Thursday, March 27, 2014

I Forgot to Remember to Forget:{4 tracks from the basement tapes}

This week's sepia saturday theme is around the sky & clouds.This is a photo-of-a-photo i took in a Military Museum in Carlise Castle last year.My Dad was in the Free Polish Air Force.He fought in The Battle Of Arnhem.I look at this image & wonder if he was one of those wee dots....?
Arnhem 1944
"You gotta quit kicking my dog around" Two different accounts of the origins of this song have been published. Alan Lomax published it as "The Hound Dawg Song" in his book, The Folk Songs of North America (1960), and suggests that the song's origins date back to the 1880s. Others have suggested the song was written by James A. Bland. Sources agree earliest recorded version was released by Gid Tanner and his Skillet Lickers in 1928. "I Forgot to Remember to Forget" "was made famous by Elvis Presley in 1955.This version bears little resemblance to Elvis's rendition"{from:wikipedia} The Act Of Killing is one the most important film I have ever seen.
I watched it on DVD a few days ago.
You really need to view it when you can. The gentle author was blown away.
Its the best surreally political film imaginable. Think : 'Yellow Submarine' combined with 'Apocalypse Now' ( some of the photography is pure Haight-Ashbury)
The 'plot' is far too complicated  to repeat here.
Just one little image.The main man in the movie is called Anwar.He is /was a gangster who personally killed approximately 1,000 people, usually by strangling with wire. He plays himself in this film! Because he was murdering 'Communists' for the Indonesian government & that government is still in power, he & they think him a hero still. ..imagine the Nazi's had won the war...& they had let Josef Mengele direct a musical about his life.... Anwar is given licence to produce & direct reconstructions of the murders he committed!
He loves Elvis Presley Films.A movie theatre in 1965 Indonesia was just across the road from where he executed political prisoners.So In between killing ,he would watch films to relax. Often he would saunter into the murder scenes still in 'Elvis Character' You can read[ here ]what OXFAM thought of the film.And here is the trailer for the movie......
On another level ,all old men do this. Reminiscing is done to convince yourself not others. When I go out drinking with my old schoolmates in Halifax (eg Phil the x-fireman & Ken) We are constantly rehearsing the past! Come to think of it, Anwar looks amazingly like another classmate we meet sometimes.take a bow,Stanley Brown !

The longest recording of the Basement Tapes, and often regarded as one of the highlights from the sessions.
Stan gets a medal!


13 comments:

Brian Miller said...

i need to find this movie and check it out....nice hit on that....interesting world it was in the midst of that picture as well...

Postcardy said...

It may be a good movie, but I don't like watching killing.

tony said...

Postcardy! Is isnt a 'good movie' Your Soooo wrong! No,It's a fucking awesome movie!Remember they killed wishy-washy Liberal like you (& me)He doesnt Kill anybody in the movie itself....He recreates the 1965 events in front of 2012 cameras (often with himself as 'victim')A surreal difference.We see him begin to learn Empathy for the first time .Who knows,a sequel may find him reading Deepak Chopra...... .

Rosie said...

A little too deep for me Tony, I'm a sort of "Pollyanna" type of gal anyways.

Tom said...

Herzog.. well I'm in, I love his stuff. This looks very disturbing, but I'll be on the lookout for it.

tony said...

It's disturbing but not because it graphic.Its more psychological than that.You dont actually see any physical violence...the film is about them (the gansters) dramatising their own violence. Although the bloke killed over 1000 people,he is very open in the film....at first glance he is rather charming.....its only when you look at him closely do you see his Road-Crash Soul.....Its not that he is full of bad things (eg "EVIL"?)The scariest thing is where his Emotions should be is a big hollow void.The absence of humanity is the scariest thing.....

Kristin said...

I have heard about this before, not sure if it was the same guy or others who had done the same. I most likely will not watch the movie, awesome and surreal as it may be. Absence of humanity is scary for sure.

Mike Brubaker said...

Great post, Tony. I heard a long interview about this movie and have tried to get onto my list to watch soon. Your description/review seems spot on and makes me want to bump it up to the top. I like your phrase - "We are constantly rehearsing the past!" That just how the world turns too.

Brett Payne said...

I am tempted to wonder if that conception of absence of humanity is lack of understanding of another culture, but this kind of horror one would have thought would scream right across such cultural barriers. I haven't seen it, but I've been too close to similar behaviour for comfort. Perhaps I won't watch it, even if I do come across it.

Alan Burnett said...

I hope it is inhumanity, but deep in the night, in the midst of a nightmare, I fear it might be humanity - the nature of human beings. When - and if - I do watch the film I know it will be a disturbing experience.

Unknown said...

I cannot remember the last time I heard "quit kickin' my dog around..." likely it was Elvis. I don't think that DVD or film would do me any good to watch.

Alex Daw said...

Being a bit of a film nut I will do my best to see that film and yes Alan, I share the same nightmare....Great photo Tony...very thought provoking and great material for reflection.

Tattered and Lost said...

Love that castle at Carlisle. Fascinating place.

I'll keep my eyes open for that film. I imagine one of the more adventurous channels such as Sundance might eventually show it.

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