Where Blade Runner Got It Wrong

As I listen to DADOFS(Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep) I can not help but doze a little through the vibe of the 1082 Bladerunner. All the rain, the filth, the depression. Harrison Ford's, dump and dumb face, Vangelis's music. All things that I always disliked about the movie. I kept rewatching it to realise what I dislike about it, and thought Harrison is the part I could do without, the most. He never looked like an actual action guy to me. He seems to mellow, to confortable. I could see him as a good for nothing drunken guy but not as a guy who's doing things, as I always had the impression the film is trying to portray him as. The rest of the things I mentioned, are things I liked separately, but the combination seemed wrong.

Going back to the listening of the book, when Harrison's face comes to mind, in all that dark atmosphere, I can see why he could fit in the book's world. Worn out by years of bad relationship with his wife, poorly paid by a job that never seems to give him much credit. Forced to pretend he is doing well to keep a social status in the hopes this will make him look good in the eyes of his wife. All stupid hopes. Fighting an inexistent battle. Quijote style.
So if the thing I thought was the most flagrant miss, perhaps all the rest might not be amiss as well? This is rhetorical. I have the answer but I am trying to pace this thing. I might be wrong, but I would rather think in fact, that Ridley Scott is the one who got it, DEAD WRONG.

Back to listening. I might get some more teasers.

...to be continued...

Los Sopranos

I may have missed that part, but I think they never really mess with the wrong guys. There are 'accidents' when one of them angry mobsters, shoots someone in the leg, and the MAN, as corrupt as he is, will make it good. But perhaps because they are somewhat few, the top 1% is never caught in a missfire.

What I am trying to say, is that maybe this would make for a nice plot.

Gundam Seed Destiny

As a decent anime series, Gundam Seed Destiny will present a cast of characters as the 'good guys' but their portrayal via they're actions will clearly prove them to be the worst kind of good guys. Same as in Star Trek where the first directive stating the non interference with more primitive civilisations(as if there was ever given a set of criteria to judge any civilisation by it's place on a lather of evolution) is constantly if not always ignored. Of course usually with a great speech about the righteousness of that specific decision but a quick dissection of that argument will clearly show bias and subjectivisation of the LAW. So these 'good guys' in Destiny will be, judging by their decisions and their ways at least, in fact the 'bad' guys, morally. They are misogynistic, egotistic, belligerent, greedy, inconsiderate, unkind, ignorant, disrespectful but, and this should be emphasised, they are lucky guns(pun here) to have the best weapon since nukes were banned(glad they can keep at least that rule) and a decent pilot(a minor, mentally unequipped to deal with the horrors of war and forced on the job until they develop a Stockholm syndrome)

 The series isn't only poorly written or developed, but the moral inadequacies are so evident as to make this show a clear danger for the brand of Gundam as a whole, the animation industry and Japan, it's allies the whole entertainment industry and artists, along with their specific art forms, from today, from the last century, or ever since art was used to propagandise(as in ever). This show compromises any good intention, moral intention I mean, that anyone ever had, ore will ever have. Irl it's not that bad. I am not trying to force a conclusion here, all I am saying is that 'a show like this' is contributing to the worsening of an entire branch of cultural manifestation, infecting it through time, with no real cure at hand. It is a plague that eats huge chunks of what people contribute to the universe as information.


They have no sense of justice. They pretend to have one but all they manage to do is in the best of cases, a good simulation of justice, with all consequences being irrelevant to the accused if the one in question is a 'good guy'.

 I feel really bad that lots of kids around the world are watching this thing with the full trust kids usually have in things with authority. But authority is just another social tool. What can you do?
 I mean are the bad guys bad? Sure they are. But as a writer just be honest about the whole situation. People are fighting for sports sometimes, and I guess this is a good thing, but when involved in a war, a mere soldier is a victim, and all leaders are filthy to the marrow. They cannot be 'good' because they won. There is no 'good' fight ever, to be fought by anyone. Every single kill ever made in a war(this includes all time-space, future as well) is wrong, so stop protecting the guy because he was fighting the 'good cause', the 'just' bullshit. What is right in war, is avoiding killing and avoiding destruction. That is the real target of any military guy, be him guerrilla or Jessie Ventura. Of course, it is a war, casualties will happen(and that is a bad thing) but not because of  bad guys. It's because of all guys. A war is not a fight between sides, it is a disaster. An stupid disaster, but disaster still. Trying to save lives should be the priority of a f*****g Gundam, not vengeance, not execution. But as everyone knows, power corrupts, and an innocent kid from episode one can become a hardened killer only four episodes later. If the kid is not that innocent it can be an instant hit.

