| TrueFaith77 |
06-30-2009 08:08 PM |
these are private, incomplete notes I sent to a friend. don't judge them too harshly. but some thoughts i had about the movie. i forgot to mention the bountiful wit and beauty in the film.
Well it seems to me that the themes were pretty apparent -- but it is precisely the apparentness that seems to frustrate critics (who prefer to just make up things that make them sound "smart").
1. the sexual innuendo/puns/imagery. Well this movie is about the lead character's maturation, and it's dramatized in sexual terms. he learns the importance of fidelity. yet, his relationship to sex is immature at the beginning. ergo: the prof's speech, the phallic tongue, the bumble bee splooge on the girl's face, the nerds' desperation, etc etc.
2. boys and their toys. simple. sexuality is part of us. the military comes from us. therefore, the military/technology is a manifestation of our nature. it's hardly revolutionary to suggest that there's a growth from the toys we play with to the military. . . the challenge, as with the sexual challenge above, is to be moral (gotta love the movie's digs at Obama! oh, Bay, that's no way to win over the critics! lol but i found it cathartic!)
3. the spiritual dimension. . . what is the point of fantasy films if it's not to show us how miraculous is existence, but though the representation is pulp the myths are timeless: the descent into the water, the ascent of the resurrected optimus, THE AIRPLANES OVER MEGAN FOX'S HEAD AS SHE PRAYS FOR SHIA'S LIFE. . . yes, the movie has already established the transformers as Angels (or Fallen Angels). . . it's a very Spielberg (he produced) trope as well. think of the airplanes that appear at the moment of Tom Hanks' death in Saving Private Ryan. it signaled, for me, three things: the release of his spirit, grace, AND the arrival of salvation: finally, help is here!!!
all these things are what makes Optimus' speech at the end so rousing: Military and Myth. This is not a jingoistic film or a PRO-military film; it's not propoganda!!! it is saying: the military is part of human civiliation, let's understand where it comes from and that we must not divorce the military or technology from morality. morality is communicated to us via myth.
|