Children Of the Candy Corn: Wreck It Ralph & Game Jumping

"The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants," writer Albert Camus once said, and the destiny of a little girl suffers in the name of humanity because King Candy employs this "logic" of which Camus speaks; fortunately, Ralph doesn't buy into it, making it one reason why Walt Disney's Wreck It Ralph is exceedingly sophisticated. Whereas Cloud Atlas took a complex plot and made it a mess, Wreck It Ralph takes an incredibly simple (even cliche) story and, with great insight into history and where we stand today, Disney creates a convincing, human story in the world of pixels. The question is, which side does it support, the socialists or the capitalists?
The capitalists.

As you know, I fully expected the film to go anti-capitalist, and I was ready to call it so several times during the film and even as I was walking out of the theater; so what changed by mind? Vanellope von Schweetz. From the opening lines of the film, the "class conflict" continuous throughout the narrative begins, signalling viewers to be alert. Part of what was confusing for me was that Ralph starts out seeing himself as socialists see him and giving into the propaganda that he is just a big, dumb lug being kept out of the upper-class (and the film plays through this); then it changes direction. Like Resident Evil Retribution, the military fighting the cyber bugs in Hero's Duty are really fighting the "glitches" of socialism; how can we say this with certainty? Class mobility has taken place. There isn't a revolution like what socialists are calling for in Cloud Atlas, rather, the two, politically dis-enfranchised characters--Ralph and Vanellope--have ascended to the status they sought through honest means (their talents and determination) rather than "redistribution" which is theft (both Ralph and Vanellope steal in the film, more on that below). It's an important "glitch" in the trailer that, at 1:27, the title card signals us to the film's anticipated release in February 2013, meaning, the film was intentionally re-scheduled for release the weekend before the presidential election because it had a political message it wanted to convey to viewers. In spite of its astonishing $50 million opening weekend, it doesn't seem to have had any results on the outcome of the election.

What's to brag about a Disney, animated film about video games?
Word play is extensive throughout the dialogue and the game theory expertly applies the differences between "play" and "game" in nearly every scene ("game" is based on rules which favor those in power whereas "play" allows for a creative interpretation of the rules so those who might not have a chance to win otherwise can use their talents to advantage). One example of Vanellope's use of "play" over "game" is her seeing Ralph's (stolen) medal from Hero's Duty as the "coin" she has to pay in order to enter the race; a perfect example of "game" is when Taffyta tells Vanellope she can't race because it's against the rules for glitches to race. Theoretically speaking, "glitches"--being a part of the code--means that the natural "encoding" all art engages in (the use of symbols and theory) deepens within itself  (or reflects itself reflecting) because of the code, bugs and glitches of the arcade games' inherent codes, so the film has an intense level of self-awareness.

One of the opening scenes clearly delineating class structure: Ralph--on the left--lives in the dump and Ralph immediately articulates that the place he lives in isn't like a dump, but he lives in the city dump (one of several word "plays" the film consciously employs; word play is valuable in interpretation because it points to expanded meaning and the invitation for the audience to "play" with them film's meaning). While Ralph lives in the dump, Felix and other members of the game live in the penthouse which Ralph looks at longingly in this image. Similarly, there are several images of game characters becoming homeless--like Q-Bert--because they lose their game; Vanellope, likewise, lives on the outskirts of Sugar Rush (on the margins of society) under the Diet Cola Mountain and, when showing Ralph how she sleeps, compares herself to a "little homeless lady." These are class distinctions (including the "penthouse" acting as a class distinction between Felix and Ralph). Then, towards the end, Vanellope is catapulted to being the "princess" of Sugar Rush, i.e., the rightful ruler, because King Candy had usurped her place (more on this important bit of encoded history below).

I made the observation previously that the story celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Fix-It-Felix game, and the anniversary is the reason for Ralph's sudden "soul searching" and realizing he doesn't want to be the bad guy anymore. There is a celebration party going on in the penthouse to which Ralph wasn't invited and--crashing the party--one of the other characters tells him he would have to win a medal to be accepted but bad guys can't win medals, so Ralph determines that he will. This simple scenario the narrative provides is the basis of the American Dream, the goal of overcoming one's present, lowly circumstances to achieve a state of greatness; but herein lies a clever, "well-played" trick of the film: it shows us how not to achieve the American Dream, through theft (i.e., the socialist program of redistribution).

This is the first "bad anon" meeting Ralph has ever attended, because it's the game's 30th anniversary. This means that Fix-It-Felix was made in 1982 (and the date appears in the opening images at the bottom of the game screen). Why is 1982 significant? Ronald Reagan was president, enacting his "Reaganomics" which could be described as hard-core capitalism (I know, we don't have to argue about terminology, but compared to what is going on today, it was hard-core capitalism). Ralph, being the "lower-class," at the bottom of society, outside the middle-class, symbolizes any and all Americans outside that (infamous) 1% of the rich, and--30 years after the Reagan experiment in small federal government--the "Ralphs" in America are being asked if they like where they are by socialists who want to "level the playing field" and Ralph--in the beginning--basically says, "No, I don't, and I want things to change." This is where it gets confusing, but only because Wreck It Ralph has a lot of points to make. After the Bad Anon meeting (pictured above) breaks up, Ralph is supposed to get on the cargo train with the other characters but he steals some of Pac-Man's cherries (you see him eating these in the trailer); then, he steals the Hero's Duty uniform from one of the soldiers, then he steals the medal from Hero's Duty and that's when he steps on a cyber bug egg,... timing in narratives is essential, because when events are linked in a time structure, it's usually because there is a (symbolic/moral/metaphysical) cause-and-effect relationship between one and the other. If Ralph had not been stealing the medal, he would not have released the cyber bug; releasing the cyber bug causes every game in the arcade to be endangered of infection. What do the "events" in this sequence resemble? The "redistribution" of wealth Obama has suggested because Ralph didn't earn that Hero's Duty medal (the film goes to extremes to make sure we know that Ralph didn't earn it) but the unearned Hero's Duty medal is juxtaposed to the earned sugar cookie medal Vanellope makes for Ralph that has "You're my hero" written on it, because that was earned and demonstrates all the other "gifts" that have come with it by helping someone else in need (the gift like her friendship and his own self-discovery of what he can do besides just wrecking things). 

After leaving Bad Anon, Ralph steals some cherries from the Pac-Man game and starts eating them; re-entering Game Central Station, he sees Q-Bert homeless and offers the cherry to him and his friends. It's not that a right can correct a wrong, rather, it's this sense of "helping out" and Ralph sharing what he has with others that makes capitalism a more human economic model than what socialists give it credit (Felix and the other characters of Fix-It-Felix don't readily offer Ralph anything, which shows them to be vain, shallow and greedy, which they are). Q-Bert, in turn for Ralph's kindness, goes to the Fix-It-Felix game and informs Felix where Ralph has gone which makes it possible for Felix to enlist Calhoun so they can save Ralph. So one good turn to someone else means you get a good turn.

