Thinking About Stakes

When crating fiction a common bit of advice to ‘raise the stakes.’ This is a suggestion of magnify the penalty for failure for the protagonist making the eventual success or failure that much more impactful for the reader or audience. However, this is usually or at least often interpreted as threaten more lives, make the potential explosions larger, the potential death toll higher but that is too simplistic a way to think about stakes.

In franchise material there is what I call the ‘Bond Effect’ where each adventure has to have more on the line than the previous adventure. Very quickly the writers find themselves in the situation where Bond has to save the entire world, from nuclear annihilation, a murderous madman with a secret orbiting space station of death, what have you, and once he has saved the world saving it again has less entertainment value We know there is never going to be a Bond film where the world dies, not even the 70s got that bleak so the combination of an assured outcome and devalued victory makes each world save less thrilling until they become boring. For this effect magnified beyond look to the UK program Doctor Who where the stakes have been repeatedly raised to the entire universe sometimes destroying and recreating the universe as their climatic conclusions.

What all this misses is that stakes are most potent when we are emotionally invested in them. Setting aside the ‘save the world or universe’ trope the protagonist is they fail should suffer deep emotional coast and or loss. This is a lesson well learned in dramatic fiction and too often not in genre stories. Marvel studios did this particularly well in a couple of films, notably Captain America: The Winter Soldier where after saving the world we got to the real stakes for Steve Rogers, saving his friend Bucky Barnes from Hydra’s mind control and Captain America: Civil War where the world was never in danger but rather at its heart it is the friendship between Steve and Tony Stark that is in danger and in that story ultimately lost. The cost of failure is the emotional damage to the characters, these are very high stakes that are intimately personal and emotionally compelling for the audience.

It’s easy to craft plots with larger and larger death star threatening planets and entire star systems it is harder but more satisfying into dive deep into character and find the thing that matters most to them as a person and make us the readers and the audience share in the terror of losing that thing. Then you will have stakes that really matter.

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Without Grogu is There a Story?

Light Spoilers for the Entire Run of The Mandalorian to date.

The Mandalorian is Disney +’s original Star Wars series set during the period after the fall of the Galactic Empire and before the events of The Force Awakens. Its central and titular character is Din Djarin an orphan raised in a Mandalorian creed that emphasizes warrior qualities and religious devotion to never revealing one’s face to another living being. Mandalorian in the lore of Star Wars are a people and a belief that are currently suffering a diaspora after the conquest of their home-world with many serving as mercenaries and bounty hunters. Din lives as a bounty hunter in a near sociopathic existence without compassion or remorse until a contract has him ‘obtaining’ an asset the child ‘Grogu’ or better known popularly as ‘Baby Yoda.’ Din forms a bond with the 50-year-old child and ends up forsaking his bounty hunter life with a quest to reunite the child with the Jedi that are responsible for Grogu.

Over the course of two season Din and Grogu encounter many characters, some original to the show some from other Star Wars properties until in the final episode of season two Grogu departs with a jedi master with Din revealing his face to the child before their farewell.

The Mandalorian has been a major success for Disney penetrating deep into the cultural conversation, drawing subscribers to their streaming service, and igniting fresh enthusiasm for a franchise more than 40 years old but I wonder what happens next?

I have enjoyed the series, but I also see that the episodes are often very light ion story while heavy on plot. An entire episode will be devoted to a single plot point, infiltrating an Imperial base to gain access to a piece of datum that moves the plot forward but in terms of character has very little to say. The only powerful story element of the series has been the transformation of Din because of his bond with Grogu and with Grogu departure what is there that is emotionally compelling about Din’s adventures? The series had first-rate action, ground-breaking visual effects, and a radical approach to placing actors and characters into fantastic settings that is going to change the industry forever but none of that is gripping emotional storytelling. Grogu is the reason the series has exploded culturally; Din is a cypher, and it is very difficult to make a cypher a compelling character. Not impossible mind you, mysterious samurai and gun slingers without names have carried film franchises for a few films but that’s a shorter run than a television series.

Only time and another season will show if the writers of the Mandaloriancan expand their show beyond spectacle, action, and ‘easter eggs’ of fan lore.

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A Substandard Giallo: The Corruption of Chris Miller

The streaming services Shudder added a number of Giallos to their line-up in recent weeks and my sweetie-wife and I put several on the queue for watching. This week it was 1973’s The Corruption of Chris Miller starring Jean Seberg.

