The beauty of watching a DVD in the home cinema, is that not only do remember the movie itself, but you also think back to when you first saw it at the real cinema. In turn this triggers related memories. In my case, recently seeing two Aussie Classics on DVD, made me think of Great Movie Giggle Moments

GMGM #1. Back in 1976. The school has taken us to see the very serious Picnic at Hanging Rock. My fellow 15 year olds are quite getting into it. The film is quite tense as the girls have just gone missing. The search has not long started, when up the hill walks the great Garry McDonald, playing a policeman. The cinema erupts with “hey, that’s Norman Gunston. Norman! Norman!”

GMGM #2. Not long after. Probably 1980. Mad Max is still showing at the cinema in it’s first run. I’m sure I’m at the East End cinema in Bourke Street (100?). Don’t look for it, it’s no longer there.

Anyway, another tense scene is upon us. Jim Goose is about to be told the bad news that there’s no case against the rogue cycle gang. The music swells, Max enters, all ready to tell Jimbo that all their work was for nothing….
There, walking with Max is the actor Gil Tucker; he’s playing a legal clerk of some type. For years Gil had played Constable Roy Baker on the TV show Cop Shop. The very straight, dorky, daggy Roy Baker. Again, the cinema rings with giggles and muffled smirks..

On balance, “2001 : A Space Odyssey” is probably my favourite film of all time. I first saw it in about 1973 as a 12 year old at the Trak cinema in Toorak. It was ‘only’ 5 years old at that stage, so still fairly fresh.

Two things stick out about that first viewing. A mate had said it was about “a journey to Jupiter” (true) and secondly, when the Star Baby floated into view and the credits rolled…I sat there waiting for the next bit. You know, the bit that finished it up. Explained and closed things out. It, of course, never came and the lights came on. At least in the cinema.’,'I won’t sit here and lie, expressing how – as a 12 year old – I researched into what the movie meant and ‘got it.’ Nope, didn’t happen. But nor did I forget the impact it had on me.

I saw it again at university a few years later in the late 1970s. This was the full show; music playing before the curtains parted and even an interval. Subsequent readings and study gave me some further clues as to what it ‘meant’. These – and my own insights and multiple viewings – have served me quite well in the 20 years since. Until last week that is.

A reading of Leonard F. Wheat’s “Misconceptions about 2001″ article added a whole new level to the thinking.

Wheat is expanding upon ideas in his own book Kubrick’s 2001: A Triple Allegory. I didn’t study the classics nor philosophy, but he explained enough background in the Misconceptions article, that I wasn’t disadvantaged.

To summarize the starting point of the article, Wheat is suggesting that 2001 depicts not one but three allegories. An allegory is a “a surface story whose characters, events, and other elements symbolically tell a hidden story. One story tells another.” (source link: ibid)

(As an aside I’d first hit allegories as a teenager when I “got” what Lord of the Flies was alluding to. A year later I’d “worked out” Animal Farm. )

To summarize Wheat’s opening points, he proposes that the three allegories depicted are:

1. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s work, “Thus Spake Zarathustra”
2. The classical epic poem from Homer , “The Odyssey”, and
3. Arthur C Clarke’s theory (expanded by Kubrick) that man and machine will one day merge into a symbiotic entity, a sort of humanoid machine. (source link: ibid)

I find it fascinating reading. The piece is well written and well argued. I offer no judgements apart from to suggest that you take a look at it for yourself, plus his subsequent “Fresh Insights into 2001″ article. Keep an open mind and I’m sure you’ll find them rewarding.

Firstly give yourself a pat on the back and a kangaroo stamp if you correctly got the song hint.

But it’s the movie that intrigues me. I vaguely recall seeing The Day the Earth Stood Still on some wonky, ripped and rolling video tape. Didn’t quite do it justice. So, the recent chance to see it – in a restored print too – on DVD, was just too much to resist.

This was made the year we hosted our first Olympics. The black and white days of 1956; when other SciFi movies were full of zaps and flashes and saucers and cups full of chilly monsters. In contrast TDTESS has a sensitive alien in the sympathetic lead role. He’s been sent to Earth with a simple message. One which, nearly 50 years on, rings out loudly and more true than ever.

What an intelligent and thoughtful, no…insightful film. Klaatu, we need you! Come back now.

El Mariachi” was a very early film from Robert Rodriguez. He apparently made this for $7,000 in 1992. The title role being played by Carlos Gallardo. As IMDB says “A travelling mariachi (guitarist/singer) is mistaken for a murderous criminal and must hide from a gang bent on killing him.” Mayhem and stylized action and violence follow.’,'It was quite a (cult) hit. Armed with a larger budget he went on to make the semi sequel “Desperado” in 1995. This time Antonio Banderas playing the role of El Mariachi. Salma Hayek lit up the screen as the female lead. Quentin Tarantino and his pal Steve Buscemi were in the cast too.

Semi-sequel?
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Only twice before, in 30 years of going to the movies, has it happened whilst
I was there. The first was during Indiana Jones, when he was faced
with that sword-wielding opponent. Indy seems gone for all money as he is
unarmed. Suddenly he whips out a gun and bang, he shoots the enemy and wins.
The audience spontaneously applauds. Mid-film.

Last night, during a preview of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, it happened again.

Peter Jackson is a cyberweaver. Sure he sets a new benchmark for brilliant
CGI visual effects, but they are interwoven with emotional and involving human
elements. The effects themselves are jaw dropping, but they add to the mix,
rather than dominate. It is CGI in context.
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