"It's cold this morning," the XO remarks to the Captain. The captain agrees. "Cold, and hard." We see the cold and feel the harsh reality of the environment in this opening shot, symbolically standing in for the cold and hard regime under which the XO and Captain live; a regime from which they are planning to defect. At the end we see a teddy bear, purchased to accompany Jack Ryan's daughter's existing bear, showing he is close to returning to domestic tranquility. But the bear too points us to the comfort that the Captain now feels, away from the "cold and hard" place he left.
Opening with the detritus of campaign promises: banners, posters, stickers and all the other accouterments of a hard-fought political campaign. And it's all just so much trash now, trash that the characters never seem to rise above. Closing with the hard-working earnest face of a killer spouting the lines: "America's not a country. It's just a business. Now fuckin' pay me." Cynical? Certainly. Accurate? Depressingly so.
The opening image's composition leads our eyes to the store made of logs in the background, recalling the story of Lincoln's own mythic birth in a log cabin in the woods. We are immediately cued in to recognize both the reality of Lincoln and his legend. The final shot shows an almost comical iconic image of Lincoln, top-hat and all, but portrayed with dignity ready to face the looming storm.
Hello All. Time to get back on the bandwagon. So, like I did earlier, I'll post my top music lists for 2011. It turns out that 2011 has been, like 2010 before it, a great year for music. I've found some amazing new artists and some of my favorite acts have released some great material. Don't know what it is, but I'm looking forward to 2012!
Top Albums of the Year:
1.James Blake – James Blake
2.Blanck Mass – Blanck Mass
3.Bjork – Biophilia
4.…And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead – Tao of the Dead
5.The Antlers – Burst Apart
6.Bon Iver – Bon Iver
7.Cant – Dreams Come True
8.Adventure – Lesser Known
9.Handsome Furs – Sound Kapital
10.Moonface – Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I’d Hoped
Honorable Mentions: Radiohead - King of Limbs, Panabrite - Frequency Bath II, Justice - Audio, Video Disco, Emika- Emika, This Will Destroy You - Tunnel Blanket, Tycho - Dive, Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place, The Field - Looping State of Mind, Wolf Gang - Suego Falls
Top Tracks of the Year
1.The National – Exile Vilify
2.Moonface – The Way You Wish You Could Live in the Storm
3.Adventure - Rio
4.James Blake – Unluck
5.Rustie – Surph
6.…And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead – Summer of All Dead Souls
7.The Strokes – Machu Pichu
8.M83 – Midnight City
9.The Antlers – Every Night My Teeth are Falling Out
10.Bon Iver – Perth/Rest
And for fun, here's some of my favorite music videos from this year:
We are left to ponder a life. Does the finality of that image haunt us or give us hope? Or is there a sort of hope in the knowledge that one cannot changed a life now lived? What emotion is on that face? Is it fear, pain, sorrow, satisfaction, happiness? I can't tell; but I think that when we feel it, we know.