But what can a writer do, this is a war story. Even more precisely, a story about soulless guns.

Later edit:
I was completely wrong. Now I realise my mistake. The key of interpreting this series is to think of it as a realistic or naturalistic portrayal of what war is  even to it's main protagonists. Hypocrisy and near sightedness of all senses. It makes people act like jerks. Even the good guys.

Dexter Morgan and Bruce Wayne

Here are some similarities I found between Dex and Batman, there may be more. Some of you guys reading this, will probably find a few more, if so please post them in the comments section, I would be curious to read them out. Some of you may disagree, and if so I would like to hear your arguments.

So just to make my self clear, I think Batman was a main inspiration for either the writers of the TV series or for Jeff Lindsey. The list below is comprised after I freshly rewatched the TV show, so my ideas came from the show.

I like Dex, the character allot, and I like Batman allot, and I think their resemblance makes it all more interesting. If my judgement is clouded because of the slight autumn cold I seem to have, you should at least believe that I am honest.

So, They Live!

Perhaps this is what illuminated Snowden.

Sure sounded familiar, the whole thing. Part of it because of the Carpenter movie, part 'cause of the news reports from a couple o' years back. 

What is it with you people, you think not being caught in a lie is the same as telling the truth?

Well, I'm not sure this is the question. I think most people try to do the right thing. So hard to see one's own faults.

This is a followup to  the Watergate history, but They Live is just a rehash made for fun, or even noise. In any case, the minute this blonde guy gets inside the girl's place(I mean, before that thing) I'm expecting her to push him through the windows, then call the head of the SS or cia-whatever. It was good that it didn't. That made me wish for more

And it gives plenty.

Except, I'm always very confused with movies(in general) and their pure intentions, or more to the fact, their effects. It is very clear: the more people are involved in a process, the less sincere it becomes. It all get's planned in unbelievable detail. Like all the props, cameras, lines, places. 

I know for a fact many things get overlooked. 

The guy's job. 

It was to search for patterns, to identify similarities. 

Some items, usually get ignored, or passed as trivial. Sometimes, these are the largest ideas, the most relevant. So it's all up for grabs, After all, so much depends on how the tools are used. 

(This is so irrelevant, my blabbering right now. )

I just like to observe patterns. I'm thinking I might get to use some of these, somehow. Try and understand 'em better, make them work.

I wish we could trust our superiors. Take their kind words for what they seem. 

Suspicion is harmful in my view.  

But a form of respect, based in precaution, like the trust a salesman has in his client*, that he will get his pay, is what usually makes do. 

Many times people think there is no point in worrying, that someone will take care of things. 

No sweat!

That I say, is a problem. 

A partnership, with a disinterested party involved, is short lived, and harmful for all involved. Vigilance is the key. Trust in vigilance. 

Some dip shit.

*for continuity's sake, the reverse should have been presented, ergo: the trust of a client in a salesman that he will get the gods as expected(any couple of random guys would do).
(All the Presidents Men 1976)

Sweet Smell of Success

It's weird how all that overacting and heavily classical characters make for such an enjoyable movie. Plenty of twisted lines, and I should just copy a few. Most of the good ones are for Sidney. How can we root for a scum like that?

Steve
You've got more twists than a barrel of pretzels

That's fish, four days old. I can't buy it!

Weldon
It's a dirty job, but I pay clean money for it!

Leo's Wife

What is this, chess or checkers...?

JJ

I'd hate to take a bite outta you. You're a cookie full of arsenic

Match me, Sidney!

Everybody knows Manny Davis, except Mrs.Manny Davis
My right hand hasn't seen my left hand in thirty years
I love this dirty town
Conjugate me a verb. For instance: to promise
I'm a schoolboy - teach me, teach me

Sidney

I left my sense of humor in my other suit

Watch we run a 50 yard dash with my legs cut off

A press agent eats a columnist's dirt and is expected to call it manna
Start thinking with your head instead of your hips
I don't think you got the cards to blitz me

Take your hand off, lump!

Let's forget cats and dogs and other pseudo-literary remarks

Give him credit, the boy's gall is gorgeous!

She almost followed him out the window

I get a felling this was a template for FrankMilller's SinCity movie(s), those strait faces, heavy voices, the weird wind, camera searching a character.

The first F1 of the season has just begun and the start was a fail so they start again. Looks like the Ferraris are in, strong, in a one-two.

