[lit-ideas] Re: Rent, the Movie
- From: Andy <min.erva@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2008 21:59:28 -0800 (PST)
A 5?! Wow. I wonder if I didn't lower your expectations so much that it
would have made anything look good. I think one can live for today, but one
needn't do it on a perpetual high, and one can pay for today. Or, what the
heck. We're all going to die, so why not have a perpetual high and lose a few
years. That's all it is anyway. Except that when one is on a perpetual high
one isn't really alive, at least in my opinion.
Also, they seemed to fight a lot for being such friends. Even after the
funeral they began fighting. My explanation is the fighting was the result of
the emotions popping out that they were otherwise medicating and pushing down
with the alcohol/drugs/sex. Anyway, glad you enjoyed it. I haven't changed my
opinion. I still give it a 2, and only because you sparked some generosity in
me.
BTW, what was the point in them throwing the lighted rags or whatever they
were out the window in the beginning? In the movie Runaway Train the warden
(the Devil) walks through the prison where there are a lot of small fires going
on, clearly it's hell. In NYC it's the hell of their own lives? What did
Milton say? (Or was it Shakespeare?) The mind can make a hell of heaven and a
heaven of hell. Runaway Train (Jon Voight, not sure what year) is much
better.
Lawrence Helm <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I watched Rent this evening. It took me awhile to get into it.
I thought, ?New York! Why does anyone live there? This musical has got to be
something only a New Yorker would appreciate.? But then I warmed up to the
characters and enjoyed it. The first song I really liked was Santa Fe. But
the Maureen Tango seemed even better. Many of the characters have AIDS and
Mimi almost dies as a result of her drug addiction. Mimi does die in Puccini?s
La Boheme, but in the movie Angel gets to die instead.
Jesse L. Martin may have the best voice, although Taye Diggs was up there as
well, but didn?t have as big a role as Martin. But all of the voices were good
and strong; which would have been important for the stage musical. Most of
those in the movie were from the original cast of the stage musical.
The only way that being familiar with Puccini?s opera helped me was to allow
me to suspend disbelief about the rampant AIDS and drug addiction of the movie.
All this was normal behavior for the movie ? but perhaps it is the modern day
equivalent of Puccini?s tuberculosis, of which Mimi died in the play.
I probably should watch this again some time. I had a social question with
the ?no future, no past, no day but today.? It was by ignoring the future
that the AIDS sufferers and drug addicts got into trouble. I?m sure that
wasn?t the intended message. Rather, since their lives were to be cut short,
live every day as though it were the last. One of the main characters, Roger,
works off and on throughout the movie on a song. He wants to finish it before
he dies and he expects to die soon, although he is still going strong at the
end of the movie. At best this ?no day but today? philosophy is ambiguous.
Perhaps if I watched it again ? more carefully ? the ambiguity might be
eliminated, but I don?t plan to watch it again anytime soon.
I?m going to give it a 5 on Netflix. It is way better than most of the junk
I get from there.
Lawrence Helm
San Jacinto
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