Review: The Boys from Brazil

The Boys from Brazil by Ira Levin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



It happens that the public library of Alkmaar owns a few English books that have been turned into a feature movie. This process from turning a written text into a visual medium has my interest as I hope to learn from others to apply it for myself.
It is my luck that I recently saw the movie "The boys from Brazil" and when I discovered the book - written by Ira Levin - in the library I knew I had to read it.
Mind you, I am not going to take you through a point by point comparison. While this might be of interest to me, this is probably not of interest to you and as such this is not the place for it. Besides, it would require a lot more space and time then I am willing to take up and want to invest. And, as suggested, it might also be of interest to a very small group of people.
This book is in conspiracy thriller. It is the kind where a nefarious organization is planning something bad for the world and only a few 'good' men are willing and able to oppose it. The authorities are ineffectual in these kind of books, either because they don't believe in the conspiracy, are part of it or just too impotent to do anything about it. So it is left to the individual hero to stand up and thwart the bad guys.
In this book the hero it Yakov Liebermann, an aged jewish nazi hunter who is well past his prime. It is the seventies now and a new generation is growing up. The second world war has been over for thirty years and other wars caused the interest in the nazis to fade away. There Vietnam; there is the conflict between the Israel, the Palestinians and the Arab countries; there is the cold war. The world has changed.
Liebermann is an unusual hero, as he is old and has fallen on hard times. But he gets involved nevertheless when he gets a call from Brazil from a young man who is subsequently murdered. The man mentions one name that peeks Liebermann's interest. That is the name Mengele. The Nazi doctor who misbehaved at Auschwitz and is hiding out somewhere in South America.
The investigation then goes underway as Liebermann slowly starts tp uncover the plot. He is however not without help. A lot of people still respect him or feel obliged to help him. With the assistance of these and others he finds out what is behind 'the boys from Brazil'.
The story is an interesting one and although the conspiracy is a bit improbable, it isn't so improbable as to be impossible like other conspiracy are.
What for me makes this book interesting is the way Ira Levin writes. At first I thought he couldn't write proper English, but it seems that he pictures himself how Yakov would have spoken English and thus his English sounds a bit awkward, because Yakov is Austrian. He often uses that in case of for instance Mengele. Although they think and speak in English, they are expressing themselves in a way a foreigner would. Not exactly right.
The writing is also low on explicit violence. While the plot necessarily requires a lot of deaths, these are mostly mentioned or implied. In fact there are only a few described killing scenes.
But probably the best reason are they way he sets up and describes some of the key moments in the story. There is one where Mengele finds out that his plan is going awry. He is good spirits, boisterous, pleasant and then, when he finds out something has gone wrong, the mask comes off and he becomes a violent man.
Also the climatic scene at the end where Mengele and Libermann confront each other is brilliantly setup.
Now to be honest, I have been influenced by the movie. Levin's Liebermann doesn't look at all like Laurence Olivier does in the movie. And every time the image of Olivier set itself over that of Ira Levin's Liebermann in the book.
This even more goes for Gregory Peck, who just dominates the movie as Mengele and thus is the Mengele from the book. The final confrontation in the book is one that occurs between Peck and Olivier.
Now a final note on some of the differences between the book and the movie. There aren't that many, the movie is recently loyal to the book.
However, in the movie Liebermann investigates more or less without many outside help, while in the book he does get help from people. And, as said before, in the book the killings and the killers are mostly mentioned in a offhand manner, while they take some more precedence in the movie.
There is one more thing that makes a difference between the book and the movie. The book works out the plot and the confrontations much better and that is not strange as a book can just take more time to set these things up. What in the movie looks like strange random meetings, is logically setup in the book.
I liked the book and would recommend it if you like conspiracy stories or like to see how books are turned into movies. Ira Levin has a writing style you have to get used to, but once you understand it is a good read.

www.meritcoba.com












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State of Decay: Lifeline

Heading towards trouble.

Overview of the game

I noticed that a certain morbid humor surfaces in State of Decay at times, like the one you can see on the screenshot above or in the graffiti on one of the walls of the base like in the picture below.  The top picture is from the downloadable content(DLC) Lifeline and we are driving towards the zombie infested city of Danforth. 

