Friday, March 06, 2009
World Builder
[Video Link] World Builder is a short film by Bruce Branit. It's a love story about a man who creates a holographic world for the woman he loves.
This is one of the best short films I've ever seen.
HT: Neatorama
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Brilliant little film. I browsed around online, and it looks like the creator -- a visual fx guy by trade -- spent a day filming the actors and then spent two years in post-production. I think it was well worth the effort.
In the way a simple, touching story was conveyed without words, it reminded me of Pixar's short films, and the fact that a story can resonate emotionally despite completely artificial environments -- or, in Pixar's case, artificial characters -- drives home how much of an opportunity was wasted with the Star Wars prequels.
--
Anyway, the real, completely off-topic reason I'm visiting and commenting, John, is that I saw you mention Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism at another blog.
Someone else there denounced Goldberg as either an idiot or a liar, but I don't think that's a fair analysis, nor do I think that he's a credible and fair-minded voice. Besides, Goldberg's a somewhat high-profile writer whose book offered a controversial thesis about liberalism: if the book was as poorly researched and as poorly argued as he claimed, the Left online would have torn Goldberg apart, but it's been a year and, as far as I can tell, that never happened.
Personally, I couldn't recommend the book more highly for an overview of where we are and how we got here. It wouldn't sound like it at first, but I think it's an excellent companion to Mark Steyn's America Alone: Steyn shows the demographic and national-security hazards that attend a "progressive" government where the state takes on an unconstrained role in our lives, and it's clear that there is quite a bit of overlap between what Goldberg writes about the general tendencies of fascism and jihad.
It's not a foundational book about what we believe, but the difference between modern American (Buckleyite/Reaganite) conservatism and modern American "progressive" liberalism is outlined, if you look for it.
Reaganism is about defending individual freedom and traditional institutions. Progressivism is ultimately opposed to both -- or, at best, is willing to keep both around as long as they can be used to advance their agenda. Reaganism tries to balance the tension between traditionalism and libertarianism. Progressivism is radical and collectivist, and it ultimately supports a totalitarian (i.e., "all-encompassing") secular religion of the state.
Just yesterday, Jonah Goldberg blogged about the "American right, which (broadly speaking) believes in limited government, free markets and traditional values (tenets loathed by fascists)."
Note that what we support most strongly, was loathed by fascists and is still opposed by liberals. That's not to say that the two groups are identical -- and Goldberg is clear and emphatic about this point in his book -- but it's not a coincidence that there's ideological overlap, since the two share historical roots.
It's a good book, John.
Thanks for the recommendation, Bubba. I think that I'll move it up higher on my book list. I read Goldberg whenever he writes a new column, so I figure that it will probably be interesting.
Post a Comment