dagblog - Comments for "The Dark Knight Rises"

Ironically, turns out that in

artappraiser — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 03:41:22 +0000

In reply to You're stupid. Arthouse films

Ironically, turns out that in the 1950's, when comic books were being attacked for corruption of youth, the Batman character was accused of pandering to homosexual tendencies:

...In the nineteen-fifties, there would be hearings in Congress after Fredric Wertham, a New York psychiatrist, published a polemic blaming comics for everything from truancy to murder. (Batman was singled out for homosexuality. Wertham wrote of one of his violent thirteen-year-old patients, “Like many other homoerotically inclined children, he was a special devotee of Batman.”) But in the nineteen-thirties, the problem with Batman was Batman’s gun.

In a story published in October of 1939, Batman used a handgun to shoot a vampire...

P.S. It occurs to me that should you ever return to this site, someone should warn you that the Christopher Nolan, director of The Dark Night Trilogy, has been known to make "art house films"

Comics are particularly

artappraiser — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 01:40:28 +0000

In reply to Random thoughts: It's a

Comics are particularly effective agitprop especially the superhero ones. Have been for a very long time.

Thought of your comment, Emma, when I saw this cartoon by Juan Cole:

http://www.juancole.com/2012/07/al-assad-in-spande-political-cartoon.html

And in the process of coming here to post it, I also noticed a sentence in Hal's essay that seems to serve Cole's topic well: a bombastic, repetitive, over-long, and occasionally incoherent fascist fantasy

I suppose one conclusion we

Elusive Trope — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 13:35:24 +0000

In reply to Random thoughts: It's a

I suppose one conclusion we can draw from the adjusted gross is if you really want a blockbuster, make the co-star an orangutan. People love orangutans - nature's goofballs.

Million Dollar Baby,

PeraclesPlease — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 19:28:40 +0000

In reply to Random thoughts: It's a

Million Dollar Baby, Unforgiven, Play Misty for Me, Two Mules for Sister Sara

Clint's a natural curmudgeon looking to be good, but it never comes easy - the tension is beguiling.

(No subject)

Michael Maiello — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 19:07:42 +0000

In reply to Thank God for my

Random thoughts: It's a

EmmaZahn — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 17:14:30 +0000

In reply to The Dark Knight Rises

Random thoughts:

It's a comic-book-based, live-action-role-playing game filmed to be imitated and merchandised.

Of course Dark Knight is political. Watching and criticizing it as art or simply entertainment misses its point which from the reviews I have read is fairly muddled anyway.

Comics are particularly effective agitprop especially the superhero ones. Have been for a very long time.

"Russian theatre agitprop was noted for its cardboard characters of perfect virtue and complete evil, and its coarse ridicule"

What is it about Eastwood that appeals to a self-described arthouse film buff?

Eastwood's box office mojo adjusted for inflation.

