So, guess I couldn't pull Saturday off. And then there's Sunday, as well, so I'll be having two days off whether I like it or not.
And I like it. First order of business was to get to Safeway and buy a bunch of stuff. Vitamin-C chewables, a box of faux-Neo Citrin, some buns, pizza, a bag of brownie bark, coffee. Juice.
After getting the groceries all sorted out, I smoked a bowl and turned on the Xbox to see whats out there for movies to rent.
Didn't see anything too particularly amazing on their list of "new films", so I scrolled down a while before coming across this awesome little surprise...
"BOOOOOOYYYYYYYYY!!!!!"
Wow, what an amazing series. I had no idea Ravager existed, considering what a struggle it has been to get the last couple of Phantasms made. Didn't think they made another one.
Ravager is such a mind fuck of a film if you've followed the previous ones going into this. Who is the Tall Man? Where did he come from? What is the source of his power? What is his weakness?
Angus Scrimm, the actor portraying the Tall Man, really plays it straight without irony. Complete and pure evil menace exuding from every one of his pores. Why? That's for us fans to find out. Or should I say, phans?
I really enjoyed this one. It was terrifying at times once my brain started making the connections as to who the Tall Man really is. Hint: The greatest possible evil there is.
Or, maybe not. Maybe the Tall Man really is only a scientist who hops across multiple dimensions and reanimates the dead, and commands these silver spheres that drill into people's heads which then squirts out massive amounts of blood to comical effect.
Love, love this series. And though it billed itself as being the "final" confrontation between Reggie Banniser our hero, and the Tall Man himself, it really kind of fallen on it's face with that being said. They can't possibly do another Phantasm film. It's already almost 40 years old, using the same actors from the original, despite how much they've aged since then.
It's really a labour of love. A passionately made film, also by the same director of The Beastmaster, one of my favorite sword n' sorcery flicks of all time.
Don Coscarelli is the man. Although this one was directed by David Hartman, I thought he did a fantastic job with the atmospherics and music placement and some of the shots he captured.
So, as I was saying earlier, when I figured out who the Tall Man really was, I found myself fascinated by what was going on. Reggie Bannister, the protagonist, is this relentless cowboy in pursuit of the Tall Man, looking to rescue his friends and to destroy whatever stands in his way.
There was this great scene in a lit hallway, all white and inside of another dimension.
Wish I could find an image of it, but there's nothing on Google and that last picture I posted is from the scene, but doesn't show the wide-shot itself. Anyways, so in this scene Angus Scrimm confronts Reggie Bannister and asks him why. Why does he continue to be so relentless in his pursuit? Why was Reggie such a bad dream for the Tall Man? Why did the Tall Man offer Reggie the fulfillment of his wishes to have his family back, after the Tall Man had brutually murdered them?
Intense conversation, I thought. Moments like that are sorely appreciated to see on the silver screen. I love how deep questions are asked and deep answers are given, even if the film continues to be a tease about revealling some of the finer details about what the heck everything is actually supposed to mean. The plot is really all over the place across all five movies.
It's so Dark Tower. Where the gunslinger goes off on a journey to confront a powerful villain. Such a powerful archetype to pay homage towards.
And after all that, I went down the list to see what I would watch next and found this.
Torchbearer is basically as opposite from Phantasm as it gets, it delves from darkness to lightness of being with how much it tries to preach the necessity of a society to be in honor of God, the great Creator, the Prime Mover.
And I agreed with him. His examples were on point. Ancient Rome fell because of Godlessness, history served as acceptable enough evidence to illustrate each of his ideas with. Such as how the French revolution was caused by Atheism and a populace that did not take well to the idea of having to abandon God, because this new Government says so.
Phil brought up Nazi Germany, and didn't think twice about depicting some of the horrors of that era on screen for us to see. Emancipated corpses. Gas chambers. Persecution of the Jews. Persecution of God, really.
Weird how impulsive I was in renting this, but I'm glad I did. It was good to hear such a rich and loving expression of Christianity, even if you toss aside all of the fallacies that most Atheists bring up about the Bible these days. I agree with some of the Atheists, as well.
Phil is a man with true faith, I'll give him that. I applaud him for having the courage to stand up for what he believes in. And he believes in noble truths, the same ones that I do.
So this was a good sort of documentary, or look into this man's psyche. I appreciate knowing people like him are out there. True believers. Unwilling to budge or bow to the pressure of abandoning their faith. No matter how persecuted they may be for it.
No matter what, always keep faith in something that is greater than man. For once man stops believing in God, he'll start to believe in anything. So says Phil Robinson more than a few times, in scenes here and there.
Another of his quotes, is that "he who has the biggest stick, determines the value of another man's life".
He's right. Given how hedonistic and materialistic our society has been getting, he does put forth a good case as to what a society should be aspiring towards. Should we go forward and leave God behind? No. God must always be at the forefront of our beliefs and given the respect He deserves.
I've never watched an episode of Duck Dynasty. Just not into the faux-reality tv series thing, and after watching this documentary, I may check out an episode to see if I'd like it or not. Despite how prevalent the merchandising and Duck Dynasty branding I've been seeing all over the place.
I'd rather not view Phil Robinson and his family as a "brand" that is using Christianity for their financial gain. I'd rather not know that Phil Robinson feels that homosexuality is a sin, and we should all believe that the miracles of Jesus actually happened.
I have my own thoughts on what actually happened. Having someone less or more educated than myself to tell me what I should believe in, would cause me to rebel. I can't completely swallow the Bible down as a fully accurate and believable account of God and Jesus, in each the Old and the New Testament.
Because I'm pretty sure a lot of it is wrong. Constantine did modify the original scrolls from where the Bible drew its stories from. Much of the miracles probably never happened, and were used as ways of inserting drama into places where it was needed and to give credence to the miraculous power of God and his son.
Sadly, this was over two thousand years ago when Christ last walked the earth, or so we would think.
If God truly wanted to fix the world, he would have delivered a messenger capable and courageous enough to be able to speak the truth of his heart, and his affection for a higher power.
And the usefulness of having one. Fictitious or not.
Which he apparently did, but that was two thousand years ago. It's time for us to be reminded.
Yep, so. Good movie night. I fell asleep for a couple of hours after that.
Had a dream about her again, too.
We were on the phone, and I said something to make her giggle. Her voice tinkled beautifully.
Then, we were face to face. Kissing. I kissed her neck, she moaned.
And.. that's pretty much it. Woke up for long enough to remind myself about this dream, and went back to sleep. Don't recall anything after this point.
Though it was a dream, it was so nice to see her in them. For two days in a row? That's magical. I remember my dream-self being extremely happy.
Sadly, my dream-self is over there and my real-self is here. Without her.
Oh well.
I can't imagine how to win her back. I won't accept any more stupid ideas. If my heart is going to one day ring alarm bells, and tell me to do something impulsive; I will take my sweet time with assessing whether or not this idea is worth pursuing. Because I don't think there any ideas out there for me to really execute on. I can't win her back. No matter what I do.
Right?
So.. I don't know now. What do I do? What should I be doing? How can I live my life? By which meaning? For what reason?
Yeah.. sounds like a mid-life crisis to me, too. We make light of the fact that these are crises, given how common they are, but it doesn't diminish the difficulty of surmounting obstacles as much as people would think. It does help to know that many others have struggled with the same questions, I suppose.
Anyways.. Yeah. In a warm bed with the lasers going, listening to Ben Howard on Gina's cd; and I'm loving it.
I feel so comfortable right now. So at ease.
I ate that entire bag of brownie bark.
(yawns) (stretches)
Time for more sleep.
