Carpe diem?

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)

Director, Actor: Ben Stiller

We are told that routine is good for us. We as human beings are easily swayed by our primal instincts that we need a laid-out plan and to follow a ritual to explore the fullest of our potential. The path paved by people before us gives the best assurance that our purpose of existence will be met. 

Essentially, we are told to lead dull, predictable, mundane lives. Nothing new is bound to come out of this type of arrangement. 

But then, life is as usual, not so straightforward.

“Carpe diem, Horace had said. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you will be dead for eternity”. You have one life to experience everything. Miss this, and you have lost it forever. You cannot step into the same river twice, said Heraclitus. 

For that flash-in-the-pan, out-of-the-box idea, one has to be spontaneous. Otherwise, the human race will not have that occasional vertical peaks of scientific and social discoveries that propel them forward in life. 

How often in our lives have we organised outings or holidays at the spur of the moment? In fact, these types of impulsive arrangements end up being more memorable. I remember buying tickets to watch ‘Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark’. Not knowing anything about the plot or its genre and not knowing what to expect, the two-and-a-half hours spent just blew my mind away. 

Perhaps rather than fearing that faring the alternate may derail our well-thought itineraries, one is allowed to stray away occasionally. Sometimes it is not all about the destination but also about the journey. It is not only about scaling Point A to Point B in record time but enjoying the journey and smelling the roses along the way.

This film is supposed to be a remake of a 1947 comedy of the same title. Actually, both movies approached the topic rather differently.

In the Ben Stiller version, Walter, a 42-year-old single introvert employed with LIFE magazine as a negative assets manager, is in a fix. His company is going digital, and he may be terminated. The negative needed for the next issue is missing, and the fellow female employee that he has the hots for seems unattainable. Rather than seizing the moment in front of him, Walter tends to daydream. Daydreaming gives him an outlet for him to channel his frustrations. 

A snow leopard off the mountains in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, pressure mounts to retrieve the missing negative, but the sender has no return address and is always on the move. Walter decides to embark on a rollercoaster ride to locate the sender. What he discovers is a vast world full of adventure that he never knew all this while.

The 1947 version is more of a slapstick comedy of the goody two-shoe son of a domineering mother and his entanglement with a mob. 

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A Christmas thriller

The Apology (2022)
Director: Allison Locke

Increasingly I realise that life is more complex. A crime is not always pre-meditated. Sometimes things happen at the moment out of uncontrolled emotions. Sometimes it is just a freak accident, a twist of fate. No one is going to believe the confession of an aggrieved man. What meets him instead is the full might of the law. The slow grind of the law, oiled by people with a vested interest, will throw the whole weight of the book at him to ensure maximum incarceration, remorse or not.

The humiliation and the inconveniences that come with getting caught with a crime, or even confessing to one, is way too much to handle for the perpetrator and all those intimately linked to him. Hence, it is necessary to get scot-free from it all costs.

Even when the case appears in the courts finally, there is no guarantee that Lady Justice is blind to suggestions and appeasement. Justice is not meted, but rather there is more emphasis on technicality and chains of events.  

What is the alternative to all these? A world where might determines right may not be everybody's idea of meting justice. Street justice leads to pandemonium.

This psychological thriller tells of a grief counsellor, Darlene, who lost her daughter some 20 years previously. Christmas is in the air. Her estranged brother-in-law, her sister's ex-husband and her old flame, Jack, enter unexpectedly. He tries to reignite their romance and his relationship with his ex-wife. As the evening progresses, Darlene realises that he is up to something no good. It turns out to be horrendous as he confesses to killing Darlene's 16-year-old daughter 19 years ago. It becomes a cat-and-mouse situation as Darlene and Jack try to outsmart each other the bring the other down. Good suspense.

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People are sheep!

The Conformist (Il conformista, Italian; 1970)
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci

People are like sheep. They flock around each other, following their shepherd, not knowing that their shepherd has only one thing on their mind. That is, to protect the herd from the wolf, to fatten them and nicely line them up to the slaughter.

The one thing that differentiates people from animals, their minds are so quickly malleable. With a bit of persuasion, they will bark, sing, bleat, dance or croak to the tune of their masters.

Plato’s Cave Allegory, described in this movie, succinctly tells how we behave.

In Plato’s original example, he told of prisoners who had never seen the outside world, tied by their hands to face a wall of the inside of a cave. From the silhouette that appears on the wall of human activity, of people playing and children eating ice cream, they imagine how the world is without ever setting foot outside their prisons. It is an imagined outside world that he imagines may be far from what may be present in reality.

Strong leaders, through their rhetorics and perhaps behaviour, are able to create an understanding of a future that the politicians want their voters to believe. If the leader tries to usurp power via ‘divide and rule’ tactics, that is how he will steer the nation, i.e., one with animosity amongst the citizens whilst the leaders laugh all the way to the bank. That may be their legacy. If he tries to inculcate an inclusive rule, that is how the nation would go towards prosperity, barring any untoward catastrophe.

Look around. The shrieks of religious bigots in this country were reaching deafening pitches just before the GE15. As the results of the elections turned out to be against their favour, the yells mellowed down to occasional muffled murmurs. What gave? I would like to think it is the leader that makes all the difference. This time around, we see everyone wishing each other Yuletide greetings, even those who do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Previously, religious bigots propagated the idea that one would convert to Christianity by expressing felicitations.

Look at WW2 Japan, Germany and Italy. See how their law-abiding, peaceful people followed behind the footsteps of their dictatorial leaders without questioning them, like the children of Hamelin would. The current generation must indeed feel ashamed of what their ancestors have done. A gag order on their faux pas is preferred.

Plato's Cave Allegory

This classic Italian movie by a master moviemaker managed to recreate the ambience of 1930s Italy under Benito Mussolini. The people of Italy are divided between following his fascist teaching and the faction that believes that knowledge and art should not be suppressed.

The clever use of darkness, light and shadow in this movie gives a traditional neo-noir ambience resulting in sumptuous visuals and extravagant, artful cinematography.

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It is the suspense!

The Day of the Jackal (1973)
Director: Fred Zinnemann

It is like watching a sitcom re-run or a delayed telecast of a football game of which you already know the result. This movie describes an assassination attempt on President De Gaulle's life. History buffs would already know that is not how he died, and the attempt failed. Nevertheless, the excitement and anticipation of how the plan was foiled kept the suspense going.

Charles de Gaulle became the President of France in 1958 when France had just lost one of their most profitable colonies in the East, Indochina. When the Battle of Algiers reached its peak, De Gaulle discussed the self-administration of Algeria with the guerillas. Subsequently, Algeria became independent, and many Frenchmen were expelled. Under the umbrella organisation OAS, sympathisers of French Imperialism and the military forces decided that De Gaulle had to go.  

In October 1962, in a failed assassination, De Gaulle escaped a rain of 150 bullets that rained over 7 seconds into a Saab car, ferrying him from a conference. The organiser of that crime was apprehended and executed later. That was where Frederick Forsyth's fictional account of another attempt at knocking off De Gaulle began in his 1971 novel.

In the novel, the vestigial members of OAS, now in hiding, hire an unknown assassin from the UK, possibly, to assassinate the French President. The rest of the story is about how the French Police try to identify, pin down and save De Gaulle, who has no inclination to stay away from public image despite the threat.

It is interesting to see how forgery was done, and police manually went through file after file to look for criminals in the pre-computer era. Still, work got done, and crooks got nabbed. This police procedural drama keeps viewers on the edge of their seats, not because they do not know the endeavour will fail but wanting to know how the police foiled the plan and where it went wrong.

Interestingly there is another assassin, this time a flamboyant Venezuelan communist militant, who was linked to many terrorist attacks around the world in the 1970s and 80s. Because he was a South American, he was nicknamed Carlos. During an exploration of one of his hideouts, a copy of Frederick Forsyth's 'The Day of the Jackal' was found. Henceforth, he was referred to as 'Carlos the Jackal'.

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A shortsighted populist policy!

Starting 1st January 2023, the State of Kedah in Malaysia closed all their gaming outlets. Nobody in the state could place their bets on their lucky numbers in 4D, Toto, or DaMaiCai or buy lottery tickets anymore.

What they need to comprehend is that Man is very innovative when it comes to beating the system. I remember a neighbour during my childhood who ran a clandestine betting business. After taking all the bets for the day, he would sneak the counterfoils above the electricity switchboard that served the whole floor of the flat. If he gets caught, the police cannot put his involvement in it.

Again during my childhood, as the European-run estates came to a grinding halt, the estate-managed spirit shops also closed. Labourers, who by then were addicted to the bottle, got their fix from bootleg booze. They had to settle for locally brewed concoctions because they were out of jobs, and legal liquor cost too much. Methanol poisoning caused blindness to many and cost their lives to some.

Lessons from the American 1920s Prohibition Law are worth revisiting. During the roaring 20s, easy access to alcohol was determined to be the root of most social ills. The frequent wild parties that led to deaths, the increase in alcoholism and the frequent absence from work as mass production was in high gear were blamed on booze.

The Churches, Women Empowerment groups and even Ku Klax Klan were all for the Volstead Law, which prohibited the production, transportation, sales and importation of alcoholic beverages except for ceremonial wines and liquor for private (the affluent) consumption.

As days went on, supporters of Prohibition decreased as they were unhappy with what they saw. There was widespread thuggery, shootings and racketeering. The police force had never seen such amounts of bribery. The number of outlets, called speakeasies, illegal, of course, paradoxically increased during Prohibition. The noble intention to curb access to alcohol actually backfired, with the government of the day getting no revenue from its sales.

Entrepreneurs became creative. The so-called ‘bathtub gin’ became a thing when water from the bathtub tap was added to the premixed powder to produce gin. Cakes with fermented grapes were sold past the expiry date to achieve the desired effect. And methanol poisoning reared its ugly head too.

Rather than banning something outright, the more sensible thing is legislating all these so-called sinful activities, booze, cigarettes, gambling and even the flesh trade. Outlawing them is akin to burying one’s head under the sand. The rest of the world will just go on, business as usual. At least you can go on with life, convincing yourselves that, at least in the afterlife, all will be hunky dory to eternity.

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So much for wanting privacy!

Harry & Meghan (Documentary; 2022)
Netflix

Watching this 6-episode documentary about the life and times of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle during their short stint living as a couple in the royal household reminded me of two things. Firstly of skeets from 'Kumars at No. 42' where they sold the idea that everything in this world was Indian - be it Santa Claus, Jesus, Santa's reindeer and even the British royal family. Father Kumar theorised that the royal family were as Indian as Indians can be. The whole family, including adult children, live with their parents. Everyone is involved in the same family business. Even after marriages, they all lived under the same roof, and the weddings were arranged. These veiled comparisons got its audiences in stitches then. 

The second is the good old saying from Indian culture that when one marries another, they also marry the family. The newcomer into the family must immerse into the fabric of the family and act as one of them. The onus is on everyone, related by blood or convention, to protect the sanctity of the family name. It is their divine duty to mould into the idiosyncrasies of the family, good or bad, to attain zen within the family. 

Only in the scriptures do we learn about people like the Pandava brothers. These five brothers collectively married the same woman just because their mother told them to share their find. In reality, history has described just to what lengths siblings and even mothers would go to seize thrones. The amount of backstabbing, bad-mouthing, poisoning, covert plans and trickery is just staggering. 

In modern times, when swords are merely ceremonial and the royalty's powers are clipped, they have mellowed down. At a time when their subjects question the relevance of a God-sanctioned family line to rule them over, the royal family knows its days are numbered. They try to be non-controversial and regularly re-kindle the memory of a glorious past when they used to rule half the world. They clamour for all the positive publicity they can get. They hope to be the British pride their ancestors were. That is not to say that they have not been controversial before.

In comes an outsider. Not that it had not happened before. A divorcee with a living spouse from the USA had shown her face in the royal courtyard some 70 years ago, and a King had to abdicate his throne then. Now things have changed. She was ushered in without much fanfare apparently but on her side, but she seems to demand all the world's attention. But wait, only when she feels like it!