To keep you in the spirit of things.

Lifeline puts you in the combat boots of the military.  You know, those guys that didn't come across too well in the original game. If they weren't actually the cause of the zombie apocalypse then they certainly could be accused of abandoning the inhabitants of Trumbull Valley (and some of their comrades) to the fate.  Now you  get a chance at  their vindication. 

The add on Lifeline comes with a new map. It is the city of Danforth 

Map of Danforth

Not that you are going to go into the city itself. The red areas are inaccessible, so the map consists mostly of the road around the city and some areas next to it. It is small, certainly as compared to the original game map.

The ring around Danforth. It will be full of hordes later in the game.

Danforth skyline. Oh so quiet.

But while the map is smaller Lifeline cranks up the pressure. From the start you are thrown into the action, not unlike the original game or the previous DLC breakdown, but Lifeline doesn't let up. The game opens with your first character, commander Hawkes, accompanied by two soldiers on a road facing a dozen zombies. And once they are disposed of you are immediately ordered to hurry towards your base to take control of Greyhound One which is about to be swarmed by zombies.

Greyhound One.

After that the game keeps you on your toes by throwing waves of zombies against your base  and each attack increases in intensity. Next to normal zombies, you will be facing  more and more special zombies, called freaks.

And in between these attacks you have to rescue citizens and stray soldiers, gather supplies, build up your base and rescue high value assets.  And since there is a shortage of men and time, you sometimes have to face a choice. Will you rescue a citizen or will you gather supplies?

In the meantime the zombie threat escalates and the zombies grown in number and ferocity throughout the area. You will value your outposts and your Molotovs, which are sometimes the only way to save a citizen or soldier who is being swamped by zombies. Yes, you might have to set them on fire on purpose.

Your base. It looks pretty empty.

There is a small story line available in lifeline and it even gives you different options to end the game. 

Did he say 'nuclear'?

Yeah, I hear you talking.

. 

Criticism of Lifeline: bugs bugs bugs.

A special part for criticism of Lifeline? Well yes, and not because I dislike the game or find it short, which was to be expected of a DLC, but what annoyed me to no small extent were the bugs, some of which were pretty game spoiling.

An example of  this is when during the story line you have to rescue two ladies and then escort them to a house to retrieve some notes. This house is infested and you have to clear out the zombies. I knew this because I had this done in a previous game. What happened however was that the infestation had moved to a house next door for some reason. So I decided to clean that one to finish the mission, but the two ladies refused to come along. So I decided to attack the house with some reinforcements I had called up. I was halfway in when I noticed that the ladies were being attacked and didn't fight back. They died making me fail the mission.

There are many more little annoying bugs. Like you can call reinforcements, a feature that costs a pretty amount of influence, but this failed to deliver three out of five times.  Another bug is the issue where a NPC(non player character) refuses to sit in a car. Yet another is when your NPC doesn't fight and just stands around. 

A more annoying bug was that Vienne Cho in most of my games never appeared on the map. Another bug is that I had Sasquatch disappear after I finished his story line.

Verdict of Lifeline

 I liked lifeline because it put a new twist on the game and makes for a new experience even though 

it is short lived. It is fun to try it a few times to improve your tactics and explore the few options.  

Game spoiler(tactics)

Once you equip your men with grenade launchers, you basically can keep playing the game indefinitely because NPCs never run out of ammo and since there are five or six grenade launchers available you can equip the bulk of your men with them(if you don't put any effort in recruiting new ones) and have them wipe out the waves of zombies. The only time you actually have to intervene is when Big Uns attack as the NPC grenade launchers don't seem to have an effect on them. 

If all else fails:

Sucker Punch: Angel

I couldn't resist to combine this sequence from Sucker Punch to Angel by Massive Attack. Notice the edits. We configured it to have the music match what you see.
Edits done by Taubie.

Henry and Kristl witnessed The Trial (1962)

"Nowadays you can hardly say anything against Orson Welles without
invoking scorn and ridicule," Kristl mused.

