ProfessorRockstar

It also surprised me how entertaining this movie was. I do think that's important though. If Spielberg doesn't make people want to watch his movie, then he's never going to get his message across. Making something entertaining does not take any gravitas away from it; it just lends another connection to the brain. I wrote another article on how this movie could help writers in case you want to read it. I'm pretty pumped that Amy liked this one: Schindler's List

The thing I appreciate the most about this movie is how it's really a romance and a character piece disguised as a sports movie. Having Rocky not win that big fight is a ballsy intentional move. If he would have won, we might have dismissed the whole thing as just a sports movie, but having him lose and having the last shot be him and Adrian hammers home that the big match is not really what the movie is about. I haven't seen any of the sequels, but from Paul and Amy's recommendation, I'm thinking about skipping right to Rocky Balboa. Inspired by this podcast, I'm going to start writing blog posts about each of these movies and concentrate more on what you can learn as a writer/ filmmaker from each one (an unofficial companion piece to this podcast). Here's the one I just did for Rocky, in case anyone here is a writer or just happens to be curious: Rocky

I'm not. I don't think that she was insinuating that the victims deserved it. I just don't think Kubrick was intending to make the victims unlikeable. In fact, I could imagine him being friends with the penis sculpture woman.

I just don't see how they were portrayed as unlikeable. They didn't want to let Alex in, but what rational person would in that world? Maybe the second woman talked in a bit of a stuffy way, but her artwork proved she wasn't THAT stuffy.

There's a lot more to it than that. The fact that you can get something new out of it with every watch makes it deeper. This last time I noticed all the parallels. Take the writer and Alex. Alex has extreme trauma from music that was associated with violence (Beethoven with the Nazi video). The writer experiences the same thing. When he hears Alex belt out "Singing in the Rain" in the bath it also causes trauma from its violent association. It's little touches like this that adds so much richness to the film. And the movie is saying a lot of things about empathy, indifference, the correlation we make between sex and violence, the justice system, power, free will, revenge. You might not like the art of the movie, but I don't know how anyone can say it's not art. I mean there's a sped up sex scene to William Tell in it! I have less defense for Marilyn Manson, although I'll stand by "Beautiful People" being a great song.

I like a lot of Amy's points she's made about past movies, but I disagree with a couple she made about this one. I don't think it's necessarily Kubrick or the movie that feels bad for Alex. It's Alex who feels bad for Alex. We are very entrenched in his head, which is why his injuries are made to look painful while everyone else's is either non-existent or portrayed as comical. Alex sees himself as a victim, and he expects everyone else to feel sorry for him and even like him (hence him referring to himself affectionately as "your faithful narrator," etc.). This is part of what makes the movie so great: we're forced to take this journey through a really fucked-up mindset, something books sometimes do, but movies so rarely get right. I also don't think his victims were portrayed as unlikable. The two women who didn't want to let Alex in were smart to do so. They know that the streets are running rampant with gangs and cons like this, and the second woman even directed Alex to a place he could get help before calling the police. The only one I throw shade on is the writer for being naive enough to let him in; his wife had much better instincts. I do agree that Kubrick probably empathized with Alex more than a normal person would, but we also know that guy's brain worked like no one else's.

And don't forget Raging Bull for Boxing Day.

Who's with the Heynong Man? Let the uprising begin!

They could do Jaws during shark week. Or 12 Angry Men when the Adnan Syed retrial happens.

I'm a bit confused at how they know the episodes this far in advance. I'm not a dice non-believer or anything, but if they record the episodes the week they release them (evidenced by the fact that they play recordings of people calling-in from that week), and they roll the die at the end of the episode, it seems like they should only know one week in advance.