View From The Porch: If the purpose of a movie trailer is to pique curiosity...

Thursday, March 17, 2011

If the purpose of a movie trailer is to pique curiosity...

...then this one worked unbelievably well. I can't not see this movie.

(H/T to Ben Whitmer.)

33 comments:

skidmark said...: Thanks for telling me about this. It does look like a DVD purchase needs to be made.

stay safe.; 9:16 AM, March 17, 2011
Turk Turon said...: Must see!; 9:29 AM, March 17, 2011
Phillip said...: That was weird... I saw this post in Google Reader, and the video was The Kinks playing Lola live in concert. I clicked over here to see if I was missing something, and there's a totally different video here. Oddness.; 9:29 AM, March 17, 2011
North said...: Wow.

I thought this would be a war movie with Charlie Sheen in it or something.

I do macrophotography as a hobby. (I have pics over at my blog) I see it as therapeutic. I've taken a couple of pictures that I think turned out well. I like the change of scale, the ability to make the viewer feel like they have shrunk.

But this - I think this is incredible for so many reasons. I can't even articulate the effect on me of what I saw.

Thank you, Tam, for sharing this.; 9:31 AM, March 17, 2011
Wyoh said...: I just want to know if the shitbirds who beat the crap out of him got their asses handed to them in any meaningful, hopefully ass-pounding way.; 9:45 AM, March 17, 2011
Orwell's Ghost said...: He has a blog at http://www.marwencol.com/ and a Facebook page. The level of realism is just amazing. This is a DVD buy for sure.; 10:28 AM, March 17, 2011
Tam said...: Wyoh,

That's one of the reasons I want to see the movie.; 10:29 AM, March 17, 2011
RevGreg said...: Pre-ordered from Amazon...looks to amazing to not watch and seems worth tossing some money at.; 10:55 AM, March 17, 2011
John Venlet said...: Piqued!; 12:36 PM, March 17, 2011
Robert Langham said...: How about those human beings?; 12:37 PM, March 17, 2011
Tam said...: Robert Langham,

I'm sayin'!

We're a pretty fascinating bunch at times. :); 12:44 PM, March 17, 2011
eeky said...: Another thanks from me too, Tam.; 1:02 PM, March 17, 2011
Keads said...: Preordered at Amazon, thanks Tam!; 1:13 PM, March 17, 2011
Anonymous said...: Well no kidding. I'm in.

Jim; 2:23 PM, March 17, 2011
LauraB said...: AMAZING. Startling. Darling. Link appreciated and pre-order ordered.; 2:32 PM, March 17, 2011
Ancient Woodsman said...: That was groovy on so many levels. Thanks for sharing.; 4:23 PM, March 17, 2011
Diogenes said...: whoa! Too cool. gotsta see that.; 7:55 PM, March 17, 2011
loren said...: I so hope the sarcasm button was engaged in the above posts, cause if it ain't I'm going to edit the bookmarks tab. Guess I should know but I've been living overseas a lot and starting to disengage from modern American dialog. Well that and I'm over sixty and starting to think most everybody under 40 is seriously fucked in the head.; 7:56 PM, March 17, 2011
Tam said...: loren,

Sometimes people find different things interesting.

(And don't go to Japan or Korea, where these action figures come from. And for Vishnu's sake, don't Google "otaku"...); 8:24 PM, March 17, 2011
loren said...: Tam,
Been to Japan-lots. Like it there and the people are great, but some of the stuff they get up to is ......well........real fucked...as is any adult who plays with action figures. Some budding SiFi directors excepted.
Course I suppose mutilating dolls could be considered harmless, just as porn (perhaps) keeps sex deviates off the street.
ps; One of the favorite mainstream pastimes for Japanese men besides reading comic books and getting plastered each and every night is visiting establishments that feature girls dressed in short school uniforms sans knickers.
Hope that one doesn't catch on in the US.; 8:45 PM, March 17, 2011
Ken said...: That's (redacted) brilliant. Have to see it. Have to.; 10:09 PM, March 17, 2011
Jenny said...: Am I misunderstanding the preview?

'Cause what I'm taking from it is a Mitty-esque "redrawing my life in toys, so that I can pretend my problems are a result of heroic military service instead of punk kids breaking my body."

Meaning... it just strikes me as kind of sad. Not to downplay what he went through - I certainly wouldn't want his lot - but his outlet seems to be shooting a mite low for his abilities.

