80's Watch: Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
Watched: 06/02/2023
Format: Watch Party
Viewing: Unknown
Director: George Miller
In memory of the great Tina Turner, this week we put on Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985) for our group watch party. This is also the last one for the summer (or longer). Life is resuming, and while I enjoy the experience, my own life and those of the folks who participated, has changed once again.
Anyway, this was a movie I saw at age 10 and in the theater. Subsequently, it played interminably on HBO, I believe, during one of the periods where my parents would pay for premium cable, and I'd seen it a lot during a crucial window in my life. I'm well aware that it's not a patch on The Road Warrior, and in its way, not as fresh as the first Mad Max. And, it's just not as good as Fury Road, which feels like the real distillation of the concepts and final word on the idea of Mad Max - until George Miller does it again.
But it's still a watchable movie and has more ideas per minute than a season of most sci-fi TV. And like all sci-fi that works, it feels plausible and comments back to us about who we are.
This Mad Max film sees Max wander into a town where capitalism has met with the apocalypse and you can't enter unless you have something to trade. Having recently been relieved of his camels(!) and car, Max is recruited to kill the muscle of a brains/ muscle combo by the person who founded Bartertown but has lost control of it to an engineer who is turning pig shit into methane.
Like I say: lots of ideas.
One of the funny things about the Miller-envisioned dystopia of Mad Max is that with the Road Warrior, we start on the pattern of Max finding some glimmer of humanity that he winds up fighting for. Road Warrior saw him form an alliance with the people of gas-town. Fury Road was protecting captive women and eventually freeing a whole burgeoning civilization. This film sees Max getting by and fighting just to stay two steps ahead of calamity until he fails in Thunderdome (his own humanity intact to some degree as he refuses to murder) and winds up sent into the desert and certain death. Until he's discovered by a herd of kids.
It's essentially a Lost Boys scenario, but with a dark(er) edge. These kids were *abandoned* by the adults who wandered out into the desert never to return, leaving the kids to survive. If any adults were with them, they died long ago. Now, they're a weird cargo cult with their own religion based around the belief the pilot of the jet they arrived in will come back and fly them away.
The only real read I have is Miller pondering how innocence would flourish in the world he's imagined, and how anyone could have a belief in a better tomorrow. You would absolutely have to have no idea what the world was before, and once the movie extrapolates how that would even happen, stuff gets weird. But I also think it's an inherently interesting idea. That said, because I saw the movie at such a young age and internalized it, I'm not sure that I can measure the failure or success of the execution.
The first part of the film within Bartertown is interesting enough and maybe could have carried the film. The notion of settling disputes in an arena where two men enter, one man leaves feels very on-brand for the world we've seen across the prior films. It's the craving for law and order in simple rhymes that feels oddly buyable in the era of Trumpism and the now nano-second long attention-grabbers looking for a mnemonic device to create recall and impression. Say what you will, but Bartertown is *fair*, and those who enter know what they signed up for. Propped up by energy and the charisma of Aunty Entity (Turner) it points to a myth-less, soulless future of civilization of transaction and commerce as the only instinct in humans. Thunderdome removes the middle-man of a justice system for one of might making right.
Certainly those who see the appearance of a child on screen and allowing kids to talk is a sign of not-bad-addness, and who believe not-bad-assness = not good, will find the movie wearying. Others will find a cult of kids who are living through a self-created mythology to be irritating. And it is. It's cognitive dissonance with what we know both of the world and Max's world.
But I also think it's pointing to what stories and myth provide to humanity, and that's ideas and hope. The Bartertown residents will continue to one-up and murder each other, and the kids who wind up in the bones of the cities will build a civilization, retconning the actual events that transpired to match the myths they carried with them.
I don't think it's a mistake that when he returned to the idea in Fury Road that no one in the film was particularly innocent. Miller had covered that story. But he did return to the idea of humanity and finding a better way - plus flamethrowers. It was a chance to investigate how people who maintain a vision despite the world around them can show others how to thrive.
Anyway, like all Mad Max, which is made from an outline and dialog cobbled together from page notes and storyboards and improvisation, Beyond Thunderdome can feel a little rough. But I'd argue that's part of the aesthetic and what makes it work. I like the call-and-response religious overtones of the film, of Max sorting through his roles as he moves from sequence to sequence, and the ideas tossed around moment to moment. But I also understand it's not going to satisfy every viewer. And it may be the least of the Mad Max films, toned down a bit to draw in the 10 year olds like me who paid our allowance to see it.
