This is some rare archival footage of a conversation between two old friends, Dr. Stanley Krippner and his longtime pal and admirer, Mickey Hart, former drummer for the Grateful Dead and author of Planet Drum. In this brief dialogue, recorded at Mickey's ranch, Stan and Mickey reminisce about their relationship, Stan's early experiments (when he was director of Maimonides Dream Lab in NY) with Mickey and the Dead involving group telepathy and hypnosis. If I recall, they met originally at a party hosted by Timothy Leary, who approached Stan and asked him if he'd ever heard of the Grateful Dead. Stan, of course, had not. "Well," Tim said, "I have a young man I want you to meet." He escorted Stan into a bedroom where Mickey waited anxiously to meet him. These two great figures of our time have been intimate friends ever since.
I was privileged to be present at this reunion, the intended purpose of which was to shoot footage for a documentary being prepared called "Making the Invisible Visible: The Life and Work of Stanley Krippner." Sadly, hundreds of hours of extraordinary archival footage has yet to be transformed into a film, now many years later. However, the filmmaker, Tamara Gurbis of Phenomenal Films, was kind enough to rough cut edit a short segment from this extaordinary conversation between Stan and Mickey that I was privileged to witness (behind the camera).
In addition, this meeting introduced our young friend, Sidian Morningstar Jones, to Mickey for the first time. Sid, a talented young poet and graphic artist, is the grandson of the late legendary medicine man of the Shoshone Nation, Rolling Thunder. "RT" as he was known to Mickey, Stan and other close friends, is arguably the most famous, and controversial, Native American medicine man of our time. As a result of this introduction, Mickey suddenly recalled that he had saved dozens of rare audiotapes of RT's lectures before he died, and gifted them to Sid, who hopes to one day create a book based on the transcripts.
One of the highlights of the conversation we recorded that day, was Mickey's hilarious tale of the time he got so stoned on peyote with RT on Shoshone Land that he and RT got completely lost in RT's own backyard. If not for being rescued by his dog, who found them and led them home, they would probably still be lost, Mickey joked. Personally, I find the concept of a legendary Native American holy man being lost in his own yard beyond hilarious.
Hopefully, one day, the fuller stories will be shared with the public. Like the day Mickey called Stan during an emergency concerning RT. While a remarkably powerful and gifted healer himself, a fact that is well documented, RT had difficulties when it came to healing himself. Stricken with mortal gangrene in his legs from an injury, he was on the verge of death when his family called on Mickey and Stan to intervene. Mickey called Stan and told him what was happening and that they needed to drop everything, get on a plane that was standing by waiting for them to board, and fly to Nevada to RT's home in Shoshone country. Which they did. The plane or private helicopter that transported them, as it turns out, belonged to the legendary rock impresario, Billy Graham. Upon arrival, Stan intervened with his stubborn friend, and RT yielded to Stan's sage and stern advice, saving his life in the nick of time.
That said, enjoy this rare video treat.
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Monday, September 27, 2010
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Preliminary Observations on the Mythic Psychology of War
“PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON
THE MYTHIC PSYCHOLOGY OF WAR”
by
Ronald L. Boyer
A Proposal Prepared for
THE MYTHOLOGY OF VIOLENCE
The Second Annual Academic Conference of
The Foundation for Mythological Studies
Presenter’s Position Statement:
Today, after a brief historical period of relative peace following the Vietnam War, our nation and, to a large extent, our world has once again plunged into escalating mass violence on an order perhaps unprecedented in most of our lifetimes. The flashpoint of this so-called global “war on terror” currently centers in the Middle East, not perhaps insignificantly, the common ancestral home of the three great historical religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This fact alone summons inescapably “apocalyptic” prospects to mind, fueled in no small part by the controlling ideas, expressed in myths and symbols, native to these religions themselves, as well as the public statements of our leaders on different sides of the escalating chaos. Given the often explicitly religious language and logic used by fundamentalist Christians and Muslims alike, e.g., those of George Bush and Osama bin Laden, the current rhetoric and hostilities resurrect in the minds of countless millions the misguided and ultimately tragic wars of the invading Crusaders against the Muslims over Jerusalem nearly a millennia ago. But with at least one significant difference: the dramatic evolution of death-dealing technologies and emergence of modern WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction), what historian Lewis Mumford called “ABC (atomic, bacteriological and chemical) warfare”. These surviving ancient hostilities - based in literalistic, fundamentalist interpretations of religion, and stemming now from a form of neo-barbarism lacking moral restraint in terms of violence aimed at innocent civilians (i.e., merely collateral damage) - now affect the entire planet and are married to destructive technologies possessing literally apocalyptic potential, being capable of rendering our planet unsustainable within our lifetime. Mumford called this problem facing our generation “the marriage of beast and machine.”
Not that our situation went unforeseen. Many of the best and brightest international leaders of the 20th century sought, generations ago, to avert what they believed were nearly inevitable and possibly catastrophic conflicts of the future. Before, during and following the last World War, many international political leaders here in the West, beginning with the League of Nations, turned to the emerging promise of depth psychology to save us from this kind of mass destruction, chiefly to the ideas of the two great founders of psychoanalysis and analytical psychology, Sigmund Freud and his colleague and protégé, Carl Jung. While Freud’s conclusion expressed in his correspondence with Einstein (published as “Why War?”) and elsewhere, was typically cynical, Jung, though cautious, remained characteristically optimistic. He warned that the greatest threat to humankind in the future were outbreaks of “psychic epidemics of mass psychoses” such as those that had already resulted in two World Wars. And that these psychoses were rooted, as they are in individual patients, in the autonomous or involuntary functions of the collective unconscious. Only in this case, Hitler’s Nazism, the madness affected society as a whole. Though leaving this vital work of examining the relationship between the unconscious pathologies of individuals and cultures to future generations of investigators, Jung repeatedly warned that this subject of mass violence in war represented the most promising and important application of his theories for the benefit of humankind as a whole. Sadly, this unfinished task remains largely ignored by succeeding generations of scholars and theorists in the field, including Jung’s incomparable interpreter, Joseph Campbell, who in his later writings, like Jung, pointed to a similar task – expanding the application of the hero journey paradigm to mass culture – as his own most important unfinished work.
