In effort to get into the creative mood today, I've been watching some pretty heady movies. Earlier, it was "2001," which was ... surreal. I have the same opinion of that movie as I do of "Citizen Kane:" historically significant, but dear GOD, shoot-me-now dull. It didn't really help me, either. So I wasn't in any better position to do NaNo, and I was bored for two hours.
Afterward, I got to thinking about what inspired me. "Star Wars" was an obvious answer, but I didn't necessarily feel drawn to that, which is a little weird. I don't think I've ever NOT wanted to watch "Star Wars." Even one of the prequels*. I then thought about watching Vampire Hunter D or Buffy, but neither of those felt too good, either.
Of course, I started flipping through Netflix, and I came across "Ghost in the Shell" in my instant queue. I can remember the first time I watched this movie. It was one of the most amazing things I'd ever seen, and the music was beautiful. The entire brutal scene where Kusanagi, while camouflaged, beats the absolute shit out of the brain-wiped terrorist with armor-piercing bullets, is probably one of my favorites ever of any movie, live action or animated. I spent the entire movie trying to figure out what the hell was going on; I felt completely dropped into the middle of this political drama. I had to rewatch the movie several times before I figured out exactly what it was about: what it means to be human. It's a very cerebral movie and one that I have to be in the mood to watch, which I suppose I was earlier.
I think it was this movie that made me fall in love with Mamoru Oshii as a director, especially for the gratuitous use of basset hounds. "Angel's Egg" was a little weird for me, but I loved the visuals. I haven't gotten around to watching "Avalon," but if it's on Netflix, I'll watch it soon enough. I don't necessarily agree with his approach to movies (visuals first, characters last), but I can't really argue with a man as successful as he is.
But as I got into the movie, it put me in a very navel-gazing state. What topics did I want to cover? Did I want to get as abstruse as some themes as "Ghost in the Shell?" Or did I prefer being more accessible? Or did I want to do a combination of both? I am still not 100% sure what I really want to do, but I guess that will come with time. Until then, I'm just going to write. Maybe that's all we can do, I suppose.
* I whole-heartedly admit that I enjoy the prequels. No, they're not great, and I wish that they'd just let Sebulba kill little Anikin in the podrace. Or that Jar Jar had met some type of horrible death at the hands of a droid soldier. Or that George Lucas could write dialogue. We all have our guilty pleasures.
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