Well, to kick-off my awkward intro, I suppose I best introduce myself: I am a college student embracing the liberal arts (gasp!) as an English and Film Studies major. As such, I study, ponder, analyze, enjoy, watch, re-watch, and absorb films--and all their vibes. Oh come on, all motion pictures have vibes. They are the feelings all films attempt to deliver. You know, the warm fuzziness of a Spielberg film or the cold detachment that Kubrick always achieves (please allow my terribly banal examples for an obvious point). Here at Cinematic Vibes, I promise a completely biased, sometimes humorous, and hopefully insightful approach to film--mainstream and indie, old and new, foreign and Hollywood--and the vibes that accompany them.
--Forgive my casual prose here in this post. I gotta be inviting dont i??!?!??!?--
Of course, included in the blog are my more formal reviews, analysis, and news. I also plan to keep you updated on my current projects and any film festivals I am involved in (currently, a UNC-Wilmington's Vision's film conference finalist!)--not that YOU--whoever YOU is--really cares anyway.
Well, tonight I happened to watch Oliver Stone's Platoon to finish off my re-watching of the Vietnam trilogy (Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, Platoon)--a task that took over a month, thank you college. My roommate, who had not seen it, declared as the credits rolled, "Wow, that true Vietnam movie." His broken grammar keyed me into his sarcasm.
There was something incredibly, well, true about his words. I kept asking myself, "is Oliver Stone's Best Picture Winner really going for realism?" Is this supposed to be some accurate image of Vietnam?
Roger Ebert's 4/4 star review of the film interestingly asserts that the Vietnam Vet Stone "tried to make a movie about the war that is not fantasy, not legend, not metaphor, not message, but simply a memory of what it seemed like at the time to him."
Man, Stone must have gone through a lot. Fighting not only the Viet Cong in daily ambush attack, BUT ALSO a psychopathic killer Sergeant who murders other soldiers (played by no other than the terrifying Tom Berenger).
Vietnam was an action movie.
--I mean no disrespect to the War or Stone as a director or veteran.--
But, I have trouble accepting dramatics--especially when it comes to historical adaptation--as reality.
Platoon is a great film. FILM. I get that it captures attitudes and characters and such and such that actually reflect real veterans. But an action film with a grand climax it certainly still is.
Okay, I'm already rambling on my first post. Here's one last complaint with those who consider films reality:
Film is inherently dramatic. And the situational dramatics in film are extremes. (Why else would they be entertaining.) To have a sergeant murdering his comrades in secrecy in the woods is an extreme. Therefore, to mistakenly treat the film as reality suggests commonality. I felt the same way about 12 Years a Slave. A masterpiece film it is, a common picture of slavery it is not.
Now, for your entertainment,
Michael Fassbender as a psychopath:
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