A Brief Unsolicited Enthusiastic Recommendation: Tower

(A new feature. Looking for something to watch? Let this occasional movie blogger be your guide. Presenting "A Brief Unsolicited Enthusiastic Recommendation." First up: Tower from 2016.)

On August 1, 1966 a man with a sniper rifle went to the top of a tower on the campus of the University of Texas and opened fire. For a long time (but not long enough) it held the record for the most deadly school shooting. Tower is a documentary of the 96 minutes the shooter spent on his deadly perch. It is told in typical documentary fashion, with interviews, voiceovers, flashbacks and reenactments. But the reenactments and some interviews are portrayed using rotoscope animation. Rotoscope means that the animation is done overtop of real footage of the subjects. The technique creates a unique look that manages to be both lifelike and abstract.

Reenactments in documentaries can be distracting. The actors often look nothing like the people they portray and the scenes and effects are often cheaply made - like when survivors of a shipwreck are obviously floating in a small pool inside a studio, or when lost hikers survive the night in a cave clearly made out of plaster and foam. The animation in Tower is used brilliantly to avoid being distracting. It seems counterintuitive, but by not attempting to be lifelike re-creation, the animated scenes end up making the action seem more real, true, and vivid. It achieves this while still maintaining its own artistic beauty: the animation itself is just really cool.

The story of the shooting gets to the heart of tragedy and the beautiful things that almost always come out of it. Its focuses on the bravery, selflessness, and heroism of the first responders, classmates, faculty, and citizens who took action during the crisis. It also explores the healing and forgiveness that came after, highlighting the beautiful side of human nature and showing that that side is the dominant one or maybe the only one. There may not be an evil side. The movie doesn’t portray the the shooter as an evil monster or less than human, but as a severely ill individual. That doesn’t make anything he did acceptable or even understandable. But for at least one woman in the film, it helped her forgive and move on. And that’s a beautiful thing.

Tower is currently available on Netflix.

(Even if rotoscope-animated school shooting documentaries aren't your typical fare, give it a try. You won't be disappointed.)

TOWER Trailer from keith maitland on Vimeo.

#99 - Toy Story (1995) - John Lasseter

 

Original concept art, from Time's story from the movie's 20th anniversary.

I have a special guest for this post. We watched Toy Story as a family and he wanted to help me do my work on it. So, presenting the boy himself: Harrison the 4-year-old. I interviewed him and typed his answers exactly as he gave them.

Why do you like Toy Story?

Because ... umm … umm ... cus it’s … cus I like shows … and movies.

What was your favorite part?

The very end. The end of it.

Why?

Because they, Buzz Lightyear was flying … with that rocket. That rocket dangerous thing.

Who do you like better, Buzz or Woody and why?

Buzz because he can fly.

What did you think of the animation?

What’s animation?

The way it looks

I like the colours. Every single colour.

What else do you like about Toy Story?

That’s about all.

You can’t think of anything else you like about it?

It was scary.

What was scary about it?

The part that the dog was chasing them.

But they got away right?

Yeah. Dad! Can we do that again tonight? Watch a movie and set up a blanket and have popcorn and watch a movie? Please please please please dad … again tonight?

Tell me some more things about Toy Story. What do you think of Woody?

Umm good.

What about him though?

His hat. Cus it has that stuff all around it… that edgy stuff, that stuff, you know?

What’s better Toy Story or Curious George and why?

George. Cus George has black hair and black body.

No he doesn’t!

Yeah he does. He does.

It’s brown.

No. Black. Black, dad. Oh there’s where my dinosaur went! I was looking for this dinosaur for all day!! Roar!! My dinosaur cave!! Roar!! [Harrison trails off talking to and for the dinosaur].

So there you have it. He really did like the dog chase scene – he pulled himself into a ball and clenched his teeth and his whole body until the danger passed. And what more can be said about Woody’s hat?

Harry has seen the movie a few times and I’ve seen it a few more. I don’t remember the first time I saw it. I would have been about 10 years old and I probably assumed it was another Disney movie like all my favorites. It was the first of Pixar’s films and the first full-length computer animated movie ever released, which was a big deal but not to me or any other kid. And apparently not to the reviewers and awards voters. We all loved it not because of its animation style, but in spite of it.

It may have pioneered a way of making movies, but it isn’t difficult to appreciate the way some pioneers are. Sometimes looking back on the firsts of their kind can be underwhelming – their techniques and innovations have been developed and refined, and the original looks crude by comparison. But it doesn’t take much effort to love Toy Story. It’s a warm, inventive comedy full of witty jokes, and clever in ways many animated movies were not. And so it’s the same for a 10-year-old seeing it for the first time, a 30-year-old seeing it for the 100^th time, and a 4-year-old who just ‘likes shows and movies’. By exploring issues that anyone can relate to – friendship, our place in the world, wanting to be loved – Toy Story transcends generations and escapes the difficulty of being appreciated as a trend-setter. It may have created a new form of story-telling, but the story it tells is what we remember.

Toy Story pioneered not just a film-making technique but a new kind of movie. Pixar movies have become a genre by themselves and we now expect to be moved and warmed and touched by any movie the company puts out. Toy Story started that. And like most pioneers, Toy Story’s innovations have been surpassed by other advancements and developments. The animation it pioneered has come a long way and its style looks crude by today’s standards. The toys still look good – they chose to do a movie about toys largely because the animation of the time made everything look plastic. But they managed to turn plastic into living, emotional, and unforgettable characters. The animation in today’s movies may have surpassed the animation in Toy Story, but modern movies are still trying to live up to the high standard of story-telling set by Buzz, Woody, and the gang.

And even if some of the animation’s age is showing, like Harrison, we can always appreciate the colours. Every single one.