THE MT VOID
09/01/23 -- Vol. 42, No. 9, Whole Number 2291

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Topics:
Mini Reviews, Part 4 (WHAAM! BLAM! ROY LICHTENSTEIN AND
THE ART OF APPROPRIATION, THE LOST KING, THE
LONELIEST WHALE--THE SEARCH FOR 52) (film reviews
by Mark R. Leeper and Evelyn C. Leeper)
Texas, WorldCons, GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN, A STRANGER IN THE
CITADEL, AVATAR--THE WAY OF WATER, OPPENHEIMER,
BARBIE (letter of comment by John Purcell)
This Week's Reading ("The Musgrave Ritual")
(book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)

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

TOPIC: Mini Reviews, Part 4 (film reviews by Mark R. Leeper and
Evelyn C. Leeper)

This is the fourth batch of mini-reviews for this season, this time
documentaries.

WHAM! BLAM! ROY LICHTENSTEIN AND THE ART OF APPROPRIATION (2022):
Roy Lichtenstein is seen as one of the leaders of the "Pop Art"
movement. His iconic paintings, based on comic book art, have sold
for over $100 million. Hy Eisman and Russ Heath are practically
destitute. Yet they are the artists whose original work
Lichtenstein was inspired by--or rather, copied. David Barsalou
(from my home town of Chicopee, Massachusetts) is the creator of
the "Deconstructing Roy Lichtenstein" project, which displays the
original panels beside the Lichtenstein copies.

WHAAM! BLAM! ROY LICHTENSTEIN AND THE ART OF APPROPRIATION (2022)
is a documentary about Lichtenstein, Eisman, Heath, Barsalou, and
others, covering both the history of comic book art as both low and
high art, and Lichtenstein use of it.

It is fairly clear that one can match up Lichtenstein's paintings
with their originals, and that in many cases they are apparently
merely tracings of the originals, with some changes in coloring.
The question is whether what Lichtenstein did was "transformative",
maing his paintings new works, or plagiarism.

This is complicated by the copyright law of the 1950s and 1960s,
when the original comic book artists worked. At the time, their
work was considered "work for hire" and the copyrights were owned
by the publishers. And the publishers had no interest at the time
in going after Lichtenstein, since that was well before his
paintings started selling for millions. But the documentary looks
at the moral issues as well as the legal ones. (One might suggest
that the Lichtenstein estate should pay some money to the original
artists. However, that might lead to the artists claiming that
this was in some way an admission of guilt. Perhaps a contribution
to a fund for all comic book artists in need, in recognition of
their "inspiration"?)

What is revealing is how, for example, a museum curator who has a
Lichtenstein hanging in their museum had no idea of the original
source, or the original artist, and no interest in changing the
information about the painting which hangs next to it.

This is a documentary of interest to those interested in art, in
the history of comic books, and the legal and moral issues of
intellectual property.

Released at a festival 9 December 2022. Rating: +3 (-4 to +4),
or 9/10.

Film Credits:
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22774294/reference>

What others are saying:
<https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/
whaam_blam_roy_lichtenstein_and_the_art_of_appropriation>

THE LOST KING (2022): Having just written 1200 words on Winston
Churchill's comments on Richard II, I ended up getting THE LOST
KING at the library (because it finally showed up). And what's it
about? Richard III, the Richard III Society (a.k.a. the
Ricardians, or at least their main organized group), and the search
for the grave of Richard III.

Based on fact, Sally Hawkins plays Philippa Langley, who begins by
seeing a production of Shakespeare's RICHARD III, and feeling that
he was not treated very fairly. She discovers the Richard III
Society, and when she mentions wanting to visit his grave, is told
that no one knows where it is. And so begins her search for his
grave. Throughout the film, she keeps seeing the "ghost" of
Richard, serving to motivate and possibly direct her. I find it
surprising that she actually managed to find the grave, or rather
that no one else did, because all the clues were hiding in plain
sight (as it were). It was, I suppose, more that person A knew one
fact, and person B knew another fact, and person C had yet another
piece of the puzzle, and it took Philippa to put the pieces
together.

A lot of the film is spent explaining the reasoning behind
believing that Richard was much maligned and so on, and given that
I had heard pretty much all of it before, I had to accept that was
for the wider audience who has not read More and Churchill and
various chronicles. So it's also hard for me to judge whether the
wider audience would enjoy the film. I know I did. [-ecl]

Released theatrically 24 March 2023. Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4),
or 8/10.

Film Credits:
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13421498/reference>

What others are saying:
<https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_lost_king>

THE LONELIEST WHALE--THE SEARCH FOR 52 (2021): THE LONELIEST
WHALE--THE SEARCH FOR 52 is a documentary about a whale that calls
at 52 hertz. This is a higher frequency than other whales, and was
unique until recently when a second 52-hertz whale was heard.
Alas, the documentary is like PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK--it sets
everything up, but there is no pay-off. Okay, that may be
accurate, but it makes for a disappointing film. (There is a
possible sighting at the end, but it is not clear that the
scientific community accepts it.) If you want a documentary that
actually comes to a conclusion, this is probably not for you.
[-ecl]

Released theatrically 21 July 2021. Rating: +1 (-4 to +4), or
6/10.

Film Credits:
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2401814/reference>

What others are saying:
<https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/
the_loneliest_whale_the_search_for_52>

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

TOPIC: Texas, WorldCons, GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN, A STRANGER IN THE
CITADEL, AVATAR--THE WAY OF WATER, OPPENHEIMER, BARBIE (letter of
comment by John Purcell)

In response to various comments in various issues of the MT VOID,
John Purcell writes:

Good afternoon from the oven known as Texas. Of course, a huge
chunk of the United States is under this heat dome that has been
baking the country for two months now. Our forecast here in Texas
is to expect temperatures either at or exceeding 100 degrees
Fahrenheit through October--yup, right up to Halloween--which is an
unprecedented stretch for us. The same forecast is predicting a
wetter and colder winter ahead, possibly including lengthy
stretches of subfreezing weather. Yes, snow and icy conditions are
involved, so here we go again. Texas Governor Greg Abbott is more
concerned about spending the 18 billion dollar state budget surplus
on floating barriers in the Rio Grande River than
repairing/upgrading the energy infrastructure of the state, among
other pressing needs. You know, little things like making basic
health care affordable, aiding the homeless, improving teacher
pay... The list goes on. You get the idea. This summer's heat is
making a lot of Texas's registered voters edgy, so you can imagine
the rhetoric flying ahead of next year's elections. At any rate,
Valerie and I hope that you two are doing well.

Hard to believe that six years ago we had just returned from my
TAFF Trip to the Helsinki WorldCon. My Facebook feed has been
filled with daily "memories" of photos and commentary from that
trip. It has all been a very nice retrospective for us. Mayhaps
next summer we will be able to afford the Glasgow WorldCon. We are
hoping to make that one. Otherwise, it's waiting until 2029 to
vote for the Texas in 2031 bid. I'm not sure where that will be
located, but my suspicions are Austin. That's a big city with
large enough venues and hotels, to say nothing of lots of
attractions, to host a 7000-member WorldCon. We shall see how that
all plays out.

Mark lists out some fun movies for September, including GODZILLA
RAIDS AGAIN (1955) on October 1st. That's one of my favorites of
this lengthy series. All those great Hitchcock flicks on September
10th are a wonderful way to escape the heat, as are many others
listed. As always, lots of classic films. One of my all-time
favorite horror movies is listed, too: HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL
(1958). The first time I saw that it scared the bejeezus out of
me--and that was on television when I was about ten years old.
It's a great movie.