I’ve written and reblogged a lot of stuff about Fury Road’s style of action, the way it lets its female characters be bloody, dirty and angry, and the way it takes violenceseriously.
This is obviously a stylistic choice, but it’s only possible because the movie is rated R (no children under 17 without an adult) in the American rating system.
The MPAA rating system is ludicrous and arbitrary in many ways; getting into all that is beyond the scope of this post. (For a good expose, check out the documentary This Film is Not Yet Rated.)
The vast majority of blockbuster action movies Hollywood releases today are rated PG-13. Getting into the history of why that’s the case is also beyond the scope of this post, because it has to do with the rise of the blockbuster model of cinema and how the film industry has changed over the past 30 years. (This article is a good primer, though.) The TL;DR is that studios want teenagers (implicitly, teenage boys) to be able to go see big-budget action movies with or without their parents, because $$$. So they must be rated PG-13.
This puts constraints on what you can show in terms of violence, but not necessarily the ones you might expect.
Return of the King, in which armies slaughter each other on the plains of Pelennor Fields by the thousands? PG-13.
Every movie in the Jurassic Park franchise, in which dinosaurs repeatedly eat people? PG-13.
The first cut of The Avengers was given an R rating–not for any of the scenes where midtown Manhattan gets smashed to rubble in a battle between superheroes and aliens, but for the scene where Loki stabs Coulson. (Seeing the blade come out of Coulson’s torso was apparently the dividing line between PG-13 and R, which seems pretty arbitrary since the PG-13 Lord of the Rings franchise has plenty of impalements. The scene was re-cut to get a PG-13 rating.)
While each of the examples above is slightly different in terms of what it does and doesn’t show in terms of violence, there’s a particular style of bloodless mass destruction that’s become a mainstay of a lot of PG-13 action, particularly many superhero movies. You can smash whole cities in battles in which thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of people die, but if you don’t show any blood or bodies? PG-13.
While Fury Road is actually quite restrained compared to how gory it could be, given everything that happens in the course of the movie, it has violence that mostly actually looks real. People bleed when they get hurt or killed; injuries that should be life-threatening actually are; and there are a few moments that are, I would say, appropriately gross. The movie sometimes bends the rules (Max really should have some blood on his forehead from the bolt he almost gets impaled with) but for the most part, the violence looks like it’s actually violent. It has consequences.
It’s a matter of personal taste, but I much prefer this kind of violence. But while there are R-rated action franchises (The Matrix) and R-rated recent installments of older franchises (Prometheus; the latest Die Hard), R-rated action movies–ie., action movies made explicitly for adults–are considered somewhat of a financial risk in Hollywood. Which is too bad, because Fury Road made me want more of them.
ugh like just imagine if Remus was able to keep his job as the Defense teacher
him staying and teaching Harry old marauder tricks
such as how to avoid patrols
at first Remus is all “Harry, be a good student, you have a lot of potential, do your work”
but with a little bit of coaxing from Harry he soon is teaching him how Filch can’t see as well with his right eye and what charms go undetected from him to slip past
and how Mrs. Norris is a sucker for sugar quills
and then Sirius visiting the pair, staying with Remus in his teacher dormitories so he can get to know his godson
completely under the radar though, Dumbledore’s cool with it though
He’s introduced as Remus’s dogs, Snuffles of course and he gets plenty of attention from students in between classes,
“OH MERLIN AND AGRIPPA IF THAT ISN’T THE CUTEST DOG I’VE EVER SEEN” Lavender screamed as she runs to hug the dog and Parvati keeps scratching his ears, Remus just chuckles
Remus always seems to chuckle when people are very friendly with his dog and the students aren’t quite sure why
Harry and Ron always make fun of him because of it
Sirius being used in muggle studies during the typical pets and pet care chapter and showing off all his tricks
Remus happy because this is James’ and merlin he had always wanted to watch him grow up
They all walk down to Hagrid’s together for rock cakes and tea sometimes
Remus being the best defense teacher anyone’s ever seen
the class is interesting and interactive and it’s easily everyone’s favorite class, people who don’t even need the class take it always
Dumbledore actually has to move some things around because every student signs up their 7th year even when they don’t have to
but its okay because wow look at Remus’s smile
he never used to smile this much
Sirius also has a chance to get out of the house, out of grimmauld place away from his screaming mother’s portrait
we have people of colour, badass ladies, badass disabled people, can there be more?
yes, yes there can because as far as i can tell our leads are working class.
“Safe zones that only the rich and powerful can buy their way into” [Pentecost] said. “What about the rest?“
i’m going off both the movie and the novelisation here, but let’s start with stacker pentecost, and idris elba. idris elba is from one of the poorest areas of london, and he has an Accent, which he uses for stacker. that alone is an argument, but according to the novelisation, stacker is from tottenham.
