Sunday, March 13, 2016

Taken (Finished)

Movie Poster

I started to watch this movie, ("Taken") Friday evening but had to stop because the first third reminded me too much of my divorce and estrangement from my son. I tried to resume watching it last night (Saturday) but the action and violence was too much. So again, after about a half hour, I turned it off and tried to calm down so I could get to sleep later.

I finally finished watching the whole movie this afternoon. I watched bits of it in between doing loads of laundry. Again, the violence and action was really hyped up. I can't imagine of sitting in a theater trying to watch the whole thing in a single sitting. Not very relaxing. The violence was brutal and almost cartoonish in that the hero always shot straight and deadly but the bad guys couldn't hit the side of a barn (luckily for the hero).

The DVD I borrowed from the library contained the both the theatrical version and the extended cut. I deliberately watched the theatrical version first. Turns out the theatrical version was what was shown in the USA while the extended cut was what was shown in Europe.

I debated about watching the extended cut. I was reluctant to force myself to watch such intensity again. So I decided to find out first more about the Extended Cut. Turns out the Theatrical Version is 90 minutes long and the Extended Cut adds a whooping extra 3 minutes (93 minutes total length). 

The extra 3 minutes made me wonder if there was an extra scene, or longer scenes, or a series of minute edits. Looking on line, I found an article which detailed all the differences. [SPOILER ALERT] Turns out my hunch about the series of minute edits was correct. So declined to invest another 93 minutes of watching extreme violence. Of course, the movie had a happy ending, and the daughter was saved just in time by good ol' Dad ("Daddy" for the girls).

After watching this first of the series of three "Taken" movies, I don't plan on watching the remaining two. After all the killing in the first film, it is difficult to imagine that anyone is left alive to fight in the remaining two movies. Of course, there are a lot of people in the world, so our hero obviously pissed off enough bad guys to warrant two more movies.

I think this movie can be interpreted as an allegory for the USA's fight against terrorism. The sad sack father represents the US military loyally trying to defend the innocent population (represented by the daughter) from the evil terrorists (representing any evil body). I think the movie programs the audience to support the concept of "whatever it takes" in order to save the innocent virginal daughter from being raped by the evil arabs. Torture is presented in a positive light (pun intended) because it is used to extract vital information needed to get to the kidnapped daughter. A countdown is also used to further justify torture and violence because the clocking is ticking and "whatever it takes...,."

After watching the movie, I noticed that just walking in public brought on feelings of paranoia. I wondered if any of the people walking by were "bad guys" (especially those who looked like the foreigners in the movie). I think this is another trick to desensitize the public to how our military treats/abuses foreigners.

I have no interest in watching more of this violent propaganda.

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Saturday, March 12, 2016

Taken (Partial)

DVD Front Cover

I started watching this DVD (movie) last night. "Taken" has been on my list for a while but I don't remember where I first heard about it. My impression was that it was a good conspiracy type thriller (ala Harrison Ford's 1988 movie, "Frantic").

The short plot description on the back of the DVD box is: "Liam Neeson is an unstoppable force in this action-packed international thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. When his estranged teenage daughter is kidnapped in Paris, he sets out to dfind her at any cost. Relying on his special skills, the former spy tracks down the ruthless gang that abducted her and launches a one-man war to bring them to justice and rescue his daughter."

I had to turn it off after the first half hour because it was too personal for me, as it reminded me of my own situation with my son. Liam Neeson plays a divorced father who moves close to his ex-wife so he can be more involved in his child's life. However, the former wife despises him and frequently sabotages his attempts to have a relationship with his daughter. The mother enlists the daughter to lie and trick the father into giving permission for the daughter to go to Paris. The father knows that it is dangerous for a teenager (especially a girl) to be traveling abroad without adult supervision. As he feared, the daughter almost immediately gets into trouble.

I'm going to try to continue the movie tonight. I'm hoping that the rest of movie will be more of the action thriller aspect. Don't know how it will end (I suspect the father will rescue the daughter but who knows? Plus I don't know what part the ex-wife will play in the remainder of the film.).

Interestingly, two more sequels were made after the original film. As usual, I borrowed this from the library. I will have to do a follow-up post to report on my thoughts after finishing the movie. The DVD has two versions: the original theatrical version plus an Extended (unrated) version. Right now, I am watching the regular theatrical version.

I'm kind of sad today because usually I go with my son to the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Milford but since I have not heard from him in over six months I could not bear to go alone.

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Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taken_(film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frantic_(film)
http://ricketwrite.blogspot.com/2014/03/st-patricks-day-parade.html
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Written Saturday 12 March 2016.
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Thursday, March 10, 2016

Danger Man


I borrowed these from the library and have been watching them the past couple weeks.
Each Danger Man episode is about an hour and stars Patrick McGoohan who later went on to star in the cult TV series, The Prisoner during the late 1960s.


Our library doesn't have the entire series; just 4 volumes. However, I believe other nearby libraries have more episodes. So I think I can get via inter-library loans.

These are fairly intense episodes, so I am taking a break for now. They are also very 1960s British. Because these discs do not have closed captions or subtitles, I have to really concentrate while watching so that I can catch all the dialogue (which is usually pretty important).

If you notice the pictures (above), the covers actually say "Secret Agent aka Danger Man." When Danger Man was broadcast in the USA, they changed the title to "Secret Agent" and switched the theme song to "Secret Agent Man" by Johnny Rivers (which became a huge hit in 1966).

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Written Saturday 12 March 2016.
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