I've been in the mood for jungle movies lately, maybe because it's been so hot and humid here in central Japan, and here was Disney+ shoving Predator in my face every time I loaded it up. So I watched Predator again a few days ago. What a nice movie. Though, ironically, I read on the Wikipedia entry that it actually got so cold in the Mexican jungle during filming they had to use heat lamps to keep the actors warm. I'd have never guessed.
I was maybe the only person who at all liked Shane Black's The Predator because he captured one of the essential aspects of the original film, which was the rapport among the ensemble cast. But he failed to capture the mounting dread that plays concurrent to that rapport so beautifully.
I'm sure I'm not the first person to note how neatly the film fits within a post-Vietnam War progression of war films. The progression from Apocalypse Now to First Blood to Predator is pretty clear. These young, average American guys thrown into a grotesque haunted house of corrupt politics and unpredictable physical threat. Of course, there's nothing truly average about Rambo in First Blood or Dutch in Predator. They represent an ideal and there's something comforting, I'd imagine, in the realisation that even the ideal is at a loss at times in this nightmare. But they also represent a positive self-image, not only for the disillusioned and traumatised war veteran, but for anyone looking for hope again in a symbol of American, or western, strength (is Dutch literally meant to be Dutch? It would be a decent way of explaining Schwarzenegger's accent).
The nice thing about Predator is that it moves the position of the human enemy. The human enemy isn't removed, there's that hostage crises at the beginning. But the native girl who joins the group, first as a prisoner but then as a fellow, helps establish the humanity of this terrible experience as being beyond country or politics.
The upcoming film, Prey, has an interesting premise. The director, Dan Trachtenberg, directed 10 Cloverfield Lane, which I really liked, and the first episode of The Boys, a show I'm about halfway through and I'll have a lot to say about at a later date. But he also did a good job on that, too. I fear he bit off more than he could chew with Prey, though. I just watched an interview with him in which he really didn't come off as very bright. Thinking back, I'd say it's more the screenplay and performances that made 10 Cloverfield Lane work so well. But I'll wait and see and hope for the best.
Twitter Sonnet #1606
As sure as each cicada's fucking nuts
The master's coin was cut below the bids.
The fishy bread's a snack of choc'late guts.
The diner belched the bones of foolish kids.
About the fire, fickle thieves devolve.
A pleasant meal became a sloppy fight.
A chicken peace became a fried resolve.
A bucket hat but little pads your height.
A metal whale approached the rotten reed.
To boil seas, the searching flame arose.
A mollusc waits in softly bedded seed.
Deceived, the mortals took a fool's repose.
The strapping monster courts a modern rock.
Attractive thorns support a puppet sock.
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