An admonition and a chameleon

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."--Aristotle

Thank you for the comments, everyone. I enjoy responses and seeing the perspective of others. The occasional compliment doesn't hurt my ego, either. An exhortation against misinterpreting my purpose: it is not my intention to deliberately offend anyone for offense's sake. Rather I write, as previously stated, primarily as an outlet for my ideas, secondarily to challenge the presuppostions we all carry around with us and force people to consider why they believe what they believe. I don't think anyone has taken offense thusfar, but I know it is quite within my capabilities to come across as abrasive and smug. So, get riled up against my ideas, but only in an abstract manner.

My last two posts have tended toward the negative side, so I will break up the criticism with a movie review. I would do this more often, but am afraid of posting them so often that it appears all I do is sit around watching movies. I wish I could review more books, but unfortunately I haven't had time this semester to get involved in books very much- a great travesty.

I wrestled a bit with what movie to review having recently seen two. My choices were Woody Allen's "Zelig" and Kurosawa's "Rashomon". It was quite an epic battle in my mind- I have so much to say about both. In the end I settled on "Zelig", mostly because I don't know if I am up to reviewing "Rashomon" after just one viewing. It is such an astounding movie, so groundbreaking and provocative in its ideas about justice. Maybe at a later date.

Woody Allen is a director who usually gets much less respect than he deserves. Perhaps because he is so prolific (he has averaged around a movie a year since the 70's) people ignore his numerous great contributions to cinema and berate him for his mediocre movies. Many people accuse him of always playing the same character, which to an extent is a justified criticism. Still, his body of great work (Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters, Manhattan, Sleeper, Love and Death, Crimes and Misdemeanors, The Purple Rose of Cairo) certainly merits his inclusion on any list of stellar directors. Allen has a way of punctuating self righteous academia and exposing the underlying discontent of the modern era. Granted, he lacks the philosophical standpoint to resolve this unhappiness, but the problem must procede the solution, and I wouldn't expect a non-Christian to grasp everything anyway.

A brief plot overview, since I assume very few of you have seen Zelig. The movie can best be referred to as a faux documentary (I am hesitant to apply the term "mockumentary" since it is not really in the vein of Christopher Guest films) concerning the life of one Leonard Zelig, a man with the remarkable ability to turn into the people he is around. When in the company of doctors, he speaks like a doctor; when with black people his features change; when around obese people, he even gains a bulge. His doctor caretakers are puzzled till one, Eudora Fletcher, subjects him to rigorous analysis and therapy which seems to cure him. In the process, they begin to love one another. This love is threatened, however, when multiple people come forward bringing various accusations against Leonard, who cannot remember enough from his various personalities to plausibly deny the charges. He disappears, and Dr. Fletcher must search him out. I will say no more but proceed to the review.

I almost take for granted the fact that a Woody Allen film will be beautifully shot, and Zelig is certainly no exception. Set in the 1920's, the "newsreel" is predominantly black and white, though there are occasional "modern" interviews which resemble many documentaries from the 70's. Black and white works very well for Allen- Manhattan, by far his most beautiful film, is entirely without "color". His work is oftentimes dreary anyway, and form follows function quite well. In this case, though, the effect is mainly historical (By Allen's standards Zelig is practically cheery), but he still knows how to pull it off, reproducing masterfully the feel of aged films.

In his film Stardust Memories, Allen answered the charges that he was no longer funny. Zelig was made in the same era, and is more low key in its humor than a lot of his work, which tends to elicit laughter even from the most heartbreaking situations. Yes, there is humor in the movie, and it even incorporates one of his standard topics, masturbation jokes (for the sake of my audience I won't repeat it, but it is one of his better ones. A note: that is one of the few obscene moments in the movie, which on the whole is quite mild for Allen), but most of the time I wasn't laughing out loud. More often I had a wry smile on my face, for the humor comes mainly from the entire situation the movie documents. Absurdity is one of Allen's strong points, but Zelig handles it subtly, not so much through jokes as the entire structure of the movie. If you are looking for a riotous good time, try one of Allen's movies like Sleeper; Zelig is better for a slow burn mentality.

The central idea in Zelig is quite a brilliant one. What if you could, as St. Paul said, "Be all things to all people", but instead of merely assuming cultural mores you actually became one of them? This raises several interesting points.

Using the context of Allen's body of work, I would assert the main point to be man's disillusionment with modern society. Leonard Zelig morphs into different people because at heart he craves acceptance, something he has never experienced in his life. Anti-Semitism and a terrible home life contributed to his alienation, which he tries to alleviate by blending in. In a sense he is an incarnation of every person's desires to belong to community. Ultimately, of course, he discovers that this is an unsatisfying existence, and, not to put it in trite terms, learns to be himself. I suppose this is partly an existential defying of society- damn them, I will live how I will! Allen has no conception of true community (obviously, since he is far from being a Christian), but more than most he constantly deals with his inability to have meaningful relationships with people. Dragged down by sin, he despairs of meaning in life. In the end, Allen is a tragic figure because he sees the ills of humanity but cannot fathom the solution.

The other thought Zelig raised in my mind is one that probably everyone has pondered. Would racism exist if everyone could experience being another race? The movie deals tactfully yet realistically with Leonard's transformations into people of other races, but the issue never really comes up, it simply implies that he gets along fine with blacks, asians, Native Americans, and even Hasidic jews. What would such an everyman experience? Racism still plagues our society in terrible ways, though much of it has gone below the surface. Of course this division stems from our broken nature, which makes me pessimistic about the chances of ever erasing it completely. The greatest myth of modern society (among the plethora) is that sin is a result of ignorance, and that education is the panacea to cure our ills. The only thing to say to such blind foolishness is, and I quote, "Tcha". The heart is above all things sinful. Still, the first step is to examine our own hearts and seek for sympathy. Does Zelig support this? I cannot say for certain.

Overall, Zelig stands at an odd place in the Allen canon. It followed the late 70's, which saw his two best movies, Annie Hall and Manhattan, and came right before his next greatest creative spurt, which includes The Purple Rose of Cairo, Hannah and Her Sisters, and Crimes and Misdemeanors. It is appropriate, then, that the film teeters on the brink of greatness, but doesn't quite go over. In many ways it is too slight a film to be great, but it is still very, very good.

P.S. To those of you who were privilege to be at the reading of Matt McConnell's hourlong poem "George and Seraphine" last night, it proves my point about standing ovations entirely- that was something that so deserved every ounce of my applause, and I was overjoyed to stand and clap till my hands hurt. It means nothing if I do that for something subpar then turn around and do it for him.