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schlock-luster-video · 5 months ago

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On June 19, 1975, The Yakuza debuted in the United Kingdom.

Here's some new Ken Takakura art

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sylwanin-was-right · 2 years ago

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I know people say the humans of the RDA seem too cartoonishly evil (Quaritch's "shoot that animal over there" line gives this some merit, for example 💀), but if you know like 4 things the American government and CIA has done and kept secret from the public (then fully admitted to later), and how ruthless and exploitive capitalist oligarchs can be against the environment and people, the RDA's evils arent really that far off from reality.

Billionaires and corperations hoard wealth from the masses and are proven to exploit class power dynamics to create monopolies, exploit the poor, kill and suppress worker resistance, and fund massive psy-ops in support of their companies. Capitalism and neo-liberalism erode the morals of those who hoard and perpetually seek out capital because it takes a lack of morality to protect the needs of capital, which is why a dollar is worth more than clean water, air, and even human beings.

Companies fund hits on activists and use police power to violently suppress protests and protect assets to increase profits. CEOs of massive companies and their shareholders openly admit to knowing the environmental destruction of things like plastic and oil, yet open, saturate, and dominate markets to churn out products made from such things (including combustion engine cars and everything plastic) and expand slavery dependent business models to cut costs on production and maximize profits. Monolpolies shape whole economies and structure them to perpetuate production of destuctive, non-renewable products globally.

These neoliberal and capitalist operations of the real world are represented by the RDA's monopoly on unobitanium, a resource Earth relies upon entirely for energy because of market monopolies against alternatives. Its also shown by Earth itself becoming uninhabitable and polluted by consumerism, war, and resource disallocation, and the RDA's exploitaton of benevolent sciences, like xenoanthropology and xenobiology, to open markets for lucrative resources and help preserve the human resources against the Na'vi in diplomatic relations (Grace Augustines school, RDA biologists and lìnguists, etc). Cameron included The Cove inspired scenes of whale hunting and black market trade in AWOW as a specific example of the venture capitalist cruelty and morbidity of whaling, dolphin hunting, and other ocean industries known to cause ecological decay and destruction, which went along his theme of climate change and protecting the oceans.

As for governments, I saw one comment in the Avatar Discord asking how masses of people can be mislead about the violence and failures of such a massively expensive, resource expending project like Pandoran colonization since the visual dictionary revealed that the RDA has been endorsed/funded by several national governments, and all I could think was the blood soaked foerign policy of the U$ federal government and its CIA adjacent NGOs for the past 100 years in the global south, and the CIA's/FBI's ubiquitous and violently successful counter-revolutionary campaigns, psy-ops, and class war operations on domestic soil (like COINTELPRO, "war on drugs", & white supremacist, anti-communist propaganda).

I think its a shame Cameron's "humans vs Na'vi" oversimplified writing overshadows the very accurate portrayal of how reprehensible and morally depraved capitalists/neoliberal governments, companies, and militaries are. Its understandable that a human audience would sympathize with human colonizers trying to seek out ways to keep human life on Earth on life support. And its also understandable for humans to put their species first, since I dont think its necessarily anthropocentric to do so. But Cameron is very explicit in the films about who and what is the enemy and I dont think he means to portray non-humans as "good" and humans as "bad" and indefinitely corrupted.

Although his knowledge and commentary on colonialism, capitalism and imperialosm are very rudimentary (what can you really expect from a rich old white amerikan man lmao), Avatar opens up important conversations about such themes and challenges the audience to ultimately source the root problems on exploitive and destructive systems and ideologies, while supporting actions that would hold those who perpetuate such systems accountabile for their roles in violence and greed. The story isnt about misanthropy but about human accountability, alternatives, and rehabilitation.

Avatar isnt the only story or franchise to expose and criticize the ideologies that led the humans to unsustainable economies, mass destruction, and suppression of alternatives on Earth, and intergalactic search to keep the broken same system going. There are fare earlier and better fictional and non-fictional works exploring these pressing issues told by colonized and Indigenous people that Avatar fans should definitely seek out. Avatar is a palatable yet accessible fictional introduction on conversations many are in the dark about concerning the evils of capitalism, imperialism, and colonialism and the "cartoonishly evil" agents that perpetuate and protect it irl.