That said, he's skilled at what he does... and I've enough weird distractions of my own that I've no room to throw stones. :p; 10:18 PM, March 17, 2011
Keads said...: Jenny- "it just strikes me as kind of sad".

Yes. After going to the website and reading reviews of the movie I can also say that in addition to sad I can add unnerving, somewhat creepy, and unsettling.

Having said that I can also stand in awe of the fact that he can tell you how many actual miles and scale miles he puts on the vehicles to obtain a realistic look. 1/6 scale is something I have not tried, but for me simply getting realistic ballast on model railroad tracks is a chore. The photographs are amazing on the website regardless of the content.

As you point out we all have our "weird distractions". Besides, how normal are many of our talented artists?

The very fact that the simple trailer evoked emotion from me is good enough for me to watch it.; 10:48 PM, March 17, 2011
Anonymous said...: Jenny - Meaning... it just strikes me as kind of sad. Not to downplay what he went through - I certainly wouldn't want his lot - but his outlet seems to be shooting a mite low for his abilities.

Interesting point; I hadn't considered it from that perspective.

I am reminded of the book Shook Over Hell (Harvard University Press, 1997). The author, Eric Dean, was interested in the reports of PTSD among Vietnam vets and wondered if US vets from earlier wars had experienced it but it had simply not been diagnosed / reported. He studied the medical records of Indiana vets of the Late Unpleasantness and BINGO!

Sorry for the long-winded intro, but one story Dean uncovered stuck in my mind: a Hoosier had been a prisoner at Andersonville. After he returned home, he built a scale model of the camp, perfect in every detail, in his back yard. He would drag visitors out to look at it and wander around it for hours by himself. Mental trauma does some very strange things to people.; 10:52 PM, March 17, 2011
wrm said...: Dejah Thoris! W000t!; 5:27 AM, March 18, 2011
Tam said...: Jenny,

I would have used "poignant" instead of "sad".

It was evoked a witches brew of feelings I'm not used to experiencing at the same time "pity" "poignant" "weird" "funny" "neat"... I dunno. Like I said, it piqued my curiosity.; 8:25 AM, March 18, 2011
Ben said...: The kind of works that evoke strong and contradictory emotions, those are my favorite kind, for sure. Also, I read a review somewhere -- I forget where -- that said there's a strong tension created by the way its directed. At times, it almost seems like the filmmakers are making fun of him. Which, y'know, is a whole other question: how do you represent something like this?

And another question I keep thinking about (and I'm not really asking -- sorry, just rambling): if this reaction to that kind of brutality is sad, poignant, silly, whatever, then what is an adequate reaction?; 9:03 AM, March 18, 2011
Ben said...: I kept thinking of the documentary about R. Crumb that came out 15 years or so back. That one had me in the fetal position under the table. Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s65nqtHEOtg; 9:12 AM, March 18, 2011
Tam said...: Ben,

I think we'd all like to think that we'd respond to getting our head kicked in with a quick Training Montage to "Gonna Fly Now" and then go seek bloody vengeance, or that we'd use our recovery time to learn we are really a fabulous painter or musician.

That seems to happen a lot more often in fictional movies than in documentaries, however...; 9:21 AM, March 18, 2011
Ben said...: Yeah, absolutely. Awhile back I was reading the first memoir by crime writer James Ellroy. His mother was raped and murdered when he was a boy, and he has -- in his own words -- contructed an entire life and career out of obsessing about her and exploiting her. He said something like that if he had one wish it would be to find the guy who invented the term "closure" and jam a plaque up his ass. (I'm probably not getting that quite right, but you get the idea.); 9:35 AM, March 18, 2011
Ben said...: Entirely off the topic, but Ellroy was also asked once why the Kennedys had yet to sue him, since he wrote a a couple of novels presenting them in a less than favorable light.

His response: "If the Kennedys protested everything that was written about them, they’d be in court all day, every day, and they’d have no time to get drunk and rape women."; 9:44 AM, March 18, 2011
paul in mordor said...: "....and for Vishnu's sake, don't Google "otaku"..."

Why? Why didn't I listen?? Why?

I will never again NOT listen to your warning.; 10:35 PM, March 18, 2011
North said...: Well. That was a very interesting movie. It took turns I didn't expect, but were not a surprise.; 9:29 PM, April 18, 2011