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[ by Charles Cameron — Anonymous use of sound clips from movies ]
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Taste in movies varies. As the Hollywood Reporter reported just the other day:

Orson Welles‘ Citizen Kane no longer enjoys the moniker of greatest film of all time, a plaudit it has held for 50 years. The movie has occupied top billing in the British Film Institute-published magazine Sight & Sound‘s once-a-decade international critics’ film poll since 1962. But that crown, according to Sight & Sound‘s 2012 survey of 846 movie experts who participate, has now passed to Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo.

I thought it might be interesting to look at the recently released Anonymous YouTube video encouraging people to do whatever it is they do — “only you know what is right for yourself” — at the Republican National Convention.

To see where their taste in movies takes us.

I’ll include a few screen shots and some of their own techno-voice commentary, but it’s only the borrowed clips I’m really after — taking a look at what they choose to quote, what they leave out, and where there may be questionable truths or conflicting assertions.

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Their opening line is:

Greetings, world. We are Anonymous.

Then, over some chest-thumping music, one of those rotating globe thingies that let’s you know what’s coming next is Important — the Onion has a good one — resolves into the Anonymous question mark logo:

A techno-voice speaks:

We are not terrorists, but are your greatest allies. We wish to liberate you from suppression and oppression, and no matter how many of us fall in battle, Anonymous cannot be defeated. We are Anonymous, we are legion, we do not forgive, we do not forget. Expect us.

Then, in white text over some groovy graphics:

Each of us has our own path but each of us share the same goal… a free Humanity. Together we stand…

The groovy graphics then add a small inset frame from Tonight, on CNN Presents, very cool:

The clip has some neat journo-thrilled-to-be-important-speak:

Anonymous — they live in the shadows.

an (anonymous) quote:

This is the closest thing to a global revolution that we have ever gotten.

and more journo-thrill:

But their message and tactics have ignited a movement around the world.

We then cut, after some thunder-like sounds, to a mechanical nodding and smiling anonymask speaking in techno-voice:

We are the ideology of truth , we are uncompromising, we are the most powerful underground resistance the world has ever seen. We were once a minority but now we are the majority. No matter how hard they try they cannot stop us now.

It’s right around here that things get filmic.

We have Al Pacino as Tony D’Amato in Any given Sunday, voice over:

We’re in hell right now, gentlemen. Believe me. And, we can stay here, get the ** kicked out of us, or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb outta hell… one inch at a time.

More of the mech-nodding techno-voice:

We all are angry, very very angry…

Which segues nicely into Peter Finch as Howard Beale in Paddy Chayevsky‘s Network saying, over images of one guy jumping on the roof of a cop car and others smashing the windows:

I want you to get mad! … First you’ve got to get mad. You’ve got to say, ‘I’m a HUMAN BEING, God damn it! My life has VALUE!’ … I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, ‘I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!’

Classic!

More inspirational movie sound clips follow in voice over.

There’s Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa in Rocky Balboa:

But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! Now if you know what you’re worth then go out and get what you’re worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits,

Vince Lombardi — I’m not sure where this one comes from, a newsreel perhaps?

I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious

Winston Churchill — yes, the late military historian and Conservative Prime Minister of the undaunted British, addressing the boys of Harrow (a private school roughly equivalent to Phillips Academy or Groton in the US):

Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

— spoken with true British upper-class schoolboy fortitude!

Then we go back back to Anonymous’ own text, noting that “main stream news media”:

have labeled us all as domestic terrorists. We are here to tell the public to not be afraid of Anonymous, to not be afraid of Black Block or [techno-mumble] Block. Our aim is not to cause violence to the public. We are no danger at all to American citizens. The people of america need to know we are on their side. We fight for true freedom, we take a stand for the hungry, the poor, the suffering citizens of this country, who are sick of politicians doing what they please at our expense.

