I experienced Pan's Labyrinth again. The DVD arrived over a week ago but I delayed viewing until I felt in the mood to give the work my undivided attention. Usually when the story is familiar I lose the emotional engagement. Afterwards I attempted to obtain the Wikipedia review as a marker that I had seen the film again but was unable to find one, but what caught my eye was a review or Blog headed one of the greatest films of the 21st century. That is a premature boast given we are yet to completed its first decade, and in fact a judgement only possible in about a century from now. I suspect that by then it will be possible for everything we do and say to be experienced by anyone, anywhere, anytime with the technology and the only difference between what I do now and that situation is that there will have been a comprehensive record from birth and until death. Will the fictional film have been abandoned as all the real life events of everyone everywhere become viewable?
Pan's Labyrinth is a brilliant film combining the impact of the Spanish Civil War upon a small local community with the imagination of an unhappy young girl who has lost her father and whose mother has taken up with a previous acquaintance who becomes a ruthless local commander of the fascists, but he could just as well as have been a ruthless local commander of the communists. The mother character would have been happier living among the Maasai tribe which was the subject of Tribal Wives last night.
In the traditional Maasai Society which he film attempted to portray the female from girlhood is a slave of the men uneducated, doing all the work, circumscribed and a baby making machine as the position of the males is determined by the number of cattle and the number of children. Thus a successful and powerful male will continue to take girls from their puberty as wives until he drops dead. There are attempts to bring them into the modern world and provide education and health services and the clothing is commercially produced and he biggest cattle owner provide their first wives with a prefab type home compared to dung made wicker and thatched smoke filled hut of the nomadic cattle herders.
The subject of the film appeared to feel guilty at hating the lack of Hygiene and seemed to think that keeping young girl's in ignorance of how others lived was Ok . It seemed to centre on finding out that she had maternal instincts when holding a newly born child. Only at the end of the film did the truth strike her when the divorced sister of the local big wig destroyed her home and through her out of the village because he needed the space to house the cattle in safety from the approaching cattle fever.
The purpose of these films is to show the emptiness, isolation and unhappiness of the lives of Western liberated women. The more I think about this film and the series I conclude that it is evil in continuing to promote the mythology that the virtues of a tribal society outweigh its horrors. This is what the communists and fascists tried to create and which some politicians tend to embrace whatever their Party beliefs as soon as they get power. The trouble is that there are so many partially educated and gullible people who continue to accept developments which inevitably result in the horrors of tribalism, but I suppose there is always need for a quantity of such people to make any form of government work.
I was much happier dozing through the Black Knight during the afternoon after a lunch of beef stir fry. There is a film of the same name opening this week in theatres but I was and remain too lazy to find out the connection. In this film which appears to be part of a comic book type of series Ivanhoe and his mate Rebecca enter a monastic citadel when called in by the Abbot because his star pupil has been taken over by 1000 year old Black Magic demon out to destroy Ivanhoe and his good deeds. The core of the story is a labyrinth maze game in which Ivanhoe as the white knight races with the monk and his accomplice as the Black Night to reach the centre area of the board and gain power over a super demon devil. Nothing the Abbot can do will stop the game playing board until the good guys and gals realise that board game is merely the representation of events going on in the labyrinth below the citadel. The film is risible and it is difficult to see who would take it seriously now given that Abbot and Ivanhoe and his mate are educationally challenged as they give up their weapons to the monks because "we have no weapons in this place" and then set off to combat black magic and real devils with only their courage and their stupidity, Lara Croft was turning in her fictional grave throughout.
