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ArchivesOff topic digression/rant/whatever... *Ghosts of Mars*
in reply to a message by Andrea
For some odd reason I'm reminded of a movie I recently saw: *Ghosts of Mars*. It's a new movie, and got a "thumb's up" review from Ebert and that New Guy. The movie pretty much lives up to John Carpenter's reputation for over-the-top, gratuitous gore, but there was something else in this movie which I found kinda distasteful.
See, the premise of the story is that these "ghosts" take over people and then use their human hosts to destroy other humans. The heroine of this story is a person who indulges in recreational drugs. When she gets taken over by one of the ghosts, one of her companions pops a "happy pill" in the chick's mouth as a sort of farewell... And what happens is the hallucinogen causes the ghost to vacate the chick's body and she's effectively saved.
So, what is the "message" here? Is it that, sometimes, hallucinogens can save your life? Or is it all just a story and not to be taken seriously?
Personally, I wouldn't take this film as any kind of serious contribution to cinematic history, as it was pretty shabbily written and events in the story were blatantly telegraphed. There's one scene, in particular, where someone says the captain is missing. In the next scene, we see one of the possessed humans carrying a grisly, decapitated head over to an area where a whole row of decapitated heads have been left on stakes. The good guy who's watching this in horror still doesn't appear to realize this is an indication that his captain is dead (the captain was a chick, by the way, with long Xena-esque hair that would've been pretty unmistakable swinging from a decapitated head). Then, when the good guy manages to walk right up to the head and the camera focuses on it (da-da-da-DUM!) we see the shocked look of realisation on the good guy's face that this was his... *gasp*.... captain! Oh, please.
Dumb movie, probably scripted by Hollywood druggies who (thanks to the delusional state produced by their drug dependencies) think that everything they do is clever.
-- Nanaea
See, the premise of the story is that these "ghosts" take over people and then use their human hosts to destroy other humans. The heroine of this story is a person who indulges in recreational drugs. When she gets taken over by one of the ghosts, one of her companions pops a "happy pill" in the chick's mouth as a sort of farewell... And what happens is the hallucinogen causes the ghost to vacate the chick's body and she's effectively saved.
So, what is the "message" here? Is it that, sometimes, hallucinogens can save your life? Or is it all just a story and not to be taken seriously?
Personally, I wouldn't take this film as any kind of serious contribution to cinematic history, as it was pretty shabbily written and events in the story were blatantly telegraphed. There's one scene, in particular, where someone says the captain is missing. In the next scene, we see one of the possessed humans carrying a grisly, decapitated head over to an area where a whole row of decapitated heads have been left on stakes. The good guy who's watching this in horror still doesn't appear to realize this is an indication that his captain is dead (the captain was a chick, by the way, with long Xena-esque hair that would've been pretty unmistakable swinging from a decapitated head). Then, when the good guy manages to walk right up to the head and the camera focuses on it (da-da-da-DUM!) we see the shocked look of realisation on the good guy's face that this was his... *gasp*.... captain! Oh, please.
Dumb movie, probably scripted by Hollywood druggies who (thanks to the delusional state produced by their drug dependencies) think that everything they do is clever.
-- Nanaea
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