Rhonda Does Research: 2013

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Rhonda Rants: As a Christmas Movie, It's a Wonderful Life Sucks! Part 2

A distraught George Bailey (James Stewart) pleads for help from Mr. Potter. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At this point, I have to quote The Movie Waffler, Eric Hillis, who writes, "So, what makes a perfect Christmas movie? The evidence would suggest it should be at least three hours long, a flop on its original release and terrifying for children. A 180 minutes extended cut of Willy Wonka sounds just right."
Oh, those terrifying oompah-loompahs! He has a point-- but only insofar as really superficial qualities that seem to correlate to success. Obviously, I'm not the only person writing about the genre this year (or any other), and any characteristics I come up with are open to challenges, but I'm going to take a stab at it.
1. It must be set during the holiday season.
2. The traditional Christmas ideals and values must underlie the plot and theme, with the aim of encouraging viewers to be better people and care more about their fellow humans.
3. It must, at some point, be heartwarming.
4. It must have a happy ending that satisfies.

That's not a lot, but It's a Wonderful Life only meets number 1 completely, with a possibility of number 3 for some viewers (not me). In contrast, Die Hard and Lethal Weapon qualify for 1, 3, and 4, and they are generally considered NOT to be Christmas movies (because of no. 2).   In fact, the point of IaWL seems to be that George has a disappointing life because he is a good person, which certainly doesn't encourage good behavior -- Mr. Potter's only disappointment in life is that he hasn't managed to shut George down. Otherwise, his life -- even with whatever caused his disability -- appears to have been just ducky.

IaWL is about a man who wants to kill himself because he is going to go to prison for a crime he did not commit and thinks that his family would be happier without him and with his life insurance. Lethal Weapon is about a man who wants to kill himself because his beloved wife died. So, George has less reason for suicide, yet it takes an angel to stop him. Martin Riggs, on the other hand, wants to die because of love, but he manages to find the strength to go on without divine intervention. Isn't he a better role model for people in despair?

But that's beside my main point. The real problem for me is number 4:   It must have a happy ending that satisfies. This is where IaWL completely drops out of any list, or should. (and this is also where I really wish I could lay my hands on Rebbie's copy of Connie Willis's "Miracle" -- she does a terrific job of explaining this). Not only does the ending drip enough sap for a maple forest, GEORGE IS STILL GOING TO JAIL! As Willis notes, giving back the money does not solve the problem: the missing money is a known fact, and even if the police don't want to prosecute, they will, and not just because Potter has the power to insist that the charges be pressed. Is the town going to support his family while he's away? How is he going to feel about that? Suicidal again?  Are there angels in training lining up to save him every time something bad happens?

And the capper: POTTER GETS AWAY WITH IT!  And with the $8000, to boot, which should ease his pain until George goes to jail and the business fails. What kind of a Christmas movie lets a really evil villain off the hook? Only the folks at SNL had the guts to produce a good ending for the film (sadly, it's impossible to find at the moment, but you might enjoy Jimmy Kimmel's take on IaWL as presented by Fox News).

I want to finish by putting It's a Wonderful Life in another category altogether. It belongs on any list of good films that are hard to watch a second time. Once you realize that George is going to jail and Potter will triumph, the rest of the film leading up to the hokey, misleading ending feels like someone is trying to beat you to death with the irony stick.

So, merry Christmas, and you might to watch some real Christmas movies, like Miracle on 34th Street, Heidi (the Shirley Temple version, please), The Bishop's Wife, or your pick for the best adaptation of A Christmas Carol.

Rhonda Rants: As a Christmas Movie, It's a Wonderful Life Sucks! Part 1

Poster for IAWL (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you've been following this, you know that I just spent a semester working on a film analysis based on film genres. Well, yesterday I got into an argument with my friend Lisa about It's a Wonderful Life, and what we were really arguing, I decided later, was about the entire Christmas movie genre. Then I got up this morning and turned the tv on, only to find that it was set on the Hallmark Movie Channel, which is now showing (mostly) Christmas movies, most of them made for Hallmark, with some classics thrown in. It made me think over what Lisa said.

