Talking Pictures

[DavidTempleton]

Okay. so now you've read the latest adventure in my ongoing quest for the ultimate post-film conversation. You've learned what movie I took my guest to see—or tried to, anyway—and you've heard what we each had to say about it. What I want to know now is, what do YOU have to say? Did you agree with us? Did you think our tangents took us into interesting conversational territory? Do you have anything (anything at all) to add to the discussion.
I invite you to say your piece, and in so doing, to keep the conversation going, and going, and . . . .

David Templeton
Talking Pictures

[DavidTempleton]

I talked to a few people in a Northern California coffeeshop last week. Turns out they'd read the S.W.A.T. Shots column when it published in a Santa Cruz newspaper (Talking Pictures, oddly enough, appears in many places). So we started talking about the column and the movie, S.W.A.T., and this one guy took exception to David Corbett's statement that the typical cop is more like the Mormon character with the soda pop fetish than like the Bad Ass S.W.A.T team as portrayed in the film. "Remember the scene where the SWATsters have the French bad guy in the car?" the guy in the coffee shop asked me. "He accuses them of wanting to be cowboys, and what do they do? They beat the shit out of him. That's the typical cop, not the fat Mormon in the gun cage." Turns out my conversational friend has seen the business end of a cop's baton a time or two.
So here's my question: Which do you think is more typical of the average police officer, Colin Farrell's ass kicker or the Soda Pop junkie back at the station?

David Templeton

[Seedy Edgewick]

More typical? The ass-kicker.

Remember that Concrete Blonde song? "I'm a high school grad/I'm over five-foot-three/I'll get a badge and a gun/And I'll join the P.D./They'll see..." Pretty much sums up my opinion of the jar-head boot-camp rejects that populate the police force.

No shit: the more "macho" the cop's attitude, the smaller the stature. Overcompensation, anyone?

[El Duderino Diablo]

Here it seems that most of the younger city cops are only in it for a short while as it looks good on a resume'. Very few career cops nowadays. Now, with changes to our municipal pension plan all those veteran cops are taking early retirement and the dept. is desperate for new officers.
I'm thinking that all things considered we're probably not going to have a real good police force down the road.

[DavidTempleton]

The Dude, in his comment regarding the "SWAT the movie vs. real-cops" conversation, makes the point that, in the real world, older cops are retiring early and the ones that are left aren't in it for the long haul. Makes me think about the comment that David Corbett made at the beginning of my Talking Pix piece about SWAT. He said that the film plays like a recruiting film for the L.A.P.D., and that young homone-fueled guys without a clue might see the film and think, 'Hey I could do that shit. That's so cool.' I paraphrase Mr. Corbett's words of course.
So what I'm wondering then is this: How much can we blame bad action-packed cop movies—with their MTV style depicitons of police work—for the type of people who are signing up for Police Academy? And if people choose the cop profession because a movie like SWAT turned them on, might that explain why, after a few years, they drop out, having discovered that real life for a cop is not like the movies?
Just wondering.

[Seedy Edgewick]

We as a culture are indoctrinated into this fantasized way of looking at the world. When the real world doesn't match our TV-induced hallucinations, we tend to give up. You can see this trend in many professions regularly portrayed on TV and in films.

Teachers discover school isn't "Saved by the Bell" or "Fast Times at Ridgemont High."

Cops discover law enforcement isn't "SWAT" or "NYPD Blue."

Couples discover romance isn't "All My Children" or "Maid in Manhattan."

Kids discover life isn't "Lilo & Stitch" or some Olsen Twins video.

I really fear for the future of our culture, because kids today are being raised in this kind of atmosphere. When they get out into the real world, look out. And, if you doubt me, look at the harbingers we've already encountered: the school shootings of the last decade. Where were they the decade before? Or the decade before that? They didn't happen.

Remember The Breakfast Club? Remember how shocking it was to see that The Geek had brought a gun to school? And he didn't even use it; it just went off in his locker. But he brought it to school because he couldn't deal with the F he was gonna get in Shop. Now, imagine an entire class of people like him, kids who can't deal with bad grades, rejection, or the general bullshit life throws at all of us.

I think we're approaching critical mass. But it will take a fundamental shift in our culture's priorities to change anything, and it doesn't seem like enough people are aware of the problem for that to happen. Or, if they are aware, they just don't care.