Born December 30 1985, Tottenham, England. Parents Obadel, laborer, and Viviane, club performer. Family loosely involved with organized crime. Father died 1995 of wounds suffered in a knife fight with nightclub owner. Stacker, then 12, burned the club down and attacked father’s killer. Sent to ministry school, realized suitability for military service.
i don’t know how canon this is now, since it doesn’t mention his sister luna at all but jesus christ can you get more working class, particularly london working class and black. and even if that’s not canon his family are military which often attracts working class kids, if not outright targeting them.
and this is the guy who saves the world, because pacific rim might be about how you need to work together and have meaningful connections, but pentecost keeps the jaeger programme together, a black, working class man from a potentially criminal family depending on how canonical the novel is, who probably has a criminal record, this is the leader of the resistance, because he won’t let poor people be crushed by the kaiju, he will not stop defending the entire fucking planet, he’s literally a christ figure he had a HALO, his last name is PENTECOST. and he’s still educated and culturally sensitive and obviously a great dad and a good fucking person
and then for raleigh, charlie hunnam is from newcastle and while he’s playing an american he’s using the same accent he’s used to play white trash jax teller. i’m going to steal from postcard actually, because charlie hunnam’s current accent is ‘two mixed-together accents both of which are almost exclusively found in the way they sound in his mouth on shaggy-haired filthy men in biker gangs’. the novelisation says his family have been to a lot of different countries but he still doesn’t feel not working class? so maybe there’s military there; or a fic suggested an embassy worker parent. and then obviously there’s his predisposition towards construction, and just his general everything. also, again, working class person who is culturally sensitive and emotionally sensitive and a good fucking person.
i don’t feel comfortable analysing mako’s class background in depth, because i’m white and english and know fuck all about japanese class systems, but her dad was a swordmaker, which is the definition of working with your hands, at least and she lived in a small village, and had never been to toyko before she was there when onibaba attacked. and then she was raised by stacker, of the aforementioned background.
the point of this post is WORKING CLASS PEOPLE OF COLOUR SAVE THE WORLD, ACCOMPANIED BY THE ONE DECENT WHITE DUDE WHO IS ALSO WORKING CLASS, AND DISABLED SCIENTISTS WHO ARE HUGELY IMPORTANT IN THE WORLD SAVING, NO REALLY WHERE DID THIS FILM COME FROM
yeah like i’ve wanted to say for a while that i’m OBSESSED with stacker pentecost’s ‘today we are cancelling the apocalypse’ speech because his speech patterns are 100% working class london — cancellin’, not cancelling — and there are very, very few films that give a speech of such gravitas and importance to someone who is allowed to keep non-RP speech patterns like that if they’re british
and this really matters, guys. it matters if you’ve gone to see english-language films all of your life, often with british actors in them, and you’ve basically never heard anyone who sounds like you in them. and idris elba not only gets to be that person, he gets to be the leader. the messiah figure of the jaegar program drops his g’s, he sounds like he’s from a council estate in hackney, he gets to be not only a figure of authority but a figure of inspiration and of hope. that’s fucking HUGE. i’d be really, really hard-pushed to give you more than a few examples of hollywood films with british actors in any role that’s even remotely comparable.
I want to write a fic where Lilo goes to college and her roommate is Boo from Monsters Inc. Boo is the first person to think Stitch is adorable and cuddly, and Lilo is the first person not to act like “Mike Wazowski” was a weird name for a goldfish. They get on like a house on fire which is kind of bad for Nani’s blood pressure.
But then one night they wake up in the middle of the night because something is in their closet. And the door starts to creak open so Stitch tackles whoever (whatever) is in there. They fall back into the closet, the door slams shut… and when Lilo runs over and opens it there’s nothing but an empty closet.
Then Boo tells Lilo all about this weird thing that happened to her when she was a kid, and how no one ever believed her but she knows it was real.
And cue Lilo and Boo busting into the Monster world to rescue Stitch and wreaking mad havoc in the process.
SEE THIS IS A WORTHY SEQUEL
This needs to happen
Petition for the movie to be hand-drawn in Lilo and Stitch’s style when they’re in the human world, and computer animated once they go through the door into the monster world.
In the Firefly episode “Out of Gas” (1x05) Wash wires up a large, red button for the captain to press if he needs the crew to return to the ship. When he shows it to Mal he says, “When your miracle gets here, just hit this button.” When Alan left the Firefly(2002) set after the series was canceled, he took that button as a keepsake. When Joss Whedon announced that he would be searching for a way to bring the show back as either a series or a feature film, Alan sent him the button with a note that said, again, “When your miracle gets here, just hit this button.”.
im at my friends house, she’s pretty rich. like really rich. but we have been friends for like 12 years. But she tells me to order pizza and that she will pay. So hell yeah ll oder pizza. She said she will be right back she has to go to the store and tosses a small box at me. She said there should be enough for a tip in there. and that she wouldn’t care if i pocketed the rest, its just been sitting around anyways.
im a bit confused but figure there is money inside so whatever
what the fuck thats a lot for pizza.
