Fly Away Home

I apparently saw Fly Away Home in theaters when I was little. I don't remember seeing it in the theater, but I have had a soft spot for it all my life. So last night, it was on really late at night and I stayed up to watch it.
Mom went to bed, our friend of the family goes to bed, and I'm all alone in a dark living room. Just me and the movie. And then my brother comes home.

"What are you watching?" he asks.

"Fly Away Home."

"Is it a sad movie?" He gestures to his face to show that I don't look all right.

"No, but I always c-cry at the end." I gesture to the TV to show that a teenager leading her flock of geese in a small plane to a reservation that'll be destroyed for development if she doesn't show up is the most moving thing ever.

Did I mention she flies the last leg by herself because her father crashes in his plane? And then she has a crowd of people banking on her arrival at the reserve? And she doesn't even know the way save for the quick instructions of her dad and the frantic motions of some ladies on a street in a small town. And you know how far she's come from the girl mourning her mother to being the mother of a flock of geese. And her father had just told her she's like her mother who didn't let anything get in the way of her dreams either. Seriously, it's enough to make anybody weep.

Here is the song played in the final scene. Just this alone is enough to make me cry.

What do the machines DO?

A few weeks ago, I had to watch The Matrix for my Contemporary American Film class. This is the same class that watched Blade Runner, Silence of the Lambs, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Coolness of this class aside, I want to ask a question pertaining to the Matrix, give my answer, and see what sort of discussions will arise in the comments.

What do the machines in The Matrix do when they are not hunting humans?

After much thought, I asked myself "Then what do humans do?" My answer to the human question was "We built a society around that which we value. We valued shelter from the weather, so we built houses. Sturdier than huts made of straw now, but that's what happened. We wanted readily-available food, so we built a system around that. Now we go to the grocery store when we want food. Or we eat at a restaurant. Then we started to crave entertainment, and thus we have what our current pop culture and society seems to be built around.

My answer to my question is this. The Machines built their society upon which they value, like what humans did. So if the majority of their society goes into maintaining human farms and hunting the human rebels, then I guess that's their society. If anyone has seen hints regarding other jobs of The Machines, besides keeping the Matrix running and the aforementioned positions, please comment in the comments below.

A Movie is Not a Book

It always urks me when people don't like a movie because it was different than its book.

1). Let's say, here we have a book. It's 365 pages in length, and surprisingly full of detailed action and character development. Normally, that would make it a great book. However, if we are to put everything on the big screen, we have a few difficulties. A normal screenplay is roughly 95 to 125 pages in length (read this link for more details). Therefore, we have to condense 365 pages into less than half its length.

A person able to accomplish this feat and still produce a great film to match the great book is a rare gift. Hollywood should worship the ground they walk upon.

2). When dealing with different mediums of stories, there WILL be changes. The audience changes, the way the story is told changes (i.e. first person to third person - a movie is always in a third person point of view). And the story is not being displayed because one person is doing this for their own enjoyment. The story is being displayed because a handful of people wanted to make a two-hour movie out of a 365 page book.

The addition of more people opens up a new door.

3). A movie is a collection of interpretations, not just one interpretation. We have our 365 page book again, only limited by the imaginations of its readers. Let's say, we have five people who read the book. The Director pictures the monster's horns curled inward, the Producer imagines the monster's horns curled outward, and the Screenwriter completely forgot the monster had horns. So what happens? They collaborate their views to create a final product. We are not getting the vision of a single person (maybe we are, depending on the director), we are getting a compliation of visions by multiple people.

So the next time you walk into a movie expecting to see its book counterpart: don't. You will always be disappointed.

Good Stories plus Recommendations

I'm a fan of good stories. Not necessarily in a specific medium, but good stories in general. I've played a fair few video games (RPGs, mostly) that have some gripping plotlines. They snatch your heart and force you to continue playing until the end. And when you finish, when you beat that last boss, you breath a sigh of relief and watch the credits roll with a satisfied feeling in the pit of your stomach. It's the same feeling you get when you watch a particularly good movie, or finish that great book you've been reading all afternoon. You know it's a good story when you feel like you've just been on an adventure, and you don't regret going one bit.

When you open a book and it takes you away in those first couple pages, you know you nailed a good story. Or when you start a game or television show and you can't think of anything else until it's done. If a movie has you hooked from the opening credits, and you spend the end credits sitting in the theater trying to mull everything over. These are tell tale signs, but you can get the same feeling from stories that just really excite you.

So here is my multi-medium list of good story recommendations. Please note that this list is not extensive and limited to favorites of that particular medium. They do not reflect everything I have ever

experienced. I tried to limit the list to those that were particularly good instead of those that I just really liked on a personal level. It hasn't been a grueling process, but it did take time.

Perhaps I'll blog reviews on all these recommendations. Keep a sharp eye for them. They'll be scattered thoughout the archives once they start to build up.

Recommendations

Anime

Full Metal Alchemist

Death Note

Gundam Wing

Books

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling

The Inheritence Cycle by Christopher Paolini

The Giver by Lois Lowry

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Anything by Tamora Pierce

Manga

Mars by Fuyumi Soryo

Nana by Ai Yazawa

Movies

Castle in the Sky

Princess Mononoke

I Am Legend

The Dark Knight

The Back to the Future Trilogy

Star Trek (2009)

The Notebook

Star Wars

The Whole Nine Yards

The Princess Bride

Robin Hood starring Kevin Cosner (please tell me if I butchered his name)

Juno

V for Vendetta

Wall-E

District 9

Musicals

The Phantom of the Opera

Wicked

Jekyll and Hyde: The Musical

TV Shows

Firefly

Video Games

Kingdom Hearts

Final Fantasy X

Recommendations of your own? Post them in the comments!