cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/2127047
Good stuff. Well, not really. Heavy subject matter, if anything. And the retching sound at the end was all too real for me (as someone that once went through an OD).
Honestly, I do like the subject matter of fascism (and especially neo-fascism nowadays). There’s the pre-fascist era, when it was just being developed, from the 1890s onward, and then there’s when it was actually coined by Benito Mussolini onward. And then there’s post-1945. Operation Paperclip, the rise of the white power movement in the 1980s and the terrorist attacks of the 1990s. And not to mention the “fourth empire” of the Ku Klux Klan during the Obama years.
I live in Virginia and that’s where the fiasco at Charlottesville happened with people invoking the “great replacement theory” meme, and you can connect that to “white extinction anxiety” during the late 1800s to 20th century.
The movie evoked all these thoughts for me and the normalization of it. I see it with several of my family members too. We are living through the growth of a new fascism in the United States, I feel.
Watched Tetsuo: The Iron Man recently. Damn, the stop-motion effects and visual style really give it a great look. I really love watching a movie for the first time and suddenly recognizing all the other films it’s inspired. Tetsuo’s transformation at the end clearly inspired the finale of Akira, which was neat to realize. I’m also a sucker for films about transhumanism, so this was right up my alley.
On a less artistic note, I rewatched both Conan the Barbarian films. Although #2 is definitely written like trash, I have to admit that the score is great. I couldn’t help laughing when Arnold wrestled with the ice wizard who was just a guy in a cheap lizard mask. #1 is still excellent, and James Earl Jones is absolutely iconic as Thulsa Doom. It also has a great soundtrack, and the fight scenes are a treat.
