Various Movies

This page has my comments and special work related to various movies.

Laputa (Castle in the Sky) (1986, Ghibli)
Radio Days (1987, Orion Pictures)
Good Will Hunting (1997, Miramax)
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999, 20th Centory Fox)
South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut
The Matrix (1999, Warner Brothers)
Howl's Moving Castle (2004, Ghibli)
Avatar (2009, 20th Centory Fox)

Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986, Ghibli) and Encounter at Farpoint

Laputa: Castle in the Sky is a Japanese animated film from 1986. The story centers on a mysterious, legendary floating island and some humans who want to reach it and utilize it for selfish reasons (either by harnessing its power or by taking its treasure). The name Laputa is from a similar floating island in Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, a fact that is mentioned in the Japanese-language version of the screenplay.

Encounter at Farpoint is the pilot episode of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation; it first aired in 1987. The story centers on a mysterious ground-based "space station" and some people (human-like aliens) who have been utilizing its power for selfish reasons.

In both stories, the large mysterious object is or was inhabited by people, but turns out to be a non-human living creature, which is "freed" as part of the climax and resolution of the story. Both are about the same size and shape as Jonathan Swift's floating island Laputa.

Other similarities between the two stories:

In Laputa, underneath the castle-like stone buildings and pastoral lawns of the upper part of the island, which were inhabited by humans, is a mysterious network of passages and chambers made of a strange material and covered with alien markings and symbols. Similarly, in Farpoint, the "station" is an inhabited portion of the organism, located above ground level, and there is a strange network of passages below that is not understood (or at least not explained) by Farpoint's inhabitants.

Both movies end with a scene of the freed organism floating above the planet. In Laputa, the Baobab-like tree with a large system of roots dangling below floats in space¹ above the planet through the end credits. In Farpoint, the freed organism, resembling a jellyfish with "tentacles" much like the tree roots in Laputa, rises up to join another like it in orbit.

Both movies have an intentional moral message regarding how humans treat non-human life (in Farpoint as is typical for Star Trek stories, the human-like aliens are treated as human because their role in the story is to represent a foreign, yet still human, culture. They serve the role that people from different nations served in stories of exploration from the 18^th century.)

footnotes

1 : Although prominent mountain peaks on the horizon make it appear the viewer and Laputa are at most a mile or two up in the air, the distinct curvature of the horizon indicates they are far higher.

Star Wars Episode I, The Phantom Menace (20^th Century Fox, 1999)

(written in late 1999)

Trivia concerning the movie "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" (Which, by the way, is in the top 20 on my chart ranked by all-time attendance)

There is a scene in a junkyard involving Qui-Gon telling Watto what he needs and then trying to negotiate payment. There are one or two shots (depending on which print you are seeing) that show a prop which is essentially identical to the pods in the spaceship Discovery in the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey". In one shot, the pod is near the middle of the screen and takes up about 1/4 the width of the frame and 1/2 the height, or 10% of the total frame area. In the other shot, the pod is in the upper-left of the frame, takes up only about 2% of the screen area, and is partly obscured by other junkyard junk. By mid-August 1999, the shot with the larger, more prominent Discovery pod was either cut or (more likely) altered in prints in distribution in the United States. I don't think it was cut because the change in dialogue would be noticable to many people, and the screenplay still agrees with what's said in the film.

Actor Warwick Davis, who played the Ewok "Wicket" in Return of the Jedi and starred (without a mask) in the lead role of the 1988 film "Willow" can be seen alongwide Watto cheering for Sebulba during the podrace. He also plays Wald (Anakin's alien friend who looks like Greedo) and appears in a Tatooine crowd shot where he is tougher to spot.

In the credits there are many categories that have lots of names listed in a big block with five columns. In each of these categories but one, the number of names is exactly a multiple of five. Either they deliberately hired each category in multiples of five, or (more likely) they added fake names to make the columns line up (without which, certain names would stand out just by being in an uneven column).

In the credits the Tunisia filming locations are listed twice. One of the Tunisia locations is called "TATAOUINE". This connection has actually been around since the original Star Wars (episode IV) but I haven't gotten an authoritative answer as to whether Lucas named the planet after the location in Tunisia or whether the location in Tunisia is just a temporary settlement (camp town) that existed during filming.

Other things I noticed while watching Episode I

No use of hyperspace warp effect (as seen from inside cockpit of Millenium Falcon in episode IV). I think this is a deliberate effort by Lucas to make the effect unique to episodes IV, V and VI. The result of this would be that, once all 6 movies are complete, a person watching the movies in order would see that effect first in episode IV and this will make episode IV a little more interesting, effects-wise, than it would be otherwise.

Minor flaw: The sunset scene on Coruscant shows a really, really big sun. But the shadows in the daytime scenes on Coruscant are too sharp for a sun that big.

Right near the end of the movie someone says something about a future "balance". I have interpreted two possible types of "balance" that exist at some point during episodes IV, V and VI:

- the number of (living) good Jedi warriors equals the number of "evil" warriors (two of each). In episode I there seem to be far greater number of good warriors.

- Luke + Leia = male & female, perhaps the good side of the Force needs a female warrior to have balance.

The first time you see Darth Sidious is in a projected image that looks much like the images of Emperor Palpatine that we see in episodes V and VI. Naturally I assumed they were the same person. Lucas leaves the issue open and doesn't give a credit for Sidious. If Lucas wanted us to think they were two different people, he didn't try very hard.

While travelling into the core, our heroes encounter some animals. This is part of Obi Wan's training — he is being taught how to manipulate the thoughts of the creatures and thereby save himself from danger. This lends an additional interpretation to Qui-Don's line "You overdid it" — he is telling Obi-Wan that he overdid it by attracting two larger predators rather than just one.

Anakin/Darth Vader doesn't "vanish" when he dies the way Obi-Wan and Yoda do. I always took this to be because Obi-Wan and Yoda were more "pure" in some way. In episode I we see Qui-Don die and not vanish. To me this means he is not pure, and his judgment is inflenced by the dark side even though he thinks he's fighting for good. And it is mostly because of this judgment that Anakin ends up being trained.

We could debate quite a while as to whether the Force is some kind of conscious entity or is controlled by some conscious entity, and I don't want to get into that debate. But, if we assume that there is a conscious entity, then it seems to me that it is deliberately causing Darth Vader to come into being because he is a necessary evil (as it were) in creating this future "balance". The conscious entity "creates" Anakin knowing he will fall, that the dark side will be in power for a while and that the children of the corrupted warrior will ultimately defeat the dark side. Perhaps it also knows that the Republic is doomed and that creating and defeating an evil empire is the best way to get to a new Republic.

The Jedi Council seems to be almost as ineffective as the Senate. The two who sit on either side of Yoda seem to be the most respected aside from Yoda himself, and one of them immediately brushes off the idea that the Sith have returned. They're not good enough Jedi to detect the Sith, or perhaps they simply forgot that "Hard to see the dark side is" — either way, they're pretty incompetent.

Things I noticed on the soundtrack album:

track 8, 1:36 (about 6 seconds) Luke's theme

track 11, 2:30 (about 20 seconds) Luke's theme from episode IV

track 14, 3:45 (for about 20 seconds) vocal theme heard in episode

VI during the scenes showing the confrontation between Luke, the Emperor and Vader.

track 16, 1:17 Imperial theme from episode V

My Star Wars Predictions

These are my predictions for Star Wars Episodes II and III. Most are pretty obvious. I haven't tried to get the order right because it doesn't matter:

Palpatine uses his control of the Senate and the Trade Federation to expand his influence throughout the galaxy. He beseiges and takes control of many planets, but is often hindered or thwarted by the Jedi.

Anakin Skywalker is a powerful Jedi Apprentice and returns to Tatooine as Palpatine tries to take over that planet. Amidala, having been so greatly helped by Anakin 10 years earlier, now comes to help free his planet. Tatooine achieves a mixed victory, deposing the Hutts (and as a result freeing the slaves), but being forced to submit to control by Palpatine/Trade Federation in their place. In the process they fall in love.

Having had little success with droids, Palpatine decides to turn to human soldiers, since their minds are more easily controlled. Clones are even more easily controlled since their minds are alike — control one and you control them all (this also turns out to give the Jedi an advantage in defeating the clones). Palpatine employs the clones to control and conquer systems.

Palpatine is annoyed by the Jedi and continues trying to wipe them out, using a new Sith apprentice or perhaps several apprentices one after another.

Palpatine intercepts the young Jedi-in-training Anakin Skywalker and tricks him into thinking his cause is good. Anakin is torn between what Palpatine wants him to do and what the other Jedi want him to do.

Palpatine, having acquired control over a sufficient fraction of the galaxy, declares himself Emperor. The new Empire will be more powerful and all-inclusive than the Republic could be (including outlying systems such as Tatooine).

In a climactic scene, Obi-Wan and Anakin are fighting Sidious and a Sith apprentice. Sidious tells Anakin to slay the apprentice in anger (which will bring Anakin to the dark side). Anakin slays the Sith apprentice but simultaneously falls into the lava and is nearly killed, losing almost all of his body in the process. Obi-Wan somehow gets knocked out (perhaps he falls somewhere) so he cannot intervene. Sidious snatches up Anakin, now scarred for life, and whisks him away.

