6. Paradise by the Dashboard Light &...

Lyrics

Section I. Paradise:

Boy: Well, I remember every little thing as if it happened only yesterday.
Parkin' by the lake and there was not another car in sight.
And I never had a girl lookin' any better than you did.
And all the kids at school, they were wishin' they were me that night.

And now our bodies are, oh, so close and tight.
It never felt so good, it never felt so right.
And we're glowin' like the metal on the edge of a knife,
Glowin' like the metal on the edge of a knife.
C'mon! Hold on tight! Well, c'mon! Hold on tight!

Though it's cold and lonely in the deep dark night,
I can see paradise by the dashboard light.

Girl: Ain't no doubt about it, we were doubly blessed.
'Cause we were barely seventeen and we were barely dressed.

All: Well, ain't no doubt about it, baby, gotta go and shout it.
Ain't no doubt about it, we were doubly blessed.

Boy: 'Cause we were barely seventeen and we were barely dressed.

Baby, doncha hear my heart? You got it drownin' out the radio.
I've been waitin' so long for you to come along and have some fun.
Well, I gotta let ya know, no, you're never gonna regret it.
So open up your eyes I got a big surprise.
It'll feel all right. Well. I wanna make your motor run.

And now our bodies are, oh, so close and tight.
It never felt so good, it never felt so right.
And we're glowin' like the metal on the edge of a knife.
Glowin' like the metal on the edge of a knife.
C'mon! Hold tight! Well c'mon! Hold on tight!

All: Though it's cold and lonley in the deep dark night,
I can see paradise by the dashboard light.
Though it's cold and lonley in the deep dark night, (Night.)
(Deep dark night.)
...Paradise by the dashboard light.

You got to do what you can and let Mother Nature do the rest.
Well, ain't no doubt about it, we were doubly blessed.
'Cause we were barely seventeen and we were barely...

Boys: We're gonna go all the way tonight.
We're gonna go all he way an' tonight's the night...
We're gonna go all the way tonight
We're gonna go all he way an' tonight's the night...
We're gonna go all the way tonight.
We're gonna go all he way an' tonight's the night...
We're gonna go all the way tonight
We're gonna go all he way an' tonight's the night...

Radio Broadcast over grunting, panting & moaning sounds:{1}

Ok, here we go, we got a real pressure cooker goin' here, two down, nobody on,
no score, bottom of the ninth. There's the wind-up and there it is, a line shot
up the middle, look at him go. This boy can really fly!

He's roundin' first and really turnin' it on now, he's not lettin' up at all,
he's gonna try for second. The ball is bobbled out in center, and here comes the
throw, and what a throw!

He's gonna slide in head first, here he comes, he's out! No, wait, safe--safe at
second base, this kid really makes things happen out there.

Batter steps up to the plate, here's the pitch-- and he's going, and what a jump
he's got, he's tryin' for third. Here's the throw, it's in the dirt-- safe at
third! Holy cow, stolen base!

He's takin' a pretty big lead out there, almost darin' him to try and pick him
off. The pitcher glances over, winds up, and it's bunted, bunted down the third
base line, the suicide squeeze in on! Here he comes, squeeze play, it's gonna be
close, here's the throw, there's the play at the plate, holy cow, I think he's
gonna make it!

Section II. Let Me Sleep On It:

Girl: Stop right there! I gotta know right now!
Before we go any further...
Do you love me? Will you love me forever?
Do you need me? Will you never leave me?
Will you make me so happy for the rest of my life?
Will you take me away? Will you make me your wife?
Do you love me? Will you love me forever?
Do you need me? Will you never leave me?
Will you make me so happy for the rest of my life?
Will you take me away? Will you make me your wife?
I gotta know right now, before we go any further,
Do you love me? Will you love me forever?

Boy: Let me sleep on it. Baby, baby, let me sleep on it.
Let me sleep on it. I'll give you an answer in the mornin'.
Boys: Well, let me sleep on it. Baby, baby, let me sleep on it.
Well let me sleep on it. I'll give you an answer in the mornin'.

All: Let me sleep on it. Baby, baby, let me sleep on it.
Well, let me sleep on it. I'll give you an answer in the mornin'.

Girl: I gotta know right now!
Do you love me? Will you love me forever?
Do you need me? Will you never leave me?
Will you make me so happy for the rest of my life?
Will you take me away? Will you make me your wife?
I gotta know right now, before we go any further,
Do you love me? Will you love me forever?

What's it gonna be boy? Come on. I can wait all night.
What's it gonna be boy? Yes or no?
What's it gonna be boy? Yes -- or -- no?

Boy: Let me sleep on it. Baby, baby, let me sleep on it.
Well, let me sleep on it. I'll give you an answer in the mornin'.
Girl: I gotta know right now!

Both, singing on top of each other.

Boy: Let me sleep on it!!!
Girl: Will you love me? Will you love me forever?
Boy: Baby, baby, let me sleep on it.
Girl: Do you need me? Will you never leave me?
Boy: Well, let me sleep on it.
Girl: Will you make me so happy for the rest of my life?
Boy: I'll give you an answer in the mornin'.
Girl: Will you take me away? Will you make me your wife?

Each line sung seperately.

Girl: I gotta know right now, before we go any further.
Do you love me? Will you love me forever?
Boys: Let me sleep on it.
Girl: Will you love me forever?
Boys: Let me sleep on it!
Girl: Will you love me forever?

