We worked on songs today...let's do a little list of movies that relate to our work.
Tonight, at midnight, The Truman Show will air on TBS. That movie definitely makes a comment on the role of TV in our lives.
Many of you have already mentioned Wall-E. I've only seen parts of this, but it seems quite good.
One of my favorite movies in recent years was Children of Men. It's chilling and plausible. I can't show it in class because of the pervasive cursing, but there's a short clip that I do want to show when this kid is at the dinner table playing a video game. I can't get that scene out of my mind.
Broadcast News portrays a TV journalist who is an actual journalist -- smart, articulate, curious, and a good researcher. Unfortunately, he sweats heavily and is slightly goofy looking (played by Albert Brooks, who I happen to think is adorable in a chubby, nerdy way), so he loses out to a handsome airhead who can smoothly read a teleprompter.
Wag the Dog is a brilliant little movie with Dustin Hoffman about media management and the White House. Dustin Hoffman is a genius. I could watch him read a washing machine repair manual and think it was interesting.
What else? What other movies make you think of Postman or Huxley or Orwell?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
For Orwell, it would have to be "28 Weeks Later" or the first "Resident Evil" movie. They may seem like just another gory zombie movie but the way the government is portrayed by the survivors fits Orwell's message about an evil, controlling government perfectly.
ReplyDeletePostman was brought to mind when I was recently dragged to watch "Eclipse" for the seventh time by an overzealous cousin. Once the Twilight Saga was formatted to fit the big screen, I lost respect for the whole "cute vampire romance" thing. All the crazy paraphernalia that has popped up is an epic example of Postman's mention of how the show business industry will manipulate ther masses' obsession with whatever is "the rave" at the moment.
So far I have not seen a movie recently that brings Huxley to mind, but then again my junkie need for technology is a daily reminder enough that out iPods and Blackberries are our first taste at the soma we will eventually be subjected to in the future.
I thought about Logan's Run the whole time I was reading Huxley's novel. :)
ReplyDeleteWell this isn't a movie, but there was this one episode of Doctor Who, the longest running T.V. show in the history of television, in which a pleasure drug called bliss mutated into a virus and wiped out the surface population of the Earth, leaving the rest of human civilization underground in the motorways.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of Postman, I think about President Nixon in chapter 1, and how Postman talks about him losing weight. This reminds me of movies that stress what is on the outside versus what is on the inside:
ReplyDelete"The Hunchback of Notre Dame"
"Beauty and the Beast"
Unlike "Wall-e", which relates a lot to Huxley, these two movies don't relate to Postman as much. They still share a common topic, though.
Also, in "Fahrenheit 451", a major character, Guy Montag, questions his role in society, which is similar to Bernard Marx in "Brave New World". The movie "Fahrenheit 451" is not as good as the book is.
I thought about "Edward Scissorhands" while reading Brave New World, specifically in the scenes involving John and Lenina. John wants Lenina, but restraints himself from holding her when she's naked and willing, which is sort of similar to the scene in the movie when Kim wants Edward to hug her and he says, "I can't."
ReplyDeleteIf you have the time, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World reminds me of Postman's book. Strange, that a teenage comedy flick would remind me of "A Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business", but throughout the movie there are references to video games that are tangible to the characters within the film. For example, there is one part where Scott says to his friend that he's "getting a life", and then promptly grabs a floating one-life power-up in the air next to him.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Disney's upcoming remake of Tron reminded me of Postman's book. Vaporized into a computer world, the main character struggles to go back to reality.
Intergration of video games in the human life. Similar to Postman's comparison of media and government in a way.