McNeil's Movie Korner

Welcome once again to "McNeil's Movie Korner," the place where I cut-and-paste emails from McNeil and call it a "blog." This email came from McNeil today: "Think about the way Ed Crane, in THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE, says 'What's the matter, Dave?' as he walks into Big Dave's office the second time just before the ***** scene in which ** ***** *** **** [redacted on account of spoilers - ed.]. Doesn't Ed's monotone voice remind you of Hal's, from 2001? I think Hal even says that line, maybe several times. There's a lot more to talk about regarding that topic, but I've already talked about it in class..." I wrote McNeil back, mentioning "the UFO angle" in both films, to which McNeil responded, "Actually the 'whole UFO angle' (as you so quaintly put it) has more to do with Nietzsche's idea of eternal recurrence than anything else. Big Dave is abducted by UFOs on a camping trip before the movie begins, and then Ed is visited by UFOs before ** ** ********. The idea of eternal recurrence is first introduced in the film during the opening credits with the shot of the barber's pole...the stripes seem to go up and up, but it's an optical illusion of course - they don't actually 'go' anywhere (or come from anywhere for that matter)." And I was all, "Whoa." I was like, "Back up, Einstein." I was like, "How about saying that in English, Poindexter?" But it did make me think of THE HUDSUCKER PROXY (like THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE a Coen Bros. film) what with the hoop and the clock and the circle of life (which Norville equates with reincarnation, and now think of the great big space baby in 2001, yeah, you know the one I'm talking about).