Section III. Praying for the End of Time:

Boy: I couldn't take it any longer, Lord, I was crazed!
And when the feelin' came upon me like a tidal wave,
I started swearin' to my god and on my mother's grave,
That I would love you to the end of time.
I swore I would love you to the end of time!

All: So now I'm prayin' for the end of time to hurry up and arrive.
'Cause if I gotta spend another minute with you,
I don't think that I can really survive.
I'll never break my promise, or forget my vow.
Boy: But god only knows what I can do right now.
All: I'm prayin' for the end of time, that's all that I can do. (Woo, woo!)
Prayin' for the end of time, so I can end my time with you!!!

Boy: It was long ago and it was far away.
And it was so much better than it is today.
Well, it was long ago and it was far away.

Girl begins her part (see below)

Boy sings at same time as Girl:
And it was so much better than it is today.
It was long ago and it was far away.
And it was so much better than it is today.
It was long ago and it was far away.
And it was so much better than it is today.
Fade.
It was long ago and it was far away.
And it was so much better than it is today.
It was long ago and it was far away.
And it was so much better than it is today.
It was long ago and it was far away.
And it was so much better than it is today.

Girl:
It never felt so good. It never felt so right.
And we were glowin' like the metal on the edge of a knife.
It never felt so good. It never felt so right.
And we were glowin' like the metal on the edge of a knife.
It never felt so good. It never felt so right.
And we were glowin' like the metal on the edge of a knife.
Fade.
It never felt so good. It never felt so right.
And we were glowin' like the metal on the edge of a knife.
It never felt so good. It never felt so right.
And we were glowin' like the metal on the edge of a knife.
It never felt so good. It never felt so right.
And we were glowin' like the metal on the edge of a knife.


That's a lot of lyrics! This song will become pretty tedious if you listen to it very often, but I do like it a lot. It's completely unique and is basically a long joke, with the punchline being the final third. The lyrics are so rich that there were quite a lot of movies I could choose to relate to it. First of all I could choose a movie about lovers who through some fantastical means are literally stuck for eternity with each other. But that kind of movie is not really my favorite and there are probably a lot of other songs to come that could be related to such a movie. Secondly I thought about a movie that presents baseball as a metaphor for sex/love. But, I think, practically every movie about baseball does this in one way or another. Anyway in the end the song is basically about a boy and a girl who are happily in love with each other at the beginning. But now, after their marriage, for some reason they aren't happy with each other and their lives at all. Well the movie I chose is a very recent movie about two such people. I also chose it, because after seeing Drive I was curious what else Ryan Gosling had done.

The Movie: Blue Valentine (Derek Cianfrance, 2010)

Blue Valentine is a movie about Cindy (Michelle Williams) and Dean (Ryan Gosling). We follow them at two separate times in their lives. During the first stage of their relationship, when they are happy and completely in love with each other. And six years later, married, with a daughter, but constantly fighting and being unhappy with each other. They are quite obviously on the brink of a divorce.

The movie has quite a lot of problems. Unfortunately some of this problems come because it really tries to do something different than an ordinary Hollywood drama about such people. Many movies for example would try to give a reason why the marriage of Dean and Cindy has gone so wrong. This one does not do that, because it wisely recognizes that sometimes shit just happens, without there being a particular reason for it. People change. What we loved once, we may not love forever. The problem is that I found it hard to believe that the young Dean and Cindy would six years later behave like they do in this movie. This would have probably been easier to believe if there was a clear reason given for it. Dean's character development was especially horrible. That is good news for Ryan Gosling who shows he is a great actor here with a lot of range. He basically plays two completely different people in one movie. I even found that his older version of Dean doesn't look like I would expect the young Dean to look in six years.

Another laudable thing that backfires for the movie is its insistence on keeping the story realistic. Unfortunately during the first hour that makes it incredibly dull. Dean and Cindy aren't very interesting, the dialogue is utterly unoriginal and for a long time there really isn't a single memorable/beautiful shot or scene.

Yet in the end the movie somehow works. In the end I did feel for the characters. That's partly because of the movie's structure. We've seen the happy times of Dean and Cindy. It's sad to see that the happy times have now ended and they are now mostly miserable with each other. And some scenes work very well in retrospect In the middle of the movie there is a scene in a sex-motel where Dean and Cindy went to try to spice up their failing marriage. They dance to a song and it seems that at that moment their problems can be solved. The scene is sweet, but at that moment in the movie isn't really special. Besides their stay in the sex-motel eventually only worsens their problem. But near the end of the movie we see a scene from the happy times. Cindy has just introduced Dean to her parents and they go in her room to make love. Dean plays a song that, he says, will always be their song. And while it's not surprising that this is the same song that was played in the motel, that scene now grows in poignancy. We realize that no matter how bad things will be, there will be always things that will bind them. And that when they hear a certain song, or see a certain shirt they will always think happily about each other and the good times they shared.

Lastly the movie also works because Gosling and Williams act brilliantly. Especially in the final scene where they manage to make clear that they really are unhappy because of the problems they face, that they really wish they could solve them, that there is a big chance they won't solve them and that this fact makes them feel really awful and sad.

Lists!

At the end of the year all over the internet people make lists of their top movies of the year. These are all fun to read and make, so i decided to make a top 5 for every year, until the year of my birth.

