JOOP!
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Saturday, June 2, 2007
How LOST’s finale went all to hell and why I’m happy about it
In the run-up to LOST’s season III finale, I ruminated on Dangerous Old Men and Thongs on Fire and How it All Might Go to Hell. http://lostforum.blogspot.com/2007/05/dangerous-old-men.html
I worried that the creative team would lose their mud at the last second and go for the cheap skin flash, the cheap ratings grab, and that the most impressive LOST season ever would all go to hell as the season ended. Whereas I wanted an epic tragedy like King Lear, I feared that the finale would give us King Coconut and the Dynamites on Cancun Beach.
It all went to hell, alright, but in a way that made me very happy. Read on and I’ll explain.
Bullet in the Head
Those of you who visit the JOOP! thread http://o.forums.go.com/abc/primetime/lost/thread?threadID=1705793&forumStart=0
on the abc board know of my love for Asian cinema, particularly movies made in Hong Kong. One film category which bears a distinctly Hong Kong trademark and which is noticeably absent from most American mega-mall movie theaters is the movie in which things roll along nicely for a while, and then IT ALL GOES TO HELL.
As example, you can’t do better than John Woo’s 1990 masterpiece, “Bullet in the Head.” http://www.twitchfilm.net/archives/008578.html Remarkably, LOST’s season finale shares many parallels with “Bullet.” While mainstream American movie producers may shirk from such darkly-themed fare, Lindeloff and Cuse rose to the challenge and pulled no punches.
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e155/back_gammon/bullet_in_the_head.jpg
Waise Lee, Jacky Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai in Bullet in the Head. Photo courtesy of LoveHKFilm.com
Punishing and pessimistic in extreme, “Bullet” presents characters who quickly find all their hopes and dreams destroyed by fate and their own brash folly. The three main characters, a trio of sworn brothers from the tough streets of Hong Kong, find themselves stranded and LOST in Viet Nam on what was supposed to be a get-rich-quick, get-in, get-out, two-day drug run.
But as things often do in Hong Kong films, the trio goes through the Looking Glass. The Viet Nam they’ve entered is a world tossed upside down and shaking with desperation as the machinery of war rolls and thunders across the countryside. As things fall apart for the trio, mortal fear enters the equation. As does betrayal. And it only gets worse.
“Bullet in the Head” doesn't allow its characters the opportunity to survive hell. Instead of honor and friendship redeeming the characters, they're ultimately twisted and destroyed by the stark realities of their worlds. Ben is the romantic dreamer who wants to save the girl, honor his friends, and do the right thing.
---Kozo http://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews/bullet_in_the_head.htm
Substitute Dr. Jack Shepard’s name in the passage above and you can see the parallels. No hero’s journey here. Just a Golden Pass to hell. The ones who died are the lucky ones. This particular hell is reserved for those who must live on knowing what they’ve done.
Mahaparinirvana Sutra Verse 19:
The worst of the Eight Hells is called Continuous (Avici) Hell…
It has the meaning of Continuous Suffering. Thus the name…
Avici : No time, No space, No remission (interruption/ relief/ cessation…)
In Avici Hell, time does not seem to pass because there is no change of experience… through relief of suffering. And space does not seem to exist as one's being fills it completely. There is no "break" of suffering for a single instant for kalpas (duration of world cycles) till one's unwholesome karma is exhausted…
Hurley, the Next Kharmic Cowboy?
Even though there’s violence galore in “Bullet in the Head,” there’s no cowboy bravado. No swaggering heroes. Nothing to get a movie audience on its feet and cheering. Indeed, what’s so astonishing about this film is its brutal honesty, an honesty so intense it leaves viewers staring wide eyed and silent.
Not that LOST’s finale lacked cowboy bravado. Hurley mowing down Others pell-mell in the Dharma van came as close as it gets to a get-on-your-feet-and-cheer moment. But this is Hurley, the guy who felt sad for the squished tree frog and who felt guilty when he stashed Dharma Ranch Dressing and didn’t share it with the rest of the Losties. What’s going to happen to his soul now that he has to live with knowing he deliberately killed someone? Will he be the next Kharmic Cowboy to get his Golden Pass to Continuous (Avici) Hell?
