Retro Picture Quiz of the Week (Feb. 1)

Can you name this venerable and respected actor who played Frankenstein's monster in Hammer films' The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)? Hint: This senior actor also played characters in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Lucas' last Star Wars films.

Policy Change: After meeting with several focus groups and looking ourselves in the mirror for several hours, we've decided NOT to reveal the answers to the Retro Picture Quiz of the Week until some unspecified time in the future! Ha!Ha!

Mission: Impossible

For my Aesthetics of Visual Perception Class, I have to write about one movie that is my "favorite" movie. Of course, this is nearly impossible to determine! I will write the paper, but as an extension of the assignment, here is a list of movies that I like...

Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Spielberg's take on extraterrestrial encounters still seems authentic over 30 years later. One shot I especially like comes early in the film when, from an aerial perspective, we see Roy Neary's tiny vehicle traveling the country road at night as a gigantic, ominous shadow passes over Neary's truck and the entire landscape. Sure makes him look insignificant. I wonder... does Neary ever return to Earth?

Star Wars: As a card-carrying nerd, I guess I am obligated to list this film. One nice thing about this film (besides great special effects, exciting story, brilliant musical score, among other things) is the way the script and dialogue of the film hint at so much more of the Star Wars universe that we are NOT shown. Clone Wars? Han Solo's Kessel Run? Womp Rats? Of course, since this first movie, much of this hidden Star Wars universe has been revealed in other films, animations, games and novels. Seeing all of this added detail of the Star Wars universe is nice, but it almost ruins the mystery of the first film.

The Godfather: All I'm going to say about this one is that the way Michael Corleone straightens his hair in the men's room before he goes back out to the dining room somehow brilliantly shows that he is scared... but he's going to kill those two slimy bastards anyway. Brilliant scene.

Last of the Mohicans: No film has a better ending than the last 10 minutes of this movie as Hawkeye and company pursue the Indians along the mountainside. A thrilling spectacle. Great acting throughout, especially from Daniel Day-Lewis.

Children of Men: Clive Owen is a brilliant anti-hero in this sci-fi movie that doesn't have a single  spaceship or alien in it. Owen's character doesn't seem to be able to influence the events of this scary future world much, yet he emerges as the savior of humanity. Great performance by Michael Caine, too.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978): Great remake of the alien invasion paranoia-fest. All-star cast (Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Leonard Nimoy, Jeff Goldblum). Convincing creepy  pre-digital special effects.

A Clockwork Orange: Maybe Kubrick's weirdest film. Good social science fiction with interesting questions posed about society. Kubrick actually makes you sympathize with one of the most brutal teenage hooligans ever shown on screen.

Blackhawk Down: One of my favorite directors, Ridley Scott, directs an all-star cast in a great, though troubling war movie. A director's film for sure.

Pitch Black: Vin Diesel is cool as the morally-challenged hero. Nasty monsters on a scary planet. At the beginning of the movie, maybe the best "crash-landing on a planet" scene ever filmed .

What About Bob?: Bill Murray is funny.

Toy Story, The Incredibles: Really, anything by Pixar. In Toy Story how can the creators of this movie possibly make you feel so sad when Buzz Lightyear realizes that he is a toy? But they DO make you care that much. Great stories — even more than cutting edge animation — makes these movies so good.

Yes, deciding which movie to write about will not be easy!

Retro picture of the week

Can you identify this actress AND name the 1963 Hitchcock film that this photo promotes?

Look for the answer next week!

Image from Dr. Macro's High Quality Movie Scans, www.doctormacro1.info

Cyberethics response

ENTRY #1

Assigned discussion: 

HOW DO YOU THINK THE NEW FORMS OF COMMUNICATION VIA THE INTERNET WILL AFFECT SOCIETY? WHAT CHANGES MIGHT IT BRING?

The changes brought on by the internet are far-reaching. Some changes are being felt now and other changes may take a while longer to determine.

I can speak from experience about changes that are being felt now. I work as a journalist for a newspaper. The internet is one of the major reasons that newspaper readership has steadily declined. Newspapers all across the country have been laying off workers for years now. In fact, The Express-News just laid 5 more newsroom employees a few weeks ago.

Magazines such as the Christian Science Monitor have ceased print production and are only available over the internet. I heard a rumor that one daily for a major U.S. city — Orlando — is considering printing a paper product only on weekends... the rest of the week would be internet-only publication.

With so much information able to be easily transmitted over the internet, how might the internet change our society? Eventually, maybe no one will ever have to drive to work again, since they can complete all of their work from their computer at home, complete with audio, video and 3-D hologram connections.

Or maybe we will all become accomplished scientists, exploring other planets through thousands of remotely-controlled drones that respond to commands given by home computers.

The internet allows a vast amount of information to be shared by an enormous number of people. I don't think its effects on our society will end anytime soon. As new technologies continue to be developed that allow even more and different types of information to be shared through the internet, I think we will continue to see the internet affect our culture in ways that we haven't thought about and can't predict.