movies
oh come on, Wyatt! really? all movies? oh yes! movies! think of any movie by Akira Kurosawa! it's enough to make you salaam toward the west, toward Japan. goddam, that man knew how to tell a story with pictures, with music, with conversation, with silence! goddam! think of a movie by Clint Eastwood. similar goddams! you can probably think of two or three other masters who know how to construct a movie that sweeps you into catharsis by the end. or that leaves you wrung out by the end. Hitchcock for instance. movies are some of the greatest story-making lessons ever! even movies that make you laugh when the director meant you to weep - "Gone With the Wind" did that for me - are a lesson in story-making: what is it about that movie that you want never to do in your own stories? and many movies are fun just for the spectacle and flash, like Cecil B. DeMille movies. probably I never want to write a story like one of his movies, but I hope they were as much fun to make as they are to watch! damn! now, what actually got me thinking about movies and appreciating movies was after-school television back in the 50s. most of them had started as shorts for Saturday matinees. damn they were horrible! they set the bar for story-making so low that a horse couldn't trip over it, so low that no rattlesnake would be impeded. despite that, most of them did wind you up in tension, then spin you like a top with the ending. oh, thank goodness! the world is gonna work out anyway! if I could figure out how they did that, you know I'd incorporate it in my own stories! instead, I'll just grudgingly admire them, and be grateful for Kurosawa and Eastwood.
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