This Friday… ‘Twilight’
Posted by Dirty Harry on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008
Two things keep me from writing this off as 90210 But, You Know, With Vampires. First, Kristen Stewart might be the only actress born in the 90’s who’s at all interesting. Second, the director is Catherine Hardwicke.
Hardwicke’s 2003 directorial debut, Thirteen, was not only an impressive piece of storytelling but for all the publicity it generated for supposed edginess, in the end the values it supported were of the kind Louis B. Mayer could support. Thirteen was a sucker punch for nihilists — a plea for moral sanity.
Hardwicke also directed The Nativity Story, and while I didn’t much care for the film I admired not only her choosing the project but her erroring on the side of dull reverence as opposed to some kind of flashy liberal enlightenment.
This is an interesting director who’s exhibited both a flair for the modern way of telling a story but also a traditional streak. And in this day and age “traditional” is downright original. Might be coincidence, might be who she is. Either way, for now she has my attention.
Filed in General |
Thomas Talionison 18 Nov 2008 at 8:50 am 1I just don’t see anything original about this.
Rather Readon 18 Nov 2008 at 8:55 am 2Harry, the books are BIG! They are so popular that I can’t even begin to describe how popular they are. The plot isn’t at all original, there have been teen books about vampire/human love before, but Meyer’s series has struck a chord with readers who are all salivating for the movie.
The books aren’t getting much press, at least not as much as their popularity would warrant, but at their heart they are romance novels, and romance novels are not taken seriously at all.
Stephanieon 18 Nov 2008 at 8:59 am 3Glenn Beck talked about reading them. I have no desire. Read Anne Rices. Thats all I needed.
PerfectTommyon 18 Nov 2008 at 9:03 am 4Nothing original Thomas Talionis? Why these vampires sparkle! That’s something you didn’t see in “Near Dark”.
wfon 18 Nov 2008 at 9:08 am 5This should have a huge first weekend. The question is, will all those young girls drag their boyfriends with them or will they form packs to watch it among themselves?
Death Metal Cookie Monsteron 18 Nov 2008 at 9:10 am 6“13″ is such a great film. It should be required, uncersored, to be shown at every junion high/middle school at the beginning of the year. It shows how bad being slutty really is, including the whole “going bi” thing that’s so trendy nowadays.
HARRY HERE: Could not agree more. ‘Thirteen’ is a very special film. One of the most moral of the last ten years — and not by accident. The lesson Holly Hunter’s mom learns — essentially to be a mother instead of a best friend — is just as impressive.
Tink in Calion 18 Nov 2008 at 9:18 am 7I am actually kind of intrigued by this movie. I haven’t read the books, and I usually stay far away from most vampire flicks because many times they are either just gore fests or too skeevy (Tom Cruise anyone?) - neither of which are my cup of tea. The trailer looks like it is more story and character driven and brings back some of the vampire lore in interesting ways (superhuman strength, etc).
So, despite what I originally thought, I might pony up for a ticket after all. Very curious to see what DH has to say about it later in the week.
Kyleon 18 Nov 2008 at 9:19 am 8I think it looks kidna interesting, but much inferior to HBO’s True Blood series that has hooked me recently. I only have HBO because I got it free for 1 month, but I will keep it around in order to see the last 1st season episode next week. Depending on reviews, I might see this on video, but I will have to see. The whole thing does seem a little teenage-metro for my taste.
Death Metal Cookie Monsteron 18 Nov 2008 at 9:20 am 9“13″ was also presented far more real then most morality films. There was no sugar-coating or the leave-it-to-Beaver-type stuff that many other morality films show. That’s why it’s important to see it uncensored.
I must be one of the few people out there that thought “The Navity Story” was decent.
Now how about some love for the very underated “Amazing Grace”.
Death Metal Cookie Monsteron 18 Nov 2008 at 9:22 am 10My wife can not wait to see “Twightlight” on friday. I like to tease her about how *happy* the lead male looks.
As for myself, I’ll continue to get my vampire fix from watching my “Buffy…” box sets:)
Kon 18 Nov 2008 at 9:23 am 11So being a vampire gives you jedi powers?
Who knew?
maatkareon 18 Nov 2008 at 9:26 am 12This movie’s going to be a monster this weekend. Between Bond & teen vamps, Hollywood is going to have a lovely holiday season.
Striker Zon 18 Nov 2008 at 9:31 am 13The books aren’t great, but they aren’t complete crap - basically, exactly what I would say about Anne Rice’s vampire novels, just teen-appropriate. And I imagine that a movie version would probably be able to protect the audience from the worst parts of the author’s prose - any director worth their salt (I would hope) knows not to have people just repeat the same lines over and over in different situations.