It was a contest between grey knights at end of term Prime Ministers Question Time. For once it was easy to predict what would happen. Grey Knight Cameron used the occasion to remind everyone about the failures of the Prime Minister and his administration, the failure to call the election which they could have won, the failure of the 10 pence tax and the latest gaffs one minute saying the majority of people would gain by the proposed changes to car tax levels then correcting the position by saying the majority would gain or experience no difference because in reality nearly twice as many people will pay more as those who will gain so that overall this is an increase in taxation until the cars are swapped for the lower taxed models. He opened the charade by asking who had thought up the bright idea expressed by the Home Secretary that those guilty of knife crime should be made to go hospital and see what they had done to their victims. What was said on live TV was clear and unambiguous and the subsequent retraction only underlined the Minister's failure to think of the implications of what she was saying before it was said. On the bright side because the questions were predictable the other grey knight, Prime Minister Brown was well briefed and well prepared and gave the Cameron a bruising verbal lashing which had it been delivered by Blair would have been more wounding. For once the part of the White Knight was well played by the Liberal Democrat Leader, what's his name? My money remains on Ms Harriet Harman though. The Glasgow by election result will govern if she is to become Labour's White Knight before or after the next General Election. Meanwhile the Winter of discontent begins as the Local Government workers hold a two day strike before the summer recess and school holiday to protest at being asked to take a wage cut with a less than inflation. This is a clever ploy by the anti government local authority employer organisations to lay the blame with the government while hoarding efficiency savings achieved over the past couple of years.. Labour is again caught in a trap of its own making.
The media last night was interestingly cool on Durham's move to placate its Members and supporters over the fiasco of the 20.20 match a week ago. The game, now against Glamorgan will take place next Tuesday and Durham announced on its website that it has decided to donate all proceeds to Charity and to charge adults £5 and for children to go free. Everyone who purchased tickets for the original night is to be reimbursed automatically the full amount or on submission of their ticket if they made a cash purchase. This is an excellent move both in accepting that the situation was badly handled on the day, however much it was the fault of Yorkshire and the English and Welsh Cricket Board and that without such a move it was unlikely the game would attract a good crowd. Although scheduled for 5pm because there are floodlights the game could be played until 10.45 if there is a weather governed difficulty in reaching a result. Neither regional TV evening news programme mentioned these developments although they may decided to leave publicity until the weekend and on Monday.
Meanwhile Yorkshire lost their second division 40 over televised match. Gough appeared in good spirits despite a couple of knocks but the rest of his team were clearly demoralised after being thrashed by Essex again. Essex are already playing Kent in the 50 over final at Lords but either the fall of the toss or the manipulation by the ECB has resulted in the two teams playing each other in the first semi final the following Saturday. This means that Middlesex will play either Durham or Glamorgan at 3pm giving these times more time to travel down, although the with the final not commencing until 7 it will be along days night return homeward, although little different from those who travel away to football games held in the evenings.
I have deliberately left until last that yesterday morning two TV repair men arrived and after pressing some buttons on the handset got it to work effectively. I slipped up at second level chess with as second loss although my win rate is 94% against 23% at Hearts.
Pan's Labyrinth is a brilliant film combining the impact of the Spanish Civil War upon a small local community with the imagination of an unhappy young girl who has lost her father and whose mother has taken up with a previous acquaintance who becomes a ruthless local commander of the fascists, but he could just as well as have been a ruthless local commander of the communists. The mother character would have been happier living among the Maasai tribe which was the subject of Tribal Wives last night.
In the traditional Maasai Society which he film attempted to portray the female from girlhood is a slave of the men uneducated, doing all the work, circumscribed and a baby making machine as the position of the males is determined by the number of cattle and the number of children. Thus a successful and powerful male will continue to take girls from their puberty as wives until he drops dead. There are attempts to bring them into the modern world and provide education and health services and the clothing is commercially produced and he biggest cattle owner provide their first wives with a prefab type home compared to dung made wicker and thatched smoke filled hut of the nomadic cattle herders.
The subject of the film appeared to feel guilty at hating the lack of Hygiene and seemed to think that keeping young girl's in ignorance of how others lived was Ok . It seemed to centre on finding out that she had maternal instincts when holding a newly born child. Only at the end of the film did the truth strike her when the divorced sister of the local big wig destroyed her home and through her out of the village because he needed the space to house the cattle in safety from the approaching cattle fever.
The purpose of these films is to show the emptiness, isolation and unhappiness of the lives of Western liberated women. The more I think about this film and the series I conclude that it is evil in continuing to promote the mythology that the virtues of a tribal society outweigh its horrors. This is what the communists and fascists tried to create and which some politicians tend to embrace whatever their Party beliefs as soon as they get power. The trouble is that there are so many partially educated and gullible people who continue to accept developments which inevitably result in the horrors of tribalism, but I suppose there is always need for a quantity of such people to make any form of government work.
