MUSIC
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Avatar 2 gets a new screenwriter
James Cameron has recruited a new screenwriter to work on the script for Avatar 2, with The Wrap reporting that Josh Friedman has signed on to the project.
Friedman was responsible for creating TV spin-off Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, so Cameron clearly feels the two are on something of a wavelength.
Cameron himself has been working on the scripts for the two Avatar sequels for the last four years, and so looks to have recruited Friedman to bring a fresh approach to the material.
At present, Friedman is only thought to be working on Avatar 2, although the two sequels are supposed to be filming back to back, so it would be a surprise if he didn't then move on to the third film.
According to Cameron, filming will begin early next year ahead of a 2015 release date for Avatar 2. That would seem a touch ambitious, given the technological work involved, but this latest appointment does at least indicate that things are moving forward…
Karan Johar to remake Tamil film 'Vettai'
The Tamil action drama Vettai was produced in 2012 and became an instant super hit. The film was directed by N. Linguaswamy. The cast of the Tamil film included Arya, R. Madhavan, Sameera Reddy and Amala Paul. The story revolved round two brothers. The elder is frightened of violence while the younger is a rogue. The father is a police officer. After he dies, his job is taken by his elder son. The film deals with what happens after this.
Karan Johar was favorably impressed with Vettai and had thought of remaking the film. In a statement he said, "I was very impressed with 'Vettai' when I watched it, but I didn't know UTV was involved in it. I have now partnered with them for the Hindi remake. We will soon announce the name of a young actor, who will fill the slot of a true-blue action star."
The film is supposed to be co produced by Karan Johar
though the details remain to be finalized. It was reported that Linguaswamy will be directing the Hindi version and Shahid Kapoor and Ali Zafar will be playing the lead roles. However, it is now reported that Abbas Mustan will be directing the film. There are also talks that Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham will be playing important roles in the film.
"In fact leave aside signing, it is just an intent of interest which has been shown", informs a source, "It is being wrongly portrayed that the team is all set to get going. There is nothing confirmed yet. Yes, Abbas-Mustan would be doing the film but for John and Abhishek to come together for the film, there are still formalities pending. In fact John as well as Abhishek have been approached separately for the film. While the makers want John to reprise the part played by Arya in the original, Abhishek is being considered for Madhavan's part. They have expressed interest as well, more so since they love working with each other. However, there hasn't been any signing per se. With both actors busy with other assignments, it is still too early to call this as a definite package in the offering" said a source.
Whatever be the final cast, Karan Johar said, "The film will have a lot of heroism, humour and great scope for music. It's going to be a commercial potboiler and one of the few films with a pan-India appeal.
Jessica Ennis-Hill to miss World Championships in Moscow
Olympic
champion Jessica Ennis-Hill has withdrawn from the Great Britain team for the
World Championships in Moscow with an Achilles injury.
The heptathlete has had the problem all season, although she did compete in the hurdles and long jump at the Anniversary Games last weekend.
The 27-year-old said: "To say I am gutted is an understatement. No athlete likes to miss the opportunity to compete at a major championships.
"They don't come round that often."
Watch the moment Jess Ennis secures a memorable heptathlon
gold
The Sheffield athlete took part in the Anniversary Games to test her fitness and
had admitted on Saturday she was not sure she would be
fit in time for the championships, which run from 10-18 August.
It was only her second competitive appearance since winning gold at London 2012 and she finished fourth in the 100m hurdles and eighth out of eight in the long jump.
"Up until now we have been focusing on managing the pain so I can train and get myself in shape to win in Moscow," she said. "The time has now come to stop chasing fitness and look to cure the problem."
Coach Toni Minichiello explained there had not been enough improvement in the athlete's condition to ensure she could complete both days of the heptathlon event in Moscow.
"There are nine global medals up for grabs over the next three years not including Moscow," he said. "So a long term view has been taken."
Minichiello added that while Ennis-Hill was disappointed to be missing the World Championships, she was also relieved to be able to move on.
"Up until this point it was maybe she can go, maybe not, and it is difficult to be on the edge like that," he added.
It was only her second competitive appearance since winning gold at London 2012 and she finished fourth in the 100m hurdles and eighth out of eight in the long jump.
"Up until now we have been focusing on managing the pain so I can train and get myself in shape to win in Moscow," she said. "The time has now come to stop chasing fitness and look to cure the problem."
Coach Toni Minichiello explained there had not been enough improvement in the athlete's condition to ensure she could complete both days of the heptathlon event in Moscow.
"There are nine global medals up for grabs over the next three years not including Moscow," he said. "So a long term view has been taken."
Minichiello added that while Ennis-Hill was disappointed to be missing the World Championships, she was also relieved to be able to move on.
"Up until this point it was maybe she can go, maybe not, and it is difficult to be on the edge like that," he added.
Toni Minichiello on Ennis-Hill injury
"Yes it is not the best decision because it is a negative, but a decision has
been made and I think as a sportsperson you get a lot of solace from that
because the line in the sand has been drawn and you can step forward and move on
from it."
Neil Black, UK Athletics performance director, said: "No-one wants to see her competing in pain. We look forward to seeing her wear the Great Britain and Northern Ireland vest again in 2014."
Ennis-Hill's withdrawal from the Great Britain squad means the remaining track and field athletes who won gold at London 2012 are long-distance runner Mo Farah and long jumper Greg Rutherford, who was himself selected despite fitness concerns.
UK Athletics said there would be no replacement for Ennis in the squad as none of the potential candidates had reached the required 'A' qualifying standard.
That leaves Katarina Johnson-Thompson, 20, as Britain's sole entrant.
Neil Black, UK Athletics performance director, said: "No-one wants to see her competing in pain. We look forward to seeing her wear the Great Britain and Northern Ireland vest again in 2014."
Ennis-Hill's withdrawal from the Great Britain squad means the remaining track and field athletes who won gold at London 2012 are long-distance runner Mo Farah and long jumper Greg Rutherford, who was himself selected despite fitness concerns.
UK Athletics said there would be no replacement for Ennis in the squad as none of the potential candidates had reached the required 'A' qualifying standard.
That leaves Katarina Johnson-Thompson, 20, as Britain's sole entrant.
'Space stations' to transform Riyadh in mega metro project
August 1, 2013
The Saudi government is investing $22 billion in the project.
The Saudi government is investing $22 billion in the project.
An overhead projection of the King Abdullah Financial District station.
Can car-loving Saudis be convinced to step out of their air-conditioned comfort and take public transport?
The Saudi Arabian government believes they can and is backing its belief by investing $22 billion into a public transport mega-project in the capital Riyadh.
Set to begin construction early next year, a new metro network will encompass over 176 km (110 miles) of train lines and 85 stations, linking the city center to universities, the airport, a newly built financial district and commercial areas.
The first trains as slated to run in 2019. During construction, it will be the world's biggest public transport project, employing tens of thousands of people, developers say.
According to the High Commission for the Development of Arriyadh, all carriages will be air-conditioned and divided into first, family and single class.
Buses and trains take a distant second to personal cars in Riyadh and according to FCC Construction only 2% of commuters in the Saudi Arabian capital take public transport.
It's no surprise because gasoline is highly subsidized -- a gallon at the petrol pumps costs around $0.50. According to Bloomberg, the world's largest oil producer ranks only second to Venezuela for the world's cheapest gasoline. According to reports, the Saudi government is weighing up increasingly the cost of fuel to give public transport a boost.
Chronically underdeveloped until now, the expansion of public transport in the Saudi capital will also cope with the projected boom in the local population. It has more than doubled since 1990 to 5.3 million and is set to top 8 million by 2030.
"Riyadh today is one of the world's fastest growing cities and our citizens deserve a world-class public transport system to enhance their quality of life... it will also help to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality," said Ibrahim Bin Muhammad Al Sultan President of Arriyadh Development Authority and Member of the High Commission for the Development of Arriyadh.
Of the six lines to be built, three will be constructed by Spain's FCC Construction company, working in partnership in a consortium including Samsung and Alstom. U.S. Firm Bechtel and Italian company Ansaldo STS lead the other two construction consortia.
Read more: Google's view from world's tallest building
As well as an extensive network, it is hoped that the stunning look of some the new stations will help to tempt locals away from their cars.
Zaha Hadid Architects will build the King Abdullah Financial District station, one of the flagship interchange stops along Line 1. With six platforms spread over four floors, and linking three of the new lines, the architects hope it will provide a multi-function public space.
According to the architects, the white facade of the station will reduce heat from the punishing desert sun while the undulating lines of the building are meant to resemble the patterns generated by desert winds on sand dunes.
All train carriages will be air-conditioned and divided into first, family and single class.
Currently only 2% of commuters in Riyadh take public transportation. Unsurprising in a country where a gallon of gasoline costs only $0.50.
Artist's impression of a platform at the King Abdullah Financial District station.
Uruguay MPs back marijuana legalisation bill
1 August 2013
Those supporting the bill want it passed quickly
If it goes on to be approved by the Senate, Uruguay will become the first country to regulate the production, distribution and sale of marijuana.
The law is backed by the government of President Jose Mujica, who says it will remove profits from drug dealers and divert users from harder drugs.
Under the bill, only the government would be allowed to sell marijuana.
The state would assume "the control and regulation of the importation, exportation, plantation, cultivation, the harvest, the production, the acquisition, the storage, the commercialisation and the distribution of cannabis and its by-products".
Buyers would have to be registered on a database and be over the age of 18. They would be able to buy up to 40g (1.4oz) per month in specially licensed pharmacies or grow up to six plants at home.
Political hot potato
The bill was unveiled last year by Defence Minister Eleuterio Fernandez Huidobro who argued that "the prohibition of certain drugs is creating more problems for society than the drugs themselves".
