Queensland Election drubbing update…
The ALP were routed in Queensland’s 2012 election with only a rump of 7 members returned. Tonight’s stunning turnaround will see them take at least 36 seats from Campbell Newman’sLNP government and consign him to history.
Campbell Newman
During the ABC coverage of the election result…
Question to Jane Prentice, federal Liberal member for Ryan (in Queensland):
“Is Tony Abbott the man to lead the Liberals to the next federal election?”
Her answer: “Well that’s the discussion, isn’t it. We need to look at where we’re going…” She went on to suggest that Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s speech to the National Press Club, next week, will be his last chance.
When a member of Abbott’s team openly talks about a leadership change in such an extraordinarily frank and open way, that generally means that party discipline has completely broken down.
Federal Liberal members will be in a flagellating screaming panic tonight. And tomorrow the phones will be smoking hot as they scramble to put as much distance as they can between themselves and Abbott and Deputy Heartless Joe Hockey.
I’m so looking forward to the bloodbath… Abbott and Hockey will be gone in 3 weeks.
A certain foreign minister recently dined with the svengali of Australian politics, Rupert Murdoch. Why is that significant? Because, Murdoch doesn’t do these things just to be ‘sociable‘. I think he did it because he’s formed a view that unless Tony Abbott goes, the Libs will get hammered at the next election. He’s a man who cherishes his role as our puppeteer in chief and was needed to give Julie Bishop the green light to go for it. No worries, the decks are clear; the memo’s gone out to the editors of the Telegraph, Courier-Mail, Herald Sun and Sunday Times…..
Foreign Minister Bishop
And the bad news is that Julie Bishop will soon be Rupert’s new plaything and Australia’s prime minister (with Malcolm Turnbull as Treasurer). And the news gets even worse because, unlike Julia Gillard who had the Murdoch press baying for her blood for 3 years, Julie Bishop will get a magic carpet ride from the same propaganda song sheet.
It’ll be interesting to look back on this post in a couple of months to see that I was right.
To those who think Minister for Inhuman Services, Scott Morrison will get the top job, I sincerely hope you’re wrong.
I think even the hard right in the Liberal Party (who are currently in control) will see Morrison as too much of a ‘lightning rod’ for PM but as a ‘can-do’ hardnut treasurer, they’ll love it (that’s if the pragmatists who are currently holding their noses and supporting Turnbull, can’t dissuade them). If they do go for Morrison, it’ll be time to start looking out for fluttering squarish flags with a black motif on a red background.
What do you think? Who do you think will replace Abbott?
Oh this is a sad day. There’ll be buckets of political tributes to the great man but for me it was personal so that’s what I’ll remember here.
Gough Whitlam was the giant of Australian life who I admired the most. More than that, for a short period of 4 years (1981-85), he allowed me to be his friend. He must have known I was in awe of him (which, don’t worry his large ego didn’t mind) but he had a knack of making me feel his equal even though he was 40 years older than I and so far ahead of my fledgling 24 year-old knowledge. Even though our conversations were very eclectic, ranging across politics, history, art, music, the cosmos and our lives, he allowed me to feel that I wasn’t out of my depth except when he’d occasionally pepper his sentences with classical Greek and Latin which would remind me just how broad the gulf really was. I remember laughing often and loudly because he was also very witty with a wonderfully wry sense of humour. He also didn’t suffer from false modesty and some of his humour recognized his ‘own greatness’. He was fond of the notion that God wouldn’t welcome him warmly to heaven because he wouldn’t like the competition. It seemed he also liked to stir Catholics a little (he was a protestant) and he recounted with mischievous joy a time he’d asked a clergyman, a bishop I think, if he could rent a cathedral crypt space when he died. He got a quizzical look, to which he added, “I’ll only need it for three days”. It seemed it was one of his favourite self-referential jokes and a good one. Curiously, I was reminded of this by Tony Burke’s recollection of a similar story.
Our meeting was typical of him. He was the ultimate elitist – not because he aspired to be or as a conceit but because he really was elite – but he was also completely down to earth. Why else would he have spent several hours after a Labor Party champagne breakfast fundraiser, sitting on the bank of a lake drinking champagne with a young person like me. I remember when his minder, state Labor deputy leader, Mal Bryce, quietly approached the great man and reminded Gough that he had a plane to catch. I think Gough quietly enjoyed playing with people and the look on Mal’s face was priceless when he replied, “You can get me another flight, can’t you Mal?”. I remember leaving that first meeting completely enthralled; we’d talked about anything and everything and that was the first time I could remember having had such a wide-ranging conversation with anyone.
