Atomic Cafe (sorry for the late post... i was out buying a bomb shelter)

After watching "Dr.Strangelove" and, currently, the "Atomic Cafe" i have grown an appetite. An appetite for knowledge. What exactly is this equation that apparently led to the creation of the most destructive  force ever conceived by man. E=MC^2. What does it actually mean? Through my research i came to understand that this equation shows the energy equivalence of mass or in Layman's terms how much energy is released when mass or any matter is converted into pure energy. It is mass multiplied by the speed of light squared. This is a power that is unimaginable. The atom bomb is not even a sliver of the true destructive power of this formula. Lets say for the sake of argument that a glass of water weighs .5 kilograms. This means according to the formula a glass of water has the energy of  4.49377589 × 10¹⁶ joules. This is enough energy to destroy a city, or ironically to power an African country = "4.42 × 10¹⁶ joules is the YEARLY eletricity consumption of Zimbabwe." - Wikipedia. It is also equivalent to an 11 megaton explosion. This is of course if the conversion from mass to energy is 100% efficient. In comparison the biggest American nuclear bomb ever detonated was Castle/Bravo which was a 15 megaton explosion. The absolute magnitude of destruction is unfathomable if the true potential of this equation were ever discovered. Of course this doesn't matter because we now live in a realm of insanity where the hydrogen bomb which is 1,000 times more powerful then the atom bomb exists. It doesn't matter whether a bomb is a 15000 megatons or 7 billion megatons it will very surely destroy the Earth either way. So why pursue even BIGGER bombs when the bombs we have, already reached a destructive force great enough to destroy the world. We do because we are insane, irrational beings.



After reading this, how can we sit idly when men of power so carelessly abuse a power no living thing should have. Truman laughing before his big T.V. "skit", announcing to the world that so many have died and millions more will suffer the horrors of nuclear radiation. The movie is so very effective, because it shows you different images and as a viewer you logically come to realize the madness of humanity. Through modern media and propaganda we see humanity as a generally good, moral, reasonable phenomena. The Atomic Cafe will make you think twice. The annihilation of two of Japan's city's was sanctioned and generally agreed upon. A population of 100 million people all basically were convinced this was the right move. How can anyone have faith in humanity after such an event you may ask? I repeat, we can because we are insane, irrational beings. It simply comes down to what is right and what is wrong. When so many people intentionally do wrong, then we have failed as conscious, intelligent, "supposedly"-morally superior beings.  

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Today is the first day we began watching Dr. Strangelove and is is already proving to be a hilarious film. Although it satirizes the Cold War era where absolute destruction seemed very likely to occur, it does not fail at providing comedy whilst uncovering the true pointless, irrational destructive nature of man. Of course i am jumping ahead but it is hard to contain oneself when writing of such a master work of film making. My eye had caught the posters seen in every scene of the military compound which states " Peace is our Proffession " This is ironic since sterling Hayden's skillfully portrayed character of General Ripper had just ordered a nuclear strike on Russia which undoubtedly would cause a nuclear war which would lead to the doomsday of humans on earth. 

A Simple Plan, a not so simple Outcome.

At first this movie struck me as kind of slow paced and nothing like Memento where you constantly had to pay attention and always had something going on that needed a second thought.  The movie shows us that we all have good as well as evil inside of us. A person is capable of anything, this is very evident with the scene where Sarah has the baby in hand while telling Hank to betray his best friend. It is a testament to greed, frailty of a person, and desperation. This movie puts forth some very intense characters such as Billy Bob Thornton's, Jacob who i connected with the most throughout the movie. I firmly believe that when we are born we have traits that destine us to be something and they usually don't go along with our lives or how we look. We can see this from Jacob's love and trust for his brother, he is the innocent in the movie. Sarah is the one who indirectly causes all of the killings and yet she is a small woman who is pregnant. Appearances are very decieving. Jacob is much more intelligent than his appearance makes him seem. It is evident from his understanding of their father's suicide that he is able to face the harsh reality of life. He sees what he has done to people and understands that he cannot live anymore. Even though Mr. Bennett will disagree with me on this one I believe the last scene with the black hole in the side of the house represents an empty shell that once held life. It is symbolic for how a man can destroy his own decency and essentially destroy their soul by killing and decieving the people around him.

