Three Ten Pictures

In this post, you’re getting three blog posts in one.  They have almost nothing to do with each other–I just had a lot on my mind last night.

BLOG PART ONE:  — THE HIRE —

Recently, a number of friends have sent me links to short films that inspired them.  In particular, my friend John sent me a link to a great film called A Thousand Words.

With that, I’ve decided to share with you one of the biggest inspirations I had during my formative years in film school.  I went to film school at a Christian University, and I wasn’t allowed to go to movie theaters.  Instead, we watched stuff that was allowed (for me, it meant Miyazaki films and older movies), and whatever we could pull off the Internet.

Here for your viewing enjoyment is The Hire, a series of short films produced by BMW in 2000-2001 to promote their cars.  They commissioned eight bite-sized action masterpieces by the world’s premier filmmakers: John Woo, Ang Lee, John Frankenheimer, Wong Kar-Wai, Tony Scott, Alejandro González Iñárritu, et al.  They feature big stars like Clive Owen, Madonna, Don Cheadle, Mickey Rourke, Forrest Whitaker, Ray Liotta, and Gary Oldman.  They’re stinking amazing.

In college, my friend Doug and I would download these movies off the Internet… and watch them over and over and over again… and over and over and over again…  I even did a shot-by-shot study of Ambush.

I’ve linked five of my favorites below:

Episode One - Ambush

Directed by John Frankenheimer (who created the stunning car chases in Ronin), Ambush is a phenomenal first act to The Hire saga.  It contains the best sound editing of the series.  As mentioned before, I did a shot-by-shot analysis of this film in college.  It’s in the back of my head every time I dream up an action scene.

BUCKLE UP!

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Episode Two - Chosen

This film, directed by Ang Lee, is nicer and more subdued than Ambush.  In this story, Driver Clive Owen protects a young boy, apparently a future Dalai Llama or something.  It’s elegant, fun, and high-spirited.  You’ll enjoy it.

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Episode Three - The Follow

The Follow is my favorite of the series.  Searing, atmospheric, and romantic, this is one of Wong Kar-Wai’s best films–and that’s saying a lot. Great dialogue, exultant photography, stunning score… Mmm.  This is the least action-oriented film of the series.  It’s so out of pattern, so out-of-left field, and so unconventional... I love it.

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Episode Four - Star

This one has Madonna in it.  It was directed by Guy Ritchie.  I think it’s a self-conscious, over-written Quentin Tarantino ripoff with a pretty lousy punchline.  Maybe you’ll like it.  The middle part’s kinda funny.

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Episode Six - Hostage

Hostage was directed by John Woo.  It is his greatest American film–an absolute crack-dose of phenomenal action filmmaking.

That one lady from Cold Case is in it.

BLOG PART TWO:  — WHAT A DRAG —

Creative types like me are like computers: we need input.  Lately, a number of awesome entertainments have inspired me, challenged me, and in some cases totally changed my point of view.  Here’s what I’ve been dragging my eyeballs through lately:

Film: Most notable, film-wise, was Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire.  I love this film.  What a perfect fantasy.  I also found The Dark Knight exultant (as most of the rest of the world did), as well as the ridiculously underrated, low-key gangster film In Bruges.

Literature: I just finished reading Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, recommended by my friend Jordan Poss, and thought it one of the top two or three novels written during my lifetime.*  Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C. Clarke came before that–I randomly picked it up from one of the many bookshelves in our apartment, and finished it in three days.  It takes Agatha Christie’s cold-blooded intellectual, how-to-build-a-better-mousetrap style of suspense and applies it to science fiction.  Fascinating.

Television: It’s quite ironic that I’ve been watching so much television the past couple months–we got rid of cable in our home a year ago.  My favorite TV show of the past three years is still Doctor Who–not only for its geeky sci-fi storytelling, but also its revival of the True Hero.  I’m tired of nihilist antiheroes, and The Doctor is a total opposite: a believing, loving, understanding, immortal, unstoppable Action Man who saves the day, every time.  There’s a reason the UK is so crazy about this show.  Check it out.

I slogged through the second season of Mad Men, mainly because it was cheap on iTunes and I could watch it on the eleven hour flight to Tokyo.  It’s a well-written, well-acted, well-shot, well-edited, well-directed, depressing, ugly piece of storytelling.

My family bought me a boxed set of The Wire–television’s other Critic’s Pet–for Christmas.  I liked it better, mostly because I lived in Baltimore for ten years (where the show is set), and because it’s a crime show.  We fast-forward through quite a bit of it–the content’s definitely HBO-ish… in fact, way too much to recommend.  However, The Wire is one of the crowning achievements of crime drama.

BLOG PART THREE: — MY ENTERTAINMENT SOAPBOX —

So many self-righteous artists love to throw pessimistic storytelling in our faces and say, “That’s life.  That’s the truth.”  No it isn’t, and it doesn’t have to be, and just because you’re depressed doesn’t mean you know more about life than all of us.  Life shouldn’t leave us numb.  That’s inane.  That shouldn’t be the goal.  There’s more to life!  I see it from great, mature artists like Norman Rockwell, Frank Capra, and Leo Tolstoy, and Pyotr Tchaikovsky.  I don’t get it.

No one will remember Mad Men. They’ll rememberThe Office. It’s funny.  It’s a relief.  It’s nice.  It’s just as well-made as Mad Men–and people like it.

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*I’m not very well read, so that’s easy for me to say.