Biloxi Blues

I spied 'Biloxi Blues' in a lovely comic book store hidden away in the city centre, it was on video and I've always loved having something which is old and used or 'vintage'. After recently seeing 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' I was drawn to the handsome picture of Matthew Broderick on the cover, so I decided it was worth the  50p it was on vend for. It was advertised as a comedy about a teenage boy and his difficulties with women, which granted it did have a few funny moments where 'Eugene'  finds himself at a brothel, but in fact I found it to be much more philosophical, beginning and ending with Eugene's deliberated outlook on the current situation he finds himself in. He notes the benefits that come with being a man in the army and the respect received by others around you, yet also the drawbacks of being an 18 year old boy who has much of his life yet to live. Ending the film with a retrospective look on his time in the army, and how it turned out to be the best time of his life, even though at the time he hated most of it. You could say the film ended with a middle age view on the beauty of youth, and how being young in itself is a beautiful and enjoyable thing, no matter the situation. Through out the film we see a demonstration of how strongly the written word can affect you, and perhaps, as noted by Eugene, the responsibility that comes with it; conscription into the army is one of the few places where you may get to see a variety of different people all forced together to do the same thing, and thus how they interact with one another. It is odd how the opinion of one person views you affects the confidence of the soldiers in this film and how much they care. During the film we see each of the soldiers discuss what they would do in a fantasy situation, if they knew they were to die soon after. The fantasises come true for a few of these soldiers, which is alluded towards the end of the film. It is however only the fantasises of the carefully thought out and perhaps more intellectual soldiers of the group. At the end of the film we find out what each of the soldiers did with their lives, each with perfectly respectable careers and lives. Perhaps it was suggesting that sometimes you do not know what you want to do when you're young, and have more basic aims for small things such as immediate pleasure; which is why the fantasises of these less intellectual fantasies did not come true - because they would find reward in their future lives and careers. So whilst enjoying the charm and comedy of Broderick in this film, I also found it to hold some interesting views on the experience of youth, whilst holding an exciting storyline through out. Too many films are advertised to focus on the comedy of the film to please a wider audience, whilst discarding the 'indie' tint it may hold.

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Apocalypse

If there were actually an apocalypse, I always wonder who would come out the other side. Would the gamers and the nerds come out loaded with survival techniques and movie knowledge on how to survive? Or would they simply behave like the rest of us, following the governments guidelines and behaving like the majority? I think a lot of us would like to believe we would be able to survive an apocalypse, after watching the movies and playing the games. But would we be lacking the cardio, or simply the guts? Maybe it would be the gangs, the ones known to violence and have weapons readily available. When money becomes worthless, do the lower rise to the top? Would the politicians be desperately trying to fly a spaceship to mars whilst the underclass stick in for survival? Perhaps the world would retain democracy, with some sort of underground civilisation created where the dead live on top. You can see why so many are fascinated by the idea, although unlikely to happen and perhaps scientifically impossible, the concept of a world where basic survival techniques become crucial is an exciting idea in which you picture yourself fighting off the dead like an awesome action hero. Because the zombies aren't hard to kill, and have next to no skill, it becomes easier for the everyday person to survive with the right tactics, guts and equipment. Would science become essential, with the need to find a cure? Or would it simply be a matter of surviving, and killing? The human reaction to extreme events has always been an interesting one as history has shown, and I think an apocalypse would just be another in which we see some magnificent human courage, aside some terrible injustices. 

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Films for Thought

I love films that make you think, or make you view the world a bit differently for that small moment of time, or perhaps they change your whole perspective on something. Big, expensive action films where they just blow stuff up and kill everything in sight are great, but they don't make such an impact on me. I'm not sure what it is, perhaps I just like seeing the directors influence, or the writers ideas on how something might be. Lets take the film The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio; as someone who's loved the idea of adventure and exploration ever since being a child, this film really played to that part of me. After finishing it I was eager to ditch everything and catch the next plane ticket to Thailand. And perhaps you could argue it was partly that film that has encouraged me to take a gap year, and hopefully explore many of the secluded beaches of Thailand. I think that films mean different things for everyone, and sometimes they just play on a part of you, and maybe sometimes they'll play hard enough to make you do something, like quit that job you've never enjoyed and go become a professional dancer. I think it's how they have affected the creative aspect of me that makes me so eager to follow it through as a career.

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