Last DVD/Movie you bought or watched?

[dongregg]

Jameron, that looks so enticing. I hope I get to see the film.

[Jameron]

Jameron, that looks so enticing. I hope I get to see the film.

You should, it's a great antidote to Hollywood melodrama.

Have you read the book?

.

[PeteMork]

I read the book and found it to be very thought-provoking. I think of it as more of a serious science fiction book than a Stephen King horror story. It has a lot of twists and turns like any good scifi book, and by the end, you're reexamining where your sympathies and loyalties really lie -- or at least should lie. It's a 'look at the big picture' sort of book.

I had absolutely no idea a film had been made of the book until just now.(Thanks, Jameron) I will definitely be seeing it as soon as it's released on Bluray; April 25, according to Amazon. I can't imagine them being able to find a child capable of portraying Melanie effectively.

[a_contemplative_life]

If you like The French Connection or Bullitt, you'll probably like this flick. Long car chase in the middle gives you a good sense of how far automotive suspensions have come in the last 43 years.

[dongregg]

Great chase. Lousy cars.

I modified my 66 Mustang Coupe. Air shocks. Torsion bar. Bracing under the hood. Battery in the trunk. Repositioned upper control arms for neutral camber. Wider wheels front and back. Disc brakes.

It cornered flat, like it was on a train track.

Then I shoehorned in the Windsor 351...

[Bloody Mary]

Does it count if I'm watching a Netflix series? It's 13 Reasons Why, adapted from the book about a teenage boy figuring out why his friend committed suicide. It seems to be much darker than most shows about adolescents. I'm getting an oddly Twin Peaks-ish vibe from the theme of the troubled girl and her relationships with her peers. (It could use more of an original score, but at least there's a great indie soundtrack!) Worth a look.

[sauvin]

Does it count if I'm watching a Netflix series? It's 13 Reasons Why, adapted from the book about a teenage boy figuring out why his friend committed suicide. It seems to be much darker than most shows about adolescents. I'm getting an oddly Twin Peaks-ish vibe from the theme of the troubled girl and her relationships with her peers. (It could use more of an original score, but at least there's a great indie soundtrack!) Worth a look.

Think I'll claim that yes, it DOES count.

[Bloody Mary]

Does it count if I'm watching a Netflix series? It's 13 Reasons Why, adapted from the book about a teenage boy figuring out why his friend committed suicide. It seems to be much darker than most shows about adolescents. I'm getting an oddly Twin Peaks-ish vibe from the theme of the troubled girl and her relationships with her peers. (It could use more of an original score, but at least there's a great indie soundtrack!) Worth a look.

Think I'll claim that yes, it DOES count.

Seen it? I have mixed feelings about it that I'll post when I've watched the whole thing.

[Bloody Mary]

To clarify the premise of 13 Reasons Why, a high school boy receives a box of tapes recorded by his friend before she killed herself, explaining why she made that decision. To summarize, it seemed to follow a formula to some degree, while observing nuance in morality and behavior. I have tried to avoid spoilers in the long review, but blocked out the rest just in case.

First, the bothersome bits:

-Why was Hannah – the girl who committed suicide – so vulnerable? She doesn't seem to have confidence problems that are any more outwardly obvious than others around 16 years old. She isn't poor or overweight or particularly socially awkward, doesn't have a disability, doesn't have any of the markers that draw negative attention from peers or discourage friendships that would buffer her from jerks. In high school, I never saw a good-looking, nicely-dressed girl who wasn't part of the upper crust, or at least didn't go around with a solid group of friends. I understand that loneliness and depression aren’t limited to wallflowers. It’s just difficult to see a reason for the isolation that makes it more difficult for her to handle.

-The show is pretty clearly set in the present day, signaled by recent phrases like "fat-shaming" and a 50 Shades mention, but the school seems to be ten years behind. In the current bully-vigilant environment, most likely there would be much more attention paid to nasty comments on bathroom stalls and a poem written by a student who was obviously distressed. Instead, the administration is oblivious, both to the moral problems with ignoring kids who need help and to the legal, financial, and reputational risks from an accusation of negligence. One girl comments that girls' sexual victimization isn't taken seriously, but I find this hard to believe, with the cultural push for doing just that. (Note: I'm not trying to start a political conversation, just offering an opinion on the series' accuracy.) It seemed as though the show were giving commentary using a familiar narrative more than mirroring the actual prevailing social attitude toward dealing with adolescent bullies and victims. The book was published in 2007; the series would have been more credible if it had been released then, instead of trying to project a 2007 climate onto a contemporary setting.

-The male protagonist gets a sense that someone else he knows is considering self-harm. I’m going to sound as if I’m contradicting myself, but this person was predictable – probably the one most would pick out as at risk for suicide. I’m not certain if this should be on the list or not as to all appearances, Hannah was quite the opposite. But the portrayal of this other character came off to me as slightly too stereotypical.

-It could have benefited from having its own score. Original music gives a show or movie a distinctive quality; emotional attachment to and associations with the production can be strengthened just by listening to a memorable composition. There is a very nice soundtrack made up of indie bands, but that serves to make it seem more adolescent. It’s clear that Hannah and Clay are outsiders: that doesn’t need reinforcing by a series of tracks from a Converse-wearing kid’s iPod. That the music is borrowed rather than exclusive to the show takes away somewhat from its identity and cross-age relevance.

At the same time:

-I applaud 13 Reasons Why for its avoidance of categories when it comes to the characters, and particularly for positioning a teenage girl who killed herself at the center of the series, while not making her into a martyr. Hannah suffers reprehensible treatment from classmates and her school, yet dishes out some of her own in reaction, and contributes to her own downward spiral. She can be aware, or very much in her own head. On those last points, one debatable topic is how much responsibility for others lies on an individual and on communities as a collective. There’s merit to the concept that people’s actions may have massive consequences, but there is also the question of the ethicality in blaming someone else for a person’s death, as Hannah blames the people in her tapes, and how much fault the people around Hannah versus Hannah herself carried for her suicide. Her adolescent immaturity makes her come across as a person, instead of as a distant, mysterious figure or arbiter of justice.

-It was five or so years ago that I read the book, but I don’t recall the development of storylines other than Hannah’s and Clay’s, while they are so prominent in the show. The novel seemed more isolated to a single arc, where the series fleshed out some less central characters, which emphasized the “domino effect” theme – that events are connected, and what happens to one person affects others too. There’s more of the humanizing nuance that I mentioned; Hannah’s “reasons” are not necessarily monsters so much as people with their own issues, who made selfish decisions.

-Hannah’s deterioration over the series flashbacks can be hard to watch, especially knowing the outcome and seeing where someone could have done something differently towards her, or she could have at various times made another choice than the one she did. Her description of an increasing sense of loneliness and lostness should be familiar to anyone who has been troubled and reached out, only to find disconnection between themselves and sources of help or support.

-Adolescent struggles and relationships will always be relevant. Bullying has recently been a popular conversation, but the phenomenon continues as a part of human flaws no matter how much talk is devoted to it, and will continue when mass attention turns to something else. I’d like to return to this show after the public interest has faded, to watch it again as a fresher topic.

I would appreciate reading others’ thoughts if anyone happens to see it and wants to share. Go ahead and PM me if you wish to avoid cluttering the thread.

[a_contemplative_life]

Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn, Stanley Baker and others.

Hadn't seen this in ages. It has a very 60's feel to it, which I guess is kinda unavoidable since it was made in 1961.

Did anyone ever have the Guns of Navarone playset?