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I took the children to see the owls movie today, the first time I'd been to the theater since Andrew was born.
It could have been much worse. There is little need to say anything beyond the conflict portrayed in the film was between Hippies and Nazis, leaving one little to choose (the first sign that the hero's brother was ripe to become a Nazi was when he rejected nationalist myth in favor of reasoned analysis, not the most penetrating analysis of the Nazi movement).
But this conversation followed.
"So, Andrew, the gizzard is an organ that birds possess, where they grind their food against rocks, since they don't have teeth. The owls in the film spoke of the gizzard as the seat of emotion, the way we would the heart.So when they made a distinction between the head and the gizzard, they meant between reason and emotion. So, when the old owl general took the young owl out flying in the storm and told him that he would always fail as long as he listened to his head, and only had a chance of success if he instead listened to his gizzard, was that true? In fact, aren't the emotions that originate in the body so destructive and chaotic that the mind must always work to keep them in check, and doesn't it possess the organ of the hegemonikon expressly for that purpose?"
"Yes."
"Even in the film, weren't the wicked owls motivated by greed and the desire to enslave and dominate other species of owls? Aren't desires like that related to bodily emotions like fear and anger? So isn't it the wicked owls who listened to their gizzards. while the good owls triumphed by using their imaginations to see what they had to do to win through, despite what they said."
"Somehow, Dada, I think you must be right."
In any case, to judge from the previews, Hollywood intends to continue to make only remakes of old films with CGI and 3-D, including Yogi Bear and the Smurfs. Most disturbing was the preview for the Harry Potter film. The production designers of that film had evidently gone to film school and decided to reuse one of the most beautiful images ever put on celluloid, but, in its new context, irresistibly transformed it into kitsch.
I'm referring to the forest journey from Lang's Siegfried:
(No idea how Lang filmed that: if those are prop trees,or, what seems incredible, there could be a real forest that looked like that, but in the potter, of course, its CGI).
It could have been much worse. There is little need to say anything beyond the conflict portrayed in the film was between Hippies and Nazis, leaving one little to choose (the first sign that the hero's brother was ripe to become a Nazi was when he rejected nationalist myth in favor of reasoned analysis, not the most penetrating analysis of the Nazi movement).
But this conversation followed.
"So, Andrew, the gizzard is an organ that birds possess, where they grind their food against rocks, since they don't have teeth. The owls in the film spoke of the gizzard as the seat of emotion, the way we would the heart.So when they made a distinction between the head and the gizzard, they meant between reason and emotion. So, when the old owl general took the young owl out flying in the storm and told him that he would always fail as long as he listened to his head, and only had a chance of success if he instead listened to his gizzard, was that true? In fact, aren't the emotions that originate in the body so destructive and chaotic that the mind must always work to keep them in check, and doesn't it possess the organ of the hegemonikon expressly for that purpose?"
"Yes."
"Even in the film, weren't the wicked owls motivated by greed and the desire to enslave and dominate other species of owls? Aren't desires like that related to bodily emotions like fear and anger? So isn't it the wicked owls who listened to their gizzards. while the good owls triumphed by using their imaginations to see what they had to do to win through, despite what they said."
"Somehow, Dada, I think you must be right."
In any case, to judge from the previews, Hollywood intends to continue to make only remakes of old films with CGI and 3-D, including Yogi Bear and the Smurfs. Most disturbing was the preview for the Harry Potter film. The production designers of that film had evidently gone to film school and decided to reuse one of the most beautiful images ever put on celluloid, but, in its new context, irresistibly transformed it into kitsch.
I'm referring to the forest journey from Lang's Siegfried:
 |
| From LJ |
(No idea how Lang filmed that: if those are prop trees,or, what seems incredible, there could be a real forest that looked like that, but in the potter, of course, its CGI).
