laura has a peculiar obsession with sergio leone westerns

It occurs to me that part of the reason I love the messianic imagery and over-the-top badass slow-motion Doctor in Voyage of the Damned is that it reminds me of a Sergio Leone Western. Exaggerated, stylish, drawn out, set to striking music... yep. That explains it.

(Leone wasn't invested in religion either, but he used tons of Catholic imagery in his films because it was part of his culture, and because he understood the power of mythological images that are ingrained in our consciousness from childhood. I don't get why people have such a problem with it. It's about the power of image and myth, not about some kind of subconscious urge to actually be religious.

Actually, both Leone and Davies seem to have a thing about subverting religious imagery. Davies has got killer angels, a killer Christmas star, and killer Santas. Leone had... well, tons of stuff, but what comes immediately to mind is Indio at the church pulpit, "preaching" a "parable" to his gang about the bank they're about to rob.)

I started thinking about this during one of those "Doctor striding through the fire" scenes, when a bit of the music reminded me of Ennio Morricone, and then the Doctor does that slow-motion finger snap and the angels carry him up. It feels very Leone!

(Leone, of course, has had a huge impact on the modern action film, so the influence might not even be direct. VotD is a pastiche of tons of things, mostly disaster movies. But the combination of religious imagery, extended time, and striking music in a couple of specific scenes definitely has a Leone aspect to it.)

There is totally other Leone-inspired stuff in Doctor Who, btw. Or at least, Morricone inspired. The confrontation scene between the Doctor and Giles Mr. Finch in "School Reunion" comes to mind.

VotD also has a bunch of James Bond type imagery (although thankfully the Doctor is not a misogynist douchebag like Bond--and I say that with love) and I can remember writing some college essay about how Bond and Leone's Western heroes reflected the changing cultural construction of masculinity in the 1960s... now I totally can't remember what it said. Mostly I think Doctor Who was just playing with the cool images, anyway.

Yeah, you can tell what I spent my weekend thinking about! Well, that and comparing Life on Mars to Fight Club. God help me.

[Cross-posted to InsaneJournal]

stuff i'm looking forward to in 2008

Just got tickets for Marilyn Manson at Hammerstein Ballroom on January 30. My friend April (who I haven't seen since she OMG HAD A BABY!) is coming with me. Anyone else going?

I know Manson sucks now, but it's a nostalgia thing; I can't help it. Antichrist Superstar was good. And I have strangely happy memories of waiting in line huddled in a sleeping bag in the freezing cold for eight hours just to get a front row spot when I was eighteen, so it would just feel lame to not go at all when he's back in my neighborhood.

Also got tickets for Macbeth starring Patrick Stewart at BAM for March 11. Good seats, too. After the awesomeness of King Lear with Ian McKellen last year, I'm really looking forward to this.

I am also so excited that I'm going to see David Tennant in Hamlet this year. So totally beyond excited. That and the fact that I get to spend time in London again. It's the thing I'm most looking forward to in 2008.

Oh, and in case you haven't seen this: YEARS worth of RPF fantasy material.

[Cross-posted to InsaneJournal]