America is lazy and wants to be comfortable. There is nothing inherently wrong with this, in fact I am exactly what I just described. We have progressed so much as a species that it seems that we deserve a good break isn’t that right? Why not, we work hard to create a world that is comfortable why shouldn’t we take full advantage? It seems that our careless comfort has actually become an issue for certain areas of society.

I believe that art has suffered in the last 10 years. In general people want art to be easy and unchallenging. Why should we have to think about what art means when we can put a sign under it telling us. Why watch a film with subtitles when we can get it dubbed (and then we get to turn it into a comedy because lip sync doesn’t match)? Why should we read books when there are cliff notes and movies made of them. (even comics!? How Lazy Are We?)

I remember the day that our local theatre in Scottsdale Arizona opened with brand new seats. I remember it was so exciting because watching a movie in a theatre would be just like watching it at home on the sofa. I remember being inordinately happy that I would no longer need to sit on my folded legs to see over the person in front of me. Im a short guy and learned to sit in unique and uncomfortable positions for long periods of time. I also actually liked sitting in the front row for the same reason. I still do actually:)

Old theatres were pathetic! Musty, hard walls that bounce sound in uneven ways unforgiving to THX sound, hard chairs that reminded you that you did in fact have a rigid skeleton that wanted to be free of its flesh suit and the quickest way was apparently sitting in those seats for 2 hours. In these theatres you could hear every wrapper crinkle like it was in your own lap. And the slanted floors were deadly for combinations of shoes and spilled drinks flowing from the rows behind you. The hard wood and steel clapped and creaked with every movement of the fidgety kid (me) and old man who needed to take another trip to the bathroom.

New theatres were the second coming. I never saw a head in front of me again. The silence of the theatre was beautiful (Yay THX certifications for theatre envrionments)! The seats were silent and felt like sitting in an alpaca chair stuffed with clouds in comparison to the rat trap wire and wood creations of old.

I have another soapbox that discusses the problem with in home entertainment, really just films in the home. The main focus of that diatribe is that I think that not only do we want to be more comfortable in life we want to have the option to ignore those around us. Let’s face it that is often the most comforting thing we can imagine (especially if we are Faust fans as many of us are admittedly or not.)

The issue is that since movies were in the home we could start to ignore people as a whole when we were being entertained. We no longer had to hear those annoying laughs, constant comments, people eating their food, or foot tapping, etc. We could limit our entertainment annoyances to those we knew and not have to deal with strangers. You have to admit it is easier to hear a friend eat popcorn than a stranger do the same. Other people are disgusting, horribly rude, loud, smelly, fat and should be put out of their misery. Ourselves and our friends are just fine though.

Movies used to be made to be seen in community. There was time for laughs and cheers and part of the film was the experience of the theatre. You could learn what was appropriate and not by the reactions of those around, you could spent time before and after chatting about the film. Now theatres are inside other distracting and entertaining centers where you are tempted not to spend time talking about the movie afterwords. Besides you wouldn’t want to offend someone with your opinions or be found to have the wrong opinions. Truly a fate worse than death.

Now the Theatre is a place where you go with a group of people so that you can be alone for 2 hours (just like at home). And if you get tired of (nervous about) talking about the film afterwords…”Hey let’s go shopping!”

New theatres are horrible. They are designed so that the minute that you walk in the door you can begin your journey into the depths isolation so that you can see a film all by yourself with the satisfaction of crediting yourself with some “family time” or something of equal value.

Movies have suffered. The people have suffered. The solution is simple…burn them down!! Wait, no never mind that would be worse.

The solution is simple. Regardless of the institution and how it has ruined itself be the handful that actually treat the theatre like it should. A place for people to congregate and learn more about being human by great Myth and Story, let the characters guide you for a few hours and them see how others were affected and how they may be different because of the experience that you, as a community, shared together.

Just go see it.

I have never cried at a rap song before. This made me do it.
I have never felt so much anger in a theatre
I have never felt so ashamed of myself and my reactions to life before
I have never prayed for someone in a theatre before
I have never understood how powerful the words of scripture could be
I have never realized how grace can change so many lives so EASILY
I have never understood the Psalms until I heard the song Kim wrote and sang.
I have never been so frustrated and felt so helpless on such a large scale

As my favorite quite says I sat huddled in the dark and looked at those in the light so they could show me what it is to be Human.

go see it.  please.

Wow. Let me tell you this movie was a real surprise!  I thought I would be walking into something rather simple and lame.  I thought it was going to be advertising for Nappa.  What I found was a really quaint histo-drama on a very special unique time for California and for America.  It was kind of like Seabiscuit without the national pride.  Now that I think of it that doesn’t surprise me.  It is a movie about selfish people trying to make a difference without knowing how.  It is typical of how California thinks of itself in terms of the country it is part of.  The fact that on their site they compare this moment with the moon landing and 1980 hockey win seems a bit of a non-sequitor.  But I digress from my thoughts on the film.

So this film was pretty amazing in one spectacular detail.  I have been researching to see how true the facts are but have found squat, so I will just go with it an hope that it is based on real events.

Spoilers follow:  as in total spoilers:

So as I walked out of the theatre I felt way better than I should and as David Wilcox would say “I was bugged for metaphorical reasons.”

You see I had just saw something really beautiful and didn’t know why it was beautiful.  It wasn’t until 2 days later that it struck me.  Christ was the entire focus of this film he was the driving story the reason these people were in community and he taught them about love life and how to be better human beings. He even was a perfect creation that died and rose again in this film.  And it was because it was perfect that it HAD to die and rise again.

Now by no means am I saying that this is a Christian Film, I would never condemn a film like that. :)  what I think is that these filmmakers knew the power of Christ imagery and of the story that so much of the world is familiar with that it became their story.  I am sure a lot of it was coincidence or just playing on tradition western storytelling, but it is there.

Ill be short with the explanation then let you play with it a bit on your own.

The grapes and wine are Christ.  OK for all you sacramentals out there you say “Of course Marshall!” I hope so beacuse this movie mad me want to take communion ASAP.  so the one quote about wine from Galileo “Wine is sunlight held together by water” is ever so meaningful. That image Christiologicaly is very cool.

If Christ is the wine in this story some things need to be there.  Well the wine is brought into the world by the unequipped and unprepared.  People society would never imagine a savior coming from.  It should be prophesied.  It should polarize people.  It should die. it should rise again. and finally it should save people’s lives because of the death and rebirth.

In the film the wine does all these things and more.  it even goes through a 3 day death and rebirth.  AND durring its death it is still sweet and beautiful.  In fact the reason for its necessary death is its perfection. and it literaly saves a “nation.”

I am Nate Marshall.  I was raised all over the country and have settled for the time being in the Bay Area.  I have found that one thing that has always impressed me since my childhood was the incredible power of the visual medium.  From design in toys to films to typography and what the words actual say, I have been fascinated by it all.  Visuals drive me to think harder and to act every day of my life.  This isn’t to say that I am a slave to media but you could safely say that I am often consuming media to learn more about this strange diverse beautiful and horrible world that we all live in and share.

I am a Teacher by profession currently though I will always be a student, I believe, in some fashion.  I trained to be a film producer in college @ Biola University.  My passion was to create films.  I particularly wanted to create animated films because of the freedoms involved and the relatively low cost.  The other reason I liked animation was that the smaller teams of creative individuals allows for a community to be developed and I always dreamed of living a life as an “Imagineer.”

I teach now though, and it is a perfect job in so many ways.  I teach many different classes at the private school that allows me such creative and personal freedom to teach great classes.  I offer a Intro to Video Class (how to hold a camera and point it at something interesting), Art of Filmmaking (creating the interesting image and learning from the masters how to say something Good, True and Beautiful), Applied Filmmaking (creating and distributing high quality content), Screenwriting I teach this with my wife Lindsay (How to tell a story and not look like an amateur so you can eventually put your script in the hands of people who matter).  We also have two other classes that I co-teach with other excellent facilitators and educators, Acting for Film is taught by our Theatre Department head and we offer a daily live news broadcast to the entire school.  I  co-teach this class with our Radio Dept. head.  we offer this news class so that we can live webcast school events and sports as well as provide the daily news to the student body.

My future is teaching for the foreseeable future as well as screenwriting with my wife.  We have been writing together for 5 years and have a great time doing it!  It is something that we love to do together and it keeps our marriage strong because we work together as a family and we work together creatively and academically.  That kind of bond is more valuable than anything I have ever experienced.

So this blog will be about the media, but really mostly about cinema.  I want to begin a tradition of reviewing movies in a new context.  I want to explore movies in the context of their value and their contribution of an age-old conversation on art, communication and other topic raised in the specific films.  because of this you wont expect to see many reviews of films here on the lower brow film of the week.  and you will have to be sure to expand your repertoire of films.

I want to encourage you as well to get involved reading and commenting on these films.  There is no real reason to talk to the air when we write and the only way that we can truly appreciate the films that are created is to discuss and try to better understand them.  So I call on you to challenge me and others in the goal of making us all better film viewers but essentially better people in the process.  People who understand just a small bit better the world that we live in and the world that we all share together.

Our future is together and our future is bright.  Let’s gather and speak of things that have value and create a new comunity of souls that understand the value of the visual word