Although I regrettably have no pictures to show for it, I distinctly recall one Hallowe'en in my younger years where I was determined to dress as the Headless Horseman, with whom I was obsessed. This was a short-lived endeavor, however, as no one opening the first five doors I went to showed any recognition at the sight of a headless body holding a jack-o'-lantern. I went home. That's how a lack of culture on the part of my neighbors ruined my Hallowe'en. That's also how I suffered from a candy deficiency for the rest of that week.
I recently attended a cocktail party wherein I attempted to make something rhetorical out of Hallowe'en by bringing a grave-shaped box labeled "The Tea Party" in which I spun a top labeled "William F. Buckley". Buckley, a truly intellectual conservative, is thus spinning in his grave due to the actions of the Tea Party.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Friday, October 19, 2012
Network
"I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be! We know things are bad - worse than bad, They're crazy! It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone!' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone! I want you to get MAD! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad! You've got to say, "I'm a human being, goddammit! My life has value!" So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now, and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell: "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"
There's a reason this speech is #19 on the American Film Institute's list of the best movie quotes of all time. This speech is rather novel in comparison to other movie speeches, as it is delivered by a television personality on live broadcast. As a result, there is no particular character or set of characters that it is meant for, and it might just as well be addressed to the film audience as it is to the audience in the film.
Often has it been said that the television is a propaganda machine illustrating the fact that if anything is said often enough and loudly enough, it will be believed. Repetition, then, is both the act and the counteract in this case, as the character delivering the speech uses it in protest of the current state of affairs, as portrayed through media propaganda. By repeating the phrase, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore," he successfully drives home the point of his fury at the lack of efficacy of the general populace.
It must be remembered, however, that this speech is the collective ramblings of a half-crazed maniac, Howard Beale, who is broadcast only for shock value. Still, the exploitation of his words by the institution he wishes to destroy only makes his diatribe all the more poignant. Indeed, what starts out as an impassioned, but articulate speech on the dire state of world affairs gradually descends into an incoherent tirade, repeating the same sentence. This repetition is equally powerful when used in this way, as it apparently overtakes Beale himself and becomes him. The character is the phrase and the phrase is the character, an attitude which is never really dropped for the remainder of the film.
There's a reason this speech is #19 on the American Film Institute's list of the best movie quotes of all time. This speech is rather novel in comparison to other movie speeches, as it is delivered by a television personality on live broadcast. As a result, there is no particular character or set of characters that it is meant for, and it might just as well be addressed to the film audience as it is to the audience in the film.
Often has it been said that the television is a propaganda machine illustrating the fact that if anything is said often enough and loudly enough, it will be believed. Repetition, then, is both the act and the counteract in this case, as the character delivering the speech uses it in protest of the current state of affairs, as portrayed through media propaganda. By repeating the phrase, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore," he successfully drives home the point of his fury at the lack of efficacy of the general populace.
It must be remembered, however, that this speech is the collective ramblings of a half-crazed maniac, Howard Beale, who is broadcast only for shock value. Still, the exploitation of his words by the institution he wishes to destroy only makes his diatribe all the more poignant. Indeed, what starts out as an impassioned, but articulate speech on the dire state of world affairs gradually descends into an incoherent tirade, repeating the same sentence. This repetition is equally powerful when used in this way, as it apparently overtakes Beale himself and becomes him. The character is the phrase and the phrase is the character, an attitude which is never really dropped for the remainder of the film.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Darkness
I have a friend that had his right eye partially stabbed out in a rather absurd accident the summer after his eighth grade year. Sticks and sensory organs generally do not mix well, but the doctors put on their Merlin hats and conjured up an artificial lens through which he can now see. Except that he can't. He reads with his right shut and his pupils are unable to dilate or constrict, meaning that he has to close it when he walks into bright sunlight, as well. However, this means he can see very well in the darkness.
For some reason or other, I adjust very slowly to the darkness. Maybe my eyes can't dilate quickly enough, but I stand blinking long after everyone else has started running hurdle races at dusk. For an actor expected to run offstage as soon as the lights black out, this can be a problem. My friend, also an actor, were in a show together last summer and found a solution to this problem. Whenever the lights would go out and everyone rushed into the wings, he'd find me and the one-eyed invalid would lead me offstage. How I love irony.
For some reason or other, I adjust very slowly to the darkness. Maybe my eyes can't dilate quickly enough, but I stand blinking long after everyone else has started running hurdle races at dusk. For an actor expected to run offstage as soon as the lights black out, this can be a problem. My friend, also an actor, were in a show together last summer and found a solution to this problem. Whenever the lights would go out and everyone rushed into the wings, he'd find me and the one-eyed invalid would lead me offstage. How I love irony.
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