I have to leave this one a surprise. Ill leave the review vague and a little awesome.  I’ll just suggest that you watch this for yourself.  I was honestly startled, frustrated, and inspired throughout the film.  it is in classic Herzog style. Herzog I believe wants to be comfortable in front of the camera at times but he is incredibly uncomfortable while on screen

An old student of mine Aneesh Chaganty has challenged us all to watch a film a day with him.  I thought to myself why not. I started my true obsession with film after watching 3-4 films a day all summer long when my friend worked at a Hollywood Video in AZ. So it seems weird that I have not been as fanatic now that I teach film.

After a few years of not having the chance to see a lot of films my Netflix queue has reached scary proportions. so it is time to thin it out.  although as with all things I will end up making it worse.  since I started 4 days ago I already added 98 films to the instant queue.

The Rules:

• 1 film a day
• Genre is open even documentaries count (cause I LOVE documentary film)
• TV counts as long as it is respected TV not currently running e.g. Battlestar, West Wing, Lonsome Dove, Rome, etc. (no reality, 30min comedy or sitcoms)
• If it is TV I have to watch at least 2 consecutive episodes of a 1-hour show
• If I miss a day I have to make it up within a week
• I will write about each film that I watch (this will be a hard one for me)

Thats it!  If you are up for it join me!  Im stoked about this and it could be pretty cool to do.

Spoilers.  I think.

Okay, I hate to disappoint, but I really don’t plan on discussing whether or not the whole film or parts of the film are a dream, or if Cobb’s wedding ring is his real totem, or if his wife only left him and didn’t really kill herself. Blah blah blah.

I’m very into discussing the movie, but what I think is really interesting and worth discussing is the relationship between the filmmaker, the film, and the audience. Nolan is known for his thoughtful movie making from Momento to Insomnia to The Dark Knight. In many interviews he mentions his connection of dreaming and filmmaking, and he doesn’t shy away from inserting himself into his films. I think that this film is especially familiar to me as it feels much like one of my favorite films, 8 1/2.

The focus of this film is the discussion. I hate the idea that people are comparing this film to The Matrix. That film is nothing like this one. Inception isn’t a film that screws with you, making you wonder what reality is. Nolan is too smart and intentional about filmmaking to waste our time like that. Inception is a film about film, filmmaking, and the filmmaker, just like 8 1/2.

Full disclosure on this article: I am a dream junkie. I spent years studying dreams, I really like to explore lucid dreaming, and I have written a lot of material on the ethics and morals of dreaming and the dream state (while lucid dreaming or not). On a side not, one thing I thought was fun about Inception is the use of a totem to tell if you are in a dream or not. Lucid dreamers do sort of the same thing to wake up in a dream. I think Nolan has some experience in lucid dreaming.

OK, back to the theory. Film is a fascinating medium unlike any other because it attempts to do something impossible. Films transcend time by attempting to affix your mind in the eternal present, and you have to give yourself wholly to the artist to truly transcend timespace. Watching a film allows us to live as close to the eternal present as we can without supernatural or chemical assistance.

Nolan’s Inception literally transposes the filmmaking and viewing experience into a film. One reason it’s hard to have discussions about when the characters are dreaming in the film is that film itself bends and distorts spacetime in ways that are unseemly to nature. As an audience, we are constantly being transported through timespace without questioning those cuts unless they are poorly executed. A skilled filmmaker and editor can make cuts seem natural and undetected so we don’t find it strange that our perspective moves inches or thousands of miles in 1/24th of a second.

This film takes on a bigger and more important discussion than whether are we all really sleeping (yawn). It forces us to look at every other film we watch with a careful eye. If he did his job, Nolan  is doing at least two things in this film, and they are HUGE!

1: Inception raises the bar for the rest of the industry. He is bare-faced, calling out his peers and reminding them that film is like a dream, a powerful tool that can reveal humanity and truth to the world.
2: Nolan’s film reminds audiences of what film is capable of. He reminds us how we should feel when we watch a film, and tells us not to bother with films that aren’t worth our time.

These are just a few of my thoughts. Let me know what you think!

So this is the introduction.  I will be spending a lot of time on this topic as I have been developing multiple posts on this topic.  This post will outline what I want to talk about and the breadth of the discussion as I have planed currently.  But as my philosophy requires I will be change focus as the discussion requires.

