Home stretch...and onward
Jun. 16th, 2002 09:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpOnce on the road this morning, I took breakfast at an IHOP where the air conditioner was set to "meat locker." I was barely able to swallow a couple of cups of coffee and eat breakfast before paying and bolting for the parking lot, where the temperature was at least above zero.
The rest of the day was pretty boring. I got sidetracked north of town, when I got off the interstate to check if the COMPAQ store (where they sell refurbished computers) was open. I don't really know why I did that, since I have all the computers I need for a while. Maybe I was hoping for one of those "Hey!-We've-been-acquired-so-the-stuff-in-here-is-nearly-free" sales, though a lot of good it would do me.
The store was closed, but there was a new Fry's electronics store in the same parking lot.
Imagine a store about the size of two Wal-Marts. Now get rid of everything that doesn't have to do with electronics, computers, software, components, etc. That's Fry's.
I wandered around for a while and picked up a couple of interesting items. I got to the house at around 2 pm.
Shortly thereafter, Lee and I went out to do some food shopping. Then I bought a couple of tickets online to go watch Nicolas Cage in a matinee of Windtalkers.
* * * I recall, on the web page where I ordered the tickets, that one reviewer dimissed the film as another "run-of-the mill war flick." That's an easy enough thing to say, I suppose, but I'll bet good cash that the reviewer has never served in the military.
My attraction to the film rests on several legs. Living in the Four Corners region, the atmosphere is charged to an extent with the fact that the area is the home to the Navajo, who are in a sense the central focus of the film. My being an (ex-)Marine is a second leg. The "code talkers" were, after all, Marines.
My interest in the history of cryptography is the third leg of the tripod. The value of the "code talkers" was the fact that, not only could the Japanese not understand Navajo, but even if they had been successful in "breaking" the code, none of them could spoof such a radio network by trying to imitate a Navajo. In past years, I have been told by local Navajo residents that nobody has ever been able to master the language well enough to "pass" as a native speaker.
In watching the film, I recognized a lot of the techniques that I had been trained to perform, as a Marine. The bayonet work. Marksmanship. Teamwork. Saving your buddies. Also, I could swear that I've heard in real life a number of the exchanges and comments made by the make-believe Marines on the silver screen.
The violence depicted hit a vital spot, but in the final analysis, it was - despite the review mentioned above - a very real film, at least to me.
Sure, the dynamics of Hollyweird made some of the film predictable. (minor spoilers: The fate of the guy who "had this feeling" was predictable. Also, never bet on the survival of the guy carrying the flamethrower.)
And in the end, there really isn't any point to the film, except to tell a story. There's no great moral to be drawn from the plot, except perhaps the importance of honoring one's dead comrades and keeping their memory alive. Then again, most war movies don't really have a point, except to chronicle the survival of the hero and the horror of war (here, I have in mind movies ranging from Enemy at the Gates, to Apocalypse Now, to Sands of Iwo Jima, to the very, very old A Walk in the Sun).
To me, one of the true tests of a war movie is how well the audience "connects" to the characters. In watching, for example, Saving Private Ryan, everyone kind of sat there and absorbed the story. The audience today reacted several times to the understated humor of military life, and actually applauded at the end (I don't seem to recall applause at the end of the recent Star Wars instalment, but I digress, methinks...).
This is not to say there were no issues for the characters in the film. Ed Anders certainly had his demons, and was caught in a Very Bad Place when it came to issues of duty. Ben Yahzee seemed to not be a very focused character, or at least his focus did not seem clearly defined to me.
But I am getting very far afield. I enjoyed the movie and, while sitting here entering this post, have raised a glass to all Marines who have put themselves "between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation."
Semper fi.
Cheers...
The rest of the day was pretty boring. I got sidetracked north of town, when I got off the interstate to check if the COMPAQ store (where they sell refurbished computers) was open. I don't really know why I did that, since I have all the computers I need for a while. Maybe I was hoping for one of those "Hey!-We've-been-acquired-so-the-stuff-in-here-is-nearly-free" sales, though a lot of good it would do me.
The store was closed, but there was a new Fry's electronics store in the same parking lot.
