The Subtext Game 4: In Space! (The Spaceship is a Penis)

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > The Subtext Game 4: In Space! (The Spaceship is a Penis)

Hbomberguy: Jul 4, 2009; [culla=big red]TufFEE did nO THINg WÌ¡RAÌ¸NG[/read]

Username: Hbomberguy
Film: The Prestige
Subtext: the cop and the criminal are the same person

Thanks for the link Quovak

# ¿ Aug 31, 2014 19:45

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 07:02

Hbomberguy: Jul 4, 2009; [culla=big red]TufFEE did nO THINg WÌ¡RAÌ¸NG[/read]

Jonny Angel posted:

Pre-emptive question: must this theme literally mean that two character in the movie, one a cop and one a criminal, are facets of the same person? Or can it be expanded to be about the thin/non-existent line between the two sides of the law?

Yeah, basically the latter. Just go wild. Protagonist/antagonist, the two protagonists, protagonist and his sandwich, whatevs.

It's sort of an in-joke I have with some friends, several of Michael Mann's films explore this theme in often quite on-the-nose ways and we've started jokingly pretending it's a theme in every movie. I think that's a good thing to use in this thread.

# ¿ Aug 31, 2014 20:09

Hbomberguy: Jul 4, 2009; [culla=big red]TufFEE did nO THINg WÌ¡RAÌ¸NG[/read]

I haven't seen Gremlins 2 in a long time but it came out before 9/11 and had scenes in a big tower, right?

Okay, time to pull a Shining and claim Joe Dante knew the plan and tried to warn people.

# ¿ Sep 2, 2014 21:32

Hbomberguy: Jul 4, 2009; [culla=big red]TufFEE did nO THINg WÌ¡RAÌ¸NG[/read]

axleblaze posted:

I posted about it in gen chat, but the reason I submitted those two wacky things (which I thought would get randomized) was that I found on youtube a guy claiming that Gremlins 2 was the Illuminati Jews in Hollywood telling people that they were gonna do 9/11 in 11 year. His entire reasoning behind this was: a) the address of the building the movie was filmed at supposedly had Illuminati significance, b) the building sort of looks like the world trade center, c) there is a sound of an airplane flying by at one point in the movie, d) there's a shot where reported from channel 9 and channel 11 put their mike's next to each other, e) There's a song on the soundtrack called "bombers in the sky" by a group called the Thompsons TWINs and it's right next to the song "New York, New York", F) There are some TWIN actors from Terminator 2 which is apparently also about 9/11 and E) JEWS.

You have to try and be more coherent than that without being anti-Semitic.

The first movie tells kids there's no santa clause, and now THIS

# ¿ Sep 2, 2014 22:00

Hbomberguy: Jul 4, 2009; [culla=big red]TufFEE did nO THINg WÌ¡RAÌ¸NG[/read]

I haven't read the illuminati page, and I'm not going to - so for the record everything I come up with will be mine.

I'll try to do something interesting with it. I have a different definition of 'inside'.

# ¿ Sep 2, 2014 23:48

Hbomberguy: Jul 4, 2009; [culla=big red]TufFEE did nO THINg WÌ¡RAÌ¸NG[/read]

When exactly is the deadline, in GMT?

# ¿ Sep 14, 2014 14:25

Hbomberguy: Jul 4, 2009; [culla=big red]TufFEE did nO THINg WÌ¡RAÌ¸NG[/read]

I tried to send mine, but it says the email failed. What's the email again? I'll put mine here, just for posterity (and to prove I did it, if I can't get this email out):

quote:

BECOMING WAR: How We All Did 9/11
By Harry �Hbomb� Brewis

In the opening credits of 1990�s Gremlins 2, we are presented with a short Warner Brothers skit featuring Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. Bugs enters, posing serenely on the WB logo. An annoyed-looking, self-righteous Daffy emerges from offscreen, and demands we stop the music.

