Film – Page 2 – The Stories of Scott D. Southard

June 9, 2012

Prometheus: So Many Questions…
I just saw Prometheus which opened up a lot of questions for me. So if you have not seen the movie yet, consider yourself warned about this article. There are massive spoilers (I’ll warn you when I am about to start with a scream like this: Ahhhhh!!!)

In preparation for seeing Prometheus I rewatched the director’s cut of Alien. Since that was the only film that Ridley Scott directed from the Aliens series, I felt I was safe just rewatching that one.

See, I was hoping I would go in fully prepared to see all of the little connections to the first one. Since the script was written by the genius behind Lost, Damon Lindelof, I was expecting a lot of little touches and references… well, just like any episode of Lost, but this time in space; where they can’t hear you scream, but we still do apparently. And here is the spoiler scream- Ahhhhh!!! (more…)
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May 24, 2012

Star Wars: One Fan’s Remembrances
Today, Stars Wars (or as some like to say A New Hope), turns 35… which means officially I am old.

To celebrate this cultural milestone (and personal success for seeing this day. Woohoo! Survival!), I thought I would share excerpts and links from two editorials I wrote about Star Wars over the last few months.

The first one was my reaction to the blu-ray release of the series. To say, I was a little annoyed that the original trilogy without Lucas’ changes is not included is put it mildly (Han shoots first!). Still I decided to share my own personal memories around each of the films. It is called “Goodbye to a Galaxy Far, Far Away.” It can be found on GreenSpotBlue.com here. Here is the beginning:

Soon the Complete Star Wars Saga will be hitting on blu-ray, and for a member of Generation X, it can’t help but make me stop and take pause over this creation and its influence. For my generation, this is our Beatles, this is our man on the moon, this is our disco. We wear the t-shirts, we recite the lines at random times: (more…)
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May 3, 2012

Joss Whedon: Our Outsider Makes Good
I became a fan of Joss Whedon around the sixth season of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. I’m sure that honest admission at the start might already turn off some readers, but let me add that after getting hooked I bought all of the boxsets of the other seasons and used them to help draw in others, while using all of my skills at peer pressure and bribery (and sometimes even blackmail).

I was living in LA at the time, studying writing at the University of Southern California, and I was startled by the news story that his show was able to jump stations. Now, I remembered the movie and couldn’t believe that this was the same thing we were talking about. That idea? Really? All I remembered about the film was that it starred PeeWee Herman. Yet, the idea, and the accomplishment of such a TV production feat impressed me and led to me turning on the show and giving it a shot.

That old blind Scott feels like a very different person from the Scott writing this. I want to shake my head in annoyance at him, throw something at him or even bitch slap him. In the least, there should be some ridicule and taunts. (more…)
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March 8, 2012

My Six Favorite Comedies
I am a comedy snob.

I don’t laugh at fart jokes or burps, and most sitcoms bore me to pieces. Some of this elitism is because I studied comedy writing and seeing behind the curtain can take the surprise away (and much of comedy is about delivery), my upbringing since my dad introduced me to Monty Python at a young again, but most of it is just, frankly, because I am a comedy snob. And because of that, I have never laughed at a single scene in a single American Pie movie…

Not a single scene.

I expect more.

I expect more than stereotypes, pratfalls, sarcasm, easy parodies, and physical body humor. You can keep your Three Scrooges (even though I do like some of the Curly episodes), I’ll take the Marx Brothers any day of the week.

Here, in all my snobbery, are my six favorite comedies:

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Monty Python and the Holy Grail

When the American Film Institute (AFI) did their list of 100 laughs, they did not include a single Monty Python movie.

Not a one.

Their justification is that the films chosen had to have significant financial or creative production elements from the USA. Fine, whatever (even though, I would argue that the films were distributed and produced by a few Americans and American companies), but yet, they included A Fish Called Wanda on the list. Is it because two of the main cast members were American? Should I point out that Terry Gilliam of Monty Python (director, actor and writer) is American?

No, this doesn’t make sense to me either. (more…)
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February 15, 2012

Adapting Tolkien
Growing up, I would read J.R.R. Tolkien’s works once a year. Yeah, I was that kid.

I wanted to escape to Middle Earth, and unlike other writers and novels (where I was happy with just having the book), there was always something about his creation that made me wonder about adaptations. I wanted to hear, see, and visit Middle Earth and other mediums would only get me closer to that escapism goal. So I would “try out” every version I could get my hands on.

The Lord of the Rings is not a perfect book. It is a classic, but it is not perfect. That is fine, there are very few perfect books out there (I can only think of Pride and Prejudice and A Christmas Carol off of the top of my head). What “perfect” means to me is that there are no fluctuations in the plot that are unexplained, everything is tied up in a neat bow and there is little to debate because it is all perfectly there on the page. Whew…

Frankly, if that was done with Tolkien we wouldn’t have all of the fun things to debate! Like, why does the ring’s power change over the course of the series is an easy example of what I mean.

The fact is Tolkien didn’t write like other people. He would begin a story at the very beginning and write until he ran out of ideas… But instead of just fixing what he did and moving forward; he would, instead, start over at the beginning again. It’s one of the reason we have so many different versions of The Lord of the Rings to look at thanks to his son’s (Christopher) later releases.

While I can NOT imagine writing a book like that, it does explain to me a few snags I have always noticed about the final version of the book, besides the ring’s changing power. Why, for example, the narrator’s voice changes over the book from cutesy (for example, in the beginning we have Tom Bombadil and a curious fox… Yes, there is a fox that is curious; go back and check it out) to extremely dark. It’s almost like he discovered what he wanted the series to be like at Weathertop, and didn’t care about going back and changing the beginning.

Yes, to say it again, The Lord of the Rings is classic, but it is not perfect; and since I love the world and the characters I have devoured every adaptation I could get my hands on. Here are my thoughts on the radio, TV, and film versions of the great Oxford professor’s epic. (more…)
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July 22, 2011

Winnie-The-Pooh, a review by Greyson Southard (Age 3)
My son’s first published film review… Enjoy.

http://www.greenspotblue.com/lifenestbabytoy/2011/7/22/movies-winnie-the-pooh.html
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June 6, 2011

13-Year Olds, Superheroes, and Money: This Year’s Summer Blockbusters
An article on summer blockbusters by me. Here is the intro:

Every year, reviewers complain about the summer blockbusters and every year it seems to become more and more exactly what the reviewers are complaining about (destruction, violence, non-stop action films, superheroes, over-the-top/cookie-cutter stories, etc.), but this year seems to knock the rest out of the ballpark. There is just more of everything. And while I agree with some of the criticism heaped upon studios for their choices of what to produce and distribute, I understand where they are coming from. (more…)
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May 20, 2011

Kenneth Branagh and the God of Thunder
I have a new article up at Green Spot Blue. This time I talk about the movie Thor and Kenneth Branagh.

You can check it out here.
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