2022

1. The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)

2. Aftersun (Charlotte Wells)

3. Stars at Noon (Claire Denis)

4. How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Daniel Goldhaber)

5. LOLA (Andrew Legge)

2021

1. The French Dispatch (Wes Anderson)

2. The Lost Daughter (Maggie Gyllenhaal)

3. Bad Luck Banging, or Loony Porn (Radu Jude)

4. Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson)

5. Annette (Leos Carax) 

2020

1. Da 5 Bloods (Spike Lee)

2. Shirley (Josephine Decker)

3. Horse Girl (Jeff Baena)

4. Tenet (Christopher Nolan)

5. Riders of Justice  (Anders Thomas Jensen)

2019

1. The Farewell (Lulu Wang)

2. Portrait of A Lady on Fire (Celine Sciamma)

3. Take Me Somewhere Nice (Ena Sendijarevic)

4. Midosmmar (Ari Aster)

5. Gemini Man (Ang Lee)

2018

1. Creed 2 (Steven Caple Jr.)
2. And Breathe Normally (Isold Uggadottir)
3. If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins)
4. Mission: Impossible - Fallout (Christopher McQuarrie)
5. Duelles (Olivier Masset-Depasse)

2017

1. The Little Hours (Jeff Baena)
2. The Beguiled (Sofia Coppola)
3. Thelma (Joachim Trier)
4. Mother! (Darren Aronofsky)
5. Ingrid Goes West (Matt Spicer)

2016

1. Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade)
2. Nocturama (Bertrand Bonello)
3. Things to Come (Mia Hansen-Love)
4. Everybody Wants Some!! (Richard Linklater)
5. My Aunt in Sarajevo (Goran Kapetanovic)

2015

1. The Second Mother (Anna Muylaert)
2. The Martian (Ridley Scott)
3. Results (Andrew Bujalski)
4. Victoria (Sebastian Schipper)
5. 21 Nights With Pattie (Armand Larrieu)

2014

1. White God (Kornel Mundruczo)
2. Gone Girl (David Fincher)
3. Aanmodderfakker (Michiel ten Horn)
4. Beyond the Lights (Gina Prince-Bythewood)
5. Bird People (Pascale Ferran)

2013

1. Child's Pose (Calin Peter Netzer)
2. Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel Coen)
3. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch)
4. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese)
5. Hard To Be A God (Aleksei German)

2012

1. Holy Motors (Leos Carax)
2. 21 Jump Street (Phil Lord & Chris Miller)
3. Lincoln (Steven Spielberg)
4 .Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach)
5. The Perks of Being A Wallflower (Stephen Chbosky)

2011

1. The Skin I Live In (Pedro Almodovar)
2. Chicken With Plums (Marjane Satrapi)
3. Oslo, 31 August (Joachim Trier)
4. Killer Joe (William Friedkin)
5. Shame (Steve McQueen)

2010

1. Four Lions (Chris Morris)
2. The Social Network (David Fincher)
3. Beginners (Mike Mills)
4. Another Year (Mike Leigh)
5. Schemer (Hanro Smitsman)

2009

1. Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
2. A Serious Man (Joel Coen)
3. Adventureland (Greg Mottola)
4. The Informant! (Steven Soderbergh)
5. Everyone Else (Maren Ade)

2008

1. In Bruges (Martin McDonagh)
2. The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan)
3. Tropic Thunder (Ben Stiller)
4. Revolutionary Road (Sam Mendes)
5. W. (Oliver Stone)

2007

1. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
2. Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi)
3. Gone Baby Gone (Ben Affleck)
4. Into the Wild (Sean Penn)
5. Juno (Jason Reitman)

2006

1. Marie Antoinette (Sofia Coppola)

2. Das Leben der Anderen (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)

3. The Departed (Martin Scorsese)
4. Children of Men (Alfonso Cuaron)
5. Running Scared (Wayne Kramer)


2005

1. A History of Violence (David Cronenberg)
2. Match Point (Woody Allen)
3. Good Night and Good Luck (George Clooney)
4. Munich (Steven Spielberg)
5. Me and You and Everyone We Know (Miranda July)

2004

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry)
2. Collateral (Michael Mann)
3. Before Sunset (Richard Linklater)
4. Closer (Mike Nichols)
5. Kill Bill 2 (Quentin Tarantino)

2003

1. Good Bye Lenin (Wolfgang Becker)
2. Elephant (Gus Van Sant)
3. Pirates of the Caribbean (Gore Verbinsky)
4. All the Real Girls (David Gordon Green)
5. House of Sand and Fog (Vadim Perelman)

2002

1. 25th Hour (Spike Lee)
2. Gangs of New York (Martin Scorsese)
3. Adaptation (Spike Jonze)
4. Secretary (Steven Shainberg)
5. Changing Lanes (Roger Michell)

2001

1. Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann)
2. The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson)
3. Ocean's 11 (Steven Soderbergh)
4. Heist (David Mamet)
5. A Beautiful Mind (Ron Howard)

2000

1. Love & Basketball (Gina Prince-Bythewood)

2. A Friend Like Harry (Dominik Moll)
3. Snatch (Guy Ritchie)

4. Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe)
5. Shaft (John Singleton)

1999

1. The Matrix (Lena Wachowski)
2. Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze)
3. Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson)

4. Beau Travail (Claire Denis)
5. The Insider (Michael Mann)

1998

1. A Simple Plan (Sam Raimi)
2. The Big Lebowski (Joel Coen)
3. Happiness (Todd Solondz)
4. Little Voice (Mark Herman)
5. The Truman Show (Peter Weir)