The next time we met was early the following year when he was the guest of the State Labor Executive at Trades Hall in Perth. After he’d done the necessary circulating, he sought me out and we picked up, it seemed, exactly where we’d left off. We sat at the only table against the far wall and chatted and it seemed we were in a bubble of our own. Why he’d chosen me, of all the exalted people in that hall, to spend his precious time with I didn’t know but the way he had of making me feel like I was the most important person in the room, was a wonderful character trait. Despite his immense intellect and achievement he went to great length to make me feel at ease with him and he left me feeling greatly elevated by the experience. Before he left, he signed a copy of his book, The Truth of the Matter for me and gave me his card with his private number scrawled on the back and said, “Call me”. He said it in such a way that I knew he meant it. Over the next year (until he moved to Paris) I did occasionally call him even though I did feel daunted by the prospect. At the time I was a “young turk” on the rise in the union movement and so I always opened with a request for advice which always went over well but he very quickly moved on to other subjects; he also always kindly remembered to enquire (by name) about my wife, (at the time) Judy and and son, Toby (and later, also my daughter, Alison). That was another of his talents, his amazing memory for minutiae: he not only remembered my wife and children’s names but also their birthdays and the details of their lives. The warmth of his conversation was so disarming and engaging and I always came away feeling invigorated and uplifted. In retrospect, I know that there were many people like me, who were singled out and made to feel like they were a friend. This was part of the genius of Gough Whitlam and one of the many reasons he’ll be so mourned today.
Judy often remarked that my head was full of useless knowledge and that I should go on the quiz show Sale of the Century. I only mention this because I think the only time I felt like that large store of useless trivia was of any real use was when talking with Gough. However, whatever topical fact I was able to conjure into the conversation, he was always able to trump and expand upon it. I never minded this because it always broadened my own knowledge and understanding and because he did it with such unabashed joy, seemingly because it allowed him to expound freely on the subjects of our focus.
I think I was very conscious of the privilege that Gough had bestowed on me so I didn’t discuss my conversations with him with anyone; they were my much cherished secret. When he was appointed to UNESCO, our contact became restricted to the few times he returned to Sydney but he still welcomed my call.
As my life spiraled out of control for a time after my family departed and my brother died (1985-87), we sadly lost touch. I so regret that because who knows how much more wisdom I might have acquired from the crumbs of Gough’s enormous insight.
On this day, I’m very conscious of the loss of the greatest man I’ve ever known or will ever know and someone I am so proud and humbled to have briefly called a friend. Such a sad, sad, sad day. Goodbye Gough.
Gough Whitlam governed through a tumultuous period of Australian history.
Do you have any recollections of Gough that you’d like to share?
Anyone who had any doubt that the Libs election campaign has moved headquarters to the editorial rooms at Rupert Murdoch’s Telegraph (Sydney) and Courier Mail (Brisbane), need only have watched Media Watch this week. There, the whole despicable distortion of democracy being perpetrated by that most malevolent of humans and his willing supplicants, dressed as journalists, was exposed. My conscience is clear: I don’t buy any newspaper Murdoch prints (I cancelled my sub. to the Sunday Times) and I cancelled my subscription to his cash-cow, Foxtel, a couple of years ago when it became clear to me just how toxic this megalomaniac had become. How can any party in an election withstand such media carpet bombing, particularly when it’s being churned out in newspapers that have almost 70% of the national readership. Worse, the Courier Mail is the only Brisbane metro daily so Murdoch has an almost unchallenged ability to influence public opinion in that city.