Two women, Ruth Miller (Jean Seberg) and her stepdaughter Chris, live in an isolated Spanish estate when a passing vagrant who had slept in their barn, and I’m not making this up, named Barney, is taken in as a handyman and live-in lover for Ruth. Chris suffers from some undefined terror that when it rains causes her to turn violent stabbing everything in sight. Halfway through the film’s running time we are told that there are unsolved vicious murders in a 100-kilometer radius around the village and Ruth and Chris apparently leap to the conclusion that it’s likely Barney that is the culprit.

The Corruption of Chris Miller is meant to be a taunt thriller filled with mystery and dread, but it fails on all fronts. The flashback sequences leading up to Chris’ violent outburst make clear why she reacts the way she does, the languid pace builds no tension and the discord between Ruth and Chris is never fully explained of explored. Frankly by the end of the film I could not tell you how Chris was ‘corrupted’ as she and Ruth both exit the story pretty much the same characters as they entered.

While many giallos fail logic tests they usually possess a strong sense of style to carry mood and atmosphere but this fails there as well and I cannot recommend it anyone.

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Quick Hit: A New Podcast Discovery

I discovered a new podcast a week or so ago Cult 45 is a podcast devoted to cult and exploitation cinema. The name is a play on name of the malt liquor Colt 45 which of course is a play on a firearm so just from its title the podcast is meta.

The podcast is hosted by and comments on from an American black perspective and it is highly entertaining. So far, I have listened to episodes about the films The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, Re-Animator, and a double episode on The Wicker Man commenting on both version of the movie. (And righteously they revere the original and mock the re-make.)

Here is their episode on the classic horror film that launched a franchise Night of the Living Dead.

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The Marvel Show That Sailed Away

The Marvel Cinematic Universe had run a fairly tight ship continuity-wise. There have been a few misstep and clues dropped that led to nowhere, such as The Ten Rings reference in Iron Man that never paid off but overall the studio has done a good job presenting its properties as taking place in the same share setting.

And then there’s Marvels’ Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. which ran on ABC from 2013 thru 2020 for 136 episodes and followed the turbulent lives of a few SHIELD agents as they navigated personal, professional, and powered challenges in a world suddenly infused with enhanced beings and aliens.

For the first season the program hewed close to the events of the MCU, the agents were dispatched to the UK as part of the clean-up and follow-up crew in the wake of the destruction unleased by the conflicts of Thor: The Dark Worldand the agency was toppled by the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. But as the series progressed the connections between the feature films and the events the television characters encounter weakened until finally the most massive event of the MCU, Thanos’ eradication of half of all life in the universe, is never referenced and for all practical purposes never happens.

Agents of SHIELD did play with a number of concepts and characters from Marvel mythology with the introduction of Life Model Decoy, android replicas of characters, the best onscreen portrayal of the Ghost Rider character, and the introduction of the Inhumans as a stand in for mutant powered individuals as that ‘term’ for enhanced superpowered character was tied up with the right to the X-Men franchise with Fox studios.

All seven season of Agents of Shield are available for streaming on Netflixand I am currently doing a front to back re-watch of the series.

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Political Legitimacy is a Shared Fantasy

I remember clearly from one of my Political Science courses the professor asking the class, “When is a government Legitimate?” The answer is when people accept it as legitimate. There is no objective test, rule, or criteria that can be applied to determine legitimacy it is something acquired through consensus often an unspoken and intuitive attitude.

Donald Trump and worse yet major elements of the Republican Party have gravely and perhaps irreparably damaged the legitimacy of the U.S. Government.

Andrew Jackson, a president many hold in contempt, still recognized the legitimacy of the government even after losing in what he considered by way of ‘a corrupt bargain,’ in 1824.

Richard Nixon after losing a closely fought campaign in 1960 to Kennedy, a campaign that many felt had been influenced by potential corruption from Chicago, recognized the new Administration’s legitimacy.

Al Gore, after losing critical court battles but winning the nation’s popular vote, conceded the election to Bush and did not challenge the process as illegitimate.

In each of these cases there were some who refused to accept the outcome as legitimate. There always are but critically not the principals involved. Not the candidate themselves and not the leaders of the parties, this is not the case for the 2020 Presidential contest.

Trump is a lying narcissist, a damaged emotional wreck of a human being immature and unable to act in any manner other than greedy self-interest. (An Objectivist hero you might say.) His refusal to accept that he actually lost the election was not only predictable but heavily predicted. Because he occupies the office of POTUS that alone is enough to damage faith in the government’s legitimacy but when his refusal became a litmus test for national Republicans the damage to our nation grew.

