Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Overrated?

Or decontextualized?


There I was trying to decide between Schneier's Liars and Outliers or Bultmann's Kerygma and Myth for some late night bedtime reading when I defaulted to NetFlix.

I watched Battleship Potempkin for the first time.  The scene on the Odessa steps was pretty powerful - nothing says czarist repression like jackboots, bayonets, and live ammo crowd control, but otherwise it was not even remotely so awesome as its reputation led me to believe.  Subtlety was certainly not a option on Eisenstein's palette, but The Ebert tells us that was a deliberate element of his method.  Maybe you had to be there, or maybe it needs to be the first movie you ever saw, or maybe it would rouse you to action if you were actually a member of the proletariat?  I'm probably just некультурный.

I know, I know; I should have gone with the Bultmann...

1 comment:

  1. You make a good point. Most feature films made before 1941 have not aged well despite the fact they were innovative films in their day. They are there now for educational interest only, not entertainment value. John Huston's version of The Maltese Falcon has aged well. It still seems modern despite its vintage.

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