Let me start with a little bit of a retraction.  “How to read a film” is a bad way to think of this but since it is the way most commonly spoken about how to watch film I will use it still.  in reality reading a film is not al that we want to do.  After reading a bit of a great book “Reframing Theology and Film” I was affirmed in my belief that there is more than just “reading” a film.

What I want to emphasize is the idea if critical analysis.  Watching  a film involves more than just careful watching and a sincere intention to understand it.  It takes an entire shift in our thought process.  So the big deal of watching a film is the attention to all the elements that come into making a film.  Since film is made over possibly years and by hundreds of people and all over the world we have a lot to analyze.  there are so many issues to look at from the basic story, sound and Image all the way to budgets, buisness and cultural issues.  We should be examining political, sociological, phisiological and historical issues. So maybe we should be reading books like films or more likely we are terrible at both and need to be beter educated.

So next time I will be talking about the first thing that we should look at when learning how to watch a film properly.  We will start discussing how to prepare for a film and what to do when you watch the film.

see ya on the next reel!

On with the diatribe.

***SPOILERS FOLLOW***

We are Gordon/Dent/Dawes

I propose we are Gordon, Dent, or Dawes.  These three are the only people besides Fox and Alfred that Batman can trust.  As we mentioned before Batman would ideally like to hand the city over to them.  These three are agents of good who all have framed their ideas of justice and have presented them to the world.  they have been attacked because of their ideas (literally).  Most of us have ideas about what Justice is and even more have strong opinions about what it is not.  Just because these three are attacked for their beliefs does not mean that they have the right idea.  For the most part they all believe that the law is justice.  But Joker tears this belief apart by using his own capture as a vehicle for chaos.  Joker uses the system that is supposed to work to show the Batman that they dot hold the answer.  and as a final blow he takes out the heads of these systems.  Even more drastically he “kills”  all three of these icons of what Batman believes in.  in the end all we have left is Gordon who was never part of the system in its current form.  At the end of the film Gordon actually has the harder job of reconstructing Gotham and “capturing” Batman.

I think this is a big cue to the audience that we have to look at ourselves as these three as well.  We need to be the greatest believers in Justice, whatever it may be, and we need to stand as a beacon to those who do not know what it is, who are trapped in a battle, or who are blind to it.  There have to be people willing to sacrifice themselves for Justice so that it will survive.  Some of us need to be the support to those who are lost (Dawes), some need to be the executor of the Justice and its hands (Gordon), and some need to be the beacon of hope and an ideal to look to.  I don’t think we get to choose which one we are.

We are Gotham

We are The City of Gotham.  Pathetic, helpless, dirty, cruel, antagonistic, easily manipulated, and represented only by the weakest and strongest among us.  We need help we are creatures that can be threatened by those in charge, good or bad, and we are mechanical predictable in our reactions.  Gotham is not innocent but regardless it needs to be protected because they are beautiful and good because they are people.  This is epically important.  because they are fellow humans they deserve respect and protection and gentle care.  and at all costs to be taken care of.  because they have only seen hate, malice, and manipulation they cannot understand the efforts of good men and women who sacrifice themselves for the city.  Just as the city does, we need to recognize grace given to us and seek out those who love us and want to protect our innocence and soul.  It is no surprise that children are ones who constantly see the good in Batman and desire to be like him in Gotham.

As a memer of the city we cant try to emulate those who are fighting the good fight.  without proper education, dicipline, and understanding we will get hurt and will be used against those who are prepared to be our knights.  There are obvious ||s that can be drawn from this in every arena.  Christians, Muslim, envrionmentalists, liberal, conservatives, etc. are cursed by their “gotham” population desperately trying to be Batmans, Gordons, Dawes, Dents, or worse Foxes and Alfreds.

We are NOT Fox/Alfred

We are not Fox or Alfred.  They have no flaws.  They are our compass and light.  They guide us at our darkest times.  We feel that we have to hide our inadequacies from them and we hide the moments that we step over our boundaries. we hide our sins until we are forced to reveal to them exactly how bad we really are.  and Their reaction is always precisely and perfectly appropriate.  These men our the saints we meet once or twice in our lives.  Chances are if you are reading this you are not this person, I am quite sure I am not.  These are the men we should look to be like but we cannot make the mistake and think we are like them.

What can we learn?

I’ll leave this for you to explore on your own.  There is much more than I have discussed here but please post any thoughts in the comments.