Apocalypse Now
The latest Time magazine had an article about the entertainment industry going apocalyptic, which we’ve mentioned plenty, particularly in relation to Iraq being both the birthplace and deathplace of civilization. Here’s the link, then some thoughts:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1704694,00.html
Writer Lev Grossman opens with a discussion of Mary Shelley’s The Last Man, and an exploration of that idea in pop culture (which we’ve already discussed on this blog) with Y–the Last Man and I Am Legend.
Cloverfield, the film producer JJ Abrams (Abram…father) wanted to become an American Godzilla, is the impetus for the article, which strongly cites the camerawork for providing the film with its power. The handheld camera style of The Blair Witch Project is called “the vernacular of the apocalypse,” meaning we’ve already given the apocalypse it’s own language. From my own viewing this year (well, technically last year), it’s interesting that the handheld camera scenes are the most gripping parts of In the Valley of Elah and Redacted, two of the prominent Iraq War movies (again, Iraq = apocalypse).
And now veering even further from the article, I just wanted to point out that the latest Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and the recent Oscar trend toward violent movies with high body-counts (The Departed last year (or my favorite, Children of Men) and 2007’s No Country for Old Men or There will be Blood, among others) suggest not only a preoccupation with the apocalypse by the creators but an acceptance by their audience. Even the Nobel Prize, which went to Al Gore for his work on global warming, betrays an apocalypse fetish.
Almost exactly a year ago, the Doomsday clock moved two minutes closer to midnight, the closest to Armageddon it’s been moved since 1984. There’s that infamous year again.
–Brandon
P.S. 1984, for all its other parenthood/print-related events, is also the year of the first successful sexual harassment suit, dramatized in North Country, the landmark representation in America of women achieving de jure equality with men.
January 21st, 2008 at 9:33 am
Brandon, you’re brilliant.
January 21st, 2008 at 11:14 pm
I concurr wholeheartedly, Brandon. This is very insightful. I sent it to a former student of mine who is working on a Ph.D. in romantic literature and is looking at relations between current films such as cloverfield, I am Legend, and the Last Man, and she was very impressed. Any time you’re ready to go to grad school, just say the word. They could use cool movie theaters in other college towns.
Dr.B.