DVD Review - District 13

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the plot of District 13 (original French title Banlieue 13) is a little more interesting than the average martial arts action flick. Not that its Seven Samurai or anything of that calibre, but nevertheless there is a concerted effort to touch on several resonant themes. Foremost of those is the divide between rich and poor, or perhaps more specifically, the middle-class and the underprivileged.

District 13 itself is a walled off area of an alternate Paris, set in 2010 (remember this film is from 2004, so that was still a little way off then rather than a few months). The reason for this isolation is a rising crime rate which the authorities are unable to deal with: instead, they shut themselves off, hoping to restrict criminal elements to containable ghettoes.

The BBC World Service recently ran a program on South Africa as part of its 'Islands' series, with a focus on the rise of high-security residential compounds. This in effect creates 'islands' cordoned off from the world outside, a perhaps understandable action in as dangerous a place as South Africa.

On the other hand, as the presenter discussed, this has unpleasant echoes of apartheid. Rather than attempting to integrate, those who can afford to simply disengage, hiding from their erstwhile neighbours out of fear for their property and their lives.

I can entirely sympathise with that attitude, having been a victim of crime myself a few times, but it does raise those uncomfortable questions: is the best way to deal with crime to try and shut out the poor who are perceived as responsible, or is this giving up on society?

District 13 explores that question through the character of Leito (played by David Belle) a resident trying to do the right thing. He wants to clear his area of drugs and crime, but gets no help from the outside world: police stations and schools have been closed down. As he says later in the film, "is it my fault I was born here?" Leito and the rest of district 13 have been condemned to poverty and crime, without even the possibility of one day escaping through education. Clearly the filmmakers are trying to make a point, as becomes ever clearer as the plot unfolds.

Social commentary aside, this is an action film, and a beautifully choreographed one at that. It is French, and perhaps unsurprisingly, therefore benefits from the French sport of parkour, also known as free running. David Belle demonstrates his mastery of parkour early on (he happens to be the guy who invented it in the first place), with a chase scene reminiscent of that other major exhibition of free running two years later, Casino Royale (featuring another of parkour's founders, Sébastien Foucan).

Alongside Leito, another acrobatic protagonist is introduced, this time a policeman, Captain Damien Tomaso. The man of law is just as talented as the man of the street, though his training is more clearly in martial arts rather than parkour. The actor who plays him, Cyril Raffaelli (also credited as the film's choreographer, something he's done plenty of times before), is somebody I recognised from an excellent Jet Li film, Kiss of the Dragon. He is just as good in this, flipping and kicking his way through hordes of assailants.

That also sets up the old dynamic between the law-abiding cop and his streetwise guide through the world of the ghetto. Equally clichéd is the use of the Ultimate Fighting Championship as the epitome of violence, a rather outdated concept by this point. Admittedly, the clip they show the head antagonist watching is one of the most violent moments in UFC history, when Tank Abbott knocked out Steve Nelmark in Ultimate Ultimate '96.

District 13 delivers not one but two impressively talented physical performers in roles that fully explore their abilities. Great action sequences and a bit of social commentary make for an entertaining watch. Definitely worth your while.

DVD Review - Animalympics

Like most people who at all rate this film, I've loved Animalympics since my childhood. It has become something of a mythical film for me because I've never found it on DVD. At least, until 2007: that year it was released in Germany (where it is called Die Dschungel-Olympiade, which translates - as you've probably guessed - to 'The Jungle Olympics'). It has both English and German audio, so for those of you who don't speak German, don't worry. ;)

Probably the main three things of note are that it features Billy Crystal's voice talents, music from Graham Gouldman (of 10cc fame) and the director was the same guy who did Tron, Steven Lisberger. The interview with him (looking very hirsute) on the DVD is especially interesting. It reveals just how much work went into the film, not to mention skill. Lisberger frequently laments how pen and ink is a lost art in today's world of digitally enhanced animation.

