Episode 10: What the Dickens?

Why was Charles Dickens so popular? Did he write fairy-tales? Does the Patriarch like Taylor Swift? Why are joy and happiness not the same thing? What is our dream cast for the upcoming miniseries adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities? All this and more in the latest episode of The Pilgrim's Podcast.

Episode 2: Indiana Jones - If You Like Your Ark...

In Which: we discuss self-reliant heroes, danger in action movies, and why John Williams is the star of every movie he scores. Also: What is a swashbuckler? Is the Ark of the Covenant a weapon of mass destruction? Does this movie end with a Deus ex machina? And could Indiana Jones have been European?

All this and more in the second episode of The Pilgrim's Podcast.

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The Incredibles - Review and Expectations

I recently rewatched Brad Bird's The Incredibles, and was left with one impression: that this film was amazing when I first watched it ten years ago...and it's still amazing, if not more so. While in the midst of this revelation, lo and behold if a sequel wasn't announced, to my deep worry.

The thing is, the first film was so close to perfect. It remains one of my favorite Pixar films, a tightly-scripted, beautifully "shot" action movie that has so many truly human relationships that it puts the majority of live-action films to shame. True, it's not a very original premise - family with supernatural abilities attempt to negotiate ordinary life - but never has it been accomplished so convincingly.

It begins like any other superhero story, with excitement and one-liners and spectacular urban destruction. But fifteen years after this comic book world of heroes and villains, Mr. and Mrs. Incredible - alias Bob and Helen Parr - are living in a cramped suburb with three boisterous kids. Bob works for a sleazy insurance company; Helen changes diapers and wearily makes trips to the principal's office. The irony is thick, and extremely effective.

Lawrence of Arabia - Movie Review

Lawrence of Arabia is about power, posturing, politics, pride, and pettiness. And spectacle. Big-screen epic spectacle. 

If there’s one thing that provides that spectacle, it’s the sweeping panorama of the barren desert. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a film which so fully impressed on me the vastness of it, and the corresponding inconsequentiality of a man on a camel, with only a water-skin between him and death.

It’s quite ironic, isn’t it? And this film lives and breathes irony, placing characters in so many incongruous situations that it gets a little ridiculous.  

The first is a placard on a peaceful country road marked “DANGER.”

It’s not much of a spoiler that Lawrence dies an ignominious death—thrown from his motorcycle into a clump of bushes—in the first five minutes of the film. For a while, I was confused as to why the filmmakers chose to start us here. I recognized the heavy contrast of cutting from a motorcycle accident in verdant Dorset to conversation in the halls of a British colonial outpost to the barren, utterly foreign desert, but I felt it sucked the uncertainty from Lawrence’s story—we knew he lived, so what suspense was there?  (Spoilers below)

Star Trek Into Darkness - Movie Review

Full disclosure: I've never watched a full episode of Star Trek. I've never watched a Star Trek movie. Really, the only exposure I've received is through cultural references - I know of the Klingons, I know a good deal about Spock, I know William Shatner couldn't act, and I know of the U.S.S. Enterprise and its mission to boldly go where no man one has gone before. I've heard "Beam me up, Scotty" and "Dammit, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a ____" and "Resistance is futile" in many forms. I even know the famous climax of the Wrath of KHAAAAAAN.

So I do recognize that part of my dissatisfaction with this movie is that I miss some of the in-jokes, and the whole mythos that is Star Trek. But I don't think that's the only thing. After all, I thought a lot of the humor was quite funny. But Star Trek Into Darkness's greatest flaw is the lack of real character development. It starts off with promise, and themes quickly emerge as, following an action-packed opening sequence, Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) places the entire crew at risk to save one member, Spock (Zachary Quinto), who is protesting the motion even as it is enacted. Thus is opened a conversation on sacrifice and responsibility.

This film could have been Master and Commander in space. It could have been a chance to teach the devastating consequences of reckless action and the value of making tough decisions, and at first, it seemed like we may be treated to a coming-of-age story with pretty boy Kirk, but his refusal to make hard choices - a prerequisite to being a captain - is only seen as a weakness, despite its necessity. Spock, in other words, is right. Just because it bruises the fragile feelings of the Enterprise's supermodel crew doesn't mean it's the wrong thing to do. This simple observation slips by the wayside as we are thrown into a typical science fiction plot, packed with technical jargon and delusions of grandeur, in this case supplemented by a variety of throwback jokes and a strained attempt at a brotherly bond between Kirk and Spock.