Watch Media Watch (Episode 30, 26 August 2013) here then donate to GetUp please: Media Watch (ABC Television)
If you share my outrage at what Murdoch is doing, please consider staking a small stand and cancel any of your Murdoch supporting newspaper and Foxtel subscriptions and share this post so it’ll reach as many suppliers of cash to Murdoch’s propaganda machine (subscribers), as possible. Cheers. Watch GetUp! Murdoch video here
Thinking of possible motivations for Murdoch’s vociferous anti-Labor campaign over the last few years. I think someone had a point when they suggested the biggest threat to Murdoch’s Foxtel pay-tv near-monopoly power in Australia is Labor’s NBN and the multiple HD streaming content providers that will offer streaming services to households. With 100 to 1000mbps download speeds there’ll be no buffering hassles and a true on-demand service, something Murdoch’s Foxtel doesn’t provide. The Libs. crap version of the NBN only offers up to 100mbps download speeds, and that’s only if you live next door to the node, otherwise speeds rapidly drop to 25mbps, the further down the street you go. The Libs version of the NBN is Murdoch friendly because it’s speed limited and very poor competition for Foxtel, while Labor’s NBN could wipe them out. In other words, why would you want to pay Murdoch more than $130 a month for Foxtel when you’ll soon be able to stream huge Hi-Def movie and TV files over the internet for a fraction of the cost or in many cases, for free?
Tony Abbott’s body language at tonight’s press conference (where unusually, he answered questions) suggested that he’s worried that he’s got a fight on his hands. I think he hoped some of the independents would desert Labor by supporting a no-confidence motion tomorrow to hasten the election and bring forward his Liberal Party’s resumption of its ‘right to rule’.
It seems the cat’s out of the bag… he knows he doesn’t have the numbers.
In response to a question regarding the possibility of a no-confidence vote, Mr. Abbott said:
“Well, look, that’s really a matter for Mr Rudd. I’m not interested in playing parliamentary games. I think the people of Australia are sick of parliamentary games…”
Reading between the lines, it seems he’s recognized that he doesn’t have the numbers to force a no-confidence motion (thanks Bob Katter for your decisive support for Kevin).
Tony Abbott continued, “I am interested in giving the people their say as soon as possible and it was really quite odd that Mr Rudd didn’t confirm the former Prime Minister’s chosen election date – or indeed announce an earlier date…”
Clearly, Tony’s hoping for an early August election (the earliest we could have) but would settle for Julia Gillard’s September date. What he doesn’t want is for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to have an opportunity to get anything done and build towards an election, perhaps as late as 24 November (the latest possible date for an election) but more likely mid October. Tony strangely implored Rudd to announce an early election date and sounded almost acquiescent in the doing.
What Tony doesn’t want is for the focus to be turned to his paucity of policy and the illogic of many of the Opposition’s pronouncements. Under Julia Gillard, the opposition Coalition has been given a free pass on their many ludicrous assertions, Tony Abbott stunts and carping negativity. Now that the Abbott/Gillard nexus has been broken, Mr. Abbott faces the unpleasant prospect of scrutiny.
Returning to the tired old mantra that has served him so well over the last 3 years, Mr. Abbott attempted to frame the terms of the election as:
“Who do you, the people, trust to stop the boats, to abolish the carbon tax and the mining tax and to get the budget back in the black?”
I think the answer to the first question might be The Age Newspaper and ABC News who just exposed the links between Indonesian people smugglers and allegedly corrupt elements of law enforcement. The Indonesians might be forced to act against the long-suspected rats in their ranks, which in turn might slow the boats. Let’s face it, the only difference between the current government and opposition ‘stop the boats’ policies, is Tony Abbott’s pledge to turn back the asylum seeker boats (after they’ve glued the scuttled boats back together, that is). I’ve got a feeling Rudd will articulate the obvious flaws in Abbott’s policy a lot better than Julia Gillard ever managed. As well, Julia fell into Abbott’s trap of framing asylum seekers as a threat to our sovereignty (border security). Perhaps now, Rudd will be able to refocus the boats issue as a leaky, sinking boats humanitarian crisis. Perhaps he can pressure Indonesia to stop the boats leaving port and also encourage them to work to stem the inflow into Indonesia of asylum seekers who buy visas, enabling them time to transit to Australia bound boats. In return Australia should quietly agree to increase our refugee intake from Indonesia to a few thousand from the present few hundred. There’s been no headlines screaming about breached border security when asylum seekers fly in, so getting the leaky boats off the daily newscasts and asylum seekers into airports instead, might just diffuse Tony Abbott’s racist pandering border security/turn back the boats ‘Labor: death by a thousand cuts’ strategy.