Today, in these uncertain and perilous times, when the urge to mass violence again seems to have taken irrational possession of humankind, as witnessed in the
Furthermore, these models may be constructively applied to the task of understanding our contemporary and future war psychoses, i.e. epidemics of State violence. Jung and Campbell left their work unfinished largely because they were required to focus their energies on the daunting task of cataloguing and illustrating the cornucopia of symbols found in dreams, fantasies, religious symbols, myths, initiatic rites and so forth and to interpret these images as metaphors for the description of psychic realities not otherwise describable, that is, as poetry. In short their purpose was to trace the records of mythic images back to their intra-psychic origins within the individual psyche, within the deep essence of human nature. Meanwhile, parallel and complimentary work, undertaken by other notable thinkers in parallel but different fields, including field anthropologists, approached the same subject from the opposite side, i.e., by the examination of the structure of aboriginal societies and even of civilization itself. Two noteworthy examples spring to mind: the groundbreaking theoretical scholarship of the cultural historian Lewis Mumford and the sociologist Ernest Becker. Mumford, a genuine if largely unsung prophet of our times, was the first historian of note to apply the theories of the unconscious developed by Freud and Jung to the underpinnings and evolution of world culture and history. In his groundbreaking “Myth of the Megamachine” and other works, Mumford’s sweeping, wise and largely ignored analysis of the structure of civilization from the first ancient city states in Sumer to the present time offers profound insights into the nature of war and mass violence as an essentially ritualistic function of the sovereign Nation-State, ancient and modern. Becker, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his equally important work on the “Denial of Death”, sought a unified field theory of the social sciences based on the theories of Freud and Jung’s great colleague, Otto Rank. In his trenchant analysis of the origins of social evil, “Escape from Evil”, Becker examines the history of societies from ancient times as “hero-systems for the denial of death” based on Rank’s theory that the chief motive underlying human nature is the search for immortality. As such, he argues that the structure of society itself represents a symbolic attempt to overcome death and that, paradoxically, it is this very ritualistic attempt to transcend death that ultimately creates more death, particularly evidenced in modern warfare. Combined, the work of Becker and Mumford present a compelling case for the religious basis, preserved unconsciously in national myths and rites from time immemorial, of even our most seemingly secular, modern (and presumably post-modern) societies.
My task in the proposed presentation is to summon the audience to take up, each in their own way, this great unfinished work bequeathed to us by Freud, Jung, Campbell, Eliade, Becker and Mumford, among many others, and to examine – in sufficient detail - their collective works for clues as to how we might constructively proceed in doing so. I’m confident that, hidden in the symbols of Jung’s individuation process, Eliade’s initiatic schema and
In conclusion, we may discern, “as through a glass, darkly”, that the basic structure of contemporary society in the form of the sovereign Nation-State, with its penchant for violence and what William Blake called “religion hid in war”, is a mass, externalized, unconscious projection of our own deep-seated psychic needs. If today we are externally threatened by escalating and potentially apocalyptic war, with the possible extinction of the human race hanging in the balance, perhaps there is something necessary in the deep psyche that summons such an ultimately perilous situation. Perhaps our own unconscious, deep-seated spiritual longings for transcendence, immortality, even for divinity on earth, are in some way to blame, albeit in some unconsciously inverted, pathological form. Perhaps the time has come to seek and discover the primal and primordial origins of this contradictory urge to greater life that results in its own anti-thesis of societal self-destruction – of the urge to immortality that leads to species extinction – hidden within the darkest recesses of our inmost souls. And through such self-discovery, re-discover the “pathless path” of the mythic hero of all times and places that may lead -- obviously with great effort, courage and similar virtues -- out of the depths of Hades back into the light.
# # #
About the Presenter
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Film/DVD Review: "Pan's Labyrinth"
AT THE CINEMA
With Ron Boyer
***** Pan's Labyrinth (2006). If you're curious, but haven't seen it yet, now is the time to enjoy one of the truly outstanding films of the last year, recently released on DVD. Directed by Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (No, not Benicio del Toro, the actor-the other one!), Pan's Labyrinth was my favorite film last year. Nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film, Pan's Labyrinth lost out to the equally brilliant and socially-relevant drama The Lives of Others, arguably the two most important films of 2006.
Pan's Labyrinth seamlessly weaves two storylines together-the first a moving historical drama set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War and the second a mythic fairytale journey of a young girl. Set in 1944 during the cruel reign of Franco, the first story involves a young girl and her pregnant mother, a widow, who move to a remote outpost to join the mother's villainous new husband, Captain Vidal (Sergi Lopez, Dirty Pretty Things), a brutal officer whose mission is to hunt down members of the resistance and crush them under his iron fascist boot. The second story begins shortly after the shy, introverted girl Ofelia (newcomer Ivana Baquero) arrives at the outpost. She is called to adventure one day when she chases a strange-looking fairy into the opening of an ancient labyrinth leading into the depths of the underworld. There she encounters the horned mythical figure Pan, the faun of the title (Doug Jones), in his timeless lair.
