This week, we had an extremely special guest on the show. A writer who goes by the name of TheJamesMadison over at Ace of Spades reached out and mentioned that our friend Christian Toto had recently interviewed him and, well, a friend of Christian’s is a friend of ours.
It turns out that this attitude is very beneficial. David Vining was an absolute pleasure to interview. A knowledgeable fellow on not only individual films, but whole entire genres and — perhaps most importantly — cinematic context. He is interested in the reasons for making things, whether they appeal to everyone or to specific audiences; and how they function within their parameters.
It was a pleasure to talk with him about the qualities of a political film, and what films should people revisit. He should come back. If you want to read a bit of what he’s written over at AofS, here’s an excerpt from a piece he wrote examining John Carpenter’s films:
Cynicism and Nihilism
If I had to boil down Carpenter’s entire filmography into two words they would be nihilism and cynicism. Carpenter’s heroes tend to be cynics who don’t believe in anything. They’re often cut off from their past, unable to connect with anything that could provide them with any larger meaning. Mac The Thing is a drinker who destroys the chess computer he’s playing against when it wins (and during the first goddamn week of winter, no less) and has no real connections to the other men in the Antarctic research station. John Trent The Mouth of Madness is an insurance investigator who believes that everyone’s lying all the time. Snake Plissken is the Escape movies is a former war veteran (the youngest man decorated by the president) who turned to robbing the federal reserve because nothing matters anymore.They aren’t the heros of your typical blockbuster. These are largely cynical nihilists, people who believe in nothing, feel that nothing matters, and think that there’s nothing more important than the here and now. These aren’t the kind of heroes that general audiences want. These aren’t clear-eyed men fighting for freedom, apple pie, and grandma. They are fighting for their own interests, perhaps finding something worth looking into, but ultimately realizing that not even their personal relationships can overcome the terrible world they live in.
He also has a book called “The Sharp Kid” available at Amazon. And if you like a good western (looking at you, fans of “Tombstone”), it could be for you:
The 1880s Missouri was a time when gangs and civilisation merged, as well as the Civil War’s scars. Cal Braden, 16, joins his father for a trip of train robbery with the promise that he will find a better life in San Francisco. But promises are cheap, as cheap as iron, and it’s a question of whether they’ll ever be able to get out of the life of criminality they’ve decided to take up.
If you thought you understood “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” (trailer below) as simply a well-made western, you may want to rethink it as a political masterpiece. David will tell you why. Simply press play.
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