But Mr Cardoso of the opposition Colorado Party said that "in no country in the world has the consumption of drugs been reduced through legalisation".
Another opposition politician, Richard Sander, said that even if the law made it through both chambers, he would launch a petition to have it overturned.
The vote comes amid fierce debate about drug legalisation in Latin America.
A group of former presidents and influential social figures, including the Brazil's Henrique Cardoso, the Mexico's Ernesto Zedillo and Colombian ex-leader Cesar Gaviria, have called for marijuana to be legalised and regulated.
But only last week Pope Francis criticised drug legalisation plans during a visit to Brazil.
Speaking at the inauguration of a clinic for drug addicts in Rio de Janeiro he said it was "necessary to tackle the problems which are at the root of drug abuse, promoting more justice, educating the youth with the values that live in society, standing by those who face hardship and giving them hope for the future".
Those supporting the bill want it passed quickly
Members of Uruguay's House of
Representatives have passed a bill to legalise marijuana.
If it goes on to be approved by the Senate, Uruguay will become the first country to regulate the production, distribution and sale of marijuana.
The law is backed by the government of President Jose Mujica, who says it will remove profits from drug dealers and divert users from harder drugs.
Under the bill, only the government would be allowed to sell marijuana.
The state would assume "the control and regulation of the importation, exportation, plantation, cultivation, the harvest, the production, the acquisition, the storage, the commercialisation and the distribution of cannabis and its by-products".
Buyers would have to be registered on a database and be over the age of 18. They would be able to buy up to 40g (1.4oz) per month in specially licensed pharmacies or grow up to six plants at home.
Political hot potato
The bill was unveiled last year by Defence Minister Eleuterio Fernandez Huidobro who argued that "the prohibition of certain drugs is creating more problems for society than the drugs themselves".
But Mr Cardoso of the opposition Colorado Party said that "in no country in the world has the consumption of drugs been reduced through legalisation".
Another opposition politician, Richard Sander, said that even if the law made it through both chambers, he would launch a petition to have it overturned.
The vote comes amid fierce debate about drug legalisation in Latin America.
A group of former presidents and influential social figures, including the Brazil's Henrique Cardoso, the Mexico's Ernesto Zedillo and Colombian ex-leader Cesar Gaviria, have called for marijuana to be legalised and regulated.
But only last week Pope Francis criticised drug legalisation plans during a visit to Brazil.
Speaking at the inauguration of a clinic for drug addicts in Rio de Janeiro he said it was "necessary to tackle the problems which are at the root of drug abuse, promoting more justice, educating the youth with the values that live in society, standing by those who face hardship and giving them hope for the future".
Zimbabwe election: Votes counted after 'orderly' polls
1 August 2013
Some polling stations remained open into the evening to allow those already queuing at closing time to cast votes.
Mr Mugabe, 89, has said he will step down after 33 years in power if he and his party lose. Zanu-PF denied MDC claims it doctored the electoral roll.
African Union (AU) observers have described the voting as "orderly and peaceful".
However, as polling stations closed, police warned they would take action against anyone trying to leak early results.
Zanu-PF and the MDC have shared an uneasy coalition government since 2009 under a deal brokered to end the deadly violence that erupted after a disputed presidential poll the previous year.
Western observers barred
Polls opened at 07:00 local time (05:00 GMT) and had been due to close at 19:00.
Results are due within five days.
To be declared a winner, a presidential candidate must win more than 50% of the vote. If no candidate reaches this mark, a run-off will be held on 11 September.
The elections were the first to be held under the new constitution approved in a referendum in March this year.
The government barred Western observers from monitoring Wednesday's elections, but the AU and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), as well as local organisations, have been accredited.
Zimbabwe Election Support Network, the main domestic monitoring agency, said the vote appeared to have taken place without too many problems.
"There are some concerns around long queues, but generally it's smooth," said its spokesman Thabani Nyoni.
Former Nigerian President Olesegun Obasanjo, who heads the AU monitors, said the elections seemed credible.
"It's been quiet, it's been orderly. The first place I called in this morning, they opened prompt at seven o'clock and there haven't been any serious incidents that... would not reflect the will of the people." he told Reuters.
At a news conference as polls closed, police spokeswoman Charity Charamba warned that "all people who may wish to announce the results of elections before the ZEC (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) does... risk being arrested".
The crackdown comes after monitoring groups, newspapers and social media users reportedly planned to publish provisional tallies.
There have been numerous complaints that voters were unable to find their names on the electoral roll.
According to villagers, MDC polling agents and local election observers, some irregularities were recorded in parts of rural Masvingo district.
Zimbabweans have been voting in fiercely contested presidential and parliamentary elections. These voters queued up in the capital, Harare, before polls opened. It is winter in Zimbabwe, so the mornings are chilly.
And on Tuesday, the MDC accused Zanu-PF of doctoring the roll of registered voters, which was released by the ZEC only on the eve of the polls after weeks of delay.
A BBC correspondent has seen the document and says it features the names of thousands of dead people.
MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti said there were as many as two million such names, while some genuine voters were not finding their names on the rolls.
"The greatest worry which we have is the number of persons that are being turned away," he added.
A Zanu-PF spokesman denied the allegations and pointed out that appointees from both parties were on Zec.
He also accused Mr Biti, who is finance minister, of not funding the commission properly. Zec has not commented.
In addition to Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai, there are three other candidates standing for the presidency - Welshman Ncube, leader of the breakaway MDC-Mutambara; Dumiso Dabengwa of the Zimbabwe African People's Union (Zapu), and Kisinoti Munodei Mukwazhe, who represents the small Zimbabwe Development Party (ZDP).
Mark Lowen reports on the day's voting, which featured long
queues of determined voters
Vote counting has begun in Zimbabwe's
presidential and parliamentary elections.
Turnout was high in a fierce contest between President Robert Mugabe's
Zanu-PF and PM Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC.Some polling stations remained open into the evening to allow those already queuing at closing time to cast votes.
Mr Mugabe, 89, has said he will step down after 33 years in power if he and his party lose. Zanu-PF denied MDC claims it doctored the electoral roll.
African Union (AU) observers have described the voting as "orderly and peaceful".
However, as polling stations closed, police warned they would take action against anyone trying to leak early results.
Zanu-PF and the MDC have shared an uneasy coalition government since 2009 under a deal brokered to end the deadly violence that erupted after a disputed presidential poll the previous year.
Western observers barred
Polls opened at 07:00 local time (05:00 GMT) and had been due to close at 19:00.
However, because of the high turnout election officials
said people who were still waiting in queues to vote by 19:00 had until midnight
to cast their ballots.
Results are due within five days.
To be declared a winner, a presidential candidate must win more than 50% of the vote. If no candidate reaches this mark, a run-off will be held on 11 September.
The elections were the first to be held under the new constitution approved in a referendum in March this year.
The government barred Western observers from monitoring Wednesday's elections, but the AU and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), as well as local organisations, have been accredited.
Zimbabwe Election Support Network, the main domestic monitoring agency, said the vote appeared to have taken place without too many problems.
"There are some concerns around long queues, but generally it's smooth," said its spokesman Thabani Nyoni.
Former Nigerian President Olesegun Obasanjo, who heads the AU monitors, said the elections seemed credible.
"It's been quiet, it's been orderly. The first place I called in this morning, they opened prompt at seven o'clock and there haven't been any serious incidents that... would not reflect the will of the people." he told Reuters.
At a news conference as polls closed, police spokeswoman Charity Charamba warned that "all people who may wish to announce the results of elections before the ZEC (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) does... risk being arrested".
The crackdown comes after monitoring groups, newspapers and social media users reportedly planned to publish provisional tallies.
There have been numerous complaints that voters were unable to find their names on the electoral roll.
According to villagers, MDC polling agents and local election observers, some irregularities were recorded in parts of rural Masvingo district.
Zimbabweans have been voting in fiercely contested presidential and parliamentary elections. These voters queued up in the capital, Harare, before polls opened. It is winter in Zimbabwe, so the mornings are chilly.
And on Tuesday, the MDC accused Zanu-PF of doctoring the roll of registered voters, which was released by the ZEC only on the eve of the polls after weeks of delay.
The MDC claimed the roll dated back to 1985 and was full
of anomalies.
A BBC correspondent has seen the document and says it features the names of thousands of dead people.
MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti said there were as many as two million such names, while some genuine voters were not finding their names on the rolls.
"The greatest worry which we have is the number of persons that are being turned away," he added.
A Zanu-PF spokesman denied the allegations and pointed out that appointees from both parties were on Zec.
He also accused Mr Biti, who is finance minister, of not funding the commission properly. Zec has not commented.
In addition to Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai, there are three other candidates standing for the presidency - Welshman Ncube, leader of the breakaway MDC-Mutambara; Dumiso Dabengwa of the Zimbabwe African People's Union (Zapu), and Kisinoti Munodei Mukwazhe, who represents the small Zimbabwe Development Party (ZDP).
Mighty Quest for Epic Loot beta open to public until August 6
Ubisoft to also unlock chicken castle defense item update if players can kill 10 million chickens during the "open house" period.
Ubisoft announced that it will be hosting an "open house" event for its free-to-play PC title The
From July 30 at 10am EST to August 6, players can check out the action-RPG and dungeon-builder hybrid while it is still in closed beta. Gamers can do so by signing up via
Ubisoft's Uplay service.
Ubisoft will also hold an in-game "Unleash the Chickens" contest. If online players around the world can kill off 10 million chickens during the "open house" period, they can unlock the chicken castle defense item in the next closed beta update. Players can find the chicken enemy type in abundance at the Castle Chicken Shack and Castle Chicken HQ which are at the game's Competition Zone.
