movie time

i watched 2001: a space odyssey last week. 2 movie critics i respect love this movie. the first is roger ebert. the other is barry norman. it is cited in their respective "greatest movie" lists. i thought it was a bit shite. it's art, with a capital f. it's just less than the sum of it's parts: the apes are good, hal is good, some space effects are good, but; it's high brow fodder. opium for the over educated.

i also watched unforgiven. this is an excellent movie. the first time i saw it, i thought that the little bill character (hackman) wasn't such a bad guy. he just wants peace in his town. there's nothing wrong with that. clint eastwood looks old in that movie. i used to watch rawhide on sunday mornings. the one criticism i have is when the sheriff and his men are torturing morgan freeman, the only black man in the film, and there is no racial slur. am i to believe in the 1890's in a near enough white only town in wyoming (there are a few chinese people) that all racism in the language has been vanquished? it is weird to hear two old guys talking about jacking off too.

yesterday i saw spirited away. it's anime by miyasaki. i loved it. it made me wish i had children so i could show it to them and they could tell me what it's all about.


book

there is a part in the book i am reading about plays. the priest is talking to a canon. the canon is complaining that all the plays performed in spain today are all nonsense. he complains that they are full of miracles, used to delight the audience only. historical and geographical facts are used carelessly to contradict eachother. he laments that the masses flock to these preposterous shows and ignore anything else. the theatre managers say that they have to produce these because this is what the people want: pure fantasy and effect.

hell boy, nothing has changed.


hols

going to okinawa on tuesday. it is typhoon season. no wonder the tickets were so cheap.


errata

james coburn not james caan: magnificent seven.