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LAPD Internal Affairs have been the principle tenants, at least since the building was purchased & renovated by Yellin Co in the last 80s. It was on fire during the LA Riots on Wednesday night, the first night. But thankfully didn't burn down. I tend to agree that it's both—or rather the answer's existential. Note the scene after Rachel saves his life, she asks will he come after her should she go north. He says no. He owes her. Eyes completely normal. But then he moves around to stand by her side—now of course he's lit by the same light hitting Young, so his eyes are glowing like a replicant's when he points out that someone will come after her. I think at first Scott et al just toyed with hinting at Deck being a replicant, but not seriously. Then, in the director's cut they added Deck's vision of the unicorn (which could have been shot at any time & edited it) to mesh with Gaff's origami, which I think was originally left only to show that Gaff had been at Deck's apartment. The tie-in between Gaff & Deck's vision of the unicorn was added much later. I think Scott & Co ultimately presented, whatever their intention, is the sense that one is human when one acts human, & replicant when behaving otherwise. So in that regard Roy is the only true human at the very end when he dies & we see the soul he has earned by saving Deckard pass heavenward in the form of the dove. Prior to that his eyes glowed the more fiercely than any of the others when he killed Tyrell & then senselessly killed Sebastian as well. Least that's how I see it. Do wish they hadn't added the unicorn vision as it only muddles things up. This is the first I'm hearing of it. A Blade Runner-themed food court ... in NYC! Of course. This place is a just a giant freaking black hole—sucks everything in. I'm not sure I can who lives or who dies anymore. Loved Carol, but agree she's become tiresome & totally worked out. I just find Negen completely obnoxious when he's gloating, which is pretty much all the time. Thus if Rick & Co could just possibly avoid falling into Negen's next few traps, or aligning themselves with people who will betray them to Negen. In short, avoid pulling a Jon Snow/King In The North at the Battle of the Bastards. I agree. SIL is truly the more imaginative, witty & original creation. Good as it is, SPR is a standard-issue war picture—the big invasion, cross-country trip & journey of discovery, to end in holding that key bridge. Well done, but not something unfamiliar. A Trump voter actually raising children .... oh, you have a dark mind, friend:( You guys are incredibly generous if you have only one problem with the logic of this story. Just watching it over, lessee: 1) Murder rate is zero with precogs—then why is first example of precrime in action up to the last second? Just knowing something's going to happen doesn't mean you can always prevent it. There ought to be some murders. 2) Anderton & Co meekly accepting federal oversight just on being presented with a warrant, not challenging it in court? 3) Pre-cogs can't predict robbery or rape, but Agatha can see every tick needed for her to escape the cops on their tail? 4) But then Agatha can't see the cops descending on the ex's house until it's too late 5) Swedish doc was only joking when he told Anderton he'd go blind if bandages are removed before 12 hours passed, because they were, with no ill effect 6) Anderton undergoes agonizing face change for no reason whatever when entering temple 7) Agatha has lived most of her life in a nutrient bath, but quickly adjusts to wearing clothes & being outdoors Awk ... it's too much! Of course nothing in the final third makes any sense, because it didn't happen. But that's really true of the entire film, & I believe the filmmakers were perfectly aware of that. I think the film's intent is to be a satire on the lengths society will go to feel safe. It was presumably along with his service weapon in the box of possessions Lamar provided her. Of course all of that beggars common sense. The eye would have deteriorated beyond recognition by then like any piece of unpreserved flesh. Furthermore, it's absurd to imagine that it would have been included amongst John's possessions in the first place, but very little in the movie makes sense. I think you have to few it as a satire on the lengths society is willing to go to indulge the illusion of safety. LOL, I remember when the event first made the news in '74, but I honestly didn't have a clue till I heard the name "Chubbock", then, uh oh.... I think I'm going to re-read the book before I think or comment any further about the movie. I'd quite forgotten, for example, that Merry's mother divorced the Swede rather than simply going made. Frankly, too, I was shocked by the casting of Ewan McGregor as the Swede. Not sure why. He would be the ultimate Landsmann passing for a shaygetz actor. One thing in particular I think they improved upon was Merry's deterioration. In the book she's gained weight, become quite obese by the time Swede finds her again. I don't recall anything about her physical health that would lead the reader to believe the Swede told the truth when he told her uncle she was dead. Ironically, the film Merry, who appeared genuinely to be on death's door, survives to the end. Dunno.... That's another point about the film I quite admire—in addition to the coins-behind-the-sofa budget, they took a post-war suburban tract-house neighborhood, of the sort I grew up in in LA, the kind of place where the sun nearly always shines & there's really no history, or mystery, or anything in particular worthy of suspense, & made it genuinely eerie by adopting a common pedestrian underpass as this site where an ancient creature lurks & captures prey. Those are valid points, sure enough. Though it's been a few years, I think in the novella the relationship between Andy & Red isn't exactly friendship, rather one of mutual respect. Also, it wasn't at all clear to Andy that Red would ever get paroled in the first place. His leaving the letter & money was a longshot of the highest order. I guess what I thought missing from the film