Reb MacRath's Blog, page 23

Reb's Rowdy Touts for Hot B Flicks: The Raid 2

So much has been made of the graphic violence in this film that we really must start with a note about films in the days before movies existed. The Iliad, written somewhere between 760-710 BC, is one of the most graphically violent tales ever written. And if the technology had existed, Homer would have been happy to write it as a screenplay, then direct it and accept a cameo in exchange for hot sex with an actor or 2. It's a simple, streamlined tale about a few final weeks in the Trojan War. And the battle scenes aren't pretty, to say the very least: spears through the ears and mouths, cloven skulls...The crowds then didn't cotton to action off the page or discreetly edited bloodshed. They wanted it heavy and heavy they got--for all of which the epic stands as a glorious work of art.

Just bear that in mind before passing on a truly sensational film--one of the finest, and most important, martial arts films ever made. It tackles a long divided, much maligned tradition: on the left side, thousands of Golden Harvest chopsocky films with Wire Fu, crap dubbing and badly edited fights...on the right side, the romanticized and stylized Crouching Tiger school.

Keep the tradition in your minds as well. For The Raid 2 is neither a gangster movie with some Kung Fu nor a Same Old Same Fu movie with a tagged-on gangster story. The director, Gareth Evans, set out to top his indie cult hit The Raid with a seamless blending of the best martial arts ever filmed and a well-written, nicely acted crime film Scorcese could admire. And you needn't have seen the original Raid to be blown away by Raid 2: twice as good in every way. The 'sequel' picks up shortly after The Raid with two characters meeting grim ends--then we're off and running in a new direction.

We can forget almost every martial artist actor since Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan with the arrival of Indonesian star Iko Uwais...and the phenomenal Yayan Ruhian, who does villain star turns in both films. Each man equals Lee and Chan in physical prowess and screen charisma. All the dreadful cinematic sins of the past forty years are washed away by the brilliance of Gareth Evans, his cast--and, lord God, his cinematographers. No night fights with the best moves lost in darkness and shadows. No quick-cut editing to obscure the logic and flow of the moves. Almost no slow motion. No wires for high flying kicks. Again and again, viewers' jaws will be dropped by the power, grace and beauty of the actors' moves--and the brilliance of the camera work (one man fighting several within a tiny car--the action filmed through the cutaway roof).

One other radical departure: after forty years of Chinese and Japanese-based martial arts films, it's cool to see the Indonesians finally get their due. Think Thai kickboxing mixed with loads of knives.

The story? An accomplished riff on Internal Affairs. The greatest gangster picture ever? Noooo. But the greatest martial crime film? In my own opinion, yes.

Definitely worth your while. Read the Iliad first if you need to prepare for the mayhem.

Coming Tuesday, April 22

Reb's Rowdy Touts for Hot B Flicks returns with a review of The Raid 2...and marks the return of this blog to Active status. I've been remiss, preoccupied by work on Boss #3...the new Seattle blog...and moving preparations.

Here's to Tuesday and to lively fun in May!

Literary Factories: The Shocking Conclusion

We begin as we began, with a nod to Russell Blake: thriving proof that lively, entertaining books can be written--on a rolling basis--in only five or six weeks. As illustrated in the second part of this series, Blake is part of a long tradition of ultra-prolific and successful authors. I read his work with real pleasure. And when I was growing up I read with equal pleasure books by well-known writers who also wrote at lightning speed: H. Rider Haggard, Alexander Dumas, Edgar Rice Burroughs, etc.

Today I might not be reading at all if I hadn't started long ago with books that rocked my boat: She, King Solomon's Mines, Tarzan,  etc.

But only books of a certain sort--employing certain formulas--can be written at this speed and on a rolling basis. As readers, almost all of us have other reading hungers--often for the sorts of books that can't be written so quickly, or with no break between. Many top mystery writers tend to limit themselves to one or two books a year. James Lee Burke--a favorite of Russell Blake's--has written twenty Dave Robicheaux mysteries since 1987. The beautiful style, the rich characterization, the intricate plotting--these things all take time.

I hear an objection. A voice from the back: 'Don't even try to tell us that great writing can't be done at lightning speed. You ever heard of Jack Kerouac or Lord Byron?'

An important point, sir. Thank you. I acknowledge that both men wrote quickly and that Byron, in particular, liked to boast that he never revised--that he wrote as the lion leaps and if he missed he'd leap again. That said, let me respond with two points. The shorter first:
1) Byron was an English Lord with a very long inner division: he had literary genius...but believed writing was unmanly and unworthy of his rank. He never achieved his full genius till he discovered a form--in his comic epics--where his offhanded, slapdash style perfectly suited the form and the themes. Even more important: Lord Byron lied through his teeth: I've seen samples of his writing...and they show significant revisions.
2) Kerouac requires a quote from writer Andrea Shea. On the Road is often cited as proof that spontaneous writing is better. But writers lie like bastards. Read:

Legend has it that Kerouac wrote OTR in three weeks, typing almost nonstop on a 120-foot roll of paper. The truth is that the book actually had a much longer, bumpier journey from inspiration to publication, complete with multiple rewrites...'Three weeks' is what Kerouac answered when talk show Steve Allen asked how long it took to write OTR...What JAck should have said was, 'I typed it up in three weeks.'

