confusedPraise creative geniuses like Polanski whether or not they have a dark side that people don't want to know about. If you visit my thoughts thru this blog from time to time, you probably know that I'm a info junkie when it comes to being first in line for tickets for the movies I want to see. Since Trainspotting introduced me to the work of Ewan McGregor, I've slowly been developing a following. But I can't help but wonder whether his scene in that movie in which he unsuspectingly finds himself in bed with a barely legal teen may have had some influential significance with the directors decision to cast him as the leading role in The ghost writer. I fed my film fetish this weekend, because I don't know how long The ghost writer will be in theatres, quite honestly. So much controversy with the extradition trial.
I may not have the greatest taste in movie choices, but I know how to satisfy the beast within, and before Polanski's new film premiered in L.A., I was so hard up for a movie fix, I accidentally discovered a documentary about the Pentagon Papers. That was boring. And yet, there is a strange coincidence in the way these two movies end. The ghost is hypnotically accurate the way it masterfully depicts the results of being a loser, while the former, if you know your history, contains a definite end without closure.
I like movies to be entertaining, and the only excuse that I can give to justify my decision to sit thru a documentary like The most dangerous man in America has to do with my curiosity over freedom of the press versus bloggers' rights. In a sense, there's plenty of entertainment in Daniel Ellsberg. Some of the reviews I've read about the Ghost writer describe it as an abstract depiction of the life of Tony Blair. My favorite part in the film doesn't occur until the film is one hour and ten minutes into the story, and by then I still don't know what the ghost writers name is, but the significance of my favorite two minute scene includes Olivia Williams (of Dollhouse fame) and Ewan McGregor. He is hard at work reading the draft copy of the memoirs he was contracted to edit, and Mrs. Lang, the Prime Minister's wife, happens to walk in and see the current page he is reading from. She comments why he has underlined her name, Ruth, whenever it appears in the text.
If I reveal a line of dialog between the ghost and Amelia Bly, I don't think I would be giving away the ending as a similar line also appears in earlier scenes not so close to the ending.
THE GHOST: I got you a present
The ghost hands a package to Amelia. Conversation ensues… blah blah blah
AMELIA: Something about the beginsings. That's what I heard.
THE GHOST: Beginning?
AMELIA: No. Beginnings. Beginning.
Note the letter "s" as in former Prez Clinton's statement: That depends on what the definition of the word 'is' is. There's also another interesting name to puzzle over. It is that of John Maddox, played by Jim Belushi. I leave you with the lyrics to
Maddox table
The legs of Maddox kitchen tables
My whole life twisted on a lathe
In a foreman's torrent
My first English was
"faster boy if you want your pay"
Barking commands
Loud and simple
We could all obey
Then I was forever pulling silvers
Rubbed the sawdust always
Deeper in my eye
Varnish vapor that could linger
On my skin
It held tight
The whine of spinning blades
Still echoes to bother my sleep at night
See that ox
Stamped dead center
On the letter head of the company mail
Four decades a spitting image
Of the animal I portrayed
At Maddox Table a yoke was carved
For my neck
Sun through the window oil spattered
And in mason jars
Tricked plenty seeds thrive
The standing joke
Around the shop was
With my green thumb
Anything'd grow
My part was to laugh
Show and ornery jig had
Cut it at the knuckle bone
See that ox
Trade mark burned
Into every stick of furniture
From horn to tail
Four decades a spitting image
Of the animal I portrayed
At Maddox Table a yoke was carved
For my neck
Was tailor made
O my Dolly was a weak
Not a burdened girl
Treat her to a piece of vaudville
A Wintergarden moving picture show
Bemus Point on July Sundays
By trolley we'd go
To your benefit we's strike or bargain
With the waving fist a union man
Not just for
Smokes spirits candy and cologne
But for
Automobile keys
Cash in the bank
And the deed
On a place called home