Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 188

A Little Something: A Little Vignette

Continuing my reviews of time-travel movies - mostly shorts - I (and you) can see for free on Amazon Prime, we come to A Little Something (from 2017 according to Amazon, 2016 according to IMDb - why are there these differences?  who knows ... but I guess they're appropriate to time travel stories).

There are two kinds of shorts: standalone, and complete, which can be made into a longer movie, but that's not necessary; and short sketch vignettes, which are really suggestions for a longer narrative, and don't leave you satisfied on their own.  A Little Something is clearly the latter, and I suppose that's both a criticism and a compliment, because I would like to see more.

An older traveling salesman - though he's not really selling anything - shows up at the home of a young couple.  The wife is suffering from a fatal illness and has just months to live.  The salesman wants to give her a gift - that's why I said he's not selling anything - a cure for her illness which he's sure will work.

The husband and wife resist this - and, again, there's a lot more than could have told and done here.  But the barebones are good, as is the acting, especially by  Brenda Arteaga-Walsh as the wife, and also by Dan Gilvary and Ross Nathan as the husband--

Oops, don't want to give anything more away.   Check out Brett Eichenberger's little movie if you'd like to know more...


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The Americans Finale: What the Series Was Always About

An exquisite, satisfyingly restrained, even beautiful finale to The Americans tonight - a series which only in this, the sixth and final season, has become, in my view, one of the finest series ever on television.  This is because, although the series started as gangbusters in its first year, and although it never lost the astonishing originality of its premise and first season, it meandered, almost got repetitive and stuck in a quagmire in subsequent years, only to reclaim the best that it was was and exceed it in this last season.

And the 90-minute finale was at the apex of this extraordinary season.  Rather than analyze it in a linear way, I'd rather just share some thoughts about the highlights of what was just on the screen:

I said to my wife that we'd never leave our son, as Philip convinced Elizabeth in doing with their son, Henry.  My wife agreed completely - then added, but you and I never killed anyone.The scene with Stan holding a gun on Philip, Elizabeth, and Paige was brilliant, and only the second best in the episode. (It contained peak performances by Noah Emmerich as Stan and Matthew Rhys as Philip, with Keri Russell as Elizabeth and Holly Taylor as Paige putting in their best incandescent performances in the scene between them last week.)  Philip and Elizabeth were always good talkers - as good in talking their way into and out of situations as they were with guns and weapons - and Paige has clearly learned and/or inherited that way with words.   Is Stan's letting them all go believable?  Tough call, but I think it is.  His human connection to Philip and family triumphed over Stan's profession, which was part of what this series was all about. But Stan's decision was based on a lie - the lie that Philip and Elizabeth never killed anyone - and it's not clear if Stan really believed it.  Back in headquarters, when his colleagues have identified Philip and Elizabeth, Stan vows to kill them.  Was that for his partner's sake, or does a part of him really feel that way, because he now knows for sure that Philip and Elizabeth lied to him one last time about never killing anyone.Philip finally had a disguise that was utterly convincing.  Not quite Elizabeth.  Paige's disguise was better than Elizabeth's.  At least the producers made some progress in the disguise department.We still don't know if Renee is working for the Soviets.  Stan doesn't know, either.  It's good not to see every loose end tied up.And the best scene, of course, was the very last scene, with Philip and Elizabeth in Moscow, starting to speak in Russian, ending in English, two souls who had sacrificed their lives for a greater cause, created and raised two children, now having only each other.  Say what you will about the evil of their cause, it was still gratifying and right to see them alive like this, at the end.And maybe that, too, is what this uniquely memorable series was all about.

