Red Eyes at Night

[rozk]

I just rewarded myself for the new chapter - I really am going to finish this book by October 31st - by watching Wes Craven's Red Eye and was really rather taken with it. Especially since I found myself reading the ending as being suddenly surprisingly slashtastic. For those who have not seen the movie, Lisa (Rachel McAdams) is chatted up slightly creepily by Jack (Cillian Murphy) while they wait for their storm-delayed plane and then he turns up in the next seat. She is the bookings manager at the hotel where a Homeland Security bigwig always stays - he has a man at her father's house who will kill father unless she moves the bigwig's room to one easily blown up with a missile from the harbour. She eventually complies and then stabs him in the throat with a stolen pen and gets off the plane ahead of him, and warns her subordinate just in time. She gets to the house in time to run over the accomplice before he can kill her father. Jack turns up and she has the advantage of knowing the turf. Between them, she and her father kill him. Then she goes back to the hotel, where guests are bullying her subordinate, Cynthia - she tells them to go frak themselves and drags Cynthia off to drink champagne.

Earlier, Jack, who has studied her, comments on how she has no life apart from work and attributes this to an earlier rape. And actually she is keen to get back to the hotel even after she and father have killed Jack - obviously to check her girlfriend is OK. She has no life except the hotel because she works with her life...And they are such a cute couple.

Also, I quite like the idea that he consistently underestimates what she can do, because of totally misreading her situation and seeing her as someone who has been left frightened of life, rather than someone who is actually quite happy.

Murphy is terribly good in the film; McAdams is surprisingly OK. The bit when she stabs him in the throat with the pen is amazingly cool because even though you know she has it, you don't know what she is going to do.

%%%%

So, actual charges, actual evidence. I wait to be convinced that the plan was actually doable - but if they made martyr videos, they at least thought they were going to die and kill. If they made them. If that is what they are.

Justice delayed is justice denied applies not least because when we don't know the truth of things, stupid bigoted things like turning Asian pilots off planes are more likely to happen. I really hope we don't have to wait two years for a trial.

Comments

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

So next they'll confiscate pens...

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

There is a confusion about what 'martyrdom videos' means...

If its the accused themselves recording their farewell declaration then this is evidence that something was going on. It might just be an equivalent of an 'initiation ritual', but it would indicate they were connected with something murky.

If, instead, its a copy of someone else's martyrdom statement then its much less compelling evidence. If this was found on a computer it might just indicate they they'd downloaded it once to have a look at, or might even be a cached segment from an al-Jazeera news broadcast.

We won't know until there's a proper trial, and I'm a little annoyed that the police, politicians and media are conspiring to paint things as black as possible for these individuals long before any trial happens.

[rozk.livejournal.com]

Since one of the most violent and shocking moments in the film is the point when he knocks her out by butting her in the head, they will have to confiscate foreheads as well.

[rozk.livejournal.com]

If they recorded the videos themselves, and did not intend actually to do anything, they are foolish to a point which beggars description. The same applies to the claim of the July 22nd accused that they were trying to make a point and never intended to let their bombs off.

But yes, a proper trial for both groups as soon as remotely practicable.

If it turns out that they were looking at other people's suicide videos, then the same applies, with an additional subtext of unpleasant voyeurism. But yes, there is no such crime as being a total wanker.

[(Anonymous)]

Alas, given defence lawyers ability (and propreensity) to delay and the fact that all of them will be to be tried together (with any others who are to be charged)- so someone is going to see tactical advantage in delay - I would regard 2 years as the minimum period for starting a trial of this complexity - and it won't be a short trial either,

Graham

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

Teens and early twneties in inward-looking groups do stupid things like this all the time. Some of the stuff I got up to as a student scares me these days and, in the current climate, might get me (or someone else) shot or arrested.