>this is
>not desnensitization, as i understand it--is there anything here that we
>haven't seen before? i don't think so--but elaboration and extrapolation.
 
De-sensitizing someone to violence isn't showing them something new and
horribly graphic - it's showing the same sort of violence over and over
again so often that the they begin to accept it as normal. I don't mean to
say that NBK is going to de-sensitize people any more than they already are
- just that it's not free from the "de-sensitization syndrome" just because
it isn't showing anything new.
 
That said, I have finally seen NBK and I liked it. It just doesn't stop. I
liked the chaos of mixed footage, styles, and everything else. I would have
to agree that at times the panoply gets tiresome, but overall I liked it a
lot.
 
As an aside, my eyes hurt afterwards, but I think that's because of an eye
infection, not the movie. It's so hard to tell these days. ;)
 
I haven't seen too many Oliver Stone movies. I saw most of JFK, and I think
I saw Platoon when I was young, but other than that I don't have a clear
"this is waht Oliver Stone does" image. Seeing NBK, I didn't find any
terribly overt or crazy half-baked mysticism, nor did I find a preachy
this-is-our-dying-culture theme. I saw a vast array of images that are left
mostly for the audience to sort out.
 
I don't think Stone has a mouthpiece in this film. Even when Mickey is
being interviewed, it isn't Stone talking (I hope); he sounds like most of
the real-life criminals and killers that have been interviewed to date. He
has a logic to his actions, a twisted logic by most standards. It reminded
me of Renoir's assertion that the most frightening thing in the world is
that everyone has a reason.
 
At any rate, I didn't find too much of what others on this list complained
about. My only concern, which was brought out by a friend who saw it,
isimilar to what others have voiced, which is that while the film may be a
technical marvel of craftsmanship, the audience is not always going to be
academic auteurs. NBK is not an answer to our social ills - but that won't
stop some people for getting motivated and trying to use it as a catalyst
for change.
 
_________________________
Sometimes you just have to look Fate square in the eye and say: "You're
Right!"
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