Bearing Arms

Conditions: Brisk.

Freedom

As is customary with mass shootings in America, once the blood is washed off the streets the NRA have to front up for a well-deserved kicking

You might think Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of and spokesman for the mighty American gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, has an almost cosmic sense of timing. In 2007, at the NRA’s annual convention in St. Louis, he warned the crowd that, “Today, there is not one firearm owner whose freedom is secure.” Two days later, a young man opened fire on the campus of Virginia Tech, killing 32 students, staff and teachers.

Just last week, LaPierre showed up at the United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty here in New York and spoke out against what he called “anti-freedom policies that disregard American citizens’ right to self-defense.” Now at least 12 are dead in Aurora, Colorado, gunned down at a showing of the new film, The Dark Knight Rises, a Batman movie filled with make-believe violence. One of the guns the shooter used was an AK-47 type assault weapon that was banned in 1994. The ban ran out in 2004.

- truth-out.org/opinion/

So, easy. NRA bad. Guns bad. America stupid. But there’s more to this tragedy than just easily attainable weapons and lax security. There’s a culture at work here, an attitude, an outlook, a way of life that has greatly contributed to this latest attack. What triggers these people? Where does it come from, to make them them seek out weapons and use them indiscrimanately?


Film Review: Snow White and the Huntsman

Next up in the Summer of Princesses is the retelling of the old Snow White fable. And to start with, things are pretty canon. After Pure-of-heart Snow White's mother dies, a beautiful woman shows up, marries the king and becomes the new queen. Then the king dies and poor Snow White is kept prisoner in the evil witch's castle. But once she escapes, things become a little different. Turns out the evil queen stays young by consuming the youth of other people, and the mirror, which is sort of a golden walking talking T-1000, tells her that eating Snow's heart will make her immortal. So she's very much wanting her back. Snow is hunted by the Huntsman through an evil forrest, but of course the Huntsman then decides to help her get to a rival kingdom where she can raise an army to take back her own. Then the dwarves show up, and they decide to help her too. After a little apple-poisoning, we're in full Joan of Arc mode as Snow and the rest armour up and storm the evil castle to take on the evil queen.

The biggest problem I have with this film is how cold it is. The characters are cold. The music is cold. The scenery is cold. Everything about this film is cold and lifeless. And that is a poison of it's own, that works it's way out of the screen and into the audience. We need to care about these people, but the relentless icy-coldness of the whole endeavour just keeps putting you off. Also, it's almost like the music composer and the cinematographer were just on the wrong page of the script to everyone else.

I'm not entirely sure about Kristen Stewart, either, playing a decidedly blank and "focused" Snow White. Sure, her character has been through a lot, and she's been a shut-in since she was a kid, but still, there's something a little too blank going on and I'm not fully convinced it's down to dialouge and plot. For a film that is being very deliberate about how tough it's princess is, it's odd that it ends up with two potential love interests, and in the end neither one says anything to the other, and Snow ignores the pair of them. Not good, not bad, just odd. Ultimately, despite Charlize Theron's best attempts at pumping life into this thing, it's really a frozen mishmash of potential that never engages. Two hearts out of five.


- Peace out