Author Archives: Will

Time to go mobile

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Convenience is really what drives my part in this consumer media market. Since high school, I could stream my favorite movies and shows to my phone or laptop. I could watch highlights of recent Premier League fixtures on the go. Pandora (before Spotify took over) provided all the music that I could possibly listen to. So then was no need for cable packages or album purchases or DVD collections. Why buy a single physical copy when I could have a version that was available wherever I went?

I don’t see a way forward for broadcasting dinosaurs like ESPN. Its decline in revenue doesn’t surprise me at all because ESPN doesn’t offer anything new other than a steady supply of live sports. I can’t relate its analysis-driven and highlight reel shows which I only seem to view in sports bars these days. Compare ESPN with, say, Netflix. It started out as a Blockbuster of sorts before cornering the streaming market. And over the past few years, Netflix has grown into a supplier of its own original programming whose quality rivals and often surpasses normal series. The freedom from commercial interruptions that Netflix and other streaming services offer has become so normal that I now get annoyed by any delay to my viewing experience. In short, broadcasting has remained stagnant and hasn’t addressed the changes of the times enough to rival the burgeoning streaming services. Until some progress is made towards fixing this issue more giants will stumble.

Imagine the fire

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Is Dr. Strangelove truly an anti-war movie? Sure, it’s one of the famous comedies created since, well, the beginning of movies, but it is unique enough from its contemporaries that I believe this classification invites challenge.

Dr. Strangelove is, at its core, a comedy, meaning that every element is designed to be ridiculous. The characters, from the president to the general, to the pilot in control of the world’s deadliest payload are shockingly incompetent. The higher a person is on the chain of command, the more self-centered and self-serving they are. This approach is veiled by a pseudo-patriotism veiled by a guise of patriotism. Nationalist fervor is used as justification for sacrificing the lives of millions of innocents by the War Council in a move which would save their own lives rather than the country they regularly proclaim allegiance to.

I think the absurdist approach that Dr. Strangelove takes towards war works because, while it lampoons international conflict, it doesn’t completely dismiss the possibility of ingenuine motivations for starting war. I read the warning at the film’s beginning that claimed the events in the movie were impossible as more of an expectation of caricature than the assurance in the stability of the world’s armed forces it was intended to invoke. The disturbing truth is that the decision to start the next world war is completely out of our hands.

Crashing this plane

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I’m not one who is overly familiar with the lore of the world of Mad Max, but this movie served as a standalone without too many references to the larger franchise. I also appreciated how the film didn’t seem “overproduced”  in spite of the many action sequences, with the multitude of stunts serving as a contrast to the CGI-rich action movies of today. Ultimately, I enjoyed Beyond Thunderdome as a return to an older era from the cliches of modern cinema.

In spite of the problems that often occur in movies and TV shows that focus on children in what in clearly a world for adults, Beyond Thunderdome pulled off the parent and kid dynamic. All of them serves to humanize the characters in a way: the reveal that Master Blaster’s symbiosis was intended for survival rather than domination shows off a merciful side in the thug who was presented as a secondary villain to Auntie; Max turns out not to be a callous protagonist in that he grows to care for the stranded children. My one complaint is the complete lack of common sense that the children show is designed to propel the plot rather than result from their naivete.

Myths of opportunity

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This week’s film GATTACA was a look forward into a future ruled by eugenics. The protagonist Vincent, in spite of his curiosity and determination, is fated to never achieve his dream of becoming an astronaut due to an impending fatal heart failure. Rather than accept his doom, he cheats the system, adopting the genetic identity of a “superior being” to rise to the top. While the film chronicles our hero’s journey and warns against the destructive potential of genetic engineering, I also evaluated GATTACA as a critique of the America dream.

Perhaps the most disturbing element of the world that GATTACA depicts is the tacitness of eugenics. As Vincent narrates, it was illegal for employers to select candidates based on their genetic dispositions. However, the existence of technology that could alter one’s genetics ensured this was a factor ubiquitous in the ordering of a society. This parallels the vestiges of legal discrimination that leaves inequalities in today’s educational and economic structure. Additionally, the peak of society, as presented by the film, is lonely and unsatisfying. The subtle conflict between Vincent and Jerome represents this much more effectively than the cliched “clash of brothers” (Anton vs Vincent). Jerome, born with a genetic superiority than many could only dream, is unable to achieve perfection and victory in swimming competitions. His suicide at the end of the film is an admission that Vincent had done something that he never could by achieving his dream. This accomplishment rendered the original Jerome superfluous.

That’s a lovely, lovely voice

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The opera is something that I would have never thought to check out by myself, so I was quick to sign up for this unique opportunity. I quickly picked up on the aesthetics of La Traviata. I felt the play was designed in a minimalist manner to put the focus on the characters. Because there were so few features that caught the eye, every detail selection invited question. Why was Violetta’s dress red? Why did all of the males wear interchangeable tuxedos? What was up with the doctor?