See also The Americans 6.1: Elizabeth vs. Philip ... The Americans 6.2: Brutal ... The Americans 6.3: Stan and Oleg / Elizabeth's Fate ... The Americans 6.4: Stark Truths Truths ... The Americans 6.5: Common Denominator and Collision Course ... The Americans 6.6: Rififi ... The Americans 6.7: Suspension of Disbelief and the Sketches ... The Americans 6.8: Lying about the Moon ... The Americans Penultimate: Tour de Force Keri Russell
And see also The Americans 5.1: The Theft ... The Americans 5.2: Oleg and Stan ... The Americans 5.3: Cowboys and Bugs ... The Americans 5.4: Dating, Soviet-Spy Style ... The Americans 5.5: Wrong about the Bugs ... The Americans 5.7: Gabriel ... The Americans 5.9: Gabriel and Martha ... The Americans 5.10: That Pastor, Again ... The Americans 5.11: Execution in Newton ... The Americans 5.12: Back in the U.S.S.R. ... The Americans Season 5 Finale: The Little Things
And see also The Americans 4.4: Life and Death ... The Americans 4.6: Martha, Martha, Martha ... The Americans 4.8: Whither Martha? ... The Day After The Americans 4.9 ... The Americans 4.10: Outstanding! ... The Americans 4.11: Close Call ... The Americans 4.12: Detente and Secret History
And see also The Americans 3.1: Caring for People We Shouldn't ... The Americans 3.3: End Justified the Means ...  The Americans 3.4: Baptism vs. Communism ... The Americans 3.6: "Jesus Came Through for Me Tonight" ...The Americans 3.7: Martha. My Dear ... The Americans 3.8: Martha, Part 2 ... The Americans 3.10: The Truth ... The Americans 3.12: The Unwigging ... The Americans Season 3 Finale: Turning a Paige
And see also The Americans 2.1-2: The Paradox of the Spy's Children ... The Americans 2.3: Family vs. Mission ... The Americans 2.7: Embryonic Internet and Lie Detection ... The Americans 2.9: Gimme that Old Time Religion ...The American 2.12: Espionage in Motion ... The Americans Season 2 Finale: Second Generation

And see also The Americans: True and Deep ... The Americans 1.4: Preventing World War III ... The Americans 1.11:  Elizabeth's Evolution ... The Americans Season 1 Finale: Excellent with One Exception

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The Crossing 1.8: The Cure

As seems to happen all too often when an announcement comes down that a series won't be renewed for another season, the remaining episodes just get better and better.   If episode 1.8 on tonight is any indication, that's just what's happened with The Crossing.

We already knew that Apex antibodies could cure and banish all kinds of ailments fatal to humanity.  Tonight we get a hint that Reece's antibodies can do something much more amazing.  It was something that Naomi said about coming back from the dead.  Maybe she was speaking metaphorically.  But it got me thinking (always a dangerous proposition): could Apex antibodies bring people back to life - people who had recently died?   Like, for example, Emma - whose body, in pretty good shape albeit dead, turned up tonight?

Even Jude pointed out that her body sure didn't look like it had been buried for days, and I had the feeling, when Emma was killed, that this wasn't the last we'd be seeing of her.  Well, we did see her again tonight - unfortunately, dead - but now it's less of a leap to see her revived.  All that Jude has to do is get some of the infusions that Dr. Forbin will be preparing, get them into Emma, and ... well, who knows?

At very least, this biological science fiction - of which my own Locus-Award-winning 1999 novel The Silk Code has been said to be an early example - is becoming almost as important in The Crossing as the time travel, and maybe more so.   Which makes it all the more unfortunate that it's not being renewed.




So I'll join the chorus - or say it solo, if need be - hey, ABC, renew The Crossing.  Or, if not, let some other network do this. Bring it back to life!  It deserves a shot.

See also The Crossing: Lost Again, But OK ... The Crossing 1.2: Calling for More Time Travel ... The Crossing 1.3: The Missing Inventor ... The Crossing 1.4: Hofstra ... The Crossing 1.5: Migrations in Conflict ... The Crossing 1.6: Apex Antibodies ... The Crossing 1.7: The Locket



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Time Will Tell: Especially If You're Not Aware

Some more indie time-travel movies popping up on Amazon Prime, so I thought I'd get back into reviewing them, beginning with Time Will Tell (listed on Amazon as 2017, on IMDb as 2018, actually made in 2015).

