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The first blog post in a very long time

Posted on 2010/06/09 by Foucault Peck-Malchiodi | Leave a comment

I have not updated my blog since February 2010. I cannot give a valid reason why, other than my waning interest and my other commitments that consume most of my time. I also started writing little reviews for Netflix. I am not paid for it, but it teaches me brevity since there is a 2000 character limit. It seemed like a good idea and was fun since people can tell me whether the review was helpful or not. It is fun to see how many people take the time to click a button telling you if your review is worthwhile or not. However, since you need to be a member of Netflix in order to both read and write these reviews I realized that my ideas are not really my property. If Netflix fails or my membership lapses, I could lose my writings. This is the trend nowadays; even this blog’s existence is contingent on WordPress staying around. I do not like that, but at least WordPress is free.

I am not going to cease writing Netflix reviews. They are fun and I like to annoy people by saying harsh things about their favorite films. Yet instead of giving my ideas solely to Netflix patrons, I am going to start posting some of my favorite one’s here periodically. The first one is my review of the 1987 film Predator, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, and Jesse Ventura. The review is below and feel free to comment. Predator (1987)

Although the primary plot of Predator involves an alien that hunts armed humans for sport, the underlying narrative is a love story between two soldiers. Underneath the blood and bullets is the tale of a love that can never be; a romance between Dutch (Schwarzenegger) and Dylan (Weathers) that is blocked by a military that forbids homosexual love. The excitement in Dutch’s eyes when he and Dylan reunite after a long absence demonstrates the sexual tension between the two men. Their love is tested when Dylan has to betray Dutch for his country – a task which haunts Dylan for the rest of his time on Earth. It is only towards the end of McTiernan’s film that Dylan redeems himself by going after the Predator so that Dutch can escape. His last selfless act exhibits Dylan’s true love for Dutch, a love that exceeds his duty to his country. The sorrow in Dylan’s heart is brilliantly shown when he meets his demise at the hands of the alien marauder. After losing his arm to a laser blast, it is obvious that Dylan realizes that he will never caress Dutch with that appendage again, yet that his last moments were spent in the pursuit of Dutch’s continued survival. A second romantic plot involves Blain (Ventura) and Mac (Duke), but many of these scenes of romantic tension were cut from the film for the sake of continuity.