She's a big IaWL fan, even though she hates black-and-white movies in general. I like b/w movies, but I can't stand IaWL, even though I like everyone in it. If you're like Lisa, brace yourself -- I'm not going to show it any mercy. And, you might want to look into this issue-- there's plenty of discussion about it on the web, plus a great short story, "Miracle," by Connie Willis (award-winning s/f writer) that has a plot rooted in the flaws of IaWL.

To begin with, the film was a major flop in its original release for some very good reasons: it concerns a suicidal man who has had a life filled with so many disappointments that he can't see anything positive in it, so an angel shows him how much worse other people's lives (not his) would have been if he hadn't been born. You wouldn't think this would be very persuasive, since the main cause of all George's disappointments is his almost pathological need to sacrifice his own wants and needs for others. Basically, this film is a twist on Dickens's A Christmas Carol, just a bit more subtle about it than other films. There's one obvious parallel set piece: the dance at the high school gym, which is one of the few happy moments in the film, is the Fezziwigs' Christmas party in post-WWII drag, but other parallels are there throughout. The bottom line is that it was too grim for its time (there were other factors as well, things like how it was released to theaters, etc.), and it sank into obscurity until something that had nothing to do with its merits turned it into a Christmas staple: copyright laws.

I first got this story from my mother, who also doesn't get IaWL as a Christmas movie. According to her, she never saw the film until the late '70s, when all of a sudden it was all over television (at a time when there were only 7 or so channels in the Chicago market), except for the three major networks. The reason for this was that its copyright had ended and it was in the public domain: all the tv stations needed was a copy to show-- they did have to pay some royalties, but they didn't have to make deals to buy packages of films (the usual way things worked then), which meant it was as close to pure profit for them as they could get. This situation went on through the 1980s (showings fell off somewhat over time, because people could only take so much), with the start of home video. You could get copies from a bunch of different companies, all with different covers and of different quality (some were made from really crummy prints). Then, one fateful day, it all ended.

The way she remembers it is that it was discovered that a song in the film was still under copyright, which may or may not be true (I haven't looked hard enough to find anything on it), but according to Wikipedia (a source that may or may not be as reliable as my mother), it was the original source material, the short story "The Greatest Gift," that was still under copyright, and "In 1993, Republic Pictures, which was the successor to NTA, relied on the 1990 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Stewart v. Abend (which involved another Stewart film, Rear Window) to enforce its claim to the copyright. While the film's copyright had not been renewed, Republic still owned the film rights to 'The Greatest Gift'; thus the plaintiffs were able to argue its status as a derivative work of a work still under copyright" (Wikipedia).

My point in telling you this is that through the relentless bombardment of tv broadcasts coinciding with their own Christmas experiences, people were brainwashed into thinking that IaWL is a good Christmas movie. They associate it with good times that happened while the film was on their tvs, and it became a Christmas tradition that was interrupted for a while until NBC got a license to air it (but only twice a year). By that time, people were jonesing for it, possibly in a literal sense. I can just imagine whole families not knowing how to begin their celebrations without seeing the film first to trigger all their memories.

All of this doesn't get me to discussing why it's no good as a Christmas movie, but that's okay. I'll do it in my next post.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Guess Who's a New Metaphor for Annoying

English: Patrick Sharp of the Chicago Blackhaw...

Not Annoying: Patrick Sharp of the Chicago
Blackhawks takes practice shots.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My last post for the semester has only the slightest connection to my writing. A couple of weeks ago, according to one of my classmates this morning, Marc Giangreco, the ABC7 (Chicago) sports anchor, was talking about the Phoenix Coyotes, who were playing the Blackhawks that night. He said something like "these guys are almost as obnoxious as Miley Cyrus." I don't know about that, but it must be hard to be the new synonym for annoying. Personally, I think she comes off as desperate and she makes people uncomfortable, which I guess could be interpreted as obnoxious.

And now I've got my 20 posts.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Is the BBC's Atlantis Neo-Mythology?

Cast of BBCAmerica's Whitechapel

Yes, I thought of something to write about! And it only took a couple of minutes, thanks to BBCAmerica sending me an email (I signed up when they were showing Whitechapel last year. I hear that Whitechapel has been cancelled, which, imho is a crime. It just may be the best thing I've seen on any channel in the last couple of years, and it got me watching other shows on BBCAmerica for the first time) about their new show, Atlantis.

