The biggest criticism that its dated has its own flaws. Critics try to say its dated because they take the AIDs obsession in combination with the pretty obviously early 90s musical influence (Hello Roger) and see that, why yes, this speaks of another time. But that doesn't make it any more dated than Achilles' use of a sword rather than a gun makes the Iliad dated. If anything, the early 90s scenery affords us a greater chance to remove us from our own perspective for a while. I liked that Roger was pretty much Bon Jovi. Rather than being dated, I think Rent rises above and becomes the marker for an entire generation of people. Those, as Mark said, living at the end of the millenium.
I put footnotes in livejournal. I am a douche and I should be a poly sci major.
1 - Something interesting I read recently was an article claiming that a good number of homeless choose that lifestyle and the rest have truly fallen on hard times or are mentally insane. At first it seemed a crazy notion. But the argument was pretty cogent. They're simply people who value independence extremely highly, so they eschew typically living to maintain total freedom. And this article claims some of these people can pull in 40-80k a year. Obviously nothing you can prove. But from the conversations I've had with the 20 or so homeless people who are on my front lawn - in SCS - every morning waiting for the bus, it seems like the argument could have merit.
2 - I watched brokeback recently. I ended up thinking it was really good. Which means it really is good because I had intended on watching it and hating it. Heath Ledger foiled my attempt. Thank God the first gay sex scene was filmed dimly. Jake definitely took.
No Day But Today.