“…Mistakes Were Made…”
I can’t begin to catalogue every tactical and personal mistake made by Jack, Locke, or Ben, nor can I list every twist of fate and free will, nor explicate the hubris and the self-deceptions which locked their trajectories on a path straight to hell. Suffice it to say that mistakes were made, and this is one of the biggest clusters of all time.
Which leads me to Jack’s disintegration post-rescue in the flash-forward. Remember in the last essay when I was describing King Lear? How he got lost on the moor in the fog and emerged forever changed? If that doesn’t describe Jack, I don’t know what does. Where he goes from here is anyone’s guess. If the writers follow the path of John Woo, it has all gone to hell for Jack and he will remain in Continuous (Avici) Hell with no ticket out.
But what of Ben and Locke? I think Locke had his King Lear moment in the Purge Pit. He lay there lost in the fog. Desperate to end his life. But he emerged forever changed. He’s a hunter now, capable of killing. Gone is the farmer, perhaps forever. Has he emerged from hell or is he just entering it?
And Ben? I don’t know. He’s beat down, wore out, and tore up, but was Alex’s and Juliet’s betrayal enough to send him wandering in the fog? I don’t think so. In my opinion, we have that to still look forward to.
Thank you Lost writers. Thank you for letting it ALL GO TO HELL. You’ve made Shakespeare and John Woo proud, and you left this viewer staring wide-eyed and silent. I can think of no greater compliment.
In the run-up to LOST’s season III finale, I ruminated on Dangerous Old Men and Thongs on Fire and How it All Might Go to Hell. http://lostforum.blogspot.com/2007/05/dangerous-old-men.html
I worried that the creative team would lose their mud at the last second and go for the cheap skin flash, the cheap ratings grab, and that the most impressive LOST season ever would all go to hell as the season ended. Whereas I wanted an epic tragedy like King Lear, I feared that the finale would give us King Coconut and the Dynamites on Cancun Beach.
It all went to hell, alright, but in a way that made me very happy. Read on and I’ll explain.
Bullet in the Head
Those of you who visit the JOOP! thread http://o.forums.go.com/abc/primetime/lost/thread?threadID=1705793&forumStart=0
on the abc board know of my love for Asian cinema, particularly movies made in Hong Kong. One film category which bears a distinctly Hong Kong trademark and which is noticeably absent from most American mega-mall movie theaters is the movie in which things roll along nicely for a while, and then IT ALL GOES TO HELL.
As example, you can’t do better than John Woo’s 1990 masterpiece, “Bullet in the Head.” http://www.twitchfilm.net/archives/008578.html Remarkably, LOST’s season finale shares many parallels with “Bullet.” While mainstream American movie producers may shirk from such darkly-themed fare, Lindeloff and Cuse rose to the challenge and pulled no punches.
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e155/back_gammon/bullet_in_the_head.jpg
Waise Lee, Jacky Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai in Bullet in the Head. Photo courtesy of LoveHKFilm.com
Punishing and pessimistic in extreme, “Bullet” presents characters who quickly find all their hopes and dreams destroyed by fate and their own brash folly. The three main characters, a trio of sworn brothers from the tough streets of Hong Kong, find themselves stranded and LOST in Viet Nam on what was supposed to be a get-rich-quick, get-in, get-out, two-day drug run.
But as things often do in Hong Kong films, the trio goes through the Looking Glass. The Viet Nam they’ve entered is a world tossed upside down and shaking with desperation as the machinery of war rolls and thunders across the countryside. As things fall apart for the trio, mortal fear enters the equation. As does betrayal. And it only gets worse.
“Bullet in the Head” doesn't allow its characters the opportunity to survive hell. Instead of honor and friendship redeeming the characters, they're ultimately twisted and destroyed by the stark realities of their worlds. Ben is the romantic dreamer who wants to save the girl, honor his friends, and do the right thing.
---Kozo http://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews/bullet_in_the_head.htm
Substitute Dr. Jack Shepard’s name in the passage above and you can see the parallels. No hero’s journey here. Just a Golden Pass to hell. The ones who died are the lucky ones. This particular hell is reserved for those who must live on knowing what they’ve done.