We have to ask, why would a kids film  about Q-Bert be made when they obviously do not know who Q-Bert is? Because the film is being marketed to their parents who do know and remember. At the end of the film, Q-Bert and characters from that game join up with the Fix It Felix game and Ralph says their new game is considered retro and very popular. We have to ask, how many technological entertainments from 1982 are still existing today? None that I can think of because technology comes and goes so quickly nowadays so this "slip" of unreality (that Fix It Felix from 1982 would still be operating in a 2012 arcade) is meant to intentionally make us question "What's going on here?" Fix It Felix, being from the Reagan Administration symbolizes capitalism and Ralph as one for whom the American Dream hasn't yet come true (the idea of dreams not coming true was well-played out in Total Recall). In 1997, the game Sugar Rush came out and was immediately infected by King Candy; why? King Candy symbolizes socialism (I articulate this below) and 1997 was the start of Bill Clinton's second term as president during which time he and wife Hillary created three, state-run (socialist) child programs (including health insurance) "infecting" the capitalist system with impersonator code (King Candy). Please recall that Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters sites the beginning of Clinton's second term as the time when the two young siblings went to the witch's gingerbread cottage (made of candy like everything in Sugar Rush). So the socialism we are getting with Obama really started, the film points out, during Clinton's second term. Resurrecting a character like Q-Bert has more to do with politics than just nostalgia, he links us to the presidency and policies of Ronald Reagan unlocking for us our memories of history and why socialism is "the most powerful virus in the universe" (King Candy says that).

After trying to discover a way to get a medal so he can "advance to the next level," (see, isn't that a great pun loaded with economic innuendos for class advancement?) Ralph steals the uniform of a Hero's Duty soldier and sneaks into the game where he meets Calhoun, the squad leader:

What is Ralph's disastrous tour of duty conveying?
Those who do what they do do what they do because they can.
In other words, not everyone is equal.
It's a familiar example, but an important one: being only five-foot-two myself, I am quite certain that I would lose a basketball game to bad boy Dennis Rodman; on the other hand, ask Rodman to write a twenty-page paper on the importance of Moby Dick and he'd be lucky to get twenty words on the page. Everyone is equally talented, but not everyone is equally talented at all talents. Socialism would have us to believe that (the upcoming Billy Crystal and Bette Midler film Parental Guidance examines this philosophy in the scene of the grandson's baseball game when there "are not outs," everyone gets to stay at bat until they hit the ball) but Wreck It Ralph makes a more definite and personal statement about each individual and our talent: we own our talent and our talent owns us, no one can take it away from us and unless we know our talent and the value of our talent, we don't know our own self. This thesis forms the core philosophy of Wreck It Ralph and it's strategy against socialism (this discussion is continued in the caption for the image below).

Ralph triggering the medal award ceremony in Hero's Duty after he has stolen the medal. The grandiose honor the military commander behind Ralph bequeaths on the winner is meant to trigger our own response: that's not right. We inherently know that it's not right for someone to receive credit for something they didn't do and it's also wrong for someone to not receive credit for what they did do. The film intentionally creates this "superficial" award so, when Ralph's real award for being a hero comes from Vanellope, we judge its value on the human scale of sincerity and love. Why is this an important philosophical argument to make? Because socialism doesn't believe this, in practice, it holds that everyone is equal in all things and the government owns your talent, not you. The reason Ralph is so disgruntled is because he doesn't have the freedom of mobility to explore the positive side of his talent for wrecking (think of the limited mobility of Communism existing in East Berlin during the Cold War and how difficult it was for anyone to exit or enter the Soviet Union or any of its controlled countries). Once Ralph steps outside his boundaries, he's also stepping outside himself and getting to know himself in a way he hasn't before (this holds true also for Felix who realizes the negative side of "always fixing everything" when he's in the "fungeon" and can't get out). The reason the bond between Ralph and Vanellope becomes so strong is because she acts as a mirror to show Ralph himself in a way he hasn't seen himself before (and that is what happens for all of us in our relationships) and Ralph does the same for Vanellope. Because both characters have been without that friendship for so long, they value it more than other characters within the film because they don't take it for granted. Why is this important? Human beings are cheap in a socialist society, the government doesn't think twice about letting people die or suffer (consider, for example, President Obama's "aiding" of the people suffering from Hurricane Sandy, while they were without all basic necessities, he was campaigning in Las Vegas, then shooting hoops waiting for the election results). Wreck It Ralph wants to remind us of the importance of relationships and how it not only helps us to discover ourselves and our purpose in society (in a socialist government, the only purpose is to serve the government) but how we help others discover their purpose as well. In this scene, the cyber bug of socialism (explained in next caption below) is released when Ralph "puts his foot in it" and releases socialism because he buys into believing that he deserves something he didn't earn which is the basis for redistribution of wealth.

Now, let's talk about the two leading women of the film, Calhoun and Vanellope.
It's tempting for me to say that both females are symbolic role reversals away from the tradition of symbols, for example, the passive female usually symbolizes "the motherland" while the active male symbolizes the economy or the founding father. In Wreck It Ralph, both Vanellope and Calhoun symbolize the motherland, but the motherland's identity has been further articulated than ever before, incorporating the economy/economic model of the land to be part of the identity of the motherland. Calhoun easily represents for us the military because she's not only the leader but the dominant military presence within the film (and we can all see how that would be a role reversal from a traditional female); besides being eligible as a symbol of the motherland because she's female, she also gets married  twice (for more on Calhoun, please see the caption in the image below).

Calhoun has a "tragic case history" because she fell in love with another soldier and on their wedding day, she didn't do a perimeter check and a cyber bug broke through the window of the church and ate Calhoun's groom. The window is "the window of reflection." Calhoun, as a female and symbol of the motherland, is not aggressive military but protective; her groom, however, symbolizes active military because he was male. For the protecting factor to be "wedded to" the militaristic factor would have created a socialist state (symbolized by the cyber bug) because communism is determined to be world-wide and must be spread and that is symbolized in the plague of cyber bugs. When Calhoun marries Felix, on the other hand, it's because Calhoun as the motherland is protecting the civilians and their interests.

Who is Vanellope?
As a child, she symbolizes "the future"; as a race car driver, she symbolizes the economy; with her name being "von Schweetz," she's not only German, but nobility (technically, royalty) and, as a "glitch," she's imperfect and temporary. If you are paying close attention, some of these characteristics appear to be in stark contrast to one another.

Not everything is "sweet" in Sugar Rush and Vanellope hanging upside-down should alert us to that. What other female have we seen hanging upside-down? Carolyn Stoddard from Dark Shadows; instead of turning into a werewolf like Carolyn, Vanellope turns into a princess and, knowing this, we can understand why Vanellope is upside-down. When Ralph mentions in the clip below, "Why don't you go home?" Vanellope begins mimicking him, why? Two reasons, first, because Vanellope doesn't have a real home, she's socially, politically, economically and emotionally marginalized in Sugar Rush. As a glitch, Vanellope can't be a part of the game, or so King Candy tells everyone and all these elements will come together, in just a moment, when we discuss the second reason for Vanellope hanging upside-down. 