The story here is initially set in the present day, but Jason (the hero) gets sucked into ancient Atlantis somehow when he's searching the ocean for his missing father. If this present-day action can be counted-- it's probably not even five minutes -- then it looks to me like the show meets all of the neo-mythology genre requirements. The best thing in the show so far is Mark Addy as Hercules. He sort of reminds me of Oliver Platt playing Paul Bunyan in Tall Tale, a movie I liked a lot as a kid. Like Platt, Mark Addy is nothing like what most people imagine Hercules would be. He's not very tall, he's the opposite of buff 'n cut (to put it nicely), and he seems to have a drinking problem.

Unfortunately, the stories so far aren't as fun as Addy's take on Hercules, but it has some potential for improvement, as my mother would say. I hope it does improve, especially since it's already been renewed for a second season, which makes me resent the cancellation of Whitechapel even more.

And now I'm really ticked off, because as I was going over the related articles offered by Zemanta, I saw one about how Ripper Street is now cancelled, too. Waaaaah! It's a world gone mad.

Three to Get Ready

Pageant of American Literature, view 1
(Photo credit: CT State Library)

Yep, I still need three more posts to get full credit, and they have to be done in time to turn in the hard copy with my portfolio by 8am tomorrow. I'm not too sure that I'm going to make it. The rest of the portfolio is good to go -- I finished the cover essay pretty quickly, for once -- but I'm having trouble thinking of anything to write about in these last few entries.

I got all the classes I wanted for spring semester, so that's good, but I just heard that they're not offering Masterpieces of American Literature over the summer, which is bad. I wanted to take that to fill out my gen-eds before I transfer to a four-year school (which one, I don't know yet) because I already know something about it (unlike geology, ugh), and I thought I could manage a good grade in it, even at the faster summer pace. On the other hand (what was the first hand?), I can work more hours if I'm not taking any classes, and I really do need the money.

I've made length now, but this is the most pathetic post I've written so far.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Film Analysis Isn't Just for Scholars: Catching Fire with Katniss

Catching Fire Edit.jpeg (Photo credit: 1:00 AM)

I still don't wanna work on my projects, but I got a few things done yesterday, which is good. What's bad is that I keep coming across things that seem a lot more interesting, and they're distracting me (of course, if I were doing what needs to be done in the first place, I'd never know about them). So, as part of my work-stalling routine, today I checked in at FlickeringMyth.com, and there was an article about The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Not too surprising so far, but bear with me. I was kind of stunned to realize that the author is doing the sort of thing I've spent the last ten weeks doing: analyzing a film and arguing a point in a "scholarly" way. He only quotes one outside source (Caroline Williams, who is presumably a feminist critic), so it's like a research paper without much secondary research, just the primary stuff, the film. Dr. Toffee told us that people were writing this kind of thing and publishing it, but I don't think I believed her until now. And it's really interesting.

The point that the author, Paul Risker, is making is that the character of Katniss "is meticulously constructed to be an idealised role model," and he argues this with a lot of support from the text. The "meticulous construction" is the thing that strikes me as the key to why The Hunger Games works as a whole, and here I've got to refer to the last big thing, the Twilight saga. I never got into that, mainly because the heroine is so . . . well, boring doesn't begin to capture what she is. She's self-absorbed and selfish, she uses people who care about her, and she's pretty much unlikeable, as far as I'm concerned. My point here is that she is no kind of a role model for anybody who has anything resembling self-respect. Now, I'm not looking for a role model myself, but I can see that Risker is right about what the films do with Katniss. However, he also seems to feel that she's a bit too perfect, and I have to disagree on that score. She's not flawless.

Anyway, I'm thankful (ahead of time) that he gave me something to write about so that I'm getting close to hitting my goal of 20 posts for the semester.

Monday, November 25, 2013

I Don't Wanna . . .

screeches and whines (Photo credit: Lettuce.)

I have the whole week off from school this week (but I still have to work -- especially on Friday. I hate working retail), and, after a weekend where I accomplished exactly nothing, I'm facing facts.