WHAT THE FUCK SHE TOSSED $2,000 AT ME LIKE IT WAS NO BIG DEAL FOR ME TO ORDER PIZZA BTCH IM BUYING ME 6 PIZZAS AND TAKING 5 HOME SO I CAN ACTUALLY EAT FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE.
BITCH! THIS PIZZA DUDE GETTING THE BEST DAMN TIP OF THEIR LIFE
YOU KNOW WHAT IM TAKING THAT PIZZA DELIVERY PERSON OUT FOR A FUCKING PARTY. YOU FUCKING TOSS THIS AT ME YOU DAMN WELL KNOW IM GOING TO GO BUY ME A HOUSE AND PAY OFF STUDENT LOANS AND INVEST IN THE STOCK MARKET AND BUY SOME GOLD AND SAVE SOME RARE WILD LIFE AND HAVE ENOUGH LEFT OVER TO NOT ONLY BE SET FOR RETIREMENT BUT TAKE THAT FUCKING PIZZA PERSON OUT FOR THE NIGHT OF THEIR LIFE.
14 & 15 are such hard ages literally i’m so glad I am not 14 or 15 anymore
If you’re 14/15 right now trust me when I say it gets easier once you start to understand yourself and at 14/15 you’re still trying to figure out who you are so don’t be too hard on yourself for being confused or sad because you are just a caterpillar and one day you’ll be a butterfly
Shoutout to the black autistic people who are in even bigger danger of police brutality than other black people due to the intersection of ableism and racism.
Shout out to the black autistic people who have trouble processing verbal information, who lash out when touched, who run away from loud sounds, who are non-verbal, who have body language and stims that could be considered odd or threatening.
Shoutout to the black autistic people who act, express themselves and react in ways that are considered socially inappropriate and who are in danger because of it. May you all be safe. Your lives matter.
Don’t ever be in a relationship with someone who is perfectly fine with going hours/days without talking to you.
what? hours? what does this post mean? i think it’s healthy to have time apart and still be able to love each other without constantly having to talk or see eachother. you shouldn’t be that dependent on someone or rely on them to give you a sense of security and comfort whenever you need it because that’s not realistic
Says someone who is probably neurotypical and doesn’t have dependency issues lmao
“Dependency issues” isn’t an excuse to expect someone to talk to you 24/7 100% of the time. You can’t make your mental illnesses someone else’s cage. People need time and distance sometimes. Just cause you’re depressed or have anxiety or any other kind of mental illness that makes you codependent doesn’t mean that your partner has to sacrifice their own happiness and sanity for you. Codependency is toxic. Not being able to let your partner breathe is toxic. Being upset because your boyfriend didn’t reply to you for two hours is not okay. You can’t use your illnesses against other people, it isn’t fair.
I have a friend who’s ex would groom her into talking to him every day or else he’d act passive aggressive with her to make her feel like the guilty party until he started going off for months without telling her and then reappear as if nothing had happened.
She suffered great self esteem issues over this whole thing for almost five years so I dare you to give him the right over “dependency issues”.
Also? Some of us desperately need those few hours of solitude. There are times when I can’t stand to hear people speak, or when being touched makes me want to scream. My last relationship (insert eyeroll here) failed largely because my boyfriend made me feel guilty every time I hid in the basement of the library or said I was too busy to meet him. This isn’t me being callous about his dependency issues (of which there were many), this is me saying “Sometimes my brain tries to rip itself apart and I need people to leave before I lose control and make them leave.” So beyond the fact that it’s healthy to have a few hours apart every once in a while, have a care for those of us who sometimes really need that break.
If I mispronounce your name because it is foreign to my tongue, correct me.
I don’t purposefully allow the accents of your name to fall flat on my tongue like the European English demands or the language to sound chopped and misheard.
If I don’t say your name correctly, don’t shrug and say it’s ok because people have been doing it all your life. Your mother worked hard to name you that name, with all its syllables and apostrophes and hyphens and inflection.
I don’t want to disrespect your heritage, your culture, your great grandmother or grandfather and their struggle.
If I mispronounce your name, forgive me, but don’t let it happen again. Make sure everyone knows your name.
This
Please do.
I was named for a goddess, a fae creature who sacrificed her immortality for humankind. My name is Welsh and it mangles on the tongues of most people. It has taken me years to be able to correct people kindly but firmly.
I want to accord you the same respect I demand from others. Please tell me if your name tangles in the threads of my native language, or if my scattered mind twists the letters. I want to know you and your name is a part of you.
i would literally rather have darth vader be our next president than donald trump. if darth vader ran in the 2016 elections, and it came down to him and donald trump, i would vote for darth vader without even thinking
this post is interesting because it implies a future in which darth vader won the democratic primary
