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content, spoilers by Ray of Light 01/14/2005, 11:30am PST
Senor Barborito wrote:

Every time you post about Life Aquatic, you sound more uninformed. You've made a breathtaking downward spiral of retarded posts about this movie ever since I posted Zseni's Film Law. It's amazing.


Yes, amazing is the word for me.

Or have you always been this inconsequential and glib, and I just never noticed before? Do you usually gild it with better jokes? Is that what distracts me away from the lack of any actual content, typically?



Zseni's counter review wrote:

I saw a moral wasteland revisiting the hipster failure to detach from one's parents and become an actual adult (instead of just older.) The deal with Shakes the Clown is, even though it opens with a kid pissing on Bobcat's head, it's a surprisingly moral movie, and there is nothing surreal about the motivations of the characters. You know that dry dry dry super dryly sarcastic guy that Life Aquatic is supposed to be that you're feeling, yo? I hate that guy's nihilism and cheap veneer of worldliness. I hate the way he does shit without any reason, because he thinks doing purposeless, incongruous shit is funny, instead of sad and hollow. Surrealism can reflect a warped world, or speak more clearly about difficult subjects using what are at first nonsensical props, but some surrealism - like the surrealism of Life Aquatic - seems to think that, noh-like, meaning will emerge from the nonsensical props themselves. For example: Shakes the Clown is a movie about stand-up comics using clowns as metaphor; Life Aquatic's oceanographers aren't a metaphor for anything. They're just oceanographers, pursuing nonsensical oceanographer business, reflecting no absurdity, symbolic of nothing whatsoever.
...

But Life Aquatic seems to be a whole movie based on that joke: what if two dudes from Rushmore devoted 20 years of their life to the study of oceanography and marine biology? Thumbs down.


You're 180-off here. Steve Zissou is every man who set out to be great at something and came to realize he was just OK, or maybe less than OK. In the twilight of his career, his loathing of his own shortcomings is manifested as loathing for self and others.

The purpose of Ned's character is not to show how cool it is to be a man-child -- the movie kills him off to drive home the point -- but to show that, for all his failings, Zissou is still somebody's hero, even if the admirer is a child who doesn't know any better. A key hallmark of low self-esteem is hostility toward compliments; we see that in Zissou's reaction to Klaust's nephew (opening scene) and to Ned (throughout). He can't accept their adulation, because he thinks he doesn't deserve it.

The Pirates scene is the inflection point in his wallow-curve: he takes responsibility for his apathetic negligence, and accepts personal risk to set it right. It's because of that that he wants to rescue the Stooge; the staircase scene is a challenge to his fledgling self-image that permits the final triumph to cement his growth.

All of this is confirmed in the last scene, when we aren't shown the worldly rewards for what must be a brilliant oceanographic film, but rather the (unwavering) reverence of a six-year-old which Zissou has finally learned to cherish for the prize that it is.

So, yeah, I happen to think it's great.

I haven't seen Shakes in over a decade, so I won't write five paragraphs about it, but I remember a movie where Bobcat Goldthwait played himself, more or less, and just happened to be a big enough character to pull it off. That's a great movie, too, but I maintain they're incomparable because the distinction is vast: Bobcat/Shakes is about a man telling life he'll destroy himself before he stops charging at it, and coming to know better; Zissou is about a man who stopped charging long ago, and comes to like himself in spite of it.

