Answering the question of who is the more evil, sadistic and sinister villain between Raoul Silva and Anton Chigurh... Why? - Because I can. I can't do this however without saying that I'm a big fan of this man, to the left, who has rightfully been described as one of the best actors of his generation, and weighing up pretty well against those in the 'best actors of all time' phantom category. The Best or scariest villainous characters are made even scarier when you toss them into the hands of a sublime actor (take a look at Hannibal, The Joker, Christopher Walken, hehe). To Javier Bardem then, and his two most infamous characters in English cinema. The Contenders: Anton Chigurh - A trained coldblooded Assassin who also happens to be a psychopath (he has tendencies akin to a sociopath, but I'd see him more as a slightly controlled Psycho, but I digress, he fudges the line... click here to compare the two types) Raoul Silva - aka Thiago Rodriguez, former top spy for MI6, now a vengeful sociopath. What they have in common (apart from Bardem):
What's different:
The answer: Creepy, evil, sadistic or just plain nightmare inducing; if you lucked out and somehow crossed paths with someone of either persuasion, then pray you rather meet Anton Chigurh... Why? - Because he's more likely to kill you quickly, via bullet to to the head, or chest. Raoul Silva then is the worse of the two, simply because he's more likely to toy with you and make you feel some of his pain - which is considerable. He's also likely to kill your spirit before he takes your life, slowly... It's a rather interesting dynamic, I thought so anyway. Chigurh has something of a skewed philosophy on life; that he is simply a tool - holding himself to the idea that he is somehow set apart from the rest of humanity, and that good or bad, your fate has already been decided. If he moves in a certain direction, he's likely to kill most he encounters, with an exception every now and then - to be decided by chance, in the form of a coin toss. Cormac McCarthy wrote the character to represent how nonsensical violence is - Chigurh then, is the personification of violence. Silva has no such philosophy - it's kind of like when a human killing machine has been broken on the inside, and somehow restarted with a reset guidance system, targeting its 'creator', with a will to break her ("M") in a similar way. If there is one thing he abides by though, however shrouded in his demented ways it may be, it is in the principal of 'survival of the fittest' - physical wreck's they may be, but he and James Bond are the last two, and hence strongest, rats remaining... (queue chewing sounds) Javier Bardem quotes On his work: Your work cannot come from your vanity…it’s more about, how do I help this story by portraying the character as it needs to be, on every level, for this story to be told?…As actors we have the room to express as many sides of our nature as we are able or willing to show. There is no danger in that…you can get lost, of course. You have to know how to come back. The difference between a person with mental problems and an artist is that only the second one has a two-way ticket. On Anton Chigurh's hairdo: From the haircut and all that? It’s funny, because I saw that photo and I didn’t pay attention to the haircut because it was more of the way he was dressed as well as anything, but I guess they [Coen Brothers] pay attention to the haircut. So, I went to the trailer and they cut it and I saw it and I said, ‘What the hell is that?’ But that helped a lot actually, because in a way he gave this reality to the character this dimension of being very methodical. Everything is in place. It’s kind of mathematical. Like perfectly structured which is the way I thought the character should be. Perfectly clean. I thought this could help, but not for my private life though. On Raoul Silva, and being cast and working on Skyfall: [I had to] put the person [watching] in an uncomfortable situation, where even James Bond could not resist. Watching the trailer for No Country for Old Men just remind me of how brilliant this film is - and why I own the DVD...