As readers--and as writers--we need to ponder the differing payoffs of books. Writer must be getting something they can't do without, whichever camp they park in: those who can't help spending long months, or years, on their books...and those who can't stop producing in only a couple of months. The first camp may find the payoff in the backbreaking quest for perfection. The second camp may find it in the rolling pleasure brought to thousands on thousands of readers.

I like to mix up my reading: mysteries, histories, literary...and, now and then, a classic like the Aeneid that took Virgil ten years to write.

Not so fast, though, Reb MacRath. It's true Virgil wrote one or two lines a day, then spent the rest of every day fine-tuning and polishing. But it's also true that Virgil was being very well paid--and would end up one of the wealthiest men in all Rome. He had no incentive to finish the book in a year. Furthermore, he had no laptop. And--

Oh, dear, this is so complex. Gotta go now--time to work on my labour of eighteen months...then check out Russell Blake's latest...then read a poem or two by my favorite poet, Auden.

Cheers!

Coming Sunday, April 6!

The unexpected conclusion to Literary Factories.

Reb's Rowdy Touts for Hot B Flicks: Sabotage

As Agent Mahone said to Michael Scofield in Prison Break: 'You've never gone a day in your life without a plan. Don't start on me now...' Those words come to mind after seeing Sabotage, the latest attempt by Arnold Schwarzenegger to reclaim his box office crown. The film's opening numbers: as dismal as his last two films. Reviews: exceptionally hostile. The film itself: well worth a look if you're an Arnold watcher...and if you remember that this man has succeeded in doing whatever he set out to do all his life.

I believe he has a plan, to which I'll return in a minute. As for the film, it's far better than the critics would have you believe. And, though it has violent moments, it isn't a Non-Stop procession of exploding heads and gore. Except for the thrilling finale, most of the violence happens on-screen or is edited discreetly. Furthermore, Arnold gives a far better performance than anyone's allowed. As a DEA agent still mourning the murder of his wife, he's more restrained than usual and focused on his work, but flashes of passion and wit still break through. 
The hook is a good one and holds us: Arnold's DEA team of undercover agents steal ten million dollars in the opening drug bust and store it for reclaiming later. But the money is gone when they get there...the whole team falls under suspicion...and someone starts picking them off one by one as in Ten Little Indians. And the film's main strength lies in its handling of the mystery and the suspense.
The film's main two flaws: 1) The team remains in dirt bag character even when they're by themselves so we don't get to know them as people. 2) We don't need to hear the f-word in every single sentence to recall they're supposed to be druggies.

Neither one of those flaws should prevent you from taking a chance on this film. For, trust me on this, Arnold does have a plan--and it's important to anyone who's past the age of thirty. In The Expendables, back in 2010, we saw a bloated version of the man who had been king. It was good to see him, after seven years, but not to see him like that. What a gut! And he didn't look much better in The Expendables 2 or The Last Stand. But he knew the real game was one of Beat the Clock: as an action star he had perhaps 7-10 years, tops, before he was too old. And the problem was: it might take him a couple of years to get back into shape. Arnold had to understand: no one who loved the young Arnold wants to see him old and fat. Film by film, we've started to see him slowly rechisel his body. Meanwhile, he's worked with both good directors and actors.

The master links in Arnold's plan have to be Terminator 5, slotted for next year, and The Legend of Conan (no details announced). Till T5, we'll have Maggie (a zombie film) and The Expendables 3. My prediction? He'll keep all his work in the gym under wraps--and unveil it in T5, at which time he'll be 68. Proof to the world that a fat older man can claw his way back to the top of the heap. 

Why all are doomed except Guess Who

At least two writers I know of have written the same blog post: telling aspiring ebook writers that the game is a crap shoot in which most will fail. Talent, persistence, pluck, strategy-- not all of these together can do much to better your chances...they say. The writers are successful, well reviewed and well positioned. Their motives may be noble. And yet I can't help but observe that the more of us who grow discouraged and quit, the better off they'll be.

I seem to be the only who has your best interests at stake. And so I'm about to blow the whistle and tell it like it is. All of you are doomed unless:
--Your first name has three letters and it rhymes with Deb.
--Your last name has seven letters, two of them capitalized.
--You have a seventh ebook to be published before June and an eighth before December.
--You are soon moving to Seattle with a purple steamer trunk.
--Your first novel picked up a major award.
--You love black cherry ice cream.
--You read Roman writers in Latin.
--Some ladies call you Spice Boy and Lord Wickedness.

Sorry, but it doesn't look at all for most folks. But one of us can make it if you'll send your dough to Amazon for a good book by Reb MacRath.

How to maintain interest in a limited, somewhat occasional blog

For your consideration...