Ray!
PREVIOUS NEXT REPLY QUOTE
 
GALLAGHER ATTACKS by Fussbett 01/12/2005, 8:59pm PST NEW
    Gallagher apologetics. by Senor Barborito 01/12/2005, 9:12pm PST NEW
        Yes, if only we could see the real wit and political satire in Gallagher shows. NT by Creexul :( 01/12/2005, 9:23pm PST NEW
        Re: Gallagher apologetics. by Choson 01/12/2005, 9:32pm PST NEW
        Gallagher begat Carrot Top. by And this I do not forgive. 01/12/2005, 9:49pm PST NEW
        Re: Gallagher apologetics. by Ray of Light 01/12/2005, 10:04pm PST NEW
            No, dude, I'm calling bullshit on this. by Senor Barborito 01/13/2005, 8:04am PST NEW
                Re: No, dude, I'm calling bullshit on this. by Debate Fan 01/13/2005, 8:40am PST NEW
                    Re: No, dude, I'm calling bullshit on this. by Ray of Light 01/13/2005, 12:06pm PST NEW
                        Except I did see Life Aquatic Tuesday night. by Senor Barborito 01/13/2005, 4:59pm PST NEW
                            You're INSANE NT by INSANE 01/13/2005, 6:01pm PST NEW
                            You should write a count-review. I'll argue for days. NT by Fussbett 01/13/2005, 6:17pm PST NEW
                                Counter-review. NT by Fussbett 01/13/2005, 6:17pm PST NEW
                                    Re: Counter-review. by Senor Barborito 01/14/2005, 4:06am PST NEW
                                        Notice that I deleted all refs to other movies. by Fussbett 01/14/2005, 9:29pm PST NEW
                            Compelling. by Ray of Light 01/13/2005, 6:55pm PST NEW
                                Napoleon Dynamite: movie of the year. NT by Creexul :( 01/13/2005, 6:56pm PST NEW
                                Re: Compelling. by Choson 01/13/2005, 8:46pm PST NEW
                                    That's exactly what many people would think. by Ray of Light 01/13/2005, 11:23pm PST NEW
                                        Re: That's exactly what many people would think. by Senor Barborito 01/14/2005, 3:38am PST NEW
                                            content, spoilers by Ray of Light 01/14/2005, 11:30am PST NEW
                                                This thread is exposing my own rock-bottom self-esteem by Zseni 01/14/2005, 11:47am PST NEW
                                                    Broken record and all, but Zseni still hasn't seen The Office. NT by Mysterio 01/14/2005, 6:12pm PST NEW
                                        Re: That's exactly what many people would think. by Choson 01/14/2005, 7:30am PST NEW
                                            Aren't you the one afraid of sex? NT by OPINION INVALIDATED 01/14/2005, 7:39am PST NEW
                                                To me, the definition of scary is posting under a regular nick. NT by Senor Barborito 01/14/2005, 7:42am PST NEW
                                                    WHICH IS WHY YOU POST UNDER A CAJILLION? NT by ROFL-Meister 01/14/2005, 8:22am PST NEW
                                                You mean your opinion? NT by Choson 01/14/2005, 8:38am PST NEW
                                                    *After school* Nu-uh! You! by Bill Dungsrom 01/14/2005, 5:36pm PST NEW
                                                Most appropriate nick ever? NT by Mysterio 01/14/2005, 8:41am PST NEW
                                            Re: That's exactly what many people would think. by Ray of Light 01/14/2005, 11:39am PST NEW
                                            The Life Aquatic is no Bottle Rocket! by Fussbett 01/14/2005, 5:23pm PST NEW
                                                Re: The Life Aquatic is no Bottle Rocket! by Choson 01/14/2005, 5:50pm PST NEW
                                                    So have you married The Royal Tenenbaums yet? (why don't you?) by Fussbett 01/14/2005, 8:56pm PST NEW
                                                        Zseni says your, OJECTIVELY, the coolest poster here! by Burble 01/15/2005, 4:50am PST NEW
                                                        Re: So have you married The Royal Tenenbaums yet? (why don't you?) by Oh SNAP guy 01/15/2005, 10:16am PST NEW
                                                        Re: So have you married The Royal Tenenbaums yet? (why don't you?) by Choson 01/15/2005, 10:17am PST NEW
                                                            O SNAP, GUY! NT by whydirt 01/15/2005, 10:26am PST NEW
                                                                Re: O SNAP, GUY! by Choson 01/15/2005, 10:42am PST NEW
                                                Truely bizzarre footnote by laudablepuss 05/18/2005, 8:59pm PDT NEW
        Gallagher has been perfectly judged. by Fussbett 01/12/2005, 10:55pm PST NEW
    Re: GALLAGHER ATTACKS by Bill Dungsroman 01/13/2005, 11:34am PST NEW
 
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