Book and a Movie

So, my laptop’s been out of commish (commiti?) for a little while, but I decided to give follow up on  my post-halloween post with another book and movie recommendation. This week’s theme will be two takes on and celebrations of masculinity.

I saw Ong Bak 2 in theaters recently. Yeah, Tony Jaa is still as badass as he has ever been. Less fist-fighting, more weapons, but still some pretty amazing action sequences. Tony takes on waves of bad guys, and uses his environment a lot more to kill pretty much everyone in his path again. One fight takes place on top of a freaking elephant. The story sucks, or at least it was irrelevant. I won’t try and pretend like I went to see this movie for an anthropological exercise in understanding Thai history/culture. The bad guys are straight up bad guys, and Tony is a vengeful do-gooder with demons in his path and anger in his eyes. I highly recommend it for anyone looking to see some absolute expertise in Muay Thai, Kung Fu, Drunken Monkey, Emo Elephant, and whatever other obscure martial arts Ong Bak employs.

Well-written, and politically incisive.

As for the book, a fitting read for Veteran’s Week was Jon Krakauer’s Where Men Win Glory. It’s the story of Pat Tillman, a Homer-like figure in Krakauer’s eyes who died tragically in a fratricidal firefight in Afghanistan. Much of the story details the narrative of this football player turned political football, and how the government covered up Tillman’s death as friendly fire to raise public morale for their bullshit. To be honest, Afghanistan looks pretty pretty screwed, regardless of American presence, and has been for a considerable amount of time given the U.S.-Soviet proxy war fought there. Krakauer’s book hammered this point home pretty hard. Anyways, I am a bit weary to over-analyze the subtle nostalgia Krakauer creates for masculine, Spartan-esque warfighting, so I will just say that the book left me angry and sad at the seemingly hopeless situation over there. And while I disagree with the governmental conduct of war, in both Iraq and Afghanistan, this work develops a deep appreciation for the sacrificing life as a soldier in uncertain times and uncertain places.