La Traviata forces the viewer to confront his/her own morality in a way that parallels Violetta’s own journey. The courtesan suffers an affliction which is left unnamed as the important detail is that it is ending her life prematurely. Only Violetta and the audience are aware of the clock and Death Incarnate on the stage, while the males dancing in Violetta’s circles are preoccupied with their hedonist lifestyle. This approach contrasts with Violetta’s attempts to escape her fate by turning to love for some independence. When Violetta finally acknowledges the doctor she collapses, perhaps suggesting it was all for vain.

You have been supplied with a false idol

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After my second time watching The Matrix during this Scholars event, I must say the action sequences were just as captivating as they were during my first viewing of the film. Fortunately, I was able to divert some of my efforts from amazement into dissecting the film. And now I question if Neo truly a hero

A cursory study of Neo’s character will reveal he seems to fall within the archetype of The Chosen One seen more commonly in literature; Rand al’Thor and Katniss Everdeen are two such examples. The archetype starts with the Chosen One being whisked away from a simpler life into a grand quest to save the world from a shadowy evil. The individual is guided by an older, wiser teacher more knowledgable in the ways of the world (Morpheus, the god of dreams, guides Neo into the real world. The reason for this selection is some incredible power or potential ability that the Chosen One possesses (Neo’s unparalleled control of the Matrix). During this screening of the movie, I’ve concluded that Neo actually isn’t a Chosen One. Yes, by the end of the film Neo pulls a Gandalf, undergoing a resurrection that changes him from someone special to one possessing God-like abilities over reality as perceived by the rest of the world. But what is his quest?

Neo ends the film with a promise to show the rest of the world that they have been living in a horrifyingly real version of Plato’s cave, that reality as they know is a lie. But what’s his plan after he has freed the oppressed? Humans have razed the Earth, and it would be impossible for this final refuge, Zion, to host all of the freed captives. The much-maligned sequels to The Matrix complicate the hero narrative of the first film with the revelation that Neo is a construct of the system he seeks to free the populace from, a counterpart to restore the balance disrupted by Agent Smith. Is Neo a hero if the future he promises to lead his followers into is worse than the blissful reality they know? Is Neo a hero if he is not the arbiter of free will that he makes himself out to be?

Why are you here?

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This Rose Cafe was deliberately open-ended, which is probably why I’ve struggled to come up with a subject to write on more than the more topical Rose events. We attendees left the event with a challenge to write about what’s important to us. This began a mental exercise that’s turned into a full-fledged reflection of my life as it is.

I’ve started to question my relationships, which though were supposed to be some of the constants of life. I feel relationships are what draw me to certain places. I wanted to work and learn from the best, and so I came to Cornell in the hope that being an alumnus of the Ivy League will set me apart in my career. But even as I continue this pursuit, I wonder what will be its cost. Like most, I’m too far from home to visit with any regularity, departing from campus only for breaks that last a week or longer. And every time I return to the place I called home, it seems more and more unfamiliar. Everything in my childhood home seems so small and delicate. I’m so used to the doors and faucets of Rose House that I accidentally slammed the doors at home shut with a careless push and broke a faucet knob at home with a careless twist. I feel like an intruder too: my dad and mom and younger brother go out of their ways to make me feel “at home” during my brief visits. What it seems I’m doing is interrupting their way of life. Perhaps the truth is that they’ve grown used to their family of three with my sister and me off at college. Perhaps that’s just the way of life.

I’m sure at this point that I’ll be spending the summer away from home, so there won’t be a period of three months like there was after freshman year to allay my fears. Fortunately, the approaching spring break provides an opportunity to discuss this issue vis-à-vis and abandon this fatalistic outlook on life.

Admirable, but mistaken.

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This Rose Cafe focused on one of the more relevant topics of the day, the political troubles of the nation. I’m glad that the Cafes make a deliberate effort to remain relevant, no matter how controversial the subject. Though the event’s headliner was an expert in government and politics, the focus remained on providing a forum for students to share their thoughts and opinions. One of the more salient points of the talk was the inability to accept nuances in the political views of others. Instead, people are split into diametrically opposed political camps which can be internalized although most possess views on both sides of the political spectrum. As genuine as this attempt was, I question the real value of such discourse. It was only after another student brought it up that I realized the views shared merely echoed each other, that a tacit code was guiding the conversation. It shouldn’t surprise me that this microcosm was as homogeneous as the college political culture can be, but how can real change occur if the dialogues we participate in are reactionary in nature?

Let the games begin!

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Last week I bore witness to America’s greatest sporting event, the annual Super Bowl. It lived up to the sporting hype, offering a spectacle that kept me glued to the screen. Yet as I watched, I found myself dwelling more on the business side of the sport rather its athletic aspect. The conversation before the big occasion focused on the financial side of football: the declining viewership of the NFL over the past year and the cost and value of Super Bowl commercials. As I watched the Patriots return from the abyss to record another championship, I wondered if my belief in the underdog was wishful thinking for a time when money did not breed success. Is it truly a surprise that the league second-most valuable franchise defeated its 19th; that the team with four previous Super Bowls defeated the team with none?