Two Films - One Takeaway?

As you all know, I don't write about movies very much.  I don't see many of them and I know even less about film than I do about theater, although I ignore my lack of knowledge and write about theater anyway, ha ha.  But I recently saw two movies that don't really have anything to do with each other, yet, somehow, some thread seems to tie them together in my brain.  I guess I should warn you that spoilers will abound.

Last week, I finally saw Star Wars: The Last Jedi.  I had hoped to see it with my sweetheart when I was home for the holidays, but we never found the time.  Looking at my Facebook timeline from a couple of years ago inspired me to go when I noticed I had seen The Force Awakens at about this same time of year.  I went to see the movie in one of those theaters that have the huge reclining chairs at every seat and you can reserve your ticket.  For some reason, all those recliners just creeped me out, as I had to climb over people to get to my reserved seat at the last minute (I stupidly went to the wrong movie theater - good thing I always try to be really early!  It gave me time to be on time!), and everyone was just reclining.  It reminded me of the scene in Wall-E where the future gross obese humans just ride around in recliners on hoverboards.  Here is where I should admit that I did recline my seat...

I enjoyed The Last Jedi, though I didn't get quite the same thrill from it that I did from The Force Awakens.  Maybe my expectations were a little too high.  I thought the film was maybe 20 minutes too long and ended maybe three times when once would've been enough.  But on the whole, I did enjoy it.  I loved Mark Hamill's performance as a regretful, angry, unapologetic, but still filled with a generous spirit, Luke Skywalker; I cried every time I saw Carrie Fisher on screen and thought that I will never again see that sassy, brilliant, strong woman in a film again; Adam Driver's angst as Kylo Ren really worked for me here; I thought Oscar Isaac just blazed off the screen and Daisy Ridley anchored it; I loved the relationship between Finn and Rose; and though I questioned Laura Dern's costume (it looked like something out of Dune to me), I thought she was magnificent, especially in her moment of supreme sacrifice.

As with The Force Awakens, what I most loved about The Last Jedi was its depiction of a diverse and inclusive universe (well, they could do a little better in terms of sexuality and disability, but ok).  Of course the universe is saved by men, women, aliens, people of all races, species, and anything else they could think of!  That's the world we aspire to, right?  I just love that.  Oh, and of course the people trying to destroy that diverse, inclusive universe is mainly made up of white men.  I'll be coming back to that thought in a bit.

One of my extremely handsome and talented friends is a SAG voter and he very generously took me to a screening of the film Get Out.  I have heard a lot about Get Out throughout the year, and since I've heard it described as a horror film, it wasn't on my list of things to see.  I can't bear horror films or suspense films (well, I can handle some Hitchcock, but that's about it) - the last horror film I attempted to watch was Scream, on tv, since so many of my friends enjoyed it and thought I could get through it because of the humor.  I had to call a friend during the movie to ask who did it so I could turn it off.  I'm just not built for those kinds of movies.  But I thought, hey, I can be brave and see Get Out.  And so I did.

photo credit: Justin Lubin

I will say that the experience of watching Get Out was one thing and thinking about it afterwards has been something else entirely.  I did mostly enjoy watching the film - it has wonderful acting (Daniel Kaluuya in the lead role is amazing, but really, everyone is fantastic) and the story is incredibly engaging with a lot of humor mixed in with the horror/suspense (though I missed probably fifteen of the last twenty minutes: gore, blood, carnage - not my thing. Oh, and the sound effects, ew).  Seeing the world through a black man's eyes, even in a horror/comedy/suspense thriller movie, was simply stunning to me.  And then to think later about other truly scary and horrifying moments, which weren't your standard 'horror movie' moments, just blew me away.

Yes, there were the sneaking-up-behind-someone bits, and the 'what is she doing back there' bits, and the 'hey, that music sounds ominous' bits, but those aren't what will stay with me after seeing Get Out.  The terrifying opening, which turns small-town America on its ear, will stay with me.  The bingo game, that will stay with me. (Honestly, I can hardly even type those words without my chest tightening and tears starting.) The shot of the entitled, privileged white woman calmly selecting her next victim while placidly drinking a glass of white milk through a straw, that will stay with me.  Seeing how the police, who are generally a vision of safety and protection, are part of the terror for black men, that will stay with me. 

So, in my mind, this is how these two films are linked - white men are the bad guys.  Sounds about right to me. That's how the world is working at the moment, at least in this country. They're all (ok, not all, but you know what I mean) so scared of losing their privilege and superiority, and they're just so filled with hate for anyone who doesn't look or act exactly like them, that they're willing to destroy everyone for one moment or one iota of 'winning.'  Have you read Twitter lately?  White men are ENRAGED by The Last Jedi.  A Star Wars movie.  Give me a break.  The thought that women, and people of color, are the ones portrayed as heroes is just despicable to them.  It's crazy.  The fact that the movie is still selling so well is extremely gratifying to me.  I will be even more gratified if Get Out wins all the awards this season.  Preach it, movie makers!  Use your talents as a mirror to maybe wake one person up to the inequality that exists in this world.  Sorry if this is a tortured way to mash up disparate movies to make a point about how disappointed I am in the world, but there you have it.  2018 in a nutshell.  Already. And it's only January.