Liam –

Was the Hurt Locker better than Avatar?

December 14, 2010 By Liam Leave a Comment

Jeremy Renner in the Hurt Locker.

Some scientists believe that six is definitely a bigger number than three. Yes, it is understandable that for some this is hard to comprehend, but it is true. It is simple math. During the 82nd Academy Awards of 2010, the Hurt Locker by Kathryn Bigelow (she’s the one that made Point Break) proved that six is a bigger number than three.

To put someone in a “hurt locker” is to physically mess someone up, badly. It is roughly associated with causing someone “a world of pain”. According to the movie’s official web site: “In Iraq it is soldier vernacular to speak of explosions as sending you to “the hurt locker”. The Hurt Locker threatens us with “hurt” throughout the duration of the movie – and delivers – in a stylish, gritty and exciting package.

Set in modern day Iraq, the film explores a bomb disposal squad’s descent in to what appears to be madness, led by their adrenaline addicted squad leader Staff Sergeant William James (Renner), whose recklessness in action borders on the insane.

With awards such as Best Achievement in Directing, Editing, Sound, Sound Editing, Best Picture and Best Writing/Screenplay under its belt – and nominations in virtually every category available – the Hurt Locker proved that going 3D is not a necessary commodity to make a classic movie.

Like Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 and the lesser-known sci-fi project Primer by Shane Carruth; Kathryn Bigelow – director of the Hurt Locker – proved that a massive budget isn’t necessary to make a good movie. Costing only $15million dollars to make it seems utterly dwarfed by: you’ve guessed it … Avatar. Costing in excess of $300million, James Cameron’s latest adventure would surely give The Hurt Locker a run for its money.

James Cameron with Sigourney Weaver on the set of Avatar.

Avatar had been in production ever since early humans discovered tools and fire. Throughout the Renaissance as the script developed and technologies became available, Cameron’s dream child started to grow legs. Several millennia had passed before the first stills appeared of Cameron himself wielding some massive bastard of a gun; we knew already that this was going to be a big film. The biggest film ever in fact: in the history of the world according to the hype.

The story, however; goes as follows: disabled man takes on job on mysterious hostile planet. Man uses a Navii Avatar to move around the environment where he meets and falls in love with a native Navii (much like the avatars on xbox live, but with more spears … and weapons … and problems.) It is all very spectacular, but it has been seen before. Our main character Sully turns against the evil humans and helps save the Navii. An extremely happy ending indeed that washes over the audience in an awesome wave.

It’s pretty much The Smurfs meets Dances With Wolves, with some of the best visuals witnessed in the history of cinema. It’s a conflicting film that keeps its audience feeling satisfied, yet confused and angry. Here’s why…

Having waited several years for Avatar to smash out of the screens and in to the audience’s face, we were expecting a miracle. We were expecting James Cameron to deliver “the” movie; the one that helps us get away from all the straight-to-dvd, Robert Pattinson jerk fests: the very same guy who does to movies what Prison Warden Percy Wetmore does to Eduard Delacroix in the Green Mile. In short, he gets royally screwed over.

The point being is that for a film to win best film selection at the Academy Awards, it has to be a film of substance, not just ground breaking visuals. As cool as they are in Avatar, they are sometimes not enough to win best picture. The Academy Award for Best Motion Picture is considered the most important of the Academy Awards and as it’s the final award presented; directing, acting, and writing efforts put forth for a film are all considered. This is why Avatar did not win.

To bundle Avatar in to the ‘experimental film’ section would be wrong. It was truly 3D, not like My Bloody Valentine, a film that uses 3D only as a gimmick. A poor, “why-did-I-spend-my-money-on-this?” style gimmick. Bigelow’s Hurt Locker involved the audience through tension and reality, masterfully exploring the depths of human emotions brought on through war. The opening title, an excerpt from American war journalist Chris Hedges’ book, War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning reads: “The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug.” An addiction so potent, we would be led to believe that the lead character is completely insane.

