Star Trek: The Next Generation - S1E3 - "Code of Honor"

Recently, I watched the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Code of Honor" (S1E3).  The next day, I was thinking about the names of a couple of the characters and realized that in a small way, they mirror how the characters relate to each other.

As Captain Picard explains at the beginning of the episode, the Enterprise has come to Ligon II to negotiate a treaty to receive a vaccine from its ruler Lutan.  During a tour of the vessel, Lutan becomes impressed by Lieutenant Natasha Yar, the security officer, and when he leaves, he abducts her.  The Enterprise crew are wary of doing anything to insult the Ligonians or jeopardize the exchange of the vaccine, but when Captain Picard does ask for the return of Lieutenant Yar, Lutan refuses, explaining that he loves Yar and wants her to become his "first one."  Lutan's wife Yareena takes offense at this and challenges Yar to "a struggle to the death," which is the primary concern during the second half of the episode.

The names Yar and Yareena resemble each other, drawing attention to the somewhat parallel positions of the two women in the same way that the plot has narrowed its focus to the conflict between them.  There's a significant difference, however, in that Yareena seems to be a diminutive form of Yar (using something like the Italian suffix -ina, audibly, if not orthographically).  This indicates an inequality between the two.  In a meeting with Yareena prior to the fight, Yar tells her that "there is no physical training anywhere that matches Starfleet, especially its security people," and she eventually does best Yareena in combat.

Back to the Future Part III

I recently re-watched the Back to the Future trilogy, and for the first time, I noticed a small element that may contribute to the change in Marty McFly's character near the end of Part III.

In Back to the Future Part II, Marty's intense reaction to being called chicken is introduced.  His mother Lorraine explains, "Your father's biggest problem, Marlene, is that he loses all self-control when someone calls him chicken," and this happens twice in the movie, once with Griff ("Nobody calls me chicken") and once with Needles ("Nobody calls me chicken, Needles, nobody!").

This trait also appears in Part III, just with the term slightly altered in order to fit the new time period.  Now, Marty's response to Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen's taunts is "Nobody calls me yellow."  The two agree to settle their differences in a duel on Monday, although Marty thinks that he and Doc Brown will have already gone back to the future by then.

Marty's ancestor Seamus tries to dissuade him from fighting Tannen:  "You could have just walked away, and nobody would have thought the less of you for it.  All it would have been was words, hot air from a buffoon.  Instead, you let him rile you, rile you into playing his game, his way, by his rules."  Seamus's wife Maggie comments that Marty (whom they know as "Clint Eastwood") reminds her of Seamus's brother Martin, and Seamus explains that "Martin used to let men provoke him into fighting.  He was concerned that people would think him a coward if he refused; that's how he got a Bowie knife shoved through his belly in a saloon in Virginia City."

Later, Doc Brown gives Marty advice in a similar vein:  "Marty, you can't go losing your judgement every time someone calls you a name.  That's exactly what causes you to get into that accident in the future."

When the time for the confrontation comes, Marty is too busy trying to revive Doc (out cold from drinking a single shot of whiskey) to deal with Tannen, and when he looks at the photograph of Doc's tombstone that he brought back from 1955, he sees that it now has his own name (or rather his alias "Clint Eastwood") and tries to forfeit.  Tannen renews his insults ("I think you ain't nothin' but a gutless yellow turd, and I'm givin' you to the count of ten to come out here and prove I'm wrong"), but this time Marty keeps his head and says to the crowd in the saloon, "I don't care what Tannen says, and I don't care what anybody else says, either."  He maintains this mindset when he returns to 1985, and he doesn't race his new truck against Needles, thereby avoiding a crash with a Rolls-Royce.

The change in Marty's character seems to result from a combination of these factors (the knowledge of a dead relative with the same name and impulsive tendency, Doc's hint at a future accident, the tight time schedule available to Marty and Doc to meet the train they need to push the Delorean down the track so they can go back to the future, and the photograph of the tombstone that seems to foretell his death), but there may be an additional, more subtle cause.

