CMT - Scarface ('83)

Of all the sins that Scarface committed, the one that ruined him was pride. He did hurt and humiliate people, but he made the mistake of thinking they were beneath him. I assume it's a common trap when you're rich and powerful, but don't let status blind you to the rest of the world. There are millions of others without the same success, and that means they have a million things to teach you.

Let's say there's someone you can't stand; you hate the sound of their voice and the stupid grin on their face. Naturally, you want to dismiss whatever they say, but doing so could be the last thing you do. Consider the words of your worst enemy. We must learn from others to survive.

Classic Movie Trailers - Scarface (1983)

Do you want to know your chances at winning the lottery? That depends on where you live, but let's use an example. To hit the New York jackpot you have to be very fortunate; the honor goes to one person in two-hundred and sixty million.

It's a pretty harsh reality for all of the dreamers, but people spend a lot of money chasing that dream. I'd wager that almost all ticket buyers, put more into the pot than they'll ever get out of it. They might be aware of the terrible odds, but the numbers racket is still big business. Maybe they think they're different or special; so how lucky do you think you are?

Al Capone died in prison. Pablo Escobar was shot and killed. Gotti died of cancer while serving a life sentence. None of these are very happy endings.

If you sit down and examine these gangsters, you'll find they were famous in their own time. Escobar was very generous to the poor. Al would kill for any reason and John was flamboyant. It's not like they were using pseudonyms; everyone knew who they were and what they did.

What kept them out of jail was lack of evidence and people too scared, or too dead to testify. Authorities worked against the intimidation, and all of them were eventually caught. I have to wonder how events would have turned out, if the cops didn't know the face of the enemy. Instead, the mobsters created notoriety, and they worked against their interests doing so. 

Who knows about John Gotti's second in command? What about the third, or fourth man down? A guy like that could be calling the shots now, and if he's smart he's doing it from the shadows. All we should know about is nicknames and rumors; everything else should be shrouded in mystery.

Career criminals don't ride in Lamborghinis. If you want to be in drugs long-term, you drive a PT Cruiser and shop at WalMart. Any position of power comes with sworn enemies. There's no need to let us know that you're the puppeteer.

Of course, that wasn't enough for Tony Montana. He wanted the world, and he wanted the world to know it was his. If he liked anything he tried to take it, and he would look into your eyes and dare you to stop him. The man bought a tiger because he could do it, and he thought he could sell and use at the same time.

Think about why he dismissed Frank's advice; he didn't like the messenger, but that wasn't all. Even more than that, he hated the message. It was shooting down his dreams with a reality check.

If you live to be the boss of all bosses, you'll be lucky to survive the week. But if you can retire and evade police, congratulate yourself on winning the lottery. I don't think there's a bigger jackpot anywhere.

Trailer Here.

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@ChannelSeals

See "Scarface" on Netflix!

Next Week: Bye Week - No post on 5/31

Monday, June 6th: CMT - Escape to Witch Mountain (76% fresh and laughably bad).

CMT - The Warriors

What if you're alone in the big city? What if uncertainty was everywhere you looked? Maybe your neighbor will give good directions, or maybe they will send you into a trap. When lies are more common than the truth, normal interactions can be dangerous.

There is credible safety to be found in numbers. You can't control the outside world, but you can choose your friends. With enough guys that are watching your back, people will move on and pick easier targets. So gangbanging isn't about crime; gang members sign up to survive.

Your brother isn't going to set up your mugging. Your brother will have the guts, to tell it to you straight. Any fight with you involved is his fight too, and you can sleep peacefully with him around. If you decide to up and leave your brother one day, he won't hunt you down and shoot you in the face.

Classic Movie Trailers - The Warriors (1979)

In film, we see a lot of gang activity. There are plenty of drugs, plenty of crime and more than enough violence. I took a different impression away from "The Warriors", and it's the idea that gangs are constantly running. They flee the police and they flee bigger gangs, who both pose the biggest threats to their lifestyle.

Some groups are big enough to stay together in prison, but the institution is designed to break people up. If you can't wear your colors or throw your signs, you'll find that you're alone, in a dangerous situation. People segregate inside for a reason. They form groups they're comfortable with, until they can rejoin their own.

Of course, there's no guarantee they ever will. If they make it to the penitentiary, they're actually lucky to do so. Ironically, most of them would willingly die for their colors. It's a positive attitude, when you don't have a choice.

Let's think about the circumstances here. Without a group of people there is no gang. If everyone could walk away easily, the outfit wouldn't have any power. So they label them "traitors" and "deserters", to hide their fears and justify their actions.

A lot of them joined at a very young age, and their group is the only protection they know. If you were in danger of losing that security, how could you start over and trust someone else? Joining another gang is like joining another family. They're unproven, untested and untrustworthy.

Who is going to be there when you're slow on the draw? Who is going to battle when you're surrounded? They say that a gun is the best defense, but it just isn't enough in some neighborhoods.

I imagine the life to be one of terror. Everything you depend on is threatened every moment. There is some assurance about your safety at home, but it applies in your turf and nowhere else. Still, you can be free from betrayal and deception; all you need to do is surrender your freedom.


Trailer Here.

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@ChannelSeals

See "The Warriors" on Netflix!

Next week: Al Pacino in "Scarface".

