Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

This post contains some minor spoilers.

In July, I started reading the Bible, and in Genesis, I came across a part that describes a breastpiece that the Hebrew priests wore:

You shall make a breastpiece of judgment, in skilled work.  In the style of the ephod you shall make it - of gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen shall you make it.  It shall be square and doubled, a span its length and a span its breadth.  You shall set in it four rows of stones.  A row of sardius, topaz, and carbuncle shall be the first row; and the second row and emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond; and the third row a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst; and the fourth row a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper.  They shall be set in gold filigree.  There shall be twelve stones with their names according to the names of the sons of Israel.  They shall be like signets, each engraved with its name, for the twelve tribes.  You shall make for the breastpiece twisted chains like cords, of pure gold.  And you shall make for the breastpiece two rings of gold, and put the two rings on the two edges of the breastpiece.  And you shall put the two cords of gold in the two rings at the edges of the breastpiece.  The two ends of the two cords you shall attach to the two settings of filigree, and so attach it in front to the shoulder pieces of the ephod.  You shall make two rings of gold, and put them at the two ends of the breastpiece, on its inside edge next to the ephod.  And you shall make two rings of gold, and attach them in front to the lower part of the two shoulder pieces of the ephod, at its seam above the skillfully woven band of the ephod.  And they shall bind the breastpiece by its rings to the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue, so that it may lie on the skillfully woven band of the ephod, so that the breastpiece shall not come loose from the ephod.  (Exodus 28:15-28)

I'd noticed that Belloq has some ceremonial-looking clothing during the part of Raiders of the Lost Ark when they open the ark, so I re-watched the movie in order to compare it to this Biblical description.  Because it's dark (and because I'm not that acquainted with varieties of gems), I'm not sure if Belloq's breastpiece matches up exactly, but it has a least a few qualities in common with the Biblical description:

There's also:

You shall make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it, like the engraving of a signet, 'Holy to the LORD.'  And you shall fasten it on the turban by a cord of blue.  It shall be on the front of the turban.  ...  You shall weave the coat in checker work of fine linen, and you shall make a turban of fine linen, and you shall make a sash embroidered with needlework.  (Exodus 28:36-37, 39)

Again, some of the smaller details are hard to see in the movie, but in general it seems to correspond fairly closely.

More interesting than that, however, is the staff that Belloq is holding:

I think the animal on the staff is meant to be a calf, specifically a golden calf, like the one in Exodus 32.  While Moses is on Mount Sinai getting the Ten Commandments, the Israelites have Aaron craft a golden calf, which they then worship.  Both God and Moses become angry about this.  God tells Moses, "'Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them....'" (Exodus 32:10).  God's wrath about the golden calf seems to have some connection with Belloq's staff and the effect that the Ark of the Covenant has on the Nazis when they open it.

Grimm - S1E8 - Game Ogre

After three murders in this episode, Hank realizes that the victims are all connected to the arrest and conviction of Oleg Stark, who's since escaped and is tracking down those who sentenced him.  In researching his file, Nick discovers that Stark "displays signs of congenital analgesia, a rare genetic disorder which deadens the nerve endings, making it difficult to process pain" and has "abnormally dense" bones:

Later Nick discovers that Stark is a Siegbarste, which Monroe describes as "your basic ogre."

It's significant that his last name is Stark - the German word for strong.  Stark's deadened nerve endings and dense bones seem to contribute to his strength.  At the very least, they help to increase his persistence.

I think it's also significant that that characteristic is his last name.  It's sort of the opposite of the word Grimm.  In the show, it seems that the Grimm Brothers' last name has become the appellation of those who can see Wesen.

Grimm - S3E21 - The Inheritance

This post contains some minor spoilers.

After re-watching this episode of Grimm, I started thinking about the name of one of the characters - Rolek Porter.  It's not a very common name, so I thought that there had to be some sort of reference hidden in it.  I couldn't come up with anything for Rolek, but the Porter part is actually pretty descriptive of the character.