Imagine a store about the size of two Wal-Marts. Now get rid of everything that doesn't have to do with electronics, computers, software, components, etc. That's Fry's.
I wandered around for a while and picked up a couple of interesting items. I got to the house at around 2 pm.
Shortly thereafter, Lee and I went out to do some food shopping. Then I bought a couple of tickets online to go watch Nicolas Cage in a matinee of Windtalkers.
My attraction to the film rests on several legs. Living in the Four Corners region, the atmosphere is charged to an extent with the fact that the area is the home to the Navajo, who are in a sense the central focus of the film. My being an (ex-)Marine is a second leg. The "code talkers" were, after all, Marines.
My interest in the history of cryptography is the third leg of the tripod. The value of the "code talkers" was the fact that, not only could the Japanese not understand Navajo, but even if they had been successful in "breaking" the code, none of them could spoof such a radio network by trying to imitate a Navajo. In past years, I have been told by local Navajo residents that nobody has ever been able to master the language well enough to "pass" as a native speaker.
In watching the film, I recognized a lot of the techniques that I had been trained to perform, as a Marine. The bayonet work. Marksmanship. Teamwork. Saving your buddies. Also, I could swear that I've heard in real life a number of the exchanges and comments made by the make-believe Marines on the silver screen.
The violence depicted hit a vital spot, but in the final analysis, it was - despite the review mentioned above - a very real film, at least to me.
Sure, the dynamics of Hollyweird made some of the film predictable. (minor spoilers: The fate of the guy who "had this feeling" was predictable. Also, never bet on the survival of the guy carrying the flamethrower.)
And in the end, there really isn't any point to the film, except to tell a story. There's no great moral to be drawn from the plot, except perhaps the importance of honoring one's dead comrades and keeping their memory alive. Then again, most war movies don't really have a point, except to chronicle the survival of the hero and the horror of war (here, I have in mind movies ranging from Enemy at the Gates, to Apocalypse Now, to Sands of Iwo Jima, to the very, very old A Walk in the Sun).
To me, one of the true tests of a war movie is how well the audience "connects" to the characters. In watching, for example, Saving Private Ryan, everyone kind of sat there and absorbed the story. The audience today reacted several times to the understated humor of military life, and actually applauded at the end (I don't seem to recall applause at the end of the recent Star Wars instalment, but I digress, methinks...).
This is not to say there were no issues for the characters in the film. Ed Anders certainly had his demons, and was caught in a Very Bad Place when it came to issues of duty. Ben Yahzee seemed to not be a very focused character, or at least his focus did not seem clearly defined to me.
But I am getting very far afield. I enjoyed the movie and, while sitting here entering this post, have raised a glass to all Marines who have put themselves "between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation."
Semper fi.
Cheers...
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no subject
Date: 2002-06-16 08:42 pm (UTC)That was once the position of the Japanese concerning their language. Its not true of course. I doubt its true concerning Navaho either.
no subject
Date: 2002-06-16 09:09 pm (UTC)On the other hand, the respective "demand" for knowledge of Japanese and Navajo tends to favor the position that even today, nobody outside the Navajo speaks (or wants to speak) the language well enough to pass as a naative.
Cheers...
Re:
Date: 2002-06-16 09:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-06-17 06:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-06-16 09:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-06-19 08:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-06-19 10:09 pm (UTC)I found the following comment of his to be of interest, by the way: "They set great store by things which have no intrinsic worth, like physical toughness, and even on things which are positively vicious, like automatic obedience and emotional hardness."
In my pre-Marine days, I had thoughts roughly along the same lines. In retrospect, I'd classify them as naive; the product of a civilian upbringing.
Somewhere in my posts, I recall an experience where the acheivement of "physical toughness" gave me a whole new perspective on life. As yet untold is an experience where that toughness saved my life.
As far as "automatic obedience" is concerned, most people think of that in terms of places like My Lai or Babi Yar, but in actuality, it has more to do with staying alive than anything else. As far as emotional hardness is concerned, I don't recall any training intended to inculcate such hardness, unless it's the shell one develops that makes one indifferent to taunts and jeers of idiots.
Why do you ask?
Cheers...
Re:
Date: 2002-06-20 07:20 am (UTC)