Date: Sun, 18 Nov 2001 16:44:15 +1000
From: hbone <hbone-AT-optonline.net>
Subject: Re: A religion for cyborgs


Eric,

I didn't know about "Postman" influence on "The Stranger".  Glad I didn't.

After seeing the movie I read a review by a favorite critic, Andrew Sarris,
and he
spent most of his time comparing to old movies. Glad I didn't read it before
seeing
the movie.

Basically, I think the artist, writer, philosopher, should absorb technique
and history
do his/her thing, let the work "speak" for itself, as Coen Bros.
demonstrated.

Pedigrees and sources are of vital  importance to animal breeders and
spacecraft builders, and academicians, but not to us movie viewers.

regards,
Hugh

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

> P.S.  After writing the above I saw the movie:  "The Man Who Wasn't
> There". It's billed as comedy.  It is absurd and funny and sad.. If
> you're thinking ethics, its a jarring journey into a  "no-man's land"
> (in an old-fashioned military sense) or a "wasteland" as in Eliot.
>
> Hugh:
>
> I also saw the movie. I'm a big fan of the Coen brothers. For me, the
> touchstone was Camus' The Stranger which is an ironic looping in a
> number of ways.
>
> Camus acknowledged that James Cain's "The Postman Always Rings Twice"
> was a big influence on his book.  In retrospect, this is fairly easy to
> see.  Pulp fiction as an existential metaphysical thriller.
>
> Now the Coen brothers have connected both parts together again. Both a
> homage to film noir and Camus, this time the stranger is told as the
> ultimately American story it always secretly was.
>
> eric
>