movies (Page 12 of 31)

War of the Worlds was pretty good, more doomy than Independence Day. Here is my interpretation of some symbolic elements.

* When the initial alien tripod prepared to rise from beneath the street, the cracks spreading into adjacent buildings first went into a business, then into a church and destroyed them both. So first falls economy, then religion. The church was split right in half and the spire came crashing down.

* As mentioned above, the tripods were buried for millions of years and needed only energy and a pilot to activate. So the control infrastructure has been put into place for a very long "time" and now only requires the alien controllers to step in and take the reigns. For instance, nonhuman tyrants can easily step in once the human elite have established a global totalitarian order.

* Basements were key to survival. They are underground, shielded, hidden. Individually they symbolize the subconscious mind, and collectively they indicate areas of activity hidden from mass perception. So staying stealth and out of sight would be key to surviving the real thing. And it would be those who are caught up in their ego-rampant conscious minds (surface level) who go nuts and buckle, while those who dig deep into themselves can find the strength and protection needed.

* The aliens invaded the basement as well. At one point the characters were dashing about avoiding getting seen by the eye. Whatever used to be safe and out of sight becomes unviable. When no place was left to hide, the held up a mirror and hid behind it, the alien eye on one side of the mirror and they on the other side. Being on the other side of the looking glass I think is a reference to shifting out of this dimension when there's no place left to hide in 3D.

* A plane falls from the sky and its huge engine crashes upon the house where the main characters were hiding out. Reminds me of Donnie Darko, there a jet engine also crashes into a house.  Planes represent the pinnacle of mainstream human technology, the ability to fly, and the engine is what propels it into the sky, so perhaps the pride of human technological superiority comes crashing down in the face of more powerful forces in the unvierse, like Icarus falling when the Sun melts his wings.

* The media and camera guy were as callous in the movie as in real life. I would expect them to be just as shallow and bobbleheaded in whatever our planet endures in the coming decades.

* Oglevy (sp?) the survivalist nut gets clobbered when he freaks out. Shows that the extremists who think they can fight oppression the ol' third density way are fools who end up causing more harm than good when their idealism snaps under the weight of reality. He was helpful, but ended up being harmful. Also, it's ironic that his running away from the promise of death by aliens led to him receiving death by a fellow human.

* Oglevy criticizes the Cruise character in regards to becoming an alien pet, being fed and trained by the aliens just to survive. Yeah, there will always be those who seek safety in conformity and submission.

* In the end it was microbes that killed the aliens, bacteria harmless to humans because mankind had already suffered a billion deaths by disease to earn that immunity. Water was referenced three times in regards to the bacteria, in the beginning, end, and when the alien drank from the water pipe in the basement. Water seems to symbolize higher emotions, truth, that which sustains life. Blood seems to symbolize the lower energies that drive mortal passions. Thus aliens drinking blood but getting sick from the bacteria primarily in the water. Something about the environment, meaning the planetary realm in the future, weakens the controllers. I think it has to do with soul frequency, because it's through suffering the trials of learning experiences that one's frequency rises to new heights.

I can see how this movie, if interpreted a certain way, might prophecy some of our probable futures. Everything from the fall of our economy and religion to the restoration of order by tyranny, to survivalists cracking while others submit enthusiastically to the controllers, to how the hardier spirits find strength from within and run all they can until their only means of escape involves shifiting beyond this dimension, to the controllers being disempowered by changing realm/frequency conditions. Just my interpretation though.

I saw War of the Worlds over the holiday weekend.  I liked it.  I'd seen the original and I liked that one too.  Pretty gory tho - keep the little kids away I'd say. 

What a concept - the aliens didn't count on the bugs and viruses that we have adapted to over the past million years.   Hummmm.  Could that be why there are no landings per se now?  Imagine, traveling to a new world, seething with life, and not being able to go onto it as it is filled with incomprehensible death.  Yet, the inhabitants seem to thrive (at least for a short period of time).

I'm also pretty certain that the plane was a British Airways plane. If I'm right then I'm sure there must be some significance to that.

Yes, I've read that Spielberg said that the feeling of "horror" that he was going for was based on what happened after the  9/11 attacks..  A specific example from the movie is when people were looking at a wall of pictures of loved ones who were lost or missing.

Well, I just watched War of the Worlds and it scared the Sith out of me! I don't enjoy scary movies, but I do like thrillers.