Bonnie_on 18 Nov 2008 at 9:32 am 14Twilight and the rest of the series by Stephanie Meyer is a genuine phenomenon, and if you look beneath the surface you’ll see why — and also answer why perhaps Catherine Hardwicke was interested in doing the movie.
The vampire schtick is surface flash. The hero, Edward, loves the girl but cannot have sex with her or he will kill her. Therefore you have the romantic lead who saves the girl, hugs the girl, kisses the girl, but does not sleep with the girl.
I read an article about Twilight where the author of the article mourned how in today’s culture boys are immersed in pornography and girls are in love with Twilight.
Girls don’t want to be used like Kleenex, they don’t want sex without permanent love, and, hey, Gloria Steinham and the rest of you feminist witches — THEY NEVER HAVE.
Wayfareron 18 Nov 2008 at 9:35 am 15@ wf: All the people I know who are Twilight fans will be seeing this movie not once, but four, five, or six times. They just will, no matter how “bad” the movie is.
Won’t touch this movie (or the book) because I’ve heard where the whole story ends.
Death Metal Cookie Monsteron 18 Nov 2008 at 9:50 am 16“The vampire schtick is surface flash. The hero, Edward, loves the girl but cannot have sex with her or he will kill her.”
Can you say “complete rip-off of Buffy season 2″? Sure. I knew you could.
Zsuzsaon 18 Nov 2008 at 10:09 am 17But it’s not a Buffy rip-off. In Buffy, Angel couldn’t go outside in the sun because he would burn to death. In Twilight, the vampires can’t go out in the sun because they would sparkle and their dazzling beauty would give away what they were.
I’m not saying that it’s impossible to do something good with this premise, but it’s an uphill battle. I’m afraid I hear “sparkly vampires” and my internal censor says, “No.”
Oh, and I don’t buy the argument that because Bella and Edward don’t have pre-marital sex this is some kind of morality play. Edward acts like a stalker, and Bella is obsessed with him to the point where she has no other life. This is not a relationship to be imitated.
NeoConJedion 18 Nov 2008 at 10:13 am 18I’ve almost finished writing a young-adult novel, so I picked up this book to see what’s passing these days.
So far, I like Meyer’s approach. I haven’t reached any meat of the story yet, but its swift prose has things moving, all while capturing enough detail to give the story a real eerie/realistic feel.
Bubbaon 18 Nov 2008 at 10:17 am 19DH, your brief comments about Thirteen are quite intriguing. I’d love to see ya write more about the movie, like a full review or essay in a separate blog post — for what that’s worth.
ScottDSon 18 Nov 2008 at 10:21 am 20Kyle -
nice to see another fan of True Blood. Vampires aren’t really my thing but there’s something about this show that hooked me.
And I am officially in love with Lizzy (”Amy”) Caplan.
Sorry for going off-topic.
moviebobon 18 Nov 2008 at 10:31 am 21Meh.
Nothing “wrong” with this franchise, but when you boil it down it’s just every vampire-as-metaphor cliche (lust, addiction, etc) redressed for the tweener set with a somewhat-novel vein of straight-edge-esque moralizing.
I can dig it mostly on a kitsch level, i.e. the notion that what I’m essentially watching/reading comes down to Mormon Vampire Abstinence Porn
Striker Zon 18 Nov 2008 at 10:34 am 22See, Zsuzsa, that’s the kind of stuff that I’m hoping a movie version will be able to gloss over - not needing to hear, over and over again, how Bella thinks Edward is just so perfect, and how she could never be good enough for him - y’know, stuff that is not at all cool for teens to see as acceptable romance.
…Didn’t know about the sparkling. Um…er….uh…they’ll fix it in post-prod.
Sharon Fergusonon 18 Nov 2008 at 10:41 am 23Scott, Kyle - I have been a fan of Charlaine Harris for a few years now, so you can imagine how thrilled I am to see it as a TV show…I have some problems with Alan Ball’s interpretation of the world of Bon Temps, but for the most part, Ive been enjoying what he has done with the first book. Alexander Skarsgard (son of Stellan Skarsgard) plays Eric was a Viking in his ‘former’ life. Keep an eye on him. If Ball sticks to the basic world of Harris, Eric will have a BIG part in the next season.
My daughter has been pressuring me heavily to read Twilight and the following books…I’d never been into vampires until I read the Sookie Chronicles, but I will probably pick it up soon. So far Im only planning to go see the movie.
Bonnie_on 18 Nov 2008 at 10:57 am 24“The vampire schtick is surface flash. The hero, Edward, loves the girl but cannot have sex with her or he will kill her.”
