VDS on 300

Missed this review at the time, but it is pretty interesting in its defense of the film. ("Last Night at the 300" - at *shudder* National Review) Of course, he was involved in its making, but still he makes some good points about stylization. Matches my own sense that, despite the historical inaccuracies, it actually matches pretty well the mythic significance of the battle for Greek and later western culture. Of course, he has to take his shots at political rivals, and keep up his anti-gay biases. Also loved this part:

Oliver Stone's mega-production Alexander spent tens of millions in an effort to recapture the actual career of Alexander the Great, with top actors like Collin Farrel, Anthony Hopkins, and Angelina Joilie. But because this was a realist endeavor, we immediately were bothered by the Transylvanian accent of Olympias, Stone's predictable brushing aside of facts, along with the distortions, and the inordinate attention given to Alexander's supposed proclivities. But the "300" dispenses with realism at the very beginning, and thus shoulders no such burdens.

Thank you, George Sorel... myths don't have to be true so long as they are useful.

The Wave

Looks like Germany is producing another quasi-Nazi film based on American postwar experiments. Yahoo article annoys me to no end.

1. "Film shows Germans not immune to return of Nazis" -- as if it's a documentary.
2. Nobody has ever argued that Germans are immune to the return of Nazis.
3. Once again, American media displaces Nazism as an exclusively German problem. IT'S BASED ON AN AMERICAN INCIDENT!!!!! So the filmmakers have taken an episode the Americans have largely forgotten, re-set it in Germany -- and somehow the article paints this as evidence that the Germans are about to slip back into Nazism. The whole point of The Wave, and the Stanford Prison experiment, and the many others done in America in the 50s and 60s is to show how authority and conformity produce Nazi-like behavior - even in the supposedly liberal and responsible US.

China's "Manufactured Landscapes"

I saw a review of this a while ago but forgot to link. A new photography book and film survey China's landscapes of manufacturing: junk-yards of electronics goods, vast factories like human beehives. Could be a good last-week or China-week assignment. Digby reviews here.

Bollywood in Africa

Andrew Leonard posts at Salon about the growing popularity of Indian films in Africa, where postcolonial themes resonate:

The style of the movies and plots deal with the problem of how to modernize while preserving traditional values -- not usually a narrative theme in a Jean-Claude Van Damme or Steven Spielberg movie. Characters choose between wearing Indian or Western-style clothes; following religious or secular values; living with the masses or in rich, western style bungalows. Women often decide whether they should speak shyly to their lover or stand up, look him in the face and declare their love forcefully. Male stars are often presented with the choice between a "traditional" lover, who respects family and dresses modestly, and a modern woman who lives a rich, fast, life hanging around discos and hotels. The use of English by arrogant upper-class characters or by imperious bureaucrats; and even the endemic corruption of police and state officials, all present familiar situations for postcolonial Indian and African viewers.

Original article, "Bollywood Comes to Nigeria" here. (Samar, 1997)

Could be useful reading for a postcolonial discussion week, in combination with one or two films that demonstrate the above traits.