THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
02/28/14 -- Vol. 32, No. 35, Whole Number 1795
Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
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Topics:
Science Fiction (and Other) Discussion Groups, Films,
Lectures, etc. (NJ)
Ghosts and Logic (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
My Picks for Turner Classic Movies in March (comments
by Mark R. Leeper)
Travelers, Tourists, Tours, and Food (comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
ODD THOMAS (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
WAR OF THE WORLDS Special Effects (letter of comment
by Andre Kuzniarek)
THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (letter of comment
by Mike Glyer)
YEAR'S BEST SF and Luddites (letter of comment
by Gregory Benford)
This Week's Reading (TELL BORGES IF YOU SEE HIM)
(book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
==================================================================
TOPIC: Science Fiction (and Other) Discussion Groups, Films,
Lectures, etc. (NJ)
March 6: A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS (film), Old Bridge (NJ) Public
Library, 6:30PM
March 13: CHILDREN OF MEN (film) and THE CHILDREN OF MEN by
P. D. James (book), Middletown (NJ) Public Library, 5:30PM
March 27: DIMENSION OF MIRACLES by Robert Sheckley, Old Bridge
(NJ) Public Library, 7PM
April 3: OSCAR (film), Old Bridge (NJ) Public Library, 6:30PM
April 24: LIFE AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT by J. Craig Venter,
Old Bridge (NJ) Public Library, 7PM
May 22: BLINDNESS by Jose Saramago, Old Bridge (NJ) Public
Library, 7PM
June 26: TBD, Old Bridge (NJ) Public Library, 7PM
July 24: THE DEMOLISHED MAN by Alfred Bester, Old Bridge (NJ)
Public Library, 7PM
August 28: TBD, Old Bridge (NJ) Public Library, 7PM
September 25: IN THE OCEAN OF NIGHT by Gregory Benford, Old
Bridge (NJ) Public Library, 7PM
October 23: TBD, Old Bridge (NJ) Public Library, 7PM
November 18: ROADSIDE PICNIC by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky,
Old Bridge (NJ) Public Library, 7PM
December 18: TBD, Old Bridge (NJ) Public Library, 7PM
Speculative Fiction Lectures:
March 1: Ian Randal Strock, Old Bridge (NJ) Public Library, 12N
April 5: Neil Clarke, Old Bridge (NJ) Public Library, 12N
Northern New Jersey events are listed at:
http://www.sfsnnj.com/news.html
==================================================================
TOPIC: Ghosts and Logic (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
I heard a story in which someone at a seance was in contact with a
ghost. The spirit could only knock on the table to communicate.
"Are you knocking once for yes and twice for no?" the living person
asked. The ghost rapped once. That confirmed that it was once for
yes and twice for no. Or so the author thought. But they don't
look at the logic of the situation. That sort of thing bothers me.
Suppose the ghost was using once for no and twice for yes. The
guessed code was wrong so the ghost would have answered with one
knock. Which is what the ghost did. Really asking that question
established nothing. But if you are getting messages from ghosts
you have left the realms of logic in any case. [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: My Picks for Turner Classic Movies in March (comments by
Mark R. Leeper)
Well, here we are rounding the bend to spring. And it is not a
moment too soon. The films I have chosen for March are a little
better known than those I like to pick, but they still should be
new to some readers. Looking at the TCM schedule for March, these
look like my best bet for films people may never have seen. All
times listed is Eastern Time Zone.
After Paddy Chayefsky's play "Marty" went a long way to put Rod
Steiger on the map as an actor when it appeared on the Goodyear
Television Playhouse, the same play was adapted to a motion
picture, MARTY (1955). Ernest Borgnine who to that point had
played mostly thugs and bad guys broke out of that mold to play a
shy, lonely butcher, Marty Piletti, self-described as a fat, ugly
man. Everyone asks him when is he going to get married, but the
tragic fact is that his time and chances to find love with a girl
have passed him by. But his mother none-to-gently pushes him into
going to the Stardust Ballroom to look for a girl, and when he
finds a girl in much the same position as he is he decides he wants
to spend time with her not expecting how the relationship would
affect his friends and family. The quiet little film won Best
Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Picture
Oscars for its portrayal of the lives of the less-than-beautiful
people. [Saturday, March 8, 8 PM]
In the 1960s there was a flourish of Italian films set in the
American West--the so-called "Spaghetti Westerns." These were
mostly low budget, but they would generally have evocative scores.
