One of the problems with region coding is that all those lovely USA DVDs are simply useless here. Our TVs are incompatible and the zone code is quite different. And this is a problem.
The son has a set movie to critique for English, and it is the 2001 version of “Enemy at the Gates”
I went through this with the older boy, but that time the movie was Gattica. Yes, both movies have Jude Law in them, and many would consider them not that suitable for 15 year old boys, but at least it was not the hunger games.
I learned the first time to buy a copy of the DVD as the boy will have to watch it multiple times to explain how the music, the lighting, the camera angle… and how it affects the dialogue. It kills enjoyment of the movies, but who am I to argue with those who have destroyed the love of English in this nation? .
But Game of Thrones is not available on retail. And, since Amazon sells USA or UK coded disks and neither work, you go to Mighty Ape. Who send you emails about new products. Such as this.
What the hell. Firstly Hunger games is a really poorly written book. But it empowers the girls and makes them feel strong because the main character somehow survives (no one doubts her courage) by working with a boy who loves her and who is smart — even though she loves the quarterback hunk (who is not in the games-to-the-death). So we now have a Barbie doll of her.
Which is wrong on so many levels.
And the main one is hinted in — under the radar, as it will — unspoken in the first movies. It took the courage of men, pushing themselves to their limits, to win at Stalingrad or to subvert the tyranny of DNA in Gattica. Women empowered? Sort of. But that happens because it is safe for them to be there.
I’m, not implying that the courage of women is not worthy of honour, It is. Any woman who raised a child has to work at times with raw courage, for each pregnancy is a risk, childhood is full of hazards, and you will then have to let them into a hard world. But at the extremes, away from the ordinary travails of this life, there are men. At the extremes. And these modern rangers protect the realm. often in the most unpleasant environments, and at great personal risk.
Soldiers, Explorers, Adventurers… using their youth up in service for these at home. For the women they know. And for their tribe, their nation. (And this is a young man’s game, by thirty you are too slow, too old, and are left behind). Some women have the temperament, but most cannot meet the physical demands — carrying 30-50 kg around. all day, every day, for 12 to 16 hours at a time.
I see the casualties of this in my gym: all the men, my age, who have chronic injuries. Including me: In my case left after the sport I pursued (when I was not physically equipped for it, but I loved).
In the end, most adventures are best experienced as stories. At the time, you were cold, wet and sore (if lucky) or nursing a series of injuries (if unlucky). There is one virtue: in the bush you can think what you like. And be by yourself, enjoying its beauty.
The current female warrior meme would be silly. If it was not taken so seriously. Wise women would leave it to the men. They do it to protect women and children. And in raising them, bearing them (which men cannot do) there is enough pain in this life.