Ten Years of Film Interpretation

In Metaphilm, and in these books . . .

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

State of Fear - Day After Tomorrow

Metaphlm publisher Read Schuchardt has a review of Michael Crichton’s new novel, State of Fear, in Christianity Today that along the way toward its assertion that Crichton is doing some serious media ecology, (naturally) includes references to films including The Day After Tomorrow and The Butterfly Effect. Consider this interesting tidbit: “In more recent news of fearful disaster, the tsunami in southeast Asia looked like something from the movie The Day After Tomorrow, and this according to no less a thinker than Arthur C. Clarke. Remember the irony: that film was roundly ridiculed on its release for junk science of the propagandistic left wing variety, despite containing several elements of right-wing science: sudden climate change (including animals flash-frozen in mid-bite) massive and instantaneous geological movement, and a plot device that allowed for the Gutenberg Bible to be the only item saved from a library destined for destruction. In retrospect, the movie almost reads like a stealth defense of creation science.”

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Groundhog Day

It seems that 1993’s Groundhog Day is enjoying another moment in the spotlight. Roger Ebert has a recent reappraisal, explaining why the film has joined the category of those that “burrow into our memories and become reference points. When you find yourself needing the phrase This is like Groundhog Day to explain how you feel, a movie has accomplished something.” Jonah Goldberg’s new interpretation graces the cover of the current National Review (subscription only) and is a current topic of conversation (along with The Big Lebowski) on their blog. Here’s Touchstone’s earlier article on the religious interpretations of the movie. And for true legitimacy, of course, we have the comic strip Grand Avenue for today.