Last Saturday, I went to the Laemmle art-house theatre in Encino to see the documentary Inside Job. The Laemmle in Encino is a pretty low-key old multiplex built in the 1970s that mostly shows European feature films about Nazis, American documentaries about Nazis, and Iranian movies*. Most of the audience is retirees from the Valley and Beverly Hills who can go any time, so it's seldom All Sold Out.
Last weekend, however, the parking lot was jammed. It was jammed with old people driving and walking very slowly. There were old people lined up outside the theatre to get in. Inside, the restroom lines of old people were very long.
What was going on? This was the busiest I had seen any theatre since the latest Twilight movie debuted. Except, then, it was all young people lined up. This time, the swarming mob was age 65 to 90.
The senior citizens were there to see the opening weekend of the Swedish film The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, the third in the trilogy of adaptations of Stieg Larrson's mystery novels that began with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
What's the deal, anyway? I have seen about 20 minutes of the first film, and it seemed fine (other than that people speaking Swedish are inherently comic -- like Fats Domino records played backwards, as Dave Barry said), but not galvanizing. So, why the oldsters' mania to see it Right Now?
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* Which is another tiny bit of data about why I have a hard time taking seriously the "Iran is an existential threat to Israel" idea that is so prevalent in the press: Iranians and Jews get along pretty good in LA. Heck, a lot of the Iranians in LA are Jews. And they seem to like Iran. I mean, the Iranian Jews prefer living in Beverly Hills to living in Iran, but , but they visit Iran all the time on long vacations. And the Muslim Persians in LA want to live as close to the Jewish neighborhoods as they can afford.
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* Which is another tiny bit of data about why I have a hard time taking seriously the "Iran is an existential threat to Israel" idea that is so prevalent in the press: Iranians and Jews get along pretty good in LA. Heck, a lot of the Iranians in LA are Jews. And they seem to like Iran. I mean, the Iranian Jews prefer living in Beverly Hills to living in Iran, but , but they visit Iran all the time on long vacations. And the Muslim Persians in LA want to live as close to the Jewish neighborhoods as they can afford.
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42 comments:
What's the motivation?
Nostalgia for the Ingmar Bergman era "art" films of their youth?
There's Nazis in the first one.
These are films based on popular middlebrow novels: it's not surprising that a demographic that reads novels would turn out for them.
That whole series of movies is poisonously left wing.
The good guys are the far left journalist at Millennium and the bisexual aggressive computer hacker tough girl with a heart of gold.
The bad guys are every variety of left wing boogieman that could exist: the evil stepfather, the huge blond bad guy, the corporate raider, the rich plutocrat, the corrupt policeman, and of course the rapist. Through it all the constant insinuation is that many, many men in Sweden are just one step short of being rapists or human traffickers.
The series is slickly produced tripe. Avoid.
(Oh yeah...one of the key villains is in part a villain because...get this...he *defected* from the Soviet Union!)
I love the novels in the Millennium Trilogy. They aren't great literature but they're terrific entertainment.
I've only seen the first movie in the series and agree with you that's it's fine but not galvanizing. I'll see the others anyway but I do not plan on seeing any American remakes.
I can't speak for elderly Jewish couples but I suspect part of the appeal lies in Lisbeth Salander taking on the baddies in a David battles Goliath in Europe sort of way.
Damn, that's weird-- my own father (80 next year) is crazy about the Larrson books and inflicted the first movie on me a couple of months ago. I wasn't very impressed, especially since it seemed to have a generic and fairly dull nerd + butt-kicking-babe thing going on.
I remember reading a review of "Hornets' Nest" and thinking it was Harry Potter for Elitists, with butt-kicking punk babes and skinhead conspiracies in place of whatever (slightly more fanciful) fodder Rowling employs.
I haven't read the books but they have a lot of fans here in college. It's not restricted to the over 50s. A lot of girls my age are reading them and they'll probably get more popular with hype around the US film version. There was a lot of publicity around the search for the main actress.
http://www.deadline.com/2010/07/columbia-pictures-sets-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-for-december-21-2011/
Also, I'm sure the term 'Jewish' will triple the amount of comments this post would have received.
Le sigh.
"butt-kicking punk babes"
I can't be the only one who thinks that the whole "butt-kicking babes" fad has gone on far too long.
The author was both active in SF fandom and an ardent Communist. The resulting movies make a lot more sense once you know that.