This clip is where Vanellope and Ralph first meet, after Ralph has crashed the space ship from Hero's Duty wherein a cyber-bug escaped with him (landing in Sugar Rush to lay eggs and take over the game) and, in the process of the "crash" (read, "economic crash,") Ralph lost his "stolen" medal, which he realized was on the upper most branch of one of the candy-cane trees (everything in this clip is important):

Vanellope being "on a limb" when she and Ralph first meet means she's in a dangerous position, just as Ralph is (if he dies in Sugar Rush, he doesn't regenerate). Vanellope's danger is that, as a glitch, she could cause harm or damage to herself or others at any minute. Note also that the first topic Vanellope introduces is Ralph "not belonging" in Sugar Rush, because, as a marginalized character not allowed to play "in the game" of the Sugar Rush race track, she herself doesn't belong and yet she can't leave the game, because she's a glitch (when everyone in Sugar Rush has to abandon the game because of the cyber bugs, she can't exit because of her code). Vanellope is in a state of social, political and economic paralysis, like Ralph.

If Vanellope is royalty and the rightful ruler of Sugar Rush, why does everyone treat her so meanly? King Candy took over Sugar Rush, and to do that, he sealed the memories and history of Sugar Rush so no one would remember that Vanellope was the princess and rightful royal ruler. This is the second reason why Vanellope "hangs upside-down," because her "kingdom" is upside-down: the trespasser is ruling and the ruler is ousted (just like Snow White in both Mirror, Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman).

Knowing that Vanellope's last name is "von Schweetz," means she's German, and why would something deliberately "German" be deliberately compared to a deliberate glitch? Because Germany made two recoveries from World Wars: one recovery led to Germany becoming socialist and starting another World War, and the second recovery led Germany to becoming one of the most economically advanced and stable models of capitalism in the world. This later example (which we'll see in the metaphor of the race track) is the reason why a German would be considered "royalty" in a pro-capitalist narrative because they are a royal example of what to do right; the question is, with an American government wanting to turn our society to socialism, why hasn't the successes of Germany been remembered? Because that history has been locked up (please see caption in image above).

When Ralph and Vanellope first meet in the clip above, as is typical in first encounters, we reveal a great deal of ourselves, and part of what is revealed is what Ralph thinks of himself: a wrecker. What does he tell Vanellope? I'm here to cut down these trees, i.e., destroy them. Why does Ralph tell her "we" are here, in the plural? Because he knows the cyber bug is there to destroy Sugar Rush as well even though he will lie later and tell Calhoun the bug drowned. Why does Ralph do this? Self-concern. It's a well-documented fact and criticism of capitalism that individuals only care about themselves, and in this scenario the films creates about Ralph letting loose the cyber bug, he shows how any of us might behave this way, but how we can make amends and actually become better for it by not caring about ourselves and our own fortunes and well-being, rather, but putting others first. This is what makes Ralph the hero because he sees in the needs of others his "hero's duty" to employ his talents and skills--be they ever so humble--and help save others even if it means his own life.

Now that we know "she's German," we know why she imitates Ralph when they first meet: the Germans imitated American capitalism so they could recover from socialism; German socialism is why Vanellope doesn't understand why Ralph has such "freakishly big hands": hands, as part of the arms, can symbolize strength, but also "the hand of friendship" (as seen in the image above); because socialism weakened Germany so much, it doesn't understand how capitalism (the Reaganomics from 1982 when Fix-It-Felix was created) made America so strong; additionally, because of the imperialist agenda of Nazi Germany and the taking over of countries in Africa and the international intent of conquering the world, Vanellope would not understand why America would have such a "big hand of friendship" to extend to others instead of using using that power to dominate and control. Why does Ralph ask, "Why are you so freakishly annoying?" Probably as a reference to how "annoying" the Germans starting World War II was to America and the problems East German socialism caused to America's CIA (America and Germany have not always been allies, Germany has "annoyed" America in the past).

This commercial for Sugar Rush isn't in the film, however, it will give you important glances as to the race Vanellope has to win and how capitalistic the marketing of the game is:

Why is a race so perfect for an economic analogy?
There is always the possibility of  "crashing."
As stated above, its usually the active male principle symbolizing the economy, but Wreck It Ralph transforms the motherland (Vanellope) by making the economy a part of the motherland's identity, not something adjacent to or contingent upon or politically motivated by. "I knew racing was in my code," Vanellope tells Ralph after finally figuring out how to drive (how to control the "engine of the economy"). Vanellope has three different race cars in the film: the first she made on her own and the other racers tear it apart, then the one she and Ralph try to make and Ralph tears apart at the behest of King Candy and Fix It Felix fixes for Ralph. Why are there basically three cars (the car Felix fixes is different from the original so I am counting that as a third car)? Because Vanellope has to win the race to get Ralph's medal back for him (advance him socially and economically) so the car is the engine of the economy and the first car was "invented" by Vanellope, translating that we can't just "invent" economic principles and expect they will work because they don't stand up to the scrutiny of others (the other racers tearing it apart).

The second car is much better than the first, yet still leaving much to be desired since Ralph and Vanellope make it themselves but don't know anything about making cars demonstrating how the economy the politically disenfranchised create without any one else's help is a mess and neither Ralph nor Vanellope know enough to make a good car; the inherent flaws of that "engine of economic growth" must be wrecked at King Candy's provocation (more on him below). After the car is wrecked, and Fix It Felix repairs it, Vanellope has the car that wins the race; why? It's not that Felix has made the car better (it's an even bigger mess now) but now the upper-class Felix symbolizes has contributed to the vehicle of the economy so now the race can be won (please recall that Iron Man's Tony Stark [Robert Downey Jr] also fixes everything, including in The Avengers). It's the combined effort on the economic model that allows Vanellope to out-race King Candy and win back her kingdom; so, who is King Candy?
Socialism.

"Have some candy," King Candy keeps telling everyone and that's where the phrase "Children of the candy corn" comes from. Referencing the horror film Children Of the Corn, where all the kids killed their parents to worship a demonic cult, so those children living off the state's candy corn of freebies are like children who have killed their parents (the "mother"land and the founding "fathers") to live according to appetites, not republic principles like Vanellope promises to establish after she has been restored to power. A second film is linked with King Candy: The Wizard Of Oz. Outside his palace, Oreo cookie march around like the guards outside the castle of the Wicked Witch, and they sing, "Or-e-o" in the meter of the guards in The Wizard Of Oz, so (if we are paying attention) we will link King Candy with the Wicked Witch and know that he, like she, is only after power and will do anything to keep it.

We learn that Sonic had been the best game for a long time, but when a new, better game came along, Sonic became jealous and infected the new game so both of them were unplugged. Sonic then went into the code of Sugar Rush, locked up everyone's memory then told the characters of Sugar Rush that Vanellope von Schweetz was only a glitch and he, King Candy, was rightful ruler; since no one could remember anything, they bought his story and Vanellope was forbidden from racing. What is it that hates competition, like with the new racing game? Socialism hates competition, and that's why games are a perfect analogy for capitalism because capitalism requires competition to keep its edge. Sonic infecting the other, newer game references the attempt in history of socialism trying to take over the world after World War II but capitalism (the best capitalism seen in America for years that caused tremendous economic growth thanks to the Eisenhower administration) was then forced to compete with the countries going socialist and the Vietnam War, the Korean War, the Cold War made capitalism look bad to some Americans who refused to accept capitalism; today, King Candy--in the guise of President Obama--has disguised his socialism as the rightful ruler of America because no one remembers history so he can get away with it.