Shortly after Marty first encounters Tannen, he's able to identify him because he overhears the bartender call him "Mr. Tannen."  He remembers him from a video playing in Biff's museum in Part II and says, "You're 'Mad Dog' Tannen."  To this, Tannen replies, "'Mad Dog.'  I hate that name.  I hate it, ya hear?  Nobody calls me 'Mad Dog'!" and then proceeds to shoot up the floor in front of Marty.  Tannen's response to being called "Mad Dog" ("Nobody calls me 'Mad Dog'" followed by a violent outburst) is basically the same as Marty's response to being called chicken ("Nobody calls me chicken" followed by a lack of good judgement).  Marty may recognize that he shares this trait with someone he dislikes and consequently re-evaluate and change himself.

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It also occurred to me that McFly is an appropriate name in light of the movies' theme of family relationships, particularly between father and son, because the "Mc-" prefix comes from the Gaelic word mac, which means son.

The Karate Kid Part III

Earlier this week, I watched The Karate Kid Part III for the first time in many years (and possibly only the second time ever), and I noticed a couple interesting features.

Much of the movie deals with an elaborate scheme concocted by Terry Silver, an old war buddy of John Kreese, the disgraced karate instructor from the first Karate Kid.  Silver and Kreese want to get revenge on Daniel Laruso for winning the All Valley Karate Championship, the event that led to Kreese's downward spiral.  First, Silver hires Mike Barnes, whom he finds advertised in a magazine as "karate's badboy," to antagonize Laruso and force him to enter the next All Valley competition.

Barnes's name suits his character.  His first and last names have only one syllable each, resulting in a sort of bluntness that matches his belligerent attitude.  In a word, his name is punchy.

Next, Silver offers to train Laruso, apparently just to inflict physical pain on him before the competition takes place.  When Laruso shows up at the old Cobra Kai dojo (which Silver claims he's trying to revive) in order to accept the offer, Silver suggests they start immediately and lends Laruso a gi with a cobra on the back.  Throughout the days of Silver's aggressive training, Laruso wears this cobra-adorned gi in the Cobra Kai dojo, visually highlighting a change in his character that he himself later realizes.  He tells Mr. Miyagi, "Everything you taught me, I did the opposite.  Everything.  I couldn't have been worse.  I did everything wrong."

It's a Wonderful Life

Earlier this week, I watched It's a Wonderful Life (for only the second time).  I noticed that in the scene where George and Clarence are drying their clothes after having jumped in the river, the framing is such that George is enclosed by the clothesline.

I may be making too much of it, but I think this could mean two things.

First, this could illustrate George's skepticism about who Clarence is.  He doesn't fully accept his claim to be an angel, and this visual divide between the two represents the barrier of George's unbelief.

Second, this separation of George could act as a foreshadowing of the world Clarence will show him where he's never been born.  He's set apart visually to prefigure his absence from Bedford Falls.

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I also noticed a slight but significant difference between George's two interactions with the man whose tree he runs into with his car.  Right after George hits the man's tree, the man complains to George and says, "My great-grandfather planted this tree!"  After George wishes that he'd never been born (and thus hasn't run into the tree), he encounters the man and comments about his tree, and the man mentions that it's "one of the oldest trees in Pottersville."  In both, the man is concerned with his tree, but in the world with George, his concern is more personal (related to his great-grandfather), while in the world without George, his concern is centered on the status of the tree itself.  Such a difference in the man's concerns seems to suggest that in the world with George, a greater emphasis is placed on personal connections.

Despicable Me 2

Earlier this week, I watched Despicable Me 2 (for only the second time), and I noticed a brief visual allusion.  Early in the movie, there are some scenes of Gru's lab, and one of them shows a group of minions sitting on a beam and eating lunch:

This seems to be based on the photograph known as Lunch atop a Skyscraper:

According to this article (which is also my source for the above image), the photograph was taken on 20 September 1932.

The Lion King

I recently re-watched The Lion King for the first time in many years, and I noticed some significant visual contrasts. 

Near the beginning of the movie, there's a shot of Rafiki holding up Simba in the sunlight on Pride Rock before all of the animals in the kingdom:

Later, there's a contrasting shot of Pride Rock.  Instead of day, it's night; instead of sunlight, the moon is in the background; and instead of the various animals of the kingdom, there are only hyenas:

Visually, this illustrates the difference between Mufasa's reign and Scar's reign.  Near the end of the movie, after Simba has been restored as king, his heir is also held up by Rafiki.  The specific shot composition doesn't match, but it is in the daylight and before the animals in the kingdom, so there's a contrast again, this time between Scar's reign and Simba's reign.

These contrasts also show visually what Mufasa tells Simba near the beginning of the movie: "Everything the light touches is our kingdom.  A king's time as ruler rises and falls like the sun.  One day, Simba, the sun will set on my time here and will rise with you as the new king."  In between the sunlit reigns of Mufasa and Simba, there's the darkness of Scar's reign.

An-other contrast is in the color.  At the beginning of the movie, during Mufasa's reign, the colors are vibrant, but during the worst point of Scar's reign, when there's no food or water, the landscape is almost devoid of color, mirroring this lifelessness:

After Simba is restored as the rightful king, there's a revival, and the proliferation of colors returns:

The colors illustrate this change from prosperity to desolation and then back to prosperity.

Both of these contrasts (the day/night shots of Pride Rock and the change in color) also demonstrate the cyclical theme of the movie ("the circle of life").

Click

I recently re-watched Click for the first time in many years, and I found a couple interesting features to note.

Here's a summary of the plot:  Michael Newman is an architect who feels he needs to impress his boss in order to get a better position at work.  More and more, he's occupied with work obligations rather than spending time with his family.  Frustrated with the number of remote controls in his house, he goes out to buy a universal remote control in order to simplify his life, and he eventually gets one for free from Morty in the "way beyond" section of Bed, Bath, and Beyond.  He soon discovers that along with controlling his television, this universal remote can control the world around him, and before long, he's fast forwarding through traffic and arguments with his wife and skipping forward until his illnesses have cleared up or he's received a promotion at work.  Learning from his behavior, the programming on the remote begins to take over, and Newman finds that he's skipping too much.  His children grow up so quickly that he doesn't recognize them; his wife divorces him; and he learns of his father's death years after it happens.  After sustaining what is apparently a heart attack at his son's wedding, he finds himself on his death bed but manages to summon enough strength to run outside and tell his son that family comes first.  He dies but wakes up to find that he's still in Bed, Bath, and Beyond and that the whole adventure with the remote was a dream.

After he finds out that his father has died, Newman visits his gravestone.  Morty shows up (as he's done a few other times when Newman has questions about the remote and what it can do), tells him, "I'm sorry about your father.  Taking him wasn't something I wanted to do," and reveals that he's the angel of death.  Morty's name is an indication of his position; it's a nod to mors (genitive mortis), the Latin word for death.  Furthermore, in the same way that the diminutive name "Morty" is only a fraction of the true mortis, Newman's own death is merely part of his dream, not a genuine death.

As the remote gains a stronger hold on Newman's life, the color palette of the film gradually moves away from warm colors and towards cool colors (particularly gray, white, and blue), especially once he becomes CEO of the architectural firm.  This shift in color symbolizes two things:  first, that as he skips over events, Newman's life becomes progressively less enjoyable and less vivid.  Second, since the cooler color scheme matches the appearance of the remote itself (which is blue and silver), this shift illustrates the device's growing dominance over Newman's life.

The Sound of Music

I recently watched The Sound of Music and noticed a small (and possibly just coincidental) connection between the movie's opening and Psalm 121:1, which is quoted by the Reverend Mother near the end of the movie.  The way she says it, it sounds like a statement:  "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence [sic] cometh my help."  I'm more familiar with it as a question:  "I lift up my eyes to the hills.  From where does my help come?"  This is answered by the following verse:  "My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth."

The Psalm starts with the Psalmist looking at the hills, and in more ways than one, the movie also starts with hills.  Visually, it opens with multiple establishing shots of mountains and hills, and musically, it starts with the line "The hills are alive with the sound of music."