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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 10/02/98 -- Vol. 17, No. 14
MT Chair/Librarian:
Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 732-957-5619 mleeper@lucent.com
HO Chair: John Jetzt MT 2E-530 732-957-5087 jetzt@lucent.com
HO Librarian: Nick Sauer HO 4F-427 732-949-7076 njs@lucent.com
Distinguished Heinlein Apologist:
Rob Mitchell MT 2E-537 732-957-6330 robmitchell@lucent.com
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 3E-433 732-957-2070 eleeper@lucent.com
Back issues at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4824
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County meets on the
second Saturday of every month in Upper Saddle River; call
201-447-3652 for details. The New Jersey Science Fiction Society
meets irregularly; call 201-652-0534 for details, or check
http://www.interactive.net/~kat/njsfs.html. The Denver Area
Science Fiction Association meets 7:30 PM on the third Saturday of
every month at Southwest State Bank, 1380 S. Federal Blvd.
1. We did not have a URL last week. This week we have two. Go
figure. [-mrl]
===================================================================
2. URL of the week: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/People/spok/banned-
books.html. A web page commemorating Banned Books Week. [-ecl]
===================================================================
3. The information is slowly trickling out about the new Star Wars
film. It will be called (and you probably heard it here first)
STAR WARS: EPISODE I -- THE PHANTOM MENACE. If you want to know
more http://www.starwars.com/episode-i/ is the place. [-mrl]
===================================================================
4. One more comment on the current government scandal only because
I keep hearing a lot of people making the say false assumpution.
It has been assumed by commentators on the radio and by people I
know that Clinton asked people to lie for him. It is said that he
had coached his aids as to what answers they should give if called
upon to testify about what had been going on so of course he was
asking them to lie. It ain't so, and I know because I have been in
the same position not too long ago.
It is time you knew that there is a lot of coaching before
testimony that goes on in our society. Lawyers tell their clients
how to testify in court frequently in real life and in film. And
it is time for me to come clean. Over this past year I was one of
the people called upon to be interviewed about ISO 9001. I was
asked about how I did my job and what I knew about my company's
goals. And before the interview I was coached--yes, that is the
word, coached--as to how I should answer questions. I must say
that it put my mind at ease. I was told what sort of questions I
might be asked, and I was told how I should probably answer the
questions. And let me tell you, because I know, there is a WHOLE
LOT OF DIFFERENCE between responding to question as you have been
coached to respond and lying. The simple truth is that I was never
asked to lie and I certainly would never have lied. Everything I
said in that interview was true and Lucent could not have convinced
me to lie even if they had wanted to. So this assumption that
equates coached testimony to perjury hits close to home with me.
===================================================================
5.
BATES MOTEL
Cable TV
Ice Machine
Vacancy
also Body Piercing
===================================================================
6. The phrase come to mind is Cedric Hardwicke saying "Slain by the
littlest things that God in his mercy had put upon this earth."
That is a quote from the film THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. The
implication is that our common bacteria killed the Martians. Ask
most science fiction fans what killed the Martians in the Wells
novel and most science fiction fans will say germs or common
bacteria. The novel does not commit to what really killed the
invaders and only suggests that it was common Earth bacteria that
might have destroyed the Martians. But I still credit Wells with
the idea.
In the novel THE WAR OF THE WORLDS the Martians attacked not just
humans but all the animals and the plants. That is a part that did
not make it into the movies, that the Martians somehow brought with
them a red weed which killed the plant life, choking it out. As a
sort of foreshadowing, the red weed dies off all on its own,
finding something very inhospitable, probably much like the large
Martians did. Some local disease killed the weed off. Presumably
then there were plants and animals that fought back. But who
defeated the Martians? The littlest and humblest creatures. A
virus or a bacterium to which we has some resistance proved to be
the most dangerous to the Martians. Well, THE WAR OF THE WORLDS--
by the way, the book was published one hundred years ago this
year--is very timely for the end of this century also.
In our evolution we have had to face all kinds of big animals. We
faced mastodons, mammoths, bears, large felines, and dogs. And as
far as animals larger than walnuts are concerned, we are the tip-
top of the food chain. That is to say there is no non-human animal
larger than a walnut that does not have more to fear from us than
we have from it. Intelligence and technology act together as one
heck of a defense mechanism. We think of the big animals as
dangerous, but any form of life larger than a walnut is generally
better off staying out of our way.
But before you start feeling complacent we are in a serious war
with other life forms on this planet and we may well be losing.
The question is not what is big enough to endanger us; it is what
is small enough. So what are the scariest life forms? It is the
virus and the bacterium. The insects will outlive us and will bide
their time waiting, but the virus really has the power to kill us.