Why are the cyber bugs attracted to a beacon? Because the light symbolizes the truth, and the truth has power because people are willing to  sacrifice for it, as with the soldiers in Hero's Duty and Ralph willing to sacrifice himself to cause the mountain to erupt, and that strength of character is stronger than the appetites of socialism.

In conclusion, Wreck It Ralph is a complex and enjoyable film (probably more so for adults than children) and delivers a consistent, patriotic message about our dreams, our sacrifices and relationships. Further, it provides a chance to walk down memory lane and see the dramatic advances we have made in technology because of private enterprise competing with itself instead of government control.
Eat Your Art Out,
The Fine Art Diner

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Out On Video This Week

A scene from Arthur Christmas. Please note the name tag of the sleigh in the immediate, lower center of the image: "Eve." Eve is, literally, the vehicle for Christmas (symbolized by the sleigh) because of Eve's sin, Christ was born so that we could be redeemed of Original Sin, so He could pay the price we could not.

It's finally out!
I thoroughly enjoyed Arthur Christmas when I saw it last December (I had no intention of seeing it, but went into the wrong theater and by the time I realized my mistake, I was just too tired to leave, and I am so glad I stayed!). The film opens by making fun of our modern day Christmas hustling-and-bustling and sees through all the crinkled paper from unwrapped presents to find the meaning of Christmas within ourselves (please see Arthur Christmas & the Author Of Christmas for my review). 

Also out is The Amazing Spider Man; while I did not enjoy the Spider Man version with Tobey McGuire and Kirsten Dunst, I was quite pleased with Andrew Garfield's and Emma Stone's portrayals and quite pleased with the great screenplay, notably the sophisticated employment of parables for socialism and capitalism (Please see Decay Rate Algorithms & Cross Species Genetics: The Amazing Spider Man).  I am going to be finishing up Wreck It Ralph and, if you are staying up to watch election results tonight, think of stopping by the local film kiosk and pick up one of these films to help pass the time!

Another film I enjoyed, recently out to rent, is The Raven with John Cusack. It's not an A-list film, but it is enjoyable (I've seen it twice and liked it even better the second time around). 

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Wreck It Ralph Isn't Playing Games...

Why does Wreck It Ralph say, "I'm going to wreck it"?
That's the choice of voters tomorrow, whether or not to "wreck" the system of capitalism built up since the country's beginning. Disney's newest film is theoretically advanced on a number of levels (it's proving to be a chore deciding what to write and skip) and thoroughly enjoyable; understanding the film is imperative given the nearly $50 million opening weekend pre-election day! To be honest, however, if I had children, (and this is a decision every parent has to make) I don't know that I would let them see it. There is some language and name-calling I would not want my 5 year-old repeating; additionally, there were a great number of children in the audience (as you can imagine) who seemed restless; the story line maybe too much for smaller children; adults, on the other hand, seemed to greatly enjoy the film and that's because, ultimately, it's an affirmation of the power of the voter and the belief in the American Dream. It's a good film, but I think many in Hollywood are shocked by the overwhelming opening it has enjoyed (rather like Taken 2's opening weekend) and that may be because of the validation of the American Way which is dominant throughout the film causing audiences to head to the movie!
I am working on the full review!

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Creating An Unnatural 'Natural Order': Cloud Atlas

 

If Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto were going to be made into a Hollywood story, it would be Cloud Atlas. As with other liberal agendas, the film's own values propel it towards a state of contradiction. Directly targeting specific “demographics” of voters (such as the elderly, homosexuals, blacks, professional women), Cloud Atlas (like other pro-socialist films) fails to show a positive representation of socialism and instead targets the "evils" of capitalism. I am not going rip Cloud Atlas because it falls apart like rotting flesh off a corpse (and if you think I'm being hard, the film didn't even gross $10 million its opening weekend). First, we must turn our attention to the most striking feature of the film: its structure.

The film opens with Tom Hanks in the character of an ... old tribesman,... who is from the future? His speech is so choppy and muttering it's nearly impossible to understand what is being said and that's part of the point. We have discussed "noise" as an artistic medium regarding both Contagion and The Dark Knight Rises, and "noise" as an artistic medium is named in Cloud Atlas when Robert Frobischer (Ben Whishaw) writes a letter to his "male lover" (or is Sixsmith just his best sex customer?) revealing that he can now hear the noise in between the silence. So what are we to take from this? Just as it was difficult to understand what the socialist Bane was saying in The Dark Knight Rises, so we can't understand everything the socialists say in Cloud Atlas, like what will really happen in a "state of revolution" and how many people will be imprisoned and put to death to force the United States of America into becoming a socialist state; how long it will take to overthrow all private and small business operations and put them in government's control and how long it will take the government to figure out how many rolls of toilet paper each city should be allowed to have for its citizens, how many quarts of milk, etc., then for those orders to be actually carried out, etc., or one can just look at history and see the constant shortage of supplies in the social history of the Soviet Union, in the famines of North Korea, the civil rights abuses of China or the stories of the boat people fleeing Cuba.But socialists will just look down at me and call me names for mentioning all these things, instead of letting it be consigned to the "noise in between the silences."

Built upon a number of converging stories and characters—as in Traffic, Crash, The Red Violin—Cloud Atlasrelies upon chaos theory for its philosophical foundation (without the idea of history repeating itself, or Mandelbrot sets, such a story as Cloud Atlas would not be possible). Now, dear readers—especially those who have been bearing with me all summer and my talk about Darwin vs. Chaos theory, now is your reward!--because Cloud Atlas aligns itself with chaos theory yet aligns the villains (capitalists) with Darwin's “natural order” (there are a number of philosophers who incorporate a form of “natural order” into their system of thought yet the application of "natural order" in Cloud Atlas specifically targets race and class relations but the point is, I told you this opposition between the two scientific paradigms was going to be important, and now we see how it's turned out) and it thoroughly demonizes "order" in society only to replace it with a new, unnatural natural order of its own making.