Mahaparinirvana Sutra Verse 19:
The worst of the Eight Hells is called Continuous (Avici) Hell…
It has the meaning of Continuous Suffering. Thus the name…
Avici : No time, No space, No remission (interruption/ relief/ cessation…)
In Avici Hell, time does not seem to pass because there is no change of experience… through relief of suffering. And space does not seem to exist as one's being fills it completely. There is no "break" of suffering for a single instant for kalpas (duration of world cycles) till one's unwholesome karma is exhausted…
Hurley, the Next Kharmic Cowboy?
Even though there’s violence galore in “Bullet in the Head,” there’s no cowboy bravado. No swaggering heroes. Nothing to get a movie audience on its feet and cheering. Indeed, what’s so astonishing about this film is its brutal honesty, an honesty so intense it leaves viewers staring wide eyed and silent.
Not that LOST’s finale lacked cowboy bravado. Hurley mowing down Others pell-mell in the Dharma van came as close as it gets to a get-on-your-feet-and-cheer moment. But this is Hurley, the guy who felt sad for the squished tree frog and who felt guilty when he stashed Dharma Ranch Dressing and didn’t share it with the rest of the Losties. What’s going to happen to his soul now that he has to live with knowing he deliberately killed someone? Will he be the next Kharmic Cowboy to get his Golden Pass to Continuous (Avici) Hell?
“…Mistakes Were Made…”
I can’t begin to catalogue every tactical and personal mistake made by Jack, Locke, or Ben, nor can I list every twist of fate and free will, nor explicate the hubris and the self-deceptions which locked their trajectories on a path straight to hell. Suffice it to say that mistakes were made, and this is one of the biggest clusters of all time.
Which leads me to Jack’s disintegration post-rescue in the flash-forward. Remember in the last essay when I was describing King Lear? How he got lost on the moor in the fog and emerged forever changed? If that doesn’t describe Jack, I don’t know what does. Where he goes from here is anyone’s guess. If the writers follow the path of John Woo, it has all gone to hell for Jack and he will remain in Continuous (Avici) Hell with no ticket out.
But what of Ben and Locke? I think Locke had his King Lear moment in the Purge Pit. He lay there lost in the fog. Desperate to end his life. But he emerged forever changed. He’s a hunter now, capable of killing. Gone is the farmer, perhaps forever. Has he emerged from hell or is he just entering it?
And Ben? I don’t know. He’s beat down, wore out, and tore up, but was Alex’s and Juliet’s betrayal enough to send him wandering in the fog? I don’t think so. In my opinion, we have that to still look forward to.
Thank you Lost writers. Thank you for letting it ALL GO TO HELL. You’ve made Shakespeare and John Woo proud, and you left this viewer staring wide-eyed and silent. I can think of no greater compliment.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Dangerous Old Men
Locked, Loaded, and Why It All Might Go To Hell
"There is no story that is not true . . . The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others."
----Chinua Achebe
Things Fall Apart
LOST has shed viewers in the past nine months even as it airs episodes that creatively surpass anything viewers have seen in previous seasons. Critics and fans who’ve noted the creative resurgence parse the ratings decline and scratch their heads in puzzlement.
Some blame the ratings decline on a lack of answers, as if fans really wanted them. No. What many fans want is a continued weekly fix of those nerve-rattling, head-exploding moments such as when a grim-faced Mrs. Hawking turned to Desmond and told him he was doing it all wrong, luv, moments that blast open the metaphorical hatch to pulse-pounding new mysteries, not slam the bear cage door on tired, half-forgotten, old mysteries.
Others (you know who you are) blame the rating’s nosedive on this season’s focus on the Others. Or too much filler. Not enough Jate. Too much triangle. Not enough shirtless Sawyer. Or everyone’s favorite whipping posts, the pooping pair, Pikki.
But nothing in the season-long blame-game yet speaks of the obvious: LOST is growing up and not everyone is ready for the game to change. Like one of Walt’s unexplained growth spurts, the show has suddenly matured. However, its newfound maturity has come with a price. Doesn’t it always? Instead of Hot-Young-Things-on-Spring-Break with a few creepy mysteries stirred into the strawberry mojitos, now the show is grown-ass men tossing back three fingers of barrel-aged McCutcheon scotch, neat, in Baccarat tumblers, and nary a drop spilled despite the trembling hands.
I, for one, am thrilled. Good riddance to the viewers who won’t let themselves grow up to be cowboys.
