Cinema
severals seen (last two weeks, mainly)
Been watching a lot of movies lately - some half seen several weeks before, several on
dvd, and the balance in the cinema itself. These are just two so far.
Ahab, Magnificant
The two ‘finishes’ are “Moby Dick” and “The future is unwritten”. Y must remember my large Moby kick from the summer; when school started I checked out some of the literary books (think Cliffs notes, although that was not one of them) from our library. The book = great, though their was some turgid parts. . I’d seen ½ of the movie in, say, early September w/ Gf and Mom, but both were bored w/ it a bit and so I didn’t force them to watch the rest. It was nice to see the movie, but boy it paled next to the book However, it gives me an opp. to write a bit more about the book.
Most of the book Moby Dick was a long prologue to the final face-off w/ the White Whale. It includes stretches where Ahab becomes more and more crazy. However, when finally the ultimate showdown occurs - it took several days for the whole showdown to go down, and a couple face-offs betwixt the humans and the whale- Ahab has his last little heroic art before the end. In the movie, there is that last glorious effort - Ahab the old man, mounting the whale’s back and trying to kill it, jamming the knife into the whale - kool. And then the one scene I remember -burned into me - from watching Moby Dick on WGN’s Sunday Classics from when I was six or seven or whatever and has lived w/ me since - of Ahab, dead, tied to the side of the white whale. It always stuck into my mind -maybe a fear of drowning, of being caught by something and being dragged below the waves……. Now, 30y later, the scene wasn’t so shocking - no longer the power to disturb my young mind.
But the best moments of those showdowns @ the end of the BOOK ranked the movie. Again, there was Ahab, in the in the second of the long three days fight between Ahab and the Pequod versus the White Whale, adrift on the waves after his small oared boat (not the larger Pequod, the sailing vessel) was smithereen’d to pieces by the white whale. He- adrift in the open waters made raging by the whale -proved a man to the end. Treading water amidst the wreckage of the smaller destroyed boats , notices that the white whale - just done trashing the small boats - is starting one of his whirlpools to try to drag down the other sailors adrift in the raging waters. But there is Ahab, rising on a swell, shouting to the Pequod to …..what ? The waters drown out the commands….but then a last swell raises him above just for an instant, and he is able to yell out instructions that saved the ship.
This is that passage:
“Meantime, from the beginning all this had been described from the ships mastheads; and squaring her yards, she had born down upon the scene; and was now so nigh, that Ahab in the water hailed her:- “Sail on the” -but that moment a breaking sea dashed on him from Moby Dick, and whelmed him for the time. But struggling out of it again, and chancing to rise on a towering crest, he shouted,- “Sail on the whale!-Drive him off!”
(Ch CXXXIII)
There was still time.........
And then the final showdown - rite @ the end - Ahab, again in a small boat riding astride w/ the whale, harpoons into the whales hide, Ahab wildely desperate to kill the whale, and everything wrong. All falling apart, death is near, but I dearly love following Ahab’s actions. In the movie, the whale never gets hurt and seems invincible. In the book, it’s different - the whale actually spouts blood and it seems Ahab has a chance. In the end, there is Ahab, magnificent, athletically leaping about trying to fasten this or that part of lines from a harpoon thrust into the whale, working it to the end…….
Here now is this - to me - deeply stirring passage from the book:
“The harpoon was darted; the stricken whale flew forward: with igniting velocity the line ran through the groove; - ran foul. Ahab stooped to clear it: he did clear it: but the flying turn caught him around the neck, and voicelessly as Turkish mutes bowstring their victim, he was shot out of the boat, ere the crew knew he was gone. Next instant, the heavy eye-splice in the ropes final end flew out of the stark-empty tub, knocked down an oarsman, and smiting the sea, disappeared in its depths.”
(Ch. CXXXV)
I love it - read: it was the "stricken whale”. Again, there was a chance. Ahab, till the end, again, magnificent, dashing about trying to work it - but in the end, Tampa was just a better team than the Sox.
And, the book was better than the movie.
"I don't know what love is"
I also finished “The Future is Unwritten”, a bio of Joe Strummer. Gf and I’d seen the first hour @ few weeks ago @ the Shipleys, but had to leave before it finished. Finally finished, now. Again, it’s always kool to see the scene in the 1970’s, and it’s always refreshing to remember that fucking fresh breathe that punk rock was then. I love punk, and do believe it to be one of th highest of all forms of art. Why? Because everyone is an artist, and punk really spotlighted that. Can’t play the bass? Well, welcome to the Clash or the Pistols! These days, it mite read this way: Can’t play or act? Well, welcome to the stage of Klas and a 20m art performance piece on ….the battle of the Denmark Strait!
Punk rock, baby.
There wasn’t too much I didn’t know about the history of Strummer pre and during Clash, but it was good to hear of his later life. I’d forgotten the Pouges bit. And the music and shots backstage were fantastic - God do I love the power of “White Riot” and “Career Opportunities”. And the sad bit - that these super punkers - the only band that mattered - actually , uh, did start to ape , uh, the excesses of, say, the Rolling Stones in their later career. We all get old, rite?
There have been better films/bios of rock - that Beatles thing I loved was better - but I loved this and so will you.. The only thing I missed was that there was no mention of my favourite post Clash song - “Love Kills” from “Sid And Nancy” - an aces up song.
I remember when we learned of his death. Vito and I, doing the 7h drive from LA to OAK in Dec/Jan, were stranged to hear loads of “Sandinista” being played on some cali radio station. We were surprised that they were playing so much of it (it‘s a three LP album- 36 songs - and great), and then an hour in , the do told us the news. He was gone.
Next - two from the current cinemas
I'll amidt that I'm rading Candy girl for....is the word salicious? - reasons. I have weighed in on strippers before: I have been to a strip club once and have enjoyed the 5 bachelor parties that i have been @. But I'm not that into strippes, or whatever...
