The Amazing Cinematograph!

As anyone who reads here should have gathered, I am a HUGE fan of the cinema as expression of American culture and human emotion. I own a projector that can turn the largest wall in my house into a movie screen (not HD - yet - but definitely regular TV quality). I own about 300 DVDs, nearly every one of them a classic in some way or form, even if only in my opinion. I love considering the details and implications of movies and plot lines and character twists.

I could talk movies all day.


But I really don't go to the movies all that often. These days, a ticket to a movie will cost you $10, more if you go to an IMAX theater, and the truth of the matter is that there are damn few movies that are worth the admission price. The last movie I saw in a theater was 'Hancock,' which was marginally worth the ticket price, largely based on Will Smith's performance (infra). Before that was 'The Dark Knight,' which was also worth every penny. Hell, I would have paid $50 for that, in hindsight. For any poor souls who haven't yet seen it, Heath Ledger as the Joker really is as spectacular as everyone says he is. It's not just talk puffing the guy up posthumously; 'Dark Knight' is a Batman movie, but you spend most of it waiting for the next scene that has the crazy nut-job on the screen. Some of his commentaries about the nature of humanity and insanity also strike near to my own heart, but that's a post for another time.


So the movies have been good to me lately, but only in small doses; most of my movie watching happens on a small screen, with movies that I pay $3 on average to own on DVD (pawn shops are booming right now; great movie selections). In plowing through essentially every movie that I can find, I am occasionally struck by scenes or (more rarely) entire movies that strike me as utterly brilliant. More often, I'm disappointed, but the brilliance is there to be found. Sometimes.


This week, I bought a copy of 'I am Legend.' It was on sale at my local Vons when I was out stocking up on Cab for pending Future-Ex-Wife visits. So I grabbed it, and watched it. Honestly, I probably should have seen if before now, since I like those sorts of post-apocalyptic scenarios. But I got around to it. It was snowing here in Vegas this week (no, I'm not kidding), so being housebound with a new movie, some excellent porn, and non-prescription intoxicants seemed like the right thing to do. So I got fucked up on Monday night, and watched 'I am Legend.'


Let me first say that I am very glad that I did not pay to see it in a theater. Not because it wouldn't have been worth it, but because I would have had to leave. When Will Smith is sitting on the floor of his laboratory with the injured Sam on his lap, and he starts singing Bob Marley, I wouldn't have been able to stay, because I knew what was coming. In terms of the direction and action, the scene simply could not have been better, but I couldn't have handled it in a public place.


'I am Legend' is not about the post-apocalyptic world, or about vampires, or a search for a cure. It's about solitude. Which is something most people really don't understand very well. People today - for the most part - spend hardly any time at all alone, and almost always out of choice. Should you feel the sudden need for interaction, all you have to do is step out the door, and traffic will be going by. Our world is full, and so the only people who spend enough time alone to really know how bad bad can get are social pariahs. And even they can get social interaction, so long as they are willing to bear the abuse.


But put yourself in Robert Neville's position. You haven't seen or talked to another human being in almost three years. You broadcast your position to the world every day on every AM frequency, and have gotten no response (the propagation of AM radio waves means that they travel much further than FM bands - although more sporadically - based on the way they each interact with earth's atmosphere). All of your effects to find any sort of cure have failed, coincidentally resulting in the death of thousands of rats and dozens of tacit 'people.' Your birthday was yesterday. Over the course of it, you found one of you mannequins (Fred) moved all the way across town by some unknown party, probably one of the monsters you hide from every night. You get caught in a trap, and probably get a concussion in the process. You stab yourself in the leg (badly). You get attacked by rabid dogs.


And then you have to strangle the only companion you have had for the last three years: the Shepperd your daughter gave you just moments before her own death. You have to. You can't let her go out to be with the other infected, since she knows where you live, and will lead them to you, if only by barking and snarling at your door all night. You can't keep her caged as a wild animal; she's your only friend. You can't even follow where she's going, since you're immune. She is the only living thing in your entire world that doesn't either flee at your approach or try to kill you on sight. And the only real choice is to kill her.


And then there you are. Where the only live voice of man or dog you expect to hear for the rest of your life will be the howls of things that want desperately to kill you and devour your flesh. When he set his trap out at the pier and started killing the infected with his truck, yes, he was out there intending to kill as many of them as he could. But he was also, unquestionably and absolutely, intending to get killed by them as well.

The rest of the movie took some turns that I would have handled differently as a writer/director, but both the cinematic ending and the unreleased ending were both good. Although truth be told, the unreleased ending hit a hell of a lot harder than the theatrical version. If you haven't seen it, I won't ruin it for you, but take a good look at Will Smith's face (I really like him, by the way) when he looks up at all the polaroids.

It was a good movie. And some of the extra features were... Disturbing. Not quite "Silent Hill" disturbing (still the reigning champ), but up there.