As well narrated as Avatar is, it is the story alone that makes it flawed. Unlike trying to defuse a bomb in the sweltering heat of Iraq, Avatar doesn’t leave us wondering what might go off. Throughout the Hurt Locker we are presented with the days left in the unit’s cycle, an addition that leads us to believe something bad is going to happen – a count-down timer – like a roadside bomb grinning at you before exploding in your face, completely ruining your day.

The Hurt Locker is as gritty piece of film. While Avatar feels fresh and clean, with its otherworldly colour schemes and studio perfect lighting Hurt Locker feels sand-blasted, coarse and realistic. Understandably, the whole point of Avatar is to take us to another world, to a different reality, brought to us through the power of silky smooth high-def projections; but it is the Hurt Locker’s realism that makes it a more powerful film. There are men like this risking their lives daily. On screen, it makes for harrowing, intense and dramatic story.

Yes, Avatar is purely sci-fi, a completely different genre of film altogether from Hurt Locker. Surely this would invoke outrage: that a sci-fi film has been compared to a war film. Some would even go as far as saying this is a mockery. Well, it essentially is. Avatar’s story line was predictable, and most importantly, lame; full of lack luster and all the makings of a great episode of the Smurfs. Avatar needed only to be less predictable. Of course Sully (Worthington) was going to weave his way in to the Navii lifestyle. Of course he was going to save the day by harnessing the power of that great big bastard of a flying beast that everyone was so scared of and of course Sully would become one of the good guys in the end, leaving his dead-legged body behind for a considerably taller and bluer Navii body. Suitably bored by this turn of events, one would be hard pressed to find anything tedious in Bigelow’s desert warfare classic, unless you do not like war films…or Bigelow’s sense of direction.

Avatar is Cameron’s baby as some would put it, and for what it’s worth he has done a fantastic job as always. Jim Cameron has created some of the most entertaining cinema ever brought to our screens. The Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgment Day … Titanic was okay despite the ever-present danger that is Bill Paxton (Twister). He also created Aliens, sequel to Ridley Scott’s Alien – a film considered in some circles to be the only sci-fi film that actually works in scaring its audience – whereas Aliens is a balls to the wall action/infestation romp. Not like The Fourth Kind, which generally fails as a film.

Like Titanic for example – the film with most Oscars under its belt at the 70th Academy Awards – for many, it was not the best film of choice. Cameron’s Avatar – as visually amazing as it was – lacked story and substance, leaving many of its audiences shifting in their seats, wondering when the hell it was going to end. The Hurt Locker proved that massive blockbuster images, seemingly endless budgets and a 3D perspective are not needed to progress cinema or win awards. The audience didn’t need to wait for a plot twist that never arrived or hang around for an inevitable story structure to unfold.

You are left exhausted and exhilarated by the balls-to-the-wall intensity of the Hurt Locker, not tired, angry and hungry. Its six Academy Awards are a testament to classic film-making. As ground breaking as Avatar is, 3D format does not mean all films made this way are going to be better than hardcore front-line filming. Truth hurts.

Filed Under: Entertainment, Features Tagged With: 3D, avatar, District 9, James Cameron, Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker, The Smurfs

Waltz With Bashir.

December 14, 2010 By Liam Leave a Comment

by Liam Wilson

What only can be described as a provocative and visually stunning picture, director Ari Folman has created a genre of innovative and often devastating scenes in the recently released, ‘Waltz With Bashir’.

Taking four years to complete, Waltz begins in 2006 with Ari meeting with a friend from the armed service period, who tells him of his recurring nightmare connected with his experiences from the 1982 Lebanon War. Folman is somewhat surprised that he cannot remember anything from this time. The conversation invokes a hallucinogenic flashback where Ari sees himself on the night of the massacre, a 19-year-old soldier emerging from the sea walking ashore underneath a flare-lit night sky. The reality of which, he is unable to explain.

The film follows Ari in his conversations with friends, a psychologist and the famous reporter Ron Ben-Yishai who was in Beirut at the same time, intrigued by his riddle, in a search of self-discovery, trying to piece together the complex puzzle scattered in his mind. What was he involved in, or not involved in.