"The author was both active in SF fandom and an ardent Communist. The resulting movies make a lot more sense once you know that."
The second, I would have suspected. The first...well, I wouldn't have guessed. But it does explain the punk chick computer hacker.
BTW, most of the nerds I knew were either mainstream liberal or libertarian.
Harry Potter for SWPLs?
I was given the first book as a gift but unfortunately could not stomach more than twenty pages. I had the feeling that I was being emotionally manipulated in a crude manner; like at the start of a really bad Sly Stallone revenge flick. Except this was worse because the progaganda was going in in an unwholesome direction.
Anonymous said..."That whole series of movies is poisonously left wing."
They are, if the second two movies follow the books as closely as the first one did. But it delights me no end that the author died intestate and thus the fortune from the whole Millennium phenomenon goes to his relatives, not his left-wing girl-friend or the Communist Party.
I find Schadenfreude to be a reliable antidote to left-wing poison.
Anonymous said...
"butt-kicking punk babes"
I can't be the only one who thinks that the whole "butt-kicking babes" fad has gone on far too long.
Yeah, I think it is time for Godzilla meets "butt-kicking babe".
For some reason it's comforting for Jews to think that an uber-PC left-wing country like Sweden is secretly crawling with Nazis.
It's just a popular novel series. No Zionist plot here.
Yeah, I think it is time for Godzilla meets "butt-kicking babe".
Preferably with Vitali Klitschko or Fedor Emelianenko playing the part of Godzilla.
The novels are NOT middlebrow. More like uber-SWPL.
Last time I checked, the real threat to Sweden was not (non existent) Swedish Nazis but Muslim immigrants who proclaim rape as a weapon against the natives in a mission of conquest (for Islam). The books make much of rape/abuse of Swedish women by Swedish men (who are so feminized they agreed to laws mandating boys dress up as girls in Kindergarten and pee sitting down!)
Heck, Swedish Feminists tried to get laws passed outlawing marriage. It is that far left lunatic a place. And that filled with Beta Male hatred. The two are highly related.
I've seen extravagant claims for 40, or 50, or 100 million copies sold world-wide. Really? I don't think so. Dan Brown, or Stephanie Meyer, or JK Rowling, much as I dislike their writing, at least give readers (nearly all women btw) what they want: a hunky guy, or some good old anti-Catholic bigotry (not that the Church is not totally corrupt, but that corruption does not include killer albino assassins flagellating themselves) mixed with "hidden aristocracy" princes/kings stuff women eat up, or flat out nostalgia for an England that never existed of magic, aristocracy, and hidden aristocracy and soapy relationships.
Side note: men have abandoned popular literature as it became one giant soap opera romance novel in all its forms.
Half of them probably have Alzheimers and misread the title as The Girl Who Kicked the WASP's Nest.
sadgassyfagass is always illuminating.
I had the same experience here in the Midwest when I went to see the second movie in the series, in that it kind of looked like a nursing home had a field trip. but I don't think the audience was particularly more Jewish than you would expect for arthouse fare. I don't think there are enough elderly Jews here to support the rather long run that movie had here.
I am Lugash.
The whole Tatoo series is basically a leftist version of Charles Bronson's Deathwish series.
I am Lugash,
"but I don't think the audience was particularly more Jewish than you would expect for arthouse fare."
I'd guess it would appeal to pro-multicult audiences generally.
I can't be the only one who thinks that the whole "butt-kicking babes" fad has gone on far too long.
You're not. What's up with this fad, anyway? Nearly every sci-fi or action-adventure movie, comic, TV show, etc., now features at least one butt-kicking babe. Do most young men really fantasize about women who can kick their butts?
I can see why nerdy guys would find nerdy-but-hot female characters appealing, but I'm mystified why large numbers of men would want to watch movies where the women consistently defeat the men physically.
Half of them probably have Alzheimers and misread the title as The Girl Who Kicked the WASP's Nest.
Okay, I smiled a little.
The novels are NOT middlebrow. More like uber-SWPL.
No book that sells millions of copies is "über-SWPL".
BTW, does anyone else remember Upton Sinclair's Lanny Budd novels? (I assume most steve folowers have read The Jungle).
The male hero of the series is a man in his 50s who goes to bed with every attractive woman he meets, and gets laid by 24 year olds. That's probably why older men like the books.
"Half of them probably have Alzheimers and misread the title as The Girl Who Kicked the WASP's Nest."
It should be titled "The Girl with Hornets in Her Hair".
