Lifeforce: 35 Years Later and Still a Terrible Movie

Sometimes I will revisit a movie I disliked and check-in if it was the movie that was bad or my take on it. Usually the movie is at fault and Lifeforce, currently streaming on HBO, is no exception.

Released in 1985 and part of Cannon Films’ attempt to expand into big budget cinema Lifeforce, adapted from the novel The Space Vampires, is about a derelict alien spacecraft discovered in the coma of Halley’s Comet by a joint American and European manned space mission. The commander of the mission Col. Tom Carlsen (Steve Railsback), and seriously as a friend of mine once clued me in you can pre-judge a film’s quality by the haircuts of the ‘military’ characters and Carlsen’s is terribly non-regulation. Carlsen and his crew discover three aliens with human forms within the craft and bring back to Earth. Something goes wrong and the European space vessel Churchill arrives in Earth orbit but itself now a derelict. A rescue mission finds everyone aboard dead but the three aliens, still in their suspended animation, unharmed and the aliens are brought down to ground. The aliens are of course not dead and ignite a sweeping plague of energy vampirism, and not the cool kind that you get from Colin Robinson, that threatens humanity.

With a budget of 25 million dollars and box office receipts of under 12 million, which I and two friends were part of, Lifeforce crashed and burned on its release gathering neither critical nor commercial success. In some circles the most memorable aspect of the movie are the numerous exploitive nude scenes by the actress Mathilda May. ( I am pleased to report that this did not derail the young woman’s acting career and still is currently still working with nearly six television and film credits.) Lifeforce is a movie that cannot make up its mind as to what it wants to be. At times it’s a sensual vampirism flick, at other times it’s an invasion of body snatchers paranoia movie and by the end it’s an apocalyptic zombie movie with a tacked on happy ending.

There is scarcely an aspect of this movie that works, not in direction, casting, writing, or production design does this film make any sort of sense. Though I will admit that the end credit score by Henry Mancini is a terrific march.

While Lifeforce has found a following as a cult film it is not something anyone really needs to watch.

Perilous Pedestals

Placing people particularly artists upon pedestals is an action inviting disappointment and hurt. People are flawed and when some are exalted it nearly always turns out in addition to their better natures, they possess darker ones as well. Artistic people are no more immune to this condition than political ones, contemporary or historical.

Roman Polanski is a brilliant filmmaker and apparently a rapist preying upon little girls.

HP Lovecraft blazed a trail into cosmic horror that people still follow today and was a virulent racist and xenophobe.

Joss Whedon championed strong, complex female characters and was a philander and an apparent control freak.

Orson Scott Card created a series that plead for understanding of the other and called for the suppression of the rights of gay people by ‘any means necessary.’

The list, sadly, is nearly endless of artists and creators that wielded considerable talent, adored by many, and then revealed corroded souls. Which brings us to the current participant in this sad parade, J.K Rowling author and creator is the massive franchise Harry Potter and The Quest for More Power.

Rowling’s recent comments, tweets, and postings on her stance attacking the rights people of the transgendered community have provoked pain, suffering, and emotional trauma among not only the target of her tirade but among her devoted supporters many of which have grown to adulthood with her fictional creation Harry Potter.

I believe that the hurt from Rowling’s abhorrent stance is amplified by a couple of factors. One, the sheer scope and penetration of her creation into the popular culture. There is scarcely a corner of our nation or world that has not been touched by Harry Potter and the wizarding world. The sheer number of fans is simply staggering gifted her with tremendous reach and power to influence.

Secondly, people crafted a tremendous mythology around Rowling and her life. The single mom who became a billionaire and then gave away so much money to charity she lost that status. The repeated assertion that the core theme of the work as a plea for understanding and a denunciation of hate. (A theme that, in my opinion, the work does not fully succeed at, but this is not a place for my issues where Harry Potter artistically fell short.)

It is that second factor that I think powers the real hurt felt by the fans. The idolization of Rowling, her morality, and the power of her myth not only lifted the artist onto a pedestal but bathed her fans in a reflected glow of morality. That they shared in her goodness by being such devoted fans so when it turns out that she has darker less admirable beliefs that too feels as though it is reflected on her fan base.