#oel.mine #avatar 2 #avatar film #avatar way of water #james cameron avatar #avatar the way of water #avatar 2009 #RDA #avatar spoilers #avatar 2 spoilers #awow spoilers

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brokenmusicboxwolfe · 4 years ago

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From the drafts...

Since I wrote this I’ve told Mom about the movie, something I usually do if the movie isn’t too icky for her. She interupted me to say the heroine reminded her of me. So there you go!

.........

Not too long ago I started a post about how rarely I find characters that I deeply identify with. I never finished it, but then last night I saw saw a movie where I saw “me”!

Alright, the fact that the character is a 13 year old girl with bodies in the cellar is a wee bit odd. I’ll give you that. I’m a middle aged woman with no cellar (the flooded bomb shelter doesn’t count), and not a single body lying around after all.

I mean, unlike her the poison my father left when he died isn’t stored in the dishes cabinet, but now on top of the piano.....though actually I haven’t searched those top shelves in the kitchen, so knowing my family anything could be there. Heck, just yesterday I was puzzling where the luger had gotten to, after seeing one in a movie, and how many folks constantly misplace guns. So now that I think about it, the “deadly weapons always within arm’s reach” vs “discrete little bottle of poison hidden away” makes my home scarier. But then, I’m a hell of a lot older! LOL

Anyway, it’s really the mood that made me identify, not the specifics. The isolation. The dodging of pushy neighbors. The trying to keep up a pretense for the sake of safety. Systems that force you have to navigate things you aren’t set up for, and stirring questions about you. The sense you have no choice but to be self sufficent in a hostile world. The constant dealing with unplanned for problems. Smart and says what she thinks, which provokes hostility or funny looks. The determination to survive however you can. The loneliness.

OMG, of course I saw myself in this!

Just yesterday I was pacing the path between Mom’s house and the pickup a dozen times to beat down the grass enough to look like several people live there while doing my daily switching cars around so no one will no where I was staying that night. My neighbors in town are constantly finding fault with my yard work* while asking incredibly noisy questions about my mother. ** They walk right into the yard in town and steal the pears off the tree in the back yard, I have to survive on a careful spending of money I get from the bank in cash, hoping I can stretch it out a few years. When folks do pay attention there is often an ominious ulterior motive, that while not the molester the girl has to deal with, does require work to fend off. I am almost always alone.

Yeah. So apparently The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane is me! Just me if I was a fraction of my age, dealing with someone intent on sexual assault, had a structurally solid home, and stumbled into a great boyfriend. But otherwise, VERY relatable!

Oh, in case anyone wonders, the movie isn’t full of anything explicit. I know it sounds like it would be an excuse for a lot of icky exploitaton imagery, especially since it was made in the ‘70s, but it really was focusing on character.

(Spoilers)

There is one quick glimpse of one body a pet hamster is killed bloodlessly by the baddie. Even when an actual poisoning occurs on screen we see rge reaction of the poisoner amd not the dying person. Gore is not an issue at all.

There is one utterly gratuitous nude shot of the girl, and though obviously a body double, is rather uncomfortable. Making it clear a couple of comparably aged and experienced teens in love have sex is fine, but creating the illusion that the audience is seeing a 13year old naked when the same scene could happen with less flesh visible is....troubling. The ‘70s really had different attitudes...I hope different anyway.

(End spoilers)

I’m glad I watched it, though I wouldn’t for a second call it a horror film. Of course, that might be the biased perspective of someone that identified disturbingly deeply.

*One person, three houses, and no money or help or power lawn equipment...yeah, it ain’t pretty but the grass is cut so fuck off. I’m working hard to survive and am in constant pain. Offer to help or leave me alone!

**Unlike the heroine of the film, Mom is living with my brother and fine, but the locals won’t take that for an answer.

#movies #the little girl who lives down the lane

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schlock-luster-video · 3 months ago

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Happy Waters Wedenesday Dreamlanders!

Here's this week's new John Waters drawing!

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schlock-luster-video · 4 months ago

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On July 24, 1992, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer debuted in Italy.

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schlock-luster-video · 2 years ago

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On June 4, 2021 Things and Sledgehammer were screened as a double-feature on The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs.

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schlock-luster-video · 2 years ago

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Watch and tweet along during TCM Underground Friday night at 11:15 PM EST! I'll be working on a couple of new fan art pieces inspired by The Beast Must Die! and The Howling!