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from The Signal Watch https://ift.tt/bStaI7D
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This is the best description of Donald Trump’s poisonous ideology that I have ever read:
“…Trumpism—the political movement that arose as a malignant mass incarnation of Trump's personality, based on racism, nativism, isolationism, the celebration of ignorance, and a will to power that was innately hostile to American institutions.”
I am glad that the Never Trumpers exist, and I hope that they win the civil war within the Republican party. Despite my distaste for their policies and for most of their politicians, there needs to be a counterbalance to the Democratic party… at least so long as we persist with this political duopoly.
Of course, the real answer to Trumpism and all of the other ills that the right wing has brought us is actually to increase the number of political parties, so that no one single party stands a chance of winning complete control and would be forced to build a coalition with another party, to gain a majority, as is the case in many parliamentary democracies.
Trumpism will not die with Donald Trump. In fact, I have accepted the reality that we will never be rid of Trump, even after he is dead. The cult of personality around him rivals that of Elvis. Yes, we will be hearing of sightings of Donald Trump decades after he dies and leaves this world.
I would much rather never again hear his name or voice. I wish that he would simply go away. Generally, the loser of a national election does just that. For at least the short term, they don’t insert themselves into the daily new cycle in the way this man, who was so desperate for attention, does repeatedly.
Whether or not, the GOP will survive Trump is on, remains to be seen. It will come down to the choices that they make. It will come down to who is in control of the party. It will come down to whether or not GOP voters are sick and tired of the daily embarrassment of the MAGAts.
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The Cult Of Trumpism! A Song.
The Cult Of Trumpism speaks volumes about White Racism
The Cult Of Trumpism tells tales too lurid even for the church bells
It describes a rising star too Big even though All freaking lies
The real estate a taxing question
The Cult Of Trumpism another one?
Why Why why
What makes Trump a special guy
What makes Trump a special guy
Only thing he does is lie Only thing he does is lie
Why are…
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I think we should put trump and his supporters in a psych ward for 20-30yrs be they're super delusional and are pretty much a cult as this point
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Destiny: A tyrant's authority for crime and a fool's excuse for failure.
- Ambrose Bierce
Character is destiny.
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The Monstrous Predicament Trump Left Behind
This week’s Senate trial is unlikely to convict Donald Trump of inciting sedition against the United States. At least 17 Republican senators are needed for conviction, but only five have signaled they’ll go along.
Why won’t Republican senators convict him? After all, it’s an open and shut case. As summarized in the brief submitted by House impeachment managers, Trump spent months before the election telling his followers that the only way he could lose was through “a dangerous, wide-ranging conspiracy against them that threatened America itself.”
Immediately after the election, he lied that he had won by a “landslide,” and later urged his followers to stop the counting of electoral ballots by making plans to “fight like hell” and “fight to the death” against this “act of war” perpetrated by “Radical Left Democrats” and the “weak and ineffective RINO section of the Republican Party.”
If this isn’t an impeachable offense, it’s hard to imagine what is. But Republican senators won’t convict him because they’re answerable to Republican voters, and Republican voters continue to believe Trump’s big lie.
A shocking three out of four Republican voters don’t think Joe Biden won legitimately. About 45 percent even support the storming of the Capitol.
The crux of the problem is Americans now occupy two separate worlds – a fact-based pro-democracy world and a Trump-based authoritarian one.
Trump spent the last four years seducing voters into his world, turning the GOP from a political party into a grotesque projection of his pathological narcissism.
Regardless of whether he is convicted, America must now deal with the monstrous predicament he left behind: One of the nation’s two major political parties has abandoned reality and democracy.
What to do? Four things.
First, prevent Trump from running for president in 2024. The mere possibility energizes his followers.
An impeachment conviction is not the only way to prevent him. Under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, anyone who has taken an oath to protect the Constitution is barred from holding public office if they “have engaged in insurrection” against the United States. As constitutional expert and former Yale Law professor Bruce Ackerman has noted, a majority vote that Trump engaged in insurrection against the United States is sufficient to trigger this clause.
Second, give Republicans and independents every incentive to abandon the Trump cult.
White working-class voters without college degrees who now comprise a large portion of it need good jobs and better futures. Many are understandably angry after being left behind in vast enclaves of unemployment and despair. They should not have to depend on Trump’s fact-free fanaticism in order to feel visible and respected.
A jobs program on the scale necessary to bring many of them around will be expensive but worth the cost, especially when democracy hangs in the balance.
Big business, which used to have a home in the GOP, will need a third party. Democrats should not try to court them; the Democratic Party should aim to represent the interests of the bottom 90 percent.
