Jack Nicholson and Koyaanisqatsi

I have been accepting my penance for neglecting the blog and have been watching a bunch of movies. While watching Chinatown I was reminded just how much I like Jack Nicholson's acting. The scene in Chinatown that brought this to mind is when he is telling a joke and cackling after the punchline while Evelyn Mulwray stands behind him. There is something about his intensity that I don't think other actors can come close to. All of his movies allow him to showcase this intensity perfectly. Even people that haven't seen The Shining can relate to this image.



Even his performance recently in The Departed had the same amount of craziness. His ability to act intimidating was perfect for a Boston crime boss. It is completely believable to me that Jack Nicholson could take several shots from Matt Damon, play dead for several seconds and sit up briefly to fire a few more times just before dying simply to terrify his opponent. Even his appearance at Lakers games is entertaining to me. Seeing him sitting court side and standing up to step onto the court at questionable calls by the refs is hilarious.

Another film I watched is Koyaanisqatsi. Francis Ford Coppolla's experimental film that features no dialogue and interesting time lapse shots of civilization. I didn't know what to expect going into the movie but after watching it I believe that it was one of the most powerful films I have seen. The overall tone of the film is that human civilization is unsustainable and our behavior is quickly destroying the planet. Filmed in 1982 it is far beyond its time and it was released way before it was cool to be green. It also came out 24 years before An Inconvenient Truth, made about 47 million dollars less, and unlike Al Gore Coppolla didn't win a Nobel Peace Prize. But I found Koyaanisqatsi to be much much more powerful than Al Gore's production. Its message that humans are messing up is delivered without a single word, graph, chart, politician, or image of cute animals suffering. I suggest that everyone check it out as it is available for free on YouTube.

I would also like to agree with Andrew's post. I feel as though school often diminishes my creativity and replaces it with stress and frustration.