So who are these dangerous old men and what are they doing on LOST? Or more precisely, how did they steal the thunder from the Hot Baby Bads bedding down on the beach?
Just for starters, this season had Christian Shepard, Charles Widmore, Edmund Burke, Mr. LaShade, and a guy so old and dangerous he doesn’t even have a first name, Mr. Paik. Then there’s Anthony Cooper who deserves the Golden Mop Bucket Lifetime Achievement Award for all the delirious mess he’s created this season. Coming up fast, a new contender for dangerous old man, the seemingly ageless Richard Alpert. Does he use that eyeliner because he’s as old as the Sphinx? You remember birthdays, don’t you King Toten-kohl-man?
But nothing more clearly marks the maturing of the show this season than the rise to preeminence of its two heaviest hitters, John Locke and Benjamin Linus, both of whom have long since left behind childhood’s illusions. While I’ve no doubt their sperm counts are still as ridiculously elevated as that of any other man on Testosterone Island, Locke and Linus leave the impression that they’re more interested in legacy than legs, more interested in reading “Crime and Punishment” than “Thongs on Fire.” Indeed, Locke and Linus are men in their prime, played by actors at the peak of their prodigious powers, and when they’re on screen together it’s simply electrifying. You might even say it’s epic.
But what sort of epic?
J. Woods reminds us that "In Joseph Campbell's hero's journey monomyth, the hero crosses from the safe world over a series of thresholds into a dangerous realm.…The hero can either emerge changed, or can die and someone else takes on the hero mantle."*
But since this is LOST, let's take a more complicated look. There are different types of heroes on different types of journeys.
Carolyn Martin tells us that "An epic hero, like Odysseus, is typically set apart from other characters by his capacity to endure many trials and tests. A tragic hero, like Hamlet or Oedipus, is typically a man of consequence brought down by an insuperable conflict, or through his own weakness."**
And then there’s King Lear who was brought down by his own weakness, but the story doesn’t end there. Lear emerged forever changed after he spent a night on the moor and LOST in the fog. And I do mean lost and I do mean changed. He became ethereal and fairly glowed with an OTHER-worldly luminosity. But to this day, no one, including the Shakespearean scholars, knows exactly what happened to Lear when he was lost in the fog that FATEful night.
Thus, are Locke and Linus heroes? If so, are they epic or tragic? Have we seen enough to decide once and for all who is who and what is what? Or does a night lost in the fog await either, neither, or both?
You tell me.
Whatever the case, their stories are far more fascinating than the comparatively simpler heroic paths to redemption being trod by the young Losties on the beach, no matter how on fire their respective thongs might be.
I should probably end here because that last sentence is an ender if ever I wrote one, but I can’t close without mentioning what might be the most dangerous old man of all. Jacob. Ancient of chair, ancient of voice, spirit, and countenance - something happened to him. His voice sounded like a rusty-hinged door creaking open. A door that’s been shut for centuries. If there is a King Lear on the island, Jacob has my vote. I can’t wait to see his story.
But is all this potential story greatness going to go to hell? Will LOST continue a path to rival the greatest Dostoevskian and Shakespearean tragedies? Or will LOST bend over and set its thong on fire for the sake of ratings?
I’m guessing we’ll know after the season III finale.
* J. Woods, Lost’s Greatest Hits.
http://www.powells.com/blog/?p=2094
**Carolyn Martin, Cornell University
http://reading.cornell.edu/reading_project_05/study.html
"There is no story that is not true . . . The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others."
----Chinua Achebe
Things Fall Apart
LOST has shed viewers in the past nine months even as it airs episodes that creatively surpass anything viewers have seen in previous seasons. Critics and fans who’ve noted the creative resurgence parse the ratings decline and scratch their heads in puzzlement.
Some blame the ratings decline on a lack of answers, as if fans really wanted them. No. What many fans want is a continued weekly fix of those nerve-rattling, head-exploding moments such as when a grim-faced Mrs. Hawking turned to Desmond and told him he was doing it all wrong, luv, moments that blast open the metaphorical hatch to pulse-pounding new mysteries, not slam the bear cage door on tired, half-forgotten, old mysteries.