The master of the Spaghetti Western film score was Ennio Morricone.
Today there are only a few Spaghetti Westerns that most people
specifically recall by name. Most people who lived through the
Sixties will remember A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS; FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE;
and THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY. That is the trilogy that made
Clint Eastwood a star. Many will also remember ONCE UPON A TIME IN
THE WEST. These films, all directed by Sergio Leone with music
scores by Ennio Morricone, became the inspiration for the storm of
Italian Westerns that followed. Those were the giants and it would
be hard to pick a fifth film that ranks near those four. Thursday,
March 6 into Friday morning Turner is featuring three Spaghetti
Westerns with atmospheric scores by Ennio Morricone.
The first of the triad is FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE (1965). It stars
Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef as two bounty hunters hunting the
same man, Indio. Each wants to be the first to bring him in. FOR
A FEW DOLLARS MORE is the middle film of the "Man with No Name"
trilogy, though he is called "Monco" in the Italian version and
"Manco" in the American release. It is not clear if the film about
him are sequels or not, which is appropriate since the hero is
based on Akira Kurosawa's ronin Sanjuro, and nobody is sure if the
Sanjuro film are sequels or not. In general FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE
was an attempt to make a bigger and brasher film in the style of A
FISTFUL OF DOLLARS. It is frequently considered a step down. But
it still is a lot of fun, as all the films are. [Thursday, March
6, 8:00 PM]
The truth is that most Italian Westerns were fairly roughly made.
And once they were dubbed, frequently poorly, into English they
carried a feeling of cheapness. Individually most are not well-
made movies but the sub-genre is better than the sum of its parts.
One of the better Spaghetti Westerns is DEATH RIDES A HORSE (1969).
As young boy Bill Meceita saw his mother raped and both his parents
murdered. He grows up dedicated to avenging his parents. When he
is old enough to ride out in vengeance he (John Phillip Law) meets
a gunfighter Ryan (Lee Van Cleef), also on a mission of vengeance.
They strike up an uneasy partnership. Also in the cast is Anthony
Dawson (CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF and DIAL M FOR MURDER). Giulio
Petroni directs it, and the score is by Ennio Morricone.
[Thursday, March 6, 10:30 PM]
Most early Spaghetti Westerns featured Americans in the main role
and perhaps more. The thought was that the United States was their
major market and Americans wanted to see Americans on the screen.
THE MERCENARY (1968) for a change does not have an American in the
lead role but the Italian Franco Nero. But so as not to break too
much with the formula Jack Palance is along as an enforcer for the
boss. The approach is a little more light and humorous. Mexican
workers rebel against their boss inspired by a Polish mercenary
(Nero). The boss has Jack Palance to help him keep his miners in
line. The plot involves a shipment of silver and a Revolution.
The film is directed by Sergio Corbucci who two years previously
had directed one of the most popular Spaghetti Westerns, DJANGO.
(The title was the inspiration for Quentin Tarantino's title
"Django Unchained".) [Friday, March 7, 10:30 PM].
[-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Travelers, Tourists, Tours, and Food (comments by Evelyn C.
Leeper)
One of biggest drawbacks of traveling on a tour is coping with
everyone's dietary quirks. Now, you may ask why I need to worry
about the other people's dietary quirks, but on a tour, everything
affects everyone. And when many of the meals are served family-
style, it becomes annoying.
I should start out by saying that I have no problem with
vegetarians, and they are not the problem. They have undoubtedly
investigated ahead of time on the availability of vegetarian food,
and at the start of the tour, they tell the tour director they want
a vegetarian menu for the whole trip. And so there is usually a
vegetarian table for each family-style meal. Very simple, very
straightforward.
No, the problem is the people who have more complicated
requirements, and almost never have investigated anything ahead of
time. If you don't eat pork or squid, but do eat beef or shrimp,
then you have two choices. You make do with what is on the table
that you can eat, but without eating other people's share. When
everyone gets one of each item, just because you do not want your
spring roll with pork in it does not mean you can take an extra
skewer of chicken. Or you can become a vegetarian for the trip.
