Usually it eludes me, but sometimes the past comes and smacks me with its ridiculous tragedies. Ridiculous now.
When I park my car at work, it is opposite the back of what used to be a Woolworth's drug store. I see a misused window. That is where "coloreds" had to get their food, lest they annoy the whites. This was in my lifetime. I visited that store as a child when this was the law. Now, the building is a bar owned by an African American sports figure.
Recently, I saw "Avatar," and celebrated the defeat of the interlopers. Avatar was (still is as I write this) a big movie. But it is a very small presence in movieland compared to this, because this is merely one of thousands. Written in a day, shot in a week, in the theaters in a months and discarded a month later. The same characters, the same plots. I count this as one face of ten thousand movies.
Here is the plot: white guys from far away come to "Indian territory." They are looking for an ancient collection of artifacts. They happen to have value when melted down, but are also central to a religious tradition thousands of years old. Natives try to protect this treasure, and they are the BAD guys!
This is a pastiche: part jungle safari, part mystery, part comedy, part western. It is, in fact, an "every-movie."
The whistling skull is a cliff in the shape of an Indian face spooked out to look like a skull. It is, predictably, hollow.
Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.
When I park my car at work, it is opposite the back of what used to be a Woolworth's drug store. I see a misused window. That is where "coloreds" had to get their food, lest they annoy the whites. This was in my lifetime. I visited that store as a child when this was the law. Now, the building is a bar owned by an African American sports figure.
Recently, I saw "Avatar," and celebrated the defeat of the interlopers. Avatar was (still is as I write this) a big movie. But it is a very small presence in movieland compared to this, because this is merely one of thousands. Written in a day, shot in a week, in the theaters in a months and discarded a month later. The same characters, the same plots. I count this as one face of ten thousand movies.
Here is the plot: white guys from far away come to "Indian territory." They are looking for an ancient collection of artifacts. They happen to have value when melted down, but are also central to a religious tradition thousands of years old. Natives try to protect this treasure, and they are the BAD guys!
This is a pastiche: part jungle safari, part mystery, part comedy, part western. It is, in fact, an "every-movie."
The whistling skull is a cliff in the shape of an Indian face spooked out to look like a skull. It is, predictably, hollow.
Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.