On Introductions & Bambi

Dear Reader,

Mr. C.S. Schlottman is a madman. Allowing yours truly free reign of your very own film and culture blog is tantamount to playing russian roulette with a national election. Nonetheless its happened and I suppose its at least time I posted something. Los Angeles produces around 4,000 films a year in U.S. alone. While this is astonishing, far more films are cranked out every year in growing markets like India and China.

With the ever-expanding number of titles, one would think that film quality would improve too. This is not the case. Moana was not Up. SO - for my elementary post I should like to tackle something from the past. A film, which perhaps is out of the popular focus, or beyond the purview of the twittersphere. It involves a little deer, You have three guesses, and the first two don't count. So, without further fanfare here we go:

Why I Hate Bambi.

To the average self-proclaimed sophist, Bambi is awful. At face value, Walt Disney’s carton character is disproportion leggy, overly delicate, and possesses as uncomplicated temperament which has not been seen in American children since Hiroshima went up in a cloud of atomic smoke. He is annoyingly perfect. Over the course of the film, we see Bambi run about with his mother, make childhood friends, and blithely frolic with garish butterflies.

The film's anthropomorphic woodland creatures, get along splendidly without any sort of Darwinian repercussion. To the thinking mind, this is banal and so far from the realm of reality that NBC’s Friends seems almost believable. 

Disney's tone shifts with death of Bambi's Mother. She is in fact shot by some shaded huntsmen. Added, Bambi's father fades into the taggia with the same taciturnity as with which he entered. The nascent deer is alone in the world. With nothing.

Now Bambi’s mother does get shot, and his father does appears to abandon him, but the overall concept is absurd. The film’s evil hunters seem to eco the forces of evil that constantly surround us, but any realism or artistic significance is lost in Bambi’s father’s reduced and uncomplicated analysis of human kind’s threat.

An apparent condition of millennial mind is that we refuse to release certain aspects of childhood. Adults can (and do) buy footie pajamas. Social media celebrates the fake, and trivializes the sacred. Not to long ago, a young person graduated high school, found a job, and moved on. It seems that the distinction between childhood and independence have blurred together into a sort of malaise of 21st century adulthood.   

Perhaps we should watch Bambi. Perhaps we should really watch it. In Disney’s film, the young fawn’s character is unspoiled and innocent. Yet Bambi undergoes a significant, and remarkable transformation. He grows up. He fights for the right to claim his childhood love, he leads his fellow forest animals to safety following forest fire. 

As Bambi grows he does not become jaded by the hardships he experiences, but rather assumes his role as Prince of the Forest, and embraces the life he has grown into, not the life he had. Acorns are not intended to remain shrubs, nor are fawns destined to remain fragile. 

It is the same with humans. We can become more than we are now.

Ultimately Bambi has a happy ending. Although his mother is dead, and his forest home destroyed, Bambi comes into his own. Bambi grows up. So perhaps this is why I dislike Bambi. He so gracefully moves past the safety of childhood, while I face my another birthday with the grim realization that I have not yet achieved what I thought I could have. 

Perhaps this is why I hate Bambi.

The Black Panther (2018)

The Black Panther

Movie: The Black Panther

Starring: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, and Andy Serkis
Rating: PG-13 (for prolonged sequences of action violence, and a brief rude gesture)
Release Date: February 16, 2018
Review:

2 1/2 Stars; Above Average

The Black Panther deserves the attention it has received, not because it is a great movie, but because it is such a historic moment for the superhero genre. As the first comic book picture with a cast composed of people primarily of African descent, the movie instantly stands out as unique and special among superhero films. In that way, The Black Panther does not disappoint.
Speaking of the cast, they are without a doubt the best part of the movie. Chadwick Boseman as the charming and unsure-of-himself Black Panther, Michael B. Jordan as the arrogant and cunning Killmonger, Lupita Nyong’o as the soft yet strong Nakia, Dania Guaita as the proud and serious Okoye...and that’s only a handful of the wonderful character actors that bring his picture to life (not even mentioned here are Forrest Whitaker’s Zuri and Angela Bassett’s Ramonda, let alone Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis’ characters!). That director Ryan Coogler was able to pack this film with so many great performers and keep it from feeling over-crowded and stuffy is an accomplishment in-and-of-itself!
With that said, it is not a movie without flaws, chief among them being poor writing. The dialogue is oftentimes clunky and goofy. Themes are introduced and never fully fleshed out. Indeed, one gets the sense that Coogler was prevented by studio executives from saying too much regarding the immigration/refugee crisis, international relations, leadership abroad, etc. It is a shame if that is the case, as any statement made in this picture would no doubt have been impactful. In addition, the pacing of “Panther” is all over the place. There are multiple start-and-stop moments scattered throughout the movie, making it, at times, feel as though it drags.
Regardless, Coogler gives the film a sort of Martin Luther King, Jr. vs. Malcom X kind of story that feels very fresh and timely, and works incredibly well. The dynamics between Boseman’s Black Panther, and Jordan’s Killmonger are fascinating to watch, in part due to the intensity that each actor brings to their respective roles. Both men are determined to stand by what they know is right. Neither doubts their mission, and while that may cause some to balk at how black and white— “good vs. evil” — it all may seem, in understanding the characters as types or shadows, Boseman and Jordan more powerfully make the statements that their characters desire.
While on the topic, it is worth noting that despite a seemingly simplistic characterization, what is truly effective in Michael B. Jordan’s performance is the sympathy which audiences are likely to feel for him. His plan may be to “oppress the oppressors,” but it is easy to understand why. With the death of his father, the Wakandan establishment abandons him. His resentment for authority is totally deserved, and though his plan may be evil, one has to wonder if, placed in a similar situation, they would not act similarly.
A final thought: The Black Panther’s orchestral score, composed by Ludwig Goransson, may be the strongest score for a superhero movie in decades. The marriage of film and music in this picture is simply pure movie magic. Musical cues are used so effectively; particularly a drum solo, played before ritual combat ceremonies determining who will reign over Wakanda as king. With African chants and a tribal sound seamlessly blended with orchestral melodies, it is somewhat evocative of Hans Zimmer’s score for Disney’s The Lion King.
All-in-all, The Black Panther is precisely the kind of entertainment that Marvel Studios has come to be known for. Is it fantastic? No. The best of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Probably not. Will audiences be disappointed? Most certainly not. And while I would argue that, in the years to come, the film would likely be forgotten were it not for the exciting moment it marks in superhero movie history, it is a fine addition to the Marvel Collection.