J.A.M.
@impossiblecondo.bsky.social
via Rockford. Probably listening to Underworld right now.
The typical ICE method of slowly surrounding someone in order to lightly massage their hands.
November 22, 2025 at 6:56 PM
The typical ICE method of slowly surrounding someone in order to lightly massage their hands.
Zuckerberg is almost the literal manifestation in every sense of the banal side of evil.
January 9, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Zuckerberg is almost the literal manifestation in every sense of the banal side of evil.
Social media thrives on the type of people who learn new shorthand and use it as a weapon to dodge complex conversations. Virtue signaling, woke, diversity, DEI, etc. Impossible to communicate with someone using simple terms as a brick wall to protect a low IQ mind from empathetic interaction.
January 9, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Social media thrives on the type of people who learn new shorthand and use it as a weapon to dodge complex conversations. Virtue signaling, woke, diversity, DEI, etc. Impossible to communicate with someone using simple terms as a brick wall to protect a low IQ mind from empathetic interaction.
"You'll receive the Order of Lenin for this, Captain." 🥲
December 10, 2024 at 6:44 PM
"You'll receive the Order of Lenin for this, Captain." 🥲
it's a fine example of a film w/no joke characters or characters who create unnecessary obstacles, which is a problem I know Ebert had w/Die Hard in his negative review, but since it's laced w/satire I always accepted it. Even Tim Curry here is a serious guy albeit a slight red herring.
December 10, 2024 at 6:41 PM
it's a fine example of a film w/no joke characters or characters who create unnecessary obstacles, which is a problem I know Ebert had w/Die Hard in his negative review, but since it's laced w/satire I always accepted it. Even Tim Curry here is a serious guy albeit a slight red herring.
McTiernan's camera work owes at lot to Spielberg here too. Tension created by camera work in a scene w/Baldwin and Jones talking about a stuffed bear.
December 10, 2024 at 6:35 PM
McTiernan's camera work owes at lot to Spielberg here too. Tension created by camera work in a scene w/Baldwin and Jones talking about a stuffed bear.
I think specifically how there are a handful of scenes near the beginning where minor characters intelligently assess information and react w/grave concern in ways that create foreboding. Jeffrey Jones' scene being equivalent to the "let's open an antique book and show a drawing of the Ark" here.
December 10, 2024 at 6:35 PM
I think specifically how there are a handful of scenes near the beginning where minor characters intelligently assess information and react w/grave concern in ways that create foreboding. Jeffrey Jones' scene being equivalent to the "let's open an antique book and show a drawing of the Ark" here.
I have other theories on the directorial similarities between the even more left-field choice of Hunt for Red October and ROTLA, but I digress for now.
@nedraggett.bsky.social I feel like you might know what I'm saying here about Fellowship.
@nedraggett.bsky.social I feel like you might know what I'm saying here about Fellowship.
December 10, 2024 at 6:17 PM
I have other theories on the directorial similarities between the even more left-field choice of Hunt for Red October and ROTLA, but I digress for now.
@nedraggett.bsky.social I feel like you might know what I'm saying here about Fellowship.
@nedraggett.bsky.social I feel like you might know what I'm saying here about Fellowship.
It's hard to overstate what Spielberg brings to the table, something as simple as the slow zoom on Brody while he talks about the Ark, or the framing referenced above. It's perhaps not the best-directed film in his career, but if not this, what?
There's obviously a reason I've seen it 30+ times.
There's obviously a reason I've seen it 30+ times.
December 10, 2024 at 6:14 PM
It's hard to overstate what Spielberg brings to the table, something as simple as the slow zoom on Brody while he talks about the Ark, or the framing referenced above. It's perhaps not the best-directed film in his career, but if not this, what?
There's obviously a reason I've seen it 30+ times.
There's obviously a reason I've seen it 30+ times.
It also helps that there are no joke characters on the "good" side in ROTLA. Brody and Sallah give the proceedings gravity. I like Last Crusade, but imagine the extra power that film would have without having turned those two into hapless jokes throughout. It undercuts the seriousness of the tale.
December 10, 2024 at 6:10 PM
It also helps that there are no joke characters on the "good" side in ROTLA. Brody and Sallah give the proceedings gravity. I like Last Crusade, but imagine the extra power that film would have without having turned those two into hapless jokes throughout. It undercuts the seriousness of the tale.
It's also why the vv different but also weirdly v similar GHOSTBUSTERS is effective. Ghost are real, they are threatening, the lore and the history is accepted at face value and discussed w/knowledge and intelligence. You believe every word Spenger and Stantz are saying because they believe it.
December 10, 2024 at 6:07 PM
It's also why the vv different but also weirdly v similar GHOSTBUSTERS is effective. Ghost are real, they are threatening, the lore and the history is accepted at face value and discussed w/knowledge and intelligence. You believe every word Spenger and Stantz are saying because they believe it.
It reveals to me a bit about what is missing from a lot of current action films, which is the carefully detailed skill it requires to make the film about a bit more than the action, but to give the action a weight, and if not verisimilitude for our world, a verisimilitude for the world it depicts.