1997

1. Good Will Hunting (Gus Van Sant)
2. L.A. Confidential (Curtis Hanson)
3. Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson)
4. La vita e bella (Roberto Benigni)
5. Grosse Point Blank (George Armitage)

1996

1. Fargo (Joel Coen)

2. A Summer's Tale (Éric Rohmer)
3. Everyone Says I Love You (Woody Allen)
4. Romeo + Juliet (Baz Luhrmann)
5. The Rock (Michael Bay)

1995

1. Nixon (Oliver Stone)
2. Seven (David Fincher)
3. To Die For (Gus Van Sant)
4. The Usual Suspects (Bryan Synger)
5. Get Shorty (Barry Sonnenfeld)

1994

1. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino)

2. Chungking Express (Wong Kar-wai)
3. Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis)
4. Bullets Over Broadway (Woody Allen)
5. Once Were Warriors (Lee Tamahori)

1993

1. The Fugitive (Andrew Davis)

2. Short Cuts (Robert Altman)
3. Six Degrees of Separation (Fred Schepisi)
4. Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis)
5. Red Rock West (John Dahl)

1992

1. White Men Can't Jump (Ron Shelton)

2. Orlando (Sally Potter)
3. Husbands and Wives (Woody Allen)

4. Glengarry Glenn Ross (James Foley)
5. Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino)

1991

1. Jungle Fever (Spike Lee)
2. Slacker (Richard Linklater)

3. The Doors (Oliver Stone)
4. Raise the Red Lantern (Yimou Zhang)

5. Point Break (Kathryn Bigelow)

1990

1. Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese)  
2. Jacob's Ladder (Adrian Lyne)
3. The Comfort of Strangers (Paul Schrader) 

4. Metropolitan (Whit Stillman)
5. Q & A (Sidney Lumet)

1989

1. Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee)
2. Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen)

3. Mystery Train (Jim Jarmusch)

4. Back to the Future 2 (Robert Zemeckis)

5. Parenthood (Ron Howard)

5. Stairway to Heaven &...

Lyrics
There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold
And she's buying a stairway to heaven
When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for
Ooh, ooh, and she's buying a stairway to heaven

There's a sign on the wall but she wants to be sure
'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings
In a tree by the brook, there's a songbird who sings
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misleading
Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, it makes me wonder

There's a feeling I get when I look to the west
And my spirit is crying for leaving
In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
And the voices of those who stand looking
and it makes me wonder
really makes me wonder

And it's whispered that soon if we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason
And a new day will dawn for those who stand long
And the forest will echo with laughter

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now,
It's just a spring clean from the May Queen
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
There's still time to change the road you're on
Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, Ooh, it makes me wonder

Your head is humming and it won't go, in case you don't know
The piper's calling you to join him
Dear lady, can't you hear the wind blow, and did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering w

And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our soul
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last
When all is one and one is all, yeah
To be a rock and not to roll.

And she's buying the stairway to heaven

Stairway to Heaven is an absolutely brilliant song. There are other songs I like more, but this may be the most perfectly executed song ever. You get the feeling that Led Zeppelin knew exactly what they were doing writing this song. It feels as if both lyrically and musically there is not a note or lyric too much or too little. Led Zeppelin was very often influenced by J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Ring-books. And especially the first third of the song reminds one very often of that. It's probably no coincidence that the score of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies often feels at least a bit influenced by it.

The Movie: Lord of the Rings (Peter Jackson, 2001,2002,2003)

Usually when I write about a movie, I have seen it very recently before I write about it. This is not the case here. I have seen the Lord of the Rings movies twice in their entirety and have no desire to see any of them again. I admire the craft and effort that went into them. The care that went into the making of it is really admirable and can really be seen on screen. The costumes are great, the special effects are often flawless, there are quite a lot of beautiful images and it's often well-acted, especially by the older cast. Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Bean and Christopher Lee are very good. Unfortunately the same can not be said about Elijah Wood and Sean Astin as Frodo and Sam. I found them to be mostly annoying and unfortunately we spend most of the movies with them. But that's not really the biggest problem for me. Most of the time I found it all incredibly boring and I really didn't care much about what would happen to anybody except for Gandalf and Aragorn. All this dwarfs, elves, and especially hobbits I found utterly uninteresting and often annoying. That is not exactly anyone's fault. There simply is no genre I like less then this one.

That said I didn't really dislike these movies until the third one. In the first one the creation of the fellowship of the ring was very reminiscent of the creation of a heist team in a crime movie, where every member has its own specialties, or in this case powers. The second one was the best and had some much needed humor in the woods with the talking trees. The final battle was also set up very well and brilliantly executed. I think it's the best part of the movies. But then the third one came. It felt like watching three hours of boring hobbits walking and talking dramatically about their lives and fates. And the ending! It could have ended at least ten times before it finally did. At least it ended with Frodo going on an adventure with Gandalf. After being stuck for so long with Sam, one of the most annoying characters I've ever seen on film, I felt that it was perfectly logical that he wanted to get as far away from him as possible.