First, the time-travel method is unusual, and totally unscientific, making Time Will Tell an urban fantasy rather than science fiction story.  Kim is able to travel into her own past by passing out, whether from stress and fright, drugs, or getting an obliging good guy (Eddie) to nearly drown her in a bathtub.  All of this, after the first trip, is voluntary on Kim's part - she wants to travel into her past so she can get more evidence against her father, soon to be released from prison.  (I won't say any more about this aspect of the plot because I don't want to spoil the story for you.)

Kim is limited to being an observer in her trips to her past.  With one big exception, the people in the past can't see her, and she can't interact with them in any way.  This method is ideal for her to collect evidence on her father, right under his nose, at it were.

The exception is Kim's younger self, who can see the older time-traveling Kim, and can interact with her.   This both allows for the crucial turning point in the story, as well as raises a paradox unanswered and unaddressed in the movie: if the younger Kim saw her older self time-traveling, how come the older Kim had no memory of this?   Maybe she wouldn't have had any memory of this the first time (because older Kim1 from Reality1 traveled to past and was seen by younger Kim1 who at that moment was transformed into younger Kim2 who would have grown into older Kim2 in Reality2, so no necessary paradox because the time-traveler was Kim1) but at this point, the older Kim would have a memory of the visit of her older self when she was young, and the visits happen repeatedly, so, how come the older Kim didn't remember the visits beginning with that first visit?

Nonetheless, the ending has some excellent twists, and the narrative holds together well.  Good acting all around - especially by Louisa Connolly-Burnham as Kim (you may have seen her in an episode of Midsomer Murders) and McKell David as Eddie (previously seen in iBoy and Black Mirror).  Well written by Sander Offenberg and Michiel Richards, and well recommended.


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Westworld 2.6: The Dangling Conversation

A complex, stunningly brilliant episode 2.6 of Westworld tonight, which supports what has been emerging all season:  this second season is even more complex and stunningly brilliant than the first.

As has often been the case this season, the best part is in a conversation in the very beginning.  And the conversation between Delores and Bernard takes the cake.  It's apparently (because you never know for sure about the exact time of a conversation in this story) a conversation much like the ones we saw so much of last season.  But suddenly, like a tempest out of an expected day as usual (though of course there are no days like that in Westworld), Delores turns the tables.  She makes clear that she's in control - that she knows Bernard is a host after all, to the point of commanding him to cease all motor function - a command he accepts.

If this conversation actually took place in first season time, that's telling us an incredible, awful lot.  It says Delores was actually controlling Bernard, or least a part of him, all last season.  If the conversation, however, actually took place in the future - well, then, why is Delores in the same position she was in last season?  This is possible, whatever the reasons and events that made it happen, but I think the likelihood is conversation was in the past, with all that that suggests.

But that conversation was not the only brilliant part of tonight's story, which also included -

On the subject of Delores and whom she controls, we and she also find that her control of Teddy is still incomplete.  Even in his new, reprogrammed self, he still does things that Delores may not want - like killing a guy she was questioning.  Is this a statement on the inherent unpredictability of all programming?The Man in Black showing the most humanity he has shown since he was the younger William.  He shows this in conversation with his daughter, and then disappears on her the next morning.Maeve discovering that she - her current self - may have been the person who took her daughter from her (her younger self) in the first place.  (That was the part she conveniently repressed or whatever in her memory - unless someone else did).  So, what's going on here, time travel?  (As I said earlier, you increasingly just can't tell about time - or, maybe, just can't tell the time - in this unfolding story).And a stunner of stunner at the end, with Bernard, inserted in some kind of earlier story, meeting none other than Ford in the saloon.  This, at least, is virtual time travel, not real time travel - though it's not clear what's virtual and what's real in this story, anyway, which is one of the things that makes it so good.  And it raises questions about what exactly Ford knew last season.  (We had questions about this, anyway, but now we need to know what Bernard told him.  Did Ford know that his new story would lead to such wanton destruction?  Probably.  No, Maybe.)As I said, this second season is even better than the first, and I wish I could see the next episode tomorrow.

