fogparty: the dark mamma...

last friday i took beth to see "mamma mia"... and then the other night i went with joe & stu to see "the dark knight". could 2 movies be any different?

a friend commended me for taking beth to a broadway musical/movie; but if truth be known. i enjoyed it. i guess i might as well admit that i also love to watch "so you think you can dance"... and i just joined a facebook group called "why yes, i do frequently burst out in song." it's a sad reality in my life that guarantees eye rolls from my kids... and wife. but i've always been a performer/dancer at heart... even though my body never chose to comply.

i also spent a fair amount of my childhood wearing a dish towel cape clothespinned to my shoulders and trying to fly... but was equally unsuccessful at that!

anyway... everyone kept telling me that heath ledger did an amazing job as the joker. i would agree. but so did meryl streep... and she had to sing while she jumped around!

but in order for a movie to pass the test... beyond great acting jobs, cinematography & sound/music... the story line has got to win me over in some way. not that i always have to agree with where the director took the plot. i guess i'm happiest when it hooks me & takes me to the corner cafe for either a discussion or some laughs with the people who reached into my popcorn tub.

who would have guessed so much could be done with some comic book characters and a bunch of random songs from the 70's?

maybe it's the curse of the reflective mind. i'm always noticing possible meanings... wondering how many of the lines were subtle messages from the director's core or just a fluke of the script. others seem to be able to switch off their minds and just enjoy themselves. i guess that's hard for me... although not impossible.

a few weeks ago when my kids wanted to go see "the love guru", i read up on it and decided that it's a movie they could do without. sure, it's only pg-13... and yes, they hear & get all that stuff already at school. but i fear we've become a society that does just because we can... without thinking through the subtle influence it's having on our perspective.

it all impacts us in one way or another... and not always in bad ways. example: my 3 have grown a bit weary of hearing dad break out into abba songs during our conversations this past week. beth too. i have one response for them all. "why so serious?"

it won't last long though. i was never a big abba fan.

so anyway... here are the "propaganda points" that i singled out from the 2 movies i saw. i'll let you guess which ones go with which movie... as well as debate whether or not they were intentional subliminal back masking.

don't ask your parents to show you pictures of them from the 70's... or to tell you stories. you don't want to know.
people want a world where no one gets hurt except the bad guys.
it's okay not to get married as long as you're both in love.
real heroes become whatever their people need them to be.
kids don't really need dads. they just think they do.
if you're a hero... arrange it so you die young.
just because you're james bond, have an english accent, and get a part in a musical turned movie... it doesn't mean you can sing worth beans.
almost everyone has a price.
there have to be at least 2 gay men in every musical.
bad guys have some good inside of them somewhere... except for the crazy ones.
have lots of sex when you're young. it will all work out in the end.
if you play by the rules... you can never fully win, because evil always cheats.

and don't forget... "the winner takes it all!"