Besides, the nerdy main character who falls hopelessly in love with the strong and sexy American exchange student, who can't love that? It spoofed the hilariously uptight views a lot of establishment Brits and French had about sex, and subverted most of the stereotypes about Americans that are prevalent in British media. I know a lot of the press here in America was up in arms when American Girls are Easy came out in 79, but if they had taken the time to actually watch the movie, they'd see that it was a whole lot more on their side than they imagined. When it comes to being hilariously subversive, it's hard to beat Terry Jones. My favorite is the Ur-example of the modern sex comedy, American Girls are Easy. I think we take our films a little bit too seriously here in America, trying to make it serious literature, but sometimes we miss out on spice of life type comedies as a result. Even some of the harder to get foreign films.īut, in spite of all the seriousness that comes with being a film student, I think I enjoy romantic comedies the best, and I have to admit, it was British filmmakers who wrote the book on the romantic comedy. On the campus fileshare network, the film department has a massive library of movies from around the world, in all different eras. Kind of comes from being a film student at Berkeley. I'm somewhat of a connoisseur of movies actually. I've been wanting to catch Phase II and the other sequels, but finding those without importing an American disc player is really hard. I'm surprised that it only lasted like six seasons on its original run. Kirk is a certified badass, and definitely gave me a lot of respect for women's liberation. Sure, it was set in the backdrop of a socialist utopian future, but all the strange new worlds were great. I remember seeing Star Trek on the BBC when I was like seven or eight, and I thought it was the coolest thing since Dr. And I know my brother, who is doing a cultural exchange program in America, says that finding some of the British classics in America is damned difficult too. Shattered union red dawn tv#I do wish we'd get more of the classic American TV shows over here. And it was so critical the national security state, I'm really glad it was made. Very gray and gray morality, and boy, it shows what your Hollywood collectives can do with the generous state grants they get to make movies. The secret police scramble to take him down and keep the situation under control. The rogue general begins a Nixon's gambit backed by chemical weapons to expose the government's history of illegal covert ops around the world. It was more anviliciously communist than most, but damn, it really did a good job critiquing militarism. I personally think The Rock was a better one. The Indochina Wars were a rough time for us as a country, and I'm glad we did the right thing in the end and granted the region its independence, even though they ended up as an American satellite. Some for pragmatism, some as soldiers-of-fortune, and others because they didn't like the idea of trading foreign dominion from people they know to a group they didn't know. Quite a few Vietnamese collobarated with the colonial regime, and fought against the NLF, for various reasons. First Blood is not the most egregious example, but too often, the colonial troops are treated like mindless mooks, and in this case, it ignores the multiple dimensions of the conflict. When they're not being too anviliscious, that is. And second of all, Huxley wrote it as a pretty clear critique of industrial capitalist society.īut anyway, I actually enjoy some of you Yank's action movies. First of all, we don't exhibit the kind of disturbing consumerism or political quietism. I'm sure most modern Brits would compare the hedonistic society of Huxley's nightmare to modern America, but I think that really misses the point. Huxley's Brave New World is a classic, and I think it points out some disturbing tendencies in modern authoritarian societies. Seeing Sly Stallone and his misfit crew of American special forces and Vietnamese guerillas running around the jungles of Indochina, blowing up Anglo-French helicopters and troop carriers with explosive tipped arrows in First Blood just warms the cockles of my heart.Īs for books, I have a profound attraction to the English dystopian writers. I maybe an effete intellectual snob, but beneath this bearded, beret and turtle neck sweater wearing exterior there lies a pre-teen boy he likes big explosions and gun fire, so I have a thing for the good old jingoistic action movies.
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