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Sunday, November 6, 2011

"Take Shelter"



The cinema manager (at "The Chelsea," Chapel Hill, North Carolina) told me reactions to "Take Shelter" were 'all over the map. 

 People loved it and people hated it.'

IMDb's cumulative "user rating" is an unusually high 8.0. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1675192/

Similarly, 93% of professional reviewers give thumbs up at Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/take_shelter/

Is the protagonist endowed with prophetic ability?

Or, is he losing his mind?

The subtly insinuated backdrop of "Take Shelter" is the collapse of America's Social Contract and the breakdown of our Body Politic.

Currently, many Americans live in a state of dread foreboding.

Is our collective apprehension true?

Or, are we cracking up?

Michael Shannon's lead performance is a tour de force.

Increasingly, I advise people to see movies without knowing "anything" about them.

If you must see the trailer - which distorts the plot - here it is: http://www.sonyclassics.com/takeshelter/

To explore the Western world's last comprehensive "crackup," I recommend "Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety" by Oxford scholar, E.R. Dodds (1893-1979) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._R._Dodds. 


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1 comment:

  1. Fred OwensNovember 7, 2011 at 10:49 AM

    I get gloomy at times, and I can't tell if it's me or the country I live in.

    ReplyDelete

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