He needs to discover the truth about that time and about himself. As Ari delves deeper and deeper into the mystery, his memory begins to creep up in surreal images.

Folman’s new film belongs to a rare yet exceptional style of film known as the “animated documentary”. The first recognized example of this is Windsor McKay’s 1918 12-minute-long, ‘The Sinking of the Lusitania’. which uses animation to describe and show the sinking of the Lusitania after it was struck by German U-Boat torpedoes in 1915.

To many, ‘Waltz With Bashir’ is how the recently released ‘Max Payne’ should have been shot, often delving into the surreal plains of film-noir, a style so relevant, it helps portray the confusion, flashback and uncertainty of the entire conflict so flawlessly. The animation style of the movie is a perfect tool to convey the tricks and survival mechanisms of the mind and memory, scening somewhat lurid, distorted and chemically enhanced colour schemes, adding to the already sombre tone of the conflict.

One such scene, described by a character in the film as place “tripped out on LSD”, is so vivid and tangible, one can almost smell the decay and feel the anguish and confusion felt by the soldiers. The sky lit up in deep yellow, pulsating with the trees amidst the ruin.

The film’s art director and illustrator, David Polonsky, has done a remarkable job. He lulls the viewer into a landscape where reality is wonky and woozy. From the interviews, the film frequently goes off into wonderful flights of fantasy and surrealism.

The film takes its title from a definitive scene from the movie in which one of the interviewees, the commander of Folman’s infantry unit at the time of the film’s events, grabs a heavy machine gun and “dances an insane waltz” amid heavy enemy fire, between walls hung with posters of Bashir Geyamel.

The 1982 massacres at Sabra and Shatila are a heavy imprint of horror and the destructive compulsions of the human nature, the horrors of war and the atrocities of which humans are capable. Waltz ends with a short segment of news archive footage of the grieving survivors, mothers and daughters mostly, shuffling through the streets, riddled with the bodies of loved ones.

What we are left with is a harrowing, vivid and unique portrait of war, leaving the audience in a daze of awe.

Filed Under: Entertainment, Uncategorized Tagged With: film, review, Waltz with Bashir

S4C fights decision for merger with the BBC

November 5, 2010 By Liam Leave a Comment

John Walter Jones, Chairman of S4C

The 19^th annual VLV (Voice of the Listener and Viewer) Conference in association with Edinburgh Napier and Stirling University takes place today at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh.

Speakers include John Walter Jones, chairman of S4C and Donald Campbell from MG Alba. The VLV Scottish Conference will compare and contrast the state of broadcasting in Scotland and Wales, just weeks after the controversial licence fee settlement.

The Scottish Director of VLV, the University of Stirling’s Dr Matthew Hibberd, is quoted in a statement issued by the organisers, as saying: “There are major worries that the general economic climate and financial cuts contained in the funding settlement will have a very negative impact on the range and quality of programmes in Scotland and Wales.”

The cuts, made on 20^th October of this year, are to ‘deliver certainty and stability for the BBC and licence fee payers through to 2016/17’ according to Sir Michael Lyons, current chairman of the BBC Trust. It has been described as a ‘tough settlement.’

As part of the new deal, S4C will now be part-funded, following similar principles to the BBC Alba service in Scotland.

S4C chairman John Walter Jones and the S4C Authority is unanimous in its desire to seek a Judicial Review of Jeremy Hunt’s plans and the way it was handled; a decision that many feel has damaged the BBC’s reputation:

“My main concern is about the independence of S4C. We find ourselves losing status through the BBC having control of our funding.

“The decision was taken so quickly, and no-one had previously spoken to S4C. I am very concerned. Things next year will be very different from this year.”

Broadcasting north of the border also faces a number of challenges.

The question of quality content remains a significant challenge to be addressed by the projected licence fee, standing in at only £5million per year for content in Scotland alone.

Programmes such as the Weakest Link – which recently moved to studios in Glasgow – is one of the programmes that is reviewed in relation to cultural representation, a key issue Robert Beveridge, lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University, raises:

“It is not evident that the Weakest Link from Glasgow adds much value to Scotland in terms of cultural representation and national identity, although for obvious reasons it was probably wise for the BBC not to transfer production and Anne Robinson to BBC Wales.