The only difference between us and protesters of the past is that we believe in fighting for our rights. We indeed are not pacifistic: if the oppressors fight us we will fight back ten-fold. … Do not believe the lies your government feeds you. Instead, join us at RNC and take a stand with us. United by one, divided by zero.

Okay, that’s the invitation. And then, whoosh back into an American (I suppose you might say) equivalent to the Churchill news clip — this one from MLK, complete with the original visual:

I have a dream, that one day this nation will rise up..

Another classic! But we’ll talk about that a bit later.

Next up, over video of cops in riot gear, we have Will Smith as Christopher Gardner in The Pursuit of Happyness:

Don’t ever let somebody tell you… You can’t do something. [ … ] You got a dream… You gotta protect it. People can’t do somethin’ themselves, they wanna tell you you can’t do it. If you want somethin’, go get it. Period.

And Kurt Russell as Herb Brooks in Miracle, over an image of the streets aflame:

Great moments, are born from great opportunity. And that’s what you have here, tonight.

Okay, we’re coming to the close. The music shifts to some semi-classical piano, and the nodding technanonymity says a few words… then, over some tranquil shots of the globe we live on…

Billy Bob Thornton as Coach Gaines in Friday Night Lights tells us:

Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye and know that you didn’t let them down, because you told them the truth. And that truth is that you did everything that you could. There wasn’t one more thing that you could’ve done.

Can you live in that moment, as best you can, with clear eyes and love in your heart? With joy in your heart?

Fade…

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Okay, we got — what? American football, boxing, hockey, a Conservative politician, a non-violent Civil Rights leader, a salesman-entrepreneur, lots of police and rioting, no military that I could detect, unless you count Churchill’s speech…

Funnily enough, V for Vendetta (image at the top of the post) isn’t among the movies they’ve clipped from, although the Anonymous mask is a Vendetta Guy Fawkes mask.

Interesting that in the quote from Network, after the words “I want you to get mad!” and before “first you’ve got to get mad” they’ve omitted the words:

I don’t want you to protest. I don’t want you to riot…

Funny that in quoting Any Given Sunday, they chose a version that has “shit” bleeped out of the soundtrack, so Pacino says:

We’re in hell right now, gentlemen. Believe me. And, we can stay here, get the ** kicked out of us, or we can fight our way back into the light…

Funny that they say:

The only difference between us and protesters of the past is that we believe in fighting for our rights. We indeed are not pacifistic: if the oppressors fight us we will fight back ten-fold.

and then quote Martin Luther King Jr, the Gandhian practitioner of satyagraha…

Funny that they say, “now we are the majority” and a little later, “we can not win this fight alone”.

Ooh! And that’s a great (math) line at the end, though I don’t know quite what it means:

United by one, divided by zero.

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I’m more of a Gandhian, pacifistic, lay down on my back and let them roll over me, foolish school myself — and I don’t watch many sports movies, so I wasn’t the ideal target audience here.

The Martin Luther King speech might just take my “best documentary” award. And I’m with the critics on Vertigo.

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Look, you close with the question:

Can you live in that moment, as best you can, with clear eyes and love in your heart? With joy in your heart?

While you are “very, very angry”? I don’t know, I’m inclined to doubt it. But I’m pretty sure that if, as you claim, you “don’t forgive” you can’t.

That’s just not the way “love in your heart” works.

[ by Charles Cameron — Hindutva vs Ghazwa-e-Hind, India vs Pakistan, battle of the girl orators, flags flying in the other guy’s capital, Zaid Hamid, erased from the map, what have I missed? ]
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For starters, when I saw the blurry headlines under 13-year-old Sadhwi Balika Saraswati‘s speech to a Vishwa Hindu Parishad gathering, I wasn’t sure whether to pair her speech with Zaid Hamid‘s image of the Pakistani flag flying over Delhi’s Red Fort:

or with the Ayatollah Khamenei‘s recent statement about the “fake” Zionist regime disappearing from the “landscape of geography”:

I mean, there are parallels there, and differences, in each case.

