DylanDog's New Writeupshttp://everything2.com/?node=New%20Writeups%20Atom%20Feed&foruser=DylanDog2018-08-09T16:35:43ZManhunter (essay)http://everything2.com/user/DylanDog/writeups/ManhunterDylanDoghttp://everything2.com/user/DylanDog2018-08-09T16:35:43Z2018-08-09T16:35:43Z<p><a href="https://goo.gl/images/h6reUM"><strong><em>Manhunter</em></strong></a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.everything2.com/user/madprophetridx/writeups/Michael+Mann">Michael Mann's</a> <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091474/"><em>Manhunter</em></a> (1986) is a 1980s <a href="https://www.everything2.com/user/Lucy-S/writeups/Manhunter">masterpiece</a> that finely adapts its source, <a href="https://www.everything2.com/user/Palpz/writeups/Thomas+Harris">Thomas Harris's</a> 1981 novel, <a href="https://www.everything2.com/user/BrianShader/writeups/Red+Dragon"><em>Red Dragon</em></a>. Since the book, the film under discussion, and a second filmed version (<a href="https://www.everything2.com/user/Augusta/writeups/Red+Dragon"><em>Red Dragon</em></a>, 2002, directed by B. Ratner) have all been out for decades, I make no attempt to prevent spoilage here.</p>
<p>I have copiously illustrated my essay through linked images and video clips to relieve its length. In addition, I have consciously used the spelling of characters' names peculiar to the work I discuss, so that <em>Manhunter's</em><!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…Blade Runner 2049 (review)http://everything2.com/user/DylanDog/writeups/Blade+Runner+2049DylanDoghttp://everything2.com/user/DylanDog2017-10-22T04:08:24Z2017-10-22T04:08:24Z<p>Indiscriminate spoilage ahead. Proceed at your own risk.</p>
<p>The thoughtful and, I think, accurately perceptive review by <a href="/title/The+Custodian">The Custodian</a> gets at the problematic side of <em>BR 2049</em> (and I'll call the original <a href="/title/Blade+Runner">1982 film</a> simply <em>BR</em> from here on). I think it might be possible to go a little farther, however.</p>
<p>In the original, the <a href="/title/Nexus-6">Nexus</a> <a href="/title/replicant">replicants</a> were unstable, and thus banned from Earth. There was no reason at all for them to want to come to Earth (which <em>BR</em> adequately showed to be a hellhole), but for the fact that the replicants were becoming so human that they could now contemplate mortality in a more sophisticated way. So <a href="/title/Roy+Batty">Roy Batty</a> and the others <a href="http://thaoworra.blogspot.com/2009/11/nam-william-blake-orc-and-blade-runner.html">descended into hell</a> to try to find a way to lengthen their lives.</p>
<p>The original version of the movie had Deckard's voiceover stating that <a href="/title/Rachel+Rosen">Rachel</a> was a new type<!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…Rogue One (review)http://everything2.com/user/DylanDog/writeups/Rogue+OneDylanDoghttp://everything2.com/user/DylanDog2016-12-23T01:39:44Z2016-12-23T01:39:44Z<p><em>Rogue One</em>: in the Valley of the Uncanny</p>
<p>Possible spoilers ahead.</p>
<p>It has been observed that when humans are confronted by things that are progressively more human in their appearance and function they tend to like those things better. There comes a point close to the fully human, however, at which the nearly-human-but-not-quite-right causes a strong revulsion. If we graph the response, this deep dip in the graph is called the <a href="/title/The+Uncanny+Valley">uncanny valley</a>, and helps explain why things like cadavers and zombies play so well to our sense of horror.</p>
<p><em>Rogue One</em> seems to me to dwell in the uncanny valley. As an adolescent of the 1970s, I have a preconceived idea of what a <a href="/title/A+New+Hope"><em>Star Wars</em></a> movie ought to look like: as much as possible like the <a href="/title/A+New+Hope">original</a> (1977) or <a href="/title/The+Empire+Strikes+Back"><em>The Empire Strikes Back</em></a> (1980). That’s just how this one looks, because it has been assembled out of a very large number of callbacks, visual,<!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…Idiocracy (review)http://everything2.com/user/DylanDog/writeups/IdiocracyDylanDoghttp://everything2.com/user/DylanDog2009-01-13T18:13:37Z2009-01-13T18:13:37Z<p><big><big><big><em>Idiocracy</em></big></big></big></p>
