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Re: MY LAST WORD ON THE LOST WORLD
>To: franczak@ntplx.net
>From: rasgt@charm.net (William C. Ward)
>Subject: Re: MY LAST WORD ON THE LOST WORLD
>Cc:
>Bcc:
>X-Attachments:
>
>>Sabrina S. Cox wrote:
>>
>>> Here's something I learned in high school: WILLING SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF
>>
>>Finally!
>>
>>My beef with JURASSIC PARK (and I'm certain with the forthcoming THE LOST
>>WORLD as well) is *not* that it's full of misinformation about dinosaurs
>>(even though it *is*), but with the fact that it's A GODAWFUL PIECE OF CRAP
>>AS A FILM! ...
>
>(snipped)
>
>Okay, it's not Lawrence of Arabia....
>
>>....One man's trash is another man's treasure, as the saying goes. But I
feel sorry for them,
>>though, because they're being ripped off and they don't even know it. The
>>new Hollywood mentality of film as a rollercoaster ride -- that special
>>effects are more important than plot and characterization -- scares me, to
>>be quite honest....
>
>(snipped)
>
>Uhh, new Hollywood mentality? I daresay that this mentality has existed at
least since the serials of the 1930's and there were ton's of rip off
cliffhangers and plot contrivances in those.
>
>
>>And it's sad, too, because we're *all* being ripped off by
>>being deprived of good, honest films. Does anyone out there really believe
>>that 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY could be made today? Call me snotty, but I
>>demand more for my money.
>
>You are not snotty, but we're talking filet mignon and hamburger helper
here. I recently showed my laserdisc special widescreen edition of 2001 to a
friend from work and he didn't like it. He thought Kubrick could have gotten
his point across in a number of scenes more effectively and faster. I
disagreed. He hated it. I love it. Different strokes, different folks.
>
>>And a brief word about films attracting children to science... I think the
>>cart is being put before the horse here, kids. I've been interested in
>>natural history since I was four or five years old; when I was five, I told
>>my mom that I wanted to be a paleontologist when I grew up. I got the word
>>OUT OF A BOOK!
>
>Well, millions of people who don't give a damn about paleontology and
respiratory turbinates went to see it too, I guarantee you. They went to see
a rollercoaster of a movie (the kind of mentality that scares you for some
reason) and get frightened, surprised and amazed.
>
>The Star Wars movies (spaceships can bank and turn), Indiana Jones movies
(archaeology is fun and adventurous!), and the movie Jaws (Great Whites grow
this big since??) all have enormous inaccuracies in them. They are fun
movies. Period. They are not there to educate. They are there to thrill and
delight.
>
>Yes, you can't fill up on this stuff all the time, but I seem to remember a
number of extremely powerful films coming out in the past ten years that
were intelligent, thought-provoking, and extremely mature that did
gangbusters at the boxoffice as well. The rollercoaster rides get the press
and marketing (Sense and Sensibility Burger King promotion, anyone?) but the
sky really isn't falling. Or, if it is, it has been since the beginning of
film, because people have had the same complaints all along.
>
>>End of rant. Thank you for your time.
>>
>>Brian (franczak@ntplx.net)
>
>End of my rant. : )
>
>
>William C. Ward
>
>rasgt@charm.net
>
--------------------------------------------------
Sjt. William C. Ward
Williamson's Co.
4th Battn., Royal Regt. of Artillery
--------------------------------------------------
Where a goat can go a man can go,
and where a man can go he can drag a gun!
-Major General William Phillips, RA