Third, disempower the giant media empires that amplified Trump’s lies for four years -- Facebook, Twitter, and Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News and its imitators. The goal is not to “cancel” the political right but to refocus public deliberation on facts, truth, and logic. Democracy cannot thrive where big lies are systematically and repeatedly exploited for commercial gain.
The solution is antitrust enforcement and stricter regulation of social media, accompanied by countervailing financial pressure. Consumers should boycott products advertised on these lie factories and advertisers should shun them. Large tech platforms should lose legal immunity for violence-inciting content. Broadcasters such as Fox News and Newsmax should be liable for knowingly spreading lies (they are now being sued by producers of voting machinery and software which they accused of having been rigged for Biden).
Fourth, safeguard the democratic form of government. This requires barring corporations and the very wealthy from buying off politicians, ending so-called “dark money” political groups that don’t disclose their donors, defending the right to vote, and ensuring more citizens are heard, not fewer.
Let’s be clear about the real challenge ahead. The major goal is not to convict Trump of inciting insurrection. It is to move a vast swath of America back into a fact-based pro-democracy society and away from the Trump-based authoritarian one.
Regardless of whether he is convicted, the end of his presidency has given the nation a reprieve. Unless America uses it to end Trumpism’s hold over tens of millions of Americans, that reprieve may be temporary.
Thankfully, Joe Biden appears to understand this.
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This is the extreme danger of Trumpism - the dehumanization of our own citizens, our friends and families.
“Any time you dehumanize any part or segment of the population to such a low level, to the lowest level you can go, people are happy on the opposite side to do the worst against them,” he says of QAnon believers’ views of Trump’s enemies. “That’s the real danger here — not that [QAnon adherents] will get into the Senate. When you frame your opponents [as subhuman], you won’t just watch them burn. You’ll be happy about it.”
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Everyone talks about how Trump’s supporters will never abandon him, no matter how often he demonstrates his terrible leadership skills, or regardless of whether most people who work for him end up humiliated, fired, indicted, or quitting because he has the temperament of a spoiled brat whose life has amounted to little more than a string of lawsuits, failed businesses, questionable associates, and mediocre children suckling on the teat of nepotism.
It doesn’t matter that he hasn’t actually fulfilled most of his major campaign promises—he never built the wall, deported all undocumented immigrants, repealed Obamacare, put Hillary in prison, brought back manufacturing jobs on a large scale, or eliminated the federal debt. What matters to his supporters is that they feel like he’s accomplished things, and what you make people feel is often more important than what you actually do for them.
So much of the momentum of Trumpism has nothing to do with achieving discrete conservative goals—it revolves around a culture of shock value, trolling, antagonizing, and “othering” anyone who criticizes them or their president. As far as I can tell, they suppose the real problems in our country stem from people who hate Trump and constantly try to undermine his policies or invent lies about him. I would assert they have the cause and effect relationship backwards—protests, violence, and unrest aren’t the problem eating away at our social contract—they’re a symptom that the social contract is being eroded. But never mind.
Picture a thought experiment where his supporters get exactly what they claim they want. Imagine every Democrat in Congress, every member of the Hollywood elite, and every Jewish billionaire dropped dead tomorrow, or perhaps the majority of Americans who dislike Trump suddenly abandon their entire worldview and understanding of the Constitution and give into the demands of the minority of America who adores him. However it happens, the opposition disappears.
And then they build a “great big beautiful” wall to keep all the immigrants out. They put prayer in schools and outlaw homosexuality and ban abortion and abolish gun laws and cut social programs and save the white suburbs and measure their economic success solely by the stock market, as if they could eat the Dow or live in the NASDAQ. Will they be happy? Will America be great?
I doubt it. Trumpism isn’t a traditional political theory that proposes ideas on how to best preserve the social contract and promote national unity, instead it peddles the concept that liberal elites long ago shattered the social contract by asking us to respect people’s pronouns and implying that maybe not all cops are fair to minorities, and unity can only be restored when all of Trump’s enemies are vanquished. Trumpism requires comic book-esque villains to shape a narrative, a deliberate “us versus them” mentality.
It’s rudimentary, but it’s the backbone of storytelling. What’s more, there will always be enemies. Even if all the BLM protesters or socialists or secularists or feminists evaporated into thin air, they would invent a new enemy to malign. They would have to.
Ever wonder why Batman never defeats the Joker or why a supposedly all-powerful God never settles the score with Satan? Because that would be the end of the plot and you can’t sell comic books or church if you don’t keep the storyline open or at least leave room for a new antagonist.