Ubisoft will also hold an in-game "Unleash the Chickens" contest. If online players around the world can kill off 10 million chickens during the "open house" period, they can unlock the chicken castle defense item in the next closed beta update. Players can find the chicken enemy type in abundance at the Castle Chicken Shack and Castle Chicken HQ which are at the game's Competition Zone.
Hollywood’s in need of a superhero - to recover its money from China
Wednesday 31 July 2013
China is likely to become the world’s biggest film market within the next five years, making it a potential source of vast profits for Hollywood studios – but only if the Chinese decide to pay them. And, according to reports this week in the US trade papers Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, China stopped paying Hollywood for its movies months ago.
China is likely to become the world’s biggest film market within the next five years, making it a potential source of vast profits for Hollywood studios – but only if the Chinese decide to pay them. And, according to reports this week in the US trade papers Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, China stopped paying Hollywood for its movies months ago.
Remarkably, it seems that the studios have continued to send their big releases to Chinese cinemas, despite not having received a penny of their box-office takings since the end of last year. In several cases, the withheld payments are thought to total tens of millions of dollars, and all because of a dispute over a new tax.
Last year, the US Vice-President Joe Biden and China’s then Vice-President Xi Jinping, who has since become the country’s President, negotiated a landmark World Trade Organisation deal, relaxing strict restrictions on foreign film releases in China.
Under the agreement, Beijing agreed to allow more overseas movies to be screened in Chinese cinemas than in previous years, and raised to 25 per cent the share of box-office takings to be returned to US studios.
Towards the end of 2012, however, the state-run China Film Group told studios that it intended to levy a 2 per cent value-added tax on each film release. Studios are refusing to pay the VAT, claiming it breaches the WTO deal. The ongoing dispute means Western studios have seen none of their agreed 25 per cent of Chinese box-office earnings for some of this year’s biggest releases.
Warner Brothers is probably owed more than $31m (£20m) for blockbusters including Man Of Steel and The Hobbit, while Sony has supposedly seen nothing for its James Bond movie Skyfall. Disney could be more than $30m out of pocket for Iron Man 3 alone, which made more than $121m in China, and 20th Century Fox has said it is still waiting for an estimated $23m return on its Chinese success with Life Of Pi.
Historically, dealing with China has been difficult for Hollywood film-makers, who must contend with the whims of Chinese censors. Many films have been banned with little or no explanation, others have been withdrawn from screens at a moment’s notice. Yet Chinese audiences are fast becoming so crucial that US studios are more anxious than ever to please them, and the censors who control what they see. Several Hollywood blockbusters, including Iron Man 3, specifically altered their content to make them more attractive to the Chinese market.
Chris Dodd, a former US Senator who now chairs the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), is working to resolve the dispute, which has reportedly reached the US Trade Representative. A source at the USTR told Variety that the agency was working with the MPAA and “counterparts within the Chinese government to resolve the issue”.
Last year, the US Vice-President Joe Biden and China’s then Vice-President Xi Jinping, who has since become the country’s President, negotiated a landmark World Trade Organisation deal, relaxing strict restrictions on foreign film releases in China.
Under the agreement, Beijing agreed to allow more overseas movies to be screened in Chinese cinemas than in previous years, and raised to 25 per cent the share of box-office takings to be returned to US studios.
Towards the end of 2012, however, the state-run China Film Group told studios that it intended to levy a 2 per cent value-added tax on each film release. Studios are refusing to pay the VAT, claiming it breaches the WTO deal. The ongoing dispute means Western studios have seen none of their agreed 25 per cent of Chinese box-office earnings for some of this year’s biggest releases.
Warner Brothers is probably owed more than $31m (£20m) for blockbusters including Man Of Steel and The Hobbit, while Sony has supposedly seen nothing for its James Bond movie Skyfall. Disney could be more than $30m out of pocket for Iron Man 3 alone, which made more than $121m in China, and 20th Century Fox has said it is still waiting for an estimated $23m return on its Chinese success with Life Of Pi.
Historically, dealing with China has been difficult for Hollywood film-makers, who must contend with the whims of Chinese censors. Many films have been banned with little or no explanation, others have been withdrawn from screens at a moment’s notice. Yet Chinese audiences are fast becoming so crucial that US studios are more anxious than ever to please them, and the censors who control what they see. Several Hollywood blockbusters, including Iron Man 3, specifically altered their content to make them more attractive to the Chinese market.
Chris Dodd, a former US Senator who now chairs the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), is working to resolve the dispute, which has reportedly reached the US Trade Representative. A source at the USTR told Variety that the agency was working with the MPAA and “counterparts within the Chinese government to resolve the issue”.
The 10 most evocative objects in film
1) The Ruby Slippers from The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming,
1939)
In L Frank Baum’s book the slippers are silver. In Victor Fleming’s
film, to capitalise
fully on the potential of Technicolor, they are ruby red. And nothing has ever
been quite so resplendently red as these ruby slippers. They are given to
Dorothy (Judy Garland) when she arrives in Oz and accidentally kills the Wicked
Witch of the East; they protect her from the Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret
Hamilton), who covets them deeply. At the end of the film, in an event so
familiar to us it is difficult to believe it is just a scene from a movie and
not an episode from an ancient legend, the shoes allow Dorothy to return to
Kansas when she clicks their heels together three times and repeats the mantra
“There’s no place like home.”
The ruby slippers embody the film’s fundamental message. Dorothy has them
with her throughout her time in Oz but it is only when she is reminded of what
she has really always known – that home is the best possible place to be – that
she is able to realise their power. And yet, like everything in Oz, the slippers
are so beautiful and beguiling they actually argue against the moral of the
movie. It is not easy to accept that any girl would be willing to leave a
magical world where she gets to wear exquisite shoes, and is treated like a
princess, in order to return to a life of poverty on a dusty farm where anyone
she tells about her adventures will suspect she is insane.
The slippers are probably film’s most fetishised objects. Several pairs of
them were used in The Wizard of Oz, although no one is certain how many, and
whenever one of them is exhibited the shoes are regarded by fans like a
priceless work of classical art. They have come
to symbolise not just a great Hollywood film but all great Hollywood films: they
are the primary emblem of the golden age of American movies and encapsulate the
joyous wonder cinema can inspire.
(Charlie Marshall)
2) The Rosebud Sled from Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
Practically every notable bit of movie memorabilia has been bought for some obscene sum. But the sale of the Rosebud sled was special: the buyer who laid out a fortune for it wasn’t bidding on behalf of an ostentatious movie museum-cum-café or an anonymous Charles Foster Kane-esque collector. He was Steven Spielberg.
Just as Citizen Kane is often the default answer to the unanswerable question of what is the greatest film ever made, so its Rosebud sled is the easiest answer to the equally unresolvable question of what is film’s most evocative object. Within the film, Rosebud is the undiscovered answer to the riddle that powers the entire plot, while to audiences it is symbolic of the loss of maternal love, childhood and a life unspoilt by greed or ambition. Rosebud’s final, devastating appearance – when it is tossed into an incinerator by a pair of uncomprehending workmen – is, quite simply, the key scene in the world’s most celebrated film.
Although it will be forever associated with Orson Welles, the sled was actually the invention of his co-writer, Herman J Mankiewicz. As a boy, Mankiewicz had his beloved bicycle stolen when he left it outside a library. As a harsh punishment for what they evidently saw as his carelessness, his parents refused to buy him a replacement and Mankiewicz mourned the loss his entire life. In his childhood, his lost bicycle became emblematic of Mankiewicz’s lost innocence. In his adulthood, it mutated into a lost sled and became emblematic of a masterpiece. And by becoming emblematic of Citizen Kane, Rosebud became emblematic of Welles’s achievement as its director – an achievement envied and imitated by almost every artistic-minded moviemaker who has come since. But just as Charles Foster Kane found it impossible to recapture his childhood, so every would-be Welles has found it impossible to replicate Kane’s quality and impact – and so it is unsurprising that film-makers would fixate on the object that best represents it. The Rosebud sled is the secret of Citizen Kane. Perhaps that is why Spielberg was so keen to possess it.
(Jayde Perkin)
3) Marilyn Monroe's White Dress from The Seven Year Itch (Billy Wilder, 1955)
Marilyn Monroe is the definitive American sex symbol, and the definitive image of her comes from The Seven Year Itch. Tom Ewell’s Richard Sherman is a middle-aged Manhattan executive who has been married for seven years – which accounts for the seven years in the film’s title. While his wife and neighbours take a holiday to escape the summer heat, Monroe’s unnamed knockout moves into the apartment upstairs – which accounts for the itch.
When the two go to the cinema, Monroe wears a splendid ivory cocktail dress that seems to lift her out of the film, making her more than a movie star and transforming her into some new archetype of femininity. The scene that follows ensured that was what she became. “Ooh! Do you feel the breeze from the subway?” she coos as she positions herself over some grates in the street. A subway train rattles underneath and a rush of air makes her dress billow around her legs in an image that will live as long as any from film.
The dress, by costume designer William Travilla, is the most famous in the movies. It could be the most famous in the world. Whenever a publication or organisation announces the most iconic images of the 20th century, the image of Monroe wearing it is somewhere on the list. By 1955, the tensions that would explode into the sexual freedoms of the Sixties were rumbling under America’s staid exterior like a subway train and the struggle to suppress them is symbolised by Monroe’s dress.
White dresses traditionally connote virginity: Monroe plays upon that to show the appearance of chasteness that exists on the surface of her character’s life – and that still existed on the surface of Fifties society – but that is stretched too tightly over the vibrant sexuality beneath to properly contain it.