“The Weakest Link is not a Scottish programme. We need to ask – what is best for viewers and listeners in and across Scotland and Wales.”

Filed Under: All Politics Tagged With: BBC, BBC Alba, Donald Cambell, John Walter Jones, S4C, VLV Conference

Revolutionizing the medium of gaming

October 8, 2010 By Liam Leave a Comment

by Liam Wilson.

Advances in video game technologies are generating interest from top Hollywood actors, including Lord of the Ring’s Golem.

The video game industry is on the constant rise. The release of Halo Reach in September for the Xbox360 saw it pull in over $200 million in its first 24 hours. In the UK, 300,000 copies were sold. This, overshadowed Christopher Nolan’s Inception on its first weekend release, taking in just shy of £6 million in the UK.

Andy Serkis, the motion-capture (or mo-cap) actor from the Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong, has recently seen the release of the new video game Enslaved. Serkis provided his voice talent to the script and his diverse skills of movement as well.

Games and film industries across the world have begun to realise that the two forms of entertainment can work well together. In Enslaved, gamers control Monkey (Serkis), taking part in a story ‘loosely’ based on ancient Chinese writings ‘Journey to the West’. With a script penned by 28 Days Later scribe, Alex Garland, Enslaved proves not only to be a great video game, but a great story with superb acting at the helms of Serkis and co.

Enslaved is a prime example of the evolution of combining motion capture in gaming with the acting skills of Hollywood-grade actors. The development of sciences behind motion-capture technology have helped create more interesting and cinematic games.

Tony McGowan, shop manager at Game in the St. James Centre of Edinburgh, has always believed that the games industry had the potential to be a leading market: “Games these days take in more money than CDs and DVDs in the UK. Hollywood is a good thing for games. Game play now has more action, attracting new audiences and making a lot of money in the process.

“With games like Enslaved being released, with Serkis as the lead, I think it’s a great thing considering ten or so years ago people were only lining up for new console releases. Now they’re cuing up for the games themselves. They are so realistic. It’s like playing a movie sometimes.”

Enslaved: Journey to the West was released today in stores across the UK on Friday 8 Ocotber 2010.

Filed Under: Entertainment Tagged With: Andy Serkis, Enslaved, Motion-capture

Lennon’s Killer Denied Bail for Sixth Time…

September 17, 2010 By Liam Leave a Comment

Mark David Chapman

Mark David Chapman, killer of John Lennon, has told the parole board in New York that by killing the Beatle he would become a ‘somebody’.

Now, coming up to the 30th anniversary of the legend’s death, his murderer is once again appealing for freedom. He claims to have found Jesus during his incarceration and told the parole board, “I know him, he is with me, he is with me now, he is helping me speak to you now.”

Chapman, now 55, murdered Lennon outside of his New York apartment in December of 1980 and in June 1981 was sentenced for life with parole eligibility after 20 years. Being denied parole for the sixth time – the board commenting that they were still concerned about his disregard for the norms of society – Chapman also told the committee that: “I felt that by killing John Lennon I would become somebody and instead of that I became a murderer and murderers are not somebodies.”

A former security guard, Chapman also told of a list of people he wanted to kill. John Lennon topped the list, including talk show host Johnny Carson and actress Elizabeth Taylor.

Chapman is currently being held at the Attica Correctional Facility in New York State.

Filed Under: Courts and Crime Tagged With: bail, John Lennon, Mark Chapman

Lockerbie suspect denied bail…

November 14, 2008 By Liam Leave a Comment

By Liam Wilson.

Lockerbie suspect Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi has been denied his recent appeal for bail, despite the fact that he is dying of cancer.

The Libyan, appealing for his conviction, was said to be “very distressed” after judges refused to grant his bail.

Lord Hamilton, Scotland’s most senior judge claimed that al-Megrahi’s cancer was not advanced enough for him to deserve bail before his appeal had been heard.