I’m also looking forward to seeing Kevin Rudd’s changes in the carbon price that will probably ditch the current 2015 time-table and bring in the ETS a year ahead of schedule, thereby blunting some of Abbott’s shallow rhetoric and turning the spotlight back on his own derided “direct action” policy. Hell, even Malcolm Turnbull, the Liberal Party’s former Environment spokesman, believes that Tony Abbott’s Climate Change policy is a crock of shit. This is what he had to say about it, “…the fact is that Tony and the people who put him in his job, do not want to do anything about climate change. They do not believe in human caused global warming. As Tony observed on one occasion “climate change is crap” or if you consider his mentor, Senator Minchin, the world is not warming, it’s cooling and the climate change issue is part of a vast left wing conspiracy to deindustrialise the world.”
Next: The Mineral Resource Rents Tax (MRRT) is a non-starter. Given that its legislation was practically written by the Mining Industry, and it’s raised so little revenue, it can’t seriously be seen as having any adverse impact on anything other than the government’s bottom line. All Rudd needs to do is acknowledge the tax needs some tweaking and move on. Keep in mind that the predecessor of the MRRT, the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT), has operated with little controversy, and barely a ripple of attention, since 1987.
Of all Tony Abbott’s chosen fields of battle, the doozy is going to be watching him try to cogently explain how he’s going to get the budget back into the black quicker than Labor. Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan had failed to adequately enunciate the folly of Abbott and shadow treasurer Joe Hockey’s maths and the diabolical reality of the European style austerity that would be inevitable under an Abbott Administration; inevitable that is, if everything they’ve said they’ll do hasn’t just been a great big new block of fudge to add to their huge black hole in the cooked books from the last election. Sure, Abbott and Hockey can hack the legs off the poor by slashing the public service and the safety net; sure, they can intensify the devastation and violence of American style ghettoisation of ‘working poor’ urban areas like much of Detroit; sure, they can slash investment in Australia’s educated future and continue Australia’s slide down the international rankings; sure, they can reverse the Gillard government’s gains in healthcare; and sure, they can end Labor’s support for struggling parents such as the school kids education payments. This slash and burn austerity will also need to be enacted within a framework of falling revenues as the Carbon Price is terminated, stripping billions from the budget. This dark austerity cloud will also hang in sharp contrast to Abbott’s enormously generous Paid Parental Leave Scheme that will pay according to lifestyle rather than need. Enormously generous that is, if you’re earning up to $150,000 a year, as the scheme matches parental income, confirming that in the eyes of Tony Abbott, an affluent baby deserves a hell of a lot more comfort and pampering than a poor baby.
It’ll be interesting to see how Mr. Abbott tries to wriggle out of this minefield of commitments he has so recklessly laid for himself over the last 3 years.
In the last 3 years, Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan have frustratingly missed just about every point in countering Abbott’s hollow propositions as they inexplicably allowed Tony and his wrecking crew to run rings around them. I can’t see the articulate pair of Prime Minister Rudd and his new Treasurer Chris Bowen, suffering from the same communication paralysis.
It’s going to be very difficult for Kevin Rudd to get even some of the ducks in a row for the coming election (another reason I think he’ll go later rather than sooner) but at least the government wont be rigid with fear as they have been til now. Shuffling so many new bums onto ministerial seats is also going to be a feat of immense engineering. Getting everyone briefed and quickly up to speed might also flash reminders of the heady days just after the 2007 election. Let’s hope Rudd gets a little honeymoon to settle the team in before the election campaign proper gets firing and the media blood-sport starts again in earnest.
The frustrating spectacle of Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan mangling perfectly defendable positions into hopelessly spun quicksand, is over. Now the business of injecting hope into the despairing government and disillusioned voters, begins.
So sad that Australia’s first female prime minister wasn’t able to translate the relaxed and sometimes witty Education Minister into an articulate and publicly effective Prime Minister. At least she’ll always be the first, so her place in history is secured.
Let’s hope Kevin can pull even a mangy rabbit out of the hat. What are your thoughts on today’s explosive events?
They say you can be judged by the company you keep. President Barack Obama has chosen to take a stand for the criminals that Bradley Manning bravely exposed and to stay silent while this whistleblower is persecuted for causing embarrassment and discomfort to his administration.