Don't get me wrong: when my daughter's born, I'm gonna educate her on how the real world works. I'm gonna explain to her the difference between make-believe and reality. And I'm gonna give her the arms to take up against a sea of troubles, so that, by opposing them, she can end them. For her at least. I don't know how successful I'll be, but I'm gonna try, goddammit. Did your parents do the same?

[El Duderino Diablo]

Originally posted by Seedy Edgewick
life isn't "Lilo & Stitch" or some Olsen Twins video.


Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa. Just what are you trying to tell me, Seedy?





Sorry, couldn't resist.
:p

[BigBird]

Seedy,

Your touching on some mighty deep shit there...

I do think what is becoming more pervasive in our society is ignorance. I'm not sure if I could blame the media for this - but I've felt that our movie experiences are often devoid of real meaning or feeling. If we can have fun scrunched into a 2 hour format, and maybe spilt it up into a trilogy with some big stars - people won't mind that our movie's are saying nothing to us....

umm.. anyway - I thought it was kind of nice that there was a bit of moral undertone in the movie when we saw Chris Walken and his world - and the relationship of this to the world we live in.. sheesh that little bit of movie subversiveness was worth it....

apparently 1 of 6 people in the world live in slums...

Later,
BigBird

[AmaiStina]

Originally posted by Seedy Edgewick
We as a culture are indoctrinated into this fantasized way of looking at the world.

what you said reminds me of what an author named Alain de Botton wrote in his book The Art of Travel, "If we are inclined to forget how much there is in the world besides that which we anticipate, then works of art are perhaps a little to blame, for in them we find at work the same process of simplification or selection as in the imagination. Artistic accounts involve severe abbreviations of what reality will force upon us."

[I See Movies]

So, exactly how much is Fandango paying you for this column?

[DavidTempleton]

Hey, do you think Fandango WOULD pay me?
Actually, my original lead was not "Technology sucks." It was "Fandango Sucks," but then I thought, do I really want to say Fandango more than twice in this story? I thought it was funny, and Morgan's Fandango reference at the end was funny, mainly as a kind of veiled put down towards me, as I think he intended it to be.

Did you read the Heidi Fleiss column from a week or two ago? She didn't pay me either (for mentioning her books OR the pink Heidiwear pajamas she was garbed in during our interview). In fact, she made me pay HER, in cash, for a copy of her book, though she DID give me a bit of a discount.

So here's a side question for you, as a reader (at least this once) of my Talking Pictures column. Who (or what) do you think I should invite to see 'The Punisher?' An expert on pain management? A comic book collector? Kevin Smith? Arianna Huffington?
What about upcoming movies like'Van Helsing?' 'Troy'? 'Shrek 2'? 'Day After Tomorrow'? I'm gonna make a play for getting Al Gore on that last one, just for yucks. If not, maybe the OTHER great Global Warming champion—Leonardo DiCaprio. Any other fun suggestions?

David

[El Duderino Diablo]

Originally posted by DavidTempleton

So here's a side question for you, as a reader (at least this once) of my Talking Pictures column. Who (or what) do you think I should invite to see 'The Punisher?' An expert on pain management? A comic book collector? Kevin Smith? Arianna Huffington?

How about a mob enforcer? It'd be interesting as hell, intimidating, maybe even scary but interesting nonetheless. ;)

[DavidTempleton]

Dude,

Taking a Mob enforcer to see 'The Punisher' is a great idea. Know any?
Are Mob Enforcers listed in the Yellow Pages? Maybe there's a www.mobenforcer.com?

David

[El Duderino Diablo]

Hmmm... could always try hanging around the local courthouse, police station, hospital emergency room. I don't know. Maybe David Chase would know.
Maybe it'd be easier to find a cop to take along, the Punisher character having started as a cop and all.
Otherwise a rabid comic geek or Kevin Smith would probably be a more than sufficient back up plan.

[Seedy Edgewick]

Take Bernie Goetz! He might make you pay him, but he's probably so desparate for recognition these days that he'd settle for a microwave burrito from AM/PM.

[El Duderino Diablo]

Whoa! Inspired call, Seedy! I bet he'd do it for the exposure alone.
Goetz for mayor? (http://www.bernieformayor.com/pages/940375/index.htm)