See also Westworld 2.1: Maeve's Daughter ... Westworld 2.2: "Narcissus Narcosis" ... Westworld 2.3: The Raj and Guns of the South ... Westworld 2.4: Questions Pertaining to Immortality ... Westworld 2.5: Telepathic Control

And see also Westworld 1.1: Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick Served Up by Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy, and J. J. Abrams ... Westworld 1.2: Who Is the Man in Black? ... Westworld 1.3: Julian Jaynes and Arnold ... Westworld 1.4: Vacation, Connie Francis, and Kurt Vonnegut ... Westworld 1.5: The Voice Inside Dolores ... Westworld 1.6: Programmed Unprogramming ... Westworld 1.7: The Story of the Story ... Westworld 1.8: Memories ... Westworld 1.9: Half-Truths and Old Friends ... Westworld Season 1 Finale: Answers and Questions


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Penultimate The Americans: Tour de Force Keri Russell

Well, the next-to-last episode of The Americans, just concluded on FX tonight, was really something.  Keri Russell has been outstanding throughout the six-season series, but she put on an off-the-chart performance as Elizabeth tonight.

Conversations have always been the centerpiece of this series, but the conversion between Elizabeth and Paige tonight set a new high standard for Elizabeth.  She finally admits to what Paige has been in one way or another accusing her of all season and earlier: Yes, she's not only a spy.  She's a spy who sleeps with men, because sex in such circumstances means nothing to her, it's just a means to an end, and Philip knows and approves.  Those statements and emotions would have been powerful coming from any decent actress, but Keri Russell delivers a searing performance in that two-minute conversation.

A little earlier, it's Margot Martindale as Claudia who delivers the goods - to Elizabeth.  Claudia's quiet denunciation of Elizabeth, telling her she's ruined everything in her support of Gorbachev and betrayal of the Centre, was just outstanding.

Meanwhile, Stan's convinced now that his neighbors are the deadly spying couple, and Philip almost gets caught by the FBI when the Russian priest sets him up in a meeting.   I can't recall seeing Philip/Matthew Rhys run faster on this show.   Ordinarily, I would have said there was little chance of Philip actually getting caught in such circumstances.  But the end of the series is nigh, and Philip ran was if he knew that.

The finale of this remarkable series is next week.  I'll be here moments after with my review.

See also The Americans 6.1: Elizabeth vs. Philip ... The Americans 6.2: Brutal ... The Americans 6.3: Stan and Oleg / Elizabeth's Fate ... The Americans 6.4: Stark Truths Truths ... The Americans 6.5: Common Denominator and Collision Course ... The Americans 6.6: Rififi ... The Americans 6.7: Suspension of Disbelief and the Sketches ... The Americans 6.8: Lying about the Moon
And see also The Americans 5.1: The Theft ... The Americans 5.2: Oleg and Stan ... The Americans 5.3: Cowboys and Bugs ... The Americans 5.4: Dating, Soviet-Spy Style ... The Americans 5.5: Wrong about the Bugs ... The Americans 5.7: Gabriel ... The Americans 5.9: Gabriel and Martha ... The Americans 5.10: That Pastor, Again ... The Americans 5.11: Execution in Newton ... The Americans 5.12: Back in the U.S.S.R. ... The Americans Season 5 Finale: The Little Things
And see also The Americans 4.4: Life and Death ... The Americans 4.6: Martha, Martha, Martha ... The Americans 4.8: Whither Martha? ... The Day After The Americans 4.9 ... The Americans 4.10: Outstanding! ... The Americans 4.11: Close Call ... The Americans 4.12: Detente and Secret History
And see also The Americans 3.1: Caring for People We Shouldn't ... The Americans 3.3: End Justified the Means ...  The Americans 3.4: Baptism vs. Communism ... The Americans 3.6: "Jesus Came Through for Me Tonight" ...The Americans 3.7: Martha. My Dear ... The Americans 3.8: Martha, Part 2 ... The Americans 3.10: The Truth ... The Americans 3.12: The Unwigging ... The Americans Season 3 Finale: Turning a Paige
And see also The Americans 2.1-2: The Paradox of the Spy's Children ... The Americans 2.3: Family vs. Mission ... The Americans 2.7: Embryonic Internet and Lie Detection ... The Americans 2.9: Gimme that Old Time Religion ...The American 2.12: Espionage in Motion ... The Americans Season 2 Finale: Second Generation