Both glows were illusionary.

Your morality is your own.

This Year is Lost

About 2014 or 2015 after a meeting of our writers group I stood out in the evening chatting with member as our socializing tends to take place after the read and critique sessions when one member advanced the proposition that in American politics it doesn’t matter who you vote for because ‘they’re all the same.’ I strenuously disagreed. While there may be no best candidate on any particular slate there is always a worst one. In 2016 I had no doubts, none whatsoever, that the worst candidate for President of the United States was Donald Trump.

Setting aside his obvious history of racism, sexism, and corruption, and those were all disqualifying qualities, nothing in the man’s life, education, or experience remotely qualified him for the terrible power and responsibility of that office. No matter the issues and doubts I may have held with Hillary Clinton, Trump’s deficiencies disqualified him from any serious, rational consideration.

The US Government and economy is like a massive ship, possessing nearly inconceivable amounts of momentum and not something that can be quickly turned to a new course. During his administration this worked in Trump’s favor. The steady economic growth from the previous administration continued benefiting the current occupant of the office, and the corrosion from Trump’s corruption ate at the ship’s hull but had not yet caused it to founder.

The novel corona virus and the disease it creates COVID-19 proved to be a crisis far beyond the capabilities of the little man and his limited grasp of reality. His narcissistic ego kept him from recognizing anything other than how his own image was affected and his decidedly limited intellect prevented him from taking the actions might have saved thousands and reflected well on himself.

He wasted the nation’s lockdown, never intended as a cure or the crisis’ resolution, never putting the full force, might, and capability of the Federal government into action and instead cut the various states loose to compete and cut each other’s throat as tens of thousands died. Now, while the rest of the world claws their way back to some sense of normality, albeit with serious programs in place as they deal with fresh outbreaks of this fatal disease, the USA’s health, economy, and respect sinks under the waves.

For the United States 2020 will be a lost year. We aren’t getting back to anything that even approaches normal. Three vaccines candidates are in phase III trials now and if one or more of them succeed we will not have it on hand before 2021.

Great power and responsibility should never be handed to incompetent fools.

Photos by the Water

Yesterday I took the day off from the day-job and spent a little time down at the harbor. Normally one the weekends I’m taking photos at the San Diego Zoo but with the pandemic we haven’t been making our trips there every Sunday. So to get in a little more photography I decided to see what I could shoot from shore.

This is a replica of the San Salvador the first European Ship to sail into our harbor.

I particularly like this photo of a USCG helo in flight.

Someone left the collection of flowers and I thought they looked fantastic.

The Nautical Museum has added an American Submarine to their collection.

Children played in the Fountain Park.

No, The NAZIs Were NOT Racist Commies

Sometime ago a friend sent me a link to a YouTube Video expounding on the tired, worn, and erroneous idea that NAZIs were actually leftwing with the conclusion that they were in the end the same as Communists just also racists.

That video was either deliberately or unintentionally deceptive. It pulled quotes from Mein Kompf out of context, relied heavily on ideology from the Ernst Rohm wing of the NAZI party a wing that was murdered out of existence during the Night of Long Knives and the video begged the question by repeatedly citing a book whose entire focus was that NAZIs were of the left.

There has been considerable effort by some on the right to popularize the idea that Fascism is of the left just as from the 1030s through the 1070s, and perhaps beyond, to portray Stalinism as a thing of the right with terms like ‘Red Facism.’ Both camps are desperately trying to disassociate themselves with their own murderous extremes but this is nothing but spin.

If you want an excellent argument why the NAZIs weren’t Socialists here’s a video for you.

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Understanding Your Material

It’s interesting and instructive to compare two bits of film, though one is television, and their approach towards the military and their depictions of military men.

In Them! military characters confront giant ants created by mutation induced from the first atomic explosions. It is simply amazing to see the nuanced actions that are correctly capture in their bearing, their methods, and in their characters. One excellent example is when attacking a nest in the open desert and they are using bazookas as part of their assault. When you load that WWII weapon there is actually a wire lead that goes from the round to a terminal on the firing tube. I know this because I’ve watched training films from the war on how to properly load and fire the weapons. The characters in the movie correctly follow the weapon system’s procedure.