Similarly, you can’t sell Trumpism without Antifa, migrant caravans, and wildly out-of-context AOC or Greta Thunberg quotes. And so give them an imaginary country completely devoid of never-Trumpers, and the whole movement would disintegrate, either because they would get bored and finally notice the emperor isn't wearing any clothes, or they would turn on each other for lack of an appropriate subject to burn in effigy.
For all the talk of what Trump supporters claim they stand for, the cornerstone of their movement is really best summed up by what they stand against, as evidenced by the “fuck your feelings” t-shirts and the “liberal tears” coffee mugs. Without any obvious enemies to scapegoat, outrage, and oppose, I imagine a good many MAGA believers would find a theoretical Trumpland a pretty far cry from the utopia they yearn for.
Some might argue the Democrats are "just as bad" and all they’ve done these past four years is disparage and try to tear down a president that God himself ordained. Side note—ever notice how Republicans get elected through God’s guiding hand, but any time a Democrat sits in the Oval, it has Satan’s fingerprints all over it?
Anyway, trust me, I’ve spent a lot of time agonizing over the reality that we won’t be a country at peace for a long time. Maybe not ever again. And it’s almost entirely because Trump thrives on sowing discord. Even if Joe Biden wins in November, the MAGA cult won’t just graciously accept defeat and take the advice they gave never-Trumpers in 2016, which was to “suck it up and deal with it, crybabies” because after all "he's the president whether or not you voted for him."
But the thing is, without Trump, Democrats actually DO have a platform, contrary to what right-wing cable news pundits would imply. Most of its objectives have nothing to do with sticking it to Donald Trump, but focus on reducing poverty, improving access to healthcare, and advocating for civil rights.https://www.demconvention.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/2020-07-31-Democratic-Party-Platform-For-Distribution.pdf
Meanwhile, perhaps nothing supports my argument that all Trump supporters care about is "owning the libs" and generally just doing the opposite of whatever Democrats want than the fact that their 2020 platform is a single page long and literally says “The RNC enthusiastically supports President Trump and continues to reject the policy positions of the Obama-Biden Administration, as well as those espoused by the Democratic National Committee today.” https://prod-cdn-static.gop.com/docs/Resolution_Platform_2020.pdf
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Let’s talk conspiracy theories.
Credit for chart : Abbie Richards
Let's talk about conspiracy theories. We are hitting a point where, for some god forsaken reason, conspiracy theories are being normalized- in large part due to Trumpism. This radical shift in what is considered normal, acceptable, and not "crazy" to believe really was given a home after the "fake news" concept took off.
I've unfortunately had a deeper eye into conspiracy than most people in my life. When I was about 17, a few of my hippie friends (on in particular, started going down the road of cults and conspiracy. Think chemtrails, cancer isn't real, new world order and such, but from a left wing perspective.
I feel like the early 2000s was a pretty strong time for "hippies" and granola types to latch onto these beliefs. Science denial was especially common. Unfortunately, my friend group at the time became absolutely infested with these beliefs to the point where not believing in my of them turned you into a pariah, and I ended up slowly edging myself away from these people. When I was 24, my now ex, who suffered from a mental illness, started believing in a lot of techno conspiracies revolving around being stalked by the government, the government installing CP on people's computers, surveillance equipment that could stalk you through air waves if anything electronic is on- resulting in some horrifically violent and terrifying episodes.
This was a very scary time in my life. So it's fair to say that for me, conspiracy has had no political affliction, but has followed me through my life in a way where I have seen the aftermath and horror that it can trigger in a person's life. I've seen people I love sink deeper and deeper into their bubble to the point of absolute darkness and isolation. Ive seen people lose their jobs, get deep into drugs, abandon their loved ones. Ive been abused, in part, as a result of the horror that conspiracy can instill in the life of the believer. Ive also see how easy it is to go down this road when enabled. When I was with my ex, he spoke with absolute confidence and clarity that what he believed was real. I found myself more than a few times wondering, "what if he's right"....and even that doubt- that belief for even a few moments that a conspiracy theory is correct- THATS the beginning.
When someone you love or trust, someone who has authority in your life begins to share this information, it can easily be presented as legitimate. You don't need to have the same political beliefs as that person. You can be a moderate. You can be completely logical and start to fall down this hole.So now imagine this. The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES starts to tell you "all news except for news approved by me isn't real". and later, "scientists are not being honest". You like and support him and trust him. He's the president after all. So we have hit that cultist point of doubt. Now, no matter what studies are shown by ANY reputable news source, it is not enough.
The president has now put a bug in the ear of many Americans already ready to trust him that any legitimately sourced news is incorrect, leaving many people committed in full to unverified sources that only produce information that feeds into those conspiracies. How these sources became radicalized is it's own thing. So, we aren't edging towards a reality where conspiracy is normalized, we are already there. Because top sources have already started that little trick of delusion.
