Movie Review: Mad Max

Directed by George Miller, 1979

IMDb listing

Pros: great costumes, shows soft-apocalypse, good world-building

Cons: slow, limited plot, sometimes boring

A few years into the future, Australia is slowly falling into anarchy. Max is a cop in a world where the law has little power. When a car chase leads to the death of an important gang member, the gang starts going after the police and eventually draw Max’s ire.

I never saw this growing up, though I did see the other films. I didn’t remember much of them though, so I had certain expectations that were shattered watching this. The first surprise of the film was that it wasn’t the post-apocalyptic setting of the later films. Society still exists in some recognizable ways, though it’s quickly crumbing as police become more brutal and courts have less power. It reminded me of Octavia Butler’s collapsing world in Parable of the Sower. 

The second surprise was how long it took for Max to go on his rampage. The precipitating event wasn’t hard to guess, but it kept getting deferred, which I must say created more tension than I suspect was intended. 

I loved the costumes, particularly the cops’ leather uniforms. The world-building was pretty good too. I liked that there were still institutions, but that their power was lessened. The bureaucracy shows up once when it comes to buying new police equipment and the costs involved. I was surprised at how willing Max’s wife was to go off on her own, which implied that things had deteriorated at a rate that meant people still felt relatively safe, despite the roving gangs. There are hints of the future wars over gasoline, and some good car chases.

While the slow pacing allowed the viewer to get to know the characters, there were several parts of the film that were kind of boring. I really expected the action to start sooner and the ‘hunt’ to take longer.

I was horrified by the treatment of the couple’s son. When he’s first shown, the toddler is sitting on the floor playing with Max’s gun. Seat belts weren’t really a concern when the film was made, but even so, in one scene he’s kind of tossed into the back trunk area of their station wagon. Then, after a traumatic experience, the wife (girlfriend?) take a good ten minutes to remember he exists and goes looking for him. 

As a content warning, the film is rated R, with some nudity and a heavily implied rape scene.

I can understand why it’s not considered one of the better Mad Max films, but I’m glad I finally saw it.  

Movie Review: The Seventh Sign

Directed by Carl Schultz, 1988

IMDb listing

Pros: mixed Judaic and Christian end of the world traditions, down syndrome actor

Cons: melodramatic

A figure of a man breaks ancient seals, causing the destructions foretold by prophesy that will herald the end of the world. Abby Quinn (Demi Moore)’s pregnancy is nearing its end, but a previous miscarriage causes her to be overcautious. Her husband (Michael Biehn) is a lawyer trying to stop an execution. When they rent out an apartment to a quiet man, Abby starts to believe he’s planning to hurt her unborn child.

First off, it disturbed me, as a former renter, seeing Abby enter the apartment several times without permission or notice. The second time she even rummages around the guy’s belongings, which is illegal. She ends up being a stalker too, calling after him in the rain to see if he wants a ride and then following him down streets and into a building. And while it turns out she’s right to be wary of this man, it was uncomfortable watching at times.

I really liked how the film brought together Christian imagery of the Apocalypse by way of Revelations as well as the Jewish tradition of the Guf, something I’d never heard of but which wikipedia tells me is a real belief. I thought the depiction of the Jewish faith was handled well, especially the scene where the translator needs to find a Bible, as Revelations is not his Testament.

I appreciated that Jimmy’s character was played by a man with down syndrome, though I’m less keen on the crime he’s accused of. I’m not sure how I feel about the resolution of his story line and what it would mean for believers if his view of things and actions because of that view, were the correct actions in God’s mind. I’m also not sure how I feel about the inference that he has down syndrome because his parents were siblings (ie, due to incest).

The acting is on the melodramatic side, which I guess fits the atmosphere of the story.

The movie starts slow, but was pretty interesting once it got going.

X-Men Apocalypse Movie Trailer

I've really enjoyed the rebooted X-Men movies and this trailer for Apocalypse looks incredible.

Novella Review: After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress

Pros: interesting characters, quick read

Cons: issues with ending

In 2013 an FBI agent partners with a mathematician to try to solve a series of child kidnappings.  In 2014, a series of ecological disasters occur.  In 2035, a tiny group of people try to increase their population enough to save humanity from extinction by grabbing children from the past. 

Told in three periods, the before, during and after of the title, this novel explores the activities surrounding an apocalyptic event.  It’s a short, quick read, at just under 100 pages.  There’s a fair amount going on in the story, especially as tensions in the future mount among the young men.

The characters are all pretty interesting to read about.  Julie’s probably my favourite, as she knows what she wants and, until the end, is confident in her decisions.  I found Pete sympathetic, but not the most likeable character.  Still, his story was interesting as he interacted with the others in the future.

I had a few issues with the ending, particularly since several rather important issues were never explained.  I’ll detail these in the spoilers section.

Despite not being entirely satisfied with the ending, this was an enjoyable, quick read.