is the suspense created when Red finally is paroled. Clearly he's not adjusting to the life set out for him, & finds himself on the verge of committing some petty crime in order to get sent back. When he goes looking for the stone, it's as much of a Hail Mary shot as Andy leaving the note & the money. Although the reader's not entirely surprised when Red finds the note & money, he's more gratified, I believe, then in Red simply leaving prison with a plan to join Andy in Mexico. Of course, the screenplay shifts the suspense from is the rock real & will Red find it, to will Red get parole in the first place. If memory serves, Red's parole in the novella came about matter of fact, in due course. LOL, in case you haven't yet read the book (& you really should, it's probably Roth's best), there are considerable divergences. First of, the narrator meets with the Swede early on, with the idea of doing a book about his life, but that never actually develops, the Swede, for reasons the author will discover later on, backs away from the idea. After his death, most of what the author learns comes from the brother—as in the movie. The Swede & his brother quarrel a lot over Merry. After the brother learns that Swede has found her again, he urges him to turn her in. Swede, of course, will not. Finally he tells his brother she's dead. We, the readers, never learn for certain whether or not that's true. Possibly Swede said it to protect her in case his brother goes to the authorities. Naturally then, there's no appearance at the funeral. The book ends at a backyard bbq, the precise details of which elude me after more than a decade, but the passage described therein is what Roth calls the "American Pastoral". I do remember that it's a taut, embarrassing moment: one the character's wives is drunk & bent on revealing uncomfortable truths. It's well worth a read. Maybe the movie will inspire me to reread it. Roth clearly did his homework on how gloves are made & makes a detailed description of the process very interesting. Might have been easier to understand if you'd read the book, which was one of Philip Roth's finest. Certainly the film diverged considerably, but it was essentially as David Straitharn's narrator summed up in the end. The Swede came of age during a time when anti-semitism still played a role in American life. Because he was fair-haired & blue-eyed, because he mastered the profile of the All-American, Right Stuff, sort, his friends & family assumed he'd be able to do anything at all—doors still closed to them would swing open wide for him. He embodied the community's grandest hopes & aspirations. But then Merry is caught up, for whatever reasons the viewer might impute, into the radicalism of the 60s. Commits several heinous crimes, & in so doing, constrains Swede's life. He can't get over her, maybe he shouldn't. Essentially the film seemed content with the fairly familiar theme of how even those who Seem To Have It All, also suffer in silence. I think Roth also intended it as a critique of the generations: I recall a passage, after Swede reunites with Merry, in which he argues that she suffers from a generational inability to think for herself, adopting whatever idea or cult happened to be in vogue. I found it, as a baby boomer myself, ironic, inasmuch as the Greatest Generation, for all of their deserved accolades, really never had to plan the course of their lives—depression, war, prosperity, etc. all lay before them. It takes nothing away from their accomplishments to point out that they tackled the challenges set before them mostly with grace, but were not required to ask of themselves, as Merry & her generation were, what is my life all about? That's a digression, sorry. If you found the film the least bit intriguing, I recommend the book. Many of Roth's novels decline into self-indulgent verbal flummery, but American Pastoral is fairly lean & gripping. The passage during which she reveals to Swede that she partook in other bombings is quite intense. Just finished watching the first season. I think you're right, the series did expand & enrich in ways that were true to the book--especially with their depictions of Hannah's parents, the lawsuit, counselor, etc... Still ... I have a similar issue as with the book. This "We let Hannah down!" business grates. In what ways were they really obligated to her? It was certainly my experience that high school relationships are pretty superficial, at least for the vast majority of students. I think Hannah expected too much from her peers, & I think Jay Asher romanticized high school society. Perhaps that's an inevitable by product of the genre. But, ideally, nothing of particular importance ever happens in high school. When a girl like Hannah tells you to leave her alone, you leave her alone--in my day as well as today. Is she speaking out of a deeper angst, desperate to make a connection in spite of her words? Perhaps. But it's not her peer's responsibility to suss that out. I can't even begin to guess how the preternaturally mature Tony can say he thinks Clay "killed Hannah". That's so far beyond absurd. None of them killed Hannah, not even rapist Bryce. Hannah killed Hannah & that's all there is to it. I actually feel very bad for all the kids as portrayed, even thinking of blaming themselves for her death. So, all in all, a very successful, well thought out adaptation of a book with some weak ideas driving it. I thought Tony in both the book & series preternaturally mature. He seems to serve as the author's stand in for how he would like to have been at that age. LOL! Indeed you did:) Okay, found it. "Messiah of Evil" 1973. Available on Amazon Prime, & Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVwvvr9HIPs Good point, btw. While I don't blame them & the Center for assuming the US government's behind any attempt to sabotage the USSR's food supply, or part of it, I think if it is happening, it must just as likely be corporate greed, unsupported by the government--based on a desire in the private sector to render the USSR totally dependent on their product. Yeah, The Wire, a great choice. For me, either that, or possibly The Americans