"You were going to?"

"Not on purpose, but I feel a bit apprehensive about it. I mean you
have a certain amount of leeway towards almost any other director,
except for Welles.. You have to say he was a great guy.."

"Pff.." Henry said.

"Yeah."

"You do not have to, with me," Henry said.

"Thanks."

"So, I think it is an old boring slow moving that is a bit confusing,
to say the least," Henry said.

"You think so?"

"I mean, black and white in 1962," Henry said.

"Uh, well..is that such a big thing?"

"Yeah.. and no action."

"Okay..I feel compelled to come to the defense of this movie."

Henry smiled, but he hid his smile behind his hand and pretended to
take sip from his tea, "Hot," he remarked.

"Regardless of anything it's at least a decent film, although it seems
to be all over the place," Kristl said.

"It looks like someone pasted a lot of 'scenes' together without much
sense and pawned it off as a coherent movie," Henry said.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"It seems to be quite true to the book.. which means that any coherence
in the movie, or any incoherence for that matter, must stem from the
book," Kristl said.

"Then the books must be a bit of a confusing mess," Henry said.

"Maybe, but I liked the movie, you know. It was surreal, strange and
unsettling. Which seems appropriate to me.."

"Right."

"For the Kafka story that is."

"Oh, did you read it by the way?"

"No," Kristl shook her head.

"Me neither."

"I think that goes for most of the audience," Kristl said.

"Yeah. So how you know it is fitting?"

"Well, other people say so that it is. Except for the ending. Which was
thought off by Orson Welles. He felt it to be more appropriate. It seem
to have to do with the holocaust. I am not quite sure. Seems more that
the end is fitting to a cold war."

"Yeah. But anyway, too old a movie for me really," Henry said.

"I think it's a good movie, but not astounding. Perkins is such a
dubious choice. At times he is really excellent, but at other times he
seems to be a poor choice. He has these wild mood swings. He constantly
hovers between assertive and dejected. It's just odd how he swings from
one attitude to the opposite."

"Heh."

"And there seems to be no development in his character. He just seems
to go from one mood to the other depending on what is fitting for the
scene at the moment. So there seems to be no humanit that drives him,
just like: in this scene he should be angry and in this scene he should
be desperate."

"Ah."

"It is just a bit to fabricated. A very nice fabrication, but a
fabrication nevertheless."

"Like most movies."

"Yup. Did you know someone made a sequel to the trial?"

"Yes I did. Will Eisner made one called the Appeal. In it justice is
done."

"Oh you know.."

"Hey it's a comic. It was Eisner responding to Kafka. While Kafka
painted a surreal world in which a man was the victim of soulless
bureaucracy, Eisner seems to say that in a democratic society 'they'
would not get away with it in the end."

"Maybe someone should make a movie about that?" Henry said.

"Maybe someone will."

www.meritcoba.com

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057427/reviews-108

Empathic Eccentricia: Failing/Fallen words

Dreams in Neon

Dreams in Neon

Recommend to set it to HD^^

Dreams in Neon is a movie made at Insilico in Second Life. Insilico is a vast place covering several so called 'sims' all done in a cyberpunk, near-futuristic style. Music is Max Waves, called Twareg Rose and made for it. Well that is my opinion. P

Well actually I had reserved the music with the idea of using it in a kind of vampire the masquerade: bloodlines way. That is a game in which you have to travel through sewers at one time and far of you hear the sound of chinese/japanes singing. Very eerie.

Henry and Kristl enter the Mists of Avalon (2001)

"So ever read the book?" Henry asked, "Seems like the kind of book you
would have read, in your days..."

Kristl frowned, "My days? Sounds like I have outlived my shelf live. "

"Eh.. Well I mean, from when you were younger. When you read these
books. Fantasy and such."

Kristl gave Henry a look, "Gosh, you are starting to scare me."

"Scare you?"

"Well, you are actually right, I have not read much fantasy for a long
time. I got a bit tired with the copy and paste books that flooded the
market. And we did not have the internet then to figure out the good
from the bad. Or even the mediocre from the bad. You had to read the
blurb and page through the book. Hundreds of them."