�I�m takin� charge here!� Daffy insists, pulling Bugs from his spot. �Fifty years of you having the spotlight is enough!� He calls, while doling out an offscreen beating. Daffy insists the WB opening be played from the top, with himself in the starring role. Though the opening ridicules Daffy, the narrative is simple: The duck feels he has been violated, and this violent act is an attempt to set it all right.
The film then immediately cuts to a shot of the World Trade Centre. Eleven years later this cartoonish prophecy was fulfilled, and America was wronged. The nation would play the role of Daffy, and enter into a series of wars that would kill tens of thousands of people in the name of righting this wrong.

The film, far from illustrating the simple idea that the 9/11 disaster was purposefully manufactured by the American government or some other insider group, actually posits the disaster was already prefigured by our own imaginations. Animation at its heart is a reflection of the public consciousness, the thoughts and feelings of a people writ large � and the same is true of the animatronics of the rest of the film�s runtime. So the question is, why do we keep inventing a narrative of being �wronged� and then an inevitable cathartic response?

Gremlins and its sequel are centrally about imagination, the things that influence it, and the horrible, unmentionable underside no-one enjoys acknowledging exists. Beginning with the figure of the Mogwai: Gizmo is presented as a figure of pure fun and unadulterated, innocent joy. However, if you fail to take care of your pet, Bad Things Happen. This is, of course, a childish Cautionary Tale interpretation of the story. Gizmo is far from innocent.

The first thing our happy-go-lucky audience-identification furball does is turn on the TV and watch some good old-fashioned ultraviolence in the form of Rambo: First Blood Part 2. Gizmo makes �bang� noises with his cute face, and mimes along with the killing machine on the screen. Already it is clear that this �apolitical� creature of �fun� enjoys a very particular kind of entertainment, namely the angry and violent beauty of Visceral Action.

What is important here is that the titular Gremlins are not just some alien creatures that came from the outside and threaten Gizmo�s peace. They literally emerge from within Gizmo, a product of him. They represent the reality of the violence and �fun� Gizmo happily celebrated when it was presented on a screen, separate from himself. But get him wet (or push him a little too far...) and the violence emerges, coming home to roost.
Why does Gizmo find himself producing these destructive, anarchic forces? This question is answered in the scene where he decides he has �had enough� and dons a miniaturised version of Rambo�s iconic headband, builds a bow and begins to shoot flaming arrows at his brethren, graphically and disturbingly burning one of them to death. This is the fantasy Gizmo has had since the very beginning, one in which he is a hero saving the world from bad guys. The fact he created them himself is irrelevant to him � he simply needed an enemy for his narrative to function.

The gremlins� name comes from the first film�s World War II vet Murray Futterman. Futterman is dubious of �Goddamn foreign cars� and foreign-ness in general, and coins the term �gremlins� to describe monstrous things planted in imported products in an attempt to sabotage America. �They put em in cars, they put em in yer tv...they have teeny gremlins for our watches!� Futterman claims, imagining Outsiders trying to tear his world down. One day, he got exactly what he imagined.

Futterman returns in Gremlins 2. He appears to have been traumatised by his hard-to-prove experiences, doubtless dismissed by doctors as mad. When the gremlins return he is, shockingly, relieved. This is because the gremlins actually existing, in a provable way, legitimise him. Futterman needed the fantasies of little monsters that want to destroy everything in order to properly orient himself. They were the creatures he always wanted, proof he was right all along. He and Gizmo are the same: They are both formally kind and good people, but secretly possess fantasies of destructive evil monsters and horrible acts against their own loved ones, and of a cathartic response in a feat of heroics. Incidentally, Futterman plays a pivotal role in destroying all of the gremlins in the finale, united with Rambo-Gizmo against his own dark spawn.
The heroic fantasy of the Rambo figure is necessarily violent. It requires enemies to kill. To be a Rambo, one needs enemies to �Rambo� oneself against, imaginary or otherwise. Gizmo�s power is that he actually produces these monstrous forces himself, whereas the Futtermans and Daffy Ducks of the world must lie in wait for the �gremlins� to wrong them first, telling each other stories about it and watching films where it happens first to tide themselves over.