The Jedi discover that Amidala is pregnant and arrange for her hiding on Alderran.

The Emperor provides the scarred Anakin with a bionic body and makes him his new apprentice, Darth Vader. The Jedi soon realize that this used to be Anakin Skywalker. Vader gets many (including a few Jedi) to serve the dark side. Many Jedi confront Vader and his minions and are killed. Most of them were deceived, led into traps, or otherwise at an unfair or dishonorable disadvantage when fighting Vader.

Obi-Wan and Yoda find themselves among the last of the Jedi and decide to cease their activity with the Force and go into hiding. Obi-Wan gets Amidala's son (leaving the daughter) and takes him to Tatooine.

The Emperor has been unsuccessful with the clones and must abandon them, and turns to ordinary human conscripts to use as soldiers.

The Sith warriors run out of good guys to kill. Being evil, they compete with one another for the spot at the Emperor's side. Vader kills off the last of them. With two evil and two good (in hiding), the Force is at a balance.

It is also revealed that the ultimate (forseen) "balance" in the Force is actually the balance that will be brought about by Anakin's offspring, who (by being of opposite sex) will bring an important gender-balance to the good side of the Force. If Lucas went ahead with the third trilogy he would use this idea as Leia develops her abilities and becomes as important an influence as Luke.

From the above and the existing movies we get this concise Summary of the 6 episodes:

Episode I: The Phantom Menace. 8-year-old Anakin is discovered by Qui-Don. Anakin meets Queen Amidala. Palpatine manipulates the Senate and the Queen to be elected as the Senate's leader. Darth Maul is defeated by Obi Wan and Qui-Don, who dies. Anakin becomes Obi Wan's apprentice.

Episode II: (title TBA). 10 years later. A tone similar to episode V. Romance and marriage of Anakin and Amidala; the Clone Wars take place; Anakin and Amidala fight the Siths; Senator Palpatine manipulates his way closer to complete control of the crumbling old Republic.

Episode III: (title TBA). 2-3 years later. Emperor Palpatine and his new order rise to dominance. Anakin falls to the dark side. Obi-Wan and Yoda struggle to hide Amidala and her unborn children from the ruthless Palpatine. Darth Vader and his minions hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights.

Episode IV: A New Hope. 17 years later. Amidala's children find each other with the help of Obi-Wan and two droids. Leia's home planet Alderaan is destroyed. Obi-Wan dies, then helps Luke help the rebellion in a temporary defeat of the Empire.

Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. 3 years later. Luke begins his Jedi training under Yoda, while Leia and the Rebellion are continually on the run. Darth Vader seeks out Luke, who leaves Yoda before his training is complete to challenge Vader. Vader tells Luke he is his father.

Episode VI: The Return Of the Jedi. 1 year later. Luke uses Jedi powers to rescue Han Solo, then returns to Yoda and learns of his family history. Yoda dies. Luke, Leia and Han lead the Rebellion in defeating the Empire again. Luke confronts Vader and the Emperor; just before the Emperor kills Luke, Vader turns back to good and destroys the Emperor.

South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut

Division into a 5-act play:

Act	starts	ends with
I	0:00:20 "Mountain Town"	TV news satellite interview
II	0:14:50 Rehabilitation class	"Kyle's Mom's a Bitch"
III	0:32:44 V-chip presentation	"La Resistance" medley
IV	0:51:24 Sadaam and Satan in bed	The Mole dies
V	1:05:20 The execution	Finale

See also the List of South Park episodes.

The Matrix movie (1999, Warner Brothers)

My rating: 8 out of 10

I admire this movie for introducing millions to an idea that I have explored extensively for over 20 years: That everyone's mind might be hooked up to some type of virtual reality system and therefore, maybe, nothing is "real". Since I was so familiar with this premise, nothing that happened in the movie took me by surprise and I found myself wishing its many essential plot devices were consistently plausible.

For the sake of entertainment and a dramatic, unpredictable storyline, the Wachowskis decided to give the bad guys a consistent physical manifestation, limited to defeating good guys only by chasing them down and shooting or fighting them. Similarly, while our heroes can enter the Matrix anywhere they want on a whim, leaving is excessively elaborate. And despite the fact that they can hack the Matrix to manifest a physical presence, they apparently can't hack anything else like magic spells or superhuman powers.

This is all set up to create an instability and balance of power that allows for plenty of suspense, drama and what my friends call "excessive gratuitous violence" in the lengthy combat scenes that showcase the film's groundbreaking (for 1999) special effects.

So, if you're seriously interested in the premise of the movie (and we all should be, as it probably plays a very real and central role in Humanity's future) and the lessons it has to teach, just remember that "The Matrix" is first and foremost designed as entertainment. Its lessons consist of a few basic ideas which you will need to explore on your own elsewhere.