Pfc. Bradley Manning
Check out the Iraq Collateral Murder Video that started it all:
• Watch the video:
To claim that Manning’s leaks have given aid to ‘the enemy’ because some of his leaked info was found in Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan, is ridiculous. If they’d found a New York Times article with a photo of the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, would they accuse the ‘Times of ‘aiding the enemy’ by providing Osama with that targeting information? Nothing that Manning allegedly released through WikiLeaks, The Guardian, The Washington Post and The New York Times, has been shown to have caused any real harm to anyone but it has revealed the duplicity of the USA’s actions in the world. For causing this dent to US pride and prestige, Bradley Manning is to pay with the loss of his liberty for a very long time.
I read Manning’s hour-long statement to the court at his pre-trial hearing at the end of February and cried. This young man is only 25 and has sacrificed the rest of his life for this.
Daniel Ellsberg** exposed the Johnson and Nixon Administration’s Vietnam War lies, was vilified but is now recognised as a genuine hero. Similarly, Bradley Manning will go down in history for bravely risking death by daring to expose the lies and criminal behavior of the US military (the Collateral Murder Video and the Iraq and Afghan War logs) and shining a light on the murky dealings of the US State Department with the Cablegate exposure. On the other hand, Barack Obama’s legacy will always be stained by this cruel and vindictive response to Manning’s incredibly brave, ethical act. As Daniel Ellsberg, himself pointed out: “I’m sure that President Obama would have sought a life sentence in my case”.
• Please watch this moving video and share this post if you can:
The featured celebrities involved in the project are:
Actor, Maggie Gyllenhaal; Pink Floyd legend, Roger Waters; Oscar winning director of Platoon, Oliver Stone; revered Vietnam War whistleblower, Daniel Ellsberg; legendary talk show host and political activist, Phil Donahue; President Emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Michael Ratner; Pulitzer Prize winning author, Alice Walker (The Color Purple); legendary RATM and Audioslave guitarist and activist, Tom Morello; Rolling Stone journalist, Matt Taibbi; actor, Peter Sarsgaard; human rights activist and scholar, Angela Davis; music icon, Moby; artist, Molly Crabapple; environmentalist and founder of Peaceful Uprising, Tim DeChristopher; West Point graduate, Lt. Dan Choi; the famous (and arrested) Occupy Wall Street activist, retired Episcopal Bishop George Packard; the ever controversial, Russell Brand; award winning American investigative journalist, Allan Nairn; Pulitzer Prize winning political journalist, Chris Hedges; actor, Wallace Shawn; novelist and political commentator, Adhaf Soueif; and Iraq War veteran of Bravo Company 2-16, Josh Stieber, who was seen on the ground in the Collateral Murder Video and was so incensed by what he’d seen that he renounced his support for President Bush, became a conscientious objector and campaigned against the Iraq war.
**Daniel Ellsberg was charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 with crimes carrying a possible 115 year sentence. The charges were dismissed in 1973 following revelations of illegal phone taps by the FBI.
My son Toby said, “Funny how this story isn’t given any coverage. It’s one of the biggest stories of our generation.”.
I agree… But in an age of expedience, it’s hard to measure effective journalism when the important issues of our time are things like… Kanye and Kim naming their new daughter, North West.
I thought the amazing Bugatti Veyron was as mad as it gets but I was wrong….
This thing has to be the most bonkers car ever dreamt of! The Pagani Huayra.
• Check out the Top Gear gushfest:
If I had the money, I’d donate it to a worthy cause….
No I wouldn’t, I’d get one of these!
Letterman telling it like it is.
Yea, I know… where was I.
I didn’t get to see this 2012 clip until it was posted by a friend on Facebook.
I remember when Gasland came out and it was said by industry types in Australia, that coal seam gas would be extracted in a different and much safer way than that depicted in the film. Well guess what, that was just spin; the Frackers are doing it in exactly the same dangerous way. Even taking a benign view of Fracking in Australia, it still involves the waste of vast quantities of precious groundwater just to produce the gas. This groundwater depletion for coal seam gas production has by itself, made the extraction of water for human consumption and agriculture much more difficult.
The past informs the future and that tells us that no industrial process is without risk, it’s just a matter of deciding how much you’re willing to lose. No matter how safe offshore drilling was said to be, the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico still happened. No matter how safe nuclear power plants are, according to proponents of nuclear power, the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster still happened.
