So we went and saw it last night. It was pretty good: I liked Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker; Willem Dafoe did the Jekyll / Hyde thing without going completely over the top; J. K. Simmons (who plays the psychatrist on Law & Order -- that's why he looked so familiar) deserves a 2 Minute Oscar for his portrayal of news editor J. Jonah Jameson; the love story was not quite as bad as that of Attack of the Clones. Danny Elfman is a complete hack -- is that chorus he uses in every single score he's ever written real, or synthesized? And I found the beginning of the movie, in which he discoveres his powers and becomes Spider-Man, much more fun than the whole show-down with the Green Goblin. (Then again, you could probably say the same thing about the first Superman movie and the first Batman movie.) Plus, as Debbie pointed out, it's a bit hard to watch two actors face off if you can't see their faces at all.
So, in the middle of the movie, there's the first fight between Spidey and the Green Goblin, in an obviously fake Times Square. The Goblin starts throwing bombs; the buildings are exploding; people are screaming. And I started freaking out. Panic. My heart racing. I closed my eyes and saw the streets filled with smoke. I opened them and there were people turned to skeletons. And then she fell.... I very nearly left the theater. It's only a movie, it's only a movie, it's only....
A minute later and it had passed. I wonder though: I didn't have this reaction watching the CBS 9/11 special or the DVD that the Here Is New York project put together. Why this?
| 9/11 | PTSD |
haha. i totally agree with the danny elfman thing; everything he works on sounds like the batman score to me. burton's in love with him though. *shrug* go figure.
as for the freaking out... it happens. i've been in the middle of dangerous situations that i stayed calm during, but i freak out over the "scream" trilogy. the brain is funny that way.
Freaking out - the short psychobabble answer is that it snuck around your defenses. Think about it - when you watch a documentary on 9/11 your highly developed forebrain is processing all of the images, telling you that it's OK, you've lived through it, it's just old photos. But at a movie, your defenses are down and you're highly suggestible. That means that an image that reminds you of the horror of that day can sneak in and trigger ... well ... fright. I imagine a chance smell would do that effectively as well, a la madeline.
Comment #2 :: link :: June 30, 2002 09:00 AM