“Isn’t she a living doll?” asks a janitor who sees her in Sherman’s apartment. In this film, as so often in the American imagination, it is as a living doll that Monroe is treated. And Travilla’s white dress is the most evocative outfit in which Hollywood ever dressed her.
(Jayde Perkin)
4) Mrs Robinson's Stockings from The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967)
It is one of the most iconic shots in American movies: Dustin Hoffman’s Benjamin Braddock, young and nervous, stands in front of a white bedroom door, gazing with conflicted desire at the outstretched leg of Anne Bancroft’s Mrs Robinson as she slowly rolls off a stocking. It is film’s definitive image of a younger man being seduced by an older woman. But the popular memory of it is different from the way it appears in the film.
The shot takes place while Ben and Mrs Robinson are arguing, and she is not taking her stockings off as prelude to sex but putting them back on afterwards. The pair have already slept together many times and she has just angered him by suggesting he is not good enough to associate with her daughter. When that iconic shot occurs, Mrs Robinson is far from filled with a seductress’s confidence that she is irresistible: in fact, she is talking about how she suddenly disgusts Ben.
The shot became so famous primarily because of its appearance on posters for The Graduate, explaining why it is better known as a still photograph than as a moving image. Furthermore, those posters feature the shapely leg not of Bancroft but of model Linda Gray (later famous as Sue Ellen in the soap opera Dallas).
Nevertheless, the idea of Mrs Robinson’s stockings as a symbol of seduction persists, supported by another scene, earlier in the film, in which the camera briefly shoots Ben from between Bancroft’s crossed, stocking-covered legs just before he delivers the endlessly quoted line, “Mrs Robinson! You’re trying to seduce me.”
Mrs Robinson’s stockings symbolise seduction, forbidden love and the enduring attraction of the older woman but they also symbolise sex itself.
Although The Graduate dealt more explicitly with sex than most films before it had done, it still contains no sex scenes. The stockings, then, come to represent the sex acts that motivate so many film characters, and create so many film plots, but that are never shown by film-makers.
(Charlie Marshall)
5) The .44 Magnum from Dirty Harry (Don Siegel, 1971)
Among all the guns in film, none is more infamous than the .44 Magnum carried by Clint Eastwood’s trigger-happy police lieutenant “Dirty” Harry Callahan. When bank robbers foolishly interrupt Harry’s lunchtime hot dog, he whips out the enormous phallic form concealed in his clothing and blasts the criminals, their getaway car and standard police procedure all to Hell.
In Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976), Robert De Niro’s character is told that a .44 Magnum can kill an elephant. Callahan makes it seem like it could sink a battleship.
But, impressive as the gun’s firepower is, in this scene it is words that speak louder than actions. As he approaches a supine perp about to reach for his own sidearm, Callahan gives the speech that ensures the Magnum’s immortality: “I know what you’re thinking: 'Did he fire six shots or only five?’ Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?’ … Well, do ya, punk?”
Part of the gun’s resonance is in its Old West associations. Just as Harry is the lone gunslinger in an environment filled with timid modern law officers, so his handgun recalls those carried by cowboys. Most of the gun’s resonance, however, is in its aforementioned phallic imagery. It is often laziness that makes us label a significant object as phallic but here it would be lazy not to.
Callahan’s character, his successes and his setbacks all depend upon his ultra-masculine methods. He is the most macho man in every encounter in each Dirty Harry film and it is his overlong weapon that announces it. Its absurd size and threatening weight intimidate everyone in the films and became so famous outside them that for the sequel, Magnum Force (Ted Post, 1973), the gun’s name replaced Harry’s in the title.
The .44 Magnum is as much the star of the Dirty Harry franchise as Eastwood.
(David McMillan)
6) The Horses' Head from The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
Few objects in Hollywood history can have caused as much controversy as the horse’s head in The Godfather. Francis Ford Coppola often recalls that he received far more complaints about it than about any of the brutal professional murders in his film.
When Al Martino’s middle-aged crooner, Johnny Fontane, is refused a part in the film that promises to revive his career, he appeals to his godfather, Marlon Brando’s Don Corleone. Corleone dispatches his consigliere, Robert Duvall’s Tom Hagen, to talk to movie mogul Jack Woltz, who has personal reasons for denying Fontane the role.
Woltz (John Marley) invites Hagen to dinner, shows him around his impressive mansion and takes him to meet Khartoum, the beautiful thoroughbred racehorse he has recently bought for $600,000 and for which he has erected a state-of-the-art stable. Woltz is adamant about his decision, announcing that “Johnny Fontane will never get that movie!” but adding that he is willing to grant Corleone another request, if he has one. Hagen politely leaves, having explained that “the Don never asks a second favour when he has been refused a first”. The next morning, when Woltz wakes up, his bed is sodden with blood. Throwing back the covers, he sees Khartoum’s severed head. Fontane gets the movie.
What makes the scene so shocking is that the horse’s head looks so real. And that is because it is. It was bought from a dog-food factory and painted to match the head of the horse that played the living Khartoum. The slaughter of Khartoum sends a simple, dreadful message from Don Corleone to one who has dared defy him: “My power is absolute. My evil is unlimited. My will is law.”
What fascinates us about the Mafia in movies is not that they live outside our laws – all kinds of criminals and anarchists do that – but that they live so rigidly within laws of their own. When one of those laws is broken, the consequences are both awful and inevitable. And, in the entire history of gangster movies, nothing expresses this more arrestingly than Khartoum’s bloody head.
(Charlie Marshall)
7) Kermit the Frog's Bicycle from The Muppet Movie (James Fawley, 1979)
In the age of computer-generated images, it is impossible to understand how much of a commotion was once caused by Kermit the Frog’s bicycle. Its appearance was the main event of The Muppet Movie, the 1979 film debut of Jim Henson’s peerless puppets. America’s foremost movie critic, Roger Ebert, began his review: “Jolson sang, Barrymore spoke, Garbo laughed, and now Kermit the Frog rides a bicycle.” He wasn’t being funny. The bicycle was big business. People bought tickets just to see it. And, having seen it, they argued about how it could exist.
When Kermit hopped from the small screen to the big, he needed to do something he could not do on television to entice his fans to follow him into cinemas. Something like ride a bicycle. The bicycle’s first appearance is not built up within the film: Kermit simply needs to cycle somewhere, and so he does. The bicycle is not in itself extraordinary and that is the point of it: it is a bicycle you or I might ride that, through the magic of the movies, is being ridden by a Muppet.
Like all the most impressive magic tricks, this illusion occurs in plain sight. Refusing the easy option of directing our attention away from the details of Kermit’s amazing ability to cycle, the camera zooms in on his little amphibian feet as they push the peddles around. Even so, we cannot quite work out how it is done. The close-up might as well be subtitled, “Isn’t this incredible?” The marvellous mechanics needed to create the sequence could not be sustained throughout the film, so Kermit’s bike is soon rendered unrideable when it is squashed by a steamroller. It is a cartoonish end for an object that impresses us entirely because it is so real.
I have never been sure it is true that once you learn to ride a bike you never forget – but I am certain that once you have seen Kermit the Frog ride his you will always remember it.
(Charlie Marshall)
8) Jake Lamotta's Title Belt from Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980)
There is no better biopic than Raging Bull. It retells the life of “The Bronx Bull” Jake LaMotta, who was popular among boxing fans for his ferocity and for fighting through the first 10 years of his professional career without being knocked down. Robert De Niro plays LaMotta in a performance for which he famously won an Oscar and for which he even more famously worked out until he had the body of an elite athlete, to enable him to play LaMotta in his prime, and then ate himself into obesity to enable him to play the ageing and overweight LaMotta who strives to establish himself as a nightclub entertainer.
De Niro shows us a man whose first language is violence. LaMotta is as brutal and rage-fuelled outside the ring as he is in it, and his inability to curb the aggression that makes him a star in his sport poisons every other aspect of his life and forces his loved ones away.
In one of the passages of Raging Bull when LaMotta’s life is at its worst, he urgently needs money. Seizing the title belt he earned as middleweight champion of the world, he smashes it with a hammer to break off its jewels. Taking these to a pawnshop, he is told what we could have told him: the jewels themselves are worthless, but the belt they came from was a unique item that would surely have sold for a high price.
Many big biopics focus on a subject with a talent for verbal expression, a politician given to making quotable speeches, for example, or a writer whose aphorisms may be easily appropriated for the script. LaMotta has no such faculty, and nor does anyone around him. And so it is his actions that define him – and no action defines him better than the way he treats his title belt, the physical symbol of his best accomplishments. Like almost everything of importance in LaMotta’s life, he battles to get it, and then wilfully destroys it thinking he is doing the right thing.
(David McMillan)
9) The Wafer-Thin Mint from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (Terry Jones, 1983)
For many, it is one of the most disgusting scenes in cinema. For others, it is one of the funniest. When the absurdly obese Mr Creosote (Terry Jones) waddles into a luxurious French restaurant, he is already about to vomit, and soon does so – with a ferocity rivalled only by the possessed little girl in The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973) – into a bucket hastily fetched by a waiter (Eric Idle). Even so, Mr Creosote orders everything on the menu “all mixed together” and, after eating it, seems about to burst.
It is now that John Cleese’s maître d’ – who is as memorable and merciless a torturer as Dr Christian Szell, the deranged dentist played by Laurence Olivier in Marathon Man (John Schlesinger, 1976) – insists that the meal be completed with one more morsel: a single wafer-thin mint. Mr Creosote protests that he is full but the maître d’ insists. “It is only a tiny little one,” he says in his exaggerated French accent. “It is only wafer-thin.” Placing it in Mr Creosote’s mouth, he dives for cover. Mr Creosote expands and expands and at last explodes, showering the restaurant, and everyone eating in it, with a viscous orange-brown mixture of innards and undigested food that sets off chain reaction of vomiting and creates an image that stains the eyes of every cinemagoer who sees it.
