I'm seeing your name all over the place, and good to see videos of your various appearances. You did a great job for TED (some funny moments too), ironic that after calling Hydrogen a hoax (it is) the video ends off with a punt for a BMW hydrogen car.
I was surprised at your bitter appraisal of Dark Knight.
I saw the movie differently. It was my impression that the director was trying to imbue the movie with realism, and this realism is what audiences want (we know the media is bullshitting us, we're sick of candy coated movie fantasy). I think the realism in the movie is something audiences want, not in the sense of violent bloody scenes, but the hard truth. So the way I see it it is less a case of entertaining violent fantasies, and more a yearning for congruence in their lives (between the darkness they know is there and the voices that bullshit us that 'everything is okay').
I think the essence of the film asks: do you maintain your incorruptibility even though no one else does, even though chaos begins to reign? or do we give in to crazy impulses? These are questions that are worrying the stirring swathes of people.
We are concerned how other people will react to their fears of the future (the ferry boat scene illustrates this clearly). Can we trust one another when the level of disorder increases (and more specifically, how will/can we trust one another and arrange ourselves when that happens?)
It is also interesting that comic book heroes like Superman and Batman came into existence during the opening throes of World War II, and subsequently did well during other war time periods. And now, they - well, Batman especially - are doing well. I think this is a barometer for the social disorder that is already manifest in people's minds. So I think the movie is constructive in the sense that it shows a world that is aware of its own darkness (though it doesn't know what to do about it). I also nfeel this is the reason you are so popular, because the world increasingly wants the whole, hard truth. I think people are drawn to the idea of Batman because he is someone who has mastered fear/death, although the movie powerfully shows that chaos is nigh impossible to defeat.
Overall I think Dark Knight does more to make society self aware than, say, any other popcorn flick. Wall-E is an interesting departure in animation to a more serious commentary on the condition of the world. That said, probably none of us should be going to movies any more. We should be, what, gardening, exercising, reforming and refocusing our communities. We need to be told what to do, because we're so dysfunctional now we have no idea what is normal, nor what makes sense. At the very least this flick changes the reigning zeitgeist to a more appropriately serious view of where we are right now, and I see some value in that.
Best wishes
Nick
Jim's reply:
It is also interesting that comic book heroes like Superman and Batman came into existence during the opening throes of World War II, and subsequently did well during other war time periods. And now, they - well, Batman especially - are doing well. I think this is a barometer for the social disorder that is already manifest in people's minds.
INTERESTING POINT.
Jim
"It's All Good"
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