What you should *not* do is sit down to this set meal and then ask
the waitress for additional special food for you. The tour has
paid for a spring roll per person; asking for another plate of
vegetable spring rolls just for you (unless you are paying for
them) is not fair. And if you do not eat pork and need to know
what has pork in it, or are allergic to eggs and need to know about
them, learn how to ask this in the vernacular. Most of the wait
staff in other countries may not speak English. (The same goes for
asking for a fork where chopsticks are standard, or any other
question or request you need to ask regularly.) [-ecl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: ODD THOMAS (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Stephen Sommers writes, produces, and directs his
adaptation of Dean Koontz's novel of the same name. Odd Thomas
sees dead people. He also sees invisible demons. And he acts as
detective for the dead. Only the really susceptible need fear ODD
THOMAS. Sommers's film is nominally horror, though not very
frightening. It turns into a detective mystery and then inevitably
into an action film, all the while decorated with frequent comic
touches. Perhaps that is spreading itself thin. Rating: high +1
(-4 to +4) or 6/10
Stephen Sommers was primarily a screenwriter, though in 1994 he did
direct his own screenplay for THE JUNGLE BOOK. Then he wrote and
directed THE MUMMY, which not only was a big hit for Universal, but
also tied into the series of Mummy films that Universal made in the
1930s and 1940s. Universal had him come back doing multiple tie-
ins to Universal's old and new horror series. He got additional
oomph by marrying action and CGI to the old staples of the Gothic
horror film. Here that gives the viewer creatures that are only
slightly novel and nowhere near the essence of horror. Sommers may
have been looking for the security of another franchise, since he
has now adapted the first of a series of books by popular
horror/adventure writer Dean R. Koontz.
Odd Thomas--that is his given name--is more than a little odd. He
not only sees dead people (but does not hear them, as the dead
cannot speak) he helps them get justice for evil that was done to
them. Odd or "Oddy" has a hard time appeasing the throngs of dead
who come to his door seeking retribution and the help of an
undercover detective specializing in helping the dead. He also has
to deal with little creatures unknown to others among the living.
They are the bodacks--translucent, tentacled, supernatural beasties
attracted to where bad things are about to happen--though since the
living are unaware of the bodacks and since the dead cannot talk,
it us unclear how Oddy ever found the name "bodack." Sommers keeps
the dialog brisk even when the young protagonists should be
frightened.
Oddy is played by Anton Yelchin, whom some viewers may remember as
Chekov from the recent "Star Trek" movies. His equivalent of
Inspector Lestrade is police chief Wyatt Porter, played by the
reliable Willem Dafoe. The comparison may be apt as Odd and
Sherlock Holmes each has incomprehensible but reliable resources
that the police can trust even if they cannot duplicate.
ODD THOMAS has the feeling of a series pilot, which is exactly what
the book was for Koontz. Whether Sommers considers this to be the
first of a series is hard to tell. Even with what must be for
Sommers a rather smallish budget, it could make a series of minor
films or perhaps a TV series could be spun off. The film itself is
probably as good as Sommers's other films, though that is not
setting the bar very high, particularly in the case of his VAN
HELSING. ODD THOMAS rates a decent but not overly impressive high
+1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 6/10.
Film Credits: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1767354/combined
What others are saying:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/odd_thomas/
[-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: WAR OF THE WORLDS Special Effects (letter of comment by
Andre Kuzniarek)
In response to Mark's comments on special effect in the 1953 WAR OF
THE WORLDS in the 02/21/14 issue of the MT VOID, Andre Kuzniarek
writes:
[Mark writes,] "I really do not know if the wires were there on the
original print or not. The only way to be sure would be to see a
theatrical print of the film."
That is the crux of the issue. My understanding is that effects
designers relied on the loss of detail when films were copied from
masters to theatrical prints. Theatrical prints are some number of
generations from the original negative, even if *not* involving
mattes or other compositing (which would be the case here).
So by the time the film is projected in the theater, the wires are
mostly invisible, and even more hidden by the limited capabilities
of projection itself.
Good DVDs and Blu-ray discs are digitized from sources as close to
the original negatives as can be found. I'm in the camp that
believes the wires should be digitally removed, because it was not
the intent of the film makers that we see them. I pray that
decision is made if a Blu-ray is ever released of this film (and
other Pal classics).
A similar issue occurred with the laserdisc releases of the first
two "Star Wars" films--one could plainly see the matte boxes around
the spacecraft, which were shot against limited size green screens
and had to be "cut" into the larger frame of the space scenes.
