A 'scathing' film about Sarah Palin is on the way

Politico's Molly Ball is reporting:

Nick Broomfield, a well-known British filmmaker, is “close to finishing” a “scathing” film about the former Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential nominee, according to the Los Angeles Times. ...

... Palin’s parents and several former aides appear in the film, in which she is portrayed as a “ruthless politician who has trampled over opponents,” the Times reports. ...

... Best known for “Kurt & Courtney,” a documentary about the late grunge rocker Kurt Cobain and his widow Courtney Love, Broomfield’s subjects have also included former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss, American serial killer Aileen Wuornos and the rappers Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur. ...

The Los Angeles Times article, linked-to in Politico's story, mentions that Sarah Palin did have something to do with the creation of "The Undefeated:" "While Palin does not appear in the film [The Undefeated], the site Real Clear Politics reported that she helped coordinate interviews for it."

For more about the pro-Palin film, ABC News has "Sarah Palin Filmmaker Wanted to Debut Documentary in the Field of Dreams.

I wouldn't worry about the pro-Palin film swaying the undecided. Most people have made up their minds about Palin, and American audiences are sophisticated film-goers, aren't they? They know it's the editing that makes or breaks a film, don't they? Someone could take the pro-Palin film's raw video and tell quite a different story with it through the magic of editing.

There is not much happening in Palin-world this morning, unless people consider it news that palin-bots are assembling their own cache of Palin's e-mails. It's just like film editing: people can insert, delete and move frames, just like they can e-mails, and have a narrator say anything they would like to have said.

Good News Roundup - Monday, December 27, 2010

Have you recovered from Christmas? I was in a Target store, yesterday, and it was packed with shoppers. They didn't seem to mind that Sarah Palin's new book wasn't on the shelves. That particular Target has an in-store fast-food restaurant. You can buy popcorn, sit on a stool at the front of the store and watch the cars and people go by through a big window. What a movie!


Some people can't quit obsessing over 2012. The Associated Press' Charles Babington has a reality check for Republicans:

WASHINGTON – When the news is written in D.C., it carries more weight, if you didn't already know. – This month's early, under-the-radar campaigning by potential Republican challengers to President Barack Obama is a reminder of something too easily forgotten: Running for president is harder than it looks, and Obama ultimately will stand against a flesh-and-blood nominee certain to make mistakes along the way.

Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty and other possible GOP candidates stumbled over health care, taxes and other issues in December, even as Obama coped with the harsh political reality stemming from his party's "shellacking" in last month's elections.

No serious contender has officially launched a 2012 campaign. But with the Iowa caucuses less than 13 months away, at least a dozen Republicans are jockeying for position, speaking to groups throughout the country, writing op-ed columns and taking potshots at one another.

As all politicians – except Sarah Palin – learn, the more deeply they delve into contested issues, the likelier they are to stumble. ...

... Other potential GOP challengers, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, kept fairly low profiles this month. But it's clear the 2012 race is under way, even if unofficially.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs was asked about Palin's and Romney's criticism of the New START treaty with Russia and the compromise bill on tax cuts, both supported by Obama.

Americans want Washington politicians to solve big problems by finding common ground, he responded. ...

President Obama is unpopular?

For the third straight year, President Barack Obama ranks as the man most admired by people living in the U.S., according to an annual USA Today-Gallup poll.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is the most-admired woman for the ninth year in a row, edging out former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and TV host Oprah Winfrey, as she did last year. ...

Speaking of movies, I saw two yesterday. Tell No One is about a conspiracy that seems to hold water, that is, it's plausible. A man believes his wife was murdered. Eight years later the case is reopened and he's suspected of killing his wife (and others). I won't spoil it for you, but if you watch the Blu-ray, you should know there may be a "setup" option to get English dialog rather than subtitles. It is a French movie. On the other hand, Con Air was completely implausible, even though a lot of stuff got blown up and they crashed the plane spectacularly on the Vegas strip (after they had crashed it earlier, in the desert): The prisoners were able to carry out their plan to hijack the plane, in large part, because the authorities were forbidden from carrying guns aboard the plane (full of criminals). Imagine that! Yet you can see Air Marshals aboard commercial flights carrying guns all the time.

Politics and Video/Film Editing - Is Sarah Palin Going Anywhere?

