Chariots of Fire, Network, Open Water

I was at the library the other day and saw Chariots of Fire so I picked it up. If you recall, one of the ideas for the war story I'm working on was that it would be about a faraway conflict in which you only saw the results of the war, never the war itself. And here and there you'd see injured people like at the beginning of Chariots of Fire. I always thought there were several injured war veterans in COF. Actually there are only two who you see over and over. I still don't know why they're in there. The guy on the right says, "that's why we fought—so [rich] people like that could get an education." But the theme of class injustice never gets picked up again as far as I remember.

I also borrowed Network. I like Sidney Lumet's book on film and there was Network on the library DVD shelf. Network comes from a different era of film—what I think of as the mid-70's "Rated M for Mature" film. Those films were meant for adults and had aspirations to be important and sophisticated. Plus, they all had a topless scene. The Godfather is probably the most well-known of these. Midnight Cowboy is another example. Nowadays, an R rating just means a kid's film with added violence and swearing. With Lumet's reputation I watched the acting but nothing really stood out except for the bad drunk acting at the beginning. Most of the film is people talking and arguing, like a play. I forget how much I dislike Paddy Chayefsky. I really didn't like Marty (my post on it). Network just seemed too self-conscious s if it was trying to be as prophetic as Peter Finch's Howard Beale character. Plus it's hard to take any movie seriously when it contains the phrase "the space-time continuum."

Network also failed my chapter test. If I jump chapters and I find myself at the same set/location, I tend to give up on a film. Peter Jackon's King Kong also fails this test. Next chapter. Jungle. Next chapter. Jungle. Next chapter. Jungle. Open Water, which recently I skimmed through, also failed this test. Next chapter. Two divers in the water. Next chapter. Two divers in the water. Next chapter. Two divers in the water. So much for sophisticated systems of critique.