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August 1995, Week 4

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Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
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From:
A Chance <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 21 Aug 1995 15:36:58 +0800
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Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
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I, too, would like to know the whereabouts of this video. A while back I
got hold of the published screenplay, and was intrigued by the preface
which gave the history of the production from the viewpoint (I think) of
the writer(s?). According to him/them, Scott's family and their influential
connections attempted in various ways to suppress the screenplay and the
film. At one stage, for instance, when they first realised that the
script was not just another eulogy to a dead, upper middle-class/aristocratic
colonial wasp they actually went to court in order to gain some kind of
injunction against it ever being filmed. Considering the fact that, in my
country at least, the "Last Place on Earth" has to my knowledge never been
re-screened despite its popularity, it seems possible
(at least to this conspiracy theorist) that some kind of suppression may have
been effected. Maybe I should write to the ABC and inquire.
 
I am also intrigued by the various readings of violence a la the
Clockwork Orange thread. The only really violent film with which I felt
comfortable with the representations of violence is the original
"Robocop", which (IMO) is one of the cleverest mainstream films I've ever
seen. The violence tends to be pointless, ugly and very uneroticised (eg.
innocent bystanders being mown down left right and centre), and the deeply
anti-violence (and generally left-wing, maybe even liberal Catholic - am I
right?) satirical subtext undermines even the seductive "good guy's
revenge" motif. Cleverest (perhaps) of all, was the packaging of the film
(at least here) as being the typical, straight-forward shoot'em-up
sci-fi. Irony, however, and even the most overt and sincere irony, is always
uncertain in its effectiveness. The vast majority of film goers are
congenitally unable to understand satire even when it comes at them like
a locomotive, and (I suspect) a good proportion of the rest are able to
overlook it in catering to their own closet sadism. The first time I saw
"Robocop" I was in a small, port-side cinema, which was at least half-filled
with visiting US sailors. At every moment of violence - especially the most
gruesome - they waved and cheered in sheer and unadulterated red-neck
delight. What hope for the world?
 
PS: Maybe I should be posting on these subjects separately? I don't know
what is cheaper or more convenient for everybody, so I'm quite happy to
have this modified by our moderator.
 
A. Chance
(nonseparatist feminist socialist syncretistic pop cultural psychohistorian)
University of Western Australia
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