Klaatu barada nikto
So I watched The Day the Earth Stood Still the other day. The 1951 version. Actually enjoyed it more than I anticipated. Although I was a little put off by the excessively human looking alien, I felt it was an all round good film. The film sees an alien visiting earth with an important message to mankind. For reasons of plot (and only reasons of plot) he won't tell anyone what this message is until the last scene.
At first the 'mericans are all over him, but when he realizes that the armed forces and the politicians (not just the American politicians) are useless he escapes and asks a child for a tour of Washington. There he sees the Lincoln memorial and admires the speeches of Lincoln and asks the child who the smartest person in the world was. Fortunately the child names another Washinton citizen, a scientist. And so the alien attempts to make contact with scientists, deciding to share his message with a collection of them.
The only problem is that many of the conflicts, tensions and well...plot, would not have happened had the alien just decided to tell people what the message was from the start. I can see no downside to so doing (especially since the media and its reaction were very much a part of the film. Could the alien not have just spoken on television?) I won't tell you what the message is, just in case you want to watch the film.
Also went to see Das Rheingold, at the Lowry. It was pretty good, pretty long. There was only a modicum of acting, there was no particular stage production (the orchestra was on the stage, so there was no room for doing much). Nevertheless it was entertaining enough. I am going to see Die Walküre next year by the same people (Opera North). Of course, as epic as it is - it frankly doesn't hold a candle to Mozart.
In other news, a parent of an X-factor contestant has said "I am really worried that the show is sensationalising things". Really? You are worried that the most sensationlised show in the UK might be sensationalising? Do people still really believe that the show reflects any form of reality? From the auditions onwards the whole thing is surely self-evidently heavily manufactured. The ridiculous music, the 'journeys', the judges bursting into tears because they happened to have a song stuck in their head earlier that day... I thought it was clear that they have taken all the things that seem to work to gain viewers and put them back-to-back in the most obvious way ever.
At first the 'mericans are all over him, but when he realizes that the armed forces and the politicians (not just the American politicians) are useless he escapes and asks a child for a tour of Washington. There he sees the Lincoln memorial and admires the speeches of Lincoln and asks the child who the smartest person in the world was. Fortunately the child names another Washinton citizen, a scientist. And so the alien attempts to make contact with scientists, deciding to share his message with a collection of them.
The only problem is that many of the conflicts, tensions and well...plot, would not have happened had the alien just decided to tell people what the message was from the start. I can see no downside to so doing (especially since the media and its reaction were very much a part of the film. Could the alien not have just spoken on television?) I won't tell you what the message is, just in case you want to watch the film.
Also went to see Das Rheingold, at the Lowry. It was pretty good, pretty long. There was only a modicum of acting, there was no particular stage production (the orchestra was on the stage, so there was no room for doing much). Nevertheless it was entertaining enough. I am going to see Die Walküre next year by the same people (Opera North). Of course, as epic as it is - it frankly doesn't hold a candle to Mozart.
In other news, a parent of an X-factor contestant has said "I am really worried that the show is sensationalising things". Really? You are worried that the most sensationlised show in the UK might be sensationalising? Do people still really believe that the show reflects any form of reality? From the auditions onwards the whole thing is surely self-evidently heavily manufactured. The ridiculous music, the 'journeys', the judges bursting into tears because they happened to have a song stuck in their head earlier that day... I thought it was clear that they have taken all the things that seem to work to gain viewers and put them back-to-back in the most obvious way ever.