Clovis Chitwood Heavy Industries

What a weekend, two great movies, five great meals with friends and family, let’s see that was pizza, mexican, pizza, chinese, catfish, hmm. TACA, driving aimlessly around Nashville with a car full of buds, brainstorming spoof trailers. Yep good weekend. Now I’m doing a load of laundry so i don’t have to teach naked tomorrow., also need to shave so I don’t have to spend twenty minutes removing scraggly pathetic excuse for a beard facial hair in the morning.

Before I sign off I want to say something about Iron Man. I’ve read some criticism about it that I think is missing a crucial point.

For your consideration, a draft for a trailer for:

Plan 10 From Outer Space:
Super Discount Department Stores From Outerspace
Narrator in formal wear seated behind a desk

Greetings, my friend. You are interested in the unknown, the mysterious, the unexplainable. That is why you are here. We are giving you all the evidence, based only on the secret testimonies of the miserable souls who survived this terrifying ordeal. The incidents, the places, my friend we cannot keep this a secret any longer. Let us punish the guilty, let us reward the innocent. We are all interested in the past, for that is where you and I have spent most of our lives. And remember my friend, past events such as these have affected you in the past. Fifty years ago evil aliens fearful that we would develop technology that would threaten the whole solar system, tried to destroy mankind with Plan Nine. Plan Nine from Outer Space. Your brave countrymen thwarted Plan Nine and caused it to fail, but the aliens are not done yet. We may have defeated Plan 9 but are we ready for Plan 10 from Outer Space.  And now, for the first time, we are bringing to you the full story of what happened on that fateful day.  My friend, can your heart stand the shocking facts about discount department stores from outer space?

Fade to exterior shot of Space Station 7 which looks suspiciously like two breasts stuck together on a plate.

Fade to Interior of Ruler’s office on Space Station 7

Ruler
So you are the clone of Eros, you do not look like Eros

Eros
The cloning vats were imported from China, the inner lining was painted with lead paint.

Ruler
Yes, well we saved 40% by outsourcing our vat operations. Report on your operations on Planet Earth. These Earth people have proven troublesome.

Eros
Yes, Ruler these Earth people are absolutely impossible to work through, their souls are too controlled. We have contacted the Earth governments but they refuse to acknowledge our existence. Every overture is meet with violence and resistance.

Exterior shot of sky, hubcap and pie plate flying saucers on strings whirl through the sky.

Shots of missile barrages and military jets flying through the air.

Exterior shot of a Colonel and Captain standing side by side

Captain
Are you worried about them sir?

Colonel
Well they must be visiting for a reason.

Captain
Visits? Well that would indicate visitors. Are big guns the way to welcome visitors.

Colonel
We haven’t always fired on them.

Captain
Oh?

Colonel
First we tried to contact them by radio. To negotiate, but they went ahead and opened a discount department store in a town. A small town, I’ll admit, but nevertheless but a town filled with mom and pop shops. Shops who died.

Captain
Well I never heard about that sir.

Colonel
Well it was covered up by the higher echelon. Take any plant closing, layoff, bankruptcy any economic disturbance then wonder. Flying saucers, Captain are still a rumor, officially.

Cut to interior of Ruler’s office on Space Station 7

Ruler
Even after all of out activity?

Eros
Yes even after all of our past operations they still refuse to believe.

Ruler
Well no matter. Perhaps you will be more successful than your predecessor, now tell be about Plan 10

Eros
Plan 9…ah yes. Plan 9 deals with the resurrection of the dead department stores. Long-distance economic shots into the coffers of recent dead department stores. We will then dump cheap inferior products onto the market until all other methods of distribution havedried up. Then we will have them by the throat. You know, it’s an interesting thing when you consider…the Earth people, who can think, are so incapable of ignoring a bargain.

Ruler
It all sounds a little complicated, but it makes more sense than Plan 9.

Eros
Yes it is complicated, but this time it will work!

Did I mention I cut the grass this morning? Well I did, so that alone makes this Saturday more productive than most.

Shotgun Stories was fantastic. That’s two great movie in two days. A true southern movie. I have trouble finding words to describe this majestic piece of cinema. It explores southern pride, honor, sense of family and the need for revenge. It’s the story of two very sets of brothers. One fathered by a worthless drunk that did his son’s a favor by walking out on them. The other by a loving born again Christian. One that is barely scraping by the other moderately affluent by the community standards. Both extremely close. The only thing they share is a father. Who passes away at the beginning of the movie. Harsh words and injured pride set these two sets of brothers on a collision course for tragedy.

——————————Spoiler Alert————————————–

One thing I hate about writing reviews is that you have to watch what your saying. This is more of an analysis than a review so If you plan on seeing this stop here and come back after you’ve seen it.