Whereas Fracking elsewhere in the world might contaminate one of many aquifers, in Australia, Fracking contamination anywhere in Queensland and northern New South Wales would destroy the world’s greatest aquifer, The Great Artesian Basin.
“The Great Artesian Basin provides the only reliable source of freshwater through much of inland Australia. The basin is the largest and deepest artesian basin in the world, stretching over a total of 1,700,000 square kilometres.” (Wikipedia).
• Also see here for a map of the Great Artesian Basin.
The Qld and NSW governments need the Fracking tax cash so in this age of short-termism, they’re prepared to give Australia’s Frackers the benefit of the doubt right up to the point when Australia’s Great Artesian Basin is totally fracked. When that inevitably happens, they’ll squeal: “it was a terrible accident” or “the company responsible will be held to account”. But by then it’ll be too late and as inland towns, livestock and crops die, who will hold our politicians to account. In the meantime, some chemical contamination of the groundwater, as a consequence of Fracking, is inevitable. It’ll just be a matter of ‘authorities’ determining how much carcinogenic water we’re prepared to tolerate.
So good on Letterman for having his rant but he forgot to mention we elect governments to prevent this sort of economic rape, so wherever it’s happening, there’s a fracking government watching.
From now on, I think I’ll replace the ‘u’ with ‘ra’ and use frack, frackers, fracking instead. Hey, it’s PG enough to use round kids and you never know it might become a byword for this evil industry.
iReview:
OK, time to fess up… As a kid, a big chunk of my entertainment came from comics and among my favourites were Superman, Batman, The Phantom, The Flash, Spider-Man and Iron Man. Occasional reading of a friend’s Captain America comic was as close as I came to being a fan. Even as a kid, the over-the-top flag waving American nationalism of the character and his anachronistic shield was a turnoff. However, watching Iron Man 2 last weekend, whet my appetite for a bit more from the Avenger crew. So I settled back to take a fresh look at Captain America: The First Avenger with a large glass of the wonderfully smooth and subtle, Evans & Tate Metricup Cabernet Merlot (2008) from Margaret River, Western Australia (that’s a shameless plug for our excellent local wine).
What Happens:
In this Marvel blockbuster, it is 1942 and as war rages across Europe, a brave but under-strength soldier, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), volunteers to participate in an experimental program that turns him into a Super Soldier. Deemed too valuable to be risked in combat, he is named Captain America and is used as a celebrity to win public support for the war effort, sell war bonds, and build morale among the troops. However, when the diabolical Nazi HYDRA organization, led by the villainous Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), threatens the defeat of the Allies, Captain America joins forces with Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) and Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) in a desperate battle to save a war-weary nation and the world.
“It was a pleasure to realize, once “Captain America: The First Avenger” got under way, that hey, here is a real movie, not a noisy assembly of incomprehensible special effects”.
(Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)
Story (Click to expand)
It seems Director Joe Johnston together with writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, were aware of the frailty of Captain America’s hold on his super-hero status with the reservations of viewers like me. The way they handled the Captain’s acquisition of his cornball costume and shield, was inspired. It was as though they’d all been out at a screening of Eastwood’sFlags of Our Fathers (2006), the night before writing the plot-line and had the same epiphany. There are such obvious parallels between the Iwo Jima ‘flag-raising heroes’ touring the country spruking for war bonds and our freshly muscled up and taller ‘hero’, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), embarrassed at his role in a touring showbiz spectacle. There’s also the added flourish of the Captain America comic arising as part of the marketing campaign which very neatly explains the real world model’s OTT name, eccentric clothes and accessories. These scenes also provide some light comic relief from the otherwise, serious endeavour. With my doubts about Captain America’s super-hero viability, deftly allayed, I was free to relax and enjoy the rest of the show.
From the outset, I was intrigued by the visual trickery involved in shrinking Chris Evans (Steve) to his pre-transformation puny size. It seems there was a fair bit of CGI trimming as well as the use of body doubles with Evans’ head digitally grafted on. Although a mighty fine attempt, the grafting process doesn’t quite convince me as the head seems just a little too big for the body in many shots. I know, I’ve wrecked it for you now because if you haven’t seen the movie, you’re going to fixate on the out-size head instead of chilling and enjoying the action… sorry.
