Luky Loves "A Boy And His Dog"
Luky wanted to watch BookTV, of course, but today's aptly named "Peachtree Thunder" parade of motorcycles riding down the street under our window (to raise money for the March of Dimes) made it difficult for him to concentrate. So he allowed me to turn on Sci-Fi.
He had chosen last night's movie anyway - which I went along with because his choice was "A Boy And His Dog," the 1975 post World War IV "story of love and trust between family members of different species." No, that's not the movie's official description - it's Luky's.
"A Boy" has become a cult classic film (whatever that term means) featuring a young and quite excellent-in-the-part, Don Johnson as "Vic" (the co-star). I like Susanne Benton who plays "Quilla June Holmes," a fresh-faced, wet-lipped, young seductress sent to provide understandable motivation for Vic to descend into the "Down Under" - not Australia, believe me. The movie also stars Jason Robards, but Don Johnson has to be listed HERE as "co-star" because the star is, of course, HIS DOG, "Blood."
Anyway, this morning's choice to out-volume the street rumble was "2010," and that made Luky consider the original film, "2001: A Space Odyssey," which he decided to compare with "A Boy."
Initially I could not figure out what the heck he was talking about - but typical of Luky he was thinking about two or three levels beyond normal conversation. I was considering plots, actors, action, sets, dialog - you know, things by which we normally judge movies - but he was off in deeeep left field.
There followed an entire dissertation about the earlier days of science fiction film when, regardless of how subtle and clever the story (Luky is a Harlan Ellison fan), films had to be made, as always, for viewing by circa audiences of the lowest common denominator. He says that while Sci-Fi films make for our best social art form because, while they avoid the boundaries and limitations of reality (which he qualifies as present day understanding of physics, technology and biological truth) they can thus better illustrate our fears, hopes, dreams and possibilities. We get to visit, in his words, all the "what ifs." I assume he means mainly human what ifs, but we were both enthusiastic about Blood's role.
Anyway, Luky says that in the earlier days of Sci-Fi we could not trust that audiences would understand all the necessary contexts of the story to grasp subtle references. That's why the action and dialog has to be so overt. Symbolic movies, like "2001," had to announce the impending delivery of their symbolism so the audiences could keep up. And movies with brutal ironies like those of "A Boy And His Dog," typically warned that something brutal was about to happen, or reinforced that something ironic just did.
He generally leaves Sci-Fi to me and turns to BookTV or the Science Channel, but as long as we were on the subject he did agree that current Sci-Fi movies are better than most of the old ones. His point is, not only do we now know more about the subjects treated by Sci-Fi - and thus can write and produce more truthful and accurate stories - and further, not just because our movie-making technologies permit us to create very cool and realistic special effects that bring to near-life things we were forced to pitifully imitate in the 50's and 60's, etc. . . . no, Luky says it's because audiences are wiser and hipper to Sci-Fi now. The movies are better because the elements of better movie making can be incorporated without fear of losing viewers.
"And so - what does this have to do with me and my choice of movies - you know, like 'Starship Troopers' . . . geez, when are they going to make another sequel to that?"
Luky looked at my hands and then at the coffee table where my pen and pad lay. He was hinting that I should take notes, of course. I hate it when he does that!
"Oh, nothing," he said, and slowly pushed his front paws out to lie down and look at me as if he wanted to show is disappointment in my intellectual curiosity.
"Hey, I said I liked 'Blood' . . . you know, and the way Blood helped his BOY in that movie last night, didn't I?"
Luky just smiled and let out a long sigh.
He had chosen last night's movie anyway - which I went along with because his choice was "A Boy And His Dog," the 1975 post World War IV "story of love and trust between family members of different species." No, that's not the movie's official description - it's Luky's.
"A Boy" has become a cult classic film (whatever that term means) featuring a young and quite excellent-in-the-part, Don Johnson as "Vic" (the co-star). I like Susanne Benton who plays "Quilla June Holmes," a fresh-faced, wet-lipped, young seductress sent to provide understandable motivation for Vic to descend into the "Down Under" - not Australia, believe me. The movie also stars Jason Robards, but Don Johnson has to be listed HERE as "co-star" because the star is, of course, HIS DOG, "Blood."
Anyway, this morning's choice to out-volume the street rumble was "2010," and that made Luky consider the original film, "2001: A Space Odyssey," which he decided to compare with "A Boy."
Initially I could not figure out what the heck he was talking about - but typical of Luky he was thinking about two or three levels beyond normal conversation. I was considering plots, actors, action, sets, dialog - you know, things by which we normally judge movies - but he was off in deeeep left field.
There followed an entire dissertation about the earlier days of science fiction film when, regardless of how subtle and clever the story (Luky is a Harlan Ellison fan), films had to be made, as always, for viewing by circa audiences of the lowest common denominator. He says that while Sci-Fi films make for our best social art form because, while they avoid the boundaries and limitations of reality (which he qualifies as present day understanding of physics, technology and biological truth) they can thus better illustrate our fears, hopes, dreams and possibilities. We get to visit, in his words, all the "what ifs." I assume he means mainly human what ifs, but we were both enthusiastic about Blood's role.
Anyway, Luky says that in the earlier days of Sci-Fi we could not trust that audiences would understand all the necessary contexts of the story to grasp subtle references. That's why the action and dialog has to be so overt. Symbolic movies, like "2001," had to announce the impending delivery of their symbolism so the audiences could keep up. And movies with brutal ironies like those of "A Boy And His Dog," typically warned that something brutal was about to happen, or reinforced that something ironic just did.
He generally leaves Sci-Fi to me and turns to BookTV or the Science Channel, but as long as we were on the subject he did agree that current Sci-Fi movies are better than most of the old ones. His point is, not only do we now know more about the subjects treated by Sci-Fi - and thus can write and produce more truthful and accurate stories - and further, not just because our movie-making technologies permit us to create very cool and realistic special effects that bring to near-life things we were forced to pitifully imitate in the 50's and 60's, etc. . . . no, Luky says it's because audiences are wiser and hipper to Sci-Fi now. The movies are better because the elements of better movie making can be incorporated without fear of losing viewers.
"And so - what does this have to do with me and my choice of movies - you know, like 'Starship Troopers' . . . geez, when are they going to make another sequel to that?"
Luky looked at my hands and then at the coffee table where my pen and pad lay. He was hinting that I should take notes, of course. I hate it when he does that!
"Oh, nothing," he said, and slowly pushed his front paws out to lie down and look at me as if he wanted to show is disappointment in my intellectual curiosity.
"Hey, I said I liked 'Blood' . . . you know, and the way Blood helped his BOY in that movie last night, didn't I?"
Luky just smiled and let out a long sigh.
posted by RAM at 5:32 PM
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