Thus begins the second storyline as Pan reveals Ofelia's true identity: She is really a Princess lost to her parents and their mythical realm through a curse. Pan mentors the girl in her quest to recover her true destiny, offering her three successive magical trials of increasing peril as her means to escape the curse. Upon her success or failure ride both the fate of the girl herself and the fate of their mythic world. Will she fail and be banished to the mortal human world forever? Or will she recover her true immortal destiny and find her way home to the realm of magic where her royal parents await her with open arms? Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz or Frodo in Lord of the Rings, Ofelia embarks on a perilous and lonely journey of self-discovery through a land of dark enchantment in search of her true home, her true self (identity) and her true destiny. As the story unfolds, Ofelia's mythic struggle against underworld monsters merges seamlessly with her battle against the evil of the real world, personified by her wicked stepfather, Vidal. In the end, the realities of the two worlds-the subjective fantasy world of the Princess and objective so-called "real" world of the girl Ofelia-are fused together in the stunning climax to the film.
This fantasy unfolds as a marvelous archetypal fairytale that, if not for the extreme violence and adult themes of the dramatic storyline of the war, would have made a fantastic children's film. In this tale, the pre-teen heroine Ofelia takes a classic hero journey into an otherworldly realm peopled with magical creatures on a quest to recover her immortal destiny; unless she succeeds, the Princess is cursed to live in the real and mortal world of humans, a world filled with suffering and death. For anyone familiar with Jungian psychology or the archetypal imagery of the hero quest described by Joseph Campbell, this film is a textbook case of mythic structure in storytelling. Like other great classic hero journeys (e.g., Peter Jackson's Lord of the Ring's trilogy or The Wizard of Oz) Pan's Labyrinth is filled from beginning to end with archetypal motifs and symbols found abundantly in mythology and fairytales the world over. From the beginning of Ofelia's "call to adventure" (Campbell's "involuntary departure") to enter an "other world" into which she is initiated by the fairy guide (in the form of the underworld labyrinth into which she descends like the Trojan hero Aeneas, the classic nekyia journey of the ancient Greek heroes) where she is opposed by dangerous powers (e.g., a blind cannibalistic monster) and aided by "magical helpers" (e.g., the fairies and Pan himself) to the equally archetypal ending, the film faithfully employs the symbolism and thematic motifs common to myth and fairytale everywhere. Here, in the Oz-like other world if the labyrinth, the heroine Ofelia confronts the classic series of ordeals typical of fairytales and hero quests (Campbell's "road of trials") and in the end achieves the hero's apotheosis through self-sacrifice, death and symbolic rebirth. Finally, she participates in what Jung called the mystical hieros gamos or royal wedding, an image borrowed from ancient alchemy that lies at the unconscious heart of Hollywood's obsession with and depiction of the "happy ending".
During the past few years, del Toro has risen quickly to the top of my A-list of favorite new filmmakers. I enjoyed watching his early effort in Devil's Backbone (shades of Bunuel) and my appreciation grew by leaps and bounds with his wonderfully entertaining big-budget Hollywood blockbuster based on the comic book franchise Hellboy-one of the best comic book film adaptations ever made. With Pan's Labyrinth he has established himself at another level entirely as one of the greatest filmmakers of our time. Together with directors Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men) and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel)-del Toro's close colleagues and friends-he completes a powerful troika of great emerging Hispanic filmmakers.
Del Toro is a director to watch, and Pan's Labyrinth is a perfect film: a visually stunning cinematic masterpiece with a haunting score matched perfectly by a timeless tale of tragedy and rebirth. The result is a beautiful fairytale for thinking adults. For this reviewer, it doesn't get much better than that.
# # #
The above review was recently published online at LoveInToronto.com and other publications.
With Ron Boyer
***** Pan's Labyrinth (2006). If you're curious, but haven't seen it yet, now is the time to enjoy one of the truly outstanding films of the last year, recently released on DVD. Directed by Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (No, not Benicio del Toro, the actor-the other one!), Pan's Labyrinth was my favorite film last year. Nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film, Pan's Labyrinth lost out to the equally brilliant and socially-relevant drama The Lives of Others, arguably the two most important films of 2006.
Pan's Labyrinth seamlessly weaves two storylines together-the first a moving historical drama set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War and the second a mythic fairytale journey of a young girl. Set in 1944 during the cruel reign of Franco, the first story involves a young girl and her pregnant mother, a widow, who move to a remote outpost to join the mother's villainous new husband, Captain Vidal (Sergi Lopez, Dirty Pretty Things), a brutal officer whose mission is to hunt down members of the resistance and crush them under his iron fascist boot. The second story begins shortly after the shy, introverted girl Ofelia (newcomer Ivana Baquero) arrives at the outpost. She is called to adventure one day when she chases a strange-looking fairy into the opening of an ancient labyrinth leading into the depths of the underworld. There she encounters the horned mythical figure Pan, the faun of the title (Doug Jones), in his timeless lair.
Thus begins the second storyline as Pan reveals Ofelia's true identity: She is really a Princess lost to her parents and their mythical realm through a curse. Pan mentors the girl in her quest to recover her true destiny, offering her three successive magical trials of increasing peril as her means to escape the curse. Upon her success or failure ride both the fate of the girl herself and the fate of their mythic world. Will she fail and be banished to the mortal human world forever? Or will she recover her true immortal destiny and find her way home to the realm of magic where her royal parents await her with open arms? Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz or Frodo in Lord of the Rings, Ofelia embarks on a perilous and lonely journey of self-discovery through a land of dark enchantment in search of her true home, her true self (identity) and her true destiny. As the story unfolds, Ofelia's mythic struggle against underworld monsters merges seamlessly with her battle against the evil of the real world, personified by her wicked stepfather, Vidal. In the end, the realities of the two worlds-the subjective fantasy world of the Princess and objective so-called "real" world of the girl Ofelia-are fused together in the stunning climax to the film.