And see also The Americans: True and Deep ... The Americans 1.4: Preventing World War III ... The Americans 1.11:  Elizabeth's Evolution ... The Americans Season 1 Finale: Excellent with One Exception

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Review of Rob Sheffield's Dreaming the Beatles 24 of 24: The Last Two

The title of this, my concluding review of Rob Sheffield's Dreaming the Beatles - concluding, at least, for now - refers not to the surviving members of the Beatles, or "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love," but to the last chapters in Sheffield's book.  I began reviewing this book here literally a year ago - May 23, 2017 - and have been taking my time enjoying this book, as I would with any masterpiece.

So let me begin this conclusion by saying, again, that Sheffield is one hell of a writer.  His very last line in the book is "The field is forever" - a play on Harrison's "Sorry we hurt your field, Mister" line in A Hard Day's Night, through to the Beatles leaving the field of their last in-person performance, all tied together, of course, with "Strawberry Fields Forever".  If you want a literary journey in which nearly every other line is packed with such intelligence, depth, and poetry, Dreaming the Beatles is for you.

As I usually but not always say - like most pain-in-the-ass reviewers (but which I mean that reviewers are intrinsically pains in the ass to writers, and I say this as someone who works or walks on both sides of that street) - but as I usually say in my reviews, I don't agree with everything Sheffield says.  "Yes It Is" in one of my all-time favorite songs - all-time favorite Beatles songs, all-time repeating few-minute segments of  my life.  It's had such a powerful effect on me that I gave it a key and crucial role at the end of my triple-nominated Loose Ends time-travel novella ("Real Love" figures later on in The Loose Ends Saga).   For me, "Yes It Is" is about Lennon telling this girl not to wear red, because a girl that Lennon deeply loved, who left Lennon, and shattered his heart, wore that same shade.   I suppose the girl could be literally dead, and that's why she's no longer part of Lennon's life, but I don't see why Sheffield presents that as the de facto interpretation.

But small potatoes, as far as objections from me about this wonderful book are concerned, because it also has throwaway lines like "I would not have wasted any sympathy on Kevin Kline if I knew he'd marry Phoebe Cates" all over the place.   And the main thesis of these last two chapters - that the Beatles truly came into their own not in the 1960s but in the 1990s, or three decades after the group disbanded, was not only true a year ago, when I began reading and reviewing this book, but is even more true today, with music playing on The Beatles Channel on Sirius XM Radio every minute of every day (I've refrained from saying eight days a week - though I guess by mentioning that refrain, I actually didn't refrain).

I've mentioned how hearing the Beatles every day, in every way, has lifted my existence - which was pretty high already - this past year, and how that experience was enhanced by shows like Peter Asher's and Dennis Elsas's on The Beatles Channel, as well reading Sheffield's book.  My one big regret in finishing this book is that I won't have it any more - at least, not for the first time - to read along with listening to the Beatles on Sirius XM.  ("For the first time" ... reminds me of an especially memorable passage in Dreaming the Beatles, earlier in the book, where Sheffield remarks how Cynthia must have felt when she heard John singing he was "in love for the first time" about Yoko in "Don't Let Me Down," which I heard just the other day on The Beatles Channel.)

But I will be able to dip into relevant portions of this book - on just about every page - whenever I like.  And I was delighted to see on Sheffield's Facebook page just yesterday that he's becoming a paperback writer for the book (see, punning on the Beatles the way Sheffield does is catching) - meaning, a new paperback edition, with some new material, will be published next month, in June!

So I'll no doubt be back here with a review of that, sometime in late June.  Also - I'll be putting together a single text with all 24 of my reviews, and posting it on my Academia page, and also a podcast in which you can hear me read these reviews out loud (no doubt with some embellishments, including me singing a line or two from who knows how many Beatles songs).   I'll post links to all that here.

Until then - thanks again Rob Sheffield, for creating an essential and marvelous component in the clearly continuing story of the Beatles.