Just as the violence and gore in horror movies becomes more explicit as the frontiers of what is acceptable onscreen and what is possible with special effects are driven back over time, so the grossness in gross-out comedies becomes more and more nauseating. And yet this scene from a comedy that ought already to seem tame is so hilariously vile that Mr Creosote’s mint remains film’s icon of overindulgence, in both food and bad taste. Although it appears for only seconds the mint that burst the glutton’s gut is one of cinema’s most memorable objects, no matter how much those of us with sensitive stomachs try to forget it.
(Jayde Perkin)
1
10) Sheriff Woody from Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995)
We often forget that Sheriff Woody is an object. He has the face and voice of Tom Hanks, and he is unforgettably animated in both senses of the word. But he is only a toy belonging to little Andy, in whose games he is always the hero. Like all the toys in Toy Story, Woody comes to life when humans are not looking but, when they are, he is utterly inanimate, his only voice the recording activated by a tug on his pull-string.
Unlike Buzz Lightyear, the space-age action figure who threatens to usurp him in Andy’s affections, Woody never believes he is anything but an object. Buzz thinks he is a space ranger who travels the galaxy, and despairs when he realises he is just a plastic plaything, but Woody embraces his status as a toy: it gives him his identity and purpose.
Subsequent films go even further in underlining that Woody is an object. In Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter, 1999), he is stolen by a collector who wants to sell him to a museum and in Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich, 2010), when Andy becomes a man and puts away childish things, Woody faces being discarded or destroyed.
Woody’s design is brilliant; every detail is balanced between the original and the familiar. His outfit has all the standard features of a cowboy’s clothing – a hat, a holster, spurs and brown boots – but the cowskin-pattern waistcoat and checked red and yellow shirt, coupled with those Hanks-esque features, make him unmistakable.
It is unsurprising that he soon replaced another object, the living lamp Luxo Jr, as the character most associated with Pixar. With him, and with Buzz Lightyear, Pixar created fictional toys that became real-life ones. But Sheriff Woody is more than an iconic company mascot and a merchandising gold mine: he has become cinema’s best emblem not only of our favourite childhood toys but also of every object we have ever anthropomorphised in our minds.
(Jayde Perkin)
2) The Rosebud Sled from Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
Practically every notable bit of movie memorabilia has been bought for some obscene sum. But the sale of the Rosebud sled was special: the buyer who laid out a fortune for it wasn’t bidding on behalf of an ostentatious movie museum-cum-café or an anonymous Charles Foster Kane-esque collector. He was Steven Spielberg.
Just as Citizen Kane is often the default answer to the unanswerable question of what is the greatest film ever made, so its Rosebud sled is the easiest answer to the equally unresolvable question of what is film’s most evocative object. Within the film, Rosebud is the undiscovered answer to the riddle that powers the entire plot, while to audiences it is symbolic of the loss of maternal love, childhood and a life unspoilt by greed or ambition. Rosebud’s final, devastating appearance – when it is tossed into an incinerator by a pair of uncomprehending workmen – is, quite simply, the key scene in the world’s most celebrated film.
Although it will be forever associated with Orson Welles, the sled was actually the invention of his co-writer, Herman J Mankiewicz. As a boy, Mankiewicz had his beloved bicycle stolen when he left it outside a library. As a harsh punishment for what they evidently saw as his carelessness, his parents refused to buy him a replacement and Mankiewicz mourned the loss his entire life. In his childhood, his lost bicycle became emblematic of Mankiewicz’s lost innocence. In his adulthood, it mutated into a lost sled and became emblematic of a masterpiece. And by becoming emblematic of Citizen Kane, Rosebud became emblematic of Welles’s achievement as its director – an achievement envied and imitated by almost every artistic-minded moviemaker who has come since. But just as Charles Foster Kane found it impossible to recapture his childhood, so every would-be Welles has found it impossible to replicate Kane’s quality and impact – and so it is unsurprising that film-makers would fixate on the object that best represents it. The Rosebud sled is the secret of Citizen Kane. Perhaps that is why Spielberg was so keen to possess it.
(Jayde Perkin)
3) Marilyn Monroe's White Dress from The Seven Year Itch (Billy Wilder, 1955)
Marilyn Monroe is the definitive American sex symbol, and the definitive image of her comes from The Seven Year Itch. Tom Ewell’s Richard Sherman is a middle-aged Manhattan executive who has been married for seven years – which accounts for the seven years in the film’s title. While his wife and neighbours take a holiday to escape the summer heat, Monroe’s unnamed knockout moves into the apartment upstairs – which accounts for the itch.
When the two go to the cinema, Monroe wears a splendid ivory cocktail dress that seems to lift her out of the film, making her more than a movie star and transforming her into some new archetype of femininity. The scene that follows ensured that was what she became. “Ooh! Do you feel the breeze from the subway?” she coos as she positions herself over some grates in the street. A subway train rattles underneath and a rush of air makes her dress billow around her legs in an image that will live as long as any from film.
The dress, by costume designer William Travilla, is the most famous in the movies. It could be the most famous in the world. Whenever a publication or organisation announces the most iconic images of the 20th century, the image of Monroe wearing it is somewhere on the list. By 1955, the tensions that would explode into the sexual freedoms of the Sixties were rumbling under America’s staid exterior like a subway train and the struggle to suppress them is symbolised by Monroe’s dress.
White dresses traditionally connote virginity: Monroe plays upon that to show the appearance of chasteness that exists on the surface of her character’s life – and that still existed on the surface of Fifties society – but that is stretched too tightly over the vibrant sexuality beneath to properly contain it.
“Isn’t she a living doll?” asks a janitor who sees her in Sherman’s apartment. In this film, as so often in the American imagination, it is as a living doll that Monroe is treated. And Travilla’s white dress is the most evocative outfit in which Hollywood ever dressed her.
(Jayde Perkin)
4) Mrs Robinson's Stockings from The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967)
It is one of the most iconic shots in American movies: Dustin Hoffman’s Benjamin Braddock, young and nervous, stands in front of a white bedroom door, gazing with conflicted desire at the outstretched leg of Anne Bancroft’s Mrs Robinson as she slowly rolls off a stocking. It is film’s definitive image of a younger man being seduced by an older woman. But the popular memory of it is different from the way it appears in the film.
The shot takes place while Ben and Mrs Robinson are arguing, and she is not taking her stockings off as prelude to sex but putting them back on afterwards. The pair have already slept together many times and she has just angered him by suggesting he is not good enough to associate with her daughter. When that iconic shot occurs, Mrs Robinson is far from filled with a seductress’s confidence that she is irresistible: in fact, she is talking about how she suddenly disgusts Ben.
The shot became so famous primarily because of its appearance on posters for The Graduate, explaining why it is better known as a still photograph than as a moving image. Furthermore, those posters feature the shapely leg not of Bancroft but of model Linda Gray (later famous as Sue Ellen in the soap opera Dallas).
Nevertheless, the idea of Mrs Robinson’s stockings as a symbol of seduction persists, supported by another scene, earlier in the film, in which the camera briefly shoots Ben from between Bancroft’s crossed, stocking-covered legs just before he delivers the endlessly quoted line, “Mrs Robinson! You’re trying to seduce me.”
Mrs Robinson’s stockings symbolise seduction, forbidden love and the enduring attraction of the older woman but they also symbolise sex itself.
Although The Graduate dealt more explicitly with sex than most films before it had done, it still contains no sex scenes. The stockings, then, come to represent the sex acts that motivate so many film characters, and create so many film plots, but that are never shown by film-makers.
(Charlie Marshall)
5) The .44 Magnum from Dirty Harry (Don Siegel, 1971)
Among all the guns in film, none is more infamous than the .44 Magnum carried by Clint Eastwood’s trigger-happy police lieutenant “Dirty” Harry Callahan. When bank robbers foolishly interrupt Harry’s lunchtime hot dog, he whips out the enormous phallic form concealed in his clothing and blasts the criminals, their getaway car and standard police procedure all to Hell.
In Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976), Robert De Niro’s character is told that a .44 Magnum can kill an elephant. Callahan makes it seem like it could sink a battleship.
But, impressive as the gun’s firepower is, in this scene it is words that speak louder than actions. As he approaches a supine perp about to reach for his own sidearm, Callahan gives the speech that ensures the Magnum’s immortality: “I know what you’re thinking: 'Did he fire six shots or only five?’ Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?’ … Well, do ya, punk?”
Part of the gun’s resonance is in its Old West associations. Just as Harry is the lone gunslinger in an environment filled with timid modern law officers, so his handgun recalls those carried by cowboys. Most of the gun’s resonance, however, is in its aforementioned phallic imagery. It is often laziness that makes us label a significant object as phallic but here it would be lazy not to.
Callahan’s character, his successes and his setbacks all depend upon his ultra-masculine methods. He is the most macho man in every encounter in each Dirty Harry film and it is his overlong weapon that announces it. Its absurd size and threatening weight intimidate everyone in the films and became so famous outside them that for the sequel, Magnum Force (Ted Post, 1973), the gun’s name replaced Harry’s in the title.
The .44 Magnum is as much the star of the Dirty Harry franchise as Eastwood.
(David McMillan)
6) The Horses' Head from The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
Few objects in Hollywood history can have caused as much controversy as the horse’s head in The Godfather. Francis Ford Coppola often recalls that he received far more complaints about it than about any of the brutal professional murders in his film.
