Randomnicity

Well, well. What with the old year passing, I've had myself a few days off from studying, days that I feel I used to great effect. I slept late. Ate a lot. Relaxed. Played (I think I'm going to be too embarrassed after all, so I'm not telling you what I played at). Oh, and watched a bunch of DVDs, which is what has inspired me to post on this bleary Monday over lunch. Here's what I've been watching over the last two days: "Transformers", the Michael Bay cartoon-gone-Hollywood-movie job, mindless dance flick "Stomp The Yard" and the oddball French offering of "Renaissance 2054". It was the latter that sparked a conversation with C on how films tend to transport a lot of intentional and, more interestingly, unintentional cultural information. From said conversation, here are some thoughts and observations.

(this image courtesy of www.globalsecurity.org)

First off, the French movie seemed to have a very different take on heroism from that portrayed in both the American productions. Captain Karas of the Paris police, the film's main character and "hero" is a loner, a guy who doesn't talk much, goes against orders at random, never finds a kind word for the members of his team, yet expects them to follow his every command even after he gets suspended some way into the story. He is portrayed not so much as a brooding, rough-exterior-but-good-heart type, but rather as a very self-centred and misanthropic hard man whose negative image is lightened very rarely by moments of friendliness or sympathy for others. His team (with the notable exception of one character, portrayed as a Spaniard) is slavishly devoted to him, however, and appears to expect, maybe even enjoy(?) the sadistic treatment they receive. This faithfulness apparently means nothing to Karas - in one scene, his second-in-command, father of a baby child, risks his life to meet Karas and give him important information on a case. Karas, knowing their meeting is being shadowed, takes off and leaves his colleague to be beaten up and tortured by thugs rushing onto the scene. This seems to contrast very markedly with your typical American movie where no-one gets left behind, the team leader always takes great care to ensure the safety of his team, etc.

(this image courtesy of www.carbodydesign.com)

Another trait that goes along similar lines is the apparent fallibility of the main character. Karas leaves behind a trail of dead bodies in his headlong rush to find an abducted scientist being held in a secret location. While this is not in itself unusual, the main difference to an American approach seems to be the way the movie itself passes moral judgment on its hero. There is no sense of "collateral damage", of necessary sacrifice for a higher cause in the way people get killed. Instead, Karas is shown failing to prevent a key witness from committing suicide. He fails to realise he is endangering people until they die. He shoots some bad guys trying to abduct another scientist, yet gets reprimanded by his superior for having entered the scientist's premises without a warrant, instead of being praised for his valiance. Overall, Karas is portrayed as both clumsy and highly naive, a hero whose dialogue is blunt and childlike, as is the way in which he sleeps with his main witness, the abductee's sister, then later lies to her about the abductee's fate.

(this one courtesy of www.cyberpunkreview.com)

The feeling both C and I got was that the movie was setting out to intentionally destroy any notions of there being a "good" and "bad" party - as Karas finally manages to locate and free Ilona, the abducted scientist, the plot takes a sudden turn that skews the viewer's perspective on both the rescuer and the rescued. I don't wish to give too much away here in case you haven't seen the film, but suffice to say the outcome is pretty much failure on every single count - the whole plot has been unraveled, dismounted, taken to pieces and scattered, leaving little room for conclusions as the credits roll by. There are no more good or bad guys, just a bunch of failures on different sides of a struggle. There is no happy or sad ending, just a sense of finality, of shoulder-shrugging "ah well, that's that, then. Let's move on." And, while I'm sorry for trotting out old stereotypes about our fellow Europeans, isn't that pretty much exactly the cliché of French thinking one has in mind? You know, cynicism mixed with bouts of heavy narcissism and something of a defeatist, "oh-what-the-hell" attitude? Gosh, reading myself writing these words I do feel like I'm being incredibly harsh! The thing is, I really love France, the people and their language as well as the beautiful country itself. So maybe I shouldn't even touch upon another thing that made me smirk - the fact that the whole plot is based upon a society's quest for immortality, surely the pinnacle of vanity and a distinctly ridiculous goal for anyone bar the most deludedly self-important. Oh dear - that came out even worse than I thought...

(this pic courtesy of www.ilovesubstance.com)

So, anyway, after noting all these apparent oddities about "Renaissance", I thought I should maybe compare and contrast what I perceive to be the French take on heroism, leadership and life in general with my perception of an American approach. Using both "Transformers" and "Stomp The Yard" as reference points, one thing immediately evident is that these films (and, I believe it's fair to say, the majority of US movies) have a very clear-cut view of good and bad that doesn't really change throughout their storylines. Also (and this was where I started to become a little more interested), both stories have clearly defined heroes who set out on adventures/missions that lead to their stories' conclusions. One thing I've noted previously and found repeated in these two representatives of Hollywood's output is that the hero of a story will be challenged to learn something new, to acquire abilities or rise above their own limitations in order to successfully achieve whatever goal has been set out for them. This has become a theme in movies so much that I guess most viewers might not even notice it being there. In "Stomp The Yard", main character DJ has to learn to think of others besides himself whereas "Transformers" gives a rendition of the familiar coming-of-age story (boyhood to manhood). However, the contrast with "Renaissance" could not be any clearer than at this point. Karas in "Renaissance" does not evolve as a character in any way throughout the film's duration. More of his history and emotional makeup is unveiled, yet at the end his personality remains unchanged. This was interesting to me for several reasons: one, I'm sure everyone must know by now just how all-important the American concepts of being self-made people and of the American dream in all its facets are for a stereotypical US mentality. So, seeing these concepts mirrored in products of US popular culture and assuming that such manifestations of identity are inevitable byproducts of society, what conclusion would looking at the French attitudes evidenced in the movie allow? To be honest, I haven't worked that one out myself yet.

(this is courtesy of www.netweed.com)

Secondly, the American movies were all about winning, about achieving a goal no matter what and hang the consequences. Sam and the Autobots in "Transformers" manage to destroy the source of conflict in their movie (and most of the bad guys, too), but not without leaving a trail of horrific devastation, of destroyed city centres, military bases and of hundreds of spent lives behind them. DJ in "Stomp The Yard" gets the girl and helps his team win the all-important dance contest, but all he seems to have learnt from his brother dying at the beginning of the movie is to hold back a little on his ego. Yes, I know, this is where my comparison starts running very thin on its viability - one probably shouldn't compare light entertainment with supposedly aspiring and self-proclaimedly artistic productions. However, I did think with both Hollywood flicks that there was absolutely no sense of remorse, of humility caused by realising what one had done to others in order to achieve one's own success. But there you go - I'd be the first to cede that I shouldn't be comparing apples and pears simply because they go towards confirming my own biased assumptions quite nicely. And with that, I will have to end for now - this has already taken up way too much of my time. So, until some day in the future, cheerio and feel free to comment if you like (in English or German).