This fantasy unfolds as a marvelous archetypal fairytale that, if not for the extreme violence and adult themes of the dramatic storyline of the war, would have made a fantastic children's film. In this tale, the pre-teen heroine Ofelia takes a classic hero journey into an otherworldly realm peopled with magical creatures on a quest to recover her immortal destiny; unless she succeeds, the Princess is cursed to live in the real and mortal world of humans, a world filled with suffering and death. For anyone familiar with Jungian psychology or the archetypal imagery of the hero quest described by Joseph Campbell, this film is a textbook case of mythic structure in storytelling. Like other great classic hero journeys (e.g., Peter Jackson's Lord of the Ring's trilogy or The Wizard of Oz) Pan's Labyrinth is filled from beginning to end with archetypal motifs and symbols found abundantly in mythology and fairytales the world over. From the beginning of Ofelia's "call to adventure" (Campbell's "involuntary departure") to enter an "other world" into which she is initiated by the fairy guide (in the form of the underworld labyrinth into which she descends like the Trojan hero Aeneas, the classic nekyia journey of the ancient Greek heroes) where she is opposed by dangerous powers (e.g., a blind cannibalistic monster) and aided by "magical helpers" (e.g., the fairies and Pan himself) to the equally archetypal ending, the film faithfully employs the symbolism and thematic motifs common to myth and fairytale everywhere. Here, in the Oz-like other world if the labyrinth, the heroine Ofelia confronts the classic series of ordeals typical of fairytales and hero quests (Campbell's "road of trials") and in the end achieves the hero's apotheosis through self-sacrifice, death and symbolic rebirth. Finally, she participates in what Jung called the mystical hieros gamos or royal wedding, an image borrowed from ancient alchemy that lies at the unconscious heart of Hollywood's obsession with and depiction of the "happy ending".
During the past few years, del Toro has risen quickly to the top of my A-list of favorite new filmmakers. I enjoyed watching his early effort in Devil's Backbone (shades of Bunuel) and my appreciation grew by leaps and bounds with his wonderfully entertaining big-budget Hollywood blockbuster based on the comic book franchise Hellboy-one of the best comic book film adaptations ever made. With Pan's Labyrinth he has established himself at another level entirely as one of the greatest filmmakers of our time. Together with directors Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men) and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel)-del Toro's close colleagues and friends-he completes a powerful troika of great emerging Hispanic filmmakers.
Del Toro is a director to watch, and Pan's Labyrinth is a perfect film: a visually stunning cinematic masterpiece with a haunting score matched perfectly by a timeless tale of tragedy and rebirth. The result is a beautiful fairytale for thinking adults. For this reviewer, it doesn't get much better than that.
# # #
The above review was recently published online at LoveInToronto.com and other publications.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Film Review: "Ten Canoes" by Rolf de Heer
The following review was recently published online in TorontoinLove.com, for which I'm the film critic, and will be published online and in print in YOU Magazine, when the magazine is launched this Fall. I'm the Film and Arts Editor for YOU, and will publish my reviews on my blog for other readers ... like you!
“AT THE CINEMA” with Ron Boyer
Featured Film Review: Recent Release
*** Ten Canoes. In this visually beautiful but wandering story-within-a-story by filmmakers Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr, we are introduced to the fascinating and magical world of an exotic and primitive people, the Yolngu Aborigines of Australia’s Northern Territories. Part anthropological field work and part epic ancient legend, the parallel storylines begin a millennia ago (about the time William the Conqueror invaded England), then use that time as a point of departure to visit the primordial past, the mythical Paleolithic “dreamtime” of the Aborigines. The twin stories unfold as an ancient aboriginal leader relates a much more ancient legend of his people, a parable of how a tribal leader in a similar position to his own once addressed the difficult moral and social problem confronting him, with the fate of the tribe hanging in the balance.
The story, narrated by famed Aborigine actor David Gupilil (de Heer’s The Tracker, Nicolas Roeg’s Walkabout) develops slowly in the authentic if long-winded style of aboriginal oral tradition, inherited from the timeless past, as ten tribesmen in canoes (the “ten canoes” of the title) enter the croc-infested Arfura Swamp of Australia’s Northern Territories on their traditional, annual quest for goose-eggs. There, the leader Minygululu (Peter Minygululu) learns that his younger brother, Dayindi (Jamie Gulpilil, David’s son), who has no wife of his own, covets one of Minygululu’s wives. In response, the wise elder Minygululu relates a story to Dayindi intended to dissuade him from violating a sacred tribal taboo and disrupting the delicate equilibrium of the community. The story he tells, set in the mythical past of their tribal ancestors, concerns two men who once found themselves in an identical predicament: the leader of an ancient foraging party in this very swamp—Ridjimararil (Crusoe Kurddal), and his brother Yeeraliparil (also played by Jamie Gulpilil) who also lusted after his older brother’s wife. The cautionary tale of forbidden love (is there any other kind?) teaches a moral lesson to Dayindi, because Yeeraliparil’s coveting of Ridjimararil’s wife brings tragic consequences to the tribe, upsetting its social balance and resulting in an escalating drama of intra-tribal conflicts, kidnapping, sacrifice, revenge, black arts and even murder.
The lengthy tale related by Minygululu is at once tragic and funny, one of the many charms of this film. Comedy, it might be said, is tragedy viewed with a sense of the absurd. The sometimes off-color humor of the Yolngu people, as they alternate between sad clown and happy clown, is disarming and expresses an intrinsic universality at the heart of the story. That an ancient, faraway people enjoy a good, adolescent fart joke as much as we do, appeals to something universal in our nature that transcends time and place. This timeless quality is reinforced by the film’s authenticity expressed in its realistic primitive setting and convincing performances by the cast, mostly ordinary local tribal folk “self-casted” by the aboriginal community to which actor David Gulpilil belongs and who still inhabit these ancient ancestral lands in the Northern Territories. This lends authority and “fictional truth” to the tale that shines through despite the fact that filmmaker de Heer invented much of the story himself based on news accounts and bits of folklore.