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Flash Fiction The scene: Standing on the deck of a Ukrainian Navy ship in the Black Sea; two former soldiers discuss the efficacy of their roles in this unending battle. This deleted extract is from my book (The Quiet Days) another casualty of my redraft. I've since rewritten it, changing the conversation entirely... The Quiet Days (by Steven Benjamin) - Chapter 28 extract - Michael’s brow furrowed as he stepped closer to stand beside him, leaning against the steel railings. · “I haven’t been involved in it as long as anyone here so maybe my perspective’s a little warped, but it feels like there can be no winner here, ever. We can always fight the battles but at the end, it falls down to a squabble for a share in whatever’s left. I mean you know the facts. I’m not talking about criminal networks or terrorists or even us, I’m talking about the bigger – the much bigger picture – it’s something that’s always beyond our control.” • Michael was half nodding but still looked sceptical, “I’m not sure I follow…” • “It’s just one big cycle. I was having a conversation with Theo a while back and he was saying how there is no more bad versus good but rather rich versus poor. A common statement I know but I understood his inclination that there are good men on either side of the fence, same goes for the bad men…” he huffed bitterly, “it’s like if we were the cure, or let’s say for arguments sake that we’re part of this massive body, the index finger maybe, and all our white blood cells are fighting one cancer growth in the body. But, what we haven’t realized is that the cancer has taken over the whole body – infected everything everywhere, so in effect we’re not just fighting the cancer but, you could say, we’re fighting the entire body.” • “Because the body has basically become the cancer?” • “Precisely.” • Michael looked off, “So how do we fit in, in terms of this case? Just so I’m clear.” • “We’re just like the white cells fighting, but dependent on our enemies for our own existence. Who pays our wages? Who manufactures and distributes the weapons that are in the hands of the terrorists we chase.” • “Mm. So, seeing as we’re the finger fighting the same body we’re apart of, if we succeed in our battle – we die.” • “In theory: yes. The one cannot live without the other, or at least we cannot live without them. Metaphorically speaking.” • “Of course.” • “But the real issue is that the main culprits of the problems we face today are the ones making all the rules, conducting summits etc… And it’s not like they’re aware of it all the time, I mean it’s made up of people like you and me with consciences of their own. We deal in problems, not solving them, just morphing them from one form to another – an endless cycle.” • “With the obvious question being: will we ever make any considerable headway in our current capacity, or in any capacity for that matter? And further more to use a tried cliché; will we ever – make a difference?” · “Is there any point to it all? Or are we just doing this for self satisfaction. To give us the assurance that we’re the good guys and, even though our efforts don’t make much difference, it sure makes us feel good about ourselves.” Skipp said. **** Theme: The following song is something of a theme for the book. It's Ben Harper's "I will not be broken" - this is not a music video, just the track with a picture of the artist that someone uploaded... The Skin I live In - a sublime Spanish Horror film Trailers of the best foreign films and some forth coming attractions. Since we're into awards season I thought of indulging my film reviewer persona. A recent article/feature I did for In The Kan ("Top 10 films of 2012 you may have missed") got me thinking about foreign language films and how little exposure they receive by English speaking audiences. Often Hollywood attempts a usually less-than-successful remake of non-English films; a typical example of this is 2010's 'The Tourist' starring Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. This typical romantic comedy wrapped in an action flick was actually a remake of a french action thriller called Anthony Zimmerman starring Sophie Marceau (though I can't give you an accurate review as the original film still eludes me - and I have no motivation to see the remake). You might be wondering how I can make general assumptions like this - well i have a very trustworthy instinct about films with the only real surprise being the recent release of Pitch Perfect - a film I wouldn't have batted an eye at, but somehow ended up watching, much to my delight. To the list then - all these films are good, if not brilliant, and yet I haven't seen all of them yet... see it as a to-watch list. Russia: Twilight Portrait A privileged social worker is gang raped by three policemen, A look into contemporary Russia. Brazil: Elite Squad 2 - The Enemy Within (technically a 2011 film, but so what) A former cop, now head of prison security, gets entangled in a web politics and police corruption after a prison riot. (Those who know me already know that for some reason, I really want to see this film) Denmark: A Royal Affair Nominated in the Best Foreign Language film category in this years Academy Awards. France: The Intouchables Currently in cinemas (art-house/nouveau), watch this trailer then see the film - it'll make you smile. Spain: The Skin I live in My unofficial #1 - technically released in 2011, but as is usually the case, only reached South Africa in mid Jan 2012. "A man tries to recreate his long lost love". This is a Hitchcock-style horror film (also reminding me of some recent David Morrell novels) thinly veiled as a psychological thriller. It's difficult to describe this film adequately, you just have to see it for yourself, with friends, and then chat about in the middle of the night because sleep will not come easily. --> this trailer gives you nothing really, but it's difficult to really quantify the film in trailer form. What to look out for in 2013 Searching for Sugar Man Something with a distinctively South African flavour! Nominated in the Best Documentary category of this years Academy Awards: And then, for now anyway, My most anticipated film of at least the first half of 2013: Dead Man Down Causing waves all because two names have been reunited - watch to find out. Some other titles to look out for: Most are really getting their panties in a twist over Niel Blomkamp's return to our screens with Elysium (which is NOT really a sequel to District 9 - it's set in the year 2159), and then there's, need I mention, Man of Steel . There's a number of sequels (as always) to big franchises: Die Hard, Hunger Games, Ironman, Anchorman etc... But here are some lesser known titles:
--> Happy viewing... What is it about mountains, rivers, valleys, cliffs, jungles, frozen no-mans-lands and every other area most would regard as unlivable? What is it that draws us closer and makes us forsake all rationality and venture off into the desert to climb a dune and listen to the sounds of silence? A few days ago Sir Ranulph Fiennes (former SAS Special forces captain, second cousin to actors Ralph and Joseph, author of The Feather Men - which was turned into a film starring Clive Owen and Robert De Niro) departed Cape Town on yet another expedition. Setting sail for Antarctica aboard the ice strengthened Agulhas, their mission: to traverse the frozen continent in the dead of winter (a feat previously regarded by all authorities who cared, as impossible - a veritable suicide mission as the human body was not made to withstand such conditions - the entire trek will be conducted in pitch darkness because by the time they get there, the south pole will be in the season of no sunlight). Apparently technology has advanced sufficiently to allow the six man team the "go-ahead" nod by the commonwealth. So it becomes a "slightly-less-than-suicide mission". Among his many feats, summiting Everest on his 3rd attempt being one of them (at 65yrs of age), he and a small team completed the Transglobe some 30 yrs ago circumnavigating the globe by passing over the North & South poles - and remain the only ones to have done so (its in the Guinness book of world records). Although this is surely their most dangerous challenge. Team member Anton Bowring (63) stated this on his blog "It will be extraordinary if something bad doesn't happen during the crawl across 2,400 miles of ice in temperatures of -70°C and perpetual darkness where crevasses can swallow up a 25-ton bulldozer in the blink of a frosted eye."
