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Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)
My New Favorite Episode
Okay, I'm not the best at judging movies I love. I think TPM and AotC are perfectly acceptable installments of the franchise. I guess I'm sucker for special effects and nostalgia and all that (though I'm not the biggest fan of TFA). I really enjoyed this movie. It's like the satisfying payoff Marvel fans have been waiting for in Infinity War. I may need to watch it again to feel out the problems, but for a first watch, it was great. It answered so many questions left from TFA and even showed flashbacks to what Luke was up to these past thirty years.
So I have waited for, well, all my life for Luke to pass on his role as the hero and add to the Hero's Journey as a master. He does this the only way he can. Once, he was a proud Jedi Master, but now he is a failed hermit, just like Yoda was when Luke met him. Yoda had a positive attitude, but Luke took his failure to heart and refused to train Rey. I can see why Hamill disagrees with Luke's character, but I understand it well enough to see that there's a bright side to it. Luke takes a while to warm up to anything, and knowing from my own failure, it's hard to answer the call when opportunity rings. In fact, it's part of the Hero's Journey.
Rey doesn't give up on Luke. Likewise, she doesn't give up on Ben. Rey even states that she can see conflict in Ben and she thinks she can turn him. Rey has a great amount of perseverance and integrity to her duty. Rey gets the feel of what a Jedi is supposed to be, and she sticks to it rigidly. Maybe the texts would have been useful, but the old republic, the new republic, and the ancient Jedi are all gone, so it's time for the Jedi to adapt and rise while closely watching the hypocrisy Luke talks about.
This movie raises the stakes and intensifies the war. There has never been a worse time for the Resistance. The numbers weren't even so bad for the Rebellion. They went down to one ship, backed against a corner, and one man stood to show that they wouldn't go down without a fight. Luke struck right to the core of Ben, which is proven by how badly Ben feels the need to destroy Luke. It's like the Joker with Batman; if Batman kills the Joker, then the Joker wins.
On another note, the toying of the First Order with the Resistance echoes Poe's toying with General Hux. Yes, they could have slaughtered the Resistance at any point, but without hubris, what hope would we as fans have? The Resistance uses everything possible to stave off extinction, and it's just brilliant. Finn and Rose have to break the rules to ensure the survival of the Resistance, and Finn has a great payoff for his past with Phasma.
Ben and Rey's relationship is interesting, but I have to see it again to really dive into that part. I thought the jaw-dropper with the lightsaber was an incredible touch, but I can't wait to see how they develop later on.
And major fan service in Yoda, though not in Obi-Wan. Well, Yoda calls out Luke for not having read the ancient Jedi texts. I think it would have been nice to have McGreggor in the scene to have a level-headed conversation between the three of them, like they did in ESB, but I was satisfied that Yoda not only appeared, but he also has become more powerful than one could imagine in controlling the weather. Just me, though.
And one thing I need to say is that the trilogy is not complete. I know there were parts of AotC and ESB that were respectively completed by RotS and RotJ. Additionally, it's a different part of the story. It's about the grandson of Darth Vader (not Vader's son; not Vader himself), a spunky, fresh heroine, and some people connected by the Force. The Force itself is conflicted. It seems that it wants balance, meaning equality in the dark and the light sides. However, the fans, at least I, mostly imagine the will of the Force as being overcome with the light side. I understood that as happening at the end of RotJ, but I learned with TFA that Force needs that balance.
I'm sorry for my ramblings. I think this movie deserves to have its place next to the rest of the Star Wars series. So, like it or not, it gets such a place. Needless to say, the action was superb, the actors played their parts well, Carrie Fisher had a fantastic final film, Hux and Ben will be settling a score soon, Rey will train the new order of Jedi will come through and trample the First Order. But will there be balance, or with the Force be left in light?
Pretty Baby (1978)
The Facts Which Scare Us
Of course, this film is controversial, but it is mostly, if not completely, factual. It's the DEEP SOUTH, people. That's classic New Orleans. Catholic whores, whipping, swamps, children in the whorehouses, racism, the accent, the voodoo, the attitude, the sexuality. It's all part of the Deep South in the 20th Century. The only things missing are the crawdads and Mardi Gras. And I can understand the bad reviews, but those of you who do not think this is an excellent film do not understand the era nor the neck of the woods.
What I liked about this film is the actuality. There are still actual whores who are 12 or younger. They are in the underbelly of the city, banned from the French Quarter. Of course, the whores portrayed were high-class. They were those one would find on Bourbon Street, although Bourbon's whores are much lower than that now. When Storyville was still running, the Red Light District would promote each slut it had. Even Madame Nell knows to auction off a preteen's virginity is illegal, but it still happened.
I'm glad this film was made. Of course, American directors don't have the guts to display this kind of truth. I understand it may not have been necessary to show Shields nude, but if anyone has read the trivia, it states a large number of young girls turned the role down. Her parents obviously knew what was going to happen and still allowed her to participate. It was a role which not every preteen could portray. Shields was extremely mature and played her part very well. I wouldn't say it's pedophilia. There are some who may find pleasure in a twelve- year-old's lady parts, but Bellocq loved her for her innocence. He even asks her to not speak as a whore.
It's real. It's what actually happened. It's not what would have happened today, but it is truthful. It was a different time in a different place. For instance, Edgar Allan Poe, one of the greatest American writers in history, married his own cousin. This may be strange today, but back then, it may, repeat may, have been common. In Ancient Egypt, pharaohs married their own sisters before their twentieth birthdays. This made more sense, though: they wanted to keep their bloodline pure, and puberty is the time when the body is ready to conceive and reproduce. Therefore, the teen years were originally meant for marriage.
It's not out of pornography that Malle created this film. It's out of truth. It is true. Today, still. The movie showed exactly what all of you who despise this film believe. It took a lot of thought to produce this film. The architecture, the plant life, the community, the underage drinking. From what I've seen and known growing up around the Big Easy, it's all pretty much true. I believe what you dislike is that it actually happened. It's a historical film. It's factual. New Orleans has changed, but there is no escape of the past. The Saints just won the SuperBowl after 43 years of failure. We can't escape the fact that our first playoff game was in 1990, 23 years after the team manifested. We can't escape the fact that Katrina's devastation could have been slimly less grim because those who were too hard-headed to flee stayed and died. We can't escape the fact that we have been the murder capital of the United States. We can escape the fact that we are the murder capital of the United States, but only for the same reason that so many of you are complaining. Times have changed, but those times are forever in history. Times will change again. Fortunately, we weren't too late for the times to change and this movie to never have existed.