I am glad that the makers of Cloud Atlas chose to sexually unite a "fabricant" and a "pure blood." Why? Well, if you consider homosexuality a natural act which has been unnaturally suppressed throughout human history by laws and social disapprobation, or sex changes with men becoming women to be natural, then the point of the film would not be easily discerned apart from social bigotry. With Sonmi 351 (the female pictured above) and Hae-Joo Chang (the man holding her) "falling in love," the blurring of the line between a man-made robot/machine and a human being quickly reveals how confused socialists are about reality (this also happens in Ice Age 4 Continental Drift and the inter-mating of different species, not different races, but entirely different species). By definition, Sonmi 351 is a robot, yet the socialists bequeath to her the full-range of human emotions and sexuality, so no, she's not a robot,... oh, wait, she is because otherwise the whole plot fails, but she's not a robot because the socialists freed her, thereby creating a previous-robot who now has a philosophical consciousness that blows them all away,... but she's a robot, not a human, but she then claims to be human. Are you confused? You should be, because something which does not have life naturally cannot come to have life naturally just because someone wishes it so, likewise, just because we wish to have a utopian, just society where the government gives us everything we want, doesn't exist anymore than a fully-human, fully-robot.  If you think I am reading "too much into this," please consider that "Lana" Wachowski, who was born "Larry," is a director and screenwriter, one of the creators of the mega-blockbuster hit The Matrix who recently underwent a sex change to become a woman. By socialist standards, the very act of calling Sonmi 351 a fabricant is an act of racism, even though--as I said--the film's whole plot depends upon her being a robot.

Slavery is a primary subject throughout the film, whether due to skin color or economic status, and those who have the advantage consistently cite "the natural order" as justification for their enslavement of others: according to the film, and the general ideas of "social Darwinism," certain people (read: rich, white people) validate the poverty and suppression of other people (read: all women, all blacks, all homo- and bisexuals, robots/machines and all non-human life-forms and anyone outside industrialized society or those within industrialized society in low-skill jobs) because those "on top" are "naturally" more talented and capable at success than those on the bottom; those at the top are destined to stay at the top and those on the bottom destined to stay on the bottom and that is the will of God. 
There is a problem with this, however.

In Neo-Seoul, 2044, there is a shortage of workers so they are mass produced (as humanoid robots called "fabricants") to labor in jobs such as this food-court; they wear collars keeping them in their location. Of all the places in the world, or all the places the imagination could invent (because there are imaginary places in the film) why would Seoul be chosen? In a different section of the story, Louise Rey's (Halle Berry) father had been in the Korean War (America's "forgotten war" which also was remembered in Battleship) and the history of Seoul is not only the battles of the Korean War, but of the Cold War and the successful stopping of the spread of communism the fight for Seoul was about (the whole of the TV series MASH was roughly based on the Korean War). Cloud Atlas presents to us a picture of utter failure: the "consumer world" is a world of sex enslavement and people who lack real identity; the problem with this, of course, is they fail to look a little way to the North where North Korea is under a communist dictator who prefers threatening America with nukes than feeding his people; why don't the socialists want to talk about him? To being that point up, of course, again meets with socialist ridicule yet the imperative fact remains that socialists do everything they can to destroy successful capitalist societies but pass over failed socialist societies in silence.

Liberals/socialists have a very selective, random memory of history, specifically, that it was the Democratic party who enslaved the blacks in the Old South pre-Civil War, incorporating the "natural order" into their party platform to justify it, but also the socialist party of Adolf Hitler employed natural order to justify his party's slaughter of the Jews, homosexuals and Catholics. Socialists argue that Hitler wasn't a socialist, he was a Nazi, but he was a socialist and his programs were socialist: in other words, the very un-natural natural order of which liberals and socialists accuse conservatives, capitalists and Republicans, is the unnaturalness inherent in their own party and has been practiced by them throughout history.

Hugo Weaving in one of many roles in Cloud Atlas, Old Georgie, the devil. Please note the top hat he wears is the signature of a gentleman of the upper-class, thus aligning him with the rich. It is the strategy of socialists to tell the middle-class that religion only serves the upper-class as a means of subjecting the lower-classes, but there are at least three, fundamental reasons why (at least) Christians should be against a socialist government: the government determines what is right and wrong, not moral teachers (such as Rabbis, Pastors or the Pope); secondly, "suffering" is evil and supposedly eradicated and, thirdly, the government becomes the author of the individual's life, not God. That a socialist revolution is taking place in America right now seems inconceivable, but the truth is, it's easier today than ever because we have no spiritual understanding to help us through the tough times socialists blame on capitalist greed: it's easy for socialists to employ the misery of those without of jobs and the increasingly high cost of living to their own advantage because we have lost the backbone to "suffer in faith" that God will use our suffering for our own good and the good of others; to socialists, any "suffering" is evil and must be done away with. Either we are slaves of Christ Jesus or we are slaves of the world, and the tempting of our weakened spirituality to rid ourselves of the "discipline of the Cross" has found a place of "hope" for many people supporting the government taking over their lives.

Sonmi 351 illustrates a popular liberal strategy: we, the viewers, are put into a position of unreality by this line of the plot, because it's a real human playing the part of a robot with artificial intelligence (computer code to simulate human thinking patterns and emotional reactions) so we "forget" that she's a fabricant because we see her emotionally respond to situations to which we ourselves are responding; her capitalist employers at the food court only treat her like a fabricant because she is a fabricant! People who treat robots like robots--by the film's reasoning--are intrinsically evil!

In this scene, Doona Bae, who portrays Sonmi 351, also portrays a white woman married to an American lawyer before the Civil War, suggesting that the fabricant has a soul which flies through time like the other re-incarnated beings. A socialist might make the case, that the case can be made in art that, being employed, Sonmi 351 is only a fabricant to her employer and that accurately reflects American capitalism; when she comes into contact with Hae Joo, who cares about her and provides for her, she "comes alive" and is no longer a fabricant, a slave of capitalism, but has her own will. Sure, you can make that case, but at best it's irresponsible screenwriting, at worst, it's philosophical inconsistency, and we all know that a logical, sane being will think consistently and logically, so, if philosophical inconsistencies don't bother you,...

To the viewer, and because of the inherent power of stories to grab the audience and compel us to identify with the characters, we believe that somehow the socialists who free Sonmi 351 endow her with human life, just as the slaves are endowed with freedom. This is impossible, but they promise it just the same, just like the sinking utopian island of Atlantis in Journey 2: Mysterious Island, and the ginger bread house made of candy in Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters. The socialists employ our natural, human emotions and turn them against our brains.
Let's examine what position Cloud Atlas takes on art.

This moment is a perfect example of how immoral the application of cinematic techniques is within Cloud Atlas. Vyvyan Ayrs (Jim Broadbent) is the greatest living composer of his day; Robert (Ben Whishaw) is a bi-sexual, young composer working on the Cloud Atlas Sextet he wants Vyvyan to sponsor. After playing the score for Vyvyan, Robert "comes onto" him at which Vyvyan scorns him and says that he has known all along that Robert was a thief and a homosexual prostitute and asks Robert if he thinks he would really allow someone in his home without doing a background check on him? Then, Robert says that he is leaving and Vyvyan says that he has to finish the Cloud Atlas Sextet which Vyvyan will take credit for and then he will release Robert. What has the film done to create the situation of having the viewer sympathize with Robert's plight? First, Robert gets rejected, and we have all experienced rejection in some form in our lives; secondly, he's been working on the Cloud Atlas composition and he fears having it ripped away from him and we can all identify with that fear. Robert, pursuing his dream of being a great composer, comes against a man who will take all Robert's work and claim it as his own, and to socialists, this is what all employers do, take the laborer's labor and the employer claims it as their own; this same situation came up in The Odd Life of Timothy Green (Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Gardner) when they invent a new pencil design and the owner of the factory claims the design as his own.