These are things that are so tiny that we never notice when they
first attack us. Often we blame our own bodies, thinking that it
was the bodies that malfunctioned, rather than realizing we are
under micro-attack. Heart disease now seems to be closely
associated with appears to be a side effect of attacks by Chlamydia
pneumoniae, a sexually transmitted disease, and cytomegalovirus, a
common virus that causes respiratory infections. Chlamydia
infections measurably thicken artery walls and anti-Chlamydia
antibiotics seem to counter the thickening. 79% of people who die
of heart disease have either the bacteria or its anti-bodies, 4% of
people who die of other causes have signs of Chlamydia. We have
assumed that heart disease was just the result of bad eating habits
and never thought of bacteria as being the cause. Spicy food and
stress are what leads to ulcers, or so we used to be told. Now it
would seem to be Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium, that causes 80%
of stomach ulcers. (And that spicy food, it actually helps to
fight the bacteria.) The latest is that kidney stones are a side
effect of a bacterial infection. Certain very tiny bacteria form
calcium shells for protection. When in the right tract these
shells work like seeds for calcium to form around. They become the
seeds of kidney stones. If that were not enough recently bacteria
have been linked to some cancers like colon. What bacteria?
Helicobacter pylori, the same little monster that causes stomach
ulcers. It is enough to make you want to go and put hot sauce on
something. Maybe a chocolate chip cookie.
Then there are some of the newer viral diseases: AIDS, Ebola,
Marburg, Hanta. With the exception of AIDS, these things just rip
a body to shreds. Meanwhile our antibiotics become more and more
useless as we breed stronger strains of virus and bacterium. No,
the human race is in for a fight with disease. It may be the most
formidable life form we have fought, with the possible exception of
ourselves. The littlest thing that God in his mercy put on this
Earth may not have been such a mercy after all. [-mrl]
===================================================================
7. BLADE (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule: Wesley Snipes is a half-human, half-
vampire fighting both of two sets of warring
vampires in a great looking-film based on a
Marvel comic book. The story is weak and
familiar without much logic behind it. Rating:
6 (0 to 10), 1 (-4 to +4) A spoiler section
following the main review lists some open
questions and loose ends.
New York Critics: 2 positive, 8 negative, 3 mixed
As Blade, the title character, observes just after the climactic
moment of the film, "Some motherfucker's always trying to ice skate
uphill." That pretty much sums up the film. It sounds sharp and
polished. But do not think about it too long. How many places can
you name where the ice is smooth enough to skate on and goes
uphill? BLADE is polished, visually very appealing, and enjoyable
as an action film. But do not stop to think about it too hard.
BLADE is at once a good action film and a bad piece of fantasy.
This is a dark world in which vampires are something very different
from what used to be in the old Universal horror films. The world
is basically engaged in a secret three-sided war. There are
humans, there is the old aristocracy of vampires, and there are the
young rebellious vampires struggling to wrest control from the old
guard. The older vampires are in a cold war with humans. Some
humans know of their existence but try to cover it up in an uneasy
truce. The young vampires know they can take control in a new
order that will rule humans and older vampires. Tipping the
balance in the wars is Blade (Wesley Snipes), half human, half
vampire. Actually a vampire took his mother just hours before he
would have been born. This was sufficient to change his DNA--I
told you not to think about it too hard--so that he has all the
best parts of humans and all the best parts of vampires. Actually,
saying he has the best powers of both humans and vampires does not
explain him. It is not clear if it is his human or his vampire
heritage that allow him to get a silver stake in the base of his
neck and seconds later again be a perfect fighting machine. He
also seems to have the powers of an action hero.
Visually this is a very striking and polished film. While it
starts with some overly familiar time lapse effects, it has some
well-filmed fight sequences early on. I am not an expert on
martial arts, but friends who know considerably more tell me that
Snipes does his stuff very well. There was some suspicion that the
fighting was speeded up and there is no doubt that special effects
were added to the fight sequences. But the fighting would not have
looked this good without Snipes knowing his stuff. Digital effects
are integrated flawlessly with the live action. Stephen Dorff as
Deacon Frost is an acceptable villain without generating a lot of
excitement. Kris Kristofferson plays the modern equivalent of Van
Helsing. He provides the brains, Blade is the muscle. As far as
his acting he does not push any new buttons or pull any new levers.
With the possible exception of Snipes, nobody does. I would say
that it is nice to see Udo Kier still making horror films, but it
would not be sincere. Kier has always had non-demanding roles and
has always been just adequate. His presence in a film has always
seemed to be a kind of inside joke.
In many ways this is a good action film. The fights are exciting.
But the plot is a retread of ideas, several borrowed from Richard
Matheson's novel I AM LEGEND. There are too many loose ends and
open questions for this to be a really good script. I give it a 6
on the 0 to 10 scale and a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Spoiler...Spoiler...Spoiler...
Open questions, loose ends, and bad touches from BLADE:
(Note that this film assumes that there are good scientific reasons
for vampires and they are preternatural not supernatural. This
means that they have to obey laws of science and logic.)
Do you have any idea what a horrible, wretched, stinking mess it
would create to pump fresh blood through a sprinkler system? Where
would someone even get blood in those quantities?
There is an implication that what gives Blade his powers derives
from his DNA. Yet he was a vampire just shortly after his mother
was first bitten. What mechanism could alter the DNA in his body
cell-by-cell in that short time?
We are told that an autopsied vampire has "odd muscle structure
around the canines." First of all, wouldn't any muscle structure
around the canines be odd? If vampires can extend and retract
fangs, where do they go when retracted? How does the human anatomy
accommodate them without any differences being obvious externally?