Filmed on location by de Heer, who, along with his crew, lived among the Yolngu practically as a member of their community while filming, another of the movie’s virtues is that it offers a rare glimpse of what historian of religions Mircea Eliade called an “archaic society” in its natural surroundings. The Aborigines of Australia are one of the few surviving ancient cultures that, in spite of the often destructive impact of modern civilization, remain more or less in tact, still in harmony with the natural (and supernatural) world.
While I personally enjoyed the slow, meandering style of the storytelling, similar as it is to the more loquacious unfolding of narrative typical in classic literature, it can be a bit confusing and tiresome at times. I like the authenticity of the style, which faithfully mimics the oral storytelling tradition of all primitive cultures before the advent of writing. However, the mainstream contemporary movie-going audience, impatient as it is, conditioned to receiving information from the mass media in bite-sized fragments, and desirous of cutting immediately to the chase, is more likely to see and enjoy Pirates of the Caribbean than a relatively obscure little film like this, with its wandering, less than dramatic storytelling. But for those of us who enjoy a good yarn and for whom special effects and complex yet fairly predictable plots aren’t everything—and who enjoy immersing ourselves occasionally in faraway times and places just for the novel experience and perspective gained (e.g., those of us who enjoy reading or watching National Geographic)—exploring the aboriginal world depicted here is a refreshing treat.
I, for one, applaud director de Heer—and his colleagues, cast and crew—for his attempt to fictionalize, and hence make more accessible and entertaining, tall tales of the Aborigines. Insofar as he faithfully mimics their oral tradition in pictures, he helps preserve what might become, unfortunately, a vanishing culture—and one that embodies an ancient wisdom we moderns should learn from. First and foremost, de Heer is an anthropologist and only secondarily a filmmaker. If Ten Canoes at times nearly lulls us to sleep from its meandering dialogue and lack of tight plots, it succeeds brilliantly as social science. Any anthropologist who can turn typically dry accounts of field studies into entertaining fictional storytelling—transforming statistical facts into artistic truth—is to be encouraged. In such pathless yet important terrain, de Heer finds himself slashing his own way through the wilderness on the leading edge of social science. We can only hope for more of the same from him, and other scientifically-oriented filmmakers, in the future.
A favorite on the festival circuit since it won an award at Cannes, Ten Canoes is a film worth watching. And if you liked The Gods Must Be Crazy or Walkabout, this may be a “can’t miss” film for you.
Ron Boyer, Film & Arts Editor for YOU Magazine, is an entertainment critic currently visiting Toronto from the West Coast. A descendant of early French settlers in Quebec, he resides in California. He also writes screenplays and recently completed a feature-length script for The Disappeared, a socially-relevant Kafkaesque drama based on the desaparecidos of Argentina during the 1970s Dirty War. Boyer is also an award-winning poet and author of short fiction. Comments are welcome at: rlboyer10@hotmail.com.
Ron’s Ratings Guide:
* Stinker. Don’t waste your time unless you’re a kid and like “so bad it’s good” movies. Earns an automatic nomination for the annual Razzy film award.
** Flawed. Probably not worth seeing, or reviewing. Some redeeming qualities, but save your money for Starbucks and watch it later on TV for free.
*** Solid. A genuinely good, entertaining film. Definitely worth watching, this rating includes many box office blockbusters.
**** Excellent. A must see movie, blockbuster or not. Lots of obscure art-house films as well as Oscar-caliber movies and other critically-acclaimed winners, here.
***** Great. Superlatives like “exceptional”, “brilliant”, “stunning”, “perfect” and “breathtaking” apply to these award-worthy, top caliber films. As good as it gets. Watch for them at the Golden Globes, Oscars, and other prominent award venues.
“AT THE CINEMA” with Ron Boyer
Featured Film Review: Recent Release
*** Ten Canoes. In this visually beautiful but wandering story-within-a-story by filmmakers Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr, we are introduced to the fascinating and magical world of an exotic and primitive people, the Yolngu Aborigines of Australia’s Northern Territories. Part anthropological field work and part epic ancient legend, the parallel storylines begin a millennia ago (about the time William the Conqueror invaded England), then use that time as a point of departure to visit the primordial past, the mythical Paleolithic “dreamtime” of the Aborigines. The twin stories unfold as an ancient aboriginal leader relates a much more ancient legend of his people, a parable of how a tribal leader in a similar position to his own once addressed the difficult moral and social problem confronting him, with the fate of the tribe hanging in the balance.
The story, narrated by famed Aborigine actor David Gupilil (de Heer’s The Tracker, Nicolas Roeg’s Walkabout) develops slowly in the authentic if long-winded style of aboriginal oral tradition, inherited from the timeless past, as ten tribesmen in canoes (the “ten canoes” of the title) enter the croc-infested Arfura Swamp of Australia’s Northern Territories on their traditional, annual quest for goose-eggs. There, the leader Minygululu (Peter Minygululu) learns that his younger brother, Dayindi (Jamie Gulpilil, David’s son), who has no wife of his own, covets one of Minygululu’s wives. In response, the wise elder Minygululu relates a story to Dayindi intended to dissuade him from violating a sacred tribal taboo and disrupting the delicate equilibrium of the community. The story he tells, set in the mythical past of their tribal ancestors, concerns two men who once found themselves in an identical predicament: the leader of an ancient foraging party in this very swamp—Ridjimararil (Crusoe Kurddal), and his brother Yeeraliparil (also played by Jamie Gulpilil) who also lusted after his older brother’s wife. The cautionary tale of forbidden love (is there any other kind?) teaches a moral lesson to Dayindi, because Yeeraliparil’s coveting of Ridjimararil’s wife brings tragic consequences to the tribe, upsetting its social balance and resulting in an escalating drama of intra-tribal conflicts, kidnapping, sacrifice, revenge, black arts and even murder.