Nearly 50 years later in the iconic television series Buffy The Vampire Slayer the titular character Buffy is working with an elite special forces unit hunting down demons and monster in her hometown. When these best of the best warriors are briefed by a scientist on their next target thy have no questions for her and are silently dedicated to the mission and following orders. Buffy is the outsider and non-conformist with a string of questions and concerns.

This scene entirely misses the boat about what it means to be an elite warrior in U.S. service. These men are smart and those smarts are part of why they are elites. It is simplistic and reductive to think of special forces personnel as silent followers of orders.

The difference between the two productions likely comes down to the fact that in the 1950s nearly everyone knew someone who served and that close association informed the writing and production choices. For Hollywood of the late 90s and early 2000s people will actual services records in the production pipeline are likely to be rare to non-existent. Production companies get their writers and producers and directors from college and industry training with very few coming to film production later in life with the sort of life experiences that could help avoid these sorts of mistakes. It is also unlikely that anyone in the production system knows or knew anyone that served is such a capacity. All of us lead lives that are far too insular. Having veterans among the staff and having veterans review the material to help assure accuracy would be baby steps to getting such characters correct.

And the same is true for characters beyond those with military service. It is true for characters of religion, nationality, or ethnicity.

Representation matters.

Into the Memory Hole

The polls, and these are a few really high-quality ones, have Trump behind Biden in all the battleground states and tied in both Georgia and Texas. Now as a smuggler once said, “Don’t get cocky, kid!” but with a scant few weekends left until the election things are looking not only for team Trump but the GOP control of the Senate as well.

Should Trump go down in the inglorious defeat he so richly deserves taking the GOP Senate with him I fully expect that all of the Republican’s explicit and complicit support that extended to him will be shoved past the event horizon of their memory hole. There will be a herculean effort to portray themselves as people who never actually supported their party leader. This will be particularly acute among the ‘anti-anti-Trumpers.’ That constellation of politicians, pundits, and commenters who have never, or at least very rarely, voiced direct support for Trump but who have been vigorous in their zeal to attack anyone who does criticize Trump and his administration. Their silence on this administration’s corruption, malfeasance, abuse of office, and its entire lack of dignity shall be forgotten as they turn their fire upon the following Democratic administration.

We can’t stop them from doing this but we can remember and point out that their silence during these dark times exposed the hypocrisy of their ‘principals’ as nothing more than garden variety self-interest and unworthy of any respect.

Also, into that memory hole will follow any sense of responsibility for the rise of Trump. Trump did not fall out of the sky light a bolt of lightning to take the nomination and control of the GOP. The ground was well tilled and fertilized ahead of his arrival making his ascendancy assured. In my search for conservative leaning podcasts to add to my regular rotation I have found two that can listen to with anything approaching regularity, The Bulwark Podcast and The Dispatch. Both come from a conservative approach that is basically hostile to Trump but have a significant difference in their viewpoints. The Bulwark appears to be grappling with how the GOP made it possible for Trump to rise within their party while The Dispatch seems to treat his existence as a ‘black swan’ event and appears to think that once Trump is gone from the stage they can simply return to the party’s previous position.

The Bulwark is at least trying to engage with reality while the people at The Dispatch are lost in their delusion.

The Turbulence From a Death

As many of you know a dear friend of 40 years died last week from COVID-19. (Wear your damn masks! Wash your Damned hands! And stay home as much as you can!) I wish I did not have so much experience with the death of friends and loved ones. Having that grim specter intrude into your life at a young age leaved emotional trauma that never leaves and forever alters you.

But even with all my experience a death remains an event that sends your emotions spiraling are odd and inconsistent times.

There are moments where the enormity of the event just pushes everything else aside and the realizing that it is all real, it is not some nightmare and that your dear friend is truly gone, pushes all other thoughts aside leaving only the grief and the sorrow.

There are moments when you are reminded of the challenges others will now face, those who depended upon him, whose lives were not only emotional but financially intertwined and you fear and apprehensive on their behalf.

There are the trivial and small concerns that sometimes haunt your thoughts, how to properly and with respect deal with his absence when social events like role play gaming resumes.

And there are the brief times when it is not at the front of your mind and prompts a guilt that stalks your mood.