Adjusted for Ticket Price Inflation

Rank	Title (click to view)	Studio	Adjusted Gross	Unadjusted Gross	Release
1	Every Which Way But Loose	WB	$288,357,300	$85,196,485	12/20/78
2	Any Which Way You Can	WB	$208,120,400	$70,687,344	12/17/80
3	In the Line of Fire	Col.	$195,732,700	$102,314,823	7/9/93
4	Unforgiven	WB	$193,172,800	$101,157,447	8/7/92
5	Magnum Force	WB	$177,945,000	$39,768,000	12/25/73
6	Dirty Harry	WB	$172,684,800	$35,976,000	12/22/71
7	The Enforcer	WB	$171,919,800	$46,236,000	12/22/76
8	The Good, the Bad and the Ugly	UA	$165,660,000	$25,100,000	12/29/67
9	Sudden Impact	WB	$164,803,000	$67,642,693	12/9/83
10	Gran Torino	WB	$163,358,600	$148,095,302	12/12/08
11	Escape from Alcatraz	Par.	$135,681,300	$43,000,000	6/22/79
12	Space Cowboys	WB	$132,886,600	$90,464,773	8/4/00
13	The Bridges of Madison County	WB	$130,209,600	$71,516,617	6/2/95
14	Firefox	WB	$125,826,400	$46,708,276	6/18/82
15	Million Dollar Baby	WB	$124,195,800	$100,492,203	12/15/04
16	The Outlaw Josey Wales	WB	$118,242,200	$31,800,000	6/30/76
17	Tightrope	WB	$113,481,300	$48,143,579	8/17/84
18	For a Few Dollars More	UA	$99,000,000	$15,000,000	5/10/67
19	A Fistful of Dollars	UA	$95,700,000	$14,500,000	1/18/67
20	The Gauntlet	WB	$93,813,500	$26,414,658	12/21/77
21	Pale Rider	WB	$92,386,400	$41,410,568	6/28/85
22	Thunderbolt and Lightfoot	UA	$91,905,900	$21,700,000	5/24/74
23	Heartbreak Ridge	WB	$89,073,500	$42,724,017	12/5/86
24	City Heat	WB	$88,179,200	$38,348,988	12/7/84
25	Absolute Power	Sony	$86,392,400	$50,068,310	2/14/97
26	Paint Your Wagon	Par.	$80,873,200	$14,500,000	10/15/69
27	The Dead Pool	WB	$73,039,900	$37,903,295	7/15/88
28	Bronco Billy	WB	$71,443,900	$24,265,659	6/11/80
29	High Plains Drifter	Uni.	$70,250,800	$15,700,000	8/22/73
30	Hang 'em High	UA	$66,503,800	$11,000,000	8/3/68
31	A Perfect World	WB	$59,496,800	$31,130,999	11/24/93
32	The Eiger Sanction	Uni.	$54,860,500	$14,200,000	1975
33	Play Misty for Me	Uni.	$50,880,000	$10,600,000	11/12/71
34	The Rookie (1990)	WB	$40,559,900	$21,633,874	12/7/90
35	Where Eagles Dare	MGM	$39,600,000	$7,100,000	3/12/69
36	Blood Work	WB	$35,762,800	$26,235,081	8/9/02
37	Joe Kidd	Uni.	$29,490,300	$6,330,000	7/14/72
38	Kelly's Heroes	MGM	$26,570,300	$5,200,000	6/23/70
39	True Crime	WB	$25,957,900	$16,649,768	3/19/99
40	Two Mules for Sister Sara	Uni.	$25,803,900	$5,050,000	6/16/70
41	Pink Cadillac	WB	$24,225,800	$12,143,484	5/26/89
42	Coogan's Bluff	Uni.	$18,802,400	$3,110,000	10/2/68
43	Honky Tonk Man	WB	$12,082,000	$4,484,991	12/17/82
44	The Beguiled	Uni.	$5,280,000	$1,100,000	3/31/71
45	White Hunter, Black Heart	WB	$4,342,200	$2,319,124	9/14/90

Thank God for my

Qnonymous — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 15:17:49 +0000

In reply to Funny aside, but the creators

Thank God for my always-progressive childhood hero.....

Captain America.

Funny aside, but the creators

Michael Maiello — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 12:57:00 +0000

In reply to The Dark Knight Rises

Funny aside, but the creators of Bane are hardcore conservatives (more so than the creators of Bain!) and this is the second time that Rush Limbaugh has criticized them as liberals. In response, they pointed out that the character certain parodies Occupy, if anything. And, Nolan's crew did use Occupy in their filming.

Is Nolan a fascist? I doubt it? Does he indulge in fascist fantasies? That's always been part of the most thoughtful Batman stuff. It's the story of a rich man who uses superior weapons to impose his will on the rest of us. If Iron Man is the utopian hope that military technology can flawlessly pick out the guilty from the innocent in asymmetric warfare (in the first Iron Man movie the hero goes to the middle east and does just this -- it's on the nose symbolism) then Batman says, "Not possible. But we're going to do it anyway."

And, yes, Gotham looks a too Triumph of the Will in the first two movies (haven't seen the latest). I don't know if that's Nolan's fault or if the Nazis just ruined art deco for the rest of us.

And a guy dressed as Ric

Michael Maiello — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 12:49:23 +0000

In reply to You make a strong case, and

And a guy dressed as Ric Flair who has committed unspeakable acts, but totally consensual (they were her sick ideas) with his mother.

are gay and so are you As in

artappraiser — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 11:19:16 +0000

In reply to You're stupid. Arthouse films

are gay and so are you

As in cheery, gay, sunny?

And that would mean you prefer the depressing, cheerless, uncheerful? The dark, the bleak, the dismal and the violent?