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From: "Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-12-13 (Friday)
Date: Sun, 15 Dec 2024 00:10:31 -0000 (UTC)
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Arthur Lipscomb  <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
>On 12/14/2024 11:45 AM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
>> Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:
>> 
>>> The End (theatrical) New movie, in what I'm assuming is a new genre,
>>> "apocalyptic musical."  The movie stars Tilda Swinton as "Mother" and
>>> Michael Shannon as "Father" who along with their son, "son" (George
>>> MacKay) and a few other people live in a massive underground shelter
>>> following some unspecific global apocalypse.  One day their world is
>>> shattered when a young woman, "Girl" (Moses Ingram) makes her way into
>>> their shelter, and then selfishly doesn't want to be thrown out to die.
>>> Instead she insists she be allowed to stay in their shelter which has an
>>> abundance of food and resources.  Mother just can't have this sort of
>>> nonsense, but Son realizing Girl may be the only other female left on
>>> Earth, or at least that he will ever have access too, wants her to stay.
>> 
>>> This movie takes a page out of another Tilda Swinton apocalyptic movie,
>>> "Snowpiercer" and serves as an allegory for the class system.  Mother
>>> and Husband are portrayed as wealthy and out of touch with reality.
>>> They are clinging on to a way of life that is long gone, and are trying
>>> to maintain a class system with the other people in the shelter treated
>>> more like employees than fellow survivors.  And for whatever reason
>>> everyone just accepts this way of life.  Also the movie focuses on how
>>> Father and mother are both desperate to literally rewrite history in the
>>> eyes of Son.
>> 
>> There's a reason why Hollywood writers are unqualified to teach
>> econmics. Unless the wealthy did something unjust to make others poor,
>> then Girl isn't entitled to share the wealth.
>> 
>> If workers are performing valuable work and being compensated in a
>> barter arrangement, that's called a "market". The shelter isn't a free
>> market but everyone should be entitled to share in what's produced via
>> collective activity. No one is entitled to simply grab any wealth others
>> brought into the shelter pre-apocolypse.
>> 
>
>This isn't Atlas Shrugged.  There is no "market" and no divine right to 
>rule by birthright. And no wealth to grab.  It's just people living in 
>an underground shelter.  And now that I think about it, there's nothing 
>to indicate the rich people didn't just show up, murder the original 
>occupants and take the shelter for themselves.  There were a few lines 
>of dialogue about the shelter explicitly being designed to house far 
>more people, but "Mother" and "Father" had long ago decided to keep 
>everyone else out so they could have the shelter for themselves.

Ah. That's an important point. They are evil.

>>> That being said, I don't want to make this movie sound better than it
>>> actually is.  "Snowpiercer" is a great movie.  "The End," not so much.
>>> There is no reason for it to be a musical, and the songs, while OK, are
>>> not memorable. I don't recall a single song from this movie, I watched
>>> it last night!  The overall movie just screams pretentious arthouse
>>> film.  Which *is* what it is.  It's worth watching maybe once, perhaps
>>> paired with Snowpiercer, but beyond that I don't see much replay value
>>> in it.
>> 
>>> If I ever did watch it again, it would *have* to be paired with
>>> Snowpiercer, so I could at least see Swinton essentially playing the
>>> same character in two different apocalyptic movies.
>> 
>> Transfer it to nitrate film stock.