Outbreaks: Real Life and Fiction - Contagion and Vito
Contagion – Warner Bros. – PG13
Vito – HBO – Not Rated
There’s plenty reason to revisit "Contagion”; the big budget suspense from 2011 which divided critics, yet was a modest success. It’s solid storytelling all the way around, from a script which avoids the clichés of last minute antidotes interstate highway traffic jams , etc… to it’s haunting score by Cliff Martinez.
Living in Dallas County in the midst of a West Nile Virus outbreak, where 10 have died (so far)of the 217 cases reported, I find myself returning again to it’s message, that our world has traded immunity for speed. And the local controversy ensuing over today's aerial spraying confirms, like many of the film’s characters soon realize, there are no compromise-free solutions in the age of digital media, and the mass hysteria that accompanies it.
Director Steven Soderbergh makes the inspired choice of allowing the Nipah virus be the main character, in a film peppered with A-list stars, like Matt Damon & Kate Winslet, all of whom disappear for large amounts of screen time as we shift to another spot of global outbreak. The virus kills a major actor in the first 15 minutes and it’s immediately unsettling because no one's safe . No matter the billing, or how prominently the actor is featured in promotional material.
And, yet, the film's message about the media/government war in controlling the story is what unsettled me most. Those responsible for spreading truth, whether it's the CDC's Laurence Fishburn or blogger Jude Law, are compromised by a need to protect loved ones, or their opportunity to make money in promoting alternative treatments. If an outbreak of such magnitude occurs, "Contagion" says it will be almost impossible for those individuals in power to not recognize it as a chance for advancement, instead of the catastrophe that it truly is.
The film's aftermath shows us the trash on the streets, the looted homes, the people shot dead in their drive-ways... Millions dead. Governments crippled. Some A-list actors survive, but the modern world has changed significantly because of a microscopic organism. A tiny organism within a grotesque one, whose antibodies were long ago overwhelmed by personal status updates.
With the coverage of West Nile locally, I've also been thinking of another film recently, the outstanding documentary "Vito”, about the life of activist and film scholar Vito Russo . As West Nile related deaths emerged in Dallas over the years the local newscasters would close stories with a disclaimer; the victim was elderly or infirm. It struck me as admittance that West Nile was NOT a concern because it only killed sick & old people.
And in the 80's activists like Russo and Larry Kramer knew the Reagan Administration wouldn't lift a finger to combat AIDS until, in Russo's words, "the right people started dying". And, this is just opinion, but the face of HIV changed nationally when Magic Johnson announced he'd been infected. Which, along with Reagan's exit, perhaps went a long way to proving Russo's point.
Anti-Reagan protests footage is featured prominently in "Vito" as Russo, Larry Kramer, and their colleagues make desparate efforts to no longer be ignored. It's amazing to survive the 1980's and wonder how the hell so many of us didn't care that the Feds disregarded a health crisis, based purely on a prejudice for the victims.
But the biggest reward in "Vito" is learning that Russo was not so incredibly different from any passionate film buff, like myself or the friends I grew up with. The way he recharges himself with film, and then channels that into one the great essays about not only gay culture, but to old movies, "The Celluloid Closet", is an inspiration to all of us freaks who stay up late watching TCM.
It's through Russo's fascination with old cinema and it’s stereotypes that he researched and authored the book, which was later turned into it’s own documentary. Some “Closet” clips are featured in the HBO film, in brilliant testimony of how Hollywood completely undermined the legitimate status of a culture. We see, for instance, how many Hitchcock films featured a gay conspirator or remorseless killer.
And suddenly, I get why so many people were upset with Sharon Stone’s bisexual character in Basic Instinct. It's not that there aren't gay criminals and killers in the real world. There are.
But there are almost never any gay heroes in the film world. And that ultimately is why you should see "Vito". Vito Russo is one.
Random Fandom
Comics
Suicide Squad - DC- New 52 - 1 through 12
The DC Comics clearing house of super villains known as the New 52 monthly title, "Suicide Squad" has been back for one year, and it just gets better and better. Admittedly, I came late to the party, being a fan of Gail Simone's version of Deadshot and not being familiar with writer Adam Glass. Also the brief controversy about the new younger, slimmer Amanda Waller at launch allowed me to wrongly conclude this was a soulless, extreme makeover of one of DC's better team concepts.
It started getting really good with the Harley Quinn origin story, complete with Joker flashbacks and a really creepy showdown between Quinn and Deadshot. These two, with government liason Waller, are the major players of "Suicide Squad" with King Shark popping up in (cannibalism) relief. Don't think too hard about the logic of a rogue cannibal team member. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Ultimates, and The Dark Avengers all had cannibals, but I must admit King Shark is the first one who's consumed a teammate who went on living within his intestinal tract before making a grand escape (why I love comics).
The stakes are enormous in Task Force X, where members carry a surgically implanted neck bomb. Glass doesn't play with our expectations too much in this respect; Chances are if it's a villain you've never heard of, they won't make it through the arc without Waller igniting a neck bomb, or King Shark turning them into a human PEZ dispenser. This is the fun of it. Metas get lied to by the government. They die horrible, final, goodbye forever deaths within the confines of a monthly title. Go figure.
DVDs
The Grey ***1/2 - Way better than it has any right being. In the age where "Man vs Nature" is a requirement for Hollywood to overdose a movie with CGI & 3D, The Grey dares to be existential. At one point I felt like I was reading the greatest Wolverine comic ever written. I mean that as the highest compliment. It's a beautiful, bloody film about the shadows in our own hearts, and the shadows where the beasts prowl.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel *** - Predictable as hell, but a joy to watch. Reminded me of those Neil Simon movies from the 70s where a list of comic actors have their lives changed on holiday* (* also see "The Love Boat"). Three locks on Oscar noms for Dench, Smith, and Wilkinson, all playing transformed
seniors. And if you love Indian Food and aren't craving it at the end of this movie, then you filled up on too much popcorn.
Audio
The Nerdy Show Podcast - Gay guys talking movies and comics. The panelists stray into some explicit descriptions about what they would do sexually with certain teddy bear comic writers, requiring FF>>or fighting through. But I like listening to these guys, especially the episode where one expressed outrage at Chick-Fil-A, and then two minutes later admitted eating there that week (but justified it because his coworkers paid for it).
- Dale Beggars