That little seed of doubt I started to feel when my ex boyfriend encouraged me to "see things from his side". And it trickles from Trump to uncle Rob. and uncle rob to his wife. And his wife to her hairdresser and so on. And, as Abbie Richards has said, the more willing you are to accept a conspiracy theory that passes a certain science denial threshold, the more likely you are to start believing ALL of them- and past a certain point, their narratives begin to weave together. Qanon is allowed to exist because deep state conspiracy theories fuel it and give a backing to it's claims. This isn't an excuse of things like Q/the deep state/etc, but I do want to start having discussions about HOW it's normalized so we can work on ways to denormalize it.
What I am getting at now is, when I see something like Parlor, which is a right wing "Twitter" I want to say "good, leave" but I also have a deep fear about what this means for extreme radicalization of an already very susceptible base, and what it will mean for normalizing conspiracy theories. The right likes to talk about how fact checking is censorship. Some free speech advocates say that sharing conspiracy theories is free speech and needs to be protected on internet platforms, but allowing people to share those concepts WITHOUT fact checking them is socially irresponsible at best.
I personally have strong feelings about free speech, but I also believe we should be independently fact checking these claims as much as possible, and I hope to see it more on social media platforms. Platforms like Parlor are scary because the echo chamber, already dangerous through facebook and twitter, is about to get a whole lot more powerful.If you know any of these people, try to reach out. Im not sure what can be done at this point, but allowing right wingers to become further radicalized is a danger to all of us.
In conclusion- I dont know, but it does scare me.
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Stark Differences in Political Contrasts - Going from Fear to Hope
After watching the different town halls last night, I feel this vindication about having a more liberal outlook on life, politics and faith.
There is a part of me that keeps trying to understand why my college age self thought voting in my first election to give Bush a second time was such a great idea...2004, being 18, attending a Southern Baptist flavored University and I can’t think of a positive reason.
I voted Republican due to fear, not hope.
I was still entrenched in that cult mindset and didn’t vote for Obama when he first ran. Because I was afraid. Not of a black man being president but of the militaristic mindset I was told that if we didn’t have a strong military leader, American would be invaded
(Looking back I kind of have to appreciate how absurd this argument is...who would invade? Canada? Our peaceful neighbors who currently have us walled off so we don’t kill them from a virus that should have been easy to control the spread of? Geez. What a silly bugger I was.)
Watching those town halls, I see the fear mongering that Trumpism encapsulates. This fear of a White America from the 1950′s is finally on the verge of dying. This fear that if we aren’t careful, secret cults of liberal democrats will finally have infiltrated the top of government so they can eat babies...or, something.
And hey, let’s be fucking brutal right here. The real fear is that POC, those who have chronic illness/disabilities, those who have weird political/religious beliefs (or none at all), the poor, anyone who doesn’t match the picture perfect form of hetro/binary/etc. are all possibly going to be treated as human being and not the footstools of a 1950′s faux Christian White America.
There is so much political subtext I used to miss because conservative Christian politics used to scream about only two subjects, two subjects only:
1.) Abortion
2.) Gay Marriage
The second one crumbled quickly for me. If you are at all involved in the arts, you will meet people who would never be welcomed in a Southern Baptist Church. The more I met people whose lifestyles didn’t match up with the SBC, the more I realized I had never belonged in that denomination because Jesus doesn’t give a damn about what gender or orientation a person is, they are a person and therefore deserve to be loved for who they are and are welcomed to the table.
And abortion. I’m a white male, none of us belong in the discussion or crafting legislation about women’s bodies, fertility, contraceptive or abortions.
We were taught from a young age that Evil Liberal Democrats HATE babies and want to murder them. No one mentioned that the laws are crafted so poorly that in a number of conservative states a woman whose baby dies is forced to carry the dead baby until her body naturally tries to go into labor.
That fucking insanity is what broke me out of this cult mindset concerning women’s bodies. What the hell do I know about women’s bodies and what they go through? This is a medical and human right issue, not a political or religious thought exercise.
All that to say, I no longer find myself involved with politics due to fear, I find myself involved with politics due to hope and joy. I was hoping we were going to have a Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren administration but I’ll be damned, Mr.Biden is winning me over by being a Decent Human Being (TM).
That is more than what the Republicans posing as Christians have to offer. There are no perfect political systems in the world (Who am I to lie? New Zealand and their goddess of a PM Jacinda Ardern is as close as to Heaven on Earth as we are getting anytime soon.) but progress only comes from fighting.
