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I'm the blogger, Tom Blake
I live near Seattle and am retired and watch movies on DVD and some streaming through the public library, and also via cable TV including Amazon Prime. Over the years I have seen thousands of movies and my tastes have narrowed based on my experience and personal preferences. Documentaries and foreign films continue to interest me more than the kinds of movies shown in US movie theaters.
In my college days I discovered foreign art house films and did a lot of reading about movie making. I used to fantasize about becoming a director, but never got beyond the home movie level.
I like to watch a movie and then talk about it with my viewing companions, but nowadays I watch a lot of movies alone. When my daughter Anna used to watch with me, we usually got into a discussion, so she suggested I start this blog as a vehicle for on line sharing and dialogue.
In the last couple years this blog has morphed into more of a place for me to keep a record of what I have been watching, with my personal rating and a brief summary of the movie.
In my college days I discovered foreign art house films and did a lot of reading about movie making. I used to fantasize about becoming a director, but never got beyond the home movie level.
I like to watch a movie and then talk about it with my viewing companions, but nowadays I watch a lot of movies alone. When my daughter Anna used to watch with me, we usually got into a discussion, so she suggested I start this blog as a vehicle for on line sharing and dialogue.
In the last couple years this blog has morphed into more of a place for me to keep a record of what I have been watching, with my personal rating and a brief summary of the movie.
You might say I'm more fantasy than sci-fi, but I'm not sure that's the whole truth. Frankly, I don't think there are nearly enough great sci-fi or fantasy movies out there. When you consider the essentially no-limits permission sci-fi and fantasy creators have to recast our perceptions of even the most superficially mundane experiences, it seems rather silly not to capitalize on the imaginative possibilities. I probably need to watch more sci-fi and fantasy movies, but I'm often too quick to judge them by their covers. Too many of them look like either precious little fantasies for girls or hard-core video games for boys. Aside from qualities I look for in other genres such as good writing, good visuals, good acting, I sometimes need to watch a sci-fi or fantasy with an exotic setting, rather than something more "real world" that has a whimsically magical plot twist. Actually, if it's done well, I like almost anything in these genres. NO horror, though. Hmm, let me see if there are any specific titles I could mention...(sci-fi in particular...)
ReplyDeleteI guess when fiction starts stretching normal belief it passes into the realm of fantasy, and when it flat out breaks the rules of science or wanders far into the future, it becomes science fiction. The future is inherently an exotic setting. As for present time stories, those with a serious point might best be set in more realistic locales, while those designed more to open our imagination can go for the exotic. A proven approach is to start in the real world and then move into the fantastic, like Alice falling down the rabbit hole , Dorothy going to Oz and scores more.
ReplyDeleteStories told through the eyes of young children can blend the real and the fantastic in interesting ways. Animation is a typical vehicle as in the Pixar movies and the wonderful Japanese ones by Miyazaki. "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" offered a child's eye view of the holocaust that was novel and very effective.
Some of my all time favorites have elements of fantasy or science fiction. "It's a Wonderful Life" shows Jimmy Stewart the "what if" future. In "Forbidden Games" the youngsters make up their own death rituals. In "To Kill a Mockingbird" the children fantasize about their reclusive neighbor Boo. "E.T." gives the children a fantastic cross-cultural experience. "Places in the Heart" reunites the living and the dead.
Horror does not do it for me either, though in movies like "Frankenstein" and some vampire tales, horror is only one aspect of the story and the movie has more purpose than just scaring the audience.
To Kill a Mockingbird as science fiction or fantasy? No way. It is a real story with real characters who fantasize.
ReplyDeleteIt's a Wonderful Life is fantastic in the sense it could not be reality. Another example of a fantastic story is Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. I liked that one too.
But they are not in the fantasy or science fiction genre by my definiton. Just because a movie has a character who fantasizes doesn't make it a fantasy or science fiction movie. Real people fantasize.
My first reaction to your query was to say that I don't watch science fiction or fantasy movies because they bore me. There are plenty of real stories that are fantastic. Consider George Washinton defeating the mighty British navy and army in the American Revolution. Why do we need authors or movie producers to play make believe for entertainment?
But then I thought about ET. It is a sappy movie, but I enjoyed it. Then I thought about two really good fantasy movies I have seen: The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland.
The Wizard of Oz was written as a political satire about events at the turn of the 20th century, but the mnovie stands on its own without the viewer understanding the political issues.
Alice in Wonderland is full of mathematical allusions because the author, Charles Carroll, was a mathematician. Again, the movie stands on its own as fantasy even if the viewer cannot appreciate the mathematical allusions.
So in answer to your question I expose may age when I respond with:
1. Wizard of Oz 1939
2. Alice in Wonderland 1951
and somewhere way down the list ET.
I think there are two interesting points up for discussion here. The first has to do with defining fantasy and the second involves identifying the storyteller.
ReplyDeleteAs I said, I believe fiction moves into fantasy by degree, as the story gets more imaginative. Sometimes only portions are fantasy. No, "Mockingbird" is not a fantasy, it is only the children fantasizing about the mysterious neighbor that approaches that degree of imagination. The fantasy in "Mr. Smith", if there is one, was that the sincere filibuster could prompt a corrupt Senator to repent. Strained credulity depends on whose it is. Some people are more open to imaginative renderings as reality [consider religion, for example]. Truth can be stranger than fiction, as in "Seabiscuit".
In the end, there is no actual need to draw a line between fiction and fantasy. Other than pure documentaries, all movies are pretense, requiring us to suspend disbelief. If a movie keeps the suspension up, even though the viewer knows the realm of fantasy has been entered, it is a good movie for that viewer. I always get a kick when I find myself watching a movie where one character is trying to convince another that he is telling the truth, and I say it is obvious to me the truth is being told, and then I laugh as I remind myself this is a movie, these are actors and it is all actually pretense. But when I have done that, I know the movie was well done.
I don't know enough about writing to expound on the narrative voice in fiction. In movies, there can be a narrator who tells us the story and decides what we will see. "Rashomon" notably told the same story from three different points of view. In most movies there is no narrator and no obvious point of view. The story just rolls, mostly following the lead character or characters and sometimes cutting away to where something else is happening that affects the leads even though they are not present.
A movie is designed to show us what it wants us to see, viewed in the way it wants us to look. Sometimes the design is garbled or it is messed up in the execution, so that it is not always clear what we are supposed to be seeing or how we are supposed to be looking at it. This is either the fault of the script, the director or both. Technology developments can be overused, as with early zoom lenses and with very portable steadycams. One pet peeve I have is the camera that continuously circles a table of diners having a conversation. What does this movie want us to see and how are we supposed to look at it? The only person I know who walks around a table of diners is a waiter, but I really doubt we are supposed to benefit from a waiter's eye view.
John, I think you mingled the pseudonym of Lewis Carroll with his actual name, Charles Dodgson.