Peace and Long Life

I don't watch many movies so it was a rarity that I went to the movie twice in succession. On Monday, I dropped by The Royal for Inherent Vice, a recent adaptation of a Pynchon novel. For those nostalgic for the 70s, it was all there: the cars, the clothes, the hair, and the attitudes. The plot revolves around a P.I. nicknamed Doc who is hired by an ex-girlfriend to do some snooping on her current mega-rich beau. The whole thing was a bit of a shaggy dog story as we found ourselves quickly immersed in Nazi gangs, crazy cops, drug cults, and shadowy businesses. As such, I wanted the director Paul Thomas Anderson to play up the various absurdities of 70s California culture as well as Doc's loose grasp on reality. The few laugh-out-loud moments centered on those comic elements.

On Tuesday, I returned for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, being shown as a tribute to the late Leonard Nimoy. Ironically, though this movie was set in the future, it was shot in 1981. So real elements of 70s aesthetic crept into the film including high-waisted "disco" pants and ship consoles and computers replete with glowing buttons and levers (not a single keyboard in sight). This classic movie held up even with the out-dated special effects. It did not escape my attention that although the future still mostly involved white men doing stuff, there were people of color (POC) in the future like Uhura, Sulu on the Enterprise and Captain Terrell of the Reliant, and especially the background extras (whether as fresh-faced Starfleet engineers or improbably stylish lab technicians). Khan's motley crew of genetic superiors were noticeably all blonde and white.

In contrast, the new Star Trek reboots are not quite so enlightened. But even they pale (ha!) in comparison to the Star Wars movies. George Lucas' universe has been noted to be so lily-white, even Lando Calrissian couldn't improve it. You only have to read the on-line "outrage" regarding the black storm-trooper in the new trailer to realize the impact of those choices.