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THE MT VOID
10/21/22 -- Vol. 41, No. 17, Whole Number 2246

Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
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Topics:
TCM'S October Programming
GATTACA (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
PRINCE OF DARKNESS (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
THE CAPTAIN'S DAUGHTER by Peter F. Hamilton
(audio book review by Joe Karpierz)
This Week's Reading (THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE)
(book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)

===================================================================

TOPIC: TCM'S October Programming

Turner Classic Movies has a couple of articles about their
programming in October:

Star of the Month: Robots

<https://www.tcm.com/articles/Programming%20Article/021674/
star-of-the-month-robots?lid=srfvuhjd1wxh>

Screamin' Shelley Winters

<https://www.tcm.com/articles/Programming%20Article/021679/
screamin-shelley-winters?lid=a7r0l0ige2fe>

===================================================================

TOPIC: GATTACA (film review by Mark R. Leeper)

[In honor of GATTACA's 25th anniversary on October 24, here is
Mark's original review of that film.]

Capsule: GATTACA is a cold film that frequently stretches
credibility, but still it stands as one of the more intelligent
science fiction films of the 90s. Anatomy truly is destiny in a
world where almost everything about you can be determined quickly
from a DNA sample. One man with a dream of traveling in space
carries out a long identity deception in a world where it should be
impossible, by using another man's DNA to fool all the detectors.
This is also a philosophical detective story a well as a science
fiction film that looks deeply at the implications of too much
genetic knowledge. Rating: +2 (-4 to +4), 8 (0 to 10)

While some pairs of identical twins lead surprisingly similar
lives, frequently they do not and frequently they show different
interests and potential. So there are limitations on the
information about the adult that can be augured by a DNA
examination. That makes it seem to be unlikely that we would ever
get to the world as it is shown in GATTACA where everything anyone
wants to know about you is encoded into your DNA. However, GATTACA
assumes that the world has decided that DNA is the most reliable
way of judging a person in spite of counter-examples like Vincent
(played by Ethan Hawke) the main character of this story. Vincent
has been delegated to the labor class based on his DNA. He looks
wistfully at the rockets blasting off from the Gattaca Corporation
and dreams of going off into space. He is highly motivated, but
nobody notices because his DNA says that he just does not have the
potential to be much more than a floor sweeper, permanently a part
of the under-class. One wonders how so inaccurate a test could be
accepted without question by a society, particularly after age of
civil rights and civil liberties advances.

Vincent knows he does not have a chance of being chosen by the
Gattaca Corporation for one of their probes into space, so he
decides to literally reinvent himself. There is a criminal element
who are willing to match him up with a human with a much better DNA
structure who can supply him with hairs, urine samples, blood
samples and any other kind of sample so that all the samples that
Gattaca takes from him will really be from Jerome (Jude Law).
Jerome agrees to live with Vincent, providing him with sufficient
biological specimens to give to the company and letting Vincent
take on Jerome's name. This is a tricky process involving things
like false finger tips filled with Jerome's blood form the ID
machine that takes a sample. We see how Vincent is occasionally
able to substitute Jerome's specimens for his own, but it is never
really convincing that he could do that whenever the need arises.
Vincent romances a fellow employee Irene Cassini (Uma Thurman) who
gets pulled into this web of deception.

The story moves at a languorous pace showing how the world has
changed since the conversion to the DNA standard. Andrew M. Niccol
who wrote and directed has given us a "not too distant future" that
is not entirely convincing, but is still worth seeing. Loose ends
abound, but that may be part of the point. For example, Vincent
has taken over for Jerome and is telling the world that he is the
same person, but Jerome has a "toffee-nosed" British accent and so
presumably comes from an environment that would produce such an
accent. Vincent does not have a British accent at all. Yet nobody
seems to even care to compare Vincent to his claimed background. It
is hard to place how far this world is in the future. Women and
men at Gattaca dress in almost identical uniforms and women wear
their hair in almost masculine styles. Cars make the whining sound
of turbines, but still look a lot like the cars of today.

The photography by Slawomir Idziak is just a bit showy, bathing
some scenes in yellow or blue light. Particularly in the first
half of the film it is often his camerawork that creates the mood
in scenes devoid of any music. It gives the world a repressive,
sterile, dry feel. Michael Nyman's score when it does kick in is
repetitive almost to the point of being minimalist.