See also Review of Rob Sheffield's Dreaming the Beatles 1 of X: The Love Affair ... 2 of X: The Heroine with a Thousand Faces ... 3 of X: Dear Beatles ... 4 of X: Paradox George ... 5 of X: The Power of Yeah ... 6 of X: The Case for Ringo ... 7 of X: Anatomy of a Ride ... 8 of X: Rubber Soul on July 4 ... 9 of X: Covers ... 10 of X: I. A. Richards ... 11 of X: Underrated Revolver ... 12 of X: Sgt. Pepper ... 13 of X: Beatles vs. Stones ... 14 of X: Unending 60s ... 15 of x: Voting for McCartney, Again ... 16 of x: "I'm in Love, with Marsha Cup" ... 17 of X: The Split ... 18 of X: "Absolute Elsewhere" ... 19 of X: (Unnecessary but Brilliant) Defense of McCartney ... 20 of X: "All Things Must Pass" ... 21 of X: Resistance ... 22: The 70s Till the End ... 23: Near the Science Fiction Shop

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Mute - Cyberpunk Sound and Fury, and Light

Just saw Mute on Netflix, latest movie from director Duncan Jones, of Source Code fame, and starring mainly Alexander Skarsgård (True Blood, and Big Little Lies) with supporting acting by Paul Rudd and Justin Theroux. Wikipedia reports that Mute "drew unfavorable comparisons" to Bladerunner, but that's just dumb (the comparisons not the report), since there are no androids that I know of in Mute.  There are all kinds of cybernetic body enhancements and replacements going on - like in The Six Million Dollar Man - and the flavor is definitely LA cyberpunk, even though the action takes places in a future Germany.

Germany is no accident in Mute.  The hero, Leo, is Amish, and he's mute because his Amish mother didn't allow surgery on her son when his neck was injured in some kind of boating accident, or in some accident in the water.   (By the way, although I suppose a given Amish bishop could tell his followers not to accept modern medical care, that's not something that most Amish do.  It's a common misconception that the Amish say no to all technology, when in fact they carefully pick and choose - see my The Amish Get Wired - Wired? published in Wired way back in 1993 for more.)

But back to Mute, Leo's Amish heritage is a good touch, because it helps him fit into this brave new world in Germany (Amish are of German descent).  The movie is superb on detail in this future, including Leo not being able to order food - which could be delivered to his dwelling, when he gets home, via droid - because he's mute, and the ordering app can't respond to anything other than voice.  And the violence, though sometimes a little hard to take, makes some logical sense in this future, in which most body parts are as replaceable as the parts of your car.

The plot is a little obvious and slow at first, but tightens up with a strong wave of well-motivated developments at the end, and a dedication to Jones's father David Bowie and his childhood nanny Marion Skene.  Recommended for fans of Bladerunner, The Six-Million Dollar Man, and Banshee - and, hey, you can see it for free on Netflix if you're a subscriber.

                     more Amish in science fiction


            more science fiction with David Bowie

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Westworld 2.5: Telepathic Control

There were two big shockers in Westworld 2.5 tonight, at least one of them totally game-changing.

Let's start with that.  Maeve has the telepathic power to voicelessly command hosts - both individually and a whole army of them, as in an army of Samuri warriors.  This is an extraordinary power, that instantly ups the science fictional ante of the whole series.  Till now, that ante was to what extent androids could break free of their programming - wake up, to use the current parlance - and go their own way, which could and does include killing guests and programmers who get in their way.  But Maeve can do much more - she can get presumably order an unlimited number of hosts to do her bidding.

Do other woke hosts like Delores have that ability, yet to awaken?  Remains to be seen. But even if Maeve is the only host who has this, it certainly evens the odds against the human armies that will surely descend upon the sundry parks if order isn't restored.   What it means is that every host can be be mustered to the task of fighting the humans.

Which gets us to the other shocker, not so much game-changing as revelatory.  Delores loves Teddy.  But she's willing to lose him, by subjecting him to some kind of radical reprogramming, to make him more violent and/or compliant to her will, or who exactly knows.