Cowed, subjugated, and terrified of the base that they had spent decades cultivating GOP politicians refused to acknowledge the truth that Trump had lost. They filed laughable suits, they implored state government to overturn the election and made motions to disenfranchise millions of voters. And those that did not participate in these direct assaults on the very nature of our government turned a blind eye to the carnage, implored that this was simply ‘the process’ and coddled the mad child-king as he shredded faith in our system, as he destroyed legitimacy.

Foolishly they believe that once the administration has passed, they will be able to return to a pre-Trump state, but time flows in only one direction and it can never be rewound. The bell has been struck, millions of people now believe that this election was illegitimate, and that the new administration is inherently criminal.

I fear that McConnel, Fox News, and all the rest have given birth to many more Cesar Sayocs.

 

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Revisiting: Planet of the Vampires

Italian Director and Cinematographer Mario Bava, best known for giallofilms such as Blood and Black Lace and horror movies like Black Sunday, in 1965 released the stylish is somewhat misnamed science-fiction horror film Planet of the Vampires.

A pair of spaceships, the Argos and the Galliott arrive at the planet Aura investigating signals that may signify intelligent life. When the ships, after being unable to observe the plant’s surface due to a constant impenetrable could layer, attempt to land they are subjected to a mysterious increased in gravity that renders all of the crew except for the Argos’ commander Mark (Barry Sullivan) unconscious. As quickly as it arrived the mysterious forces dissipates the Argos lands perfectly but when the crew awake, they are overtaken by violent impulses and nearly kill each other. With their wits gathered the Commander must locate and rescue the Galliott and discover the terrifying secret of planet Aura before everyone is killed by the planet’s mysterious force.

I first saw Planet of the Vampires, and there are no traditional vampires anywhere in the story, when I was a young teenager. A late night ‘creature feature’ broadcast the film, particularly its ending, stayed with me from the 70s through the 2000s when I obtained first a DVD and then later a Blu-ray release. While the characters are threadbare serving plot rather than dramatic functions the film is immensely stylish and unforgettable in its beautiful cinematography. All the more impressive when it’s known that the entire budget was less than that of two episodes the original Star Trek series. There are very few optical effects in the film with most of the ‘special effects’ captured in-camera and yet quite credible and lovely. Set design, though impractical for an actual starship, is modern, for the mid-60s, and immersive.

It’s difficult to accurately judge the acting of the movie. Planet of the Vampires was produced in the International Style used by many Italian productions of the period where the multinational cast all delivered their lines in their native languages, often without know what the other characters were actually saying, and then the rest of the cast would be dubbed into various language for other markets.

Based on an Italian SF short story One night of 21 hours the movie’s ending, which I will not spoil here, is one of the scenes that managed to stay stuck in my memory over the decades. Even during the years when the film’s title had faded from recall the ending remained.

This film is not to everyone’s taste, you must be able to accept style over plausibility, but if you do you will be rewarded.

Planet of the Vampires is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

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Twilight Worlds: The best of New Myths Vol 2

One night I watched an episode of the Original Series Star Trek and the Enterprise arrived at a planet that was nearly identical to Earth. Of course, the production’s very limited budget and the period’s limited special effects capability forced the creators to use such gimmicks to meet the demand of a weekly television series, but it sparked a thought What might cause an identical Earth to be discovered?

This moment of inspiration led to my short story A Canvas Dark and Deeppublished in NewMyths.com issue 41 and now re-printed in their collection Twilight Worlds: The Best of New Myths Volume 2.

Available December 15th, today, from Amazon and Barnes and Noble in both eBook and physical editions, Twilight Worlds represents some of the best and most imaginative stories published by NewMyths.com and I am deeply honored to have A Canvas Dark and Deep included in this anthology.

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SpaceX — Almost — Did It

SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket company, is busily transforming humanity’s access to space. The Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage booster is an achievement of engineering with its fly-back and landing capability that allows its reuse with only limited reservicing between flights.

However, the second stage of the Flacon 9, the bit that accelerates the payload, cargo or manner spacecraft as of 2020, is not recovered and still represents a significant investment in money and resources that is simply thrown away with every flight. The ‘ammunition model’ of spaceflight, a mindset carried over from the development of rockets as weapon systems is unsustainable for affordable, frequent access to orbital space and beyond. The Space Shuttle developed by NASA in the 1970s and utilizing that decade’s peak technology failed to deliver on its overly ambitious dream of weekly flights to orbit and in the end proved to be too expensive in money and lives to continue operation.