It’s vital to remember that the fight to equality has always been a marathon.
The path to people leaving cults is one that is long winded, uncomfortable and full of missteps. I want to give a shout out to the people who have helped me on this path, loving me when I was a self-righteous ass and helped inspire me to keep seeking.
I can’t speak for everyone but from where I stand the path of Faith and Christianity, when viewed in the historical context, is one that should lead to peace, hope and love. There is no anger, there is no fear, there is no wrath.
The Love of Jesus is frightful, not because of exclusion, but because this mad messiah only wants to show Love. There are no tests, no performance reviews or beatings until moral improves.
Life is complicated, politics even more so.
Love, human rights, common decency, standing up for one another and fighting to make sure no one has to live in fear is not.
Hold tight people, we are going to kick these fucking Nazis out of power and we are going to do it by standing firm together.
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BORAT: SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM (2020)
Starring Sacha Baron Cohen, Maria Bakalova, Judith Dim Evans, Jerry Holleman, Jim Russell, Pastor Jonathan Bright, Macey Chanel, Dani Popescu, Manuel Vieru, Miroslav Tolj, Alin Popa, Ion Gheorghe, Nicolae Gheorghe, Marcela Codrea, Luca Nelu, Nicoleta Ciobanu, Tom Hanks, Mike Pence and Rudy Giuliani.
Screenplay by Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Dan Swimer & Peter Baynham & Erica Rivinoja & Dan Mazer & Jena Friedman & Lee Kern.
Directed by Jason Woliner.
Distributed by Amazon Studios. 96 minutes. Rated R.
Fourteen years on from its theatrical release, it’s easy to forget what a sensation Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan – usually shortened to simply Borat – was upon release. Based on a character by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen – who was at the time a cult artist best known for another character Da Ali G – Borat was a new form of cinema. It was guerrilla comedy, an improvised fake documentary in which Cohen, in character as a backwards communist bloc journalist, interacted with real people in the United States to make pointed commentaries on American culture.
Honestly, I did not see Borat in the theater. However, I was excited to see it. By the time it was released on video, I was kind of underwhelmed by the movie. It had some moments, but way too much relied on stupidity and shock value. Still, I could see how it would be funnier if you had experienced it in a theater with a crowd rather than sitting alone in your home.
Cohen’s career has had its share of ups and downs ever since. His follow-up film Bruno, which was a similar type of film to Borat, but it was just horrible, unwatchable and a huge box office disappointment. So were his follow-ups The Dictator and Grimsby.
Otherwise, Cohen has made a respectable career as an eccentric supporting actor, playing intriguing roles in the likes of Sweeney Todd, Hugo, Dinner for Schmucks, Les Misérables, Anchorman 2, Alice Through the Looking Glass and the current The Trial of the Chicago Seven. He was also originally signed to play Queen singer Freddie Mercury in the film Bohemian Rhapsody but was given the boot after too many “creative differences” with members of the group.
The first sign that Cohen’s career was regaining traction was his 2018 political satire series Who is America?, which used many of Cohen’s old-standby methods. He interviewed real people – many of them politicians – in outrageous character to get them to confess to their misdeeds. The show was sharp, cutting and surprisingly funny, and received critical and popular acclaim.
Two years later and the world is even more fucked up. Cohen has decided to resurrect his most popular character to turn a microscope on America in the age of Trumpism, QAnon, white supremacy and the coronavirus.
Like the original Borat film, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm mocks the most controversial and misguided ideas of the people in the film by having Borat (and his daughter, in this film) enthusiastically agree with them. Also like the original, Borat 2 sometimes relies too much on stupidity and shock value. (I may have to boil my eyes after watching the Rudy Giuliani section – I will never be able to unsee that.) And like the first Borat, I think it would probably work better in a crowded theater – although of course at this moment in history that is pretty much impossible.
However, what can I say? I mostly liked Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, even more than the first one. Again, it’s not a great movie, but it’s mostly an enjoyable and thought-provoking one.
The slight story had Borat doing hard labor for 14 years in his native Kazakhstan because the original movie made the country a laughingstock. Finally the country’s premier decides to free Borat and send him back to the United States to deliver a beloved monkey to Mike Pence, in order to get into Donald Trump’s good graces. Of course, the premier’s plot is much more sinister than it originally appears.
Interestingly, Cohen and Borat have become so well known (both in real life and in the movie) that it is getting difficult for him to do his particular style of in-character prank interview. Therefore, much of Borat Subsequent Moviefilm falls on the shoulders of Borat’s slightly feral teenaged daughter Tutar, played by a little-known Bulgarian actress named Maria Bakalova. (Oddly, early press releases for the film gave the actress’ name as Irina Nowak, which appears to be a complete fabrication.)