The new blog I've started, chronicling my move to Seattle this fall, presented three challenges I had to meet.

1) I envisioned a series of 'blocks', each block about a separate theme--moving, job hunting, timing, etc.--and stacked up very nearly with the oldest at the bottom. The blocks would start now and end either with my arrival in Seattle or by the end of the year.
2) In order to maintain the block structure--and ease of navigation--I had to post new blocks at the start of every month, with occasional short updates as the month progressed. In this way, the Archives section would show readers clearly the separate blocks and their titles. One month for this and one for that. Easy-shmeasy. BUT: I had to keep the blocks down to a length that was not too imposing.
3) Followers would only be notified when a new block posted, not a new entry within an existing block. So...how could I keep up their interest with thirty days between blocks?

Here is my solution, for now. I'm always open to feedback!

http://tinyurl.com/q9rtaqt

Welcome to my new Moving to Seattle blog!

It's launched early, actually, and not by design. I'd been tinkering with content and format for a week--when things just came together. 
If you have any long-range goals, do drop in from time to time. The blog will be compact than most of the others you say--as tightly packed, with luck, as a purple steamer trunk. So, even if you're not planning to move, you may also be longing for something that requires preparation, planning, patience and strategy.
The blog's still young, but have a look. It would be cool if our quests merged in this friendly little spot:
www.theseattlekid.blogspot.com

Literary Factories 2: Should a book go full throttle or work on all eights?

Two men I respect have raised good points about speed in the creative process. Russell Blake makes a strong case for turning out novels in 4-6 weeks by working almost round the clock. And his sales figures do seem to bolster his case. Photographer Paul Cotter argues that creative speed is relative to talent, temperament and drive: some brilliant musical albums have taken years to produce while others came about over a wild weekend. And Mozart was said to have heard completed symphonies in his head before he wrote a note.

Agreed. And I'll take the argument further: I enjoy reading pulp fiction that I know was written in days. Further still: long before Russell Blake, there existed a lengthy tradition of popular writers who worked at great speed: from Dumas to Balzac to Dickens, from Agatha Christie to Erle Stanley Gardner. And many of these writers' books are still being read. Other once-famous factories made excellent livings by writing far more.
ROLL CALL
--Ned Buntline, the pen name of Edward Zane Carroll Judson, wrote 400 novels in the 1800s--including one 600 page novel written in 62 hours. He earned the then royal sum of twenty grand a year and lived as a country squire.
--His contemporary, Prentiss Ingram, whipped out two novels a month for a grand total of 600 books. Lived as a Southern gent on $16,000-$18,000 a year.
--Meanwhile, Gilbert Patten went on to write 1,000 novels under the pen name Burt  Burt L. Standish
--Frederick Faust, a.ka Max Brand, outdid them all in the 1920s--publishing 25 million words of fiction under 20 pen names. At least twenty typed pages a day, every day. He could write  a novella in a night, a short story in an hour, a short novel in less than a week. Annual income from his books and film work: $100,000.
--And the list goes on.
But the success they enjoyed raises questions:1) What exactly do we want from the more prolific writers--sparkling literary style and profound insights into character or consistent excellence in plotting, pacing and visceral fun?
2) Can good writers take too long to write?
3) What might we expect from a book by a writer who works at a much slower pace?
4) Why does Quentin Tarantino spend years on his films when spin-off can be done in months?
5) Could the ideal reading diet be a mixture of factory-style productions and books that  are more custom made?

I read Russell Blake with great pleasure. At the same, I treasure books that took Ira Levin a decade to write.

In part three, we'll explore the benefits of breakneck pace in writing.

A very special announcement

Literary Factories 2 will appear next week. Till then, here's a little news that you'll soon be able to use:

In April I will launch a second blog, this one devoted to the fall Seattle move. The surface subject will be the strategies and actions involved in a cross-country move by one man with little money and no job lined up when he gets there. An adventure story with me playing Liam Neeson, taking on the inner demons who say it can't be done.

But the theme within that subject is where you come in. You may not be planning a cross-country move, but there's something big you'd like to do...and just maybe the thought scares you silly: you want to write a novel--or, now that you've written it, find a first-rate agent...you want to quit drinking or smoking...you want to lose forty pounds...etc. Now, you may not be strapped for cash--but the odds are very good that you're strapped for something you need to succeed: confidence, faith, knowledge, will power. And in your own way, you'll have to start planning moves as if you were Julius Caesar.

In addition to giving this blog a new look, I'm taking pains to structure it so that it's easy to follow and easy for you to apply to your needs. For instance, one entire part will deal with the trashing of garbage and clutter, the fine art of traveling light. And this part will contain updates. At the same time, a part called Applications will suggest correlations between this and other parts to some other quests: e.g., parallels abound between packing and editing a book...

Other parts will concern the campaigns to land a job and place to stay before the actual move and to orchestrate the timing.

Stay tuned for the April blog. My own struggles should entertain you. But the blog will find its wings through our connected stories.