Tying together the histories of the various Avenger super-heroes leads to the revelation that Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper), father of Tony (Iron Man), was instrumental in providing the technical support required to create Captain America. Anyone who has seen the Scorsese biopic (The Aviator) or is familiar with the story of Howard Hughes, the eccentric industrialist, innovator, filmmaker and celebrated Hollywood player, would have been forgiven for imagining that Hughes had led a secret double life as Howard Stark. Here, Cooper has produced a playful, while not slavish caricature of the enigmatic legend.
There’s something reminiscent of the old matinee films in this which works very well in establishing the atmosphere of the period. As a consequence, there’s not a lot of subtlety on display, but then not much was needed as the story is a pretty straightforward old fashioned battle between good and evil with nary a smidge of nuance required. This treatment combined with the wonderful period production design, does a great job of drawing the viewer into the realistically portrayed parallel universe that this story inhabits.
A standout in this movie is that attention to detail in the period design. What was the mix of physical sets and CGI, I don’t know but the resulting shots of wartime London and Brooklyn were stunning in their resolution.
As well, the top shelf costuming of the Nazi characters, including their glistening black boots, provides a striking clue as to why the original Hugo Boss designed uniforms, particularly for the SS, had such an alluring impact in Hitler’s Germany (Yes folks, Hugo was indeed a Nazi and a founding sponsor of the despised SS. Indeed, without the patronage of the Nazis, Hugo Boss would have been just a forgotten footnote in history).
I haven’t seen any of Chris Evans’ (Steve Rogers / Captain America) earlier work so his performance here was a welcome introduction. While he doesn’t appear to have the range of a Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), he has the look of a sensitive, rather than brutish Captain America and he dealt convincingly with the script.
Hugo Weaving (Johann Schmidt / Red Skull) gives us a suitably sinister (but fun to watch) villain. Weaving seems to revel in playing stony cold bad guys named Smith (or Schmidt in German); this time, channeling the voice of Klaus Maria Brandauer quite convincingly. His over-the-top badness also plays well to the movie’s gritty but wholly comic-book roots.
Stanley Tucci (Dr. Erskine) has a short but pivotal and memorable role as the refugee German scientist running the super soldier experimental program that transforms Steve into a super-human. Tommy Lee Jones (Col. Phillips) is also good as the craggy, no nonsense officer in charge of that program.
Hayley Atwell (Peggy Carter), as Steve’s go to gal, no… not like that, there’s nothing even PG about the romance in this, as befits a movie of this ‘period’. Hell, even sex is enigmatically described as fondue. As Steve’s confidante and walking thought bubble, Peggy Carter, Atwell does a fine job and has just enough matinee heat and red lipstick to qualify as a ’40s calendar pin-up.
Director, Joe Johnston, does a good job of keeping the narrative humming along. I was kept attentive throughout without any flat spots; sometimes tense, sometimes amused and sometimes with a wry grin. He also gives the audience just enough meat on the characterization bone to keep us engaged with the wide array of characters while still providing a nice balance between action and drama. With this material, Johnston displays a sure grasp of what’s needed to satisfy fanboys and newbies alike; in fact, I’d go so far as to say… he’s nailed it.
The effects are handled well with futuristic weaponry and general wizzbangery neatly encumbered with the technical limitations of the time such as the mechanical analog count-down timer in the self-destruct sequence. It was also clear the design department had done their research in coming up with Hydra’s strange aircraft which were not beyond the scope of German technology at the time. Hydra’s aircraft were based on radical German WWII concepts such as the Horten H.XVIII flying wing bomber, a long range stealth bomber originally intended to bomb New York, and the Triebflügel fighter plane which had been designed as a vertical take-off intercepter.
Another feature of the movie only became apparent to me right at the end, during the contemporary New York sequence; the desaturated colour palette employed throughout the earlier 1940s scenes, evoked just the right drab ambiance for that time. When the time-line reaches the present, the contrast with the supersaturated vibrancy of the surroundings, very succinctly conveys the culture shock that would have ensued from the sudden transition from the 1940s to Times Square (2011)… Nice job.
And, as has become de rigueur with these films, there’s a short bonus scene after the credits.
The Picture:
Once the deliberate desaturation of the 1940s sequences became apparent, I had no fault with the 1080p transfer, particularly when the contrast with the spectacular contemporary Times Square sequence comes into play.
