Writing from home tonight. As you've probably seen or heard by the time you read this, Charles Manson has passed away. Of course, to put it mildly he was not a good person, but he was treated as a celebrity by the press for the past 48 years, as "America's Most (In)Famous Criminal", and whereas even the most heinous murderers fade from the news once their trials are over, Manson stayed with us for a half century because the media trotted him out every so often to do his "Charlie Act" before the tv cameras. I will perhaps write a little more about Manson tomorrow night - and then again I might not - but if I do it will be because I've studied the Manson case and the Manson Family quite a bit myself, since 1976 when I first read the two major books on the case which were available at that time, "The Family" by Ed Sanders and "Helter Skelter" by Vincent Bugliosi. Since then I've read at least a dozen other books, about Manson himself or the main players in his terrible saga. I am like many for whom the Manson story has held a fascination, though here I must add a disclaimer - unlike some of the more naive or downright anti-social followers of the story, I have never thought Charles Manson was a cool guy, and unfortunately that is what his media-generated image has produced, a whole crop of people who think, "Man, he's weird......but cool". And because he is (or was) treated as a celebrity criminal they find him amusing, or they find some small counterculture issue or ill-stated political point that he ranted about over the years that they can latch onto and agree with. This has been the case with some disaffected "fans" of his, a phenomenon once again created by ongoing news coverage of him since 1969. A lot of people don't stop to think of what he did, and how he influenced those young people who were in his circle, his Family.
But enough about Charles Manson for tonight. May his victims rest in peace with the knowledge he is gone.
Good singin' in church this morning, and a 70 minute in-depth rehearsal for the songs to come in the next several weeks of the Holiday Season. Some tough ones coming up, gotta be ready. :)
I did watch a movie tonight, this time a new release that I got from Redbox. I don't do too much Redbox anymore, simply because most of the movies are of the straight-to-dvd variety, but they sent me a coupon for a free movie and I found a film that sounded promising : "Wind River" (2017) starring Jeremy Renner. It is a murder mystery set in the snowy backcountry of mountainous Wyoming. Remind me never to go there. Though it looks beautiful, and the director does a great job with his use of the landscape, one of the major themes of the film is how the isolation from mainstream society (and even a small town would be a big city in comparison) and the force and majesty of Mother Nature can combine to drive the men who would venture out there to extremes. I am Mega-Tired tonight, and winding down after a three month stint with three days off, and so I am not gonna go into a full length dissertation on "Wind River". Much of it takes place on an Indian reservation, and the story is about the victimisation of Indian women. The point is made near the end of the film that "these people were forced out here a century ago", i.e forced from their homeland and sent to live on reservations where no people should live. Think Siberia. The movie makes a point that, even though all wilderness is beautiful to look at, not all of it is hospitable, and some places are downright deadly. Then there is the human factor. A lot of men who wind up working on roughneck mining jobs in a frozen wasteland are tough men with little education and primitive emotions. Lowbrows, in other words.
An Indian girl is found murdered, and Renner - a local hunter - is hired by a lone white female FBI agent to help track the killer. "Wind River" was written by the same guy who wrote "Sicario", which was nominated for an Oscar, and he also wrote that really good Western crime movie that starred Jeff Bridges about a year ago. But this time he directed, too, and it probably would have been better if he'd let somebody else direct. The story builds a strong plot and well developed characters to begin with, and it sustains those qualities for about 75 minutes. But then it dissolves into a revenge movie, and a violent bloodbath ensues. Sorry for the spoiler, but you probably aren't gonna see this movie anyhow, and I wouldn't want you to see it even if you did want to. Not because it's a bad movie; it's pretty good in many ways - well acted, gorgeous location photography, good writing, but then.....well, there is a reason that there are a truckload of movies at Redbox that you've never before heard of, and that is because many of them never made it to a theater, and if they did not make it to a theater, there is a reason for that.
And the reason is almost always because they Ran Out Of Story or Never Had A Story To Begin With.
You have to have a Story to make a movie. The author of "Wind River" has a pretty good story, most of the way. Had he let someone else direct, he might have gotten more out of what he had. But he didn't, and it devolved into a revenge film with a lot of violence. So don't watch it, even though it's a pretty good movie. I give it half a Thumbs Up for that reason.
Well, that's all for tonight. See you in the morn, after a Major-League Sleep In. :):)
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