Others (you know who you are) blame the rating’s nosedive on this season’s focus on the Others. Or too much filler. Not enough Jate. Too much triangle. Not enough shirtless Sawyer. Or everyone’s favorite whipping posts, the pooping pair, Pikki.
But nothing in the season-long blame-game yet speaks of the obvious: LOST is growing up and not everyone is ready for the game to change. Like one of Walt’s unexplained growth spurts, the show has suddenly matured. However, its newfound maturity has come with a price. Doesn’t it always? Instead of Hot-Young-Things-on-Spring-Break with a few creepy mysteries stirred into the strawberry mojitos, now the show is grown-ass men tossing back three fingers of barrel-aged McCutcheon scotch, neat, in Baccarat tumblers, and nary a drop spilled despite the trembling hands.
I, for one, am thrilled. Good riddance to the viewers who won’t let themselves grow up to be cowboys.
So who are these dangerous old men and what are they doing on LOST? Or more precisely, how did they steal the thunder from the Hot Baby Bads bedding down on the beach?
Just for starters, this season had Christian Shepard, Charles Widmore, Edmund Burke, Mr. LaShade, and a guy so old and dangerous he doesn’t even have a first name, Mr. Paik. Then there’s Anthony Cooper who deserves the Golden Mop Bucket Lifetime Achievement Award for all the delirious mess he’s created this season. Coming up fast, a new contender for dangerous old man, the seemingly ageless Richard Alpert. Does he use that eyeliner because he’s as old as the Sphinx? You remember birthdays, don’t you King Toten-kohl-man?
But nothing more clearly marks the maturing of the show this season than the rise to preeminence of its two heaviest hitters, John Locke and Benjamin Linus, both of whom have long since left behind childhood’s illusions. While I’ve no doubt their sperm counts are still as ridiculously elevated as that of any other man on Testosterone Island, Locke and Linus leave the impression that they’re more interested in legacy than legs, more interested in reading “Crime and Punishment” than “Thongs on Fire.” Indeed, Locke and Linus are men in their prime, played by actors at the peak of their prodigious powers, and when they’re on screen together it’s simply electrifying. You might even say it’s epic.
But what sort of epic?
J. Woods reminds us that "In Joseph Campbell's hero's journey monomyth, the hero crosses from the safe world over a series of thresholds into a dangerous realm.…The hero can either emerge changed, or can die and someone else takes on the hero mantle."*
But since this is LOST, let's take a more complicated look. There are different types of heroes on different types of journeys.
Carolyn Martin tells us that "An epic hero, like Odysseus, is typically set apart from other characters by his capacity to endure many trials and tests. A tragic hero, like Hamlet or Oedipus, is typically a man of consequence brought down by an insuperable conflict, or through his own weakness."**
And then there’s King Lear who was brought down by his own weakness, but the story doesn’t end there. Lear emerged forever changed after he spent a night on the moor and LOST in the fog. And I do mean lost and I do mean changed. He became ethereal and fairly glowed with an OTHER-worldly luminosity. But to this day, no one, including the Shakespearean scholars, knows exactly what happened to Lear when he was lost in the fog that FATEful night.
Thus, are Locke and Linus heroes? If so, are they epic or tragic? Have we seen enough to decide once and for all who is who and what is what? Or does a night lost in the fog await either, neither, or both?
You tell me.
Whatever the case, their stories are far more fascinating than the comparatively simpler heroic paths to redemption being trod by the young Losties on the beach, no matter how on fire their respective thongs might be.
I should probably end here because that last sentence is an ender if ever I wrote one, but I can’t close without mentioning what might be the most dangerous old man of all. Jacob. Ancient of chair, ancient of voice, spirit, and countenance - something happened to him. His voice sounded like a rusty-hinged door creaking open. A door that’s been shut for centuries. If there is a King Lear on the island, Jacob has my vote. I can’t wait to see his story.
But is all this potential story greatness going to go to hell? Will LOST continue a path to rival the greatest Dostoevskian and Shakespearean tragedies? Or will LOST bend over and set its thong on fire for the sake of ratings?
I’m guessing we’ll know after the season III finale.
* J. Woods, Lost’s Greatest Hits.
http://www.powells.com/blog/?p=2094
**Carolyn Martin, Cornell University
http://reading.cornell.edu/reading_project_05/study.html
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