Wednesday, October 21, 2009

If it didn't matter, you wouldn't have brought it up

Movie ramble time -

Jim Sturgess is apparently starring in a sci-fi film, huzzah.

'Adam is a seemingly ordinary guy in a very extraordinary universe. He lives humbly trying to make ends meet, but his romantic spirit holds on to the memory of a girl he met once upon a time from another world, an inverted affluent world with its own gravity, directed from above but beyond reach... a girl named Eve. Their childhood flirtation becomes an impossible love. But when he catches a glimpse of grown-up Eve on television, nothing will get in the way of getting her back... Not even the law of science.'

Kirsten Dunst is starring opposite and I'm not really a big fan of hers but...Jim Sturgess! Sci-fi! I'll give it a shot.

I also saw a post about 'Invictus'. While it's true that I've been relatively ambivalent towards rugby until 2003, I'm still fairly sure that describing the Springboks as "the country's ailing team" prior to the 1995 world cup is a bit narrow-minded considering that there was no real way to compare the team to anyone else thanks to a wonderful thing called international sanctions. So you know, ailing is pushing it. Plus, "they're a ragtag team with little chance of winning made up largely of the old-school, Afrikaan mentality." Uh, okay? I'm fairly sure they were never the rag-tag underdogs. I mean this makes it sound like Cool Runnings! And were they really "generally despised, championed only by the country's whites"? I was only eight at the time, so I have no idea. I remember picking dad up from Ellis Park one night, and sitting in the living room wishing my extended family weren't all mad, but the general societal climate escapes me. I just never considered the Springboks to be much of a "Cinderella story" team, they've always been considered good. Regardless, I think it's very weird to write a movie about it. Let alone one directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman. Serious WTFBBQ.

To be honest, this sounds like the kind of story that makes me want to break something. It operates on general assumptions and preconceived attitudes while having no real idea of the situation. It's actually not so much the stories themselves as the underlying motivations and the debates consequently inspired by them. I am too young to have any real weight in the apartheid legacy, but I grew up during the time everything changed, and I was, and still am, subjected to all the bullshit that goes with being a white afrikaans speaking South African. To which I will go out to the world and say fuck you, okay? I am tired of having to put up with bullshit political things that happened before I was born and yet somehow are left for my generation to deal with. I thus have absolutely no interest in watching or engaging in anything with such overt political connotations and assumptions as I feel like I have spent my entire life being flogged with it. I will not apologize for things that I had no hand in, and I certainly refuse to be guilt-tripped into an expected position. Am I supposed to take my position as a repressed minority now to make up for things that happened in the past? Whatever. It's the same thing here with the stolen generation. Yes, it's terrible that it happened. But I didn't do it, and neither did anyone in my generation. So what, pray tell, do you want from us? The government and society have acknowledged that it was wrong, and have moved to rectify and compensate where they can. I recommend we build a bridge and get over it. And I know what people will say, that I wasn't the injured party so it's easy for me to say that. Well, maybe, but if you keep harbouring a grudge, you never heal do you? I mean, for fuck's sake, am I supposed to start fights with Catholics since my grandfather was Irish and Protestant?

Bah. Politics. I hate you.

As a final point on Invictus, I can guarantee my mum and her family will loathe it with a fiery passion since they are a very strong, influential rugby family. My father will hate it because he will yet again be reminded of the money he lost betting on the All Blacks and he has always harboured an extremely strong dislike for Francois Pienaar for reasons I can no longer remember. So if this movie ever gets a lot of press, I look forward to listening to continuous bitching on the topic.

To conclude the movie ramble, I can't believe they're doing a film on the creators of Facebook. That just sounds dull to me.

Films I am actually interested in seeing:
An Education
Moon
A single man
Nine
Paper Heart
Bright Star
Death in love
Somers Town
The Informant!
Ondine

Music: NCIS LA
Mood: Relaxed
Photobucket

2 comments:

  1. "Afrikaan"... there is nothing I FUCKING loath more than than people saying "Afrikaan". It's fucking Afrikaans. We are AFRIKAANS!!!! There is an S... it is not OPTIONAL!!!! Also I'm sick of this "all Afrikaners are racist" bullshit mentality.

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