The whole point of the Netflix documentary is to portray Meghan Markle as an innocent outsider who had found the love of her life. The one into whom she could immerse and get lost despite all the chaos around them. Meghan is presented as an affable person who is a darling of the British public. Despite this, or maybe because of this, she is allegedly vilified by the British press and the royal family. Even though she does everything right, getting her hands dirty cooking for fire victims or engaging in Commonwealth charity activities, she is viewed as an outsider. She is even suggesting that perhaps her new family is downright racist. She considers herself another victim of the royal family, much like how Princess Diana was treated and met her untimely death.

The end result is far from that. The show only managed to paint an image of Meghan as a self-centred conniving prima donna who thinks very highly of herself. The series tells her background as a bright student and an independent woman who pulled herself up by her bootstraps. What they conveniently forgot to mention altogether is her previous failed marriage. From her side, animosity is bottled up between her, her father, and his other family.

Prince Harry is pictured as a lone child growing up without a mother during his formative years. It really shows. Meghan may be filling that vacuum.

Every position comes with specific responsibilities and expectations. However, this young couple wants the cake and eat it. They enjoy being in the spotlight but are quick to whine incessantly when their private space is invaded. There is a reason they are called public figures. If the public pays for your existence, the public has every right to know how their money is spent. You are indeed a public servant. You want to cut off from the royal but still want them to finance you to just loaf around doing sweet nothings.

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Guess who's for dinner?

I used to think that only isolated primitive tribal people practised cannibalism. Long before there was such a thing as headhunters, the employment agency, the indigenous people of Sarawak, were the original headhunters. They were fabled to kill their enemies, shrunk their skulls and wore them as ornaments. Even in modern times, consuming the human brain was a delicacy amongst the tribes in Papua New Guinea. We learnt about Kuru, the first human prion-linked disease, way before the world heard of Cruetzfelt-Jakob disease (CJD) or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE, Mad Cow Disease). Kuru was transmitted when attendees of tribal funerals would consume the brain of the recently departed in their honour.

I was made to believe that only primitive ‘uncivilised’ natives only had such practices. The colonial masters were quick to label anyone who had built the courage to oppose their rule as cannibal as they did to Thugees in India and Mao Mao people in Kenya.

The Thuggees were the local dwellers who were doing nothing more than defending their jungles against the colonisers who were keen to appropriate the forests to mine the minerals allegedly found there. To justify their usurping these lands, the colonists labelled them professional robbers and murderers. Just because the locals prayed to a ferocious-looking Kaali, Thurga, with weapons, protruding tongue while stepping on asuras, they were labelled as cannibals. The British ended up stealing the land and appropriating the words ‘jungle’, which the locals called a forest. ‘Thugs’ made it into English to refer to a violent, lawless person.

In mid-century Kenya, the British colonists, in their expertise to bring nations to their knees via their divide-and-rule tactics, started spreading lies about a group of aggrieved British Kenyan soldiers who became freedom fighters. They were Mau Mau warriors. Their reputation became so bad that mothers used to scare their crying kids that the Mau Mau people would snatch them and eat them if they did not quieten down and sleep.

The implication of all these is that cannibalism is the limit of human cruelty. Once one eats up a fellow human, he has crossed the point of no return.

Surprise, surprise.

The practice of consumption of human flesh is not alien to Europe. It peaked in the 17th century when it was a rage to consume human meat. There was even a lucrative black market to source Egyptian mummies. It was believed that the medicinal composition of the mummies and the mystic aura surrounding the carcasses gave them special powers. It was fashionable as late as the late 18th century among the elite society to hold private 'mummy-feasting' parties. Then there was a symbolism of the Eucharist representing Jesus' human body, consumed during Holy Communion as if justifying man ingesting another.

Then there is the legacy of Dracula and the pseudo-medical elixir of vitality, including human blood. Even to date, like a cat, humans eat the placentas of their offspring directly or in concoctions.

Guess what (or who) is for dinner? And I wonder who is coming for dinner tonight or who is for dinner tonight?

Are these thugs?

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