Why, after all this, do I still rate it 8/10? Because The Matrix is d*n good entertainment, for anyone who enjoys gratuitous violence and dark science fiction, and it has gotten an important message out to many people.

If you liked the ideas presented in The Matrix you should probably see the earlier films from which the ideas seem to have been copied: Dark City, eXistenZ, Total Recall, The Terminator, Johnny Mnemonic, Blade Runner and Neuromancer.

Its many inconsistencies

The Matrix's support hardware was designed to link bodies in the real world to virtual presences inside the Matrix. Each body has a "cable" attaching it to a computer, and the computer sends and receives the necessary signals through this cable to make the person interact with the world inside the Matrix. The good guys in the movie "hack into" the Matrix and manifest themselves inside the Matrix. To accomplish that, their "hack" has to make the Matrix computer put them into the Matrix and maintain a connection without the presence of a cable or a body. They essentially have a "wireless" or "virtual" connection to the Matrix, rather than a physical connection like everyone else. This is something the Machines didn't design the system to do and therefore obviously represents a very sophisticated hack, introducing an entire human body into the Matrix. If such a hack is possible it should be easy to perform other types of hacks in the Matrix, like magic spells or superhuman powers. Using such hacks it would be easy to defeat the Agents. Of course, the Agents should find it even easier to do such things. All we see them do is seal Neo's mouth in the "What good is a phone call..." scene, and various special jumping, dodging and fighting skills that the good guys can also do. Neo learns how to control everything by the end of the movie, but he has to use his mind. In a real Matrix it would be far easier to do these things by directly manipulating the software the same way they did to hack into the Matrix in the first place.

The "What good is a phone call if you can't speak" scene involves a mechanical "creature" that the Agents place into Neo's body. In a later scene Neo is picked up by the good guys and the creature is removed. All of this is happening before Neo leaves the Matrix, so the mechanical creature exists only inside the Matrix. It is apparent that the Agents want to manipulate Neo somehow; the creature is there either to terrify him or perhaps to hook into his brain. This, in turn, is to get Neo to comply. Why did the Agents need to use a mechanical creature? If the machines created the Matrix they can effect whatever results they want by directly manipulating the objects inside the Matrix — just throw Neo in a cage with no doors! They shouldn't have to rely on such indirect methods. This is similar to the question: why do the Agents need to use bullets to kill people? Why not just make a hole appear in the person's chest?

Human intelligence is limited, but the AI Machines' intelligence should keep growing indefinitely. Certainly by the time the movie takes place the AI Machines have become far more intelligent than humans. Therefore, the Machines should easily be able to outwit the humans in any situation, and figure out solutions to any challenges or problems created by the humans. For example, if the humans hack the Matrix, the Machines should find it very easy to locate and disable the hack, or to implement a better counter-hack.

Morpheus tells Neo that his physical appearance in the Matrix is a manifestation of his self-image. This makes sense for people like Morpheus who have seen themselves in a mirror in the real world. But Neo was born inside the Matrix. He had never been out, and never had a chance to see what he looks like in the real world, and nevertheless (surprise!) he discovers that his appearance in the real world is the same as it had been in the Matrix. For this to be true, Neo would have had to have some kind of ESP (sensing the shape of his body without actual visual or tactile input), or the Machines would have had to look at his body at least once and program the proper physical appearance into the Matrix. And what if (while living in the Matrix) Neo decided to gain or lose weight, or develop muscles, or sustained an injury that changed his appearance — would the Machines alter his real physical body to agree with that? What a waste of effort. In a real Matrix, Neo would wake up and discover that he looks different. In all likelihood he would be of a different race or nationality, and perhaps of a different sex. In fact, he could even wake up and discover that, in the real world, everybody has green skin and a couple extra arms. There's no particular reason the people inside the Matrix have to be of the same species as their physical bodies.

A similar issue with physical appearance relates to sex and children. Since every body is connected to a person inside the Matrix, and those people sometimes conceive children, the machines have to monitor the Matrix and make sure that each real physical fetus is assigned to a pair of humans who have just had sex in the Matrix. That part's easy! The hard part is making sure the baby's body (in the real world) looks like its parents. In order to maintain the similarity of peoples' appearance between the Matrix and the real world, the machines would actually have to engineer the baby's appearance — perhaps by combining the DNA of the two parents' real-world bodies to conceive the fetus; then looking at the fetus to see what its face looks like before the baby is born in the Matrix. That's a lot of extra effort. The machines would be far better off just cloning humans and having their physical bodies all be the same.

Since the mind is still resident in the brain, time goes at the same speed in the Matrix as in the real world — and yet, consciousness is resident in the Matrix, not in the brain, (as evidenced by the fact that a person will instantly die if physically unplugged). The fact that the two time scales are identical in speed isn't an inconsistency as such, but it is an unlikely coincidence.

