I often wonder what life would have been like if I had left home to battle in World War II at 18 instead of engaging in my happy life at U.Va.
The producers of The Pacific, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, sought to answer that question as truthfully as possible when they made 2001's awe-inspring Band of Brothers. The ten-part series really felt more like a movie, and has had more replay value for me than any other show I've ever come across.
We're in for another ten-part epic starting this Sunday, March 13, on HBO at 9 PM. Somehow, HBO overlooked the Cav Daily when they sent out advance copies of the show, so I can't promise that you'll enjoy it. Though, I'm gonna wager this will be worth watching.
Despite an uneven show event, viewers for Sunday's Academy Awards turned out in droves, helping the floundering Oscars achieve its highest ratings in five years, asmore than 40 million viewers tuned in to see The Hurt Locker and Avatar duke it out on the most prestigious of stages.
And as tableau senior writer Dave Replogle so aptly predicted in his Oscars Preview, The Hurt Locker completely swept the night, which was full of historic firsts. Geoffrey Fletcher became the first black screenwriter to take home the Oscar, adding to thePrecious pile. And Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to ever win the prestigious Best Director title, edging out Avatar.
A few highlights: Ben Stiller dressed Na'vi to present the award for Best Makeup. Sandra Bullock's gorgeous Marchesa gown and compassionate Best Actress acceptance speech. (She also picked up a Razzie this weekend for the box office bomb, All About Steve.) The Hurt Locker, which took home six Oscars.
A few low points: Neil Patrick Harris and his awkward Vegas number, which didn't measure up to Hugh Jackman's previous performance. A random horror genre tribute presented by teeny-bopper stars Kristin Stewart and Taylor Lautner, and the subsequent montage that included films like Twilight and E.T. Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin's lackluster tag teaming.
"It's not just a parking lot," begins the tagline for this new documentary. The lot it's referring is, yes, that lot. The one behind Little John's that ninety percent of the student body has cut through en route to or from the Corner. I still subconsciously expect the next clause to involve garbage juice, or bar flies stumbling across the train tracks.
But no, "it's a battle with humanity." Well damn. The Corner Parking Lot and its attendants seem to preside over something much more important than the quickest route to the Elliewood bars.
Directing our attention to this epic struggle is producer and director Meghan Eckman, CLAS '00, an accomplished documentary filmmaker. For the documentary she amassed 150 hours over three years of filming, and boiled it down to something that really looks fascinating. What really captured my attention in the trailer, and the quotes page, is how interesting these characters are. These dudes, who appear so unremarkable as us students walk past, here come across as Kerouacian figures. Their everyday appears so grandiose.
The Parking Lot Movie premiers at the South by Southwest music and film festival, which runs March 12-20, in the "Emerging Visions" portion of the show. For those of us not fortunate enough to attend SXSW, the film will light up the Paramount Theater on Saturday, March 27 at 7 PM, and will be shown in Newcomb Hall Theater on Saturday, April 10 at 6 PM as part of the Student Film Festival.
"In the parking lot we were dynamos. Whirlwinds. We were rulers. We had complete autonomy. We had it all in a world that had nothing to offer us." Scott Meiggs
