Up front addendum: I’m distracted by an unpleasant matter (which I’ll briefly explain) so forgive any sloppiness in what follows. This is a daily blog, written soon after wake-up. That’s the deal.
It’s only 9 AM and I’ve already gotten some insightful entries in my ‘Perfect Ending’ contest. My pick was foreseen right away and the ‘winner’ even provided the ending via Youtube, for extra points. But this one is perhaps an unfair choice on my part, given that I was only 12 years old when I first saw it and could not have ‘seen it coming’ at that age. (I actually remember my parents taking me to it and can still picture the theatre marquee; this sort of memory is very unusual for me. Such was the movie’s impact on me even then.)
Sorry if I’ve shown you this before: My backyard right now.
By the way, here’s another clip from my choice, what else?: Doctor Strangelove; Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb. I like this scene for how Kubrick used the take even though the Russian in the back ground breaks character… watch carefully… so much for Kubrick’s ‘perfectionism.’
Still, this is perhaps my favorite scene in any movie, any time, any genre, any where. Et-fucking-cetera. The take in question was the take and because of the ‘flaw’ Kubrick must’ve sweated over using it. (Sellers was notorious for his ad-libbing and I’d bet that the business with the glove was spontaneous and only worked to perfection in this take.)
(I’ve read about the making of this scene, how everyone off camera was biting their fists to keep from ruining it; Kubrick himself staggered off, bent over and shaking with hilarity: The glove biz almost certainly was ad-libbed on the spot. That’s genius.)
A vote came in for The Shawshank Redemption, which is a terrific film, but I recall seeing the ending coming due to one too many fore-shadowings; in this case the mention (in mid-story) of Zihuatanejo (Mexico, where the movie ends). But that’s just me. I certainly couldn’t have improved the ending, or the movie as a whole.
I actually have a footnote (a ‘TTF’, a Time Travel Footnote) in Cosmic Banditos about this sort of thing… on page… lemme look… 133… ‘…if you come across a seemingly irrelevant passage (or image in a movie) you can be sure somebody is trying to pull some bullshit on you.’ I go on to advise the reader to pay attention to irrelevancies b/c they can come back to haunt you. Blah blah. This is pretty much bullshit on my part; if we tried to ‘pay attention to irrelevancies’ we’d end up in a straight jacket…
Always liked this one. What IS that thing in the sky?
All the entries have been excellent. Here’s another clip – part of the entry – which explains the thinking of the writer in crafting the ending of The Sixth Sense. I have to admit I haven’t seen this one (I will do so) so I can’t judge it, but from the above video I fear there might have been one too many set-ups (fore-shadowings). The problem with very complex storylines is the writer can under or over-estimate the audience’s need for set-ups. All decent writers know the formula for good endings — the ‘didn’t see it coming but it was inevitable’ meme – and are often tempted to over-do the set-ups. In essence, dumbing down the story. (Screenwriter’s nightmare: Hordes exiting theaters mumbling, ‘But I didn’t get the ending.’)
(Ideally, you should write a story backwards, knowing the ending and making sure every scene (invisibly) leads to it (on some level), but this is rarely possible…)
More to come. I have an unpleasant task to perform and have to do it now, meaning I have to stop writing this; I may be in a bad mood when I get back.
Gus on point, back at the Bay of Fundy. A while ago…
Briefly: Yesterday I had the rig’s oil changed and a minor repair done. Used my debit card to pay the garage. When I got back to my campsite I happened to glance at the bill. The invoice was for $158.94, but the actual ticket was for $758.94. Yeah. They had six hundred dollars of mine.
They saw me coming. Out-of-state tags, older guy with his dog, etc., etc. Called them immediately but they had closed (or, seeing my phone number, didn’t answer). Left a message. So the woman cashier (the mechanic’s wife) arouses me early this morning (talk about a bad wake up) , all babbling about how sorry she is, and that ‘This hasn’t happened in a long time.’
By ‘this’ I presume she meant getting caught. (Talk about a ‘tell’!)
So I gotta break camp again and go back there. More later.
#
An hour later. I just took the photo to the right (5 minutes ago) and am inside the rig right now (in theory), waiting for the husband/mechanic to get back from the bank with my $600. Just a minute or so ago, before leaving the office, I mentioned to the wife/cashier that I needed a pen, meanwhile gesturing at the cup-full of pens on the counter.
The husband’s a fireman; pillar of the community no doubt…
‘Sure,’ she said. So I took ‘em all, grabbed them in my fist, twenty or so blue ball points, and stuffed them in my shirt pocket. Up until that moment I’d been smiling and casually playing along with the ‘mistake’ fantasy. My smile was gone. Well, she literally started, as if she’d sat on live wire.
A few minutes later, I’m still in the rig writing this. Okay, husband’s back from the bank. Almost over.
The wife comes out. I’m thinking she didn’t tell hubby about my move with the pens, otherwise he might’ve come out. Eyes on the ground as she hands me the cash.
About an hour later. Back at camp. It occurs to me the above distasteful though minor episode can be dovetailed to the ‘Endings’ start of this post. For what it’s worth: Had I gone in there with an attitude of any sort, let alone made accusations, the husband/wife team could have taken the moral high ground (as my psychopathic former girlfriend Lisa was so good at): what proof did my sorry New York ass have that it wasn’t an accident?
Love their cops too! How about… ahh, never mind…
The best I could do was give the wife – relaxed that all was well with the out-of-state tags old guy with-no-wife-who-checks-the-finances – a bit of a shock, which my ‘reveal’ with the pens sure as hell did.
For her, the ‘ending’ was my reveal.
Allan
Unfortunately, I’ve found that this type of behavior from other humans is to be expected. From the point of view of this blog, how is it different from Joe Atwill’s work against truth, or, for that matter, Alex Tsakiris’s silence?
I’m adding this at the very last moment. Does this make any sense?
If you ever learn anything from me: Never let a scumfuck take the moral high ground. Lay in wait if you have to, and get the evidence. If you never get the evidence, do your best with a reveal.