I was much happier dozing through the Black Knight during the afternoon after a lunch of beef stir fry. There is a film of the same name opening this week in theatres but I was and remain too lazy to find out the connection. In this film which appears to be part of a comic book type of series Ivanhoe and his mate Rebecca enter a monastic citadel when called in by the Abbot because his star pupil has been taken over by 1000 year old Black Magic demon out to destroy Ivanhoe and his good deeds. The core of the story is a labyrinth maze game in which Ivanhoe as the white knight races with the monk and his accomplice as the Black Night to reach the centre area of the board and gain power over a super demon devil. Nothing the Abbot can do will stop the game playing board until the good guys and gals realise that board game is merely the representation of events going on in the labyrinth below the citadel. The film is risible and it is difficult to see who would take it seriously now given that Abbot and Ivanhoe and his mate are educationally challenged as they give up their weapons to the monks because "we have no weapons in this place" and then set off to combat black magic and real devils with only their courage and their stupidity, Lara Croft was turning in her fictional grave throughout.
It was a contest between grey knights at end of term Prime Ministers Question Time. For once it was easy to predict what would happen. Grey Knight Cameron used the occasion to remind everyone about the failures of the Prime Minister and his administration, the failure to call the election which they could have won, the failure of the 10 pence tax and the latest gaffs one minute saying the majority of people would gain by the proposed changes to car tax levels then correcting the position by saying the majority would gain or experience no difference because in reality nearly twice as many people will pay more as those who will gain so that overall this is an increase in taxation until the cars are swapped for the lower taxed models. He opened the charade by asking who had thought up the bright idea expressed by the Home Secretary that those guilty of knife crime should be made to go hospital and see what they had done to their victims. What was said on live TV was clear and unambiguous and the subsequent retraction only underlined the Minister's failure to think of the implications of what she was saying before it was said. On the bright side because the questions were predictable the other grey knight, Prime Minister Brown was well briefed and well prepared and gave the Cameron a bruising verbal lashing which had it been delivered by Blair would have been more wounding. For once the part of the White Knight was well played by the Liberal Democrat Leader, what's his name? My money remains on Ms Harriet Harman though. The Glasgow by election result will govern if she is to become Labour's White Knight before or after the next General Election. Meanwhile the Winter of discontent begins as the Local Government workers hold a two day strike before the summer recess and school holiday to protest at being asked to take a wage cut with a less than inflation. This is a clever ploy by the anti government local authority employer organisations to lay the blame with the government while hoarding efficiency savings achieved over the past couple of years.. Labour is again caught in a trap of its own making.
The media last night was interestingly cool on Durham's move to placate its Members and supporters over the fiasco of the 20.20 match a week ago. The game, now against Glamorgan will take place next Tuesday and Durham announced on its website that it has decided to donate all proceeds to Charity and to charge adults £5 and for children to go free. Everyone who purchased tickets for the original night is to be reimbursed automatically the full amount or on submission of their ticket if they made a cash purchase. This is an excellent move both in accepting that the situation was badly handled on the day, however much it was the fault of Yorkshire and the English and Welsh Cricket Board and that without such a move it was unlikely the game would attract a good crowd. Although scheduled for 5pm because there are floodlights the game could be played until 10.45 if there is a weather governed difficulty in reaching a result. Neither regional TV evening news programme mentioned these developments although they may decided to leave publicity until the weekend and on Monday.
Meanwhile Yorkshire lost their second division 40 over televised match. Gough appeared in good spirits despite a couple of knocks but the rest of his team were clearly demoralised after being thrashed by Essex again. Essex are already playing Kent in the 50 over final at Lords but either the fall of the toss or the manipulation by the ECB has resulted in the two teams playing each other in the first semi final the following Saturday. This means that Middlesex will play either Durham or Glamorgan at 3pm giving these times more time to travel down, although the with the final not commencing until 7 it will be along days night return homeward, although little different from those who travel away to football games held in the evenings.
I have deliberately left until last that yesterday morning two TV repair men arrived and after pressing some buttons on the handset got it to work effectively. I slipped up at second level chess with as second loss although my win rate is 94% against 23% at Hearts.
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