4. Child in Time &...

Lyrics

Sweet child in time, you'll see the line
Line that's drawn between good and bad
See the blind man shooting at the world
Bullets flying, ooh taking toll
If you've been bad - Oh Lord I bet you have
And you've not been hit oh by flying lead
You'd better close your eyes, aahaouho bow your head
Wait for the ricochet

Ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo..
Ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo..
Aaa-aaa-aaa..
Oh, I wanna hear you sing..
Aaa-aaa-aaa..
Oaoh..
AAA-AAA-AAA!!
AAA-AAA-AAA!!


Sweet child in time, you'll see the line
Line that's drawn between good and bad
See the blind man shooting at the world
Bullets flying, mm taking toll
If you've been bad - Lord I bet you have
And you've not been hit oh by flying lead
You'd better close your eyes, aahaao bow your head
Wait for the ricochet

Ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo..
Ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo..
Aaa-aaa-aaa..
Oh, I gotta hear you sing..
Aaa-aaa-aaa..
Oaoh..
AAA-AAA-AAA!!
Oh..
AAA-AAA-AAA!!

Oh..god oh no..oh god no..oh..ah..no ah..AAh..oh..AAWAAH!!..oh

The song is very good, but at 10 minutes and 20 seconds, it is too long. Anyway, the song seems to be about a child in wartime, who doesn't yet understand the severity of war. There are many movies that deal with this subject. I chose to discuss a movie by Steven Spielberg which I hadn't yet seen.

The Movie: Empire of the Sun (Steven Spielberg, 1987)

As far as I can remember E.T. was the first movie that I've seen that was considered to be a classic. I didn't like it much back then when I was something like 8 years old, and I still don't really like it. It's way too sentimental for my taste. But, while I can't say that there is a single movie by Spielberg that is really among my favorites, I find all his other movies, I've seen to be very good or at least entertaining. Even Hook is not that bad. (Though I haven't seen either his best considered movie, Schindler' List or his worst considered one, 1941) He really knows how to make his movies compelling and interesting and how to create great shots and scenes. I just find it very unfortunate that he tends to become very sentimental near the end of almost all his pictures.

Empire of the Sun surprised me quite a lot. It's not his best (that's Munich) or his most fun (that's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), but it's certainly his most beautiful and audacious one. It's quite unlike anything else I've seem by him and I would actually say it's more an art-house film than a blockbuster. If you are interested in a movie that tells a story with a logical plot, this is not exactly the movie you should watch.

It starts pretty normally though. For a while it looks like this is going to be a movie about how the old life of the British aristocrats in China came to an end due to the Japanese invasion of China during the second world war. The prologue of the movie is full of scenes which signify that this wonderful life is slowly coming to an end. During a costume party in one of this 'British' houses, for example, our main protagonist Jamie Graham, played by a 13-year old Christian Bale, goes out to play with his plane and finds that not very far from the party a Japanese plane has crashed. And next to it there is a whole contingent of Japanese soldiers waiting for a provocation from the Brits, so they can fight them. This prologue comes to an end when during the Japanese invasion of Shanghai and the ensuing confusion on the streets, Jamie gets separated from his parents. This is a masterfully directed sequence full of some wonderful images. Spielberg manages to both show us the chaos and make us aware at all time what exactly is happening and what the dangers are for our main protagonists.

The rest of the movie we will follow Jamie. After being separated Jamie goes home, hoping to find his parents there. But the house is now Japanese property, just like many other houses in the neighborhood. We see the Japanese taking the furniture out of all this houses, which is a set-up for some of the most wonderful shots I've seen in a long time, later on in the movie. Anyway, when Jamie runs out of food, he has to leave his house ends up with Baisie (John Malkovich) and Frank (Joe Pantoliano), two scheming merchant seaman. Due to Jamie's fault all three of them end up in a Japanese workers camp. This is where we'll stay until almost the end of the movie.

Before the camp scenes I already thought that the movie was a bit too far-fetching in the depiction of Jamie's independence. He wasn't troubled at all by the fact that he was now alone and one point I was even reminded of Home Alone. Well, this is even more enhanced in the camp scenes and this confused me quite a bit at first. Jamie copes very well inside the camp, showing such wit, intelligence and courage that it hardly would be believable in an adult, let alone a kid. On top of this Spielberg doesn't present life in the camp as grim for Jamie. In fact you could almost say he enjoys himself. I found it weird how Spielberg could present such a simplistic view of both childhood and the workers camps. But then came a scene in which Jamie is sent by Baisie under false pretenses to search for mines in a certain area of the camp. Baisie wants to know whether he can escape using that path. Jamie finds no mines and narrowly escapes a suspecting Japanese soldier. In a completely unrealistic scene Basie and his men welcome him back as a hero. And through the cinematography used in the scene Spielberg shows that he intends the scene to be unrealistic. Now I realized that I wasn't watching a drama about the experiences of a boy in a Japanese workers camp. I was watching the boy's (re-)imagination of that period of his life. The movie is an often grim fairy-tale about memory and about how re-imagining horrific things might make our life better at that moment, but in the end it is pretty dangerous. We lose sight of what is real and forget it. In the end, the camp is liberated and Jamie realizes he has completely forgotten how his parents look like. In the end, I believe, the movie wants to make the point that no matter how grim reality is, we have to face it. Because, well, it is the reality after all. And as I said before Spielberg reaches this conclusion with some some great scenes, even some funny ones, and, in my opinion, the most wonderful shots in all of his movies.

Lastly Christian Bale might give his best performance here and it's always great to see a slightly villainous John Malkovich. It's also funny to see a very young Ben Stiller in a small role.