One of the few things I remember from my formal literature classes is that there are two types of characters in literature. Static and dynamic. Static characters do not grow or change over the piece. Dynamic characters do. In great literature the main characters are supposed to be dynamic. It’s okay if the secondary characters all stay the same but the main characters should evolve, mature, grow. It’s interesting trying to fit Kid, Boy and Son, and the other set of brothers into this model. Who is static and who is dynamic. The other set of brothers are obviously static I don’t think there’s any argument there. Kid doesn’t get a change to mature or evolve. Boy tries to change, tries to become the avenger but reverts back to his earlier instincts. Son however appears to change.

At the beginning of the movie he is taciturn and level headed, but upon hearing about his fathers death he can’t remain silent. I imagine that he at first tries to let sleeping dogs lie, but like the good ole boy in the Jerry Clower joke about the guy writing people’s names in his little book, something in his craw won’t let him stay away from his fathers funerals and saying a few words that he knows will not be welcome. I admit I am basing this all on the fact that Kid, Boy and Son show up in the middle of the graveyard service in wholly, even in their financial straits, inappropriate attire. I read into this that it was a last minute decision. And wasn’t there a scene at the fish farm when Kid asks Son if he’s going to the funeral and Son replies that he doesn’t know?

You see him make the same effort after Kid’s death. Of course at first it appears like the score is even. An eye for an eye so to speak, but then they learn of the two younger brothers involvement in Kid’s death. Son tries to let it lie, but he can’t. Family honor and southern pride are two strong. He has to do something. Then he and Boy end up in the hospital.

A brief interlude from Son’s story to talk about Boy’s journey a little bit. Boy tries to take up the gauntlet, but doesn’t have the stomach for it. I don’t know if Boy just doesn’t have it in him to kill in cold blood or whether he’s able to see that these two sets of siblings are stuck in a negative feedback loop and that he’s willing to lay his life down to stop it if that what it takes. I think he’s somewhere in the middle. The second time he confronts the other brothers he’s counting on the fear of reprisal from Son, once he wakes from his coma, will keep him safe. Still he knows that unless something drastic is done this cycle of violence is not going to peter out on it’s own. Boy may not be able of blowing someone away in from of their children but he ain’t no pussy either. That preceding line sounds so silly but I’m not going to take it out. There is a whole lot of real estate between cold blooded killer and pussy, but that’s the kind of choice we are used to making about characters in your typical revenge flick.

Back to Son’s character arc. When Son comes out of his coma he goes home. He patches things up with Annie and she and his son move back in with him. He’s escaped from the trap of misplaced honor and the lust for revenge. Or has he. The more I think about it Son is the least changed character in the movie. The first thing we notice about Son is the scars on his back from a shotgun blast. We never learn exactly how he earned those scars. I suspect most people who see the movie believe that his father shot him. The most we really find out about them is that he got them protecting Kid and Boy. So the very first thing we notice about Son is a symbol of his willingness to lay down his life to protect his brothers, the only people he considers family, assuming this happened before Annie and him got together. The first things he does in the movie is invite Kid back into the house. Then he drives out to the damn and gives Boy the same offer. When the shit hits the fan need to defend his family’s honor and the lust for revenge tempt him but in the end has he really seen past this. Has that passion that moved him to strangle a sixteen or seventeen year old boy whithered away. Has he smothered the flames of hatred that his mother stoked from childhood. I don’t think that’s likely. I think those emotions are still there the only thing keeping them in check is the need to protect his family, which now includes his wife and probably more important in this respect his son. So he’s right back where he started from doing what ever he has to to protect his family. The first time around it was by taking a shotgun blast. This time it’s a metaphorical blast to his honor, but he’ll survive this blast just as he survived the previous blast. You have to wonder though what kind of scars will this blast leave. His physical scars he can cover up with a shirt. Will be be able to cover his new scars as easily.

Hello World, this isn’t going to be much of a greeting but I wanted to get something up, so here’s just a few thoughts, observations.

Iron Man rules. It absolutely rocks. It’s really selling it short just calling it a superhero movie. It’s one of the best action movies ever. I’m not saying it is the best but proably in the top twenty. Maybe even top five depending on what you include in the genre, but I’m not going that far out on a limb until I see it again and let it kind of settle into the muck.

Well that’s really all I got time for. I’ve got to get ready and go meet The Mysterious Lackeys. We are heading out to Comic City for Free Comic Book Day. The Nashville Roller Girls will be there, yee ha. Then we are heading to TACA, I need some homemade soap. Then Shotgun Stories at the Belcourt and hanging out at Fido’s probably. Hopefully we will run into Deb and/or Fred and Stephanie.

Not much of a debut but it’s all I got time for now.

Till next time, remember cover and concelment are not synonyms.