Fact number 1 (just in the order it occurs to me, not ranked as to importance): I have 5, yes, 5 projects to finish before the end of next week, and the thought of working on them makes my head hurt.

Fact number 2: If I don't keep up with my coursework, I'll probably be stuck working retail forever. (Hey, Dr. Toffee, you'll be pleased to know that I know that this is a slippery slope logical fallacy)

Fact number 3: Somehow, I have managed to wind up having no money again, just when Christmas is coming and there's a lot of stuff I want to do (movies, parties, etc.) besides buying gifts.

Fact number 4: Thanksgiving is coming at me like an out-of-control steamroller. If I could have moved into my own place by now, I could just show up at Mom's on Thursday, eat my turkey, help with the dishes, and go home. But because I live at Mom's, I'm responsible for a bunch of time-consuming chores that nobody will notice unless I don't do them. Really, I guess that even though I want to help out, what I want more is not to have to help out.

Conclusion: I am selfish, self-indulgent, and lazy.

However, as you can see, I am writing this post, so I am working on one of my projects, finally, which means that I have crawled out of my lair and started to face reality.

But I still don't wanna.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Kinda/sorta off Topic: NBC's Dracula

Bram Stoker's (1847-1912) Notes on the
personal for his novel Dracula.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My sister Rebbie used to be a semi-goth; she has pretty good taste in clothes, so she never went the full route on it, but she did wear a lot of black and brood a lot and so on. Anyway, she was watching the new Dracula series the other night, and I tried to watch it with her, but I just couldn't get into it. I don't understand why they have him pretending to be an American, for one thing. Yes, it looks gorgeous, but I'm just not that interested in it. When it was over, I asked her what she saw in it. She said, "I'm trying to make my mind up about it."
That made me feel better. What I'm thinking now is that it almost fits into the neo-mythology genre, except they aren't really telling a new story, at least not so far. The other thing I'm thinking is that the book Stoker wrote has been adapted in a bunch of different ways, but one thing that all of them (as far as I know, since I haven't seen them all, I'm sure) have in common is that there is never a clear hero (the van Helsing character comes closest, but he's usually advising younger men on how to deal with vampires rather than enacting a monomyth), which is the way the book is, too. So, not neo-mythology, but . . .
The difference with this Dracula is that the show follows him as much as it does the other characters, or even more. Maybe that's my problem with it. In a way, it kind of reminds me of The Count of Monte Cristo (the Jim Caviezel one), where the audience is in on his plans. I guess I don't want to know that much about Dracula himself -- I like following all the clues that the characters miss until van Helsing shows up to set them straight. But I can see where that would be a problem for anyone trying to make a series out of it, since it would have to end sooner rather than later, or turn into a soap opera (and maybe that's the vibe I'm getting from the show) where week after week they try and fail to stop him. I guess we'll see.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

What's in a Title?

Old bottles of wine aging by candle light
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The mouse is dead! A good thing, too, because I was starting to think that Rebbie needed her eyes (or maybe her mind) examined. Anyway, I'm still revising my research paper, and I finally came up with a title that I like. Dr. Toffee wants us to try to use what she calls a "double-barrelled" title, which just means a title with a subtitle, divided by a colon. And, I guess she's right, because all of the articles I've looked at for my project have that kind of title.

I was home for dinner last night, for once, and the 'rents were asking me about how my classes were going. I never know how to answer that in a way that won't have them giving me advice or a lecture (you know what I mean!). I didn't even mention geology, because that would have brought on the lecture for sure, but I talked about my PJ1 paper to distract them, since that seems to be going okay. When I explained what it was about, they were both interested, and we talked about neo-mythology until we were done eating. One of the things my dad said gave me an idea. He said, "so, it's like new wine in old bottles, isn't it?" I'd never heard that expression before, but in a way, he's right. The filmmakers aren't using their old bottles (existing mythology/folklore) to trick the audience, but it is kind of a selling point just the same.