Can you say “complete rip-off of Buffy season 2?? Sure. I knew you could.
– Comment #16.
Buffy is a rip-off of Anne Rice, who ripped off Bram Stoker. So all vampire stories are derivative. Is that all you’ve got?
What does matter is why girls are enthralled with Twilight. They love Twilight because females of our species are not designed to engage in promiscuous sex and there is a rebellion going on against a culture of trash and degradation.
I don’t know how the series ends because I just couldn’t get beyond book #2. I’m not a romance reader. But I find myself fascinated by the cultural impact of Twilight and what this means. Good things, I believe. Unless you’re a man who wants meaningless sex with young women. In that case, you might just be out of luck. And for that I say: Bravo.
Emilyon 18 Nov 2008 at 12:16 pm 25Meh. I love Twilight, but I’m not that interested in the film. I’ll probably wait for it to come out on DVD.
nightflyon 18 Nov 2008 at 1:37 pm 26I have never gotten the vamp-romance thing. These are undead things who have traded their souls for power, and are cursed with everlasting death - NOT eternal life, for they have none. “Endless days with a wicked heart are nothing but weariness, and she begins to know it even now,” as Aslan said of the White Witch Jadis. Yeah, so sign me up for that.
I can understand the subtext some critics talk about, that vampires represent soul-destroying sensuality, and sadly familiar with the counter from post-moderns that van Helsing represents Victorian soul-crushing repression and the vamps are romantical anti-heroes. Blah blah blah. But the mythology (at least definitively) should try to stick to the stuff Stoker put down… there’s creative liberties and then there’s just making crap up as one goes, like this wandering around during the day and not having any aversion to holy symbols (a la the hokey “Moonlight” TV show). Are Jedi going breathe fire and walk through walls in 2050 or something? Will Bilbo turn into the Incredible Hobbit and suplex Smaug in the new movie?
Kiton 18 Nov 2008 at 1:50 pm 27nightfly,
Never gotten the “vamp-romance thing” either.
PRefer the evil blood-suckers. They SUCK BLOOD, they are not nice guys.
However, a person who is a vampire and detests it could make an interesting drama. Like one who kills only bad guys and is constantly seeking a cure.
Cloudbusteron 18 Nov 2008 at 1:59 pm 28“But the mythology (at least definitively) should try to stick to the stuff Stoker put down… there’s creative liberties and then there’s just making crap up as one goes, like this wandering around during the day and not having any aversion to holy symbols (a la the hokey “Moonlight” TV show).”
Actually, if you read the original Bram Stoker novel, you’ll see that at one point Dracula is spotted walking around during the day. The idea of being destroyed or bursting into flames or turning to dust in sunlight were later adaptations and are never mentioned in the original novel.
Holy symbols didn’t play a huge role in the original either — garlic, stakes through the heart and cutting heads off were the approved solutions.
Elizabetheon 18 Nov 2008 at 2:10 pm 29The vampire myth is all wonky today because at root vampires are anti-Christians and without a fundamental cultural understanding and appreciation for the goods of Christianity, there’s no real understanding of what vampires really are.
Christians become Christians through eating the flesh and blood of Christ and are reborn through baptism in water, vampires become vampires by being bitten and then drinking the blood of other vampires and are reborn by being buried in earth. Christians have eternal life, vampires have eternal death, Christ conquered death by conquering sin, so vampires as the embodiment of sin and death are also conquered by Christ through crosses, holy water, and the host. Christ was a really good cook, so vampires are repulsed by garlic… (…maybe not that last one…)
But when most people don’t believe in Christianity anymore or in souls or heaven or anything else then what’s not to like about vampires? The truth is, without Christ, everyone already is a vampire, why not just go whole hog and get the cool superpowers, the consequenseless sex and the eternal youth, too?
Cloudbusteron 18 Nov 2008 at 2:14 pm 30“Holy symbols didn’t play a huge role in the original either — garlic, stakes through the heart and cutting heads off were the approved solutions.”
I want to correct my last post. It had been too long since I read it and I forgot about some of the recurrent cross imagery that appears in the story.
MovieBobon 18 Nov 2008 at 2:37 pm 31Vampires - or at least ‘undead’ creatures that survive by draining the life in Western mythology - technically predate Christianity, so a lot of the religious iconography that goes with them got “attached” later often on somewhat shaky ground. For example, in a lot of early-modern Vampire stories you’ll find references to the wooden stake having to be made of oak to be fatal because The Cross was supposedly made of oak… but if you go back further, you’ll find that the original premise behind “stake through the chest” in many versions of the myth was more practical in nature: You used the stake to pin the suspected vampire’s corpse to the floor of it’s grave so it couldn’t get up and walk around.