How do newly bitten vampires undergo this extreme dental change?
Many people learn about the existence of vampires in the course of
the film--the autopsy doctors mentioned above, for example. In one
street chase we get a quick flash of a vampire who just happens to
be out biting a victim. Anyone who happened to be on the street at
that time would see it happening. Also, the victim would
presumably disappear. With so many people learning of the
existence of vampires so frequently, how could the secret that they
exist ever be kept under wraps?
Multiple times in the film people in streets wield guns and fire
them but no police come.
Both Frost's minions and Blade seem awfully cavalier in fighting
around priceless vampire archives going back many thousands of
years. They contain information that both Frost and Blade need.
Wouldn't one expect they would be handled with a little more care?
Though we never see Blade have an opportunity to pick it up, he
seems to have gotten out of the archive with just the right scrap
of document. How did he manage that?
Blade's contact with his mother was very short. How does Blade
recognize his mother when he sees her?
How is it that a 10,000-year-old temple of vampires ended up in the
middle of an American metropolitan city? [-mrl]
===================================================================
8. RONIN (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule: A good director, a great lineup of
stars, lots of action, explosions, car chases,
crashing cars, and flames. But RONIN also has
almost no story beyond double crosses and
murders. This is a film with minimal
characterization. John Frankenheimer gives us
a film that is all sizzle and no steak.
Rating: 4 (0 to 10), 0 (-4 to +4)
It would be hard to choose the best American political thriller.
Some people would probably pick THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE and others
(myself included) would pick SEVEN DAYS IN MAY. Both those films
were tense exercises in chills. The two films came out within two
years of each other and both were directed by the same man, John
Frankenheimer. But that was 1962 and 1964 respectively. For most
of the rest of his career Frankenheimer has turned out some decent
films, but has shown little of the promise that those two thrillers
showed. Each of those films had memorable characters and a tense
plot. They had almost nothing in the way of chases or gunplay.
The thrills all came from the plot. RONIN is like a film made by
another man. Somewhere behind all the shooting and explosions and
car chases there are the rudiments of a plot, but we see only tiny
pieces of it. We get a clue here and one there as to what is going
on but J. D. Zeik's screenplay is a bit obscure.
The film begins explaining that a ronin is a masterless samurai.
When a samurai has failed in the job of protecting his master from
death, he becomes a ronin, much like a gunfighter in the American
West. If you miss the opening, do not worry. This film will
explain again what a ronin is. Sam (played by Robert De Niro) is
the modern equivalent of a ronin. He is a free agent who seems to
have really good instincts about how to stay alive the world of a
professional killer. He clearly was in a dangerous business at one
time and now he seems to be drifting around on his own somewhere in
France. Sam is recruited from a Montmartre bar by Dierdre
(Natascha McElhone of THE TRUMAN SHOW), an Irish woman, to be part
of an action to steal a mysterious metal case. Dierdre is very
tight-lipped about what is in the case. Sam joins a team of four
others: Vincent (Jean Reno of THE PROFESSIONAL/LEON and MISSION
IMPOSSIBLE), Spence (Sean Bean, TV's Richard Sharpe, and also
PATRIOT GAMES and GOLDENEYE), and Gregor (Stellan Skarsgard of
BREAKING THE WAVES and GOOD WILL HUNTING). Also along is Larry
(Skipp Suddeth). The group seems to know their business,
particularly Sam, but each is in his own way cold and professional
with his own field of expertise. Their only human side seems to be
in tensions among the members of the team. The story is not very
easy to follow. It is never clear who is double-crossing whom and
who is working for whom. Somehow Russians (who may or may not be
the Russian Mafia) and Irish radicals are involved trying to get
their hands on a certain metal case.
Some very good actors are involved in this film. One wonders what
they saw in the script. The characters are mostly one-dimensional
professional killers. They know their work, and seeing their
thought patterns adds some interest to the film, but for this group
deep feeling between two people is teaming up with another killer
so that neither is killed. By the end of the film we never really
got to know anybody. Maybe that is the secret of why such good
actors took parts, since these are not very demanding characters to
create. In addition to the above characters the film also features
Jonathan Pryce and Michael Lonsdale (the latter of MOONRAKER and of
the superior thriller THE DAY OF THE JACKAL).
As a revival of a sort of action film that was popular in the
1960s, I was hoping that there would be something here to grab onto
and enjoy. Unfortunately there are no deep characters, and little
to make us care who eventually ends up with the metal case or why
they want it. I rate RONIN a 4 on the 0 to 10 scale and a 0 on the
-4 to +4 scale. NON-SPOILER: Incidentally, the tale of THE 47
RONIN has been filmed multiple times, usually under the title
CHUSHINGURA or as THE 47 RONIN. Also one frequently sees in
Japanese art the image of a man breaking down a door with a huge
mallet. This is the first blow of the 47 Ronin. [-mrl]
Mark Leeper
MT 3E-433 732-957-5619
mleeper@lucent.com
An idea which can be used once is a trick. If it can
be used more than once it becomes a method.
-- George Polya and Gabor Szego