Rolek Porter is dying, and before he's gone, he wants to give Nick a trunk of some Grimm-related things and an-other key.  Like Nick, Porter is a Grimm, but he doesn't seem to be as involved in the Wesen world as Nick is.  Porter tells Nick that he (Porter) "couldn't do what [his ancestors] did" or what Nick does.  So while Porter has a trunk of Grimm things, he doesn't really use them himself (and his son isn't a Grimm so he wouldn't have a use for them).  This is where the Porter part of his name comes in; he just carries the stuff.

That section of his name works especially well in that Porter came from Pennsylvania to Oregon to give Nick the trunk.  It's also interesting that Porter is first introduced in a hotel, so there's a tenuous connection to hotel porters:

Grimm - S3E15 - Once We Were Gods

Episode fifteen of season three of Grimm starts with some construction workers finding an Egyptian sarcophagus in a secret room:

They call a professor named Vera Gates to investigate it:

It occurred to me how appropriate the name Vera Gates is for a scientist.

I'm fairly certain that Vera comes from the Latin word verum, which means truth.  It's the same root that the word veracity comes from (also the word very, which I found interesting).  So truth combined with gates seems to name a character who is a guardian of knowledge.  It's especially apt considering her dedication to her job, which doesn't falter even after her lab has been broken into and vandalized.  She asserts, "This is science.  I won't be scared into not doing my research."

Grimm - S3E11 - The Good Soldier

This post contains spoilers.

I've been re-watching season three of Grimm, and I noticed a small but significant detail in episode eleven - "The Good Soldier."

After a murder, Nick and Hank investigate Jim McCabe, a coworker of the murder victim.  They visit him at his office, where he has a statue of a lion on his desk:

After two similar murders, Nick and Hank discover that the murderer they're looking for is a manticore.  (Unbeknownst to them, there are actually two murderers.)  In the trailer, they - along with Juliette - learn that the manticore has the body of a lion (or a Lowen, in the Grimm terminology) with the tail of a scorpion:

The lion statue on his desk appears innocuous early in the episode, but it seems to function as a sort of fore-shadowing that McCabe, who committed two of the murders, is a manticore:

The episode's plot mostly revolves around Frankie Gonzales, an army specialist who was raped.  (Her colonel kills one of her rapists as a sort of vengeance, and McCabe kills an-other of her rapists and his wife in order to prevent a confession that would reveal him as a third rapist.)  Gonzales carves the date of her attack (November 11, 2010) into her arm, and - in one instance - blots the wound with a napkin so that the date transfers in her blood:

She then gives this to one of her rapists in an attempt to get him to confess.

I think the date is significant.  November 11 is Veterans Day, so it has a connection to the military.  It's also the date of the Armistice in World War I (which Veteran's Day came out of), but in the episode, it marks the opposite, as it's the beginning of all the problems.

Catching Fire

Earlier this month, I re-watched Catching Fire, since I've been re-reading all of the Hunger Games books.  I noticed that when the tributes parade through the Capitol, there are white roses decorating the chariots:

For anyone else, this just looks like decoration, but to Katniss, it's a visual reminder of when President Snow told her to convince him of her love for Peeta, after which he gave her a white rose:

While they're disguised as a mere decoration, the white roses are actually Snow's continued threatening of Katniss and those she loves.

A Bug's Life

A few weeks ago, I re-watched A Bug's Life.  I seem to remember watching this a lot on VHS after it came out, and I think it's my favorite Pixar movie, but watching it this time, there was a lot that I noticed that I hadn't seen before.

This post contains some spoilers.

The movie opens with a shot of the sun:

This is significant, as it illustrates the hierarchies that are present in the film.  As Hopper explains it later, "The sun grows the food.  The ants pick the food.  The grasshoppers eat the food."  The whole system starts with the sun, and the movie does too.

