The Browser: News & links to raise your eyebrows & furrow your brow.
New headlines will be added as the day goes on. Stay tuned.
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WHY HAVEN’T I HEARD OF THE LIST?
At The Christian Manifesto, a blog that’s new to me, here’s an interview with filmmaker Gary Wheeler, a filmmaker who is new to me. As he’s a Christian who’s making films with professionals, I was curious to learn that he recently directed a film adaptation of a book by Robert Whitlow called The List. The film stars Malcolm McDowell.
It came out on DVD recently. I’m curious… has anybody here read Whitlow? Has anybody seen
The List?
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THE DEATH OF TARZAN? IT MAY BE WORSE THAN THAT.
The Hollywood Reporter reminds us that…
Guillermo del Toro had been attached to direct a script written by John Collee (Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World) when the project was announced two years ago.
Yes… that news sounded promising indeed. I’ve never been much of a Tarzan fan, but the thought of Del Toro taking on that frequently told tale gave me visions of dark, frightening jungles, and savage monsters, and made me wonder what great actor would give Tarzan a new face. It also made me suspect that the Tarzan tale might be told in a rich and meaningful way, because Del Toro knows how to unleash special-effects mayhem, but he knows even more about how to tell stories.
When Del Toro took on The Hobbit, I knew the Tarzan project would be postponed for several years, most likely.
But it’s worse than that. I’m dismayed by today’s news.
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SHORT TRIP TO THE EDGE
@U2 reports: The Edge talks to Q about the album-in-progress. First single may be called “Get Your Boots On.”
UPDATE! Bono speaks!
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MIYAZAKI RETURNS!
Here come the reviews for Ponyo on the Cliff, the latest from the genius who brought us Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Princess Mononoke.
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SHE HEARS MUSIC UP ABOVE
Sam Phillips’ song “Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us” is earning her the kind of attention she deserves.
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ANDY CROUCH: “THE BEST THING ABOUT SARAH PALIN”
This is not an invitation to a debate about the upcoming election. It’s a link to a commentary that deserves more attention, by the ever-thoughtful and insightful Andy Crouch. You’re welcome to comment on the words he’s written here, but stay on-topic. I’m not opening the floodgates for the full debate regarding pro/con views of Palin.
The choice of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate has all sorts of interesting political implications, which are being diced and parsed as I write. But I’m more interested in the long-term cultural implications of the choice of Palin, whether the McCain–Palin ticket wins or loses in November, for one of the most vexing horizons of impossibility in our culture: the abortion rate among unborn babies diagnosed with Down Syndrome.
Upwards of 85 percent of parents who receive a prenatal diagnosis of Down Syndrome elect to terminate the pregnancy, according to several studies in the peer-reviewed journal Prenatal Diagnosis. A 1999 British study in that journal found the termination rate to be between 91 and 93 percent. When I was a teenager in the 1980s, I remember seeing many people my age and younger who had the distinctive facial and behavioral characteristics of Down children. These days I rarely see a Down Syndrome child at all.
And as for the appalling wave of negative press on Palin, I refer you to Opus, to his inspiration Andy Whitman, and to counter mainstream-media hysteria with some mainstream-media thoughtfulness… the always-intriguing David Brooks.
Re: the tarzan film:
amazing how I went from being extremely excited to being profoundly uninterested in a matter of a few minutes. How do you go from DelTorro to the guy that made “The Mummy” and “Van Helsing”?
To some people, films like Hellboy and Van Helsing are pretty much the same. Comic books, monsters…same deal, right?
Well, some people are morons.
Sure, Del Toro is a better director than Steven Sommers. And yes, “The Mummy Returns” was awful, though not quite as bad as “Temple of Doom”.
But I do think the ‘99 “Mummy” remains the best Indy movie since “Raiders”. I’d love to see Sommers deliver another good movie.
We really do like to sweep our “imperfect” people under the rug, as those statistics remind us. They take up a lot of time and are a burden to every one involved. People stare, start rumors, and even the self-described progressive around us make ‘retard’ jokes. You don’t get to be normal if you have Downs, or if you have a family member with Downs Syndrome.
While it seems that Palin has a whole list of rumors and scandal (I think she reached Obama levels in terms of ’sick rumors’ in only a long weekend!) to keep her baby out of the papers for now, I doubt that her decision to keep the baby will be seen a heroic or life affirming by all — mostly by those who have never had a conversation with a mentally disabled person about their dreams and desires for life.
(And just to be bi-partisan, I think the Obamas are the type of people who would love and raise a disabled child, even if they found out before the birth )
I don’t understand the hate for Stephen Sommers. Sure, he’s no del Toro, but I’ve always found his movies enjoyable. And I’d much rather see del Toro do The Hobbit and maybe his long-planned adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness. He can’t helm every adventure/horror/fantasy franchise in existence, you know.
For the record, Van Helsing is criminally misunderstood and underrated.
The Palin rumours are way, way worse than anything I ever heard about the Obamas. I don’t think anyone ever went after Obama’s children. And if they did, their smears certainly didn’t get publicized by the likes of supposedly reputable journalists like Andrew Sullivan. (Kudos to Obama, by the way, for telling people that children ought to be “off limits” in this campaign.)
When it comes to the “long-term cultural implications” of the Palin pick, the past few days have been very revealing, to say the least.
And just to keep a more straightforwardly pop-culture element in here, I’ll repeat what I said at my blog: Why are so many people so shocked that social conservatives would rally to the Palins’ defense rather than sternly condemn them for their daughter’s pregnancy? Did these people miss the debates over Juno only a few months ago? Have they forgotten how feminists and others wrung their hands over the film’s alleged “romanticization” of teen pregnancy, while pro-lifers were all too eager to claim the film as one of their own?
Finally, thanks for the David Brooks link, Jeff. Such a levelheaded guy. And yet so funny, too, when he wants to be (I’m thinking of that lovely “speech” he wrote after the DNC).
I also eagerly await del Toro’s At the Mountains of Madness. He’s certainly proven he can handle Lovecraftian horror, although I think del Toro’s horror stories are more hopeful than Lovecraft’s.
And “for the record,” if there’s anything criminal about Van Helsing, it’s the production’s misunderstanding of the source materials and its underrating of its audience’s intelligence.
And Buddy proves my point.
Oh, and just because I’m rather obsessive about del Toro, here’s an article that outlines what he might be doing over the next decade:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117991560.html?categoryid=13&cs=1