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And then, when I did a little more digging, all hell broke metaphorically loose, and I couldn’t get enough tabs on my browser to hold all the videos I seemed to want to check out.

I’ve combed through my history and sorted things out now, so I can point you, for starters, to:

13 yr old Hindu girl speaks out against Anti-India forces at a VHP rally — a Youtube video of the relevant part of her speech with English subtitles. You can read a transcript of the speech — missing all the excitement — here. And to give you an idea of its (relative) popularity, one YouTube version of this speech without subtitles, has had 410,535 views, with 1,503 likes and 1,589 dislikes, while another has had 200,964 views, with 801 likes and 491 dislikes… Bear in mind, though, that the Indian population exceeds one billion.

A Pakistani girl replies to 13 yr old Hindu girl who spoke against pakistan — sadly, no subtitles here, but at least it’s a response from someone of roughly equivalent age..

Reply to bajrangdal’s girl by Zaid Hamid which is also interesting, as he’s the spokes-guy for the Ghazwa-e-Hind idea…

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Which in turn brought me back to thinking once again about the Ghazwa, and:

Ghazwa-e-Hind is our destiny — Zaid Hamid himself addressing the topic (posted this month) — “and we invite the Muslims from Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey and the rest of the Muslim world to come and join us in the fulfilment of this most fascinating destiny which awaits us now: recapturing of India.”

Ghazwa-e-Hind Hadith Explaination — the picture is very blurry , is that our old friend Sheikh Imran Hosein, perhaps? — and

Ghazwa-e-Hind By Dr Israr Ahmed

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I’m afraid Zaid Hamid wouldn’t be satisfied with India alone, though:

That’s him, top left, overseeing everything.

Oh, and for good measure, here’s a humorous response to Hamid, zaid hamid latest about india — featuring a barking dog.

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Look, I don’t think Pakistan is about to capture India, or vice versa, any time soon.

If the two countries feel the need to face off, I hope they will limit themselves to a little ritual drama and some fierce stares, and they do every day in the border ceremonial at Wagah:

Beyond that, I’m an advocate for conflict-resolution and peace-making.

What I do think is that undercurrents of the kind found in the incendiary rhetoric of both sides are worth the attention of analysts.

[ by Charles Cameron — the Truce, great gospel music, and athletes in ads in slomo — a personal view ]
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If there are two things about the Olympics I like, they would be the Olympic Truce, and athletes in slow motion.

Here’s what the IOC’s site has to say about the Truce:

The tradition of the “Truce” or “Ekecheiria” was established in ancient Greece in the 9th century BC by the signature of a treaty between three kings. During the Truce period, the athletes, artists and their families, as well as ordinary pilgrims, could travel in total safety to participate in or attend the Olympic Games and return afterwards to their respective countries

and it’s relevance today:

Taking into account the global context in which sport and the Olympic Games exist, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to revive the ancient concept of the Olympic Truce with the view to protecting, as far as possible, the interests of the athletes and sport in general, and to encourage searching for peaceful and diplomatic solutions to the conflicts around the world.

Through this global and symbolic concept, the IOC aims to :

• mobilise youth for the promotion of the Olympic ideals;
• use sport to establish contacts between communities in conflict; and
• offer humanitarian support in countries at war ; and more generally :
• to create a window of opportunities for dialogue and reconciliation.

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To be honest, I don’t care in the least what human runs fastest or jumps highest, and if I did I wouldn’t have a huge investment in what territory he or she comes from or lives in.

The Games are the Games though, they affect people’s lives, and are affected by them. I have, here in my room, a copy of the official book of the 1936 Games which I picked up in a swap meet for a dollar or two:

American Olympic Committee Report, 1936, Games of the XIth Olympiad, Berlin

Somewhere, also, I have the official English playbook for the 1934 Oberammergau Passion Play — two stark reminders of how we are sometimes suborned from the better angels of our nature by the worse…

If I have a minute of silence, then, it is for the Israeli athletes killed at the 1972 Munich Games.