The lengthy tale related by Minygululu is at once tragic and funny, one of the many charms of this film. Comedy, it might be said, is tragedy viewed with a sense of the absurd. The sometimes off-color humor of the Yolngu people, as they alternate between sad clown and happy clown, is disarming and expresses an intrinsic universality at the heart of the story. That an ancient, faraway people enjoy a good, adolescent fart joke as much as we do, appeals to something universal in our nature that transcends time and place. This timeless quality is reinforced by the film’s authenticity expressed in its realistic primitive setting and convincing performances by the cast, mostly ordinary local tribal folk “self-casted” by the aboriginal community to which actor David Gulpilil belongs and who still inhabit these ancient ancestral lands in the Northern Territories. This lends authority and “fictional truth” to the tale that shines through despite the fact that filmmaker de Heer invented much of the story himself based on news accounts and bits of folklore.
Filmed on location by de Heer, who, along with his crew, lived among the Yolngu practically as a member of their community while filming, another of the movie’s virtues is that it offers a rare glimpse of what historian of religions Mircea Eliade called an “archaic society” in its natural surroundings. The Aborigines of Australia are one of the few surviving ancient cultures that, in spite of the often destructive impact of modern civilization, remain more or less in tact, still in harmony with the natural (and supernatural) world.
While I personally enjoyed the slow, meandering style of the storytelling, similar as it is to the more loquacious unfolding of narrative typical in classic literature, it can be a bit confusing and tiresome at times. I like the authenticity of the style, which faithfully mimics the oral storytelling tradition of all primitive cultures before the advent of writing. However, the mainstream contemporary movie-going audience, impatient as it is, conditioned to receiving information from the mass media in bite-sized fragments, and desirous of cutting immediately to the chase, is more likely to see and enjoy Pirates of the Caribbean than a relatively obscure little film like this, with its wandering, less than dramatic storytelling. But for those of us who enjoy a good yarn and for whom special effects and complex yet fairly predictable plots aren’t everything—and who enjoy immersing ourselves occasionally in faraway times and places just for the novel experience and perspective gained (e.g., those of us who enjoy reading or watching National Geographic)—exploring the aboriginal world depicted here is a refreshing treat.
I, for one, applaud director de Heer—and his colleagues, cast and crew—for his attempt to fictionalize, and hence make more accessible and entertaining, tall tales of the Aborigines. Insofar as he faithfully mimics their oral tradition in pictures, he helps preserve what might become, unfortunately, a vanishing culture—and one that embodies an ancient wisdom we moderns should learn from. First and foremost, de Heer is an anthropologist and only secondarily a filmmaker. If Ten Canoes at times nearly lulls us to sleep from its meandering dialogue and lack of tight plots, it succeeds brilliantly as social science. Any anthropologist who can turn typically dry accounts of field studies into entertaining fictional storytelling—transforming statistical facts into artistic truth—is to be encouraged. In such pathless yet important terrain, de Heer finds himself slashing his own way through the wilderness on the leading edge of social science. We can only hope for more of the same from him, and other scientifically-oriented filmmakers, in the future.
A favorite on the festival circuit since it won an award at Cannes, Ten Canoes is a film worth watching. And if you liked The Gods Must Be Crazy or Walkabout, this may be a “can’t miss” film for you.
Ron Boyer, Film & Arts Editor for YOU Magazine, is an entertainment critic currently visiting Toronto from the West Coast. A descendant of early French settlers in Quebec, he resides in California. He also writes screenplays and recently completed a feature-length script for The Disappeared, a socially-relevant Kafkaesque drama based on the desaparecidos of Argentina during the 1970s Dirty War. Boyer is also an award-winning poet and author of short fiction. Comments are welcome at: rlboyer10@hotmail.com.
Ron’s Ratings Guide:
* Stinker. Don’t waste your time unless you’re a kid and like “so bad it’s good” movies. Earns an automatic nomination for the annual Razzy film award.
** Flawed. Probably not worth seeing, or reviewing. Some redeeming qualities, but save your money for Starbucks and watch it later on TV for free.
*** Solid. A genuinely good, entertaining film. Definitely worth watching, this rating includes many box office blockbusters.
**** Excellent. A must see movie, blockbuster or not. Lots of obscure art-house films as well as Oscar-caliber movies and other critically-acclaimed winners, here.
***** Great. Superlatives like “exceptional”, “brilliant”, “stunning”, “perfect” and “breathtaking” apply to these award-worthy, top caliber films. As good as it gets. Watch for them at the Golden Globes, Oscars, and other prominent award venues.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Brife Notes on Leonard Cohen
I'm new at this blogging thing, so please be patient. I haven't figured out exactly how I intend to use this yet. But things are getting clearer all the time.
We just celebrated Canada's 140th birthday here in Toronto. It was a long, sunny weekend. Now, back to work!
I've been spendind a lot of time online recently, for the first time in awhile. The main reason is that I've been exploring and developing an online presence for the first time. My most important efforts have been focused on MySpace, which I intend to use as an anchor or "hub" for web-based communications. I've been developing my profile, slide shows and expanding my "friends" network, which already includes a few dozen of the world's most interesting people. I am especially grateful to two extraordinary Canadian singer/songwriter/musicians who joined me, Loreena McKennitt, and Leonard Cohen.