GATTACA has a few places where it could have had the details better
developed, but it is a complex story, perhaps of the complexity of
a novel. It is told without the too common problems of science
fiction of too much special effects replacing careful thought. If
anything, GATTACA is a film that substitutes intelligence for
explosions. This is about people caught up in a sort of cautionary
dystopic world. It may not be a likely world, but it has
well-developed character in this world. Overall I would rate
GATTACA a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale. [-mrl]

===================================================================

TOPIC: PRINCE OF DARKNESS (film review by Mark R. Leeper)

[And because it is Halloween and in honor of PRINCE OF DARKNESS's
35th anniversary on October 23, here is Mark's original review of
that film.]

Capsule: A very demanding and very rewarding horror film. Horror
and science fiction combine together to make a film for real
long-standing horror film fans only. Lots of old stuff but a lot
that even the long-time fans have not seen before. The last
half-hour is a let-down, but it is hard to imagine an ending
fitting the buildup. Rating: +2

A lot of horror films are coming out about now. Released in one
weekend are both PRINCE OF DARKNESS and NIGHT FLYERS. Earlier this
year Clive Barker directed and wrote HELLRAISER. BELIEVERS, based
on a respected horror novel, came out this year. Then there were a
number of minor pieces of the NEAR DARK ilk. Horror, I understand,
sells well on videocassette, so it is pretty tough for a horror
film to lose money. I was vaguely aware that the aforementioned
PRINCE OF DARKNESS was from John Carpenter, but he has had a spotty
career. I like his DARK STAR, HALLOWEEN, THE THING, and maybe a
few others. His most recent, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, was a
good idea that went amazingly bad. But then things are not always
what we expect. PRINCE OF DARKNESS, for example, turns out to be
the best thing that Carpenter has ever done. It may well be the
fantasy film I will want to remember from 1987.

For 2000 years the Brotherhood of Sleep have kept secret what
Christianity was *really* about--have kept secret the true nature
of evil and of the Devil, a secret with roots far older than
humanity. Now, 2000 years after they discovered the secret, it is
becoming important to understand it once more. The laws of physics
are changing and the focus of all that is happening is one small
rundown church in Los Angeles. There a group of scientists, their
graduate students, and a priest are trying to unravel the mystery
of what is happening. And what is happening will tie together
particle physics, mathematics, and orthodox Christianity.

PRINCE OF DARKNESS has everything it needs but the payoff. The
final third of the film is good Carpenter-style suspense, but it
fails to live up to the promise of the first two thirds of the
movie. If it had, this would have been an excellent science
fiction film as well as a good horror film. As it is, PRINCE OF
DARKNESS is rich in ideas and has some good suspense to boot, but
doesn't quite deliver.

I really enjoyed the film, but have to give this film a qualified
recommendation. It takes a lot of effort just to understand as
much of what is going on as the director wants to show you. There
are many scenes that are deliberately disturbing and a lot more
that are violent, though it has been pointed out to me that there
is very little actual blood. If you haven't seen many horror
films, you may not find this one worth your effort; there are a lot
of other good films out there. If you have seen a lot of horror
films, you will recognize little ideas here and there from (are you
ready?) DRACULA, THE EXORCIST, THE THING, THE QUIET EARTH, THE
LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE, THE NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, ESCAPE FROM NEW
YORK, FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH, THE KEEP, and THE TERMINATOR.
Yes, there are recognizable ideas inspired by each of these, yet
there are so many new ideas in this horror film that the familiar
ones are outnumbered.

Click here to read the complete article

Subject	Author
MT VOID, 10/21/22 -- Vol. 41, No. 17, Whole Number 2246	eleeper@optonline.net
Re: MT VOID, 10/21/22 -- Vol. 41, No. 17, Whole Number 2246	Gary McGath
Re: MT VOID, 10/21/22 -- Vol. 41, No. 17, Whole Number 2246	Joy Beeson

6 May, 2024: The networking issue during the past two days has been identified and appears to be fixed. Will keep monitoring.

arts / rec.arts.sf.fandom / MT VOID, 10/21/22 -- Vol. 41, No. 17, Whole Number 2246