There is a consistent tattoo of a shooting comet upon several people throughout the story (those meant to do something important but not live long, shine brightly for awhile, but then expire).  The "comet tattoo" appears on Robert which we see when Robert lies in bed with Rufus Sixsmith, and this "mark" and it reminds me of what was said of Edgar Allan Poe in The Raven, that Poe (John Cusack) had a great genius but God cursed him with misery. It's only misery, however, if you don't believe in God (and the last words of Poe in The Raven factually reflect Poe's real last words, God have mercy on my poor soul). To a Christian, suffering and misery is an allotment each person is given by God to aid them in fulfilling their destiny and preparing them for the glories of heaven; to socialists, suffering signifies a break down in the government and must be eradicated, unless, of course, that suffering comes from a socialist government, and then God help you if you criticize it.

The tagline reads, "Past. Present. Future. Everything is connected." I agree with this. This particular scene is Robert smoking his last cigarette and watching his last sunrise before blowing his head off. According to the story, Robert kills himself to become a record store worker who digs out an only copy of The Cloud Atlas Sextet for one of Halle Berry's characters, and he can't stop listening to it. In this part of the story above, however, Robert prepares to kill himself and this leads us to a fourth reason why Christians should always abhor a socialist state: there is no human soul. It's a contradiction in Cloud Atlas that the soul of each character re-incarnates time and again, but in reality, people are Darwin's animals, no soul, not the children of God, no destiny, just animals and suicide is perfectly legitimate if that is what you want to do. But it's not just suicide, it's any behavior which might contradict a "moral code," even if one is not particularly religious. The laws of a socialist government primarily are meant to protect it from the citizens, not protect the citizens from the government or other people.

In Cloud Atlas, artists are cursed with capitalists. The plot is clear that, had Robert not been compelled to go stay with Vyvyan, he could have worked on his art--with no worries about rent, food or theft of his ideas--if the state were sponsoring him,... we are not treated to an actual depiction of this grand idea, it's only hinted at as a better alternative to Robert foolishly shooting Vyvyan then later killing himself, BUT, had Robert had better surroundings, the film posits, the Cloud Atlas Sextet would have become a major work of art instead of being consigned to just a few copies in North America. 
But this is where socialism fails to understand art.

Part of the film is a journey taken by a lawyer to a slave colony and he writes of his adventure and publishes it, which Robert happens to find, reads, and then can't find the second half of the book; why? The book was torn in two and the second half used to prop up the bed post, a fact we discover only when the empty casing shell from Robert shooting Vyvyan lands beside the book Robert had desperately been searching for/ why does this happen? Vyvyan obviously was the one who tore the book in two and regulated this "great story" to a utilitarian function (propping up the bed) so instead of "propping up great art" (Robert's Cloud Atlas Sextet) Vyvyan props up his material and luxury goods instead; therefore, Vyvyan deserves to die (the casing landing beside the lost book after Robert shoots Vyvyan). Capitalists know nothing about art, even if they are artists themselves.

 There is an example of an artist under a socialist system, Soviet writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, whom the film cites (by name two times) as being a great writer, and who also was writing against the socialist system which imprisoned and exiled him. Trying to understand the devastation the October Socialist Revolution caused Russia which became the Soviet Union, Solzhenitsyn wrote: 

"Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened." Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened (Wikipedia)." 

The film, while simultaneously holding up socialism and Solzhenitsyn, doesn't seem to realize how critical of socialism/communism Solzhenitsyn was and why. It's difficult to name great artists (of whatever medium) who have emerged from socialist states, but Solzhenitsyn was the writer most critical of the state imprisoning him, not glorifying socialism, and the makers of  Cloud Atlas really don't seem to get that.
Here's a perfect example.

A part where Jim Broadbent, as Timothy Cavendish, has "returned to his first love," Ursula (Sarandon) and writing his own works instead of publishing others' works. This scenario of returning to the first love, and especially how it plays out in the film, is meant to remind people who have perhaps been successful in capitalist markets that when they were young and innocent, and probably supported socialism, they can still do that today because our first love was always our greatest love,... or so they want us to believe.

Timothy Cavendish is another character in the story and his book publishing perfectly deconstructs what socialism doesn't want us to know. Cavendish plays a publisher to Dermot "Duster" Hoggins (Tom Hanks) and we are supposed to be picking up the "hog" in Hoggins' character. Hoggins wrote a terrible book called Knuckle Sandwich (perhaps a reference to "brass knuckle tactics" we see in the anti-capitalist film Lawless), which was reviewed by a critic; Hoggins then throws the critic over the apartment railing, killing him on the street below. Even though Hoggins hasn't an ounce of talent, the infamy of the murder makes him famous and his book sells out, meaning that Cavendish also makes a tidy sum.
Enter socialism. 

Tom Hanks as one of the many villains he portrays throughout the film which is supposed to symbolize the history of the US in all of our faults and "missteps." Hoggins has no talent, but he makes a lot of money and gets famous because of his brutality. This association of art with fame and money is supposed to illustrate how art and capitalism do not mix. The first question is, does Hoggins fit the general understanding of what a writer is? He's neither Hemingway nor Stephen King, or Sylvia Plath or Poe, so the film takes a thug who would never be a writer in reality and makes him into a writer for their argument. They want you to think that only the homosexual Robert Forbischer (Whishaw) can be a real artist. Next, the film criticizes American consumer behavior (after murdering the critic, everyone wants to read the book) and I do agree with that; we all know about consumer appetites and exploiters such as the Kardashians, but, then again, would anyone call the Kardashians artists (outside of "con-artists")? No, and Cloud Atlas wants us to believe that capitalism makes people this way and socialism will magically redeem us and turn us into perfect human beings. Herein lies the fifth reason for Christians not to buy into socialism: a socialist government basically denies Original Sin, which is the reason Christ came to save us and redeem us; the government wants us to believe that only a socialist government can save us; it can only alter our behavior--regardless of how bad it is--by holding guns to our heads and threatening to haul us off to detention camps.

As Cavendish enjoys his wealth from the sell of Knuckle Sandwich, three thugs come to Cavendish claiming they are friends of Hoggins' and they want Cavendish to give them $50,000. The thugs accidentally symbolize socialism, because whenever someone succeeds, a socialist government is thee to "drag them back down" to the equalized mediocrity the government artificially creates throughout society, so the thugs are not an accurate reflection of capitalism, rather, of socialism.
Now enter nationalized health care.