When Al Martino’s middle-aged crooner, Johnny Fontane, is refused a part in the film that promises to revive his career, he appeals to his godfather, Marlon Brando’s Don Corleone. Corleone dispatches his consigliere, Robert Duvall’s Tom Hagen, to talk to movie mogul Jack Woltz, who has personal reasons for denying Fontane the role.
Woltz (John Marley) invites Hagen to dinner, shows him around his impressive mansion and takes him to meet Khartoum, the beautiful thoroughbred racehorse he has recently bought for $600,000 and for which he has erected a state-of-the-art stable. Woltz is adamant about his decision, announcing that “Johnny Fontane will never get that movie!” but adding that he is willing to grant Corleone another request, if he has one. Hagen politely leaves, having explained that “the Don never asks a second favour when he has been refused a first”. The next morning, when Woltz wakes up, his bed is sodden with blood. Throwing back the covers, he sees Khartoum’s severed head. Fontane gets the movie.
What makes the scene so shocking is that the horse’s head looks so real. And that is because it is. It was bought from a dog-food factory and painted to match the head of the horse that played the living Khartoum. The slaughter of Khartoum sends a simple, dreadful message from Don Corleone to one who has dared defy him: “My power is absolute. My evil is unlimited. My will is law.”
What fascinates us about the Mafia in movies is not that they live outside our laws – all kinds of criminals and anarchists do that – but that they live so rigidly within laws of their own. When one of those laws is broken, the consequences are both awful and inevitable. And, in the entire history of gangster movies, nothing expresses this more arrestingly than Khartoum’s bloody head.
(Charlie Marshall)
7) Kermit the Frog's Bicycle from The Muppet Movie (James Fawley, 1979)
In the age of computer-generated images, it is impossible to understand how much of a commotion was once caused by Kermit the Frog’s bicycle. Its appearance was the main event of The Muppet Movie, the 1979 film debut of Jim Henson’s peerless puppets. America’s foremost movie critic, Roger Ebert, began his review: “Jolson sang, Barrymore spoke, Garbo laughed, and now Kermit the Frog rides a bicycle.” He wasn’t being funny. The bicycle was big business. People bought tickets just to see it. And, having seen it, they argued about how it could exist.
When Kermit hopped from the small screen to the big, he needed to do something he could not do on television to entice his fans to follow him into cinemas. Something like ride a bicycle. The bicycle’s first appearance is not built up within the film: Kermit simply needs to cycle somewhere, and so he does. The bicycle is not in itself extraordinary and that is the point of it: it is a bicycle you or I might ride that, through the magic of the movies, is being ridden by a Muppet.
Like all the most impressive magic tricks, this illusion occurs in plain sight. Refusing the easy option of directing our attention away from the details of Kermit’s amazing ability to cycle, the camera zooms in on his little amphibian feet as they push the peddles around. Even so, we cannot quite work out how it is done. The close-up might as well be subtitled, “Isn’t this incredible?” The marvellous mechanics needed to create the sequence could not be sustained throughout the film, so Kermit’s bike is soon rendered unrideable when it is squashed by a steamroller. It is a cartoonish end for an object that impresses us entirely because it is so real.
I have never been sure it is true that once you learn to ride a bike you never forget – but I am certain that once you have seen Kermit the Frog ride his you will always remember it.
(Charlie Marshall)
8) Jake Lamotta's Title Belt from Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980)
There is no better biopic than Raging Bull. It retells the life of “The Bronx Bull” Jake LaMotta, who was popular among boxing fans for his ferocity and for fighting through the first 10 years of his professional career without being knocked down. Robert De Niro plays LaMotta in a performance for which he famously won an Oscar and for which he even more famously worked out until he had the body of an elite athlete, to enable him to play LaMotta in his prime, and then ate himself into obesity to enable him to play the ageing and overweight LaMotta who strives to establish himself as a nightclub entertainer.
De Niro shows us a man whose first language is violence. LaMotta is as brutal and rage-fuelled outside the ring as he is in it, and his inability to curb the aggression that makes him a star in his sport poisons every other aspect of his life and forces his loved ones away.
In one of the passages of Raging Bull when LaMotta’s life is at its worst, he urgently needs money. Seizing the title belt he earned as middleweight champion of the world, he smashes it with a hammer to break off its jewels. Taking these to a pawnshop, he is told what we could have told him: the jewels themselves are worthless, but the belt they came from was a unique item that would surely have sold for a high price.
Many big biopics focus on a subject with a talent for verbal expression, a politician given to making quotable speeches, for example, or a writer whose aphorisms may be easily appropriated for the script. LaMotta has no such faculty, and nor does anyone around him. And so it is his actions that define him – and no action defines him better than the way he treats his title belt, the physical symbol of his best accomplishments. Like almost everything of importance in LaMotta’s life, he battles to get it, and then wilfully destroys it thinking he is doing the right thing.
(David McMillan)
9) The Wafer-Thin Mint from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (Terry Jones, 1983)
For many, it is one of the most disgusting scenes in cinema. For others, it is one of the funniest. When the absurdly obese Mr Creosote (Terry Jones) waddles into a luxurious French restaurant, he is already about to vomit, and soon does so – with a ferocity rivalled only by the possessed little girl in The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973) – into a bucket hastily fetched by a waiter (Eric Idle). Even so, Mr Creosote orders everything on the menu “all mixed together” and, after eating it, seems about to burst.
It is now that John Cleese’s maître d’ – who is as memorable and merciless a torturer as Dr Christian Szell, the deranged dentist played by Laurence Olivier in Marathon Man (John Schlesinger, 1976) – insists that the meal be completed with one more morsel: a single wafer-thin mint. Mr Creosote protests that he is full but the maître d’ insists. “It is only a tiny little one,” he says in his exaggerated French accent. “It is only wafer-thin.” Placing it in Mr Creosote’s mouth, he dives for cover. Mr Creosote expands and expands and at last explodes, showering the restaurant, and everyone eating in it, with a viscous orange-brown mixture of innards and undigested food that sets off chain reaction of vomiting and creates an image that stains the eyes of every cinemagoer who sees it.
Just as the violence and gore in horror movies becomes more explicit as the frontiers of what is acceptable onscreen and what is possible with special effects are driven back over time, so the grossness in gross-out comedies becomes more and more nauseating. And yet this scene from a comedy that ought already to seem tame is so hilariously vile that Mr Creosote’s mint remains film’s icon of overindulgence, in both food and bad taste. Although it appears for only seconds the mint that burst the glutton’s gut is one of cinema’s most memorable objects, no matter how much those of us with sensitive stomachs try to forget it.
(Jayde Perkin)
1
10) Sheriff Woody from Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995)
We often forget that Sheriff Woody is an object. He has the face and voice of Tom Hanks, and he is unforgettably animated in both senses of the word. But he is only a toy belonging to little Andy, in whose games he is always the hero. Like all the toys in Toy Story, Woody comes to life when humans are not looking but, when they are, he is utterly inanimate, his only voice the recording activated by a tug on his pull-string.
Unlike Buzz Lightyear, the space-age action figure who threatens to usurp him in Andy’s affections, Woody never believes he is anything but an object. Buzz thinks he is a space ranger who travels the galaxy, and despairs when he realises he is just a plastic plaything, but Woody embraces his status as a toy: it gives him his identity and purpose.
Subsequent films go even further in underlining that Woody is an object. In Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter, 1999), he is stolen by a collector who wants to sell him to a museum and in Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich, 2010), when Andy becomes a man and puts away childish things, Woody faces being discarded or destroyed.
Woody’s design is brilliant; every detail is balanced between the original and the familiar. His outfit has all the standard features of a cowboy’s clothing – a hat, a holster, spurs and brown boots – but the cowskin-pattern waistcoat and checked red and yellow shirt, coupled with those Hanks-esque features, make him unmistakable.
It is unsurprising that he soon replaced another object, the living lamp Luxo Jr, as the character most associated with Pixar. With him, and with Buzz Lightyear, Pixar created fictional toys that became real-life ones. But Sheriff Woody is more than an iconic company mascot and a merchandising gold mine: he has become cinema’s best emblem not only of our favourite childhood toys but also of every object we have ever anthropomorphised in our minds.
(Jayde Perkin)
The Jungle Book: the making of Disney's most troubled film
Scrapped characters and songs, a firm 'no' from the Beatles, and Walt Disney at the end of his tether. Craig McLean visits Disney's archives to discover how The Jungle Book was made.
Johnny Depp to quit acting?
American actor Johnny Depp, who stars in The Lone Ranger, has said that he is 'not too far away' from quitting acting.
TV roles better for women than in film, actress Jessica Lange says
There are fewer roles for women in films today than in the 80s, Oscar-winning actress Jessica Lange has said, as she claims the best script writing is now on television.
Lange, who rose to fame in the late 1970s and went on to win two Oscars, said her generation of actresses had “more than enough [roles] for all of us”.
Nowadays, she added, a “great part for women in a real story” only comes up
“every once in a while” on the big screen.
She has now played the lead role in television series American Horror
Story: Asylum, portraying a failed beauty queen from small town Virginia who
travelled to Hollywood to make it big.
Lange, who starred in Tootsie, Frances and Blue Sky, told
fashion magazine LOVE she now
believes more people saw her in HBO film Grey Gardens because it was
screened on television.
When asked whether there was anything “demeaning” in appearing on television
after an acclaimed film and stage career, she said: “No, for a couple of
reasons.
See a preview of You're Next with Total Film Screening Club
The Total Film Screening Club gives you the chance to see a movie, for free, before it hits cinemas.
For a chance of coming along to one of our advance previews, sign up to the Total Film newsletter, and look out for the codes that give you the chance to score tickets to one the screenings taking place at locations across the UK.