The cop guy is very nice. And when I say nice I also refer to the fact that there is no killer in this movie. I kept expecting the death(literal) of one in the main cast, as I thought this is a feature of a noir film, a death connected to the beautiful woman, but when the action guy says he will not do that even for his own column(reminding me of ”will do everything for love”, but I must fuck you tonight or else), I was sure he was referring to murder. Perhaps, this being a story inspired by real people, they thought it dangerous to add the supreme crime and just toned-down the violence. 

What they don't go shy on, is corruption, influence and the ill effects of papers in those days. News had the power to bring down a man, or to redefine a person and this is what they actually did. Just like ”Ace in the Hole”, a writer is very little concerned with facts and takes advantage in using the tool to it's full potential. The news is a machine, that when used ”properly” it is in fact being suffocated, tied up. News is alive, when used at full throttle, like in these movies.

So Rosberg wins, Verstapen goes crazy and goes out of points, Alonso has one of the worst crashes I have ever seen on TV(gets out on his feet, looking ok), Bottas goes from 16th to 8th and the Ferraris only get a third position.

I just love the lighting in this picture. And since I have little to no idea what lighting is or how it is done, I will rephrase it and go for: I love the composition in most frames. Clear distinction between light and dark, well balanced, lots of details in the grey helping the overall. Like the police sign in the windshield of the police car, going on-and-off.

Montana

It seems to me that the aglaonema plant in the film Leon, has the main purpose of showing the viewer the passage of time, since the plant is placed in the window in the mornings and taken inside in the evenings. If that is the case, it is a very cleaver idea.

Pledge of Allegiance

<<At a signal from the Principal the pupils, in ordered ranks, hands to the side, face the Flag. Another signal is given; every pupil gives the flag the military salute — right hand lifted, palm downward, to a line with the forehead and close to it. Standing thus, all repeat together, slowly, "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands; one Nation indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all." At the words, "to my Flag," the right hand is extended gracefully, palm upward, toward the Flag, and remains in this gesture till the end of the affirmation; whereupon all hands immediately drop to the side.>>

The Youth's Companion, 1892

Syrian kid dies: The Cartoon

*One of their own, defeated so totally. It definitely increases the family's pain, and hatred towards fate, and the fate-helpers. I mean the people that helped create, escalate the situation. They had to run away from bombs, in order to save their lives, because of their corrupt guv., terrorists, gun suppliers, and many more. So it is only natural that they will feel aversion towards any party suspected of involvement. It makes Muslims feel helpless and unwanted.

*It definitely increases shame, and guilt in occidentals. No one knows why and how but there is a general consensus that the Occident has somehow meddled in Middle East, making things worst.Many Occidentals feel it is exclusively the Occident's fault for all misdeeds in the Orient, and for that matter in the whole world. That could not be true. Not entirely.

*There are migrants and refugees. Whichever the kid was, he was definitely a living human being, a person with all the rights a man should have. Showing him in that context diminishes him, and his kin, dehumanizing them. Makes them all pitiful, frail, puppets. Takes away the dignity of someone who could have had the same potential of any other kid in the ”free” world. It shows a weak kid. Someone who was not strong enough to finish a race, let alone win anything(since there was nothing to gain_meaning there is no prize)

*The sign talks about a decadent society, only concerned with short term gains, disregarding all forms of life. A society that doesn't care about anyone, much less this dead kid. And it is that same society's big mouth(press) that starts screaming about a one dead kid, when the Arab world is plagued with thousands upon thousands of people dying, many, children, dying drowned in ditches. It's somewhat hypocrite to point to one victim, where there are millions. Of course this kid is special. He died for a purpose: Occident(small, but what a big heart). The sign talks about the ignorance of this kid, for he did not know that his goal was a mirage.

This image is offensive for all people looking at it. Both Muslims and Christians, both Arabs and Occidentals. It tells the first that they are foolish and the latter that they are fake.
Talk about killing two birds with one stone!

*There is a certain degree of arrogance in both images, in that Occidentals(in the kid image) and Jesus(in the other) are always in a privileged spot. In the image economy, one is above the other, one lives the other dies. Even if both are being insulted, ones are less. Even if it's mockery, it's like those blockbusters where all people die, but black, yellow, red, whatever people, die first. Like they are worth less. Is this because most people watching, the targeted viewers, are white-christian-occidentals? or rather, Why are these people the target? I any case, the composition suggests the cartoons are addressed to christian-occidentals. This would mean, Muslims should not feel offended since they are not the target here. So they are just collateral damage. Sad irony.


Update: