Patronising Hewitt, Write Dubbya's Speeches, and a Movie Meme

Tony Blair is refusing to admit New Labour could possibly have made any mistakes with their Health Service reforms. Well, I suppose he would say that, wouldn’t he. Patricia Hewitt was on BBC Breakfast this morning defending the whole mess, in her usual unpleasant way. (You know, I find that woman hugely annoying. Maybe she is a wonderful person if you get to know her, but the second I hear her voice, the words ‘patronising bitch’ pop into my head. Given my deep dislike of her, it’s not really all that surprising that I can’t bring myself to believe a word she says.) Apparently, it’s not the reforms which are at fault, it’s the hospitals and doctors surgeries for employing the wrong sort of staff, which sounds reminiscent of the old ‘the trains can’t run because of the wrong kind of snow’ excuse. Of course, it has nothing to do with the Government expecting hospitals to find huge numbers of new employees overnight.

We all had a lot of fun with this over the weekend. Yes, folks, you can now become a speech writer for Dubbya, and make him say what you think he really means. Not that I’m sure he really knows himself.

And now for a meme. Today’s comes from Musing on Movies

“You mean, you’ll put down your rock and I’ll put down my sword, and we’ll try to kill each other like civilized people?”
~~The Princess Bride

How do you feel about violence in films? Does the potential violence content affect whether or not you will see a movie? Have you ever seen a movie that you would have liked better if it had less violence in it?

It really depends on how relevant violence is to the subject of the film. In context I don’t have a problem with it, but I’m not keen on the sort of film that is violent for the sake of being so, for example the stereotypical hack and slash genre. Those types of films never seem to have plots, just a succession of ever more gruesome ‘killins’ and that puts me off wanting to watch. I’m one of those odd bods who like plot, dialogue, character development etc. On the other hand, some real classics have been pretty grim, ie: Platoon, Gangs of New York, Pulp Fiction, but, it could be said that this is necessary because of the themes involved. There is also the argument that some films are not as violent as people think, Reservoir Dogs is one example, it seems very violent, but actually most of the violence is implied. A good director can use implied violence to great effect, making the viewer think they have seen something that really they haven’t.

A movie I would have enjoyed more if it had less violence . . . Bambi, Tarka the Otter and Ring of Brightwater I found all three pretty traumatic as a child. It’s like ‘Hey kids, look at the lovely furry creature, and now WATCH IT DIE.’

Listening to: the kettle boiling, I’m about to have a cup of tea.