Bakalova gets probably as much screen time as Cohen, and also gets to do every bit as much unhinged comedy as her more famous co-star. In fact, in many scenes, Cohen acquiesces to be essentially the straight man to his younger, slightly manic co-star. Bakalova gives a shot of energy – and a shot of estrogen – to the film that works surprisingly well. In fact, some of the later scenes border on… dare I say it?... heartfelt.
Much like the original, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is an episodic road trip across America, with Borat having brief interactions with people and showing their true colors by appearing to agree with them. There is not all that much of a story through line – there are eight screenplay credits for a movie that was probably mostly improvised??? – it is just Borat and his daughter’s adventures in the US.
Some of these are funny. Some of these are pointed. (It barely raises an eye when Borat crashes the CPAC – Conservative Political Action Conference – in full KKK regalia.) Some are sweet. (Holocaust survivor Judith Dim Evans teaches Borat that Jews are just people, too.) Some are scary. (Pretending to be the entertainment at a conservative protest, Borat gets the crowd singing along with some shockingly violent song.)
And by the way Rudy, that was no tuck.
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is mostly funny, pointed satire in a time when the world needs more laughs. However, the most important part of Borat 2 is simply the final chyron message before the end credits: “Now vote.” So, go on. Now vote.
Jay S. Jacobs
Copyright ©2020 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: October 23, 2020.
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For Trump supporters like Jones, the O.K. sign—thumb meeting index finger, three fingers splayed—is a kind of secret handshake. It began as a joke—a “hoax” meant to trick liberals into believing that the raised fingers actually represent the letters WP: white power. The joke worked so well that it became real. Now, in certain circles, O.K. does mean white power—unless you say it doesn’t. Jones, a big, vein-popping, occasionally church-going white man burdened with what he calls an “Islamic” name by his hippie mother, revels in this kind of coded message, a sense of possessing knowledge shared only by a select few. It’s Möbius strip politics, Trumpism’s defining oxymoron: a populist elite, a mass movement of “free thinkers” all thinking the same thing. They love Trump because he makes them feel like insiders even as they imagine him their outsider champion. That’s what’s drawn Jones here, to the CenturyLink Center in Bossier City, Louisiana, two weeks before Thanksgiving. Like many of the president’s 14,000 followers waiting for the rally to begin, Jones believes that Trump is on a mission from God to expose (and destroy) the hidden demons of the deep state.
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Is Donald Trump a fascist?
That question emerged in various forms pretty early in his 2016 presidential campaign, which began with a speech railing against Mexican immigrants, and gained steam after he called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” in December 2015, as a response to the San Bernardino terrorist attack.
At that point, the Muslim ban proposal, I contacted five fascism experts and asked them if Trump qualified. They all said no. Every one of them stated that to be a fascist, one must support the revolutionary, usually violent overthrow of the entire government/Constitution, and reject democracy entirely. In 2015, none were comfortable saying Trump went that far. He was too individualist for the inherently collectivist philosophy of fascism, and not sufficiently committed to the belief that violence is good for its own sake, as a vital cleansing force.
Roger Griffin, the author of The Nature of Fascism and a professor of history at Oxford Brookes University, summed it up well: “You can be a total xenophobic racist male chauvinist bastard and still not be a fascist.”
Five years have now passed, and the fascism questions have only grown more frequent. Trump has had time to implement quite anti-immigrant and anti-Black policies, and refused to denounce his most extreme and violent supporters, from the neo-Nazis and white nationalists in Charlottesville to the Proud Boys group. And every week, I receive dozens of emails from readers wondering if I stand by my conclusion in 2015, that Trump is simply a bigot with an authoritarian streak, not a fascist.
So I reached out to the experts I talked to back then. Four of the five replied, and I also got in touch with a few more scholars who have researched fascism to get a broader view.
The responses were, again, unanimous, albeit tinged with much greater concern about Trump’s authoritarian and violent tendencies. No one thinks Trump is a fascist leader, full stop. Jason Stanley, a Yale philosopher and author of How Fascism Works, came closest to that conclusion, saying that “you could call legitimately call Trumpism a fascist social and political movement” and that Trump is “using fascist political tactics,” but that Trump isn’t necessarily leading a fascist government.
But most experts did not even go that far, and some expressed concern that describing Trump as a fascist undermines the term and leads to a misanalysis of our current political situation. “If Trump was a fascist and we were in a situation akin to Germany in 1932 or Italy in 1921, certain kinds of actions would be justified,” Sheri Berman, a professor of political science at Barnard College, says. “But we are not and they are not.”
