Monday, February 4, 2013

Romantically Enhanced Adventure


            In many respects, adventure is a romantic rebuttal to the more industrialized objective form, which is inquiry.  It retains the imagination, magic, and nature that are often stripped from films based in pure inquiry.  Emotion is lost when only reason is allowed to remain, just as nature is lost in lieu of mechanical and industrial growth. Romanticism is the revival of the emotional through nature. Interestingly, inquiry often leads to adventure.  In the comic, “Tintin in Tibet,” Tintin has a dream that raises an important question: do I need to save my friend.  This inquiry becomes so forefront and strong in his mind that he cannot ignore it, which starts the adventure of trying to find his friend Change.  Change was saved by Bigfoot, he said “I tell you, Tintin, from the way he took care of me, I couldn't help wondering if, deep down, he hadn't a human soul.”  This story brings up the topic of what is the line between humanity and nature, or if there is a line at all. 
            The premise to the film, “Time Bandits,” is based in Inquiry: what if you could use a map to travel through space and time.  Right off the bat, nature is brought back into the equation by the fact that they are using a map. Maps are made so that we can navigate nature and her mysteries.  Also, the villain of this film is in love with the idea of advance technology and computers. He even has a metal tube attached to his head. He relies on technology and wishes it to take over everything.  Another connection with nature is where the group of bandits came from. They were a crew that created bushes and trees for the creation of Earth.  They tried to escape that job, but in the end they had to return because being burglars was just not in their nature.  Last, I’m not so sure about their depiction of “God” in this film. Normally God is bright, pure, and noble; he is the creator of all things.  In this film “God” is dressed and presented as the boss: a pompous capitalist that only cares about what he wants to do and not how it affects the world.  To be honest, I thought it was unusual for them to portray him this way. It felt out of place.  I think they were trying to take the audience by surprise instead of giving him deeper symbolic meaning.

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