I went to see "Hornets" yesterday (on Tues. it's 4 bucks to get in) and the first thing I noticed was the theater was one,full, which is shocking for a Tues. noon showing and two, 99% of attendees were retirees.
And lets not forget that among all those bad guys, there had to be a couple of Serbian hitmen thrown in for good measure. Ironic that the credits reveal the "Serbs" to be Bosnian muslim actors.
mixed with "hidden aristocracy" princes/kings stuff women eat up, or flat out nostalgia for an England that never existed of magic, aristocracy, and hidden aristocracy and soapy relationships.
Do you think women of all ages would trade Democracy for a return of the Aristocracy? As you've pointed out, much of female-orientated literature features rigid hierarchies, complicated power structures, hidden aristocracies involving secret princes, kings, fiefdoms etc. Women from teens to nice old white ladies seem to revel in that world and want to believe that it exists in hidden form all around them.
I wonder why this is? Do they assume it would be easier to spot the alphas? Or do they just prefer the idea of being born to wealth and power as opposed to working hard for it?
I just have a feeling that women would want us to revert to Feudalism and Medieval style princedoms and earldoms with rule through brute force. I haven't seen many elegies to democracy written by females.
Whiskey: The novels are NOT middlebrow. More like uber-SWPL.
"Middlebrow" and "uber-SWPL" are pretty much synonyms.
("Giant soap opera romance novels" are honest low-brow fare.)
Steve, the Iranians are Jews in L.A. because the muslims made life very uncomfortable for them after the Shah was deposed.
"Do most young men really fantasize about women who can kick their butts?"
Anna Kournikova, Mia Hamm, Paula Creamer, Maria Sharapova, Alicia Sacramone and Amanda Beard all say "yes."
Athletic babes are in, and have been in for a very long time.
I found the first movie, the only on I will ever bother seeing, to be silly, trite and filled from beginning to end with cliches and leftist wet dreams.
One has to remember though that, by generally dull art house standards, the series is probably pretty damn exciting. It's a boon for such theatres, an it fits right in with their politics.
I'm mystified why large numbers of men would want to watch movies where the women consistently defeat the men physically.
They don't, actually. And the same is true of normal women. No one really wants this. It's just hollywood's sick attempt to make women "equal" to men in action films. And the people who go to movies put up with it.
You people are really clueless about the "butt-kicking babe". She is not there for the nerds. She is a marketing ploy to get girls to buy into the action/suspense movies.
Hey nerds: its not always about YOU.
You people are really clueless about the "butt-kicking babe". She is not there for the nerds. She is a marketing ploy to get girls to buy into the action/suspense movies.
Girls don't want butt-kicking babes. Look at the passive heroine of Twilight. What they want is to stand by helpless as alpha males fight over them.
Butt-kicking babes is a male driven phenomenon.
I just have a feeling that women would want us to revert to Feudalism and Medieval style princedoms and earldoms with rule through brute force.
Such is all rule, ultimately. It's certainly the sort of rule we're experiencing now.
I haven't seen many elegies to democracy written by females.
Nor by Socrates or Plato, for that matter.
"As you've pointed out, much of female-orientated literature features rigid hierarchies, complicated power structures, hidden aristocracies involving secret princes, kings, fiefdoms etc."
Fancy dress. They like the clothes.
The Greatest Generation and TGG Jr. are fading out, while clinging to the anti-white entertainment frames they were reared on.
"In a world of blond goyim, one nerdy mensch and his aggressive fiancee fight to defend the Good against unbelievable odds..."
Mr. Sailer knows a lot more about ethnic conflict than I do, so I hesitate to comment. But, isn't drawing conclusions about the Middle East based on relations between Persians and Jews in Los Angeles, like somebody in the 1960s saying he didn't expect trouble in Northern Ireland because he knew plenty of Irish Catholics and Presbyterians in Philadelphia and they have absolutely no trouble getting along? I don't know that Germans hated (meaning wanted to kill) Jews in the 1930s, either. Wasn't that genuine hatred pretty localized in German society?
Truth said...
Steve, the Iranians are Jews in L.A. because the muslims made life very uncomfortable for them after the Shah was deposed.
Iranians are Jews in LA because after the 1979 Revolution the US was looking for excuses to demonize Iran. The US was quite willing to buy their persecution schtick and give them "refugee" status and thus asylum in a much wealthier country (USA).
You ever see Jews fleeing persecution by moving to a poorer country? :-)
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