December 10, 2024 at 6:04 PM
It reveals to me a bit about what is missing from a lot of current action films, which is the carefully detailed skill it requires to make the film about a bit more than the action, but to give the action a weight, and if not verisimilitude for our world, a verisimilitude for the world it depicts.
...in Fellowship of the Ring when we first learn about the One Ring. Jackson was following a similar blueprint and this creates the special sense of foreboding during the early, quiet passages of that film. Without those scenes in ROTLA, we're left with people chasing a MacGuffin and little else.
December 10, 2024 at 6:03 PM
...in Fellowship of the Ring when we first learn about the One Ring. Jackson was following a similar blueprint and this creates the special sense of foreboding during the early, quiet passages of that film. Without those scenes in ROTLA, we're left with people chasing a MacGuffin and little else.
Even though the film is lauded for its pace, what really gives it the extra power lies within these quiet moments, where the Ark's power is hiding in the shadows but hinting to those who pay attention that something is coming. Peter Jackson learned a lot from this film when creating those scenes...
December 10, 2024 at 5:59 PM
Even though the film is lauded for its pace, what really gives it the extra power lies within these quiet moments, where the Ark's power is hiding in the shadows but hinting to those who pay attention that something is coming. Peter Jackson learned a lot from this film when creating those scenes...
Just watch how Spielberg uses the out of focus foreground throughout to convey information either as subtle foreshadowing of the Ark's power (even the headpiece is channeling something), or to give us information about more immediate dangers (a gun quietly passed from one person to another)
December 10, 2024 at 5:55 PM
Just watch how Spielberg uses the out of focus foreground throughout to convey information either as subtle foreshadowing of the Ark's power (even the headpiece is channeling something), or to give us information about more immediate dangers (a gun quietly passed from one person to another)
Whatever one's thoughts about the veracity of Biblical history, in this film it's regarded as fact. And if one was brought up with a familiarity with this history, just invoking certain words and places creates a haunted narrative underscored by Williams' score and Spielberg's brilliant framing.
December 10, 2024 at 5:52 PM
Whatever one's thoughts about the veracity of Biblical history, in this film it's regarded as fact. And if one was brought up with a familiarity with this history, just invoking certain words and places creates a haunted narrative underscored by Williams' score and Spielberg's brilliant framing.
Our supporting characters throughout the film are fully onboard with the Ark as a threat throughout. They're sober, serious, and intelligent when discussing it. Marcus Brody is wary, revealing his own second thoughts about the pursuit, and Sallah regards it as without question a dangerous relic.
December 10, 2024 at 5:50 PM
Our supporting characters throughout the film are fully onboard with the Ark as a threat throughout. They're sober, serious, and intelligent when discussing it. Marcus Brody is wary, revealing his own second thoughts about the pursuit, and Sallah regards it as without question a dangerous relic.
There are zero moments where anyone says anything to take viewers out of the narrative, beyond some mild skepticism from the government agents in the beginning, who seem more skeptical of the contention that Abner Ravenwood is not a Nazi vs skeptical of the idea that the Ark is a real and a threat.
December 10, 2024 at 5:47 PM
There are zero moments where anyone says anything to take viewers out of the narrative, beyond some mild skepticism from the government agents in the beginning, who seem more skeptical of the contention that Abner Ravenwood is not a Nazi vs skeptical of the idea that the Ark is a real and a threat.
he handled it well at age 9, but now at age 13 I think he grew to appreciate, as did I, what makes the film special. Primarily, it treats everything with almost complete seriousness. NOT in the sense that it's realistic, but the characters generally accept the reality of the Ark and its powers.
December 10, 2024 at 5:44 PM
he handled it well at age 9, but now at age 13 I think he grew to appreciate, as did I, what makes the film special. Primarily, it treats everything with almost complete seriousness. NOT in the sense that it's realistic, but the characters generally accept the reality of the Ark and its powers.
1) discovering how Forrestal "cashed in"
2) Sapito subsequently cashing in
3) Tavern gunfight head shot
4) Cairo truck driver head shot
5) Endless skeletons in the chamber off the map room
6) Airplane propellor mishap
7) Face melting/explosions
8) probably a couple others here and there
2) Sapito subsequently cashing in
3) Tavern gunfight head shot
4) Cairo truck driver head shot
5) Endless skeletons in the chamber off the map room
6) Airplane propellor mishap
7) Face melting/explosions
8) probably a couple others here and there
December 10, 2024 at 5:43 PM
1) discovering how Forrestal "cashed in"
2) Sapito subsequently cashing in
3) Tavern gunfight head shot
4) Cairo truck driver head shot
5) Endless skeletons in the chamber off the map room
6) Airplane propellor mishap
7) Face melting/explosions
8) probably a couple others here and there
2) Sapito subsequently cashing in
3) Tavern gunfight head shot
4) Cairo truck driver head shot
5) Endless skeletons in the chamber off the map room
6) Airplane propellor mishap
7) Face melting/explosions
8) probably a couple others here and there