News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Oct. 4, 2013: I could easily deal with the mess in Washington this week by taking it head on.
But what is left to say other than the Republicans are political “terrorists” and that Obama is too weak to do anything about it except huff and puff. In meaningless fashion!
Rather this week I am going to do something unusual – turn to a truly extraordinary film that has just opened. The title is “Gravity” and I have not seen it yet. But I do not need to do so because I have magnificent reviews to guide me.
A fantasy about survival in an alien world of Outer Space provides a better perspective as allegory than all the talking heads below. The plot of the 3D movie revolves around a satellite slamming into the Space Station and destroying most of it. The two actors at the center of the story, believe it or not, are Sandra Bullock and George Clooney – who are left to try and survive in the void against all the odds. Only one of them does.
The film has received some of the most extraordinary combined ratings in film history. In fact at the de facto film Website, metacritic.com, which tabulates all major movie reviews for every film and assigns ratings to each, collected and rated a very high 41 reviews of “Gravity” and the combined scores from 0-100 for each has an average rating of 97, making it right now one of the highest rated movie ever.
So it’s time to quote from some of these reviews to make my point about its value, in contrast to the MESS in Washington presided over by Obama and the Republicans. The Republicans, as destroyers, and Obama helpless to stop them.
The Los Angeles Times … “ From its very first image of the shuttle Explorer and some of its astronauts floating close to 400 miles high, with a mammoth planet Earth huge behind them, “Gravity” revels in its ability to create images that convey the beauty, enormity and terror that being so, so far out there implies.”
“Suddenly, very suddenly, everything falls apart. An unexpected amount of debris is headed toward the shuttle faster than a speeding bullet, and before you can say “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century,” Stone is floating untethered in outer space, all communication cut off, alone, alone, alone. And that is only the beginning.”
Rolling Stone …. “Sandra Bullock, in the performance of a lifetime, spends most of this wondrous wallop of a movie lost in space, alone where no one can hear her scream. And because director Alfonso Cuarón, a master of pure cinema, puts us right up there with her in glorious 3D, you breathe like she does, feel like she does and panic like she does until, after 90 minutes of gulping, gasping suspense, you start seeing with blinders off.”
“A great movie is hard to define. So let Gravity do it for you. With enthralling detail, it offers thrills, humor, dazzle, disaster, poetic vision and mythic reach. Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey set the bar for philosophical exploration of an unknowable universe by gazing outward. With deceptive simplicity, Gravity looks inward at something closer at hand but just as profound: the intricacies of the human heart.”
San Francisco Chronicle … “So “Gravity” induces a double effect. We watch and are continually struck by the movie’s beauty and visual grace, while at the same time we pretty much believe what we’re seeing. Indeed, it’s actually possible to watch “Gravity” without it ever occurring to you that George Clooney and Sandra Bullock aren’t really in space. The illusion is so complete that you may forget to be impressed.”
“In a long opening shot, you see a man-made contraption hanging in the blackness. There is a white dot next to it, while, in voice-over, you hear Clooney, as an astronaut, bantering with mission control. The combination is stark – a vast nothingness contrasted with everything Clooney’s voice has come to mean in terms of humor, sanity and equanimity.”
“That contrast is with us every second in “Gravity,” the human soul versus the void. Is one bigger than the other? Does one matter in the face of the other? … And then the dot moves closer, and we see that it’s Clooney, maneuvering through space with a jetpack.”
“In other films, outer space has seemed romantic, but “Gravity” makes you feel what an awesome and terrible thing it is. There is no sound in space, because there is nothing to carry sound.”
“The visual splendor of “Gravity” is more than a matter of execution; it’s also one of imagination. We see pearls moving toward us, shaking and forming into spheres – only to realize these are human tears in a weightless environment. In another moment, a partial, upside-down vision of Earth is reflected in the glass of Clooney’s helmet. Such images are more than graceful. They impart grace.”
I could go on and on through all 41 reviews, 25 of which give the movie a perfect “100” score, and all of the rest a high score between “94” and “80” the one remaining “75.”
So the point of this unusual and brief episode of Obama’s America, which barely mentions our failed President at all, is to look at what is going on in Washington this week and really all the time as from as far away as humans, specifically Americans, are to be found from this city of shame.
That above the Earth’s atmosphere, is a world of beauty and terror where what Congress does or does not do loses its meaning completely as these two astronauts struggle to survive in a world where our non-functioning government far below can do nothing to assist them.
We should see ourselves as living in a world and in a country likewise far removed from what is going on in Washington, DC, and in the beauty and terror of this world we must and we can find a way to survive and prosper by our own wits, and the power of our human ingenuity even in a hostile environment that we must master.
We in fact are traveling thought the void of Outer Space on a complex space craft Earth being constantly bombarded by all kinds of debris that challenges our ability to survive it, an go on to create a far better world, or if not perish.
So better to go see “Gravity” put on 3D glasses, and ignore the characters who occupy this horror film called Washington, DC, featuring Barack Obama and Congress which has universally BAD reviews.
If it were reviewed on metacritic.com this film would rate “0.”
About The Writer: Arthur Piccolo is a professional writer and commentator and often writes about Latin America for New Americas.