In summary, Gremlins 2 is the story of Gizmo�s successful achievement of the conventional masculine power fantasy, one that requires suffering for all, even for one�s own self, in order to bring about an obscene satisfaction codified by movies, cartoon characters, and western culture as a whole. In the moment Gizmo snaps and finally feels justified in impersonating his hero, a line Rambo spoke in the beginning is repeated once more, as if we were in Gizmo�s own head: �To survive a war, you gotta become war.�

Eleven years after this story was told, a terrorist attack destroyed three world trade centre buildings, two of which appeared very prominently in Gremlins 2�s skyline. Many on the scene would remark how similar the experience had been to �the movies�. They were correct. Films give us what we want: Compelling narratives that create a sense of a place in the world. The terrorist attacks would cause national patriotism and military enlistment to skyrocket, and a subsequent invasion of numerous countries affiliated with the group that �did this� to �us�. After years of waiting, hoping, and watching with Gizmo-like glee the films that prefigured this event, we finally got to Become War.

What Gremlins 2 brings to the table is the idea that disasters are not merely �outside� traumas to which we react, but that this trauma is itself part of the narrative we invent and expect, to justify a fetishised heroic retributive bloodshed. Like all other terrorist spectacles, these events are ultimately an inside job. America wanted to be an action hero again, and it was just waiting for an excuse. It kept imagining excuses, over and over. Finally, someone gave it what it craved. The terrorist group that actually committed the act is only half the story: For the latter quarter of the twentieth century, we were willing them to do it. We even showed them how. And when it finally happened, it was just like in a movie.

# ¿ Sep 15, 2014 05:04

Hbomberguy: Jul 4, 2009; [culla=big red]TufFEE did nO THINg WÌ¡RAÌ¸NG[/read]

VROOM VROOM posted:

I just noticed too, the one in the OP is missing a letter, it's goonsubtextgame@gmail I'm guessing.

I just noticed that too. Thanks. Email sent!

# ¿ Sep 15, 2014 05:06

Hbomberguy: Jul 4, 2009; [culla=big red]TufFEE did nO THINg WÌ¡RAÌ¸NG[/read]

Thanks for posting this; it was my subtext and wasn't sure what direction someone would take it with Her.

Brilliant job, mate. Thrilling to read. What sort of places did you take inspiration from, if I can ask?

# ¿ Sep 17, 2014 01:10

Hbomberguy: Jul 4, 2009; [culla=big red]TufFEE did nO THINg WÌ¡RAÌ¸NG[/read]

VROOM VROOM posted:

Oh snap. I guess there was a reason it all felt so right when I was writing. Thanks to everyone that put in the effort, it seems neither my submitted movie nor topic were written on, oh well. Props to Hbomberguy for taking a more imaginative approach to his topic where I went the literal route, but

Thanks. I know this is all meant to be a big joke but regardless, it really got me thinking about movies I love (Gremlins 2 no joke is the best film ever and my favourite) and it's been a lot of fun to read other people's stuff too! Yours was really good vroom vroom, it made my heart pound - like "holy poo poo this movie's actually about crack! It's right there on the screen!!!" Being a conspiracy theorist, even for pretend, is totally fun.

I took an exam today and realised I've actually forgotten how to Do Maths - film theory has pushed the last of it right out of my brain. I'll need those 25 bucks to pay for high-school numeracy books.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 16:14

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 07:02

Hbomberguy: Jul 4, 2009; [culla=big red]TufFEE did nO THINg WÌ¡RAÌ¸NG[/read]

Writing is ostensibly my job, so I'd love some on mine as well.

edit: Also I'd like to fight Axleblaze in Skullgirls

Hbomberguy fucked around with this message at 20:44 on Oct 1, 2014

# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 20:07

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