Innocent or Indecent.

The other day I sat down and watched:

The Innocents (1961).

This classic movie, based on Gothic horror novella The Turn of the Screw (1898) By Henry James, was directed and produced by Jack Clayton with the screenplay written by Truman Capote.

We meet Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr) as she is being interviewed for the job of governess. Her prospective employer known only as The Uncle (Michael Redgrave) is an incredibly rich man who has had his niece Flora, and nephew Miles, dumped on him due to the death of the children's parents. He is however completely uninterested in them, preferring to travel and do business. He does however have a sense of responsibility, and so houses the kids in his enormous country estate, Bly. He hired a governess to take care of them, but she died a year ago, and now he needs a new one. Enter Miss Giddens, who is told that she is completely in charge of children and household. The Uncle wishes to remain completely undisturbed. No contact whatsoever.

Miss Giddens travels to Bly and meets the niece, Flora, a charming but slightly weird young girl. There is also the kind and caring housekeeper Mrs. Grose as well as a few other staff members, but we rarely ever see them.

Flora seems to have a way of knowing things she couldn't possibly know, including the fact that her brother Miles who is away at boarding school will soon be returning home, and she is correct. Miles is equally charming, but has a strangely intense and adult way about him.

Miss Giddens soon sees two dark figures, a woman in black and mysterious handsome man. No one else seems to be able to see them, and the reason is, they are dead. The woman is Miss Jessel (Clytie Jessop), the previous governess and the man is the Uncle's former valet, Peter Quint (Peter Wyngarde). Quint used to be in charge of the household, until he was found dead one winter evening.

Miss Giddens learns that not only did Miss Jessel have a very unhealthy relationship with Quint, the children were devoted to them and may have witnessed things children really shouldn't see. Miss Giddens sets out to save the children from the wicked ghosts however she can. If they are real...

The Innocents is filmed in black and white, and fun fact, in order to deepen the shadows and get the necessary atmosphere, the set was lit so brightly at times that Kerr sometimes wore sunglasses between scenes. This also happened during the shooting of The Lighthouse (2019) for exactly the same reason.

The central theme of the movie is the ambiguity of the ghosts. Either they are real and influencing the children, or they aren't and it is all in Miss Gidden's head. That at least was the intent, but I think they leaned too hard on the ghosts being real, and the mystery fails a little bit. Granted this was 1961 and the filmmakers were constrained in what they could do and show, but apparently Miss Gidden's own repressed sexuality should be the cause of her own potential delusions, and to be honest I saw none of that. The Innocent's comes across as a straight ghost story.

So, do I recommend this movie? Absolutely. Despite the lack of intended ambiguity it is a great movie. Creepy more than scary, particularly today, it is a really good Gothic story. All the actors are great, with a special shout-out to the child actors, who did their job extremely well. Deborah Kerr is great, juggling caring kindness with desperate paranoia in a truly professional manner. All in all a good film, even if it isn't all that scary anymore. Well worth watching.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!

 

Be prepared.

Today I have an interesting video for you. Johnny Harris, an independent American journalist visits Finland, and joins both Finnish and visiting troops for a NATO exercise in Lapland. He also visits other places like the border to Russia and parts of the extensive shelter tunnels underneath Helsinki. The video is called Inside the Most Prepared Country on Earth, which feels like a bit of an exaggerated title, so make up your own mind. 

Overall I liked the video, and I highly recommend it.

 That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!    

Lake Peigneur

In 1980 in sleepy Lake Peigneur, Louisiana, something odd happened. If you had been standing on the shore of the lake, you would have seen the oil rig that quietly dug up oil from the bottom of the shallow lake tilt and then suddenly vanish under the water.

Keep in mind that the lake was only a little deeper than three meters or eleven feet, and the oil rig was considerably taller, yet it vanished completely. Then a whirlpool showed up and became terrifyingly huge in no time at all. Barges, boats, trees, a large part of the island on the lake all vanished into the whirlpool.

This was followed by a massive geyser that was so large the local canal leading to the Gulf of Mexico reversed direction and pushed barges back out to sea.

So what happened? The oil rig had accidentally busted through into the local salt mine, a massive operation that also existed under the lake. This mine was no small operation, it was huge, and salt famously dissolves very well into water. All the supports in the mine were in fact salt which disappeared in no time, triggering a gigantic cave in. 

What is perhaps the most amazing thing about the Lake Peigneur disaster is that no one was hurt. No one died. Testimony to how important safety regulations are and how you really have to follow them.

There are many videos on the Lake Peigneur incident, I'll add one below for more information.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week! 

 

 

Inside the CIA, sort of.

The other day I spent three hours listening to part one of Julian Dorey's interview with former CIA officer John Kiriakou. Disgusted by the torture methods employed by the agency, he blew the whistle and was promptly put in prison for 30 months. 

The interview is in two parts, and full disclosure, I haven't had the time to watch the second part, which is also three hours long, but I'm sure it's good. 

I learned a great deal from part one, and figured some of you might be interested. With that said, enjoy.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_FDZozJ9zE

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HuyORiWoDM&list=WL&index=4&t=1s  

 

 

 

Playing with a challenge

I've played World of Warcraft since it's early days. I have also been away from the game many times, even for years, but sooner or later, I have always returned.

The beauty of a game like WoW is that you can play it how you want to (within reason). Some are almost pure PvP'ers, others spend all their time in the auction house making fortunes buying and selling goods. Raiders, transmog hunters, explorers, completionists, the list goes on.

Today I want to share two players with you. Both are Youtubers, and the first is Pathalerix, who's Goldlocked series has taken off in a big way. His deal is this; his character is at first stuck in Elwyn Forest until he can earn enough in-game money to buy a WoW token. Then he gets to move on to an adjacent zone, and so on. I have learned a great deal from watching Goldbound. I highly recommend it. 

The second channel is Manaburst who decided to only level up in dungeons, nothing unique per se, but he's soloing the dungeons, starting with Deadmines at level 9! This ongoing play-through has also taught me a thing or two, and I heartily recommend this channel.

Both of these gamers and Youtubers have created a challenge for themselves that is inspiring and awesome despite being pretty masochistic at times. They may not be the originators of these challenges, I simply don't know, but they are examples of how you can come up with a new way of playing a game beyond what the devs intended, much like my own project of clearing Sniper Elite 5 without taking any damage. There are new and interesting ways of playing our favorite games if we use a bit of imagination.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great week!