Since I sometimes relate current movies to LOST here, a new movie that I would like to recommend to LOST fans is "3:10 To Yuma". If you enjoy old "spaghetti westerns", you will probably like this film. Christian Bale and Russel Crowe are excellent in it, ditto Peter Fonda, et.al. And the scenery is really fantastic, if you like the wide open West and ghost towns. A lot of the movie looked like those snowy desert paintings of Bev Doolittle's too. It's fun to sit way up front for movies like this, so you're almost close enough to the scenery to get dirt in your eyes. Being "thisclose" to Christian Bale onscreen isn't so bad either, because his acting keeps gets better exponentially ever since his incredible starring role in "Empire of the Sun".The plot is "Good vs Bad" and all the shades of gray in between, and as in life (and LOST), it's trying to deal with the gray areas that'll kill you. It's a basic morality play that has been told many times before, also on LOST almost every ep, but it's a good Western saga done very well. One of the obvious points in this film -- and I won't spoil any thing here -- is the problem of who to trust when the good guys act bad, and the bad guys act good. A familiar problem to LOST viewers right? As well as, how do you do the right thing when you have so much to lose or gain either way? There are definitely clear cut bad-to-the-bone guys in the story, but the central characters are the ones who sit inside the dilemma of choice. As we know, this is so much like the themes that we find in some of the LOST story and character arcs.
In the last LOST episode Jack and his posse are dragging Ben to his own train to Yuma judgement, and the showdown on the beach also ended on the side of the good guys, with Hurley and Sawyer taking down the "black-hats". Seeing Ben heartlessly gas his dad and sit there watching him gurgle to death only inches away, really turned off any sympathy that I felt for Ben after seeing his unfortunate childhood. I don't care if the Island is made of magical manna that could feed the entire world, that was cold hearted. But discussions of who the bad guys are on the island have been turned over and over, so I don't need to go into them here. Although, TPTB have hinted that we may feel differently about Ben's actions at some point. We'll see about that. The last episode of S3 warned us to be prepared for another shoot-out coming on between the islanders and the new intruders, that may twist the castaways' (and our) allegiances to an unexpected side. I really don't like Ben very much right now, so if TPTB of LOST can write a story that gets me into understanding Ben's problems and empathizing with him, my fandom will bow down to their storytelling expertise. Do other viewers feel that they can forgive Ben under the right circumstances? At any rate, I can't wait until High Noon comes to Othertown!
11 comments:
Capcom, you might want to check out Maven's friend Ken's blog post about 3:15 to Yuma.
Sorry, 3:10.
Hey thanks Memphish! I had forgotten to bookmark his blog, I like him.
That's a funny review, he's great. Although I thought that Bale's character was more prominent and complex in the movie. He had to make the hard choices of juggling whether or not to die taking on this no-win sitution to get his family out of debt, or to die getting the money and then leaving them without a father and husband.
It seems like the Losties are going to have to make a similar possible zero sum choice on whether to trust Ben and stay on the island, or trust the new bad guys and get off. The odds are stacked against both choices, but they will have to do something either way.
I just wish Ben would give them more info. to make better decisions with. The little bit that's been hinted is that the people Jack called are worse than being stuck on the Island with Ben, but if I'd been Jack, given my treatment by Ben, and what I know, I'd have made the call too. At a minimum you have a chance to get pregnant Sun and sure to get some sort of childhood disease Aaron off the Island. Ben drives me nuts. I hope Emerson wins the Emmy for it.
Your last two sentences say it all!! :o)
I read an interesting theory that Desmond walkied Jack and told him not Penny's boat, and Jack called someone on the mainland instead of the freighter.
Capcom, what do you think of that?
That's interesting. Did Jack dial the other number accidentally or does that theory say that he dialed a number that he knew? Who do they think that would Jack have called?
I forgot what the guy who answered back said, did his words give any indication as to where he might be? Have to check that again whenever I get my S3 tapes back. :-(
Seems to me that's a huge stretch and completely groundless. First when would Desmond, distraught over Charlie's death and probably confused by his hand message have had time or the walkie to radio Jack? Second, Naomi told Jack what to push to call her people and it was a shortcut, not an actual number. Jack doesn't grope around on the phone figuring out how to call anyone else as he stares down Locke and his gun. And third, if Jack didn't create some sort of chaos with his call, why is Future Jack such a mess?
I think you're right Memphish, because unless Jack re-programmed the sat phone, he did just hit a speed dial. This is not a theory I came up with, just one I read about. If you re-watch the scene, it doesn't seem likely.
Thanks, that's one theory that I did not want to add to my overloaded head's list of theories!
Besides, who's Jack gonna call, he doesn't seem to have any friends except for Mommie.
Post a Comment