Templaron 18 Nov 2008 at 2:55 pm 32Bonnie:
Buffy is a rip-off of Anne Rice, who ripped off Bram Stoker. So all vampire stories are derivative. Is that all you’ve got?
To illustrate:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2003/20030908h.jpg
MovieBob:
Vampires - or at least ‘undead’ creatures that survive by draining the life in Western mythology - technically predate Christianity, so a lot of the religious iconography that goes with them got “attached” later often on somewhat shaky ground.
Nice try, Robert, but that doesn’t invalidate Elizabethe’s (rather well-made) point.
maatkareon 18 Nov 2008 at 3:18 pm 33Elizabethe, I think most people _do_ believe in Christianity, which is why vampires and their at base spiritual themes still resonate so much. Authors get to agonize over life, death, resurrection, etc. without any pesky religious scholarship, and work in some soft core porn, too. Vampres are naughty, antisocial sexual creatures, and we never get tired of that! The Twilight books aren’t reaching soley goth/geeks/freaks, either –you don’t sell 7 million books by appealing just to the fringe. The New York Times ran this piece:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/movies/17twil.htm
And I’ve seen stacks of the books at chain bookstores for months. Of course, since vampires don’t exist (I hope), each author is able to do whatever they want with them, be it traditional or new wave. But since every one has to take time to define their ‘rules,’ it just shows how strong the old images of Lugosi cringing from a crucifix are because everything is essentially derived from that movie, which is what inspired most authors to pen their own books I’m willing to bet. Interestingly, the teens grooving on Twilight are just graduating from Harry Potter, aren’t they?
ArchiCrashon 18 Nov 2008 at 4:49 pm 34Meh. All I know is that the hero looks like a total wuss. The actor who plays the hero, even moreso. I saw him doing a promo for the movie, and ug. Laughable. Vampires have fallen so far…
whiskeyon 18 Nov 2008 at 4:50 pm 35I don’t think much of the books or “Thirteen,” DH.
If you showed “Thirteen” to every middle school kid all they would pick up on this girls with older guys, and premature sexual behavior, not the ending moral. The movie made destructive behavior “cool” and that was the message. The only way to show that behavior is negative is to make the girls fat, ugly, and unwanted by guys and unpopular at school at the end. THAT resonates to 12-13 year old girls. Hardwicke knows this too .. she glamorized stupidity.
The books are really all about a High School girl who wants a much older guy, and wants to wield sexual power over him (the two do everything but intercourse to the point where it’s moot anyway) and remain a young and beautiful and irresponsible teen-ager forever. Sex without pregnancy or chance of disease, with a powerful, dominant, older guy who looks “hot” and young. Who is also an uber-Bad Boy.
I could not think of a more profoundly STUPID and disastrous message to send to young girls. Teen agers get most of their moral and life-lesson guidance from peers and the media. Girls in particular need lots of guidance and lessons to avoid bad boys, sex in their teens, impulsive behavior, over-estimating their beauty and power over men, and accomplishment through romance and romantic success instead of achievement in school, athletics, and making money (eventually).
TWILIGHT is guaranteed to create a tidal wave of life-altering stupid decisions by young girls. Pursuing bad boys and having profoundly stupid ideas about their male peers.
Boys have their own problems of course, but this is just stupid on all levels and what amounts to soft-core porn for girls. I’ve blogged about this a few weeks ago. TWILIGHT readers are the single mothers of tomorrow.
Elizabetheon 18 Nov 2008 at 5:46 pm 36Thanks Templar.
Moviebob, I should have made clear I was talking about Bram Stoker’s Dracula, (that is, the Victorian novel, not Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula which bore only cosmetic resemblance to Stoker’s novel) and the modern vampire mythos which followed from his very carefully conceptualized idea of what vampires were.
Kiton 18 Nov 2008 at 6:56 pm 37Should’ve known it would be a matter of time before whiskey pulled out another generalization, this time calling the fans of TWILIGHT the “single mothers of tomorrow.” I haven’t read ‘em, but I wonder if he has. I remember how some Christian Fundamentalists would attack Harry Potter the same way feminists attack a Michael Crichton book, by pulling events of the book out, taking them out of context, morphing the context to the point that you have Harry Potter drinking blood of the Olsen twins*. (The fact that they accussed Harry Potter of promoting satanism due to a ritual performed by the BAD GUY to resurrect and even BADDER GUY proves this)
Anyway, expect to see a post where whiskey accusses me of being Politically Correct or Stupid or Both.
*Blood drinking was a Hypebole, yes, but the distortions and cherry-picking occurred in great amounts.
