I am terrified. Yaay for movies.
Nov. 1st, 2007 12:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragojustineSo I bought far too much candy (and had only one trick-or-treater. One sad lonely Mutant Ninja Turtle. Feel cheated). And watched the Princess Bride and The Shining. FINALLY.
Oh my god. I am so freaked out. I am a total horror movie wuss. I was terrified. When the mirror shot finally pays off, and we see redrum as "Murder" I did, in fact, scream. Because I am easy.
*sighs* Man, the score on that movie was over-the-top. It's really frustrating to know how blatantly you're being manipulated, and have it work anyway. Grr. And the "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" pages thing FREAKED ME RIGHT THE HELL OUT. And Jack sitting there frozen with that rictus on his face... *freaks* I am a wuss. I have been hunting about online reading every critical essay I can find (because, when disturbed by something, over-intellectualize it! Always works) and yet, even after a good night's sleep, I am still freaked.
In conclusion: Redrum.
The Princess Bride:
Man, I am so happy I finally saw this movie. It's a bit weird, finally watching a movie when you can already quote huge sections of it. It is a sort of fannish cultural osmosis thing, and I think that's a fascinating phenomenon. I mean, how can I quote half this movie? How do I know as much as I do about Buffy, or the X Files, or Smallville, without having seen a single episode of any of those shows? Cultures come with common knowledge, and you don't even notice as it seeps into you, until suddenly you're laughing at all your DnD friends' jokes even though you've never played. It's... odd.
The Dread Pirate Roberts and Inigo Montoya (and their wonderful repartee!) were both exactly as awesome as I expected. The "wine in front of me" was just as funny as it reads. To finally hear "My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die" was awesome.
Like watching the original Star Wars trilogy for the first time- you can't ever hear "Luke, I am your father" as simply a plot point, a line in a movie. It's a THING, a cultural touchstone that you can finally tick off your list. The thing is, it changes your experience. Is it ever really possible to hear "I'll be back" or "Bond. James Bond" or "Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?" or "what we have here is a failure to communicate" or "Go ahead- make my day" for the first time? To hear these things now is a fundamentally different experience than hearing any other line of a movie.
I am reminded of the Slings & Arrows episode, where Jeff asks Jack why he is scared of doing the "To be or not to be" soliloquy: "When I say those lines, they won't be in the play anymore. They'll just be watching some guy acting." When I hear "My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die" I am not in any way watching a line spoken by a particular character, in a particular movie- I am out of that movie entirely, in every geeky movie quotes conversation I've ever had. I am watching that line, having nothing meaningful to do with its context. Is it even possible for anyone who has not lived in a box their whole lives to hear "No, I am your father" as a contextual line in a movie anymore?
Incidentally, I notice I misquoted it as "Luke, I am your father" above. This is one of those cases where the quote itself has obviously become so much more important than the context it comes from that the REAL quote actually sounds WRONG to our ears. Like if you quote "Play it, Sam" without the "again."
I have no conclusions. I think that wasn't even very coherent.
BUT, right after I finished the Princess Bride, I got a rec for a Princess Bride/PotC Xover fic. The Revenge, PG Sparrow/Montoya. This makes me SCREAM with joy. Pirates, people! Jack Sparrow! And Inigo! And flamboyance and swishiness and swordplay and repartee and rum! Pirates! I want endless sequels of Jack and Inigo sailing about being pirates together! *dies from Pirate love* Has there ever been anything as cool as pirates?
Oh my god. I am so freaked out. I am a total horror movie wuss. I was terrified. When the mirror shot finally pays off, and we see redrum as "Murder" I did, in fact, scream. Because I am easy.
*sighs* Man, the score on that movie was over-the-top. It's really frustrating to know how blatantly you're being manipulated, and have it work anyway. Grr. And the "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" pages thing FREAKED ME RIGHT THE HELL OUT. And Jack sitting there frozen with that rictus on his face... *freaks* I am a wuss. I have been hunting about online reading every critical essay I can find (because, when disturbed by something, over-intellectualize it! Always works) and yet, even after a good night's sleep, I am still freaked.
In conclusion: Redrum.
The Princess Bride:
Man, I am so happy I finally saw this movie. It's a bit weird, finally watching a movie when you can already quote huge sections of it. It is a sort of fannish cultural osmosis thing, and I think that's a fascinating phenomenon. I mean, how can I quote half this movie? How do I know as much as I do about Buffy, or the X Files, or Smallville, without having seen a single episode of any of those shows? Cultures come with common knowledge, and you don't even notice as it seeps into you, until suddenly you're laughing at all your DnD friends' jokes even though you've never played. It's... odd.
The Dread Pirate Roberts and Inigo Montoya (and their wonderful repartee!) were both exactly as awesome as I expected. The "wine in front of me" was just as funny as it reads. To finally hear "My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die" was awesome.
Like watching the original Star Wars trilogy for the first time- you can't ever hear "Luke, I am your father" as simply a plot point, a line in a movie. It's a THING, a cultural touchstone that you can finally tick off your list. The thing is, it changes your experience. Is it ever really possible to hear "I'll be back" or "Bond. James Bond" or "Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?" or "what we have here is a failure to communicate" or "Go ahead- make my day" for the first time? To hear these things now is a fundamentally different experience than hearing any other line of a movie.
I am reminded of the Slings & Arrows episode, where Jeff asks Jack why he is scared of doing the "To be or not to be" soliloquy: "When I say those lines, they won't be in the play anymore. They'll just be watching some guy acting." When I hear "My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die" I am not in any way watching a line spoken by a particular character, in a particular movie- I am out of that movie entirely, in every geeky movie quotes conversation I've ever had. I am watching that line, having nothing meaningful to do with its context. Is it even possible for anyone who has not lived in a box their whole lives to hear "No, I am your father" as a contextual line in a movie anymore?
Incidentally, I notice I misquoted it as "Luke, I am your father" above. This is one of those cases where the quote itself has obviously become so much more important than the context it comes from that the REAL quote actually sounds WRONG to our ears. Like if you quote "Play it, Sam" without the "again."
I have no conclusions. I think that wasn't even very coherent.
BUT, right after I finished the Princess Bride, I got a rec for a Princess Bride/PotC Xover fic. The Revenge, PG Sparrow/Montoya. This makes me SCREAM with joy. Pirates, people! Jack Sparrow! And Inigo! And flamboyance and swishiness and swordplay and repartee and rum! Pirates! I want endless sequels of Jack and Inigo sailing about being pirates together! *dies from Pirate love* Has there ever been anything as cool as pirates?
