Change Your Image
robertcwatson
Reviews
Batman Begins (2005)
Unexpected Wisdom
Storytelling at its best is often about principles, values, ideas and ideals in conflict. Characters' actions stem from their beliefs, objectives, strength of will or lack of it. Their conflicting convictions are resolved in ways that support the messages the storyteller wants to convey, and the audience finds moments of wisdom that stay with them long after leaving the theater. I found several of those messages in Batman Begins
Have Faith In Each Other -- Michael Caine, as Bruce Wayne's paternalistic butler Arthur, masterfully hammers this message home throughout the story. Through word and deed, Arthur continually reassures Wayne that he'll never give up on him no matter what. This faith carries Wayne through some of his darkest moments of doubt.
Compassion Is What Separates Good From Evil -- When mentor Henri Ducard (Leam Neeson) insists that Wayne must be willing to kill decisively and without remorse if he is to defeat evil, he refuses. He declares that the criminal must be brought to justice and judged for his crimes, not arbitrarily executed.
Revenge Is Not Justice -- While Ducard tries to convince Wayne of the righteousness of vengeance for the murder of his parents, ADA Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes) admonishes Wayne, "Justice is about harmony; vengeance is about making yourself feel better".
Disneyland: Walt Disney: One Man's Dream (1981)
We Can Do It!
This program was a promotional for the 1982 opening of EPCOT, Disney's third theme park on the same property with the second theme park, Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, USA.
The Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow was Walt's dream to build a real research community where real people actually lived. He envisioned it as a place where urban planners and other researchers would live and work to find new and better ways to design cities, homes, transportation, etc. The concept drawings I saw in a film they used to run in the Welcome Center just off to right as you enter Walt Disney World's Main Street, were of a hub-and-spoke city with high-rise business buildings at the center and monorail loops extending out like spokes to the suburbs of homes.
I think he also expected it to be a kind of educational park as well with rides that would carry the public, unobtrusively, through the research areas.
Alas, with Walt's death in the 1966, so too died the dream... except for the name. The money lenders apparently like the futuristic concept and so went ahead with EPCOT as another theme park. Ironically, the characters representing the "money people" in this program (all played by the great Carl Reiner) repeatedly express the view that Walt should keep doing more of the same (i.e. "think mouse","more pig cartoons") instead of trying new things. Maybe the writers were taking a subtle jab at what EPCOT had become
There is (or was some 15 years ago when I was last there) one pavilion in EPCOT that captures the flavor of what Walt had in mind. It's called "The Land" and is sponsored by Kraft. It has a boat ride (a la "Small World") through a mixture of animatronics scenes and actual hydroponics gardens and things where they experiment with alternative ways of growing crops and such.
I pull out this program whenever I need inspiration to keep trying despite all the odds.
(And would love to purchase a new copy but can't locate one!)