OMG I Cant Wait!!!!

MEMENTO is one of my all time favorite movies. It has all the action, suspense, and twists of a thriller. It provokes deep thought and also deals with the themes of past memories, love. It is one of the most unique films i've ever seen. i believe it takes a great director to pull off this kind of movie and Christopher Nolan  does an exquisite job portraying this character. I admit it will be difficult watching it in seperate sittings for people veiwing it for the first time, but for me; maybe it will bring more insite watching it in different segments and being able to mull over the intricacies of the movie.

Another reason i really like the movie is because the main character (Guy Pierce) is also a respected body builder and leads a very accomplished life.

Dark City

I believe Mr. Bennet has read many times about motifs of mazes and foreshadowing, as well as, the combination of film noir and science fiction genres. Not to mention the amazing premise of the film. The edge of your seat suspense that keeps you guessing until the very end. This post will not be about the amazing cinematography or the camera angles.

This post will address the very pertinent questions this movie raises. What makes us human? What is the soul? Can it be defines as a sum of all our memories? Does love cross boundaries between lives? I believe the director's stand is that love does in fact prove the existence of the soul. The world they live in is a dystopian universe in which identity has become something easily manipulated and manipulated often. People's lives are changed around every night; they can never live any one life. In this way they disorient us. If this is in fact an experiment and the aliens are testing us to see the origin of the soul then they would be looking for something that stays constant amid the chaos. No matter how many times they morph the material world, no matter how many different situations the test subjects are dropped into, and no matter how many times a person's memory is wiped and toyed with one thing stays the same.  Love.  The only thing in the movie that Murdoch is ever sure of is his love for a woman that is supposedly his wife. This is evident in the scene where Murdoch and his wife talk through telephone receivers and Murdoch is not sure whether they are married, or even whether they had ever met before the the other night. What he is sure of is his love for her. Throguh this scene the director expresses that true love is the nature of the soul and it is the very thing the aliens are looking to understand in order to save their species.

It can be argued that Murdoch's love for her is purely a result of the memories imprinted into him by the aliens, but I believe the dialogue in the film between Murdoch and his wife shows that he is positive about his feelings toward her.

The Asphalt Jungle

Today we have started a new film and it is in the genre of film noir. From research on the internet i have found that this type of movie is famous for an urban setting, heavy shadows, diagonal lines, low camera angles shooting up multi-storey staircases, and an innocent protagonist falsely accused of a crime and desperate to clear himself. It will be interesting to see if the director imploys these common tactics of film noir. I believe the black and white really adds to the genre of a crime drama, but it wasn't meant to. There were just no colored pictures back then. The heavy shadows make a significant impact on the veiwer.

I believe the title of the movie reveals a lot about the movie. A jungle is concept that signifies something wild and disorderly, as well as animals competing with eachother for food and other necessities. This competition gets nasty and either you win this fight or you die. The fact that the director is implying that this anarchy exists in an urban setting of a big city is absurd. Or is it? I believe as of now the movie is just introducing the characters and their significant vices, but the competition amongst them will get pretty nasty. The goal is obviously money which has already become an issue for the main character "Dix Handley" played by Sterling Hayden.

It is interesting why Handley's friend is willing to help him even though he is a known gambler of horses and owes 2300$. Maybe he has his own agenda and maybe Handley's debt isn't because of horses. I feel like nothing is at it seems in this movie, except the vices that define the men in this movie.

Unforgivable, a Western amidst a battle of cliche's, realism, satire, and plainly just some great filmmaking. The angles of the camera were intense during the battle and suspensful scenes. When Little Bill was pressuring English Bob to take the gun the camera was staring down the barrel of his gun, and this made things very unsettling. This movie, being historically accurate still had the power to ignite suspense and excitement.