We had a long weekend this time and we got a chance to catch
up with the new Avengers movie. It was quite a disappointment. The story went berserk
and the action went even weirder. Well what do you do when you have Hulk on
your avengers team. The guy is out of control and indestructible. You can nuke
him or shoot him or anything else. Anything you do only makes him madder! But what
the hell. A movie that I could finally discuss with my daughter. She too
thought it was a bit over the top. Then I tried to explain to her what the
artificial intelligence they show is and how the basis of AI in the movie is in
reality. It’s quite interesting how clued in good quality fiction writing is. They
can take an idea from reality and close make it work with the story. Basically take
the most simplest of future gazing and take it to its ultimate mess. Even hulk
and the others were all products of the nuclear age where you needed to be
radiated to have super human powers.
Talking about radiation, when men discovered radioactive
substances we went berserk. We thought that this is cool new scientific stuff
and therefore lets sell it as the next best thing to sliced bread. We put radium in toothpastes and even in
water. In fact we sold a canister which contained radioactive substances mean
to radiate the water before we drank it. Obviously people drank this to die! Don’t
believe me – try this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Ore_Revigator.
The revigator was the big thing in the 1920’s.
But forget that… yesterday I got Jispa to watch the movie ‘for
a few dollars more’ with me. this was the movie I had loved to watch. It was a
cult with the guys and Clint Eastwood was the ultimate cool hero with a billion
dollars of attitude. This was Jispa’s first western and as I explained to her –
it was her first Spaghetti western. These were called so as they were western
movie produced with American actors but largely meant for the Italian market. They
were shot without sound and then the lines were in Italian. The English versions
were an afterthought. Released in 1965, these movies had an indelible impact on
the movie loving public. And of course a ton of filmmakers. These westerns in
their plot were inspired by the Japanese – especially Kurosawa and his band of
films. We in india got inspired and made a few movies. One was a decent hit
called Khotey Sikkey, which starred Firoze Khan in the lead and directed by Narendra
Bedi. Narendra Bedi was the brother of my mom’s best friend and that’s why I knew
some of this past story. It seems they all around the same time watched these
westerns and decided to make movies. Narendra Bedi made Khotey Sikkey but the
movie that created the maximum impact was – what else – Sholay. Sholay while
being an absolute super grosser and a great movie – it still to my mind was a
well made rip off. It seems to me that the villain in ‘for a few dollars more’
was an inspiration in many ways for Gabbar. The hairdo, the built, the beard,
the laughter, the madness, the brooding – everything seemed so Gabbar in the movie.
A la Gabbar, this guy too smashes insects on his hand, while brooding over. While
I knew Sholay was inspired, watching this movie took a little sheen that I had
in my head for Sholay. Of course Sholay was well picturised, they had some
amazing dialogues, love story, music, everything… but still, it was copied.
Even the background score by RD was heavily inspired by the
movie, the shots, the wide angle landscapes, the signature tune. I had taken
Jispa to watch Sholay and when this movie was being played, I kept reminding Jispa
of the similarities.
You can see the amazing title sequence here which sets the tone
for the entire movie.
Jispa and I were having fun with the background score and the
tones of attitude the movie oozed. The full
movie had hardly anything that made sense. Everything was just a lead up for a
large dollop of attitude to be served up. Of course as teen boys in our time,
we loved it. Jispa enjoyed it but couldn’t understand what the huge fuss was
about. She found the shoe scene particularly dumb. Which Shoe scene? Oh dear –
see this scene, where the two heroes face off against one another. One is
obviously trying to better the other! And who of the two is really the Big
Boss! And you really have to be a teen age boy to get the real fun kick behind
putting sand on another’s shoe. It’s so stupid that’s it so much full of
attitude. Complete spaghetti with sand!