A full hearing is likely to take place in the middle of next year in which Megrahi is appealing against his conviction of murder of 270 people when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie in 1988.

Lord Hamilton over-ruled agreements in aid of limiting public discussion about Megrahi’s health in revelation that his life could be prolonged by advanced medical treatment, contradicting the Libyan’s supporters and lawyers original suggestions that he had only months to live: the cancer had become so advanced it was now percieved as incurable.

However; Lord Hamilton agreed with prosecutors that Megrahi was not currently suffering and was comfortable in prison adding that if his situation worsened, and his illness deteriorated, then the court would review its decision to refuse interim liberation.

Megrahi’s lawyers issued a statement after the hearing, in which it said: “I am very distressed that the court has refused to grant me bail and denied me the chance to spend my remaining time with my family.

“I wish to reiterate that I had nothing whatsoever to do with the Lockerbie bombing and that the fight for justice will continue, regardless of I am alive to witness my name being cleared.”

Two leading Lockerbie campaigners, Dr Jim Swire, who’s daughter had been killed in the bombing, and Professor Robert Black, an authority on Scots Law and the Lockerbie case, expressed their disappointment in how Megrahi had not been granted bail.

Dr Swire said: “It seems tragic that Scottish justice has missed a golden opportunity to display mercy in a situation where it has been unable to complete the appeal process within a reasonable time frame.”

Filed Under: Courts and Crime, Uncategorized

Something for the brain…

October 28, 2008 By Liam Leave a Comment

Mental health is about how we think, feel and behave. One in four people in the UK has experienced a mental health problem at some point in their lives that affects them, their relationships or their physical health.

The term ‘mental health problem’ is used to describe a whole range of difficulties, from everyday stresses and bereavement, phobias and anxiety disorders, to the more acute forms of depression, and illnesses such as schizophrenia. Psychiatrists sub-divide the different kinds of mental health disorders in several different ways.

Number one is Organic versus Functional where the problems are caused by an underlying brain malfunction. Number two is Neurosis versus Psychosis i.e. those that arise from severe forms of normal experience, as opposed to those arising from severe distortion in a person’s perception of reality. Number three is ICD-10 Classification i.e. a classification of disorders based on a list that groups them in related families, for example, ‘mood disorders’ – including depression and manic depression.

Every year more than 250,000 people are admitted to psychiatric hospitals. Over 4,000 people, of those admitted, commit suicide. It’s important to distinguish between impulsive acts of self-harm and planned or organised attempts to end your own life. In most suicides, the person has taken steps to ensure they aren’t discovered until afterwards.

One of the most widespread mental illnesses is depression. One in 6 people in the UK will suffer from depression at some point in their life, and it is most common among people aged 25-44.

The road to recovery when suffering from the likes of clinical-depression, socio-anxiety disorder and/or bi-polar disorder begins in accepting help and the desire to get better. There is no single cause for mental health problems; the reasons they develop are as complex and unique as the individual.

For example, women are more likely than men to have anxiety disorders and depression, whereas drug and alcohol addictions are more common in men. Men are also more likely to commit suicide than woman. Formal admissions of men in England rose from 8,673 per year in 1990 to 13,400 in 2003-2004, while the number of women admitted increased from 8,908 to 11,400.

‘Hidden’ or ‘covert’ depression is sometimes a factor behind problems that are sometimes thought of as being typically male – such as the misuse of drugs and alcohol. It can also be manifested in behaviours such as social withdrawal, unexplained physical symptoms and relationship problems. Men are often unwilling to admit to being depressed and it has been suggested that, for some men, ‘midlife crisis’ can be a euphemism for depression.

A person’s circumstances are also a factor. People with poor living conditions, those from ethnic minority groups, disabled people, homeless people and offenders. People with mental health problems are often discriminated against. This can lead to social problems such as homelessness, and may make the mental health problem worse.

Filed Under: Life and Society

A Downward Spiral

October 23, 2008 By Liam Leave a Comment

“He who makes a beast of himself, gets rid of the pain of being a man.”

Dr. Johnson.

For some awful reason, it can appear from nowhere, brought on by nothing, triggered by nothing. Others may be due to trauma, an hideous or emotional experience causing mental grief but the exact cause of depression is widely unknown by medical professionals, despite some advances in theories.

Everyone is different. Everyone reacts and consumes situations differently from the next, making the diagnosis of depression difficult. Whatever the weather living with depression, coping or looking after someone who is suffering can often be as difficult as the diagnosis itself.

Discovering, striving to understand and coping with an often unavoidable funk, is tough enough, lest the struggles of maintaining a source of income, getting the grades you need at your University or College. A full time life requires a full time frame of mind. Some things are just not that easy.

An estimated 1 in 5 of the population in Scotland will experience depression at one point in their life, some, understandably suffering more severely than others. Treatment and the success of such treatment is high for most forms of depression. This is what your doctor will tell you, reassuring and soothing the trembling feeling in your chest as you force the words out of yourself, unwilling to talk, helpless and completely lost.

Holding the infamous title as one of Britain’s top illnesses, one would assume that it will be fine to cope, no need to worry, it’s so easy to treat, I’m not alone. For anyone that has ever found it this easy I applaud them.

A Grinding Pace:

Convinced and to the word, there has always been something there, something beneath the surface that could never be properly examined, understood, distinguished. The years of melancholy, spliced with deep meaningful bouts of madness, I figured this must be what life is? Like the chicken bred for consumers, it’s existence, the corn-fed cramped lifestyle. That is all it knows, all it ever knows. This is what it is used to.

Downhill Fast:

Sporadic, un-timed, un-wanted, bouts of what can only be described as ultimate sadness from depths of nothing. Unable to control, understand or comprehend. “It’s nothing. I’m growing up, hormones, stress, I don’t know?” Uncontrollable speed of thought, moving to fast to stop and take in. Broken, sore, confused. Crying on buses, trains, shopping centers. Save the embarrassment, only complete be-wilderness, why? Why here, why ever? Am I getting far too carried away with myself? Finding it hard to control myself in these situations I began questioning: “Am I ok?”

Acceptance/Diagnosis:

As far as I am aware, I have never been pregnant. Ruling out post-natal depression, relief washes over me in awesome waves.

I would like to make it clear, that I have been let down by the NHS. Months of waiting for replies, queues, lists. My faith in the system, at an all-time low, becomes more apparent with appointments and talks with my GP. I say “My GP“, what I actually mean is; “…the soonest and most available time and slot I could get my hands on.”

Again, when dealing with one of the most common illnesses in Britain, one would again assume treatment of such a condition would move along with grace and ease, brushing aside any hitch ups or slight baggage associated along the way. This is wrong. For me anyway and I’m sure for many others. Bad vibes.

“Let’s try Propanalol, see if that helps your panic attacks…”

Propanalol is a non-selective beta-blocker most commonly used in the treatment of hypertension…after a few months of “testing” this drug for the NHS, I returned, only this time, slightly belligerent. Next dose of treatment. Fluoxetine, more commonly known as ‘Prozac’ was the next item on the convayor belt. Tried and tested, the drug is approved for the treatment of major depression. I’m feeling hopeful. Over 22.2 million prescriptions for generic formulations of fluoxetine were filled in the United States in 2007, making it the third most prescribed antidepressant in the world. Again, feeling hopeful, because lets face it, America has alot of people to deal with.

Closing in on a further year down the line. I’m on something known as Clomipramine, a trycilic antidepressant. Clomipramine is a frequently prescribed drug for the treatment of OCD which again gives me a little hope. The NHS are slowly but surely catching on to my problems, trying and testing their products. I understand it is their job, but one can’t help but feel like a lab rat, mindlessly indulging in their complex and confusing tablets on offer.

Call me imaptient, naive, narrow-minded; I’m just beat down with the pase, tired of the appointments, upset at the length of time it has taken till now. Treatment, therapy is an ongoing process, it takes time. There is light at the end of the tunnel. A tunnel thus far proving to be long and uncertain.

Filed Under: Uncategorized