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breath,
breath

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Again, corporate sponsorships, banking industries and advertising are not generally among my favored interests, but slow motion is — and while I care little for the athletic record-setting and patriotic rivalrous sides of the Olympics, great athletes are often beautiful, something the Greek sculptors understood, and slomo can capture that beauty for us.

Besides, I have always been a fan of Morgan Freeman, ever since I heard him play the role of the Preacher opposite Clarence Fountain in Gospel at Colonus — undoubtedly the most joyous theatrical experience of my life…

Here to give you a taste is Freeman’s opening sermon:

and perhaps the most audacious musical moment of all, the great battle of the bands as Oedipus attempts to enter Colonus:

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breath,
breath

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Here, then, are three VISA ads for the Games this year, accompanied by that unmistakable Freeman voice, and offered here for the beauty, sheer joy and creative excellence they present.

First, the audience speaking to the heart of the athlete — itself a remarkable insight:

Second, the way running itself runs like a thread through the life of Lopez Lomong:

And third, the difference a hundredth of a second makes — and again, the roar of the crowd:

That last clip has Morgan Freeman saying:

A hundredth of a second – it’s faster than the blink of an eye, faster than a flash of lightning – and it was the difference between Michael Phelps winning eight gold medals instead of seven – a hundredth of a second – just think of the cheers if lightning strikes twice!

I know — that’s the speed thing, not the beauty thing. And I’m an ideas man — an aesthetic man, not an athletic man.

So I take my long jumps sideways, in the mind…

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Wikipedia tells us:

US National Park Ranger Roy Sullivan has the record for being struck by lightning the most times. Sullivan was struck seven times during his 35-year career. He lost the nail on one of his big toes, and suffered multiple injuries to the rest of his body

Again I think of the poet Randall Jarrell, whom I quoted here not so long ago as saying:

A good poet is someone who manages, in a lifetime of standing out in thunderstorms, to be struck by lightning five or six times; a dozen or two dozen times and he is great.

Only the Muse knows what damage that does to the poet’s mind.

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breath,
breath

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To sum up:

If I were God — and friends, that’s not in nay way a risk we need to concern ourselves about, flat out impossible — I would be watching the Olympics in slomo from a dozen angles simultaneously, without commentators.

And I’d be praying everyone world-wide would take the Truce as seriously as the Games.

[ by Charles Cameron — on war, life and death, IEDs, Carl Prine, prayer ]
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People in general — Americans, British, Israelis, Iranians, Japanese, people from all over — don’t much like the idea of having an atom split right in their faces. But the problem isn’t necessarily so much the splitting of the atom, a technical feat which can be accomplished safely in, say, the heart of the sun — it’s the splitting of life from body, the work of a split second.

Which can also be accomplished by IED.

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I’ve split these two images, both drawn from the same video one second apart, to give myself the fraying edges of a visceral sense of what that separation of life from body might be about.

See how little the car, bottom left, has advanced between the first image and the second.

The video the two images come from is embedded in Michael Yon‘s tribute to Carl Prine. I’d have embedded the video here myself if I could, but it’s in Vimeo rather than YouTube, and either because I’m incompetent or because Vimeo isn’t set up that way, I couldn’t figure out how to do the embed.

The Marine who sent Yon the video wrote:

This is the type of explosion that our troops are dealing with, not the puny kind we see on television or in the movies. Pass this on… so Americans will now understand what an IED truly is… and what our war veterans are dealing with.

Click on the link in red above if you haven’t already seen the movie nor lived through the event, and get that edge of a visceral sense — like a second-cousin-once-removed of the real thing.

My thoughts and prayers are with Carl Prine and all those battle-scarred in body, mind and soul.

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One second passes between the first screen-grab and the second: time enough to sneeze, but not time enough to respond, “God Bless you”.

Life and death: a snapshot, a split second.

[ by Charles Cameron — importance of social media ]
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h/t @caidid — on Twitter, naturally!