3. Avond &...

Lyrics

Nu hoef je nooit je jas meer aan te trekken
(You don't have to put your coat on any more)
en te hopen dat je licht het doet.
(and hope that your light is working)
laat buiten de stormwind nu maar razen in het donker
(Let the storm rage in in the darkness outside)
want binnen is het warm en licht en goed
(Because inside it is warm and light and good)

hand in hand naar buiten kijkend waar de regen valt
(Holding hands, while watching how outside the rain is falling)
ik zie het vuur van hoop en twijfel in je ogen
(I see the fire of hope and doubt in your eyes)
en ik ken je diepste angst
(And I know your deepest fear)

Want je kunt niets zeker weten en alles gaat voorbij
(Because you can't be certain of anything and everything will end)
Maar ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof in jou en mij
(But I believe, I believe in you and me)

En als je 's morgens opstaat ben ik bij je
(And when you wake up in the morning I am with you)
en misschien heb ik al thee gezet
(And I might have made some thee)

En als de zon schijnt buiten gaan we lopen door de duinen
(And when outside the sun is shining, we'll walk through the dunes)
en als het regent gaan we t'rug in bed
(And when it rains, we'll go back to bed)

Uren langzaam wakker worden, zwevend door de tijd
(We'll take hours to slowly wake up, floating through time)
Ik zie het licht door de gordijnen
(I see the light through the curtains)
en ik weet, t'verleden geeft geen zekerheid
(And I know, the past gives no certainty)

Want je kunt niets zeker weten en alles gaat voorbij
(Because you can't be certain of anything and everything will end)
Maar ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof in jou en mij
ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof in jou en mij
(But I believe, I believe in you and me)

Ik doe de lichten uit en de kamer wordt nu donker,
(I turn the lights off and now the room becomes dark)
een straatlantaarn buiten geeft wat licht,
(A street lantern outside gives some light)

En de dingen in de kamer worden vrienden die gaan slapen,
(And the things in the room become friends that go to sleep)
de stoelen staan te wachten op 't ontbijt
(The chairs are waiting for breakfast)

En morgen wordt ik wakker met de geur van brood en honing.
(And tomorrow I wake up with the smell of bread and honey)
De glans van gouden zonlicht in je haar
(De glow of golden sunshine in your hair)

En de dingen in de kamer, ik zeg ze welterusten
(And the things in the room, I wish them goodnight)
vanavond gaan we slapen en morgen zien we wel
(Tonight we'll sleep and we'll see about tomorrow)

Maar de dingen in de kamer zouden levenloze dingen zijn, zonder jou
(But the things in the room would be lifeless things without you)

En je kunt niets zeker weten en alles gaat voorbij
Maar ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof in jou en mij
ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof in jou en mij
En je kunt niets zeker weten want alles gaat voorbij
Maar ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof in jou en mij
ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof in jou en mij
(And you can't now anything for certain and everything will end,
But I believe, Ibelieve in you and me)

Yeah, I will translate songs that are not in English. Obviously this song should by no means be the third best song of all time. I don't think it's even the best Dutch song of all time, but it's certainly not a bad song. This is not a glamorous love song. We get the feeling this is quite an ordinary, realistic, slightly old couple. They don't need many romantic fantasies for their love. They love each other because of the mundane and ordinary things they do together in their life. There aren't many songs that take such a realistic approach to love and there aren't that many movies either. I found it pretty hard to find a movie to fit this song, but eventually I decided on a very recent one, about which I read that it presents us with a very ordinary realistic old couple. And when I watched it, I found it was a better fit than I even thought.

The movie: Another Year (Mike Leigh, 2010)

Mike Leigh is a rather unique director. He doesn't write a screenplay for his movies. Instead he gets an idea for what could be an interesting movie and with his often recurring cast and crew improvises the movie scene by scene. He wants his movies to be a reflection of reality and he obviously thinks that the way he works is the best way to achieve that. Up until now I hadn't seen a movie by him, but it is obvious his method has success. He is on of the most critically acclaimed modern British directors and he has 7 Oscar nominations. Ironically some of them are for Best Original Screenplay. And Another Year is a great movie indeed. For three quarters of its running time it is one of the best representations of ordinary life I've ever seen at the movies.

It's about a couple in their in their 50's, Tom (Jim Broadbent) and Gerri (Ruth Sheen) and their interactions with their friends and family. We see them doing things any ordinary people do. They have jobs, they cook, they work at home and in their garden, talk about banalities, make bad jokes with their friends. What Leigh shows is that most of the time in life big things don't happen to us. Our mood depends mostly on the details. Buying a small car, going to have nice dinner with friends, a stupid joke, an annoying patient, a broken car, these are the kinds of things that most of the time make us happy, sad or annoyed. The title of the movie is actually perfect. The movie is divided into section called spring, summer, autumn and winter. What we see may not be the most interesting things that have happened to Tom and Gerri all year, but that's the point. It are the things that could happen any other year to them. It's a movie about the daily life of ordinary people. It works brilliantly until the section in winter. It opens with the funeral of the wife of Tom's brother. I thought that was a mistake. Like I said up until then the movie was interested in how our life is shaped by mundane, ordinary things. I found it rather unfortunate that Leigh now suddenly felt the need to dramatize things with something important like a funeral. On top of this in the scenes involving this funeral, the cinematography was suddenly darkened. Up until then the mood in the film was set by the behavior of the characters. Now the behavior of the characters was set by the mood of the film. There are, of course, brilliant movies for which this works. Not for this movie though, whose biggest strength was in its feeling of naturalness. By so obviously darkening the cinematography he made this scenes feel unnecessarily artificial. And the problems didn't stop here. He also introduced the long lost son of the deceased, who was such an obnoxious and idiotic character, it felt like he came from another movie. When later on Gerri mentioned that her son would come home with his girlfriend I feared that the movie would end with a cliche marriage. Luckily that didn't happen. And despite these winter scenes the movie is still incredibly good.

