tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32685968.post60384944099384110..comments2024-03-25T10:47:42.656-07:00Comments on Can't Explain: The White Ribbon (2009)Jeff Pikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17148737647138431543noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32685968.post-22274665692448080702012-10-24T09:28:29.175-07:002012-10-24T09:28:29.175-07:00True, but what's more striking to me than tens...True, but what's more striking to me than tensions between the two (which should exist, given the wildly different founding philosophies they entail, Protestant work ethic aside) is their weird political alliance.<br /><br /> The mishmash of ideology in America, where people loudly assert their adherence to syntheses that aren't even coherent but represent a grabbag of cultural marriages-of-convenience which have somehow ossified into political truisms... Well, its one of many things about our political landscape that drives me batty. (It's true, if not equivalent in scope, on the left too, where a smug coastal-city elitism is paired with populist-based economic policy; thankfully in recent years this trend seems to have subsided somewhat).<br /><br />Really I have to see the film again, initially I couldn't make heads or tails of it.Joel Bockohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11238338958380683893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32685968.post-78625054486107989502012-10-24T08:45:27.196-07:002012-10-24T08:45:27.196-07:00I think I might have agreed with you re: capitalis...I think I might have agreed with you re: capitalism/Christianity some time ago but I have been so amazed to watch evolution return to the public discourse as an issue, becoming nearly as contentious as it was during the Scopes trial in the 1920s, that I think the dynamic applies, at least in the U.S. Most of our political discussions seem to proceed from largely unexamined assumptions that are deeply rooted in either or both. This is depressing, of course, and also alienating for anyone who questions the efficacies of either or especially both. I am somewhat suspicious of Anderson myself. I wouldn't call myself a true believer -- very little that he does is unmarred by strange decisions. But that said his movies do continue to work on me. Haven't seen The Master yet -- still holding off because of trepidations (as I did for some time with TWWB too).Jeff Pikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17148737647138431543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32685968.post-20164811894465367892012-10-24T07:41:03.698-07:002012-10-24T07:41:03.698-07:00Yeah, for me There Will Be Blood does not work so ...Yeah, for me There Will Be Blood does not work so well as such (or overall, really) - among other things, I don't quite see the past century as a turf war between capitalism and Christianity. If that was what PT Anderson was going for which to be honest rather escaped me, as it often does with him. I'll be interested to see The Master at some point especially given what people are saying about it, pro and con. The allegation that there may not be a "there" there, that's something I felt with TWBB too. But I seem to be in the minority on that...Joel Bockohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11238338958380683893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32685968.post-40641234848222560892012-10-23T20:10:00.592-07:002012-10-23T20:10:00.592-07:00Thanks Joel! I think of PT Anderson too, especiall...Thanks Joel! I think of PT Anderson too, especially There Will Be Blood, another kind of 20th-century miniature. Tricky to do and lots of ways to go wrong, but exciting sometimes just to see it attempted. Jeff Pikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17148737647138431543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32685968.post-25674867700003608002012-10-23T12:40:47.744-07:002012-10-23T12:40:47.744-07:00I haven't seen The White Ribbon yet, and actua...I haven't seen The White Ribbon yet, and actually I didn't really know (or remember) what it was about. I love your description of it as a kind of allegory, a 20th-century-miniature; I think our cinema could use more of allegory, metaphor, and myth - it seems like only films ostensibly for kids strike a mythologizing note anymore, aside from all of David Lynch's work, the past decade for Lars von Trier, and perhaps a few other examples here or there.Joel Bockohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11238338958380683893noreply@blogger.com