Times were a'Changing!

A Complete Unknown (2024)

Director: James Mangold

Clip from Youtube

One of my earliest memories from the late 1960s is of my uncle spending weekends at my house. He was a university student, a rare sight in Malaysia then. I was fascinated by the shaving cream he and his friend, who accompanied him, applied to their faces and skillfully shaved off. What intrigued me even more was the fragrant aftershave lotion they put on afterwards. I was captivated by the lovely containers it came in. I later discovered it was 'Old Spice'. Its logo, a pirate ship, left a lasting impression on me. They spoke a great deal in English, and I often wonder what they discussed—perhaps the societal changes about which Bob Dylan wrote in his songs? I could not comprehend the messages as they were mainly in English, the lingua franca of the educated lot in the country.

As we know, the 1960s were tumultuous times. The Americans were the de facto leaders of the free world, whilst developing countries struggled to free themselves from the yoke of colonisation. Communist ideology gained popularity among young rabble-rousers who believed Marx's teachings could save their nations and the world from annihilation. The US viewed it as its moral duty to curtail leftist ideas and promote the message of a free world. The Americans, however, wised up. Seeing the devastating effects of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs, the inhumane expulsion of tribes from Bikini Atoll and seeing bodybags returning from Korea and later Vietnam, in the carefree times of rock and roll, people started expressing their discontent.

At about this time, a young Bob Dylan packed his guitar and landed in New York to meet his ailing idol Woody Guthrie. He soon got into the folk music scene there. The film tells about Dylan's rise to stardom and the opposition he got as he decided to introduce electric guitar and other band instruments into his presentation. The folk music purists feel that he was damaging the essence of folk music by going electric. The movie ends in 1965 when Dylan finishes a stunning performance by introducing his electric make-over, performing on his acoustic guitar, and riding into the sunset on his motorbike.

https://www.motorcyclistonline.com/bob-dylan-motorcycle-crash/

The movie is not a full biopic but a part of Dylan's life. I was looking forward to knowing about his most talked about alleged bad motorcycle crash that cracked several vertebrae, a concussion and facial lacerations, but it was not included. Upon researching, I discovered that it happened a year after the timeline where the story ends. Like many of Bob Dylan's great stories, famous for half-truths, and outright lies, the motorcycle accident is shrouded in mystery. There is a possibility that the accident never took place as there was no record of hospital admissions for an injury so severe. Dylan could have just burned out. Possibly, such an accident never took place; he just wanted to be 'out of the rat race'.

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Part of the company you keep!

Onibaba (Japanese, 1964)
Director: Kaneto Shindō

Many stories tell us to be wary of the company we keep with. Like how Amma frequently reminds us, a calf, if it moves around with piglets, will eventually join the piglets and source its daily meals from the rubbish dump. An animal, placed high in Hindu society, will ultimately do unholy things depending on the company it keeps. 

There is something special about black-and-white movies and the horror genre. It reminds me of my childhood, when my sisters and I would flock around our home 16" TV, squinting to watch RTM's Friday offering of Cerita Pontianak. Even the poor makeup of Pontianak would scare the living daylights out of my sister. She would even be scared to enter the kitchen. To make it worse, I would hide around the corner and jump suddenly in front of her, making her scream!

Onibaba is a classic Japanese movie set in the Samurai era. Times are bad. All the territories are at loggerheads; all men are out to fight, and the women have to rough it out, scavenging on whatever comes their way, stealing from travellers, catching dogs for meals and selling loots. A lady and her daughter-in-law desperately try to survive in that climate. A neighbour, who returns from war, informs them that the lady's son died, not in the war, but while stealing food. The lady blames the neighbour for the son's death. The neighbour seduces the young widow, but the lady is not very happy about it. The lady's daughter-in-law, the young widow, is secretly in love with him and has secret trysts in the dark of the night. The lady comes to know of this and tries to prevent her.

One day, as the lady follows the daughter-in-law to one of these late-night meetings, she is stopped by a mask-donning samurai at knife-point. The lady tricks the samurai by pushing him into a pit. She removes his mask and wears it to scare her daughter-in-law. It works, but the mask gets stuck to her face after getting wet in the rain. After forcefully removing the mask, the lady and her daughter-in-law discover that her face has peeled off and is disfigured. The daughter-in-law runs away scared. The lady falls into the same pit and dies.

A chilling movie. Introduces the Hannya masks, usually used in Japanese Noh theatres, typically representing a jealous female demon.

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I spy... with my U-2!

Bridge of Spies (2015)
Director: Steven Spielberg

The Second World War had ended. The Sun had finally set on the mighty British Empire. The post of world supremo was up for grabs. Over at the blue corner, secluded far away from powerful neighbours, the capitalist USA was the poster boy to prove the case that 'greed is good'. Meanwhile, at the red corner, the Soviet Union spread the idea of equity and condemned the Western way of life as decadent. 

Riddled with secrecy and the zest to supersede the other regarding military supremacy and space explorations, the Soviet-US animosity reached mammoth proportions in the post-WW2 era. Each was spying on the other and trying to outdo the other. After witnessing the devastation that the mushroom clouds did to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Americans had the pressing need to keep nuclear bomb technology within American shores. On top of that, an even more devastating bomb in the form of hydrogen bombs was in the limelight. The Americans did not want the Russians to acquire that knowledge. They wanted to bring the whole world under their hegemony.

German scientists who absconded Nazi's harassment were rounded up for the Manhattan Project and other scientific explorations around WW2. They contributed much to American scientific prowess.

U2 planes could fly at an altitude of 70,000 ft. Flying at a specific speed, the Americans thought they could avoid detection. On May 1, 1960, equipped with a quality camera, a U2 plane left Peshawar on a reconnaissance mission to take high-quality photographs deep into the Soviet Union. Unbeknownst to the Americans, the Russians detected the plane and shot a missile at it. The plane went down. 

Back in the USA, the American public was informed by NASA that their weather plane had crashed, killing its pilot, off the Turkey border. A fake NASA plane was shown as the ill-fated plane. The Soviets kept a tight lip about the whole incident. 

Francis Gary Powers

Soon, Krushscoff made a statement that a US spy plane had crashed in their territory, and its pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was in their custody. This was a massive embarrassment to Eisenhower and his administration. Powers, it seems, was given the appropriate treatment as should be offered to a captured enemy, tried and sentenced to three years of imprisonment and seven years of hard labour. 

That is where events related to this movie come in. 

In 1960, Rudolf Abel (posthumously found to be a fake name) was caught as a Russian spy. The courts, wanting to appear to give a fair representation, appointed James Donovan, an insurance lawyer, to defend him. With the 1950 Rosenberg espionage trial and subsequent execution still in the American psyche, the public wanted blood. The Rosenbergs were accused of passing sensitive documents related to the Manhattan Project to the Russians. Amidst public admonishment and displeasure, Donovan gave Abel a fighting chance. Much to everyone's chagrin, Abel probably escaped the electric chair due to Donovan's pleas. He got 30 years imprisonment. 

James Donovan's name came to the limelight again when the idea of prisoners swapping in 1962 popped up. The exchange was planned in West Berlin over Gleiniche Bridge, christened the 'Bridge of Spies' because many high-level deals were made here. As another side deal, an American student doing his PhD in Berlin was also released by the East German Stasi. For the record, the Berlin Wall was erected overnight in August 1961.

Rudolf Abel became one of Russia's most successful spies. After his release, he held important administrative and teaching positions in the Soviet Union. 

(NB If you think the LTTE is cruel as their fighters carry cyanide-filled pendants to avoid capture and later interrogations, U2 pilots carry a deadly neurotoxin-impregnated needle hidden in a coin for them to inject themselves during instances when they cannot stand the torture of enemy. And the pilots barely passed twenty!)

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Back to the USSR?

Communism, Hypnotism and the Beatles (1965)
Rev. David A. Noebel

An Analysis of the Communist use of music - the Communist Master Plan.

This book predates John Lennon's infamous press statement in 1966, in which he was quoted as saying that the Beatles were, at that time, 'more popular than Jesus'. To his defence, the baby boomers were, in fact, losing interest in what the church had to say. 

In 1956, during a visit to Poland, Nikita Khrushchev was thought to have told the West that he would 'bury them'. Some say it was something that came out after being lost in translation. Again, during his state visit to the US, he may have said (again disputed) that he predicted the adoption of communism and the gradual creation of a 'socialist stare' in the US. 

David Noebel is said to be a fiery Christian evangelist who argues his claims with dubious scientific evidence. In this booklet, he used many Pavlovian animal behavioural study models to convince his congregation that music has a hypnotizing effect that can alter teenagers' responses to situations. He even goes to the extent of suggesting that music can be used as a brainwashing device. He quotes Khrushchev as saying that the Soviets did not have to do anything to turn Americans into commies. They will change in time. Through music? "Have they planted this through rock and roll?" he asks.

Looking at how the millennials and the woke generation behave, it seems like Khrushchev's dream may have materialized. Extremist leftist ideas have permeated all forms of life. All the institutions have been infiltrated. Posts on social media reeks of the communist ideas. They claim to champion the marginalized, but what they really want is the annihilation of our civilization as we know it. They even have opinions on theistic matters even though they are godless in their belief system.

After seeing their mesmerizing effect on their young audience, the author has a bone to pick with the Beatles. He cannot fathom what makes them go hysterical to the extent of peeling off their undergarments. 

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Belacan

Migrant stories of yore from Malaysia by Farouk Gulsara

Ah Soh with Nand Lal, Saraswati’s son.
(Photo taken circa the early 2000s).
Courtesy: Farouk Gulsara

https://borderlessjournal.com/2023/08/14/belacan/

“There she goes again,” thought Saraswati as she cut vegetables she had never seen in her native country. “Here goes Ah Soh cooking her stinky dish again.”

Saraswati, Ah Soh and the rest of the pack are people commonly called fresh off the boat. They hail from various parts of China and India.

The loud beating of a metal ladle against a frying pan, accompanied by the shrilling Chinese opera over the radio and her shrieking at her children, need no guessing whose kitchen ‘aroma’ is coming from. Everyone knows Ah Soh is frying belacan, a fermented Malay shrimp paste.

https://borderlessjournal.com/2023/08/14/belacan/?

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In the mood?

In the Mood for Love (Cantonese; 2000)
Director: Wong Kar-wai

This film must surely be a fruit of a labour of love. It is such a joyful experience to watch as the viewers are cradled back to a Shanghainese community's claustrophobic surroundings in 1962 Hong Kong.

It is a story of a close-knit group tenant, specifically of two couples, in an apartment building. Two spouses who are often left alone by their busy working partners end up developing feelings for each other. The busy partners in real fact are embroiled in an affair, between themselves. The scorned spouses discover a common interest, create a platonic relationship but soon realise it is romantic. They resist the temptations to be as low as their partners, despite the circumstances of time and the lure of their biological attractions.

The theme of this story segues nicely into a discussion I had with my friends recently. What is this thing about marriage? Is it a mere a public declaration of a property much like when Vasco da Gama hoisted his flag in the shores of a particularly cold Christmas morning to claim Natal as the property of the Portuguese King Emmanuel?  Is it an injunction to limit his sexual prowess to a single named party? Is it a decree to ensure the union's earning member's responsibility to provide for the economic and biological needs?

Believe it or not, the Hindu scriptures have looked at marriages as the souls' union rather than physical bodies. It is a continuum of their karmic evolution. Sex does not come in the equation. It is perfectly normal to have a sexless marriage. Polygamy and polyandry were accepted in ancient Bharat but not accepted in the modern legal system. My research shows that various dharmic texts like the Manu-Smriti and Vedas have classified marriages into eight forms - Brahmana, Daiva, Rishis, Prajapati, Asuras, Gandharva, Rakshasa and Pisaka. The first four forms of marriages are done with the blessings of a father figure. The Asura type is a form of bride selling. Lovers in 'love marriages' would make secret pacts of their union utilise the Gandharva rite, using an animate object or a person as proof. Rakshaha and Pisaka marriages are frowned upon and are deemed criminal. It is equivalent to the bride abduction and 'date-rape' in a modern setting.

The decision of union of the individuals and matrimony is all about an individual's perception. Sometimes we decide on life matters and feel it is warranted to satisfy our inner desires and personal intent. Whether copulation is a mere biological act or a divine cosmic dance of the feminine and masculine forces is a personal preference.

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“Where We Go One We Go All”

White Squall (1996)

In my teen years, I remember helping an older teenager to organise a religious outing for a group of children. We were to arrange for a bus to get the kids to the other side of town for Sivarathri prayers. As it involved overnight event, somebody thought that verbal consent was not sufficient. Each participant was asked to get their parents to sign a release form. We got the replies promptly from all except one. It seemed his father, an Army man, refused to sign the consent form and wanted to see the organisers. That was the first time I was exposed to an unreasonable person who thought that the whole world out there was just out to kidnap his child. His coveted son did not make it to the prayers as we could not convince his father. Later in life, the calculating father must have miscalculated his drinking habits and succumbed to the effects of the bottle. The obedient son was also devastated much later, in an unrelated event, when he woke up one fine morning to discover that his wife of ten years had absconded with her lover and he was left to care for their three young children.

The motto of Albatross
'where we go one, we go all.'
(inscribed on the bell on JFK's boat)

There must surely be three ways to raise children - the hippie style, the helicopter type and the one in between. The helicopter type of parents would be the ones who put their children in a bubble, trying to protect them for adversities in life, but the offspring end up as a mimosa pudica. The hippie one would want their kids to be in sync with Nature. All the falls and bruises, in their minds, would make them anti-fragile.

This movie depicts the story of 15-year-old boys who went on a character-building expedition aboard an ill-fated sailing vessel, Albatross. This is based on a true story in 1961. Imagine 14 students of different background in 1960 allowed by their parent to make a man of themselves by sailing all the way from the Bahamas through the Caribbean. They were under the tutelage of four experienced crewmen. Unfortunately, the Albatross capsised after encountering a white squall (a sudden and violent windstorm at sea), killing two crew members and four teenagers.

Later investigations suggested that the Albatross probably lost its balance due to the additional fittings that had been affixed on her. Albatross actually is an old vessel. She started her service back in 1920 in the Netherlands as a pilot boat in the North Sea. During the WW2, she served as a radio-station ship for submarines. After the war, she was a trainer for Dutch sea-merchants. In 1954, she was brought to the U.S. and was featured in a few Hollywood blockbusters. Her final stint was preparing college students in sail training. The refitting, over the years by her owners, must have made her' top heavy' which jeopardised her stability when encountering the storm.

This movie is mentioned as one of President Trump's favourite film, even though he was quoted to have said to have enjoyed 'Citizen Kane' and 'Gone with the Wind'. (Definitely, not 'Parasite'). I think the conspiracy theorists would like to believe so. Many of the lines in this movie have been used by Q-Anon as Q-drops for his followers to pick up and draw conclusions. The bell on board had inscriptions which read 'where we go one, we go all'.


Interestingly, this is the recurrent motif that appears in social media post as hashtag #WWG1WGA. Q-Anon and followers promise that Trump, the chosen leader and his team, will expose the evil plan of the Cabal and offset the agenda of the New World Order. A skipper is as good as his crew.

N.B. "Where We Go One We Go All" was inscribed on the bell on JFK's boat. It is a rallying cry for unity, and now headlines an extraordinary set of events.

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We want to dominate

Ford vs Ferrari (2019)

The Ford Motor Company is said to be masters in taking up challenges. In its giant plant, Willow Plant with its one-mile-long assembling line, the company managed to produce B-24 Liberator bombers at the rate of one plane per hour. This was their contribution to the World War 2 efforts to liberate the American soil and their European cousins from tyranny. The company established a reputation for themselves as "the arsenal of democracy" by transforming their production lines to make aeroplanes, tanks and trucks for the armies that defeated Adolf Hitler. They were a pioneer of sorts as women worked in the assembly line and were paid equal wages with men. It, wittingly or unwittingly, to also become "the arsenal of fascism." for its substantial business deals in Nazi Germany. But that is another story for another time.

By the end of WW2, Henry Ford's grandson, Henry Ford II had taken over Ford Motors. He adopted an aggressive business style. When his bid to buy over Ferrari met a dead end, he went ballistic. He made his personal mission to show his dominance in the motor industry.

In the early sixties, Ferrari was overrunning the racing tracks. For six years, back to back, from 1960 to 1965, it won the Le Mans 24 hours endurance race. 

Ford II, through his agents, went on a headhunt to recruit the best racers to beat Ferrari in Le Mans and show them who the boss was. That is where this film fits in. It narrates the story of two American racers - Ken Miles and Carroll Shelby- in a dramatic twist which saw Ford Motor Company finish the Le Man Race in a podium finish.

This film is not just a run-of-mill offering that depicts the expected David vs Goliath scenario where David comes out tops despite all the disadvantages, and everybody is happy. It offers much more than that. The characters are rich. The chemistry between Miles, a war veteran British émigré who is a lowly mechanic because of his short fuse, and Shelby, a sports car salesman who himself was a race winner, is phenomenal.

What makes it more interesting is the controversy surrounding the final outcome of the race and the mystery surrounding Miles' crash during practice at the end of the film.

They say jealousy and greed are unfavourable traits. Clearly, this is not always the case. Many innovative inventions and groundbreaking feats have been achieved through our rapacious desire to dominate and tower over our fellow brothers. 

For background on the history behind the story, see https://time.com/5730536/ford-v-ferrari-true-story/.

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