AFI Top 100: Raiders, Rebels and Disney

Boy, these three took a long time to get through, and it's all Fantasia's fault. Netflix does not possess it, so we again had to go to Youtube to find a viewable copy, and thus the film gets broken up into tiny parts, and that takes a long time.

Raiders of the Lost Ark - I went into this film with grand memories of the greatest adventure film of all time. I was prepared to write that it could be the best film of all time, because it was just that, just a film, with no pretensions to anything else. And it was landmark, it changed the film biz, reinventing the adventure genre, yadda yadda. But then I watched it. And I realized why I haven't seen this in a long time. It's just kind of alright. Granted, there are amazing sequences, like the opening where he runs from the giant ball, or when he shoots the sword guy, or when the Nazi's get melted by the wrath of God.
Lots of good stuff. But it's strung together by stupidity. Over and over again I kept thinking why? Why is he doing that? How could they plan that? Why, if they've been trekking in the wilderness for 3 days, is a plane waiting in the nearby river behind the place?
But then midway through I tried to reassess the issue, of focusing on the negative, and try and shut my brain off like normal people are supposed to do during an action flick. But wait, this is 2010. When the last Indiana Jones film came out, people didn't shut their brains off, and everyone realized how stupid Crystal Skull was. So in 1981 did anyone not do that? Maybe not, and now we hold this film up on a pedestal.
Lost Ark is fun, it changed things, Indiana Jones is a cool dude that I still want to be like after all these years. But we need to realize that it was the landmark summer movie that made audiences turn their brains off for a few hours, nothing more. Hollywood for the most part has matured. A little bit.

Rebel Without a Cause - A generational allegory? Maybe. This was to the 50's what The Graduate was to the 60's; a film about youth dealing with the ideals of their parents. Except here, what exactly is James Dean fighting against? It's unclear, but that's the point, it's as if he's rebelling against the stagnation of his parents, their apathy toward the world. And he wants to rebel against that, but for what? What does he want, he doesn't even know. It's so perfectly clear as a metaphor for American life in the 1950's, and even after. A generation living off of their parents' rewards and dreams, the suburban house and car and perfect life. It was perfect for the adults living out their lives, but what of the kids? How were they supposed to earn anything, or grow up with few challenges? Should they go back to the urban centers, now vacant, to find their own culture and meaning, and earn their dreams?
And so, with this sort of malaise that surrounded the post-War American lifestyle, the youth of the nation turned outwardly to find themselves lost in a world that their parents had carved out of their yearning for space and freedom, a world they didn't need to work in, or have meaningful responsibility. And that's when youth crime developed into what we have today: school shootings and teen pregnancies(that's not a crime, of course) and everything associated with after school delinquency. Crimes not coming from necessity, but from an actual desire to be bad. To rebel. It's interesting, in this film, there is this almost hidden pyschopathic nature. (In fact, the book the film draws from is called "Rebel Without A Cause: The Hypnoanalysis of a Criminal Psychopath." Plato is taken in at the beginning of the film for killing puppies, really creepy.
We try to re-imagine the 1950's as a perfect American world, but it wasn't. The crime rate was higher, racial tension was starting to brew and the youth of America were starting to create their own vision of America. Rebel tapped into that vein in America that was just getting its start.

Fantasia - Beautiful but sleepy. Nearly every time we watched one of the 10 minute segments from Youtube, we felt the need to slumber. In fact, a couple times before taking naps we put this on to quicken our trip to dreamland. Double in fact, I came to the conclusion that instead of setting our future toddlers in front of the tube to watch Hanna Montana, they are watching Fantasia, because it'll put them right to sleep. There's just the right mixture of beautiful images and delightful sounds. Hopefully the kids don't wake up during the Bald Mountain sequence, though.
The best sequence by far, though, is of course the Sorcerer's Apprentice. It's the least visually appealing, but it's the most rewarding. (And less likely to put you to sleep than dancing flowers and seasons changing.) I find the story still relevant today, even though the actual poem it's based on is hundreds of years old. On the simplest level, it's about a youngster yearning to be great, and tripping up along the way. But deeper, it portrays the human spirit of curiosity, pride and ultimate short-sidedness. Man is always pushing the envelope, and jumping the gun, even when we fail to think of the consequences. We get in over our heads sometimes, whether it's religously speaking, or in regards to technology, and hopefully a Master is there to save us.
With all its beauty, though, is it true art? As far as Disney goes, it's the closest they've ever gotten. But still you notice, they've still managed to Disney-fie nearly everything the movie touches, some reviewers saying it's kitsch. Fantasia was made in the heyday of kitsch, so it's kind of hard to avoid. But even if it is, this movie is a classic for no other reason than this showed that animation could be art.