So, Mrs. Badger and I were watching a movie this afternoon based on the Biblical story of Esther. It’s a great story and would be a rather inspiring, completely entertaining movie if done well. The version in question, “One Night With the King,” was not done well. I was thinking it was pretty much off the scale on the Cheese-O-Meter.
We had come to a scene in which Esther and the King are getting to know each other at, I think, their second meeting. Esther is telling love stories from the Jewish heritage, the king is deeply touched, and both of them are realizing they’ve been blindsided by unexpected, unhoped-for true love.
All of which I, being a guy, found rather amusing. So when the King, with over-acted wonder in his eyes, asked Esther, “Who are you?!” I responded the only way a man in my place could:
(in my best gravely, mysterious voice) “I’m batman.”
I turned my head to see my beloved’s reaction to this patently hillarious quip, only to notice, as she tore her eyes from the screen to look at me, that a small tear was rolling down her cheek.
Oops.
I have GOT to quit watching old Mystery Science Theater reruns.
Good thing the Mrs has a sense of humor; our dog has hygene problems and a really small house.
Yes, you have learned a good lesson there. Cheesiness is not really the issue for some of us.
I cried and cried when reading the death scene of Little Nell in The Old Curiosity Shop. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, more reasonably said:
One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing.
I would hold off on the cracks unless your wife is actually laughing out loud and you are certain that she is not crying at the same time. That can happen too.
Lately we’ve been renting movies we have especially good memories of, as a sort of Cultural Enrichment Experience for our son Kevin. I had great memories of “2001: A Space Odyssey” and was suggesting we see that one, but Greg kept putting me off. Finally this weekend we rented it.
Kid-- (politely, after 15 min.) “Um, …this is kinda boring.”
Husband-- “We didn’t say it was a good movie, we said it was a classic movie.”
Me (about half an hour in)-- “This really is pretty slow. I didn’t remember it being this slow.”
Husband-- “Are you kidding? Look! You can watch it sped up (hits remote, runs it at 2X, then 4X )…and you can’t even tell! Can you tell?”
Kid, me-- “Um, actually, no…”
Husband-- (kicks it up to 8X and starts improvising dialogue in the style of Alvin and the 3 Chipmonks)
At this point the kid and I were laughing hysterically and we continued silly to the end of the movie. So much for the Cultural Enrichment Experience. :roll:
as a small child, i saw 2001 when it first came out at the theatre. i think my older brothers (3 of them) and i had front row seats. that movie was huge and pretty. but i had no clue what was going on. after pestering my brothers unsuccessfully through the ape scenes with “what are they doing? why are they doing that?” i gave up. i watched the rest of the movie in dazed amazement. you’re right, the book makes way more sense.
I did not see 2001 until sometime into my 20’s, so when a boyfriend, prior to that, used to say out of the blue…“my mind is going…I can feel it…” I thought he was just being weird.
A couple of years back I won a Science Fiction competition (nationwide there were 75 entries, apparently) and the prize was ten SF DVDs. (They couldn’t get Blade Runner - they only did a De Luxe version and that blew their budget, so they asked me what I would like and I took “Closely Observed Trains”[not an SF film, but a very funny one].)
One of the DVDs was 2001! I sat my son in front of it and we watched it together.
I don’t think he enjoyed it (although he liked the music) but he was delighted to find that it explained a lot of obscure references which he had missed in games (Starcraft) and films (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). It seemed to fill some of the gaps in his cultural jigsaw puzzle.
So, yes, a classic, if only because so many films and games hark back to it.
And you really NEEDED to read the book before watching the film. I saw it Wide Screen at the Empire in Leicester Square in the front seat. That was an experience.
Then I went to Belfast and watched it at one of the local flea-pits. You couldn’t hear the music for the audience going “OOK-OOK!” I think they really enjoyed the ape-men, in their way.
The cool thing about 2001 when it came out was that it was about outerspace stuff treated seriously by a serious director. We were so used to anything to do with scifi being treated like cheap Saturday matinée stuff for kids that it was a real eye-opener to see it treated as serious drama.
2001 paved the way for more realistic treatment of scifi topics in film. It is very much a visual experience. If you came to it looking for action per second, or if you need to receive information in nothing greater than 20 second sound-bites, you will be disappointed. If you have the capacity to just sit back and enjoy the vistas, you will start to appreciate what Kubrick has created.
If you came to it looking for action per second, or if you need to receive information in nothing greater than 20 second sound-bites, you will be disappointed. If you have the capacity to just sit back and enjoy the vistas, you will start to appreciate what Kubrick has created.
I so agree. I remember feeling such a sense of awe and mystery when I saw the movie as a teen. Part of the drama comes from the slow pace and the long periods of silence.
But this weekend there I was, in front of the small screen with kid and husband, me trying to recapture the openmindedness I used to have-- the sense of awe, the irony-free point of view. Husband however, has gone over to the Dark Side, and takes kid with him!!!
So what could I do?
I could be really annoyed with them…or just give up and go along with it!
I do have a rather Mystery Science Theater sort of spouse, and as a result if I want to watch a movie or listen to music that reaches me on a deep level, I wait til Husband and Kid are out of the house. Or asleep.
Not many things worse than sitting there completely absorbed in music, oblivious to the rest of the world, moved to the point of tears-- and then the spouse pops into the room singing the Weird Al Yankovic version of the lyrics.
