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Massacre at Central High (1976)
A challenging film
It took me forever to get a hold of this movie. I looked all over in the city here and couldn't find it anywhere. I was finally able to find it for rent on the internet. I have known about it for a couple of years but gave up trying to find it until I discovered the internet. It was well worth the wait. I wish Hollywood would strive on making more movies as challenging as this one. The film is set in a lavish high school where three tough boys rule over the masses until a new kid comes along and puts them out of commission. What starts out as a critical essay of Karl Marx's conflict theory turns into a parable showing the dangers of anarchy and revolutionary governments. However, there is more to the story than just that but I will let you make your own judgments. While the first part seems routine enough, the second part will have you talking with friends for hours. Derrel Maury brings in an effective turn as the cold and clinical new kid. The rest of the cast are splended as well, including Robert Carradince in an early role who later starred in the "Revenge of the Nerds" movie series. I can't believe that no money hungry producer, production company or major studio has not chosen to re release this little gem of a movie.
Starship Troopers (1997)
Don't Take It All Too Seriously
I read so much on the making of STARSHIP TROOPERS before it even came out and the makers I qoute the writer from a magazine "No, this is not a serious sf movie". He said that before it was released, not after. A point could be made if the makers had said it was not meant to be taken serious after it was released as being a last minute cover up for a failure to actually make a serious movie. However, since they said it before it was released before it was even finished, you can definitely take their word on it that it was not meant to be takens seriously. If you read the definition of the word "satire", you will see this movie is just that. It takes a fascist society, part of our society and culture and exaggerates it. If you look at those old propaganda commercials of the former Nazi Germany and compare them to the ones used here, you will that the ones used in this movie are taken even further with a light heartedness missing from the original nazi germany commercials. I remember that back in 1941, the germans had the option to put into action the Me 262 fighter jet, instead of the Me109 but instead Hitler went with the Me 109. If Germany had used the Me 262 instead, they could taken out most of our bombers before we would have been able to catch up with their technology. I feel this mistake the Germans made can be found in the movie. They have such elaborate space vessels that can travel at light speeds, weapons able to destroy the bug boulders but instead of just using this against the bugs, they send in ground troops. The germans as well as in any fascist society puts all of it emphasis on the military state and anyone who is not part of the military is looked down upon. That is taken to extreme in this film as well. Everyone who is not a civilian is gung ho about the war but it is all presented in the same manner Leslie Nielsen said funny lines with a straight, serious face to achieve a comical touch and the same is applied here. Now listen to a lot of people in our country, especially right-wingers and listen how they condone the death penality and seem to take much pleasure in actually watching a man be murdered by the state. In the movie, there is a internet commercial that announces you can watch a live execution on TV of a condemmed prisoner. I know so many right-wingers in this country would love that right on their Television screen. You notice we don't have that in our country but the movie takes the attitude of a lot of these right-wingers and takes it to the next level with a live television broadcast execution. We have something close but not yet, just the option to watch an execution. Then there is the bugs, who have no personality or any distinguished features, just a desire to kill anything in their way. Well during World War II the masses in our country thought Hitler and the germans, the Japanese ect were monsters with no personality. Our soldiers treated them like they were bugs and we thought they were just something equal to bugs, just ask the innocent women of those countries that our soldiers took pleasure in putting in trucks and well you know....don't need to mention it. Well, in this movie the soldiers do the exact same thing with the bugs and just want to kill them all without thinking twice about it. I feel the bugs are an exaggeration representing the attitude our country has taken towards its enemies in previous wars. Just examine the attitudes we had towards the communists during the 50s, 60s, 70s and even 80s. Shoot some of us still have those attitudes, that they were evil and monsters. President Reagan flat out called The Soviet Union "the evil empire". I rest my case. The characters in the movie don't even question the bugs motives, they just go and kill them. We did the same thing after the japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, we just wanted to go in and get them and we did. We bombed a lot of their children in Nagasaki and Hiroshima to kingdom come and a lot of us still don't think twice about it, especially the right wingers. The boot camp sequence is the best example in the movie, however, of its being a satire. The marine corps drill instructors have been known to punch and humiliate their recruits, for their own good no less and in the movie they go the extreme. They not only hit them but break their arms, throw knives at their hands and give them public lashings! Our military has never gone that far but it has come close, again the movie takes it to the next step. Of some historical note, Fascist Italy of World War II was started and controlled by veterans of World War I and other wars. They fought bravely and sweated it out. They then decided to create a country and they looked down on anyone who had not fought as soldiers, the same thing as well as in the book apply to this movie. However, the movie has the entire world taken over by former veterans of war. I highly recommend this film because of the satiralnature behind it all.
Massacre at Central High (1976)
A challenging film
It took me forever to get a hold of this movie. I looked all over in the city here and couldn't find it anywhere. I was finally able to find it for rent on the internet. I have known about it for a couple of years but gave up trying to find it until I discovered the internet. It was well worth the wait. I wish Hollywood would strive on making more movies as challenging as this one. The film is set in a lavish high school where three tough boys rule over the masses until a new kid comes along and puts them out of commission. What starts out as a critical essay of Karl Marx's conflict theory turns into a parable showing the dangers of anarchy and revolutionary governments. However, there is more to the story than just that but I will let you make your own judgments. While the first part seems routine enough, the second part will have you talking with friends for hours. Derrel Maury brings in an effective turn as the cold and clinical new kid. The rest of the cast are splended as well, including Robert Carradince in an early role who later starred in the "Revenge of the Nerds" movie series. I can't believe that no money hungry producer, production company or major studio has not chosen to re release this little gem of a movie.