<p>D. Mike Judge, 2006</p>
<p align="justify"><a href="/title/Screenwriter">Screenwriter</a>s <a href="/title/Mike+Judge">Judge</a> and <a href="/title/Etan+Cohen">Etan Cohen</a> offer us a <a href="/title/satire">satire</a> on the <a href="/title/egotism">egotism</a>, <a href="/title/consumerism">consumerism</a>, and dumbing down of <a href="/title/United+States+of+America">American</a> society while their clever writing, with occasional brilliant moments and a good grasp of <a href="/title/psychology">psychology</a> throughout, elevates the movie into a thoughtful social statement.</p>
<p align="justify">The <a href="/title/conceit">conceit</a> that drives the film is very simple, and quickly established by a voiceover. It is so safe to be dumb in our society that rapidly breeding fools ("with no natural predators to thin the herd") vastly outnumber the more intelligent, who, for various (falsely prudential) reasons put off or avoid reproducing. The result, by A.D. 2505, when the main events of the film take place, is a society so dumbed down that, for example, standard English is scarcely understood by the common people who speak "a hybrid of <a href="/title/hillbilly">hillbilly</a>, <a href="/title/valley+girl">valley girl</a>, inner-<!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…Museum Drug Store (place)http://everything2.com/user/DylanDog/writeups/Museum+Drug+StoreDylanDoghttp://everything2.com/user/DylanDog2005-08-14T09:17:52Z2005-08-14T09:17:52Z<p><big><big><strong>The Museum Drug Store, Rome, Italy</strong></big></big></p>
<p align="justify">In the 300-block of the via Portuense in <a href="/title/Rome">Rome</a>, next to the <a href="/title/Blockbuster+Video">Blockbuster Video</a> store, is an unprepossessing storefront with a sign designating it the Museum Drug Store. Already quite peculiar (for Italy) for being open 24 hours a day, what you find inside this convenience store is astonishing.</p>
<p align="justify">The via Portuense is the old Roman road that led to <a href="/title/Portus">Portus</a>, one of the ports of Rome. It basically follows the <a href="/title/Tiber">Tiber</a> to the sea, avoiding the river's turns; Portus is on the north side of the Tiber's mouth. In antiquity roads leading from Rome (and other cities) were lined with <a href="/title/tomb">tomb</a>s, because it was generally <a href="/title/miasma">religiously unacceptable</a> to bury the dead within <a href="/title/pomerium">formal city boundaries</a>.</p>
<p align="justify">Later, the area was mined as a source of <a href="/title/pozzolana">pozzolana</a>, a species of volcanic ash which was used to make the special hydraulic <a href="/title/concrete">concrete</a> the Romans used (Rome is<!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…Museo Nazionale Romano (place)http://everything2.com/user/DylanDog/writeups/Museo+Nazionale+RomanoDylanDoghttp://everything2.com/user/DylanDog2005-08-01T22:10:04Z2005-08-01T22:10:04Z<p><big><big><big><strong>Museo Nazionale Romano</strong></big></big></big></p>
<p align="justify"><a href="/title/The+Museo+Nazionale+Romano">The Museo Nazionale Romano</a>, or the <a href="/title/Rome">Roman</a> National (archeological) Museum, has emerged from restructuring in connection with the <a href="/title/Jubilee">Jubilee</a> Year of 2000 as one of the most impressive museums in the world. I have just returned to it for the first time since 1999, and I could not believe my eyes. The collection has been spread over four separate sites, with each site having a programmatic focus, or series of focuses. The four sites are:</p>
<p><strong>The Terme di Diocleziano</strong>, or "Terme Museum", in the baths of Diocletian.<br>
The <strong>Palazzo Massimo alle Terme</strong>, across the street from the Terme Museum.<br>
The <strong>Palazzo Altemps</strong>, just north of the Piazza Navona.<br>
The <strong>Crypta Balbi</strong>, an area corresponding to a portion of the first century BC Theater of Balbus.</p>
<p align="justify">The <strong><a href="/title/Terme+Museum">Terme Museum</a></strong> was the traditional seat<!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…