Beautiful Trash
There’s nothing, in my opinion, quite like a plotless blow-up-the-city movie. One was on tonight: “Volcano,” in which Los Angeles has an earthquake, a nearby volcano explodes and huge balls of molten lava land all over the city. There may have been a plot when the story line, such as it is, was written, but I think it got lost in the lava flow and the buildings collapsing. All in all, lots of fun; Los Angeles never looked so good.
Right after that, AMC followed with “The Towering Inferno,” one of my favorite “who cares what the plot is, I just want to see the building burn” movies. Besides, Richard Chamberlain gets to fall 135 floors to his deservedly rotten death; he was responsible for the fire starting in the first place.
They’re ok for fiction, because you know nobody really gets hurt. At the end of the day, they go home and learn their lines for the next day’s filming. It doesn’t bother me when I see some guy catch fire trying to leave his apartment and then falling thru a window 81 floors to the sidewalk below. He gets paid, goes home and watches tv that night.
I also don’t mind The History Channel’s programs on the Chicago gangsters rubbing each other out. Yeah, they’re real people and, yeah, they died of “lead poisoning.” They got shot, blown up, whatever, but they were the worst of crooks who would kill anyone in an instant and it doesn’t bother me to see them sent off to face the Boss of Bosses.
What bothers me? Real people being killed in wars; people in poverty-stricken countries; people being oppressed by the super-rich; dirty, dirty election campaigns.
Right after that, AMC followed with “The Towering Inferno,” one of my favorite “who cares what the plot is, I just want to see the building burn” movies. Besides, Richard Chamberlain gets to fall 135 floors to his deservedly rotten death; he was responsible for the fire starting in the first place.
They’re ok for fiction, because you know nobody really gets hurt. At the end of the day, they go home and learn their lines for the next day’s filming. It doesn’t bother me when I see some guy catch fire trying to leave his apartment and then falling thru a window 81 floors to the sidewalk below. He gets paid, goes home and watches tv that night.
I also don’t mind The History Channel’s programs on the Chicago gangsters rubbing each other out. Yeah, they’re real people and, yeah, they died of “lead poisoning.” They got shot, blown up, whatever, but they were the worst of crooks who would kill anyone in an instant and it doesn’t bother me to see them sent off to face the Boss of Bosses.
What bothers me? Real people being killed in wars; people in poverty-stricken countries; people being oppressed by the super-rich; dirty, dirty election campaigns.
posted by Tom Carten at 11:47 PM
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