Cohen is an icon, a musician's musician. But more than that: a modern poet and sage. There's something about him that evokes an image of a Biblical prophet, though he'd laugh at the suggestion. I fell in love with Cohen's songs as a semi-suicidal teenager growing up in a small town in Michigan. I'm sure I was the first to discover his work, which I found at a favorite book store in East Lansing, the home of Michigan State University, one sunny Spring afternoon day while skipping highschool and most probably getting stoned. The album was his second effort, "Songs of Love and Hate", and I loved it so much I immediately bought his first album, "Leonard Cohen". My friends mostly thought I was nuts, and said they couldn't listen to him. "He's so depressing, man!" they'd tell me. "But he makes me feel better!" I'd reply. I guess it was, to borrow the title of Richard Farina's (Joan Baez's brother-in-law) book, a matter of: "I've been down so long it looks like up to me!" Anyway, thus began my lifelong fascination with the singer and the man. I even played his now famous song "Suzanne" as my wedding son. Naturally, the marriage did not last!
I had the great good fortune of seeing Cohen live in concert in Minneapolis, years ago. At the time I was living there and studying with my dear teacher and friend, the Zen master Dainin-Katagiri-Roshi. Roshi had been invited to attend the Cohen concert as a guest of Bob Pursig, the author of the popular novel "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". Bob, and his wife Nancy, were members of Roshi's little midwestern Zen community, as I was, and Bob apparently knew Cohen, who was also studying Zen at the time, I believe as a member of Joshu Sasaki's community on Mt. Baldy if I'm not mistaken. Roshi, who had attended a concert by John Cage (which consisted mostly of Cage sitting still at his piano as the increasing sounds of a nervous crowd became the "music" emerging from the silence of the auditorium) as my guest a few months before--wanted to know my thoughts about whether he should attend the Cohen concert. I said: "Roshi, he's one of my favorites! And he's a Zen student, so of course you must meet him!" He took my advice. At the concert--the "war of black and white" album--Cohen took a break and I watched with great pleasure as Bob Pursig took him forward to the stage, where he met and spoke with LC.
My friend, the author Pico Iyer, has written a wonderful essay on his meeting with LC. I can't recall which of his books contains the essay, but it's probably his most recent. If you haven't checked out Pico's books, you'll be glad you did. He's one of the finest American writers I know.
Most recently LC visited Toronto, where the composer Phillip Glass adapted Cohen's poems. LC also has an exhibit of his paintings on display here, which I hope to see before moving on and returning to the States.
If you check out my web profile at www.myspace.com/rlboyer, you'll find Leonard Cohen among my myspace friends. Check out his website and drop him a note. And if you haven't already, check out his music. He's one of the most important musical artists of our time. I rank him up there with Bob Dylan, thought not quite as well known. He is a profound man, and his music will move you to the depths.
# # #
As I wrote this little introductory piece to my new blog, it occurred to me that perhaps the best use of this space I can think of is a place to share my stories, especially concerning some of most interesting people I've met during my various sojourns on this tiny blue planet. The really interesting and talented people who have touched my life in one form or another, the celebrities I've encountered from time to time, and the people--like Roshi--who have most influenced my life.
Please let me know if you think I'm on the right track here, and tune in from time to time to see how this develops. Perhaps in my next installment, I'll talk more about Roshi, or about Loreena McKennitt, who I had the great fortune of meeting in person at her concert in San Francisco many years ago. Stay tuned ...
We just celebrated Canada's 140th birthday here in Toronto. It was a long, sunny weekend. Now, back to work!
I've been spendind a lot of time online recently, for the first time in awhile. The main reason is that I've been exploring and developing an online presence for the first time. My most important efforts have been focused on MySpace, which I intend to use as an anchor or "hub" for web-based communications. I've been developing my profile, slide shows and expanding my "friends" network, which already includes a few dozen of the world's most interesting people. I am especially grateful to two extraordinary Canadian singer/songwriter/musicians who joined me, Loreena McKennitt, and Leonard Cohen.
Cohen is an icon, a musician's musician. But more than that: a modern poet and sage. There's something about him that evokes an image of a Biblical prophet, though he'd laugh at the suggestion. I fell in love with Cohen's songs as a semi-suicidal teenager growing up in a small town in Michigan. I'm sure I was the first to discover his work, which I found at a favorite book store in East Lansing, the home of Michigan State University, one sunny Spring afternoon day while skipping highschool and most probably getting stoned. The album was his second effort, "Songs of Love and Hate", and I loved it so much I immediately bought his first album, "Leonard Cohen". My friends mostly thought I was nuts, and said they couldn't listen to him. "He's so depressing, man!" they'd tell me. "But he makes me feel better!" I'd reply. I guess it was, to borrow the title of Richard Farina's (Joan Baez's brother-in-law) book, a matter of: "I've been down so long it looks like up to me!" Anyway, thus began my lifelong fascination with the singer and the man. I even played his now famous song "Suzanne" as my wedding son. Naturally, the marriage did not last!
I had the great good fortune of seeing Cohen live in concert in Minneapolis, years ago. At the time I was living there and studying with my dear teacher and friend, the Zen master Dainin-Katagiri-Roshi. Roshi had been invited to attend the Cohen concert as a guest of Bob Pursig, the author of the popular novel "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". Bob, and his wife Nancy, were members of Roshi's little midwestern Zen community, as I was, and Bob apparently knew Cohen, who was also studying Zen at the time, I believe as a member of Joshu Sasaki's community on Mt. Baldy if I'm not mistaken. Roshi, who had attended a concert by John Cage (which consisted mostly of Cage sitting still at his piano as the increasing sounds of a nervous crowd became the "music" emerging from the silence of the auditorium) as my guest a few months before--wanted to know my thoughts about whether he should attend the Cohen concert. I said: "Roshi, he's one of my favorites! And he's a Zen student, so of course you must meet him!" He took my advice. At the concert--the "war of black and white" album--Cohen took a break and I watched with great pleasure as Bob Pursig took him forward to the stage, where he met and spoke with LC.
