Miscellaneous

In retrospect, my last post was pretty shitty and lacking in any insightful information, so I don't know why I got so worked up about it. There has been a lot to say, and I like writing in a blog because writing things out always gets my thoughts organized, because I can't remember my own ideas for the life of me. Whenever I take someone's order, as I walk away, I ask myself what the hell they wanted to drink.
Anyways,
On some overdue movies.
I felt like the movies we watched kept getting more recent, and honestly, held my attention a bit longer. I loved the first films because they had so many artistic and great qualities, but I feel like the films were watching now are sort of easier to view. It's not that I prefer them over the older ones, but personally I can visually see them easier. I don't know if that makes any sense.

Unforgiven was probably my favorite movie so far. I haven't watched that many Westerns but this one really hit me. I thought it was visually stunning, some of the images that I saw were so simplistic, but told so much. I really liked the overall silence of the film, how things moved sort of slowly, to parallel the Western way of living. I felt like everyone in the film was real, and they were really listening and looking at what was around them. In general, I liked the way the environment of the West made the viewer feel and how desolate it was at times. Everyone just seemed to be. No one was pursuing anything, they just were. I always feel like everyone around me is after something, myself included. It's never silence however.

Dark city was the total opposite of Unforgiven, in a visual sense I guess. Nature vs. urban darkness. I got this movie to watch on my own, and I was really taken aback by the ending. During the entire film I wasn't sure whether it was cheesy, or whether it was going to pull one of the Men In Black thing where our universe is actually in a marble in some alien's locker etc. BUt it kind of did. I was rather confused at the end of the movie. Not about the point of the movie, but whether I was really seeing the city turn towards the sun. It was pretty badass though. I'm a sucker for good science fiction movies that aren't pushing it. I loved the concept of trying to figure out the human soul and how you can't find it through our minds. I thought it was an interesting way of presenting it. Visually, it was a beautiful movie. I thought that the images were so atmospheric and powerful. I also feel like I've seen some of the things in the movie on some album covers (Ayreon- The Human Equation). I thought Memento was a more "realistic" way of asking where the human soul is or even what it is. I also thought Memento tried to have us question whether we truly know ourselves or who/what we are. Although In Dark City, the guy at the newsstand lost his memory, he still retained certain characteristics, so did Leo in Memento, but he couldn't understand whether he was a killer or not. His mind played tricks on him, because while he felt that he wasn't a killer, his mind made him forget that he really was. His mind also forced him to live everyday in the moment, which makes me question why the soul can't always do that. Also, does one come to the conclusion that there is no God or that there is no order in the universe by thinking about it, or did they really feel it. Was it an inclination first, or just cynicism? Maybe it was first a gut feeling, and then the mind sort of took over. I thought that Memento stressed the idea that we are alone in the world more than Dark City, because John's wife actually stood by him throughout the entire film whereas no one cared about Leo and used him to further their desires and needs. It was really sad how he tried to make up a story to comfort himself and that no one could help him even if they wanted to.
I also can't remember anyone's name in the movie so I googled Memento, and it said that the main character was Leonard Shelby, which I felt like wasn't his name.