And, that's why I've decided to call my paper "New Wine in Old Bottles: Neo-Mythology and Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief." I like it.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

The Last Neo-Mythology Characteristics

English: This image outlines the basic path of the monomyth, or "Hero's Journey". (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I've been so busy (and grossed out over the mouse, which is still missing) that I almost forgot to finish my model explanation. So, the third characteristic is that the story using existing mythology is new: new plot, new hero(es).  This is sort of self-explanatory, isn't it? Some films that fit into this category have more new aspects than others, but I'm not going to rule any out on this basis.
The fourth requirement is that the setting must be at least partly in the current reality. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief  has Mt. Olympus at the top of the Empire State Building and the entrance to Hades via the Hollywood sign, both of which are instantly recognizable to most people on the planet, I would guess. Of course, this definitely rules out Tolkein, but I think that's very reasonable. Yes, it's a new (20th century) mythology, but as for genre, it's traditional fantasy.
And lastly, number 5 is that it must be a quest. I'd almost have to say that this would rule out the Twilight movies, since I can't see anything like a hero's journey (I can't even see a hero!) in them, but I don't want to argue about it, so if anybody wants to take it on, they're getting a free pass from me.
And that's that.

Sunday, November 10, 2013

The Case of the Missing Mouse

The Missing Mouse (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It may seem as though I've fallen behind again, but I haven't. About a week ago, my sister Rebecca saw (or did she?) a mouse run under my desk, which is fortunately not in my bedroom, or I wouldn't have slept for days by now. I can't stand mice. It's not a question of being afraid of them; they are just so repulsive, so disgusting, that I feel like barfing when I see one. Rebbie has been letting me use her laptop since then, and I managed to get my draft finished in time. Now that it's been so long and none of the traps have been sprung, I figure it's safe to use my own computer, which has all of the stuff I need for this blog, so I'm back.

Just in case you were wondering.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Two Demigods and a Satyr Walk into Medusa's Lair . . .

Perseus with the head of Medusa,
by Antonio Canova, completed 1801
(Vatican Museums)
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Starting with number 1 from the list in my last post, it should be obvious to those who have seen the film or read the book that Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief is based on already existing Greek mythology: he's the son of Poseidon, his real first name is Perseus (the original Perseus's father was Zeus, but that's another myth), and he is destined to be a hero. The second requirement is also obvious, because as the film goes on Percy encounters all kinds of elements, fighting mythological monsters like the Minotaur, Medusa, and a hydra, meeting Chiron, visiting the land of the lotus eaters, and so on, but these, except for Chiron, whose role in the myths was as the mentor/trainer of demigods, are all serving different functions in this story than they did in the Greek myths.

And that's just for starters. There's more to come.

At Long Last, NEO-MYTHOLOGY Is Here!

English: Various mythos. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I'm taking a break from working on my research paper draft (it's due on Thursday, sigh) because I need one and because I've finally got my critical model in a finished state, or so I hope. It works not just for Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief but also for a bunch of other films. So, here are the defining characteristics of the Neo-Mythology genre:
1. The film (or book, too, I guess) is based on already existing mythology and/or folklore.
2. It uses elements (characters, plot points, etc.) from that mythology/folklore for other than their original purposes.
3. It creates a new story out of that material.
4. It is set in a hidden reality that secretly co-exists with the known current reality.
5. It is in the form of a quest.

I'll discuss these in my next post (since I've met the required 100-word length already).

Monday, October 14, 2013

Another "Sword-and-Sandals" is Coming

Gladiator (Hercules: The Legendary Journeys) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I've been following the Flickering Myth website for a while now, and yesterday they had an item about Hercules: The Legend Begins (not to be confused with Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, the '90s tv show with Kevin Sorbo), which is coming out next spring. The trailer that was just released for the movie bears out almost everything I've been reading in my sources. It's become obvious to me that this genre is alive and well, and it looks like my research paper (which I need to begin drafting next weekend at the latest) is going to use sword and sandals as a basis for arguing that Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief represents either a subgenre of it or a "sibling" genre to it, which I am going to call neo-mythology.

Who Doesn't Love Big Sweaty Men with Swords?!!

Conan the Barbarian (1982 film)
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Warning: if it seems like I am getting away from Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief at times, please bear with me -- it'll all make sense in the end.