After watching this, I thought of Sam Mendes' American Beauty. That is also a very good movie, but Another Year feels like the opposite of that one. This movie claims that there is nothing wrong with living an ordinary and, sometimes, a bit dull life. There can be much virtue found in that. Tom and Gerri had a great time when they were young. They had fun at rock concerts and traveled around the world. But most people can not live that sort of life forever. We eventually have to settle down. And that sort of life can be good to if we have a nice a family and good friends with whom we can talk with fond memories about our youth. And the jobs they have may not be glamorous; Gerri is a psychologist, Tom is a geological engineer. But they help people with it, even if they might not always see the end result of their labor.

2. Hotel California &...

Lyrics:

On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night
There she stood in the doorway;
I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself,
’this could be heaven or this could be hell’
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor,
I thought I heard them say...

Welcome to the hotel California
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the hotel California
Any time of year, you can find it here

Her mind is tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes bends
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget

So I called up the captain,
’please bring me my wine’
He said, ’we haven’t had that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine’
And still those voices are calling from far away,
Wake you up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them say...

Welcome to the hotel California
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
They livin’ it up at the hotel California
What a nice surprise, bring your alibis

Mirrors on the ceiling,
The pink champagne on ice
And she said ’we are all just prisoners here, of our own device’
And in the master’s chambers,
They gathered for the feast
The stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can’t kill the beast

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
’relax,’ said the night man,
We are programmed to receive.
You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never leave!

This is a great song with some of the most debated lyrics of all time. The Eagles themselves have claimed that the lyrics are some sort of metaphor for living in California in 1976 and the dying of the American Dream. But if you take them literally they are about a hotel that has a strange, eerie effect on a person. And when it comes to hotels that have weird effects on people, there is one movie you really can't ignore.

The Movie: The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)

I have now seen three movies by Kubrick, Dr. Strangelove, The Shining and Full Metal Jacket. And based on this movies alone I can say that Kubricks reputation as a great director is absolutely earned. But what surprised me was that his movies aren't at all inaccessible. I've read and heard that he was a cold, intellectual filmmaker whose films are mostly about (abstract) ideas. Well, that is partly true. If you want to truly appreciate his movies you'll have to see them more then once. You have to give the movie a close reading and think about it and the ideas that are expressed in it. You have to watch for details. There may not be an American filmmaker for whom small details matter more than Kubrick. But his movies can also be enjoyed as simple entertainment. Dr. Strangelove is basically a slapstick movie. And The Shining is essentially an incredibly well made thriller/horror full of iconic scenes.

There has probably never been a thriller made with a better and longer setup. The movie basically begins with around 40 minutes of exposition. But it's so masterfully filmed and acted that it is never boring. In long takes we get to see how awe-inspiring this Overlook Hotel is. We really get the feeling that living here alone for 6 months can be quite an ordeal for a family of 3 even if nothing significantly abnormal happens. And this is obviously not a very healthy family. Danny is having some weird imaginary friends and has the tendency to get lost in his own world. Father Jack has a history of alcoholism and is played by Jack Nicholson, so we kind of expect that he won't stay calm. Shelley Duvall is brilliantly cast as Wendy, Jacks wife. If you just see her on the street, you'll think that she might have a nervous breakdown soon. There is not a single moment wasted in this setup. Every single thing we see or hear will become important later on in the film. And due to this brilliant setup the movie will become full of almost unbearable tension, without Kubrick having to actually do much for it. Simple scenes become disturbing. Like Jack throwing a tennis ball against the walls in an otherwise empty room. Or Danny riding his tricycle across the hotel. All this tension is released in the last 10 minutes when Jack finally loses it completely.

Usually I will have to say more about the movie I discuss, especially if it is such a rich movie like The Shining. But I've seen this movie only once and I have nothing more interesting to say than what is already said on this site: http://kubrickfilms.tripod.com/id4.html.

1. Bohemian Rhapsody &...

Lyrics:

Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide,
No escape from reality
Open your eyes,
Look up to the skies and see,
I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy,
Because I'm easy come, easy go,
Little high, little low,
Any way the wind blows doesn't really matter to
me, to me

Mama,
Just killed a man,
Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger,
now he's dead
Mama, life had just begun,
But now I've gone and thrown it all away
Mama, oooh,
Didn't mean to make you cry,
If I'm not back again this time tomorrow,
Carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters

Too late, my time has come,
Sends shivers down my spine, body's aching all
the time
Goodbye, ev'rybody, I've got to go,
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth
Mama, oooh, I don't want to die,
I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all
I see a little silhouetto of a man,
Scaramouch, Scaramouch, will you do the
Fandango!

Thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening me
Galileo, Galileo
Galileo, Galileo
Galileo, Figaro - magnifico

I'm just a poor boy nobody loves me
He's just a poor boy from a poor family,
Spare him his life from this monstrosity
Easy come, easy go, will you let me go
Bismillah! No, we will not let you go
(Let him go!) Bismillah! We will not let you go
(Let him go!) Bismillah! We will not let you go
(Let me go) Will not let you go
(Let me go)(Never) Never let you go
(Let me go) Never let you go (Let me go) Ah
No, no, no, no, no, no, no
Oh mama mia, mama mia, mama mia, let me go
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me,
for me

So you think you can stop me and spit in my
eye
So you think you can love me and leave me to
die
Oh, baby, can't do this to me, baby,
Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta
here
Nothing really matters, Anyone can see,
Nothing really matters,
Nothing really matters to me
Any way the wind blows...

Bohemian Rhapsody is a truly incredible and unique song. There really has never been another song like this. Unfortunately I've heard it so often that I'm now a bit tired of it. The lyrics can be about anything, but when I first became a fan of this song, around 2005/2006 it struck me how easily they could be about a young Muslim terrorist who has to go on a suicide mission. The narrative is about a poor boy who is nervous, because he is about to do something which is probably going to kill him. So he is saying goodbye to his mother. That can be about a suicide mission, but it also, obviously, could be about something else. The use of Islamic words like Beelzebub and Bismillah though really nails it. Around 2005 there was quite a lot of discussion in the Netherlands about a Palestinian movie called Paradise Now. The movie was produced by a Dutch company and was the Palestinian submission to the Oscars for best foreign language film. There was a bit of controversy whether the Netherlands should finance a movie that looked sympathetically at Muslim terrorists. The threat of Muslim terrorism was coming closer and closer to The Netherlands after the attacks in New York, London and Madrid. I remember that the plot of the movie reminded me a bit of Bohemian Rhapsody, since it apparently was about two poor boys from poor families, who were going on a suicide mission. And it actually was then that I first got the idea to do something with movies and songs like I am doing now.

The Movie: Paradise Now (Hany Abu-Assad, 2005)

Paradise Now is a pretty good, and often very tense, movie that tries to understand the suicide attacks by Muslim terrorists. That does not mean that it justifies them. It is pretty obvious that the director thinks they are wrong. For the most part it doesn't say anything new. The terrorists give the usual arguments for their terrorism: Israel treats them as animals, this is the only way to liberate Palestine,it's Allah's will, etc. The arguments against terrorism are given by a woman who works for a humanitarian organization and who hopes to achieve piece through negotiation. Her arguments are also pretty much the usual ones: It only makes Israel angrier and living in Palestine thus more dangerous for their surviving families,Allah condemns killing, it doesn't help their cause at all, etc. There is not much new here for anyone who follows the news.

The movie did have two interesting observations though. Firstly the suicide attacks are meticulously planned and organized. They have managed to build great secret underground compounds where everything can be, they work all hard and are very efficient and they manage to get all the materials they need. And their bombs are quite ingenious. This makes one wonder how better their life could be if they used all this intelligence, efficiency and hard work to do something more fruitful that really could make their, and other Palestinian, lives better. It's at least worth trying.
Secondly the organizers of the terrorist attacks convince the suicide bombers that they are heroes for doing what they do and that they will be mourned. At the same time they are convinced that after they are death they will go to heaven, which is a wonderful, idyllic place where Allah will love them eternally. An act is not really heroic if you are certain that the consequences of it will be good for you. Something I actually find interesting about a lot of religious people is that they do not act as if they believe in God. They act as if they are absolutely certain that there is a God.

If you hope to see an objective film on the conflict between Palestine and Israel, then this is not it. While the director is not on the terrorists side, he is certainly on the side of the Palestinians. The arguments against or pro terrorism are only seen through Palestinian eyes. And it's made fairly obvious that the Palestinians are the weak side in this conflict. The poverty in Palestine shines through every shot. And when we are shown Israel, we are given the impression of a pretty wealthy country. There is a shot where a car is riding past a beach in Israel and we see a lot of exotic trees on the road. It's very reminiscent the famous shots of LA. This is not really a criticism of the film. This conflict has become enormous and incredibly complicated. I assume it's very hard for a director from either country to make an objective film about it. Even with this film Assad got death treats from both Israelis and Palestinians.

Tarantino & the Doors

Since 1999, every year, the Dutch Radio 2 has organized a contest to determine what the best 2000 songs ever made are. After the 2000 best songs ever are chosen Radio 2 broadcasts them in a non-stop show from 26 December until 31 December at midnight. This has become a quite popular event in The Netherlands and every year more and more people ring in the new year by listening to that year's best song. Almost every year the best song turns out to be Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.

In 2008 Radio 2's top 2000 existed 10 years. For this occasion Radio 2 did not organize a new voting contest, but added all the votes from all the previous years to create an ultimate top 2000-list. This list will be the core of this blog and I will use it in, what I hope will be, an interesting way. I'll try to link every song of this list to a movie and then I'll write about that movie. Mostly I'll try to link the movie to the song by looking at the lyrics of the song, though I'll also do it in other ways. Obviously the link can't always make a lot of sense. It's mostly a fun excuse to write about a movie

Of course I also hope to write about all kinds of other stuff that have to do with popular culture.

Anyway, I started this blog because I like to write about movies, and think that this may be a fun and interesting way to write and think about them. Especially at the start my writing may not always be good. Some reviews may be too simplistic, other ones may be too pretentious. Some may be written very poorly and some even may be fantastic. I hope that all of them will be at least interesting though.