Squandered Fortunes Among Hope and Chance

Watching people have their dreams crushed is a funny thing, it gives a feeling that comes somewhere between amusement and complete tragedy, for me anyway. Apparently, the rest of the nation seems massively amused whilst watching people walk onto a stage only to be slammed down by a panel of talented people, and that's becoming more and more popular amongst almost everybody you see while walking down a street. It's never been an oddity that people are amused by freaks or others who they can easily look down on, quickly jump back a few decades and you can pay to stand in-front of midgets, people with disfigured bodies and bearded women, it wouldn't be surprising if it wasn't for society telling us it was wrong to do, that this would also still be normal for people to do.

Unfortunately it seems to be human nature to find someone or something weaker than you and then berate it, or watch and laugh as they fall apart, it's not new, just easier to see due to Media saturation. As much as I want to sit here and tell myself that it's okay, it isn't, it's disturbing, and I'm not going on a Crusade about how we're all evil and deserve to be judged for it, I just think it's going too far, even compared to decades ago when it was common place.

My main reason for writing this goes on from this point:

I can't understand how people let themselves fall into such average lives, working a Office job 9-5, Five days a week with an okay salary. How can you not want more than that? How can you not look at something else in the world and aspire to doing it? Being so complacent that you convince yourself that a life you never planned is now okay 'Just because' it pays for some stuff and keeps your family going. There's millions and millions of these people all over the world working in jobs that they never wanted, that they obviously never started out Adult life wanting to do, and it angers me to think that so many of them have dreams they never accomplished.

Sure, I'm not one to talk about forcing myself to do things to further my immediate position in life, half the time I seem to do the absolute opposite and try to make things go backwards, or in some alternate possibility which seems (so far) to have worked out. I'll take risks, I'll work hard on what I have to do, but I still don't have my future even half set out, I don't think most of the people my age do, I'm not even sure if you're supposed to when you're 20 but I sure remember being told I should know when leaving school at 16. Can you honestly look back to when you were that age and think that you would have actually made a trustworthy decision? I know well that I wouldn't have, if at that age you were forced by Law to make a decision that determined the rest of your life, the world would already be over, because 99% of people had no idea at all what they wanted out of life other than being happy and not dying a painful death, two things that are very related.

What does any of that moronic rambling even mean though? Probably that it's too late to be writing this kind of continuous thought and actually hoping that it makes the slightest bit of sense. Either way when the pin drops, I'll put all my money and effort behind whatever seems like the best idea at the time, I'll never live a blindly optimistic life but I'll damn sure do a better job at making sure I don't ever end up in a situation I'm only 'Okay' with. Everyone aims big at the start, why not, we were brought up thinking we could do whatever the hell we wanted, and we can do providing we try hard enough and more often than not, sink enough money into, but peoples self belief, effort and tolerance all fly straight out that giant window, and they settle for whatever they see first that suits the majority of their needs.

I'd rather be dead.

I swear to whoever I can that I would rather be dead that live such a meaningless and harmless life. No-one ever started out with the intention of being average, why do most finish their life in that category? I'll make something out of myself somehow that's for definite.

Jew Crazed

The new craze with Hollywood seems to be exploiting, well that might be a slightly strong word for it, but using Jewish content in films as some kind of selling point. Before anyone accuses me of being racist, I'm not, I'm simply highlighting this point and seeing if anyone agrees, or something like that.

"Valkyrie", "The Reader", "Defiance" and "Inglourious Basterds" 2 of which have been released, Tarantino's Inglorious Basterd's which is set for release on 28th August, and Edward Zwick's Defiance set for a 09th January release, all focus round the Second World War, which gives the opportunity of bringing Jewish subtext into these films. This is probably one of those things that appears in cycles, every few years springing back into popularity and later disappearing into obscurity until the next time it's able to rear its withering head and entice people yet again. Taking into consideration that I'm only 17, I haven't been alive long enough to really know of these cycles, and even if I did have the motivation to become a child film prodigy at a young age, I don't think one of the things I would have noticed straight away was Hollywood taking on the topic of Jewish people inside the towering walls of the subject of the Second World War.

I would be forced to assume that there's something of those cycles going on, and usually I'm one for research on the kind of matter at hand, but I'm feeling lazy tonight, and hopefully I won't go blazing around writing completely irrelevant things for much longer than I usually tend to.

Personally I see the Second World War as something that's being used far too much by the media these days. It's clear to see it's still a favourite with the Video Game industry, and why wouldn't it be? People are ready and willing to throw money at them, and if people are stupid enough to throw it, I'm all for picking it up, so I'm not being critical of them...well, much. The film industry has a well thought out interest in the War, since there isn't huge amounts of footage taken from every given moment of every battle or skirmish, It's adequate to recreate these moments in films. Regardless of the public's continuing love for seeing the German's getting stepped on over and over, which ironically often earns Directors, Producers and Actors large amounts of money, whilst at the time the German's were losing much more money, I for one think that War films still hold an important cultural significance too the countries involved. After all, when you look back on it, it's not all that far back from the times we're living in now. For the record though, I'm more interested in films set in the Vietnamese War, like Platoon and Full Metal Jacket.

To me it seems that holiday bring out these films just for the feeling of; 'Yeah! Jew's killing Germans!' I mean that's what Tarantino's film is presumably going to mostly be about, I hope at least. I have great respect for the man, personally and for his work due to his unique viewpoint on things, and I hope Inglorious Basterds fairs just as well as his films. His film doesn't seem to be part of the Jew Craze cycle anyway, it doesn't come across as something he was told to do, more a film he wants to do.

Defiance is yet to surface fully, but is receiving positive reviews so far, and so it should be due to what I saw of the Cinematography earlier.

As for Valkyrie, it's receiving positive reviews mainly, the only criticism towards the film is Tom Cruise related, but what are you going to do?

The Reader seems to be fairly good from what I've seen in terms of reviews, only a handful of ratings on IMDB so far, even though it has been out for 5 odd days.

I suppose at some point I'm going to have to venture to watch all these films, Inglorious Basterds is already on my watching list just for the reason it's Tarantino, and it's bound to be of interest too me in terms of production and when it's set. Anyway, I'm not totally sure where I've gone with this blog or if I've said anything of any importance at all, but it has killed some time, so I think I'll leave it here.