Author Archives: Marya E. Gates
Requiem For HAL 9000
When the American Film Institute revealed their list of the top heroes and villains in American cinema in 2003, HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey ranked as the 13th greatest (or worst) villain. While I understand the knee-jerk response of categorizing HAL as a villain, especially as he is portrayed in the film, I must protest this placement. I’ve actually not read the book 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke, but I understand in the book HAL’s reason for acting the way he does is revealed. I have, however, seen Peter Hyams’s sequel 2010: The Year We Make Contact (which is also based on a Clarke novel). In it, HAL’s reasons are explained. He was given an order that conflicted with his main directive. Essentially, he is programmed to relay all information accurately, but then he is told in order for their current mission he must withhold information from his crew. HAL was not designed for dealing with such a moral conflict, he’s a damn computer! So he did the only thing he could do in order to not lie to his crew-mates: he killed them. This way he would not be lying to them. I guess that does kind of make him a villain. But one that you can sympathize with. Or, at least, one I can sympathize with. I think HAL’s plight is one of the great condemnations of government duplicity ever created. Every time I watch this film I can’t help but weep for HAL and all that he represents.
I wanted to embed the part in 2001 where HAL sings Daisy Bell, but the only version I could find had embedding disabled. Watch here and cry with me. Here are the lyrics:
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do,
I’m half crazy all for the love of you.
It won’t be a stylish marriage –
I can’t afford a carriage,
But you’d look sweet on the seat
Of a bicycle built for two.
2001: A Space Odyssey premiered 44 years ago today in Washington D.C.
Movie Quote of the Day – The Lavender Hill Mob, 1951 (dir. Charles Crichton)
Henry Holland: A minute later, the guard will appear around this corner, and you, Pendlebury, will detain him for at least half a minute. Ask him for a light, ask him the way, ask him anything, but keep him there, we must have those thirty seconds.
Pendlebury: Edgar.
Henry Holland: I beg your pardon?
Pendlebury: Isn’t one supposed to say that when one’s being briefed? On my rare visits to the cinema. . .
Henry Holland: The word is “roger.”
Pendlebury: Oh, roger. How silly of me.
March 2012 in Films: Napoléon, Short Films and Business Trips
I guess I watched less new-to-me films this last March than I have in any one month in over a year. There were several factors in my lack of new-to-me’s this month. For one, I spent a day and a half working on a short film with some classmates. Then I was in North Carolina on business (something related to this blog, which I will post about later) for four days. I also hurt my back, which caused me to lay in a vicodin-induced haze for a few days. Lastly, two of the films I watched last month were over five hours long. YES. Watching Bertolucci’s Novecento took an entire day, as did my epic watching of Kevin Brownlow’s restoration of Abel Gance’s Napoléon at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland last weekend. Oh yes, also, the lovely Kristen Sales of SalesOnFilm was in town for the spectical and we spent the better part of three days either watching Gance’s brilliant film or wandering around San Francisco eating and drinking and taking in the city’s delights. I also continued my re-watching of old favorites. I found in my watching of soooo many new-to-me’s last year that I began to miss watching films that were dear to me. So this year I am trying to balance new-to-me’s with a healthy dose of old favorites. Lastly, I saw some great films (mostly old favorites, a few new-to-me’s) at the Castro Theatre this month: Manhattan, Welcome To L.A. (n-t-m), Reality Bites, My Own Private Idaho, Freeway (n-t-m), Shame and Take Shelter. As always, the full list of films is after the cut, plus five highlights.
Movie Quote of the Day – Love Story, 1970 (dir. Arthur Hiller)
Oliver Barrett IV: Hey, what makes you so sure I went to prep school?
Jennifer Cavalieri: You look stupid and rich.
Oliver Barrett IV: Actually, I’m smart and poor.
Jennifer Cavalieri: *I’m* smart and poor.
Oliver Barrett IV: What makes you so smart?
Jennifer Cavalieri: I wouldn’t go out for coffee with you.
Oliver Barrett IV: Yeah, well I wouldn’t ask you.
Jennifer Cavalieri: Well that’s what makes you stupid.
Movie Quote of the Day – The Dead Zone, 1983 (dir. David Cronenberg)
Johnny Smith: I keep thinking about a line from a book, it’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” the last thing I gave my class to read before. . .the accident. Ichabod Crane disappears. . .the line goes: “As he was a bachelor, and in nobody’s debt, nobody troubled their head about him anymore.”
Sarah Bracknell: Is that what you’re afraid of?
Johnny Smith: It’s what I want.
Movie Quote of the Day – Shampoo, 1975 (dir. Hal Ashby)
George Roundy: You ever listen to women talk, man? Do you? Cuz I do til’ it’s running out my ears. I mean, I am on my feet all day listening to women talk and they only talk about one thing: how some guy fucked them over. That’s all that’s on their minds. That’s all I ever hear about. Don’t you know that?
Lester Karpf: I follow your thinking on that.
George Roundy: I mean, face it. We’re always trying to nail them and they know it. They don’t like it. They like it and they don’t like it.
Movie Quote of the Day – Highlander, 1986 (dir. Russell Mulcahy)
Ramirez: The Kurgan. He is the strongest of all the immortals. He’s the *perfect* warrior. If he wins the Prize, mortal man would suffer an eternity of darkness.
Connor MacLeod: How do you fight such a savage?
Ramirez: With heart, faith and steel. In the end there can be only one.
Movie Quote of the Day – Tremors, 1990 (dir. Ron Underwood)
Burt Gummer: Broke into the wrong goddamn rec room, didn’t ya, you bastard!?
From The Warner Archive: Two Films Featuring Jim Brown
The Warner Archive recently released two great 1970s flicks featuring the legendary Jim Brown: …tick…tick…tick…, 1970 (dir. Ralph Nelson) and The Slams, 1973 (dir. Jonathan Kaplan). While both films feature Jim Brown in strong leading roles, they are quite the opposite of each other. In one he plays a newly elected sheriff of a southern town, in the other a criminal who’s just been sent to prison and decides to break out. The films both have different tones as well. One is a rather subdued look at race relations in post-Civils Rights Movement America and the other is a straight up jive-ass blaxploitation film. But they are both a barrel of fun.
Movie Quote of the Day – The Fisher King, 1991 (dir. Terry Gilliam)
Jack Lucas: You know, I mean, women are great. They make homes and they kill the livestock so the knights can go and get Grails. Slaughter villages with a clear head. Where would King Arthur be without Guinevere?
Parry: Happily married, probably.
Jack Lucas: Well, that’s a bad example. But trust me on this. A woman who loves you keeps you going, gives you strength. Makes you feel like you can do anything.
the diary of a film history fanatic 