The Music in the Movie Radio Days (1987, Orion Pictures)

The 1987 Woody Allen movie Radio Days features over 40 popular radio songs from the 1930's and 1940's — far too many to put on the soundtrack album. After I got the album I was a little disappointed at the songs that weren't included, and I decided to identify all the songs in the movie.

Fortunately, the songs are listed in the credits. However, they are not quite listed in the order that they appear in the movie, and there are some omissions. This list sorts it out, fills in the missing pieces and gives visual cues to help you identify the particular song you're interested in. This should save you from having to go through the whole movie with a list and a CD player, like I did!

Time¹	Song Title²	Composer or Performer³	Scene⁴
0:00:00	Flight of the Bumblebee	Harry James	opening credits (I have the VHS videotape version, and I reset the counter to 0 just as the words "a Jack Rollins and Charles H. Joffe Production" appear)
0:01:55	Dancing In the Dark	Arthur Schwartz & Howard Dietz	burglers answer phone call from radio show
0:02:39	Chinatown, My Chinatown	William Jerome & Jenn Schwartz	burglers on radio show (continued)
0:03:07	The Sailor's Hornpipe	not given	burglers on radio show (continued)
0:03:53	Let's All Sing Like the Birdies Sing	Robert Huntington, Stanley J. Damerel (Unconfirmed: Danielle Ferland as child radio star)	girl in radio studio; VO "I know a million of 'em"
0:04:24	September Song	Kurt Weill & Maxwell Anderson	Wind and rain on a street in Rockaway Beach (in Queens, NY); mother doing dishes; Irene and Roger in penthouse apartment
0:06:12	Body and Soul	Benny Goodman Trio	Introducing the family members
0:07:51	In The Mood	Glenn Miller & his Orchestra	Aunt Bee dancing and asking advice. "Our lives are ruined already"
0:13:00	Body and Soul (first few bars)	Benny Goodman Trio	"I never did get the Masked Avenger ring"
0:13:30	I Double Dare You	Larry Clinton & his Orchestra	Aunt Bee has a date.
0:15:30	You're Getting to Be a Habit With Me	Harry Warren & Al Dubin	roller skating
0:16:58	La Cumparasita		stuck out on Breezy Point; interrupted by news of "martian invasion" ⁵
0:18:11	Carmina		Roger and Irene in ballroom; Roger seducing Sally the cigarette girl
0:19:38	Tico Tico		band, singer, conductor holding a chihuahua; Roger and Sally continued
0:21:08	Begin the Beguine	Cole Porter	Roger and Sally on roof
0:23:53	Opus No. 1	Tommy Dorsey & his Orchestra	on High Holidays, Communist neighbor is playing the radio and not fasting! ⁶
0:25:26	Frenesi	Tommy Dorsey	Neighbor Mrs. Silverman died when she saw an interracial kiss
0:30:16	All Or Nothing At All	Jack Lawrence & Arthur Ahlman	girls swooning in diner
0:32:02	Body and Soul	Benny Goodman Trio	meeting the 14-year-old "Whiz Kid" at the zoo
0:33:25	The Donkey Serenade	Allan Jones	Aunt Bee sitting on steps; bunch of kids run in house to get a snack
0:34:02	You and I	Tommy Dorsey & his Orchestra	VO "Evelyn Gariwitz, who I had a crush on"
0:34:40	Paper Doll	The Mills Brothers	VO "My parent's anniversary — the only time I ever saw them kiss"
0:35:21	Pistol Packin' Mama	Bing Crosby & the Andrews Sisters	VO "My friend Andrew and I built a snowman in front of the school"
0:35:54	South American Way	Carmen Miranda	Cousin Ruthie dancing, men join in at end
0:37:08	Mairzy Doats (Mares Eat Oats)		neighbor running through streets in his underwear brandishing a cleaver
0:37:44	If You Are But a Dream	Frank Sinatra	walking into Radio City Music Hall
0:40:08	If I Didn't Care	The Ink Spots	Sally working in nightclub after hours; owner gets "bumped off"
0:43:58	Schloff mein Kind		Sally has a part in a radio drama; Pearl Harbor news breaks ⁷
0:44:57	I Don't Want to Walk Without You	(Not confirmed: Mia Farrow (as Sally))	Sally singing on a USO stage
0:46:34	Remember Pearl Harbor	Swing & Sway with Sammy Kaye	everyone doing their part for the war effort
0:47:53	Bahalu		boys on roof "look in that window!" "let ME see!"
0:48:55	September Song	Kurt Well & Maxwell Anderson	boys walking on beach; Joe spots a Nazi U-boat
0:50:24	They're Either Too Young or Too Old		radio studio with neon Maxwell House sign; Aunt Bee talks with Mom about men
0:51:17	That Old Feeling	Guy Lombardo & his Royal Canadians	Aunt Bee talking with mom about men (continued)
0:53:51	(There'll Be Blue Birds Over) the White Cliffs of Dover	Glenn Miller & his Orchestra	Dad wants to get rich engraving
0:54:57	Goodbye	Benny Goodman & his Orchestra	air raid blackout
0:56:16	I'm Gettin' Sentimental Over You	Tommy Dorsey & his Orchestra	Fred tells Aunt Bee his fiancee's name was "Leonard"
0:59:20	Bahalu		the substitute teacher walks in "we're all going straight to hell"
1:00:12	Re-Lax Jingle	Dick Hyman (Not confirmed: Mia Farrow (as Sally))	Sally recording a commercial
1:03:18	Lullaby of Broadway	Richard Himber & his Ritz-Carlton Orchestra	Sally has her own radio show
1:04:34	American Patrol	Glenn Miller & his Orchestra	taking the radio home by taxicab
1:06:32	Take the 'A' Train	Duke Ellington & his Famous Orchestra	Mom delivers a baby
1:07:54	Take the 'A' Train	Duke Ellington & his Famous Orchestra	a day in the city with Aunt Bee; she wins $50 on a radio show
1:10:12	You'll Never Know	Harry Wyman & Mark Gordon	Aunt Bee dancing with Sy
1:11:58	One, Two, Three, Kick	Xavier Cugat & his Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra	Joe getting spanked; interrupted by live news report about girl who fell down a well ⁸ ¹⁰
1:16:14	Just One of Those Things	Cole Porter	Sally at New Years' Eve party; family at home
1:17:57	You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To	Cole Porter (Not confirmed: Diane Keaton (as the singer))	New Years' Eve party and family at home ⁹
1:20:26	Night and Day	Cole Porter	party guests go up on roof
1:22:22	Auld Lang Syne	traditional	New years' eve party; "what is he doing up?"
1:24:24	September Song	Kurt Well & Maxwell Anderson¹¹	rooftop; end credits begin
1:25:53	South American Way	Carmen Miranda	end credits continue
?	Radio Show Themes	Dick Hyman	I could not find anything in the movie corresponding to this credit