CMT - The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Power is like money; people don't care how you get it. What matters is the status they grant you and not how that status was attained. At the end of the day, two rich and powerful men, are equal regardless of their history. You can build a business with hours of hard work, or you can finance it with grand larceny.

Minecraft “Notch” and rapper Jay-Z, could sit and break bread at the same table. They both acquired an enormous fortune, and it's safe to say they earned it. The only big difference between the artists, is that one of them started outside the law. It's hard to tell when they're in a hotel, and club owners offer them the same luxuries. So the ends always justify the means, but sometimes death is justified too.

Classic Movie Trailers – The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

Have you ever had a boss that didn't follow his own rules? Have you ever seen one disregarding restrictions? You can ask workers to shut off their phones, but there's always an excuse, so the manager doesn't have to. Sometimes, there are valid reasons for exemptions, but most of the time it's “do as I say and not as I do”.

The manager I'm talking about is a bully in disguise. Their power places them above others. If you look closely you can find a lot of bullies; some are in jail and some are in public office. If you want an extreme case of the subject, take a look at any dictator.

A ruler doesn't kill subjects to do them good. A ruler kills to crush dissent. If the dictator was acting in the interests of everyone, there wouldn't have been dissent in the first place. Yet no one can deny the situation; heads of state have no pretenders to the throne. If they attained office without the majority vote, it doesn't matter at the end of the day.

What does matter, is the power to get away with murder. They can disregard the rules and nothing happens to them. In the old west, these men were thieves and bandits, but some of them were sheriffs, mayors or senators. They can threaten your lifestyle or threaten your life, but all of them are bullies, regardless of how they do it.

The hold on the situation is always tenuous. Fear is never the greatest motivator. It does work for a while, but if it did so indefinitely, there wouldn't be such a thing as revolution. If you go and check history, you'll find that those are common enough.

You can't threaten to shoot people, or throw your weight around, and expect that it'll stay that way forever. A lot of people will steer clear of you, but others will eventually stand in your way. It could end in a shoot out by the saloon, or it could turn into a civil war. One thing you can definitely be sure of, is that nothing is stable forever.

War crimes are punished, in court or otherwise. Liars dodge the consequences, but it's only a temporary stay. So there is a difference between the rich and powerful, but for a time it's hard to notice it. If you do wonder about someone, consider how they died and the number of people mourning them.

Trailer Here.

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@ChannelSeals

See “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” on Netflix!

Next Week “The Warriors” (1979)

CMT Trainspotting

According to Wikipedia, a character arc “is the transformation or inner journey of a character over the course of a story.” You may not realize it, but character arcs are the most essential parts of fiction. In order for us to stay interested, the protagonist has to face challenges. If they're not forced to become another person, then those challenges aren't challenging enough.

Everyone is a product of nature and nurture; half of who we are is determined by our environment. Once we are comfortable with our identities, we hold onto them with everything we have. It takes a constant wave of pressure and tragedy, to get us to think twice about ourselves. So when someone is edging toward the brink and they can't continue the life they're used to, it's a traumatizing experience for them, and it fascinates those of us watching it.

Sadism isn't the only attraction for people. We can be gripped with genuine concern. More importantly, there is a curiosity that's strong enough, to tie us to our seats. The next plot point can be entertaining enough, but we want to see how the characters react to them.

Classic Movie Trailers – Trainspotting (1996)

There is a reason why people act the way they do. There is a reason why we can be so obstinate. You can state a hundred indisputable facts, but some people will refuse to believe them. You can have a life threatening heart attack, but that doesn't mean you'll diet and exercise. Even in the face of mortal consequences, change is a hurdle that we just can't manage.

We spend years being who we are, and who we are isn't perfect. Our lives have good things that we are proud of, but there are other things that we'd rather leave behind. The positives and negatives are fused together, and a monumental force is needed to separate them.

I'm living with things I experienced as a child, even though I don't remember them. Try to unlearn something you accepted as a preteen, and you might find that it takes the rest of your life. Humans are capable of dismissing evidence, and we can jump through an endless path of mental hoops. It's easier to adopt a popular lie, than it is to agree with the truth, because that truth means change.

We can leave our homes and jobs, to go somewhere else. We can leave the people around us and go to another group. We can blame the blameless and leave every relationship, before we can leave who we are today. So yes, people know the right thing to do, but that doesn't mean they're capable of doing it.

Addiction is an involuntary change. We can choose the drug but we don't choose dependency. Ultimately the problem isn't the high they give us, the problem is the change required to walk away. We already have a strong mental resistance, but drugs make change a physical conflict, that escalates into war.

Many people never survive the battle. Many more are killed, before they start fighting. Some are lucky enough to win the change they needed, but they live in constant fear of losing to their past. You can learn every martial art that's ever been invented, but they don't help you to defeat yourself.

So we come back to TV every day. We see characters struggle, like we do in our lives. We want to know the things that help them to change, and we want to know how they finally do it. We take inspiration and hope from stories, even when our lives seem utterly hopeless.

No one wants to see someone stuck in a rut; we want to see the triumph that we are capable of. Even if success proves to be short lived, there's satisfaction when we see it happen. Fiction is life, with the dull bits taken out, and life is always a battle for change.

Trailer Here.

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@ChannelSeals

See “Trainspotting” on Netflix!

Next week: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance