Last night, at the Montreal Fantasia Film Festival I was priveleged to see the Canadian premiere of another such Nicholas Cage film, THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE.
The Story , replete with well known Memes , amongst them that of the Messianic Chosen One, and of course the archetypal battle between Good and Evil, offers many rich overtones--There was some humour,the script had some snappy dialogue , there were some excelent special effects ---and a small but ever so Pleasing appearance by Monica Bellucci---as paramour of the Sorcerer, in a somewhat different type cast than she was as Magdalen in the Passion of the Christ.
The Villain pair (played by the duo of Alfred Molina and Tony Kebbel ) were deliciously slimy---and acceptably Urbanely evil --- studiously and willfully banal without being trivial.
One of our very own Montreal residents Jay Baruchel plays the role of the Apprentice--( he popped in to say an excited and somewhat nervous hello to the crowd and to show that his new found fame had not erased his fondness for this city and for the Fantasia film festival--- see : http://www.fantasiafest.com/blog/fantasia-festival/video-opening-night-sorcerers-apprentice-with-jay-baruchel )
In the wake of the Harry Potter phenomenon this film may disappoint some viewers..But for me it offered much of what I hunger for in entertainment---including a good ending: After all, there is enough doom and gloom in our daily news for us to stoke our existential Blues-Fires.
Today I read about the somehat uncomfortable stuation of an Iranian Woman, who after being given 99 whip lashes for adultery still protests her innocence and is to be executed nonetheless , as the judgment of a male council of elders is un-appealable ( though in a characteristic attempt to banalise the evil to be perpretrated the Iranian government has agreed in a nod of ironic open mindedness that she shall not be stoned to death as was the original sentence commandment, but simply hung ). I also read about our own Montreal Activist Jaggi Singh , who has been imprisoned with several other protesters of the G-8 and G-20 conferences ,accused with conspiring to cause mischief and property damage --As though the summits were not in themselves huge conspiratorial attempts to destroy our common property and to do other unspoken and unspeakable economic mischief, hidden behind well intentioned hollow promises -- both summits are symbols of much that is so not going well in our world and of our apparently futile efforts to repair it . Also I read about the stabbing of a septuagenarian and two other people in a Bar in Montreal ---and about the Canadian governments involvment in weaponising anthrax in the second world war--- and that is just a surface glance and the ills that are constantly afflicting us.
The faintest possibility that perhaps, just perhaps ,despite everything that happens around us every single day , every SINGLE MINUTE of every day, as we reach the end of the first decade of the begining of the Third Millenium of our our calendar ,a calendar which which began, stories tell us , with the birth of a great Sage --The merest FAINTEST possibility that , perhaps, despite everything that is horrid, horrific, vile and yes, EVIL, within us and outside of us --- that we all have , the capacity to COMBAT this tendency , however one labels it or portrays it--. This,PERHAPS , This humanist hope that we are not entirely determined by forces out of our control, be they Gods or Demons , and that we can influence the world around us,not merely manipulate it , but form it and shape it ,this PERHAPS is worth nourishing---
This was the message I retained from my viewing of this production , or to put it in in different terms :
IT'S ALL ABOUT ENERGY!! and about how we direct it.
In our messy bungling way we are we not all aware of this ?---British Petroleum knows it, The Atomic Energy Commission of Canada knows it, Hydro Quebec knows it---- surely the merest of mortals such as myself should have a glimmer of awareness of this PERHAPS energy ...
So Of course it is a no-brainer---Why even bother talk about it ??---
Because we forget that not all energy is petro dollars or hydro electric---The specific inner energy which may be our one unique signature and which perhaps gives us the capacity to Reason and hence to sometimes overcome desires and our envious destructiveness...to be Human without necessarilly abandonning our connection to nature ----
So I shall continue dreaming--I shall continue hoping --- I shall continue wishing-- (MY VERY OWN WISHES ; EVEN IF WHEN I HEAR THEM VOICED BY POLITICIANS I FEEL DECEIVED AND CHEATED ) ---- and I shall SO try to not let my desires cloud my judgment ---
True, the Disney & Bruckheimer view of the world seems unreal, and cynics and critics alike will excoriate and splatter such 'nice' stories as THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE with the vitriolic acid of disappointed anger and failure --- But Being dismissive is one of the favourite methods of putting down anything that attemps, even in the most simple way, to enrich human life in an immaterial way-- and as our protagonist says at one point :
OOH - This is Highschool all over again !!!
---The film is perhaps meant for a younger audience--But we are all kids--and the film is , if nothing else , a small reminder for us all : Humanity IS in High school---- we have many classes to attend , many lessons to learn and many Bullies to defend ourselves against---and many efforts ( as well as failures ahead ) to prevent our becoming the Bullies...
The sometimes bungling and loveable Hero Apprentice has a quality which the older and wiser Sorcerer appreciates and remarks on :
You are a LOUSY liar--I like that about you !!
Would that we could all be bad liars---and also so good at detecting bad lies--- we would be in a much different world,perhaps more difficult to accept and more hurtful in some ways --- but much less ambiguous and ambivalent --- AND MUCH LESS CONFUSING...
Seriously---I am all for fewer bullets and flesh tearing bombs and well directed electrifying BALLS of possibly Enlightening Lightning--- and I don't mean Tasers--- If it were possible to influence thought and displace objects (or malevolent enemies) by pointing a finger or Wand and Zapping --- what a Wonderful World it would be !
Oh--but i forget---it seems that if Good Wizards have such Powers so, inevitably , do the Others --- Will the Arms Race N-EVER end ?
ooooh well-- enough said... better end this page and move on---
