5 Responses to “Good Times”

1. ezekiel, on June 30th, 2008 at 10:23 pm Said:

   I just got back from seeing the movie with my wife, and I think those who claim that it is an ecological tale are seriously overstating it. Despite being about robots, the movie is about being human… and to that end, what ecological message there is is probably best understood as being agrarian, which is quite conservative after all.

2. Daniel Larison, on June 30th, 2008 at 10:38 pm Said:

   Thanks for the comment. From what I have heard about it, that makes a lot of sense.

3. Bustrofedon, on June 30th, 2008 at 10:51 pm Said:

   As you point out, and as the controversy on the right about Rod’s book or this movie show, these so-called American “Conservatives” are no such thing - it is a just a word for them - and a convenient cover for an aggressive, imperialist agenda that glorifies the collusion of big government and big business coupled with electoral success and a spoils system for the Republican Party.

4. ezekiel, on June 30th, 2008 at 10:59 pm Said:

   The movie’s pretty interesting in this regard, especially in using culture as a theme (and, in the wonderful credits montage, a metaphor). That is, consumerism as such blinds us from human culture; culture involves not just purchasing power or absorption, but participation. (In some way, Pixar’s films–insofar as they consistently encourage discussion!–are a slight corrective for that problem.) The people aboard the Axiom are blind to what being human is, both physically and mentally (the movie is subtle on this latter point, but it is there). When the captain proclaims he would rather live than simply survive, he sort of stands with culture against consumption… with the search for meaning against Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs.

   While people may quibble about the specific imagery in places (I am awaiting the tormented cries of Beltway libertarians who never shop at Wal-Mart defending the big box against the portrayal of Buy ‘n Large in the film), the overall message of humanity against reflexive pursuit of advertised product is rather, well, traditional. It is the movie’s subtlety in presenting what it means to be human that makes this work; a pontificating film of this sort would have certainly annoyed any audience that differed slightly from the producers’s world-view.

5. Adam01, on July 1st, 2008 at 9:15 am Said:

   The NRO critiques abouve are certainly reflective of the impoverishment of what is called ‘mainstream conservative thought’ Any notion that a truly human life should have limits and boundries, that we should take responsibiltiy for our limited and finite world for the benefit of generations yet unborn, any notion that that we are or should strive to be something better and richer than merely good little economic units who consume with abandon is frankly regarded as heresy at best, and some leftish hippy type of sentiment at worst.

   I’m not sure if WALL-E quite rises to “Toy Story” level of awesomeness, but it is very, very good.

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