"See.. I can listen," Henry smiled sanguinely.

"Oh.. ah.. Well, we might even make a good woman out of you yet."

"Let's not go overboard now."

"But the answer is no. I picked it up once as it had intriguing cover
of a woman riding a horse and holding something up. A staff I think.
Like a magic user."

"And?"

"I gave it a try but never got past the first few pages. Perhaps I had
lost interest in the whole Arthur legend at that time. The Arthur
legend was another dead horse that was beaten ad nausea."

"But did you read it , Henry?" Kristl asked.

"Nuu.. Fantasy is not my kind of thing."

"So what do you think of this women movie."

"Well.. it is a bit quaint."

"Quaint?" Kristl said.

"Well it was nice to see eh the woman side of it all, but it was kind
of uneventful."

"No kick ass girls in this one."

"And full of 'functional' sex and even incest. I mean. It was as if the
whole woman side of the Arthur legend consisted of scheming,
backstabbing, incest and sex."

"Apparently."

"I wonder if it was written by a man.. a misogynistic one, " Henry
said.

Kristl laughed, "I was told Marion Zimmer Bradley was a woman. Perhaps
the book gives a more favorable angle on the story. Turning a book into
a movie usually means that the story has to be condensed and suffer."

"Yeah."

"I wonder if you can follow the story if you do not have some
background information. Like it is never quite explained why Lot hates
Arthur."

"Some things are also strange. Like when Uther Pendragon sneaks into
the castle of Gorlois, disguised as Gorlois, and beds Igraine she gets
knocked up and then marries Pendragon, " Henry said.

"Hmm," Kristl said.

"Strange is also the decision of Morgause to spare Mordred. She first
wants to kill him when he is a newborn baby but when the delirious
Morgaine blurts out he is actually Arthur's son, she spares him..But
why? They say that when Arthur has no sons, they are next in line for
the throne. So why let Mordred live?"

"I got the feeling that much what was in the book could not be put into
the movie and thus we lack events that probably would make the story
more 'sensible'," Kristl said.

"Another strange thing is the passivity of Morgaine. I mean it seems
like almost everything is happening to her and she is a bit helpless in
the face of it. Like oh, right I am taken away to this Island to become
a priestess. Oh right, I have to have sex with this guy in some ancient
ritual. Oh right, I am to be married off to king Uriens."

"Oh wow, that was one of the dumbest scene ever. Arthur discussing with
Uriens to arrange for a wedding and then when they ask Morgaine if she
wants to marry this 'royal person' from Wales, they forget to mention
that is was the father Uriens they meant and not his son. That was so
lame. As if such political decisions were done in such a offhand
manner. I would grant that Morgaine would probably have had no choice,
but the movie suggests it was a mistake and that she could not back out
after it had been arranged for fear of Uriens losing face."

"So?" Henry said.

"To wrap it up?" Krisl queried.

"Still a reasonable movie to watch, I think. Just for the story line."

"And the acting is decent. Not very good, but passable."

"Yeah. But the fighting and magic is lame. It is as if people are
afraid of hurting each other. And that absurd way of fighting of
Mordred. Did he travel to China to learn that tactic?" Henry said and
continued, "And did it not strike you as odd that Morgaine at one time
suddenly became this killer fighter? Throughout the whole movie we see
her never touch a sword and then when she gets ambushed she kills half
a dozen of these Saxon raiders. Wow. Way to go girl."

"I think fighting came natural to women in those days. Men had to work
hard for it," Kristl smiled.

"Yeah.. right. As 'natural' as in that women always hit something when
they park their cars backwards."

"Not much of a 'skill'. And not true at all. A fable. A persistent
recurring one. I wonder if we are still claimed to bump into things
while parking when flying spacecrafts."

"Well fables tend to linger on.. so I guess you are stuck with it one
way or another. It just morphs into something new."

"And no doubt we will be seeing another Arthur legend.. maybe next time
it will be about gay relations."

"Or aliens."

"Or gay aliens."

"Now that is an idea."