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May 1997, Week 4

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From:
Joe Lamantia <[log in to unmask]>
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Date:
Tue, 27 May 1997 21:49:10 -0400
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Dave Spiceland wrote:
 
>         Ah...ah...ahhhh... I haven't seen the movie yet. I don't know who
> lives, dies, etc. PLEASE put a spoiler alert in the subject heading or at
> the beginning of the message if you give away any or all of the ending. I
> wasn't one of those 10 ga-zillion folks who ran to the theatre last
> weekend. I plan to fight the crowds soon, but I'll be a little more than
> irritated now since I have a pretty good idea who survives <grr>.
 
Point taken, my apologies to any who feel that their experience with LW
will suffer becuase of my disclosure.  Perhaps now you will wait a while
before atttedning, and thus deny Amblin some few dollars as it shoots
for yet another first-weekend record, with little long-term market
presence.  but hat is another matter entirely.  Briefly, I would liek to
conted that I gave away nothing that was not obvious about the film's
resolution, considering it's direcotr, theme, origin, niche, etc.
ANother Screen-L member alluded to this:
 
>The most interesting thing about the film was its reversion to an old
>Spielberg film--the primacy of Family and especially the Responsibility
>of the Father.  No, I don't mean Goldblum--although his character fits
>in her.  I mean the male T. rex!
 
Given the manner in which Spielberg strained the itneral credibility of
JP in order to preserve the family group he constructed from unlikely
elements(Dern, Neill, kids), I see little reason to suspect that he
would permit serious harm to come to any member of the parallel
structure in LW.  Can it be "family entertainment" if the family is
disrupted permanently ? LW bears much resemblance to a rollercoaster, in
that we do not expect any lasting dmamge from the visceral excitement
the ride provides us.  Other people (latinos, foreigners, strangers)get
eaten -- not sympathetic characters with whom we are meant to engage for
the duration. Let us know what you think of the iron-clad family and
species solidarity displayed by the rex's, and how that contrasts with
the actions of the human characters.
        To return to my original concern, there seems clear consensus that this
mixing of professions is old hat and will continue. How 'bout this for
thought: what message comes across when people who have spent the last
few days creditably reacting to 'nothing' (visual graphic constructs,
mock-ups, etc), are too exhasuted to pay attention to the news (truth,
official information ?) ?
 
        Joe Lamantia
 
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