A night at the movies for you and a friend, on us! What are you waiting for?
This month’s film is You're Next, a gory, inventive home-invasion horror with a twist. Several twists in fact. It's probably best to go into this gem with as little prior knowledge as possible, so you can enjoy the blackly comic events as they unfold. Come for the shocks, remember it for the wickedly dark humour...
Oldboy remake pushed back until November
Jul 31th 2013
Spike Lee's Oldboy remake has been delayed by around a month, with the crime thriller now set to arrive in US screens at the end of November.
The film had initially been slated to arrive on 25 October, but will now open in the US on 27 November, in order to coincide with the Thanksgiving holiday.
At present, genre competition looks few and far between on that date, with Disney's animated adventure Frozen the major release over the holiday weekend.
The film stars Josh Brolin as an advertising executive who is kidnapped and imprisoned for twenty years, with no explanation given for why. Released out of the blue, he embarks upon a mission of revenge against his mysterious captors.
Directed by Lee and co-starring Sharlto Copley, Elizabeth Olsen and Michael Imperioli, Oldboy has yet to receive a UK release date, but expect it to arrive shortly after its US debut
Spike Lee's Oldboy remake has been delayed by around a month, with the crime thriller now set to arrive in US screens at the end of November.
The film had initially been slated to arrive on 25 October, but will now open in the US on 27 November, in order to coincide with the Thanksgiving holiday.
At present, genre competition looks few and far between on that date, with Disney's animated adventure Frozen the major release over the holiday weekend.
The film stars Josh Brolin as an advertising executive who is kidnapped and imprisoned for twenty years, with no explanation given for why. Released out of the blue, he embarks upon a mission of revenge against his mysterious captors.
Directed by Lee and co-starring Sharlto Copley, Elizabeth Olsen and Michael Imperioli, Oldboy has yet to receive a UK release date, but expect it to arrive shortly after its US debut
Aaron Taylor-Johnson has met Joss Whedon for Avengers 2
The Avengers: Age Of Ultron may be about to add a new name to its star-studded ensemble, with Aaron Taylor-Johnson confirming that he has had talks over joining the cast.
The star had initially been linked to the part of Quicksilver, and Taylor-Johnson has revealed that he has already met with Joss Whedon regarding the role.
"I feel really flattered and honoured that they came to me for that role," says the actor. "I think he’s an interesting character and we’re just gonna keep going into that."
"I sat down with Joss, I think he’s awesome, I sat down with the guys at Marvel and they’re also great; I think it’d be interesting.”
Note that Taylor-Johnson doesn't confirm having actually signed on, only that the process is ongoing. Still, we'd be very surprised if after careful consideration he decided it wasn't for him…
The Avengers: Age Of Ultron opens in the UK on 1 May 2015.
Jamie Foxx keen on Spawn remake
Jul 30th 2013
Jamie Foxx might be about to appear in one of the big superhero franchises with The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but it seems the star has his eye on another comic-book adaptation in the form of Spawn.
Apparently Foxx is dead set on starring in a remake of the popular series, whose title character was last seen on the big screen in 1997's half-baked adaptation.
"Spawn is one, yeah," said Foxx, when asked whether he had any personal projects he is trying to bring to fruition. "And Mike Tyson. Those are two roles I would just love to do. I’m aggressively pursuing them."
For non-devotees, Spawn is a former assassin sent back to Earth from hell, armed with a whole host of supernatural powers.
Michael Jai White was the last actor to try his hand at the role on film in the cartoonish outing mentioned previously, only for the film to bomb. However, with Foxx on board, could there be life in the character yet?
The actor's stock has never been higher, so we certainly wouldn't rule it out...
Jamie Foxx might be about to appear in one of the big superhero franchises with The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but it seems the star has his eye on another comic-book adaptation in the form of Spawn.
Apparently Foxx is dead set on starring in a remake of the popular series, whose title character was last seen on the big screen in 1997's half-baked adaptation.
"Spawn is one, yeah," said Foxx, when asked whether he had any personal projects he is trying to bring to fruition. "And Mike Tyson. Those are two roles I would just love to do. I’m aggressively pursuing them."
For non-devotees, Spawn is a former assassin sent back to Earth from hell, armed with a whole host of supernatural powers.
Michael Jai White was the last actor to try his hand at the role on film in the cartoonish outing mentioned previously, only for the film to bomb. However, with Foxx on board, could there be life in the character yet?
The actor's stock has never been higher, so we certainly wouldn't rule it out...
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
First look at Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper in American Hustle
Jul 31th 2013
American Hustle has debuted a first pair of images online, featuring Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper sporting a pair of ‘70s makeovers.
David O. Russell's new film chronicles FBI's 1978 ABSCAM sting operation, designed to bring down a series of corrupt public officials, hence the jaunty outfits and hairstyles.
Bale plays the FBI-employed con artist charged with setting up the sting, while Cooper plays the FBI agent overseeing matters. Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams are also on board as Bale’s wife and lover respectively.
With a sterling supporting cast boasting the likes of Jeremy Renner, Robert De Niro, Louis C.K., Michael Pena, and Jack Huston, American Hustle is set to open in the US on 25 December 2013, with a UK date to be confirmed.
Take a look at the new images, below…
Joss Whedon talks Avengers 2 villain Ultron
Jul 31th 2013
Inside the upcoming issue 210 of Total Film magazine, we’ve got a deluge of incredible exclusives and a complete Comic-Con round-up.
The issue’s out on Friday 2 August 2013, and feature tons of stuff that you’re going to want to check out, not least one Mr Joss Whedon discussing a little film he has on the horizon that’s recently been given the intriguing title, Avengers: Age Of Ultron
Yep, at Comic-Con 2013 Whedon revealed the subtitle (and in doing so, the main villain) for The Avengers 2, sending audience excitement levels through the roof.
We just so happened to bag an exclusive interview with Whedon after the big reveal, and we grilled him on the new character who’s set to be a nasty piece of movie AI to rival HAL and the T800. You can read the full feature inside the issue, but for now, here’s a sneak peek at what Whedon had to say about the superteam’s new foe…
“I was pitching Ultron before I took the job on the first movie. I was like, ‘I don’t know if I want to do this, but for the second one, you should totally do Ultron.’ Because he’s been a thorn in their side as much as any other character over the years and particularly back in my history.
“He was great. He’s somebody who can juice things up and he’s a real problem for the Avengers. That’s not always easy to find. It’s not like the Vulture is really going to give them a hard time for 20 minutes.”
Avengers: Age Of Ultron is set to open in the UK on 1 May 2015.
For much more from Whedon, pick up issue 210 of Total Film magazine, which hits newsstands (both real, for paper fans, and digital, for tablet devotees) on 2 August 2013.
Inside the upcoming issue 210 of Total Film magazine, we’ve got a deluge of incredible exclusives and a complete Comic-Con round-up.
The issue’s out on Friday 2 August 2013, and feature tons of stuff that you’re going to want to check out, not least one Mr Joss Whedon discussing a little film he has on the horizon that’s recently been given the intriguing title, Avengers: Age Of Ultron
Yep, at Comic-Con 2013 Whedon revealed the subtitle (and in doing so, the main villain) for The Avengers 2, sending audience excitement levels through the roof.
We just so happened to bag an exclusive interview with Whedon after the big reveal, and we grilled him on the new character who’s set to be a nasty piece of movie AI to rival HAL and the T800. You can read the full feature inside the issue, but for now, here’s a sneak peek at what Whedon had to say about the superteam’s new foe…
“I was pitching Ultron before I took the job on the first movie. I was like, ‘I don’t know if I want to do this, but for the second one, you should totally do Ultron.’ Because he’s been a thorn in their side as much as any other character over the years and particularly back in my history.
“He was great. He’s somebody who can juice things up and he’s a real problem for the Avengers. That’s not always easy to find. It’s not like the Vulture is really going to give them a hard time for 20 minutes.”
Avengers: Age Of Ultron is set to open in the UK on 1 May 2015.
For much more from Whedon, pick up issue 210 of Total Film magazine, which hits newsstands (both real, for paper fans, and digital, for tablet devotees) on 2 August 2013.
How Egypt Will Shake the World
July 31, 2013
In late 1991, amid the worldwide wave of elections that followed the end of the Cold War, Algeria’s military-backed government held a national vote and very reluctantly invited a coalition of previously repressed Islamists to take part. That coalition, the Islamic Salvation Front, showed strength in the election’s first round. The Army and its secular-nationalist allies in politics feared that the Islamists might win outright, so they cancelled the final vote, cracked down on the Islamists, and ignited a civil war that lasted a decade and claimed tens of thousands of lives. Ultimately, the military won that war.
When the history of recent democratic or pluralistic aspiration in North Africa is written, Egypt’s chapter since 2011 may be remembered similarly, with the exception that its military did not cancel an election but instead allowed the Islamists to rule for a haphazard year before repressing them again.
In late 1991, amid the worldwide wave of elections that followed the end of the Cold War, Algeria’s military-backed government held a national vote and very reluctantly invited a coalition of previously repressed Islamists to take part. That coalition, the Islamic Salvation Front, showed strength in the election’s first round. The Army and its secular-nationalist allies in politics feared that the Islamists might win outright, so they cancelled the final vote, cracked down on the Islamists, and ignited a civil war that lasted a decade and claimed tens of thousands of lives. Ultimately, the military won that war.
When the history of recent democratic or pluralistic aspiration in North Africa is written, Egypt’s chapter since 2011 may be remembered similarly, with the exception that its military did not cancel an election but instead allowed the Islamists to rule for a haphazard year before repressing them again.