Cavendish gets "tricked" into signing himself into a retirement home he doesn't want to be in by his older brother. In this scene, Cavendish and Mr. Meeks (left) engineer their escape from Nurse Nokes (Hugo Weaving, yes, the men play a number of women in the film, supposedly to make capitalism look "unnatural" but it really only makes socialism look unnatural). Mr. Meeks doesn't say anything except, "I know, I know." Which begs the question: what is it that Mr. Meeks knows? Four of the group have escaped the nursing home but Mr. Meeks has gotten left behind, so they risk their own escape to go back and get him (this is a jab that, "In America, you're on your own," because the capitalist government won't help you, only the socialist government will, and we saw this in Ice Age 4). They then go to a pub and have a drink when the pursuers from the nursing home catch up with them. Mr. Meeks stands up and, recognizing the Scottish makeup of the pub, incites the crowd to defend him because the English are taking advantage of him and disregarding his human rights and liberties; the Scottish being Scottish, immediately seize upon the English and beat them to a bloody pulp with the refugees from the nursing home escaping once again (please note that my mother's maiden name is McAlpin, the name of the first dynasty of Scottish kings, so I am very Scottish myself). This moment, and what happens and why, is imperative because of the tumultuous relationship of Scotland and England (and, because, it's very probable that this will come up in Skyfall, because the film is named for the Bond home in Scotland and is the scene of the major fight sequence of the film). Because the union of Scotland and England was achieved through the Treaty of Union, which came about as the resulting failure of the Darien scheme (a failed capitalist venture Scotland undertook which bankrupted them), and there are all those terrible, and bloody wars for Independence between the two countries, there still lingers some hostility which flares up occasionally. Socialists artificially employ the "take over" of Scotland by England as an anti-imperialist argument against capitalism, i.e., only capitalists are imperialists because capitalism (being Darwinistic and therefore unnatural) naturally seeks to enslave everyone; both Italy and Germany sought to take over African countries in World War II, the Soviets gobbled up all their neighbors behind the Iron Curtain, North Korea is still officially at a state of war with South Korea, etc. (there is literally too many examples to name here, however, I do discuss it in An Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini and the Vietnam War, how that song reflects America's policies in stopping the spread of communism). Cloud Atlas utilizes this bit of history to make the audience believe that everyone has more freedom under a socialist government than a capitalist government,  however, socialist governments are historically the world's worst violators of human rights (China, the Soviet Union, North Korea, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the Warsaw Pact countries, etc.).

The nursing home Cavendish gets tricked into entering is partly owned by his brother Dennis (Hugh Grant), and Dennis does it to get rid of his brother borrowing money all the time and in part for revenge against his brother for having an affair with his wife Georgette (Ben Whishaw, yes, he plays a woman). The guilt of Cavendish's affair with his sister-in-law is overlooked (probably a symbolic reference to Cavendish "coveting his brother's wife," and possessions, i.e., he wants to be as rich as his brother and sleeping with Georgette is a way to do that). What Cloud Atlas focuses on is that, because the nursing home is privately owned, it is being used by the rich to "imprison" the elderly who are "no longer wanted" by their relations except to get their final will. So, the logic is, by nationalizing all nursing homes, your relatives can't punish you for sins you have committed by locking you up because they won't be able to use their wealth against you,... that's the logic. And you won't get into trouble for sleeping with you sister-in-law because "marriage" is only a religious institution that will be done away with because sex, too, will be nationalized and you can sleep with anyone you want.

Isaac Sachs, also portrayed by Tom Hanks, upholds Obamacare as well. The doctor robs Adam while he supposedly treats him for his illnesses, because Adam has a chest of gold the doctor wants, so, instead of treating him, the doctor poisons him. Yes, we should read this for what it is, that doctors who practice privately are rotten to the core, but, when Obamacare takes effect, all that will disappear and doctors will become good people who will give you the greatest care possible for absolutely no compensation (because they will all go broke under nationalized health care).

In a work of art, a “highpoint” references a moment, detail, plot twist, character, etc., that is the interpretative "vantage point" from whence to interpret the film because of that singular element in the art, there is no other way to understand the encoded message/agenda but through that sutureof the highpoint revealing the message beneath the art's surface, i.e., the art breaks its own encoding. Every scene of Cloud Atlasis a highpoint, leading to a break-down of all its encoding in every scene and revealing a political manifesto in its place, in every scene, with no or little encoding, making it tedious to watch in addition to being a call for socialist revolutionaries to unite and overthrow capitalists.

Eat Your Art Out,
The Fine Art Diner
P.S.--I am considerably upset about the attack Cloud Atlas makes on Seoul; here is the full episode of Peter and Dan Snow's 20th Century Battlefield special on the Korean War; if you know nothing about that period of the Cold War, this is the show for you!

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Opening This Week & Newest Trailers: GI Joe Retaliation, Despicable Me 2, John Dies At the End, Hansel & Gretel Witch Hunters

Dear Readers,
Perhaps you have noticed: this blog is dedicated to the glory of Jesus Christ. I often have to remind myself of that, usually during weeks such as this past one, when others have been in need and I helped them because those are the acts of love which give glory to God and please Him; during those moments of stress, when I fret that I haven't gotten a new post up all week, I have to remind myself that it's in love that Jesus is served, not posting on movies, which I would much rather be doing. He brings you here to this site, not me. So, I ask your pardon, and your trust, that I was doing something of great importance for others, and I thank you for continually checking back to see if I had finally gotten a new post up and seeing that I hadn't, then coming back again to check, etc. Thank you. Really, I am nearly done with Cloud Atlas; I saw Silent Hill: Revelation and was very pleased with how that was structured (not necessarily that it was a good film, but the psychology and spiritual emphasis were important in the film).

Opening this week is Denzel Washington's Flight, and I am now anxious to see it, having found out the end which has dismayed a great number of people but is definitely a politically conservative film meant to influence voters who favor Obama and his handling of the economy. I don't want to give away the ending, however, I am confident of the political message and the timed release of the film so close to Tuesday's elections, that Flight intends to sway voters away from Obama.
And speaking of Obama, the newest trailer for GI Joe Retaliation has been released; rescheduled from debut this past summer to March 2013, this new trailer only has three words not contained in previous trailers but they are three important words:

"Redistribution of power."
Like Red Dawn being released this month, GI Joe Retaliation seemingly relies upon the invention of a new weapon; in the case of both films, I don't foresee a "new weapon" as much as a new means for socialism to reach people (please remember, in Red Dawn, it's the socialist country of North Korea invading America and in GI Joe Retaliation, the "redistribution of power" away from the world's capitals is the socialist goal of a one-government world where everyone is controlled like cattle by an agency like the KGB). What about the "president not being the president?"  That may be encoded language for the suggestion that Obama is not a legitimate president, but only "appears" to be legitimate.
Redistribution of power may or may not be a part of this week's opener, but even after reading the synopsis, I am still not sure which way this film goes.