Anyway, I might read the books to see if whiskey is right, or full of himself. If I think he is right, I will say so.
Ginaon 18 Nov 2008 at 8:01 pm 38The books are just terrible. (I read all four in order to review them for NRO, and we’ve discussed them pretty extensively over at the blog that I run.) It’s too bad that a series that ostensibly honors abstinence portrays such an incredibly unhealthy relationship.
whiskeyon 18 Nov 2008 at 10:33 pm 39Kit the books are indeed terrible. They are soft porn. They encourage bad choices and terrible relationships, which is already a problem among young women.
Dalrymple (you might have heard of him) wrote how his female patients, particularly his young ones, would always get into abusive relationships. One 17 year old was treated for the arm her boyfriend broke. When Dalrymple suggested that she should she reacted angrily that she could look after herself. When he replied that men were stronger than women and caution (as her own broken arm attested) was warranted, she replied that his words were “sexist.” Dalrymple’s professional, educated nurses made the same choices, too, staying with guys who abused them physically at work. They said the same things, normal decent men were “boring.”
I’ve read the books. Though there is no intercourse, pretty much everything else goes. The relationship is unhealthy, controlling, isolating. The female protagonist removes from society, her friends, family, etc. instead of engaging the world. She achieves nothing in school, sports, community work, doesn’t plan to go to College.
Young women need guidance just as much as young men. About how to spot bad guys, avoiding committing too early, focus on achievement, delaying emotional involvement until maturity, and so on. They don’t get it from the toxic entertainment-media environment and their peers.
This book will single-handedly create a slew of single mothers and girls immersed in toxic and destructive relationships. The last thing girls 13-17 need is “hey get involved with intense bad-boy controlling relationships” instead of self-worth through studies, sports, and community activities.
Sharon Fergusonon 18 Nov 2008 at 10:36 pm 40It isnt books that create the impulse for girls to go after bad-guys - its the cultural idea that the girl can CHANGE him, and the fact that a lot of young girls today do not have strong men to instruct them or guide them in ways that will prevent them from being taken advantage of by Bad Boys. Twilight apparently has tapped into that inherent impulse - but instead of condemning them, fathers should step forward and let their daughters know that bad behavior is unacceptable in a man. I think if more men stepped forward and spoke out against the bad behavior of their peers, and LIVED to be good examples, the the impulse to go after the Bad Boys will lesson. Bad Boys give the appearance of confidence and independence, of strength and fortitude. It usually is a lie, but that’s what the girls pick up on and respond to. Men love to bash the feminazis for creating a society that treats men poorly, but where are they in their families? Why have they ceded the ground? Instead of stepping up to the plate and taking back the realm of the family, they’ve sat back and let it happen. Men are still acting like dogs and women still hate it. Feminazis cultivated the lie that women can act like dogs too and get away with it and we are living the disastrous results. And yet men STILL act like dogs and shrug off their fellow male members as just being guys.
Enbrethilielon 18 Nov 2008 at 11:58 pm 41+JMJ+
Is it really pathetic of me to say that I’ve been waiting and waiting for you to mention Twilight, Harry? =P
You’ll be reviewing the movie when it comes out, too, right?
Bella isn’t too bad in the first book. In fact, she’s pretty much like my teenage sister (and I admit, myself as a teenager); so it’s clear why the target audience found her easy to relate to. She completely deteriorated in the second book, however, and I don’t think that even a great screenwriter and director could turn the sequel into a decent movie.
Big Hollywood » Blog Archive » ‘New Moon’ Trailer Arriveson 01 Jun 2009 at 4:30 pm 42[…] her debut “Thirteen,” was one of the most interesting films of 2003, and I would argue (and have), one of the most conservative of the last ten years. Her sensibility which stamped the first, […]
Johnon 01 Jun 2009 at 5:43 pm 43Concerning women thinking they can change bad boys, three comments. One is the saying, “Women marry men hoping they’ll change and men marry women hoping that they never will.” Both wind up being disappointed if they marry with those expectations. Second, having read a book on writing romance novels, one person said that the romance genre is essentially about the triumph of the female reproductive strategy, which is to trap and tame a man to be loyal. The problem is that society no longer has the social infrastructure to encourage men to go along with that side of the deal. That leads to the next saying, which I hear a lot lately, which is, “Why pay for a cow when the milk is free?” Men no longer have to earn the favors of women. They are freely given without strings.
As for vampires, I’m tired of vampires as superheroes that just can’t go out in the daylight. They are supposed to be undead damned souls who prey on humans. Take that away from them and make them romantic rogues or even good guys and there really isn’t much reason to not be one, especially if you are a night person.