***Spoilers***

The ending implies that the apocalypse was caused by Gaia - meaning ‘the earth’ - in order to counteract the actions of humans in the past century.  So, knowing humans would make a hash of the world again - eventually - why save some?  Why not just wipe out humanity and save some animals, things that respect their places in the circle of life?  I was also surprised that the Tesslies let the humans live - and leave the enclosure - once they realize that the negative emotions that ultimately led to the need for the apocalypse - jealousy and hatred - were still present.

Most importantly, what are the Tesslies?  The impression I was left with was that they were an extension of Gaia.  In which case, how did they create the metal enclosure, the water purifier, the disinfectant machine, the time machine and how did it pick and then teleport the humans to the enclosure?  And why so few?  I have trouble imagining how this group could repopulate properly, even with the kids they grabbed from the past.  There are simply too few people left.

My other question is, who did people think planted the supposed underwater bombs they believed caused the tsunamis?  And how many bombs would you need to wreck the coastlines?  Everyone starts nuking each other, but why?  How would nukes help anything?  Whoever survived would be further negatively impacted - as would Gaia.  And whatever enemies you thought were responsible would have caused a lot of destruction on their own lands too.

Art Book Review: Picturing the Apocalypse by Natasha O’Hear and Anthony O’Hear

Pros: beautiful images, commentary on the images and the periods that produced them

Cons: repetition, very broad overview using a limited number of works, breaks 2000 years into 3 periods for discussion

[Note: The advanced reading copy of the book that I received for the purpose of this review did not include the colour plates.  The authors give good descriptions of each photo and in most cases I was able to look the images up online.]

Picturing the Apocalypse breaks down the last book in the Bible, the book of Revelations, into its composite parts as a way of detailing how artists over the years have illustrated each part.  The chapters consist of: The angelic guides and John’s journey, the Lamb, the Four Horsemen, the Seven Seals, the Woman Clothed with the Sun, the Satanic Trinity (ie, the beasts and Antichrist), The Whore of Babylon, Armageddon, the Millennium and the Last Judgement, the New Jerusalem and, finally, how the 20th and 21st centuries have utilized the imagery.

The authors picked a few representative works that they then used to illustrate the entirety of the book of Revelations.  This allows the reader to see both how different elements evolved over time as people from different periods adapted them, and also to see how the same sources in each period illustrated the work as a whole.  There are, of course, some works included in each chapter that only refers to that element (works where the artist didn’t illustrate the whole book but where seeing a few more examples helps show a wider range of influence).  The downside to this is that you’re only seeing a limited sampling of what’s out there, but being comprehensive with so broad a topic would cause its own problems.

The illustrations and works they picked are of great beauty and show the different elements to great advantage.  They also act as a jumping off point to doing more independent research.

Though the authors describe the images they’re citing very well, be prepared to flip back and forth between the text and images a lot, both because you’ll want to see what they’re pointing out in their descriptions but also because they often reference the images at different points in the text (so, for example, an image inset in chapter 8 will be mentioned in chapters 1 and 10 as well).

There’s a fair amount of repetition in the text and pointing the reader to the chapters where certain themes and concepts are addressed, giving the book the feel of something meant to be referenced by chapter (as by someone looking for images on a particular element) rather than something to be read from start to finish.  The chapter on 20-21st C representations especially points the reader to numerous images already discussed.

The authors tried to show the book of Revelations in context for the different periods that they discussed, mentioning that the author of the book was writing it not long after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, when Christianity was being persecuted and when people were looking for a militaristic saviour/end of the world to come.  Seeing how people of different ages turned the meaning of the vision to their own ends was fascinating.  

Having said that, while I understand the necessity of mentioning the feminist critiques of the book, specifically that the depiction of women is stuck in the dichotomy of mother/bride/virtuous woman vs whore is important, I was a bit surprised at how… apologetic the authors were when presenting this 2000 year old text.  Obviously the author and numerous illustrators weren’t concerned with 21st century ideals, so why should the authors of this commentary work feel the need to do more than comment on how perceptions change?  Along the same lines, I was surprised at the authors’ attempt to reconcile the ‘good’ God of the New Testament with the destruction inherent in the book of Revelation.  While Christ taught love, it’s clear that the God of the Old Testament had no problem with death and destruction (plagues of Egypt, ordering genocide of conquered nations, the flood).  And this is the God that an early Christian, familiar with the Hebrew religious texts, would have been familiar with.  Again, it seemed a bit strange that the authors were apologizing for a text and a view of the world that has since fundamentally changed.  Simply mentioning that some modern people have trouble with the reconciliation of a vengeful God with the Christian message, and how it impacts the modern view of Revelations, would have sufficed.

While not perfect, this is an excellent primer for looking at the book of Revelation from a artistic standpoint.  The authors have a deep understanding of the depictions of the various elements and make some interesting interpretations.  And it reproduces some gorgeous images.