These edges were invisible in theaters (like you and perhaps many
reading this newsletter, I was in the theater on release day). It
was part of the reason Lucas invested so much in digitally
correcting those scenes (among others he did not have to). [-ak]
Mark replies:
We will probably never see what STAR WARS was like the first time
we saw. You saw it on Wednesday. I had my best friend coming to
Detroit from Western Massachusetts and he did not arrive in time
for us to make it the first day. So we could not go until Thursday
evening. I didn't mind not seeing it the first night since
everyone who was really in the know knew the *big* film of the
weekend was going to be Ray Harryhausen's new Sinbad film, SINBAD
AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER. I guess it did not work out that way.
A minor mystery has spring up in my mind about the timing of the
above. We saw both films, one Thursday night and one Friday
morning. The IMDB says SINBAD was not released until August. I
think that there must have been a special preview showing of SINBAD
in Detroit because we did see both films for the first time within
24 hours of each other. There was also a convention that weekend
and Harryhausen was the special guest. They must have arranged a
preview showing. [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (letter of comment by Mike
Glyer)
In response to Evelyn's comments on THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY
VALANCE in the 02/21/14 issue of the MT VOID, Mike Glyer writes:
There's a problem with the starting point of your critique THE MAN
WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE, which is that it's not a history. It's a
civil rights thought experiment--like HIGH NOON.
Within the frame of the movie, a person has rights only to the
extent he is willing to fight for them to the death.
Pompey carries a rifle in some scenes, so we know he has what the
movie deems to be civil rights.
You're right to criticize Tom Doniphan's treatment of Pompey in the
bar scene, but within the movie's morality Pompey can wield his gun
to get better treatment if he chooses.
That's political correctness within the alternate universe THE MAN
WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE... [-mg]
==================================================================
TOPIC: YEAR'S BEST SF and Luddites (letter of comment by Gregory
Benford)
In response to Joe Karpierz's review of YEAR'S BEST SF 18 in the
02/21/14 issue of the MT VOID, Gregory Benford writes:
Alas, Hartwell's YEAR'S BEST SF 18 is the last of that series. He
can't fit it into his already tight work schedule. I always found
it better than the others, and all truly SF, too. [-gb]
And in response to Paul Dormer's comments on Luddites in the same
issue, Gregory writes:
Yep, the Luddites were addicted to violence, and knew no economics.
[-gb]
==================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
TELL BORGES IF YOU SEE HIM: TALES OF CONTEMPORARY SOMNAMBULISM by
Peter LaSalle (ISBN 978-0-8203-2998-7) is a collection of stories
that won the "Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction." That
sounds impressive, but of the list of over four dozen winners, I
have heard of none of them. (I have heard of Flannery O'Connor,
though.)
Two of these eleven stories could be termed "Borgesian". The title
story is set in Buenos Aires, and Borges is part of the atmosphere,
a constant presence even in the form of the New Directions edition
of LABYRINTHS. And "The End of Narrative (1-29; or 29-1)", LaSalle
examines whether Borges's work was truly "the end of narrative", or
whether that was brought about by other causes. Not surprisingly,
much of this "story" is non- narrative in nature, and there is even
an unreliable narrator in the non-narrative. How Borgesian,
indeed.
In keeping with my observation that mainstream authors often write
SF (speculative fiction) without it being noticed as such, several
of the stories fall into this category. "Where We Last Saw Time"
plays either with time or with multiple timelines (it is not clear
which). "Brilliant Billy Dubbs on the Ocean Floor" is a story of
the after-life. "Nocturne" has multiple world lines, fractured
time lines, and enough convenient coincidences to make it fantasy
on that basis alone.
"The Spaces Inside Sleep" combines rare book collecting and sleazy
underworld figures in a strange mix somewhat reminiscent of the
"Thursday Next" novels of Jasper Fforde. "Preseason: The Texas
Football Dead" takes a familiar story--that of the football player
dying after practice in hundred-degree heat--and pairs it with a
less familiar story of another sort of football death. And as I
was reading "The Christmas Bus" I knew exactly how it would end--
and I was right.
Rounding out the volume are "The Actor's Face", "The Cities He
Would Never Be Sure Of", and "French Sleeping Pills".
(And I have no idea what the book's subtitle means.) [-ecl]
==================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
The girl was beheaded, chopped into pieces and
placed in a trunk but was not interfered with.
--Newspaper Report