Notes:

1. The "movie time" given for each song tells when in the movie you start to hear each song. This is measured from when the words "A Jack Rollins and Charles H. Joffe Production" first appear on screen. The first song actually starts a little earlier during the Orion Pictures logo. I chose not to use that as the starting point for my stopwatch because studios often change the visual presentation of their logos, and I needed a clear visual cue to set the time.

2. Song titles in italics indicate a song that is being heard a second or third time. In the case of September Song, the repetitions are actually different performances.

3. Performer's name is given whenever possible, otherwise composer's name. The Sailor's Hornpipe, Auld Lang Syne and the alternate versions of September Song are not listed in the credits.

4. A brief description of something that happens on screen while the song is heard. "VO" means "voice-over" and refers to Woody Allen's narration. In a few cases a clear reference to a real-life event can be identified. The real-life events are spread out over more than 10 years and happened in a different order than they are presented in the movie. This is of course just part of the overall style of the movie, which is a romanticized retelling of the experience of living in that time. Without the real-life event references, the story would easily cover the last 4-5 months of any year in the early 1940's.

5. Invasion by martians: A clear reference to the Mercury Theatre presentation of Orson Welles' dramatization of "The War of the Worlds" on October 30, 1938. This show did in fact cause mass hysteria, particularly in the New York and New Jersey area.

6. High Holidays: The best fit to the rest of the movie's plot would set this scene on a Rosh Hashanah (Tishray 1-2) before Pearl Harbor. Likely dates include September 14-16, 1939 and October 3-5, 1940.

7. Bombing of Pearl Harbor: Japan pulled the United States into a direct involvement in the war with their surprise attack on December 7, 1941.

8. Girl who fell down a well: Kathy Fiscus (age 3), southern California, April 8, 1949. Millions listened on their radios (there were as yet only a few hundred TV sets in the entire Los Angeles area) to the 24-hour live broadcast and its tragic resolution.

9. New Year's Eve: The narrator says the new year is 1944, so the date is December 31, 1943.

10. Personal trivia: The only scene in any movie featuring a person I know is the shot in Radio Days in which the camera follows an extra carrying a Thermos^TM of coffee; the extra is a friend from my college fraternity.

11. September Song is from the musical "Knickerbocker Holiday", and popular versions were recorded by Roger Williams and by Bing Crosby. Most people associate the song with actor Walter Huston.