To be clear, “not fascist” is a very, very low bar for Trump to clear. The concerns that lead people to ask the question “Is Trump a fascist?” are real. Trump really is trying to discredit the coming presidential election. He really has hired officials with ties to white nationalist groups. He really did promise to ban all Muslims from the US (and implemented new rules toward that goal), said that a Mexican American judge is unfit to preside over cases involving him, called Mexican immigrants “rapists,” empathized with neo-Nazis after Charlottesville, and falsely claimed Muslim Americans celebrated the 9/11 attacks — among many, many transgressions.
But things could always get worse. There really are leaders who suspend elections, dissolve legislatures, throw large numbers of citizens into camps without trial or appeal, who turn their nations into one-party states oriented around a cult of national rebirth. The fascist leaders of the past, the University of Texas’s Jason Brownlee notes, “not only pursued right-wing policies, they also built-up mass-mobilizing parties and paramilitary organizations with the goal of sweeping aside alternative movements and establishing single-party dictatorship.”
That hasn’t happened here — but it could. It came terrifyingly close to happening in Greece, where the explicitly neo-Nazi Golden Dawn became the third-largest political party in the mid-2010s. And if and when it does happen in America, we need to have the right terms and tools to confront it.
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Όταν γαρ ηδύς τις λόγοις φρονών κακώς πείθη το πλήθος, τη πόλει κακόν μέγα.
- Euripides
When one with honeyed words but evil mind persuades the mob, great woes befall the state.
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https://claytoonz.com/2020/08/08/if-biden-wins/
You would think Donald Trump is talking out of his ass and making up wild bullshit out of desperation from losing to Joe Biden, except Donald Trump always talks out of his ass and makes up wild bullshit.
Donald Trump said if Biden wins, he’ll, “Take away your guns, take away your Second Amendment. No religion, no anything. Hurt the Bible. Hurt God. He’s against God. He’s against guns. He’s against energy, our kind of energy.”
He also claimed Biden will get rid of cops and fracking. The fracking thing might be the only thing close to being true. Why didn’t Trump include grandmas, baseball, apple pie, and puppies?
Joe Biden has based his entire career on his faith. It’s something he’s talked about again and again. He talked about how his faith helped him get through the loss of his first wife, daughter, and son. When Pope Francis visited the United States in 2015, Joe Biden met him on the tarmac, went with him to Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, and accompanied the Pope to Philadelphia. He called the Pope, “the single most popular figure in the world.”
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Russians meddlers spread lies that Pope Francis endorsed Trump. Donald Trump never knocked those claims down.
When Donald Trump talks about religion, he says he has never asked for forgiveness and when he has been to church, that’s where you eat your “little crackers and drink your little wine.”
The last time Donald Trump went to a church, he had the military teargas peaceful protesters so he could walk to it from the White House, stand outside the church on a Monday afternoon, hold “a” Bible upside down(when asked if it was his, he said it was “a Bible”), all for a photo-op. Then he walked back to the White House. No statements. No prayers. Nothing but a photo which was made possible by Attorney General William Barr and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, who later said he regretted it.
Religious leader and hater of zipping up his pants, Jerry Falwell Jr. is a big Trump fan and thinks the coronavirus is an evil plot to destroy Trump. What was in that glass of “black water?”
Evangelicals love Donald Trump. Many believe he was sent by God. Donald Trump believes he was sent by God. Donald Trump has claimed he’s the “Chosen One.” The Republican Party has turned into a cult that treats Trumpism as a religion. There is nothing to believe in but Trump. Christians who support Donald Trump are not Christians.
A Christian would take offense at Donald Trump using a church for a photo-op. A Christian would take offense at Donald Trump saying he doesn’t need forgiveness. A Christian wouldn’t support a man who brags about “grabbing them by the pussy.” A Christian wouldn’t support a grifter like Donald Trump who steals from charities to purchase paintings of himself. A Christian would not support a man like Donald Trump who is the king of vanity and can’t stop praising himself. A Christian would not support a man like Donald Trump who mocks the handicapped and puts children into jails. A Christian would not support a man who claims his opponent hates the Bible and will hurt God. A Christian would reject a man who claims he’s the “Chosen One.” A Christian would not support a man who lies. A Christian would not support Mr. Two Corinthians.
A real Christian would support removing Donald Trump from the Oval Office.
Joe Biden hurt God? A Christian would know that’s impossible. Donald Trump is no Christian.
If you claim you are a Christian and you support Donald Trump, do us all a favor and blow it out your ass.
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