Okay, so now, what about pepla? I found a terrific article (citation below) by Robert A. Rushing, titled "Gentlemen Prefer Hercules: Desire | Identification | Beefcake." It looks like Rushing is talking precisely about what my mother meant by "gladiator movies." And he goes on to discuss them in a way that may be the reason my mom was kind of laughing when she talked about them. Apparently, the big deal about the Italian pepla is their homoerotic appeal. I haven't actually seen the movies he discusses, but he explains the genre pretty well, and I can see some/a lot of the elements in movies I have seen, like 300, Conan the Barbarian (the Schwartzenegger one), and The Scorpion King (you gotta love The Rock). Rushing points out that these films "appear to have been consumed primarily by heterosexual, adolescent male viewers, an audience that would seem to have needed some way of negotiating the highly visible and eroticized spectacle of the male body that these films traditionally presented" (162). So, the primary demographic here was not gay men, but homoerotic element does not seem to deter heterosexual males from watching them.

Naturally, after reading this, I had to talk to my mom again, and this time she was giggling. "I knew you'd figure it out sooner or later," she said, which wasn't exactly an apology.

Rushing, Robert A., "Gentlemen Prefer Hercules: Desire | Identification | Beefcake." Camera Obscura 23.69 (Sept 2008): 158-191. Print.
(note: still haven't figured out how to do a hanging indent here. Sorry for you MLA purists)

And Then There's the Gladiator Genre

Gladiator fights at "Brot und Spiele", Germany's biggest Roman festival (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Everytime I think I'm starting to get a handle on things, I come across a new source that forces me to rethink everything I thought I had resolved. This time, it's my mom. I was talking to her yesterday about how much work this is turning out to be, and she wanted to know all about it. When I told her about my neo-mythology idea, she said, "you mean like gladiator movies?" Aargh! So, I had to ask what that meant, and I'll just summarize her explanation.

Gladiator movies, according to Mom, were all over the place in the '50s and '60s, especially at drive-ins and on late-night television. The hero was obviously a bodybuilder and was usually dressed in a way that exposed his chest and most of his legs. He always won his fights through his superior strength, and you could never remember the storyline afterwards.

This sounds to me like what they call pepla, and I'll have more to say about that next time.

Falling Behind in Mythic Fashion

And I Was There (Photo credit: Brave Heart)

Yeah, I'm behind again. I've turned in my annotated bibliography, and I'm revising my literature review. For now, I'd like to talk about one of the books I'm using. It's Rick Altman's Film/Genre, and it's pretty much invaluable for my project, mainly because he covers all of the issues about genre criticism as an approach. He's apparently an expert on musicals but writes on other genres as well, including sword and sorcery, but he doesn't say anything about sword and sandal, biblical, or pepla. I've gotten some good material, and the way he talks about specific films has given me a feel for how to use this approach on PJ1.

Altman, Rick. Film/Genre. London: BFI, 1999. Print.

Monday, September 16, 2013

Sword and Sandal, Neo-Mythology, and Percy Jackson, Part 2

עברית: Biblical Sandal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

continuing from the last post

I know I can't use Wikipedia as a source in my literature review, but it had a really interesting entry on sword and sandal films, not to mention a whole lot of discussion on their Talk page, where the contributors hash out any problems with the entries. Based on what I read there, it looks like you really can't call Percy Jackson/ Lightning Thief a sword-and-sandal movie, mostly because it has high production values and isn't Italian. That sounds crazy, I know, but if you read the Wikipedia entry, it'll make sense. So, I've decided to go with Neo-mythology, which was mentioned in the entry as having been coined as a term by an Italian film director, Vittorio Cottafavi, who apparently just didn't like "sword and sandal" (I don't blame him, because it does sound kind of low rent).

All this led me to my proposal for the project. What I'm proposing is to establish neo-mythology as a subgenre of action/adventure, based on PJI. I need to find scholarly sources on the sword-and-sandal genre so that I can compare and contrast, and my research question is "Is Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief a sword-and-sandal film?" I'm going to argue that while it fits a lot of the criteria for s-and-s, it's something different.

I turned it in on Thursday, and I've got my fingers crossed.