I am truly impressed with Disney's Wreck It Ralph, and it appears everyone else is as well, since it's on its way to a $48 million opening weekend. There is a key element swaying this as an anti-Republican, anti-capitalist film: for 30 years, Ralph has been the bad guy. What was 30 years ago? 1982, when Ronald Reagan--the darling of Republicans and capitalists--was president. I had made the comment that Ralph dresses in red, which is the Republican party's color whereas both Fix-It Felix and Sonic (the blue cat thing being in the race car in the trailer above) wear blue, the primary color of the Democrats. While Felix is the hero of the film, Ralph is the focus, and we have to ask, going into the film, if it's meant to sway us to abandon our game as the "wreckers of socialism" and accept being the bad guy no one likes. I could be totally wrong, and I hope I am, but if I only see one film this weekend, I think it will be this one.
I have not, as of yet, seen the original, but here is the trailer for Despicable Me 2 (July 2013):

What should we be picking out in this trailer?
First, the "minions," because that is a "class term," used to describe people very low to lowest on the social ladder in terms of class, education and responsibility. We see three "classes" of minions in this trailer: the one wearing overalls (a hard laborer), the one dressed in gaudy golf gear (the minion with aspirations of breaking out of the class of minion because golf is a leisure game) and the maid minion. These three workers have been kid napped by an "alien ship," i.e., something "alien" to them. Note also the kind of vacuum the maid minion uses (towards the end of the trailer) which looks like post-World War II. The outdated vacuum "employed" by the maid in the big house (where the maid's employers don't buy updated equipment for the staff to use) might be a sign of class warfare/discrimination. 

Also important in the trailer is the theme song from Halloween, while meant to offer atmosphere to the "fright scene" of hearing a bump in the night, it also reminds us of the plot of Halloween and how it was a family member who went on a killing rampage. That the one-eyed minion dressed in golf clothes let's the other minion be sucked up by the ship signals a willingness to abandon your friend; the one-eyed minion "employing" his golf club to use as a possible weapon literally means that his aspirations to a life of leisure (the American Dream?) is his weapon against whatever has been "thrown out with the garbage." As always, this is only a trailer and we won't really know anything until we see the film.

The Chinese restaurant in John Dies At the End.

This is the first I have heard of the film, and having the synopsis will help you make sense of the trailer: It's a drug that promises an out-of-body experience with each hit. On the street they call it Soy Sauce, and users drift across time and dimensions. But some who come back are no longer human. Suddenly a silent otherworldly invasion is underway, and mankind needs a hero. What it gets instead is John and David, a pair of college dropouts who can barely hold down jobs. Can these two stop the oncoming horror in time to save humanity? No. No, they can't.  
It reminds me of Men In Black III.

It hits theaters January 25; also due out the 25th is Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters and I can't even tell you how excited I am about this. Here is the red-band trailer (foul language and gore and blood):

Why am I so excited about this film?
I have all ready spoken at length on the first trailer released for this film, and I will be building upon that in this post. Without a doubt, this film achieves a high level of political motivation; the question is, which way does it turn, towards the capitalists or the socialists? Again, as with Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, the nightmare that was the McCarthy 'Witch Hunts' for communists, makes the main plot line of Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters to remind us of history's past attacks on America and how we have fought it off in the past, or (like Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter) Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters will start a witch hunt for capitalists; this is mentioned in the trailer above when Hansel tells Gretel, I don't think we're hunting witches, I think they're hunting us; again, the question is, which side of the economic debate does the film support and are Hansel and Gretel being hunted because they are capitalists (they are bounty hunters in the film, but that is ambiguous) or because they are socialists being hunted by the witches who are capitalists (like myself)?

Have we seen a background similar to this anywhere? Mirror, Mirror, with Julia Roberts as the evil step-mother queen of the re-vamped Snow White fairy tale (a step-mother also figures in the original Hansel and Gretel legend, so it will be interesting to see if . The kingdom in ice is in a perpetual winter, i.e., nothing can grow, as in "the economy can't grow." Winter, as a symbol, always means death, although death is not always a negative symbol, for example, without the "slumber" of winter, the land isn't rejuvenated for the growth of spring (this is often a symbol employed in the spiritual life for the dormant time God allows a soul). However, when the kingdom is frozen, as in the background above, that means that, literally, the kingdom is frozen, and nothing can/has been done and it's in a state of decay. In fairy tales such as Hansel and Gretel, the symbol of winter over a castle (as in the background in the poster above) substantiates corrupt power. Looking at the credits list, we know there is a corrupt sheriff; the question is, is he corrupt because he's a socialist, or corrupt because he's a capitalist?

There is at least one more political element to this trailer: the war on women. As a female myself, and a ultra-conservative (just so you know my biases), I deeply resent Democrats using a "war on women" against Romney because of birth control and abortion. In Hansel and Gretel, all the witches are female, which might be a reference to the role women play in shaping political platforms between the two parties and the vehemence with which Democrat/liberal feminists protect their "right" to abortion and birth control because, literally, the children are being killed in the trailer (and children always symbolize the future). Hansel, being very masculine and aggressive, obviously doesn't like the witches and wants to put them in "their place" with cutting off their head (the head symbolizes the governing function, so not letting women rule anymore the way they do in the Democratic party).

There are lots of forests in the film, and forests suggest the dark struggles of the soul, not only of culture and whatever it is the witches will come to represent, but also the personal spiritual struggles of Hansel and Gretel so they can be strengthened to fight the witches.

This leads us to the last point I will make about the film at this time, but it's such an important point, I will be bringing it up time and again. Gretel is Hansel's sister. Brilliant point, eh? What I mean to say is, more films create this sibling relationship between leading man and lady, rather than a romantic lead. Consider, for example, Shame, with Michael Fassbender, and the physical attack he makes upon his sister; that upset a lot of people. In The Cold Light Of Day (which, like, no one saw but me,...) the lead male and female are half-brother and sister (not even knowing it until later in the plot); there is no romantic relationship whatsoever between the rookie and Judge in Dredd, no romance in Resident Evil and in Expendables 2 there is no acting upon a possible relationship; Taken 2 is about father and daughter just like The Possession. 
What's my point?

A growing number of films seem to be exploring a greater role for women in cinema outside of the sexual, i.e., as a relationship for the leading man. Why is this important? I'm not a feminist, never have been and never will be, I promise, and that's why I like this direction: every man should treat every woman as his sister or his daughter; what he does to one woman, he might as well do to his sister, his daughter, his mother, his grandmother. To me, as a Catholic, this elevates women beyond any political arena or civil rights issues and I love it. Hansel is responsible for protecting his sister, but the witches get his sister, so he has failed to protect her,... why? That's easy.

It's rather odd that HGWH has witches flying on brooms,... or is it? The broom might be symbolic of a false phallus, a false political presence and power. What will be interesting is to discover who is the head or leader of the witches; is it a female or a male, and are they ever called the "brides of Satan" or something similar? Also interesting will be the explanation for why children are to be sacrificed.

At 1:40 in the trailer above, it appears that Hansel is in a "sexual situation" with the blonde, and that (whether they have sex or not, and they probably do) is what allows Gretel to be taken, her brother has weakened his moral strength by treating a woman as a sex object and that fuels the evil strength of the witches so that they become strong enough to take Gretel, whereas they were not previously. Women know their self-worth and value because of the protection their fathers and brothers provide for them (consider in Shame how Brandon lacks the "moral authority" to protect Sissy from having sex with his boss, then she slits her wrists towards the end). When a woman lacks a sense of self-worth, she Of course, I haven't seen Hansel and Gretel, but these elements appear in the trailer; that doesn't mean that's how they will appear in the film.
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