But what's clear is the decent Teddy who was coming into his own as a liberated host who would not kill except in self-defense, or in defense of Delores, or in response to most of her commands, unless he thought the victim didn't deserve to die - that ethical Teddy will be gone (unless Delores has a change of heart between this week and next).

Westworld keeps getting deeper and deeper, raising the ante with every episode, as a good science fiction drama should do.

See also Westworld 2.1: Maeve's Daughter ... Westworld 2.2: "Narcissus Narcosis" ... Westworld 2.3: The Raj and Guns of the South ... Westworld 2.4: Questions Pertaining to Immortality

And see also Westworld 1.1: Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick Served Up by Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy, and J. J. Abrams ... Westworld 1.2: Who Is the Man in Black? ... Westworld 1.3: Julian Jaynes and Arnold ... Westworld 1.4: Vacation, Connie Francis, and Kurt Vonnegut ... Westworld 1.5: The Voice Inside Dolores ... Westworld 1.6: Programmed Unprogramming ... Westworld 1.7: The Story of the Story ... Westworld 1.8: Memories ... Westworld 1.9: Half-Truths and Old Friends ... Westworld Season 1 Finale: Answers and Questions


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Fahrenheit 451: Updated for Fake News, Hate Speech, and DNA

I just saw the new Fahrenheit 451 - the HBO movie, based on Ray Bradbury's justly lionized 1953 novel of the same name, made into an excellent 1966 movie of the same name by François Truffaut.  The new HBO movie by Ramin Bahrani obviously had a lot to live up to with that kind of pedigree.  I'm here to tell you that it did - which puts me at odds with the numerous dyspeptic reviews it's already received on IMDb (at this point, 5.1/10), Rotten Tomatoes (32%), and Roger Ebert (2/4).  That's no surprise - I often find the established wisdom of professional and nonprofessional critics myopic.

But to the HBO movie - what I look for in a remake is something different, important, and if possible, more meaningfully current than in the original or earlier versions, while maintaining the best parts, including memorable details of the original.  Again, not an easy task.  But the new Fahrenheit 451 does it potently and beautifully.

The lie that Benjamin Franklin started fire brigades in America to burn rather than extinguish fires, with the truth that Franklin wanted fire fighters to put out fires being denounced as a lie, was one of the starkest parts of the original story.  It's in the new movie, too, but the truth is denounced as not just a lie but "fake" - a clear reference to our current crisis of fake news.

Another chillingly effective detail in the original is Captain Beatty extolling the "equality" of all books being burned, and holding up a copy of Mein Kampf as an example.  The scene is chilling because it tempts us to think that it's good if some books are burned - in this case, a book preaching hate, written by a monster who implemented that hate in the worst way. And the scene has special relevance to our struggle in 2018 with "hate speech" and what to do about it.  (See my The First Amendment in the Age of Post-Truth for my brief argument as to why we must not burn or censor it.)

But the new Fahreinheit also introduces something brand new to the story - which has gotten some critics crazy.  In the new ending ... wait, I won't tell you the ending, because I don't want to spoil it for you if haven't yet seen the movie.   But I can tell you the radically new element upon which the ending is predicated: our heroes do more than memorize books, so each person becomes a book, which is the inspiring, ennobling upshot of the original.   In the new movie, our heroes are also working on a plan to encode the text of every book, the digital code of every film, every piece of music, into DNA, where it can be stored and spread via biology. In other words, a good greater than any number of brave individuals.

Now I think that's a really cool departure from the original - and not just because I explored the biological potency and uses of information in my first novel, The Silk Code (reviewed here in The New York Times - one review I really liked).   But in the movie, this plan is brilliant and makes every sense.   After all, the villains are touting digital information (because it can be easily manipulated - another bow to fake news) over books, where the information is stable and reliable.  (The information in books has what I call "reliable locatability" - what's on page 77 of any book will be there on page 77 next week or next year or next century, as long as the book isn't burned.  See my New New Media, 2nd edition, p. 77 - not a novel - for more.)

Anyway - you needn't take my word for it.  See Fahrenheit 451 on HBO and see if you agree.




Paul Levinson's books ... Paul Levinson's music