This is BOOJUM! Don't expect boring things like linear thought, logic or sequential argument.
Nevertheless, ladies and gentlemen, I present in the left corner - Full Metal Jacket! One of Mr Stanley Kubrick's finer creations. I love the central conceit of this film - recreating Parris Island and Hue City in the docklands of London. As a film of two halves you get to see how US Marines are created before seeing what they do. And, of course, you have the awesome - a word not used lightly here - the awesome Gunnery Sergeant Hartmann*, both hilarious and pant-wettingly scary at the same time.
To get to the point, at the very end of the film Private Joker narrates a closing speech. Hundreds of Marines are on the move in the dark, all singing -
The Mickey Mouse song.
It makes for a bizarre conjugation - a blazing, shattered cityscape at night with big hairy Marines singing "Who's the leader of the gang, the one for you and me? M - I - C K - E - Y M - O - U -S - E" for several choruses. That's the only circumstance I've ever heard the song and can recite what they sing as it rather stuck in my mind.
In the right corner - The Disney Corporation! a bunch of litigious boors who will sue the arse off anyone they think is thinking of impinging on their cash-cow. Cash-mouse?
Anyway, suing is big on their menu as the first item.
The question is, how did Stan get away with that song? It's not subtle or short or winsome or whimsical or flattering or fairy-dusted. How did he not get up the morning after and have his wife call out to him "Honey your ass is missing. I think Disney sued it off overnight," ???
So, Tanks?
Wartime Matilda with additional decoration - captured Italian flag |
The Matilda; or Infantry Tank Mark 2, at the Imperial War Museum, in Caunter camouflage |
I could witter on for hours on this subject but mercy compels me to stop here.
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