Sword and Sandal, Neo-Mythology, and Percy Jackson, Part 1

English: The Jules Verne Festival launch in
Los Angeles, October 2006.
L-R: Ray Harryhausen, Harrison Ford,
Malcolm McDowell, Jane Goodall,
James Cameron, George Lucas.
Front: Jules Verne Festival founders
Jean-Christophe Jeauffre and Frédéric
Dieudonné. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I've been thinking so much about my project that I completely forgot to post last week, but I should be making up for that in the next few days; in fact, I have to split my entry for today into two posts (it's just too long). It all started with a talk I had with my dad. He asked what I was working on, and for a minute, it was like I was back in the third grade -- what he really wanted to know was if I needed help with my homework. And, just like back in the day, he came through for me. He reminded me of when he took my sister Rebbie and me to see Jason and the Argonauts at some really weird theater when we were kids. It was part of some film group's -- I don't know what to call it; not a festival, but like a special program or something. Anyway, he said that Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (from now on, I'm gonna abbreviate that to PJI) made him think of Ray Harryhausen (and I'm not going to get into who he is/was, so if you don't know, follow the link), who is apparently a favorite of his, which is why he took us to see Jason and the Argonauts.
What I remembered about the movie was the fight with the skeletons and the scene with the harpies-- and I think the harpies are what made Dad see a connection. In PJI, there is a scene near the beginning where a fury attacks Percy in a museum, kind of like the harpies in JATA. So, I asked him what genre he thought JATA was, and he said that he thinks it's called "sword and sandal." Based on that, I started doing some web searching (mainly to get terms to use for searching later in scholarly databases), and that's where I'll leave it for now.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

What about the fantasy-adventure genre?

Strange Fantasy 01
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The critical approach that I'm taking for my research project is genre criticism, and the film I'm analyzing is Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. My understanding of this approach is that it looks at how a film fits into an established genre, or doesn't. Science fiction and fantasy is one of those genres, as is Action/Adventure, and it seems that my film fits into both, but it's not really science fiction or action: it's fantasy-adventure. Beyond that, it is also part of a subgenre that features kids as the heroes.

And there's the problem for me as well as the benefit. It seems to me that I'm going to be trying to identify and define a new(ish) category, so there might not be a lot of material available on this genre (bad) while I will have to do a lot to explain my model (good, in terms of meeting the length requirement). Not only that but I have to include a lot of different films if I stick to what I have so far. The characteristic that all of them share is that the adults are not involved in the stories except as villains or advisors (and their advice is frequently ignored by the kids). However, I think that I have to exclude all of the teen-dystopia films (like The Hunger Games), because some of them are almost horror films, going all the way back to the first Halloween, which actually is a horror film. And that's just the start!

This is going to take a lot of thinking. I'm hoping to get started on my library research in the next week.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Smells Like Teen Romance?

City of Glass (Mortal Instruments)
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I'm supposed to be explaining my critical model right now, but I'm going to save that for next time. I've just been reading the genre page from the critical model packet for the course, and the example it gives made me think about what I've been hearing about The Mortal Instruments movie. It's being savaged in the blogosphere for being either a Harry Potter or a Twilight ripoff, which, given the source material (the book by Cassandra Clare) seems unfair to me -- the book is soooooo much better than any of the Twilight series, having solid, interesting characters and a lot of humor, particularly in the dialogue. Now, I haven't seen the film, but the posters and trailer have me worried -- they're pretty grim, and I'd hate to think that the filmmakers decided to cut all the bantering out. If they did, then I could see where you might compare it to the death march that is the Twilight saga.
The example in the packet is this:
"As an example of a potential basis for an essay, consider this question: although there are vampires in the film Twilight, does it fit the horror subgenre of vampire films in a significant way? I’d say no, and I’d even go so far as to say that it doesn’t belong to what might be called the sub-subgenre of vampire romance either. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a teenage relationship drama that just happens to have vampires in it, and that would be my thesis." (7)
The Mortal Instruments books, if not the movie, have more in common with The Avengers than they do with Twilight. Although there are romantic relationships, these books are mainly hero quests (with multiple heroes, like The Avengers), which is actually something they have in common with Harry Potter. In any event, I can't afford the time or the money to see the film; I'll have to wait for the DVD, as usual.
Back to Percy Jackson . . .

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