way too early for this, but yeah...
so, it might just be because it's 8am and my brain is still warming up, or it might be because i'm a dork... but i found this article in the NYT extremely interesting:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/17/movies/17hero.html?th&emc=th
if you dont have NYT access, just sign up for it. it's totally worth the 30 seconds of your time to register, and you can cancel the email headlines whenever.
for those of you too lazy to even check out the article, you can just read my musings and be satisfied.
first, a couple of new words i learned reading the article (definitions graciously provided by dictionary.com):
1. manichaeism: a dualistic philosophy dividing the world between good and evil principles or regarding matter as intrinsically evil and mind as intrinsically good.
2. zeitgeist: the spirit of the time; the taste and outlook characteristic of a period or generation.
so, basically, the article is talking about how 'batman begins' and 'revenge of the sith' are pop culture versions of manichaeism, and how films these days are attempting to highlight not the battle between good and evil but the BALANCE between them. it's rather interesting. i'm not sure i buy into the 'manichaeist' way of thinking, but it's amazing how well the two movies correlate w/each other and the dead religion. and with other fantasy story lines, come to think of it... *hmm*
"none of these quasi-spiritual films assume that some people are simply bad seeds. their premise is that good and evil are warring in each of us, and that an individual must consciously choose darkness or light."
apparently, there's a russian fantasy film that'll be released here soon (subtitled) that is supposedly starwarsesque. anyone interested in seeing it w/me?
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/17/movies/17hero.html?th&emc=th
if you dont have NYT access, just sign up for it. it's totally worth the 30 seconds of your time to register, and you can cancel the email headlines whenever.
for those of you too lazy to even check out the article, you can just read my musings and be satisfied.
first, a couple of new words i learned reading the article (definitions graciously provided by dictionary.com):
1. manichaeism: a dualistic philosophy dividing the world between good and evil principles or regarding matter as intrinsically evil and mind as intrinsically good.
2. zeitgeist: the spirit of the time; the taste and outlook characteristic of a period or generation.
so, basically, the article is talking about how 'batman begins' and 'revenge of the sith' are pop culture versions of manichaeism, and how films these days are attempting to highlight not the battle between good and evil but the BALANCE between them. it's rather interesting. i'm not sure i buy into the 'manichaeist' way of thinking, but it's amazing how well the two movies correlate w/each other and the dead religion. and with other fantasy story lines, come to think of it... *hmm*
"none of these quasi-spiritual films assume that some people are simply bad seeds. their premise is that good and evil are warring in each of us, and that an individual must consciously choose darkness or light."
apparently, there's a russian fantasy film that'll be released here soon (subtitled) that is supposedly starwarsesque. anyone interested in seeing it w/me?