The Audio:
This is a well mixed DTS 5.1 audio track. The buzz and whir of vaporizer weapons together with engine noises, were nicely distributed through the 5.1 channels. The explosions and gunshots also thumped and thudded from the appropriate speakers and contributed to a great overall sound.
Verdict:
The filmmaker’s have done such an excellent job of turning this mildly skeptical viewer into a fan of Captain America, that I’ll even give Marvel Studios’ treatment of Thor, my least favourite super-hero, a go with an open mind.
iRate:: 4 out of 5.
4Movie Tragics
Extras:
Disc One:
• Feature Commentary by Director Joe Johnston, Cinematographer Shelly Johnson, and Editor Jeffrey Ford (This is an informative, if a little dry track which seems a bit screen specific. It nevertheless bolsters my impression that this film was made by a group of comic-book literates).
• Marvel One-Shot: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer
(a curious short film featuring SHIELD’s agent Coulson, a mild-mannered but explosive crime fighter) – 4min.
• Featurettes Menu:
• • Outfitting a Hero
(an an enjoyable look at the evolution of Captain America’s suit) – 11min.
• • Howling Commandos
(looks at the supporting characters, including comments from some of the actors) – 6min.
• • Heightened Technology
(looks at the advanced weaponry and vehicles) – 6min.
• • The Transformation
(looks at ‘skinny Steve’, the shrinking of Chris Evans) – 9min.
• • Behind the Skull (looks at the casting and creation of Red Skull) – 10min.
• • Captain America’s Origin
(looks at the comic-book history of the character) – 4min.
• • The Assembly Begins (a puff piece preview of the Avengers) – 2min.
• Deleted Scenes (4 scenes with optional commentary) – 6min.
• Trailers (4 theatrical and game trailers) – 9min.
The more I see of this fine, current Marvel Avenger series, the more I’m reminded of how mind-numbingly mundane Spiderman 3 was. Do you agree?
:: Please leave a comment ::
Blows your mind eh. It’s obscene the amount of latitude, deference and aspirational support we give to this evil aspect of Capitalism. How is this level of outrageous greed possible when more than a billion humans live on less than $2 a day and at least another billion live in grinding poverty. It’s hard to imagine that any of the 1% have any ethical values when you know just how obese their wallets are.
I imagine this 1% also see terrorism emanating from the impoverished and uneducated 3rd world, as an attack on freedom or the Capitalist system (or maybe just an attack on western conspicuous gluttony to you and me); or perhaps more cynically, just the blowback cost of doing their egregious business. Oh, and they cleverly get taxpayers to pay the bill for this cost with huge increases in anti-terrorism budgets at the CIA, Homeland Security and the FBI, while slashing spending on prosecuting these same Wall Street criminals… Nice work, K Street.
Unfortunately, this video puts it more coherently than the well meaning but incomprehensibly disparate Occupy Movement ever did (apart from the ‘We are the 99%” slogan that is) … Pity… Had hopeful visions of another Bastille Day back then (with less pitchforks and muskets and more placards and bullhorns).
While Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Ted Turner are divesting their huge wealth, doing great and much needed work in the 3rd world, what are the rest of the grotesquely wealthy doing? Oxfam recently reported that, “The world’s 100 richest people earned a stunning total of $240 billion in 2012 – enough money to end extreme poverty worldwide four times over.”. This group also represents only a minuscule number of the 1% worst wealth hoarders. The World Institute for Development Economics Research at the United Nations, released a report in 2006 that indicated that the richest 1% of adults in the world owned a staggering 40% of the planet’s wealth, while the top 10% wallowed in a full 85% of global assets. On the other hand, the bottom 50% of the world’s adult population could only account for a tiny 1% of the world’s wealth. In the last 6 years, which included the GFC, this calamitous situation has got even worse. According to Oxfam’s 2012 report, “The richest 1 percent has increased its income by 60 percent in the last 20 years with the financial crisis accelerating rather than slowing the process,”.
Here’s an idea for somewhere to start… Just shutting off tax havens that enable the wealthy (and corporations) to avoid their obligations to pay tax, would raise $189bn in additional tax revenues, according to Oxfam, and that’s more than enough to end extreme poverty in the world.
Thanks to Shaun C. for sharing the video (I know the video went viral a while back but…).
Zak From Downunder 