I agree completely. The crew were just as hot and frustrated, I'm sure, but also had to put up with Jack. Still, during their contemporary interviews, they seemed incredibly repentant about any malicious intention they had at the time. I wonder why?
The movie really raises so many questions more than it answers, but, as I just blathered about in another post, I have concluded that this was just what had to happen for this movie to be of any general interest. I would love a 800 page biography of Jack, with half of that devoted to that shoot, but most of the world probably isn't that obsessed.
I suspect some of these questions I have have been answered during Q&As both with Jack and others. I know the entire original crew, minus Jack, attended a screening in Minneapolis this summer, and did a Q&A. And Jack as done many, many of them, though his answers are just as vague and rambling, and filled with as much of that unoriginal and irrelevant political ranting.
BTW I agree with you on that point about his politics and views--I don't find the specifics of what he says at all interesting or relevant; it's his overall personality that I am attracted to. His views fit in with that. It fills him out as a person. But the details don't mean much to me.
Jack reminds me so much of my father. Most of what he said, when he started pontificating on the state of the world, was completely irrelevant and forgettable also. But hearing him say it was always a part of being with him, and was just a part of what made him who he was. I was so attracted to the original outtake video in part because Jack handled his frustrations exactly like my dad did. If my dad had had to make a promotional video for Winnebago, the outtakes would be identical, I swear. So learning that the "whole picture" of Jack (as much as we got to see) also matched my dad, just made me like Jack that much more.
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As a reward for your bravery, you will both find permanent homes on adult contemporary radio.
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Kroyall1962
13 years ago
I agree with what you are saying too. Jack is a representation of the generation that is fast leaving us. My parents are gone and although they weren't like Jack in terms of their temperament, there were plenty of characters like him among their ranks and I find him endearing for that.
I have a buddy who had the opposite reaction, his dad was just a bastard and Jack reminded him of the bad times. I remember his father and he rarely allowed his humanity to show. Jack does do that and he has a sense of humor about himself so I don't think they are the same really.
Some people criticize the filmmaker for not allowing Jack to rant about his political views. I hate to generalize, but I could probably summarize them for anyone who is in suspense. I knew what the Wal-Mart rant was going to be before he ever said it, so it was almost funnier that he never got it out. When he said Cheney wrecked the economy, I can fill in the blanks on the rest of it quite easy.
One can criticize Cheney (and Bush or Obama for that matter) on many things. But this infantile, simplistic notion that he single-handedly ruined the economy is absurd. The problems we are facing have been building for years, and past government interventions from both parties do play an enormous role in where we are. There are no simple answers and blaming a few politicians depending on whether you lean right or left is silly. We can't identify root causes or solutions if we do that.
We also bring much of this on ourselves. If Jack doesn't like Wal-Mart, I wonder if he is willing to admit their success is as a result of millions of people freely CHOOSING to shop there? They provide jobs for 10's of thousands of people and they save millions of people alot of money, allowing them to have more purchasing power than they would. Does that mean they are all good? No. But tearing down Wal-Mart gets us nowhere in the end.
The containers of stuff coming from China are being bought by us, at some point people decided that less expensive goods were more important than buying American. Should economic patriotism make a big comeback (better than a trade war), I am sure Wal-Mart would be more than happy to stock more American made items. They aim to please. As a person that has started a few companies, I would say we need to make it easier and less costly to open manufacturing firms in this country however.
So for me, I am glad that Jack's incoherent rants on politics were not the focus of the film.
Sorry to go on so long.
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