The Boys from Brazil

I realized this week that every movie that I watch that has violence, provides me with some sort of implicit social commentary on the nature of violence. If this were intentional, it seems like peace would be easier to achieve. If the Hunger Games trilogy is so popular, shouldn't we be seeing a peaceful revolution developing right in front of us? Some part of me thinks it is on the horizon, that somehow generations are being formed that will shift global consciousness towards peace and reconciliation. Or maybe I'm too hopeful for my own good.

Yesterday, I watched Red Dawn (1984), directed by John Milius, and starring a young Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen, and at the end of it felt like I'd watched a commentary on present-day Afghanistan. Young people are driven out into the wilderness during an attack on the US, and they become like cave-dwellers in the mountains, paranoid and hungry, willing to kill anyone who crosses them, even their closest friends. Isolation mixed with fear can produce some pretty nasty consequences.

Today I watched The Boys from Brazil (1978), directed by Franklin J. Schaffner. World War II themes combined with 1970s era South America? It sounds like a recipe for my perfect movie. Also, Steve Gutenberg was pretty hot as a young twenty-something ;) It answers the strange and wonderful question, "Should you kill baby Hitler, if you knew he was Hitler?" Fascinating movie about social engineering and evil intent.

I guess the more violence I see, the more senseless it becomes. Perhaps that's just my special brain working. I don't know any better; it's the only one I've ever had :)

The Hunger Games :)

Why do we want to stop it? I have no idea.

I saw The Hunger Games movie with some friends this summer, and my mind was blown. But of course, as is typically the case, I waited a long time to read the books, mostly because I was so traumatized by the movie. So I had the first book in a pile in my room for six months before I picked it up. Winter break was the perfect time to find motivation to read.

And as is usually the case with these sorts of fads, I ignored them in my "I'm too cool to do what other people do" way, then subsequently loved the entire trilogy. I started aching at the last hundred pages of the first book, knowing that it would be ending soon, and that I didn't have the second one. I ended up reading the second and third books online, which I chose to have no guilt over, considering I could have gotten them from the library.

They were beautiful, and worth every moment I spent reading them. I will probably go back and read them again sometime soon - I loved them that much. It made me feel like a kid again, to get so into a book, so committed to the story. It made me feel like I was carefree and ten years old again, spending days at a time reading, losing sleep, not wanting to stop.

I felt the same way about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. If anyone wants to share another trilogy, or series, that you think I'd love, feel free to send suggestions :)