Good Will Hunting (1997, Miramax)

This movie stands out for many reasons, such as accuracy of details (locations, the math problems, etc.) and the tight agreement and little compromise between the writing and acting. But what interests me most is the marvelous and elaborate way in which the main character Will's sexual orientation is left ambiguous. You probably think I'm crazy; all my gay friends missed it too. Every point is adequately explained by either the "straight" or "hidden" interpretation. I'll just list the relevant points and let you decide for yourself:

Element	Direct Interpretation	Alternate
Will makes direct and/or crude statements implying that the sobesednyk is gay, intended to evoke a defensive reaction.	He's a tough kid from a tough neighborhood.	Most gay men are familiar with this behavior because it is exibited by gays who are in the closet and develop overt homophobic behavior as a defense. More recently, it has become politically correct to exhibit tolerance ("It doesn't bother me that you're gay") and the closeted-defensive types have adopted that behavior too.
Will talks about chasing women and getting laid.	Will is actually interested in chasing women and getting laid.	No direct evidence of getting laid (just heresay) but that point is covered below. Closeted-defnesive gay men also exhibit this behavior as a cover-up.
Will leaves Skylar sitting alone in the bar for 45 minutes	He's lost in his world, his friends, or whatever.	He's really not interested.
Will says "5 minutes / I was going to come over to you at 12:15" to Skylar	Wants to make sure she knows he is interested.	Wants to make sure she (and more importantly, his friends) think he was interested.
Will gets Skylar's number, and shows off about it...	A good healthy hetersexual male ego.	Have to make sure everyone knows he's getting a girl's number. No-one would think he's gay.
... but then doesn't call Skylar for over a week.	Well, of course he's pretty busy getting arrested and all.	He's really not interested.
Will's line to Sean (Robin Williams) "Maybe you married the wrong woman"	Will is trying to find a way to piss off Sean.	Will has chosen to piss off Sean in a different way from how he pissed off the other shrinks — rather than challening Sean's sexuality directly, he chooses this subtle (but unmistakable) reference to the familiar "All you need to do is find the right woman". Will's choice of a less threatening and less direct method indicates that Will is giving Sean a better chance at learning the truth than he gave the other shrinks.
Sean's choice of Michelangelo as the only specific person he mentions in making his point about knowledge versus experience.	He chose it by chance, or because he (Sean) has in fact been to the Sistine Chapel.	A safe, nonthreatening way to use the words "sexual orientation", thereby making sure Will won't miss the meaning of the "truly happy" line that follows.
Sean's line to Will "... you've probably been laid a few times. But you don't know how it feels to wake up next to a woman and be truly happy."	Sean is telling Will he's just a kid, and (among other things) hasn't found a soulmate yet.	Sean is telling Will that he (Sean) thinks Will cannot be truly happy being next to a woman in bed.
Just after making the "truly happy" statement, Sean gets up and walks away.	As he said, Will has to make the next move, by starting to tell Sean about his life.	Sean needs to give Will "space" to avoid being too threatening after making this obvious statement questioning Will's sexuality.
Will tells Skylar "I don't love you"	He's not letting her "in"; he never lets anyone in. Perhaps also, he decided to drop her because she's not staying in Boston, or maybe he always drops women this way.	He was only interested in intellectual companionship, and perhaps a curious interest in the physical aspect of the relationship, but he'll never fall in love with a woman and he decides to be honest about it.
Will's final statement to Sean: "I have to go check up on a woman"	"I have to go tell her I was mixed up about not wanting to stay with her, and now I'm ready to be with her"	"I have to go tell her I was mixed up about wanting to date her, and the breakup wasn't her fault because I'm gay. Then I'll go get a job in San Francisco."

sobesednyk: (from Russian) the person with whom whom one is speaking (literally, "co-conversationalist")

Howl's Moving Castle (2004, Ghibli)

The Hearth Room

Most of the castle interior scenes are in the main room where Calcifer lives, which I am calling the "hearth room". We see it go through four different appearances:

[21:45] Original castle, "filthy" condition (as Sophie enters for the first time)

[34:00] Original castle, bright and clean (after Sophie has cleaned it out, while Howl is out fighting in the war)

[1:07:00] Original room, partly ruined after airplane crash (at 1:11:15 we also see that the back side of the room appears from outside to be about halfway up, inside the "mouth" of the castle)

[1:14:00] New castle, after Howl and Calcifer transform it to accommodate the growing "family"

[1:27:00] New hearth room after air raid bombs

[1:32:30] Inside ruins of the collapsed castle after Sophie takes matters into her own hands

[1:35:00] Inside new smaller castle (only lasts a minute)

[1:43:40] Only half of the floor left, with two legs (where the plot is resolved)

[1:48:25] Rear porch and yard of new flying castle

The Front Door

Through most of the movie the castle's front door acts as a sort of teleportation device. In addition to the physical outside of the moving castle (seen out the bathroom window and off the balcony), the door also permits access to two abandoned residences in the kingdom that have been enchanted to appear as if occupied by his aliases Jenkins and Pendragon.