My friend, the author Pico Iyer, has written a wonderful essay on his meeting with LC. I can't recall which of his books contains the essay, but it's probably his most recent. If you haven't checked out Pico's books, you'll be glad you did. He's one of the finest American writers I know.
Most recently LC visited Toronto, where the composer Phillip Glass adapted Cohen's poems. LC also has an exhibit of his paintings on display here, which I hope to see before moving on and returning to the States.
If you check out my web profile at www.myspace.com/rlboyer, you'll find Leonard Cohen among my myspace friends. Check out his website and drop him a note. And if you haven't already, check out his music. He's one of the most important musical artists of our time. I rank him up there with Bob Dylan, thought not quite as well known. He is a profound man, and his music will move you to the depths.
# # #
As I wrote this little introductory piece to my new blog, it occurred to me that perhaps the best use of this space I can think of is a place to share my stories, especially concerning some of most interesting people I've met during my various sojourns on this tiny blue planet. The really interesting and talented people who have touched my life in one form or another, the celebrities I've encountered from time to time, and the people--like Roshi--who have most influenced my life.
Please let me know if you think I'm on the right track here, and tune in from time to time to see how this develops. Perhaps in my next installment, I'll talk more about Roshi, or about Loreena McKennitt, who I had the great fortune of meeting in person at her concert in San Francisco many years ago. Stay tuned ...
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Initiation
This is my first blog entry. An initiation into blog world.
I'm writing from Toronto, in the province of Ontario, Canada, where I've been living off and on since last August. I came here for a month-long intended visit, but fell in love with the place--and the spirit of the place--and decided to stick around for awhile. I've never lived outside of the United States for any length of time before, and this trip presented a splendid opportunity to do so.
I'm staying here with my friend, Renee Chan, while working and visiting mostly literary and film industry friends. There is a spirit here that is refreshing for me as an artist. Something is evoked by the zeitgeist that reminds me--or at least I imagine--of what Paris might have felt like to the expatriate American writers of the '30s, before the last great war broke out. I imagine favorite writers like Henry Miller and Hemingway in Paris haunting the cafes, bistros, museums and bookstores and meeting kindred spirits from around the world. That's how Toronto is for me now--a "moveable feast".
The emphasis is on "moveable". For the past several years my life has been given over to a nomadic journey as I've wandered North America from coast to coast.
This blog may, in time, become home to my musings as I continue the wanderjahre--the journeys of a wandering writer--both here and abroad.
My life as a writer--as a wandering writer especially these past few years--is not without interest to others, or so it would seem. So I'll post my experiences and observations along the way here from time to time, as the occasion and mood and circumstance requires.
For those of you who would like to learn more about me and my writings, please be patient. This is only the beginning of my adventure into the cyber-world of blogsites, websites and global online communities of kindred spirits. Please save this and tune in from time to time. The journey together may prove interesting.
In the coming months (and years) I intend to post my entire body of work online for the enjoyment (hopefully) of as many others as possible. In time, much of this will be posted here on my blog, as well as in other appropriate online venues.
In addition, I will use this space to keep contact with my many and growing worldwide network of family and friends. My friends, especially, are an exceedingly interesting lot! So please check in from time to time to see if I've made another introduction, usually in the form of a memoir or a story. When I figure out how to keep a photo library online, I'll refer you there as well.
Well, that's enough for an initiation, I suppose. There is work to be done elsewhere today, so I must be going. But I intend to return soon--hopefully within a week and no later.
Feel free to comment or introduce yourself at any time.
If you'd like to know a little more about me, I've just created my first public web page at www.myspace.com/rlboyer. Please feel free to check me and out and ... give a shout!
I'm writing from Toronto, in the province of Ontario, Canada, where I've been living off and on since last August. I came here for a month-long intended visit, but fell in love with the place--and the spirit of the place--and decided to stick around for awhile. I've never lived outside of the United States for any length of time before, and this trip presented a splendid opportunity to do so.
I'm staying here with my friend, Renee Chan, while working and visiting mostly literary and film industry friends. There is a spirit here that is refreshing for me as an artist. Something is evoked by the zeitgeist that reminds me--or at least I imagine--of what Paris might have felt like to the expatriate American writers of the '30s, before the last great war broke out. I imagine favorite writers like Henry Miller and Hemingway in Paris haunting the cafes, bistros, museums and bookstores and meeting kindred spirits from around the world. That's how Toronto is for me now--a "moveable feast".
The emphasis is on "moveable". For the past several years my life has been given over to a nomadic journey as I've wandered North America from coast to coast.
This blog may, in time, become home to my musings as I continue the wanderjahre--the journeys of a wandering writer--both here and abroad.
My life as a writer--as a wandering writer especially these past few years--is not without interest to others, or so it would seem. So I'll post my experiences and observations along the way here from time to time, as the occasion and mood and circumstance requires.
For those of you who would like to learn more about me and my writings, please be patient. This is only the beginning of my adventure into the cyber-world of blogsites, websites and global online communities of kindred spirits. Please save this and tune in from time to time. The journey together may prove interesting.
In the coming months (and years) I intend to post my entire body of work online for the enjoyment (hopefully) of as many others as possible. In time, much of this will be posted here on my blog, as well as in other appropriate online venues.
In addition, I will use this space to keep contact with my many and growing worldwide network of family and friends. My friends, especially, are an exceedingly interesting lot! So please check in from time to time to see if I've made another introduction, usually in the form of a memoir or a story. When I figure out how to keep a photo library online, I'll refer you there as well.
Well, that's enough for an initiation, I suppose. There is work to be done elsewhere today, so I must be going. But I intend to return soon--hopefully within a week and no later.
Feel free to comment or introduce yourself at any time.
If you'd like to know a little more about me, I've just created my first public web page at www.myspace.com/rlboyer. Please feel free to check me and out and ... give a shout!
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