Another adventurer and Laureus Award winner/Committee member, my countryman now residing in Swiss country, Mike Horn - He won the award for circumnavigating the globe unassisted along the the equator - is currently conducting his Pangaea Expeditions project. This initiative takes young people on adventures to highlight the plight of the world and open the eyes of the young to the magnificence that exists waaay off the beaten track - a world which they will inherit, a world in desperate need of protection and preservation. Of course these men are at the extreme end of the spectrum. For most of us, the spirit of adventure entails a hike up a mountain or a week long camping/road trip, bundu-bashing and star gazing among other things. And you don't need to be the next Erden Eruç, Nellie Bly, Bear Grylls, Freya Stark, Amelia Erhart et al. to feel itchy feet every now and then. "... The second one, it was like we was both back in older times and I was on horseback goin' through the mountains of a night. Goin' through this pass in the mountains. It was cold and there was snow on the ground and he rode past me and kept on goin'. Never said nothin' goin' by. He just rode on past... and he had his blanket wrapped around him and his head down and when he rode past I seen he was carryin' fire in a horn the way people used to do and I could see the horn from the light inside of it. 'Bout the color of the moon. And in the dream I knew that he was goin' on ahead and he was fixin' to make a fire somewhere out there in all that dark and all that cold, and I knew that whenever I got there he would be there. And then I woke up..." -- No Country for old Men, 2007 -Article by Steven Benjamin. The links to Ranulph Feinnes and Mike Horn's official websites: http://www.ranulphfiennes.co.uk/ http://www.mikehorn.com/en/mike-horn/ Why I write... Posted a few days ago, here's a piece I wrote on 'Why I write...' published on Shinazy Linda's blog BOBB - 'Bitchin old Boomer Babe'. Click HERE
- It's an ongoing journey; a class which has been known to take lifetimes without a view to an end. An update on my progress thus far with regards to my book. So, after the first full proofread is complete by Judy (whom I trust) - certain rewrites are in order as well as a complete chapter by chapter breakdown... Now before you say "that should have been done already" I say this: "That's hogwash. As long as it gets done." Every writer has his/her own method. So why is this important, and why haven't I done it already? It's important as it casts your plot path in greater clarity, forming something of a map for the book, allowing you, the author to isolate events, maintain continuity and cultivate cohesion, among other things. Well, here's the thing... in the latter portion of 2010 I wrote a book; the longest writing piece I'd written before then was an 800+ word Essay in high school. All I did was knuckle down, and write, and write, and write... until the story ran its course. Sounds unspectacular I know. For the last two years, I've been cleaning it up up, self editing, subsequently writing a 2nd draft (eliminating the basic errors). But apart from that, it's been all about networking, creating my own writing footprint, becoming known within certain circles by my peers and like-minded individuals/professionals. Basically learning the craft and the industry whilst improving my product, improving my writing... always learning. The first draft was a behemoth 500+ (with double spacing) 144000+ word saga, but so far I've pulled it back to 127000/430 pages, with much more trimming to come. In essence, what happened was, I wrote a book, then I learned how to write a book (if that can be learned). What I am, is a writer - there's no turning back from that... Thanks to all my supporters, friends and family (mostly for your patience). I do believe "The Quiet Days" can be a great book - it's already good, but "good" just isn't good enough. FYI: the name "The Quiet Days" is subject to change - as soon as I finish this current draft. I shall make a fairly big reveal, sort of. Did you scream randomly at some party "WE ARE STILL HERE!!!" in ref to Apocalypse Fail? (2013/01/01) May you have a wonderful 2013 and beyond. Be blessed, smile, love, laugh and stay true to yourself, seeking God in everything you do! Thanks all for visiting - I'll take a bow for all the great things I'm still going to do... ;)
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