Green: The Wastes (wilderness) wherever the castle happens to be at present
Blue: Porthaven (The Great Wizard Jenkins)
Red: Kingsbury, the royal city (Pendragon)
Black: Howl's magic portal to wherever he wants to go

At [1:04:55] we see that the Blue and Red links have been broken for entry from the outside.

At [1:14:00] Howl and Calcifer transform the castle and the front door links to two new places:

Yellow: Courtyard behind hat shop in Sophie's hometown
Red: Howl's childhood meadow hideaway
Green: The Wastes (seen at [1:29:15] just before Sophie decides to dismantle the castle)
Black: Howl's magic portal (assumed)

At [1:38:15] we see the front door is still intact in the second pile of Castle rubble, and Sophie uses it to visit Howl in his childhood.

Other Ideas

Howl can fly because of his link to Calcifer. After the curse linking Calcifer and Howl is broken, Calcifer can make the castle fly. It is unclear from the movie whether Howl can still fly.

Avatar (2009, 20^th Century Fox)

Two Annoyances

I'm not sure whether I fall into the "obsessive Ster Trek fan" category here, or perhaps just the "sane scientist", but I found two things annoying about Avatar:

Unobtanium seems like a distracting and ridiculous invention. Why not use some real, known natural resource? You could just say the Humans are trying to colonize the planet and they need iron to build more construction equipment.

The floating mountains are beautiful, but completely unbelievable.

Two Problems, Same Solution

I saw the following, asked of Jon Landau by Entertainment Weekly, and the answer was clear. See if you can guess:

Do the Na'vi need Unobtanium? Or is it just a rock to them?
"It's a rock to them," explains Jon Landau. "But it's also sort of what enables the floating mountains. They don't know that though [...]"

Floating unobtanium makes the answer pretty obvious. Think of the palm-sized lump of Unobtainium held by Selfridge (played by Giovanni Ribisi). After holding it up to make a point he puts it back in its normal spot, which is levitating above a sort of bowl-shaped metal base — a sort of executive desk paperweight or stress-reduction toy.

The palm-sized lump of Unobtainium is floating because it is a high-temperature or "room-temperature" superconductor. The base either also contains superconducting material, or an appropriate configuration of fixed magnets.

You may wish to check the superconductivity article on Wikipedia. You'll find that fixed magnets can float above a bowl-shaped superconducting base due to the Meissner effect. The floating object has to be a magnet, and the bowl-shaped base has to be superconducting — but otherwise, the setup is similar to Selfridge's paperweight.

Assuming poetic license or willful suspension of disbelief on the part of the viewer, I imagine that on Avatar, Unobtanium is superconductive, and the planet's surface either exhibits bowl-shaped irregularities the local magnetic field, or a layer of superconductive material (perhaps the mantle) which has bowl-shaped irregularities.

The formation of the floating mountains s then easily to visualize: They began as normal mountains, formed through plate uplift in the normal way. Then erosion wore away at the lower parts of the mountain more quickly (for any of the common geologic reasons) leaving just the upper parts of the mountains. The mountains stay floating because they contain enough superconducting material to be able to form a strong enough magnetic field to float. Most would form in regions where the supporting (planetary) magnetic field does not have a locally bowl-like shape, and those would simply drift in some direction or another until they hit ground again. But in rare cases, a local irregularity in the planetary magnetic field would allow floating mountains to remain in place for long periods of time.

Yep

After writing this I went on the Internet to see if anyone else had written similar things and indeed, it's exactly how Unobtanium is explained (here and here for example).

Also of Note

Avatar has presented a new challenge to my chart of movies ranked by all-time attendance. In the United States, exhibitors (theatres) report box office receipts but not the number of tickets sold. For most movies, it is easy to guess the average ticket price, based on an estimate of how many children and senior citizens (who routinely get discounts) will want to see the film. But for Avatar, there is a new variable related to 3-D exhibition. A large, but poorly-documented fraction of Avatar audiences are paying a significant (and almost as poorly-documented) premium to see the film in 3-D. Not knowing the ratio of 2-D to 3-D viewers has made it a bit difficult to place Avatar accurately on my chart. This issue is likely to be more common in the future, as other major films use the 3-D technology that has been around for over 50 years but has been brought thoroughly into the mainstream only this past year.

This page was written in the "embarrassingly readable" markup language RHTF, and was last updated on 2011 Jan 20.

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