Last weekend, Cairo was the scene of a bloodbath that recalled the patterns of political violence across North Africa during the nineteen-nineties. At least five dozen protesters aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood died as they took to the streets to defend their ousted leader, President Mohammed Morsi, who remains in detention and may now face charges of subversion or treason. Initial reports suggest that the violence in Cairo was heavily one-sided, and that shooters aligned with the Egyptian military gunned down unarmed demonstrators deliberately. If these reports prove to be true, the shootings presumably were intended to make clear to the Brotherhood’s cadres that the era of competitive politics by free assembly in Egypt is coming to an end.
A civil war in Egypt on the devastating scale of Algeria’s seems highly unlikely, but it is surely conceivable that an armed resistance linked to the Brotherhood will emerge from this summer’s events. Historically, Egypt’s Islamist cadres, even at their most potent, have lacked the arms, the leadership, the terrain, and the internal and international networks that would enable them to challenge the U.S.-equipped and U.S.-funded Egyptian military full on. The country’s Islamist opposition is split between the Brotherhood and looser networks of Salafis, a division that limits the potential of any insurgency that either faction might mount. Yet a return to generation-spanning, uncompromising struggle in Egypt—some of it brutal and violent—now appears much more likely.
Egypt’s initial revolution, against President Hosni Mubarak, in 2011, rippled far and wide, stimulating revolts and citizen activism across the Arab world and elsewhere. The recent crackdown on the Brotherhood will have effects, too. Here are some very rough notes—provocations, really—about what some of those might be:
More terrorism. The Egyptian military’s brutal crackdown on Islamists before and after the assassination of Anwar Sadat, in 1981, spawned radical spinoffs from the Brotherhood which were determined to resist the military violently. Islamic Group cells gunned down tourists for shock effect, in order to undermine Egypt’s economy. Islamic Jihad terrorists such as Ayman al-Zawahiri emerged from this milieu and sought refuge in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where they conceived of Al Qaeda. In the nineties, too, Egyptian terrorists drew from transnational Sunni radical preaching and arms-smuggling networks—some of them funded by an obscure, rich Saudi exiled in Sudan, named Osama bin Laden. New Brotherhood spinoffs inside Egypt could also seek help from Sunni radical or terrorist groups in Syria, Iraq, Algeria, and Libya. Wherever they turn, we should expect a wave of domestic terrorism inside Egypt in the next few years, mounted by individuals and small groups that have been radicalized by events like last weekend’s shootings.
More political space for Israel. Egypt’s military will be desperate for international legitimacy and leverage in the next few years, given its rapidly growing record of bad conduct. Quiet, reliable coöperation with Israel on the issues of the so-called “Camp David regime,” Gaza, and the threat from Iran is an obvious strategy for Egypt’s generals—it’s worked in the past. The aim of Egypt’s military and its civilian allies will be to keep American arms and International Monetary Fund credits coming their way. As in the Cold War, the price for the U.S.’s acquiescence will be, at a minimum, security coöperation between Israel and Egypt. This may be reinforced by a deep-pocketed, undeclared partner: Saudi Arabia’s royal family, which fears and despises the Muslim Brotherhood as much as Egypt’s men in khaki do. Israel already benefits from its common interest with Saudi Arabia and the smaller Persian Gulf states, based on a shared fear of Iran; the reassertion of power by Egypt’s military over the Brotherhood will only reinforce that unacknowledged alliance.
More trouble for Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Erdogan. Has Islamist political power obtained through the ballot box now crested in the Middle East? Will Egypt’s counter-revolution inspire Turkey’s fragmented, avowedly secular military—which once dominated the country’s politics, via coup-making—to reorganize and reassert itself? Could the military do so if it tried? The street protests against Erdogan’s moderately Islamist government this spring and summer arose from local circumstances and can’t easily be compared to Egypt’s popular wave of protests against Mohammed Morsi’s Presidency. In his decade in office, Erdogan has revived Turkey’s economy and its influence. Yet the recent events in Egypt will surely stir and tempt Atatürk’s heirs in the opposition.
A new era for anti-Islamist politics in the Arab world? What, if anything, will unite the Brotherhood’s opponents in Egypt in the years ahead, other than political and economic opportunism? Will any new ideology emerge—one based on nationalism, or propagating some theory of economic modernization or of the separation of religion and state—to sustain the struggle against Islamists? General Pervez Musharraf, in Pakistan, tried a version of Davos-friendly secular modernism after the September 11th attacks; it turned out to be hollow, and he was soon routed by both Islamist and liberal opponents. In the Arab world, Nasserism and Baathism are long dead. The kings who rule from Kuwait to Jordan to Morocco—and keep the Islamists sidelined—look shaky and anachronistic. In places like Tunisia, the anti-Islamist opposition is made up of old socialists, opportunists, and trade unionists, all struggling to connect with that country’s young, online, globally aware population. What ideas will mark the next wave of secular or nationalistic Arab politics, or simply provide a plausible veneer for Arab militaries as they send the Brotherhood’s leaders back to prison?
Tahrir Square’s youth protests at their most inspiring augured a new era of politics and pluralism that promised a break with the past; sadly, the trajectory of politics now is ceaselessly backward.
A civil war in Egypt on the devastating scale of Algeria’s seems highly unlikely, but it is surely conceivable that an armed resistance linked to the Brotherhood will emerge from this summer’s events. Historically, Egypt’s Islamist cadres, even at their most potent, have lacked the arms, the leadership, the terrain, and the internal and international networks that would enable them to challenge the U.S.-equipped and U.S.-funded Egyptian military full on. The country’s Islamist opposition is split between the Brotherhood and looser networks of Salafis, a division that limits the potential of any insurgency that either faction might mount. Yet a return to generation-spanning, uncompromising struggle in Egypt—some of it brutal and violent—now appears much more likely.
Egypt’s initial revolution, against President Hosni Mubarak, in 2011, rippled far and wide, stimulating revolts and citizen activism across the Arab world and elsewhere. The recent crackdown on the Brotherhood will have effects, too. Here are some very rough notes—provocations, really—about what some of those might be:
More terrorism. The Egyptian military’s brutal crackdown on Islamists before and after the assassination of Anwar Sadat, in 1981, spawned radical spinoffs from the Brotherhood which were determined to resist the military violently. Islamic Group cells gunned down tourists for shock effect, in order to undermine Egypt’s economy. Islamic Jihad terrorists such as Ayman al-Zawahiri emerged from this milieu and sought refuge in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where they conceived of Al Qaeda. In the nineties, too, Egyptian terrorists drew from transnational Sunni radical preaching and arms-smuggling networks—some of them funded by an obscure, rich Saudi exiled in Sudan, named Osama bin Laden. New Brotherhood spinoffs inside Egypt could also seek help from Sunni radical or terrorist groups in Syria, Iraq, Algeria, and Libya. Wherever they turn, we should expect a wave of domestic terrorism inside Egypt in the next few years, mounted by individuals and small groups that have been radicalized by events like last weekend’s shootings.
More political space for Israel. Egypt’s military will be desperate for international legitimacy and leverage in the next few years, given its rapidly growing record of bad conduct. Quiet, reliable coöperation with Israel on the issues of the so-called “Camp David regime,” Gaza, and the threat from Iran is an obvious strategy for Egypt’s generals—it’s worked in the past. The aim of Egypt’s military and its civilian allies will be to keep American arms and International Monetary Fund credits coming their way. As in the Cold War, the price for the U.S.’s acquiescence will be, at a minimum, security coöperation between Israel and Egypt. This may be reinforced by a deep-pocketed, undeclared partner: Saudi Arabia’s royal family, which fears and despises the Muslim Brotherhood as much as Egypt’s men in khaki do. Israel already benefits from its common interest with Saudi Arabia and the smaller Persian Gulf states, based on a shared fear of Iran; the reassertion of power by Egypt’s military over the Brotherhood will only reinforce that unacknowledged alliance.
More trouble for Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Erdogan. Has Islamist political power obtained through the ballot box now crested in the Middle East? Will Egypt’s counter-revolution inspire Turkey’s fragmented, avowedly secular military—which once dominated the country’s politics, via coup-making—to reorganize and reassert itself? Could the military do so if it tried? The street protests against Erdogan’s moderately Islamist government this spring and summer arose from local circumstances and can’t easily be compared to Egypt’s popular wave of protests against Mohammed Morsi’s Presidency. In his decade in office, Erdogan has revived Turkey’s economy and its influence. Yet the recent events in Egypt will surely stir and tempt Atatürk’s heirs in the opposition.
A new era for anti-Islamist politics in the Arab world? What, if anything, will unite the Brotherhood’s opponents in Egypt in the years ahead, other than political and economic opportunism? Will any new ideology emerge—one based on nationalism, or propagating some theory of economic modernization or of the separation of religion and state—to sustain the struggle against Islamists? General Pervez Musharraf, in Pakistan, tried a version of Davos-friendly secular modernism after the September 11th attacks; it turned out to be hollow, and he was soon routed by both Islamist and liberal opponents. In the Arab world, Nasserism and Baathism are long dead. The kings who rule from Kuwait to Jordan to Morocco—and keep the Islamists sidelined—look shaky and anachronistic. In places like Tunisia, the anti-Islamist opposition is made up of old socialists, opportunists, and trade unionists, all struggling to connect with that country’s young, online, globally aware population. What ideas will mark the next wave of secular or nationalistic Arab politics, or simply provide a plausible veneer for Arab militaries as they send the Brotherhood’s leaders back to prison?
Tahrir Square’s youth protests at their most inspiring augured a new era of politics and pluralism that promised a break with the past; sadly, the trajectory of politics now is ceaselessly backward.
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