Much of a candidate's narrative or "myth" is presented visually, and for that reason it's useful to become familiar with some basic film editing techniques. A Candidate's narrative is often constructed out of emotional associations. In Wikipedia's Film Editing entry, we're told:

... Editors can choose between emotional and storytelling aspects of any given film over continuity -- something that is much more abstract and harder to judge. (Which is why films often take much longer to edit than to shoot.) Emotional continuity, and the clarity of storytelling, can take precedence over "technicalities." In fact, very often something that is physically discontinuous will be completely unnoticeable if the emotional rhythm of the scene "feels" right. If you were to slow down scenes from many of your favorite movies, you could easily find many minuscule physical differences from one cut to the next, which are completely hidden by the course of the emotional events. ...

For a simple example, we're meant to believe that the Going Rogue tour bus is moving while Sarah Palin is being interviewed by Greta Van Susteren:



Is the bus moving during the interview? How do you know?
If you think the bus is moving, is it on the road actually going anywhere?
How many cuts were there? Where are the discontinuities?
Are there any sound cues? Does that bus sound like any you've ridden?
Is that a bumpy road or is someone wiggling the camera?

Wikipedia has some basic information about film editing. Some things can be learned there that may be of assistance in evaluating a candidate's narrative, even her "reality show," more effectively. The See Also section at the bottom of the Film Editing entry has links to some of the cuts commonly used by film editors. Film Editing: Great Cuts Every Filmmaker and Movie Lover Must Know is well written and illustrated with movie scenes.

But more than cuts can be used to fool people; compositing can be used to place someone where they're not. That's how the TV weather person appears to be standing in front of a weather map. And there are even more tricks available to Sarah Palin ... .

We can enjoy TV and movies, because we willingly suspend our disbelief. We shouldn't always do so.

Blade Runner: The 'Final Cut'

Blade Runner's "final cut" is to be released as a single Blu-ray disk on January 4th of next year.

It can be seen now, as part of a 5-disc collector's edition, which was released in December of 2007. My library acquired the 2007 set, so I've spent the weekend seeing the film in most of its variants: the director's workprint, the international cut, and the final cut, as well as some of the extra/bonus material. I haven't yet had a chance to see the domestic cut and the 1992 director's cut.

The final cut's lighting seemed darker -- contrastier -- in comparison with the earlier cuts. It has two "improved" scenes which I wouldn't have known about if I hadn't also watched some of the extra material: Some out-of-sync lip movement by Harrison Ford's character, Deckard, was corrected (by Harrison Ford's son) and Zhora's "retirement" was re-shot. The final cut also has a completely new scene of the dove (Roy's soul?) flying away (to heaven?). The final cut has eliminated the voice-overs by Harrison Ford, which were unnecessary explanatory material and considered disruptive by Harrison Ford and many fans of the film. But unlike the international edition's "happy" ending, the final cut ends sooner, more ambiguously.

What's the film about? Four replicants, human robots made by Tyrell Corporation, with a four-year lifespan, have illegally come to Earth in search of a longer life. So, a Blade Runner, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), is tasked with "retiring" them. Leon and Zhora bleed like humans, then there are two: Roy and Pris. Roy finagles an audience with Mr. Tyrell, his Maker, and kills him after learning there is no way his life can be extended. Pris is then shot dead by Deckard. Roy then pursues Deckard through the Bradbury Building, and just as Deckard is about to fall from a nearby building, Roy saves him, then sits down in the rain to die, telling Deckard sadly (stoically, if you prefer), "I've seen things you wouldn't believe ... . All those moments will be lost in time like tears in the rain."

What I like about the film are the scenes of L.A. streets in 2019. They are dark, grey, blue and black, peopled by absolutely medieval characters, with bright, colorful neon signs.

Some people who talk about the film like to speculate about whether Deckard is a replicant. Perhaps we're all replicants, living here, somewhere "off-world."

Isn't it interesting that Roy kills his Maker?

Rachael is a replicant who believed she was human; you can believe that she and Deckard live happily ever after, if you like.

The film's only failure of imagination, from my point of view, is that the film's TVs and monitors aren't the stuff of 2010, much less 2019; they're more relics of the 1980s. They might have taken an idea from how they lighted the high-rise, in the picture, above, to anticipate the flat-panel displays of today. On the other hand, the film's see-around-the-corner photo enhancement (when Deckard examines Leon's pictures) may have been prescient.

Blade Runner made the AFI's top 100 list in 2007. Just barely ... it's #97.

Should you wait for the "final cut" to be released as a single disk in January? Not if you're a fan of this film. The price difference between the 5-disk set and the single-disk is about $10 at Amazon, and the 5-disk set has a lot more to see. It's a film you can watch more than once.

For some more holiday film tips, you might enjoy my post about Superheroes, here.