But then a leaf falls into the water, and it's revealed that that image of the sun was just a reflection:

Distorted perception is also pretty significant in the movie - the ants are capable of more than they'd originally thought, and - more comically - the circus bugs are mistaken as warriors.

Part of the opening exposition is the ants' gathering food.  At one point, Thorny says to Princess Atta, "Your Highness, I can't count when you hover like that."  The first few times I watched the movie, I almost certainly didn't understand that this line is a pun (I was, like, 6 when I first saw it).  The princess is hovering in the literal sense of flying, but she's also hovering in the micro-managing sense:

To contrast the regular way of gathering grain, Flik is introduced with his harvesting machine.  I'd never really thought about Flik's name (because, again, when I first watched this movie, I was a stupid kid), but it blatantly indicates that he's an outcast.  Flick is what you do to bugs to get them to go away.  When I was a kid, I'm not sure I noticed the bug-centric nature of some of the other names either, like Manny (the praying mantis), Gypsy (the gypsy moth, although it could play into the circus connection too), Mr. Soil, Dr. Flora, and Thorny.  And I certainly didn't understand the reference to P.T. Barnum in P.T. Flea's name.

Later, Flik talks with Princess Dot.  He gives her a rock and tells her to pretend that it's a seed.

And then he says:

Now, now, do you see our tree?  Everything that made that giant tree is already contained inside this tiny, little seed.  All it needs is some time, a little bit of sunshine, and rain, and voila!  ...  You might not feel like you can do much now, but that's just because, well, you're not a tree yet.  You just have to give yourself some time.  You're still a seed.

What's interesting about this is that Hopper makes the same sort of comparison later, but with the opposite intention.  While Flik tells Dot that a seed can grow into a tree (that a person is capable of a lot), Hopper tells the grasshoppers to "pretend this grain is a puny little ant."

Then he throws individual grains at the grasshoppers, which don't hurt.  They just bounce off:

Instead of illustrating that a person is capable of a lot, Hopper agrees with the grasshoppers' discounting of "just one ant."  But then he unleashes the whole bottle of grain, and the grasshoppers are engulfed.

He makes his point:  "[If] you let one ant stand up to us, then they all might stand up."  So while Hopper does oppose Flik in the value of just one ant, he recognizes the power that a group would (and does) have.  Ultimately both (a single person's capability and the power of a group) are part of the film's lessons.

A slightly less significant parallel is going the wrong direction.  At the circus, when Manny and Gypsy are on, Manny goes the wrong way to the stage:

And then Gypsy tells him, "The stage is the other way, dear," so he changes direction:

The same thing happens later with Princess Atta and Flik.  Princess Atta goes to check on the bird:

But then, realizing the bird is in the opposite direction, she crosses the screen again:

Interestingly, Manny and Gypsy and standing arm-in-arm in the background, which strengthens the parallel and seems to indicate that Flik and Atta will end up together like Manny and Gypsy are.

I also discovered some subtle references in the background of the city.  First, it's Pixar's A113, along with 1195 - the release date for Toy Story (November 1995):

In a wider shot, there's a box of Darla (I think it's dish detergent) on the right:

I think this is a reference to the Darla character in Finding Nemo, a later Pixar movie, but there are five years between the two, so I'm not sure.

An-other small detail is the lighting when Dot goes to get Flik's help.  At first, Flik is dismissive of the using the bird to scare the grasshoppers and thinks he himself is "a guaranteed failure."  The lighting reflects this.  The sky is overcast, so the colors are muted:

Then Dot gets a rock and tells Flik to "pretend it's a seed."  This makes him change his mind, and to reflect this, the sun comes out, making the colors more vivid:

Flik has a literal enlightenment.

I think it's also significant that the movie ends in the spring:

Spring is usually seen as a season of renewal, and this particular spring is a harbinger of a new period in the ants' lives because they're no longer threatened by the grasshoppers.