I finally found my movie icon!

[omorka]

. . . Well, stole the art off of a Jittlov fansite, changed the background, and saved it as a JPEG. But anyway.

So, yeah, we did The Wizard of Speed and Time for Movie Night. It's part of the in-language of this particular social group, northwall hadn't seen it yet and she'll be out of town for Movie Nights after this week, and the Spouse kind of needed something that was full of hope, humor, and optimism. (I had jokingly suggested Fog of War previously, which didn't so much go over well.) It's a bit dated - in particular, the politics of the film come across as oddly pro-corporate for a story about a guy trying to work outside of the corporate structure, in that the villain of the piece gets his comeuppance from a CEO, but I suspect that's largely because the film is really anti-bureaucracy in any form, and the government just comes in for comparatively more bashing than the corporate world. I'm a little surprised that the Libertarians haven't seized on the film as a favorite, honestly - it's not explicitly Libertarian, of course (else I wouldn't love it so), but its ethics are superficially aligned, at least. Similarly, the film is full of the most egregious ethnic stereotypes ever, but it is clearly fully aware that it is using them, and is doing so ironically. (For example, along with a stereotypical East-LA Hispanic gang member, we are introduced to another illegal immigrant - who says "eh" every third word.)

Then there's the line "I wonder how many other people are out there? Writing stories and scripts that nobody else may ever read, making movies that nobody may ever see... discovering secrets, important things that could help everybody." Well, now we all can see their stories on LiveJournal, their scripts on their blogs, and their movies on You Tube, and honestly, most of them aren't all that interesting. Still, it is enlightening to find those odd gems of humor or erotica (rarely drama or tragedy, but I suppose we have real life for that) out of other people's experiences and lives, made by amateurs or low-level professionals and set free into the datastream. Sturgeon's Law applies, as it does to anything, and that other 10% is often worth the search.

And the available version of the film is more or less incomplete; Jittlov has pointed out that he considers it a work print. For all that it's a flawed work, though, its heart is consistently in the right place.

Comments

[quantumduck.livejournal.com]

I don't think the corporate world gets a rosy depiction in the movie. Sure, the govt. is a tax and spend nightmare, but the Union system is even worse, and the central villain in the film is almost the private system of film distribution itself. I think Libertarians would be offended by the redistribution of wealth to 'starving filmmakers' that Mike suggests during the Wizard sequence.

The line you cite is specifically about the system in Hollywood which is built to prevent unknown artists from rising to the top on talent and ambition. I always saw it as a call out to every other director caught in development hell. The internet has helped, but making a movie still requires not only talent and free time, but also money and plenty of warm bodies to do the work. Without real support in making films there's still a huge barrier for young directors. Distribution has gotten easier, but making films will always be tough.

[bassfingers.livejournal.com]

Similarly, the film is full of the most egregious ethnic stereotypes ever, but it is clearly fully aware that it is using them, and is doing so ironically. (For example, along with a stereotypical East-LA Hispanic gang member, we are introduced to another illegal immigrant - who says "eh" every third word.)

My favorite is the Asian guard at the studio gate with the most appalling southern drawl.