Remember, Remember

I do say at the top of the blog that these are thoughts as they drift through my head and this one does, every so often so I'm going to mention it. I really liked the film V for Vendetta. What I can't understand though is the setting. The writer would have been able to see out of the window and hear on the radio that very much of what he was writing was happening, at that moment in Britain.

Freedom was being deliberately eroded, the meaning of words changed, the state was seeking and acquiring more powers and often doing so by manufacturing 'crises'. But this was under a Labour government, which is what we would expect and the film decided that Britain would become a Stalinist state under a Conservative regime.

It is not that it chose a party I would side with (at present it isn't), but that it had no basis on which to rest. Britain has never had such leanings and even when the extremes of communism were becoming popular, Mosley didn't gain any traction.

Had the film chosen a snake oil salesman character as leader, who relied almost entirely on lies and was the leader of the Labour party it would have almost been a historical document.

Still entertaining though.

I See Blue People

Oh My God. I have spent over two and a half hours watching Avatar. I'm wondering if there is a bigger waste of such a time interval, but I haven't come up with anything yet. What is it about? Ask Al Gore, it's right up his street. A barely concealed, poorly told story of environmentalism as seen by someone obsessed by his own omnipotence. Giant blue people live on the planet Pandora which happens to contain a substance coveted by humans, Unobtainium (no I'm not kidding). These blue people live as one with the natural world, and not only kill for food humanely they kinda apologise as they are doing it. They have neural endings in their pony tail hair that they can plug into all other life forms on the planet and 'communicate' with them (or perhaps 'commune'). Naturally a private company with it's own exceptionally well equipped army turn up and have no sympathy for the indigenous people. Pandora's box is opened.

Most of these 'future' films involve a World Government as that is the ideal of the leftist film makers, but of course here, being complete bastards the humans are from a big corporation. A war ensues, with the native Americans, sorry blue people aided by the human Marine who understands them. He too wants to see all the lights and colours and to love everyone and everything and be able to fly, without LSD this time.

'It's A Wonderful Life' is hardly believable in the strictest sense, yet it achieves its objective through being human with charity based on the Christian religion. Avatar attempts to be a morality tale as told by a Stalinist, by a man who has asked the Oracle at Delphi a question and believes he knows what she means. It is self-important tosh, with brilliant effects.