Life is not just.

Life is not unjust.

Life and Death simply are.

Silly Foreign Fun: T-34

A few of weeks ago I was watching one of my favorite YouTube shows where visual effects artists watch, react, and critique visual effects from various films and television shows. During that episode that had a couple of sequences from recent Russian films one of which was T-34 a World War II story about a Russian tank crew.

The story takes place in two period, the first during the German invasion of the Soviet Union as the NAZI forces approach Moscow when our lead character Ivushkin is part of a desperate effort to blunt the threat to his county. The second and majority of the film take place four years later when Ivushkin and others escape a POW/Concentration camp, thing seem a little mixed up in the movie but it is not one you’d watch for any form of historical accuracy, with a repaired T-34 tank and half a dozen rounds of ammunition making a desperate drive for freedom.

Sadly, the edition available on Amazon Prime is dubbed and there is no Russian language version for streaming. While the voice actors did what they could I and my sweetie-wife prefer subtitled movies to dubbed ones. She likes listening to the foreign languages and I find that the vocal performances tend to be better.

There are quite a few technical errors in the movie but this is not the sort of story where you want gritty, depressing realism. It is a story of heroism against an evil foe. (Set aside that the Soviet unions murdered millions this is their mythology and everyone is the hero of their own myths.) The use of elaborate visual effects through the tank battle sequences that follow fired rounds in exaggerated slow motions provided a lot of engaging moments.

The film was a smashing success at the Russian box office and it is easy to see why. The stars are engaging, the story never really pauses, and it celebrates a heroism that everyone can imagine. This is a perfect streaming choice of a Saturday matinee.

In Memoriam

On June 24th, 2020, COVID-19 killed my friend of 40 years, Craig Anderson.

He was a quirky, generous, geek friend and there is no amount of words I can use to capture his spirit or our loss. I will share a couple of stories here that capture the essential Craig and illuminate just briefly why he will be so missed.

Flightiness

Craig was gifted a ’66 Ford Mustang and he love driving fast. One evening in the mid-80s I rode with him late at night as he sped along Highway 8. It must have been nearly midnight or so because the freeway was pretty much deserted and Craig was doing nearly ninety miles per hour. (Speed limits at the time were supposedly 55 MPH.0

I looked across Craig as he drove through his driver’s side window and spotted a California Highway Patrol car exited Highway 8 taking a ramp along a north-bound freeway. Apparently the CHPie had more important matters to attend to and turned his car’s spotlight towards us, playing the beam back and forth across the driver’s side.

Befuddled, Craig asked “Why’s he doing that?”

“He wants you to slow down,” I explained.

“Oh.” And Craig, at least for a while reduced speed.

Humor

I shall not recount any of the nearly endless terrible puns that Craig so loved. He could always be counted upon to find a pun that was truly terrible and rarely actually funny but I do have an example of how humor infused his life.

In the early 80s Craig was struck with testicular cancer. He went into the hospital and they removed one testicle and then proceeded to crock open his chest because they had spotted a shadow on his lungs. Luckily that was not more cancer but Craig endured weeks in the hospital for treatment and recovery. I was unemployed and home when the one-testicled Craig returned to the apartment. He opened the door, dropped his bag, waved, and in a terribly high-pitched falsetto said, “Hi, Bob!”

Generosity

In the early 90s I shared a house with Craig and another housemate Bear. (Truly that nickname is one of the most apt I have ever encountered.) Bear and I were driving back to the house and I was facetiously debating him in favor of Ayn Rand and her Objectivism with its core concept that at heart all people are selfish and selfishness is in fact a virtue. (Not a philosophy I believed then or now but mere fun debating.) we entered the house Craig was sitting crossed legged in the center of the living room. I walked over to him and said that I wanted $20. Explaining that I did not need the money, there was no crucial debt or need just that I wanted it and also that this was not a loan as I would never pay it back. It would just make me happy to have an extra $20. Without a moment’s hesitation he leaned forward and staring taking his wallet say “Sure, Bob.” And Bear died in a fit of hysterical laughter. Objectivism was no match for Craig big heart and boundless generosity.

We will not see his like again.

Robert Mitchell Evans

Literary Saboteur