This however, was a real harvester. Makes you wonder what's a hangin' around when horror movies are playing at the multiplex.

On a ps sidenote:

I thought some more about why this particular scene made my nerves stand on end, and I realized it's because I was reminded of what we went through when we had to evacuate Florida because of Hurricane Frances.  Something like 2 million people were on the roads trying to get out as Frances churned offshore, 2 days away, the size of the entire state.   What I saw then in just an evacuation situation made me realize just how bad it can and will get in a real catastrophe.   And I don't mean a situation like 9/11, I mean a situation where people are literally trying to escape something and ensure their own survival.    It can get ugly.   It truly brings out the worst in those people who are so inclined (STS).  Things I remember seeing:

- My car was overheating (it was overheating the entire trip, but that's another story) and when I went to pull over into the weeds on the side of the road the guy in front of me thought I was going to drive in the weeds to cut in front of him -  so he honked wildly, swerved over to block my car and just went ballistic in general.  I was so pissed, like you fricking IDIOT, my car is breaking down!!!!  I'm not trying to cut in front of you!!  Idiot Idiot Idiot!!!!!!!

- In this vain there were what I called "Vigilantes" that we encountered the entire way who took it upon themselves to block people from using the break down lanes to travel in.   The would literally swerve in front of cars to prevent them from getting ahead of them in the traffic jam.  The mentality was "If I'm going down, then you're going down too, asshole, f*ck you." 

- Every time I would try to get back on the highway after pulling over to let the car cool down people would go ballistic and try to block me from getting back on.   The mentality being "I don't want even ONE more car in front of me, f*ck YOU!!!!"    I devised a plan so that either me or Tom would force our way in first, then leave the space open for the other to get in.   Oh, the cars would honk in rage when we did, let me tell you.   

- When pulled over at pretty much the one and only rest stop on the entire turnpike, my car hood was up as my car cooled down.   A total jerk ambled over, glanced in at my engine, then looked at me with a smug smirk, "Bad time to be breaking down."   Then he sauntered off with his big pot belly.   I glared at him, shocked at the callousness of it.   Either offer help.....or just keep quiet.   But why the need to gloat with the "Glad it ain't happenin' to me" mentality?

That's the general gist.  There was more, but you get the idea.   I figure if people are that crazy just being in an evacuation traffic jam I can only IMAGINE what people would be like in a worse situation.

Some interesting tidbits from that Willy Wanker movie:

The oompa-loompas are all genetically alike, like clones.  I think that Willy Wonka is supposed to signify Lucifer in this new one, and the little oompys are grays or some such.  They desire the coco bean, which is portrayed as the physical creation... I think.  (Interesting enough, they have WW on their chests, which is 23-23, the number each parent contributes to an offspring.)

The elevator seems to be some sort of reference about trans-dimensional travel.  Chocolate could be representing physical creation.  His factory I'm assuming is some strange dimension or the journey of life.  Violet getting "juiced", which was possible because of all the energy she spent trying to be the "best", as in "loosh".

I missed the everlasting gobstopper part of the story.  It really reminded me of God handing out souls and the Devil trying to get them for a price.  In the original, Charlie basically hands his soul back to its creator and this is what propels him to the next level in Wonka's elevator.

Wonka's father comes off as being God and Lucifer the rebelling child finally understanding the value of love or compassion or laws, and gaining a new connection with humanity, which had been lost by the people stealing his ideas and using it for their own gain.  In the original, there wasn't this Lucifer type connection with Wonka as far as I know.

All in all, a movie about habits that lead to us being led away to being harvested or thrown in the rubbish heap or some other fate other than what is ultimately possible.

Just a quick analysis of the movie.  Of course, I could be wrong on all of this.

As an aside, the movies are one of the few places where the crowds really bug me.  Really makes it apparent how seperate I am from the common person.  I really have to basically tone myself down and just be empty while dealing with people these days.  Not that that's bad, and it used to be lonely and aggravating, but now it's just seems like I'm around children or like I'm living in a zoo with a bunch of animals.  I guess it just isn't very rewarding unless you approach them with the right frame of mind, but it's still a chore.  At least they're better than those who think they have a clue and give you this holier-than-thou or just plain rude attitude, like they're better or smarter and they have to remind everyone else how dumb they are by treating you like you're just a plain idiot, which actually shows that they haven't learned a whole lot anyway.  Ah, well.