Celluloid Heroes

Gentle readers,

2006 promises to be a significant year for those of us who love to watch movies in the comfort of our own home theater. This year the home entertainment industry will launch not one, but two different high-definition formats that they hope will some day replace DVD. We’ll see about that.

The fact that there are two formats that pretty much do the same thing proves that the consumer electronics industry hasn’t learned shit since the VHS/Betamax war a quarter-century ago. Have two competing formats means that they will carving up what is already a relatively small portion of the overall television market. This is on top of the general confusion it will inevitably cause among consumers. I’d like to do what little I can to clear up some of this confusion by laying out some of the differences between the two contenders.

HD-DVD is being championed by Toshiba while Blu-ray is being pushed primarily by Sony. Both formats have other companies behind them but these two are the primary movers.

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This isn’t just a thousand to one shot. This is a professional bloodsport. And it can happen to you. And then it can happen to you again.

The 24-hour race at Le Mans every June is still considered one of the ultimate tests of driver, crews and cars, but in 1970, when this film was made, it was even more so. This was before many of the safety features drivers now take for granted and when the cars were insanely powerful and fast. The Mulsanne straight was still more than two miles of flat-out, unbroken driving, with cars reaching over 230 mph before braking for the next curve.

Steve McQueen didn’t write, direct or produce this film, but it was still in every way his baby. He wanted to make the ultimate racing film. When not acting, McQueen raced cars and motorcycles for real, much to the horror of the studio executives who coveted the box office he brought in. McQueen was no dilettante, either. He was a serious driver who was competetive in virtually everything he raced and was well respected by his fellow racers. To them, he was just one of the guys who also did some acting on the side.

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It’s funny how people see me and treat me, since I’m really just a simple, boring person.

At its core, Thomas McCarthy’s The Station Agent is about a guy who makes friends despite all his best efforts to live a life free of human interaction. Fin McBride (Peter Dinklage) works in a model train store for his only friend, Henry (Paul Benjamin). After Henry dies, his will leaves Fin a dilapitated old train station in Newfoundland, New Jersey. This isolated location suits him just fine, since Fin would rather have as little to do with other people as possible. For him solitude is preferable to the curious and pitying looks that have followed him his whole life due to his dwarfism. Trains are his first and only love and a necessary escape from a taller world.

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