Originally the intention was to produce a series of short clips for the Olympics coverage in the US. Each clip featured various animals competing in the related events, providing plenty of comic potential. Lisberger's company was also going to provide the title animations for the various events.

Unfortunately, President Carter announced that due to the invasion of Afghanistan the previous year, the US would be boycotting the 1980 Moscow Olympics. It was a crushing blow for Lisberger, whose short animations now had no accompanying broadcast. The clips didn't go to waste, instead being strung together into a feature-length animation, but it was very much a case of right place, wrong time.

The songs are just as great as I remember, and the animation remains beautiful. Graham Goldman ranges from disco funk to ballad, each song naturally backed by animation. In effect, this was an early example of the music video, and for many the soundtrack LP was a disguised 10cc album (though Goldman never acknowledged it as such).

It would be interesting to know would might have happened if the Olympics hadn't been boycotted that year: this could have been a big success. As it was, Animalympics has become more of a cult film than an aging blockbuster.

Book Review - The Saga of the Renunciates

A number of Marion Zimmer Bradley's books have been bound up into omnibus editions, one of which has been entitled The Saga of the Renunciates, consisting of three books written from 1976 up until 1984. It builds upon the rather more snappily named Sisterhood of the Sword, and given my feminist inclinations, I was looking forward to reading these.

The Shattered Chain is the first book in the trilogy introduces the two central characters, Jaelle and Magda/Margali, along with some background for the former. It also marks the first lengthy description of the Dry-Towns (at least in terms of Darkovan chronology).

The trilogy as a whole is MZB's most concerted effort to explore the issues of feminism and female oppression in Darkover up until that point, though she had previously engaged in single volumes such as Hawkmistress! and Two to Conquer.

The book also marks the first extended narrative inclusion of Terrans within their own milieu - Two to Conquer had previously featured a displaced Terran, but now we can see Terrans operating from their own spaceport.

A less pleasant aspect of the plot is that it appears to engender a rather derogatory parallel to Islam, as the women of the Dry-Towns are clearly situated within an Arabic civilisation, but kept literally in chains. While MZB may not have intended the comparison, it is an inevitable one - the Dry-Towners are shown are irredeemably chauvinistic, brutally enslaving the women of Dry-Town society to forever wear chains in symbolic acceptance of their submission.

Nevertheless, the way in which the book manages to weave together three disparate sections into a cohesive whole is enjoyable, and it performs its job of setting up the next two books admirably.

The second book in the Saga of the Renunciates, Thendara House contains both good and bad elements of MZB's concern with gender issues.

On the plus side, we see an in depth look at the combined Sisterhood of the Sword and Priestesses of Avarra, whose coming together was implied in Two to Conquer. They have now become the Free Amazons, or Renunciates, less a military than a female collective of various professionals. Midwives and mercenaries provide the most powerful characters, as the women from The Shattered Chain are found once more, older and increasingly detailed.

However, on the down side the characters seem to often become mere mouthpieces for MZB's didactic intrusions, which while interesting as polemic sit uneasily within a fantasy novel. These work much better when MZB wove them into the plot and the characters, which she also does here, but there are a number of long dialogues which have the feeling of an essay plonked uncomfortably into the middle of a fantasy novel.

Still, Jaelle and Magda draw upon your affections, and you can't help but feel some small emotion for the increasing difficulties of their trials.

City of Sorcery is the final volume in the Saga of the Renunciates takes a different route, which starts off promisingly. The plot is 'suggested by', MZB tells us, Talbot Mundy's The Devil's Guard, written in 1926. Not having read that novel, I can't say how much she takes from Mundy, but it appears to have been a useful style manual - the structure of City of Sorcery is noticeably improved from some of MZB's earlier books.

However, I found the 'mystical order of priestesses' readers will recognise from The Mists of Avalon a bit annoying in their nebulous 'spirituality', not to mention the levels of power MZB seems to attribute to them.

