Movie: "Equilibrium"

Watched "Equilibrium" (with Christian Bale) the other night. I was expecting something really bad, but it turned out to be pretty good. More and more I think the differences between a good movie and a bad movie are pretty small. Mostly it comes down to the good telling of a story. The story itself may be insignificant, but if it is well told, it is still enjoyable. Some movies get criticised for shoddy props, but if the audience is engaged in the story, the props don't really matter. Is the storyteller able to maintain a certain level of tension? If all the tension goes out of a story, the audience falls away, and all the great cinematography in the world can't save it. I am convinced that music can make or break a movie. Play sinister music and the pleasant scene in the world becomes fraught with risk. Play happy music and the darkest dungeons can become carefree playgrounds. I have often wondered if someone could take some of these box office disasters and edit them into something wonderful. Just pick and choose from the scenes that are already filmed and see if you could do a better job of telling the story.

Recently I read a translators note about translating written Chinese to English. His idea was to absorb the ideas indicated by the pictographs, and then to render the English version to the best of his ability. While many people may be able to "read" and understand written Chinese, each persons translation of it will be different according to their abilities and the way they perceive the world.

Likewise, different people given a batch of film clips, will arrange them in different ways to tell the same story. I wonder what I could do if given the opportunity.

But back to the movie. I think this might be a pro-war film. The premise is that everyone takes a drug that suppresses strong emotions, it makes people more even tempered, and this prevents crime and war. All people are good little citizens, as defined by powers that be. Of course, the powers that be are totally corrupt, and not everyone is a good little citizen. Matter of fact there is a sizable police force devoted to tracking down and executing "sense" criminals, people who are not taking their emotion suppressing drugs, i.e. people who are enjoying life. These people make up a sizable underground, so naturally we have many gun battles. We also have something called "Gun Fu" which is the art of fighting with handguns. The elite few who have mastered this technique are nearly invincible. Great stuff.

Reminds me China and Japan which enjoyed long periods of peace but suffered from stagnation. People often comment on how polite the Japanese and Chinese are, and I wonder if this is not an outgrowth of having eliminated all the troublesome members of their society. That is how they achieved peace and stagnation, they got rid of everyone who ever thought about making trouble. Contrary-wise, that is why America is so violent and dynamic. We have collected all the worlds troublemakers under one sky.