July 21, 2008
Dark Watchman Vs. The Architect of Fear
Is this the day? Is this the beginning of the end? There is no time to wonder. No time to ask why is it happening, why is it finally happening. There is time only for fear, for the piercing pain of panic. Do we pray? Or do we merely run now and pray later? Will there be a later? Or is this the day?
This is the opening narration for the original Outer Limits episode "The Architects of Fear" where a group of scientists fake an alien invasion in an attempt to forestall escalating international tensions and a potential nuclear holocaust. We took in the Dark Knight over the weekend and this quote could have opened the third act of the film where the Joker is threatening the Gotham City with widespread destruction.
The Dark Knight is a dark film about a city fighting a terrorist. it's one of the grimmest movies I have seen in a while. It's not as downbeat as "Seconds" but certainly the "Empire Strikes Back" may be the last mass market film to end on so low a note. It's very well done but definitely a movie with adult themes.
Heath Ledger's performance is chilling. His Joker reminded me of Lewis Black on a rant (who they should consider now that this will be Ledger's last role). It becomes clear that the Joker is truly an agent of chaos, his real goal is for the citizens of Gotham City to lose their faith in orderly society ("the hidden conspiracy of goodwill") and descend into anomie. I viewed It as a cautionary tale for any free society fighting terrorism.
"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."
Freidrich Nietzsche Aphorism 146
Batman is challenged to drop his own code of ethics and use whatever means necessary. But in spite of horrific provocation is able to follow his internal compass.
"Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" Juvenal
Which is normally translated as "But who will guard the guardians?" and Alan Moore interpreted as "Who Watches the Watchmen?" (more on that in a moment). To locate the Joker Batman engages in a massive invasion of privacy, but does so in a way that he has no personal control over the information gathered or the mechanism he created, allowing it to be destroyed when it's no longer needed. This is in the face of a villain who is killing any government official who tries to stand against him, and for good measure follows through on his threat to blow up a hospital.
Although I said it was a dark film about adult themes the boys both enjoyed it and we had a long discussion about civil liberty, and the difference between the police, the National Guard, and the Army. And the difference between the way that a free society fights criminals, affording them protection under the law, and enemy combatants who are committed to the destruction of a society.
"The mature man lives quietly, does good privately, takes responsibility for his actions, treats others with friendliness and courtesy, finds mischief boring and avoids it. Without the hidden conspiracy of goodwill, society would not endure an hour."
Kenneth Rexroth in the "Introduction to Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God Is Within You"
Ultimately, when confronted with the challenge to kill complete strangers or be killed themselves, Gotham's citizens--even its criminals--refrain.
The previews included the new Watchmen movie, which looked outstanding. If you haven't read the comic graphic novel, it's an extremely dense and intricately plotted exploration justice, vigilantism, and what it means to be a hero. My personal preference would have been for a 12 episode miniseries, with each episode an hour to 90 minutes long to do Watchmen justice, but that's probably harder to fund and monetize and it's taken more than two decades to bring it to the screen as is. It will probably get redone in 30 years as a hypertext movie to do it justice.
Alan Moore was apparently not aware of the Outer Limits episode "Architects of Fear" when he wrote Watchmen, but became aware of it as he and Dave Gibbons were collaborating on it, inserting a reference to it in the last issue.
We watched the the "Architects of Fear" again tonight, and I was surprised and how scary it was and how poignant the concluding narration remains:
Scarecrows and magic and other fatal fears do not bring people closer together. There is no magic substitute for soft caring and hard work, for self-respect and mutual love. If we can learn this from the mistake these frightened men made, then their mistake will not have been merely grotesque, it would at least have been a lesson. A lesson, at last, to be learned.
September 17, 2007
No Highway
I read Neville Shute's No Highway a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed it, so much that I even checked the movie made from it, No Highway In the Sky from the library and watched it last night. As per usual, the book was better than the movie.
A scientist (Theodore Honey) at the Royal Aircaft Establishment (RAE) at Farnborough has developed a theory about fatigue in light alloys and has obtained a test article to test his theory. Since the book was written in 1948, the theory is laughable now, but that itsn't important. When Dr. Scott takes over the metalurgical section at the RAE, eventually he gets around to asking Dr. Honey what he's working on. So when Dr. Honey explains he's testing his new theory of fatigue and he's using a Rutland Reindeer tail to do it with. Dr. Scott, clearly an engineer, instantly notices a detail that escaped Dr. Honey's attention - the Rutland Reindeer is a brand new plane that has just become basis of trans-Atlantic travel for the national (and monopoly) airline BOAC. When Dr. Honey tells him that his theory predicts the tail will fail at 1440 flight hours (shades of the deHavilland Comet), the story really begins.
The story is straightforward and told without villains. Just the natural working of different organizations and their interests provide conflict. The biggest reason I liked the book was that it was about aviation engineers - and there's no better 1-2 combo than that. Sadly, it's a combination rarely seen in print or pictures. Since I've worked on a couple of different British projects, I had a ball reading about the RAE and Boscombe Down. I was also pleasantly surprised by how little aeronautical engineering has changed in 50 years. The same personality times, the same organizational types, right down to the manager who flips from the biggest doubter that something is a problem to being the champion of the solution.