In her defence, it may be that such devices seem triter with the unfortunate rise of 'New Age' charlatans - in The Mists of Avalon, it is entirely in keeping with the plot and feel of that novel. Nevertheless, having read The Shattered Chain and Thendara House, this is a continuation of Jaelle and Magda's journey, and anyone who felt themselves becoming attached to the struggles of those characters will not be disappointed by this final instalment.

Book Review - The Left Hand of Darkness

I picked up this book while looking through the university library a few years ago for some Fritz Leiber, and it proved well worth the read.

The story is atmospheric and magnificently written, providing a discussion of sexuality and gender along with political intrigue. The structural devices used by Le Guin are also interesting, as she intersperses the main plot with short chapters featuring 'historical' accounts, myths, and even scientific treatises on the people of Winter, all adding to the believability and scope of this book.

However, I found that my interest flagged somewhat during the extended trek across the ice (though it should certainly prove of interest to anyone keen on exploration and the like), and I was also disappointed that while the Gethenians are supposed to be asexual neuters, they still come across largely as male.

Partly this is because Le Guin chooses to use the male pronoun for convenience, but also because the characters seem to be written in a masculine mode. Of course, that may simply be my reading, and it is arguable that this in itself raises various questions about gender.

It didn't fulfill my expectations on that score, but as a whole, The Left Hand of Darkness is clearly a novel by a major writer at the very height of her powers, exploring a very intriguing concept.

Book Review - Shapechangers

Roberson’s style is rather hackneyed, with the grammatical torture that can occur in fantasy when an author is trying too hard to make her characters sound authentic.

The dialogue is therefore awkward in parts, and the attempts at developing an archaic mode of speech can make the distinctions between the main cast blur.

Nevertheless, Roberson does manage to inject some deeper issues, as one major topic of the book is genocide, which is a point in her favour. Unfortunately, another is the very clichéd concept of a main protagonist held firm by a ‘mysterious’ prophecy, and Roberson allows herself to stumble into the ‘noble savage’ archetype.

In general a rather average read, though in Roberson's defence this was written early in her career - no doubt she improved in her later books.

Book Review - Heirs of Hammerfell

This volume has the slightly predictable premise of noble twins separated shortly after birth, who then rediscover each other years later and find themselves vying for the same inheritance. The lack of remorse for the dead is also unconvincing at times, though this is something common to much fantasy fiction, as the genre often demands great loss of life through epic battle without much time given over to length descriptions of grief (which admittedly could become painfully dull).

The book in general didn't grip me in quite the same way as the others I've read thus far, though there was an attempt at some socio-economic discussion, with historical resonance in England at least (probably elsewhere too, but being UK educated, I'm not too up on the economic history of other countries...:p).

There is also a small amount of gender issues, but unfortunately not to the same level as in a book like Two to Conquer. Nevertheless, Heirs of Hammerfell remains an enjoyable short piece of fantasy fiction, and sticks to a classic formula - not quite up to Bradley's highest standards, but MZB's not-quite-best is still better than many other writers of the genre.

Book Review - Two to Conquer

This book makes for uncomfortable reading at first, because the main character is an unrepentant rapist. Worse still, he has the ability to force women to yield their bodies to him while mentally aware of the act, leading to extremely unpleasant descriptions of the helpless victim weeping in fear and shame but unable to resist due to the laran compulsion ('laran' is basically MZB's version of ESP). Fortunately, the rapist does pay for his many and horrible crimes, but I won't spoil it for you by saying how. :)

The plot necessarily involves several aggressive sexual encounters, which are made slightly more palatable by the fact it is a female author writing - but only slightly. It was somewhat disturbing reading them, but this was at least partially mitigated by the rapist's punishment.

The plot is engaging, with a Terran teleporting over into the story, which does add yet another layer to the usual high suspension of disbelief required in fantasy, but Bradley handles the plot device well, and it doesn't take up too much of the book - the writing is mainly concerned with the central character, Bard, and his development as a military leader.

So far, I'd say this was probably the most interesting of the four Darkover books I've read up to this point, so would recommend it with the warning that rape is a central part of the novel.