In order to advance humanity’s flights into space SpaceX is developing two new rocket systems, a super heavy booster, and a fully reusable vehicle that booster will put into space named Starship (Though it must be noted it is a spaceship and has non capabilities related to stellar travel.)

Starship is massive and its operational plan requires novel flight dynamics, using one entire side as a heatshield as it returns from orbit, and then translating from basically a ‘belly flop’ attitude to nose up engines down to land in the same manner as presented by countless 50s SF movies.

This week a full-scale test version of Starship, Serial Number 8 or SN8, was flown to 12.5 kilometers and then executed the ‘belly flop’ flight plan. Elon Musk, SpaceX’s CEO, gave an estimated of a 1 in 3 chance of success for the test. After all this had never been done before.

After flying and performing the complicated attitude changes nearly flawlessly SN8 just before touching down suffered a failure of some type in the engine systems, note the bright green in the rocket exhaust in the video, landed hard and exploded.

Some have called this a failure as though this was a terribly thing.

Failure is the lesson before success.

Failure is necessary.

Failure is not the end it is the beginning of wisdom, knowledge, and victory.

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The Queen’s Gambit and the Peril of Sports Movies

The Queen’s Gambit and the Peril of Sports Movies

Written and Directed by Scott Frank with luscious cinematography by Steven Meizler The Queen’s Gambit stars the luminous and captivating Anya Taylor-Joy Elizabeth Harmon and follows Beth life from her discovery of chess in the basement of her orphanage through her trials and tribulations with substance abuse, loss, and love as she climbs the ranks of world championship chess in the late 50s and 60s.

Adapted from a 1983 novel of the same name by Walter Tevis The Queen’s Gambit is both a character study and a sports film. Following Beth from age five when she is orphaned after her mother is killed in an automobile crash through her young adulthood in her twenties the story charts the characters growing addiction with prescription medication and alcohol as she develops her skills and talents as a chess prodigy while haunted by the tragedies of her life.

Skillfully directed with the best use of split-screen instead of a montage and deftly written with nary a scene of line of dialog out of place by Scott Frank the limited series immerses the viewer in Beth’s life and challenges with a bold confident style that never shies away from the more troubling aspects of her journey. Anya Taylor-Joy’s performance is masterful with careful control she expresses more with voiceless expressions than many actors ever achieve with speeches full of sound and fury that signify nothing. I have been a fan of Ms. Taylor-Joy’s acting since seeing her in the amazing horror film The Witch, and here she commands every scene and every shot without overwhelming them with ‘star power.’

Steven Meizler’s photography is simply amazing. His use of low-level light while still capturing deeply saturated colors is fantastic, creating scenes with depth, character, packed with emotion and yet never breaking the sense of period. More than once I have watched a period set film orseries and the photography spoiled the suspension of disbelief in subtle way that still proved impossible to ignore, not so here.

The Queen’s Gambit does fall into the category of film that is the ‘sports movie,’ and as such faces the challenges of the genre.

The first is the ‘Big Game’ problem. Usually a sport movie, no matter the sport, turns it emotional ending on the final big game, the championship match that the character of characters has been striving towards the entire story. The problem is that they can only win or lose and with rare exception the popular satisfying ending is winning and with the audience aware of this it tends to drain the drama from the play. A League of Their Own subverted this by having characters the audience identified with and cared for on both teams so someonewas going to lose, and the audience would be torn in their loyalties. The Queen’s Gambit had no such option and was forced to confront the issues head on. The solution Scott Frank found satisfied emotionally.

The second major problem facing sports movies is the requirement to understand the play involved. One reason the vast majority of sport movies fail to work for me is that I do not watch sports as a pastime and so the players’ great plays and terrible plays are not self-evident to me. The Queen’s Gambithas the issue multiplied as there are few people who could grasp and the dynamics of master level chess. Here Scott Frank used primarily play-by-play commenters to illuminate the games being played and avoided the trap of letting the audience ‘hear’ Beth’s thoughts as she played. During one critical match I knew that dramatically Beth’s opponent needed to perform a move she wasn’t expecting and yet I also knew I had no hopes of seeing and understanding if his move was the expected or surprising one. Frank solved this dilemma by having an observer mutter ‘He wasn’t supposed to do that,’ the dialog, though a tad clunky, worked.

Overall, The Queens Gambit is a masterful piece of television and the story fit the limited series format. It is doubtful that it could have been as thoroughly satisfying had someone tried to compress it into a single feature film.

The Queens Gambit is currently streaming on Netflix.

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