Top 5 round silver discs that landed at my home
A DVD Netflix meditation following its recent transmigration.
DVD Netflix shipped their last silver disc yesterday morning.
Save one DVD¹, I’m proud to say I #GotThroughMyQueue. DVD Netflix was cool because I could keep a list of movies people recommended and eventually watch them. It was also fun getting discs in the mail. The one feature it missed was a “notes” option where I could add why I added a disc to my queue or who recommended it to me. Some of them were from an awesome recommendations algorithm RSS feed², that Netflix unceremoniously shutdown years ago. I watched 245 discs since 2010. Sans the notes feature, I can’t remember why most of them were in my queue. If you remember recommending one of these five to me, thank you!
Here are my top 5 most influential out of the 245. Somehow, they all ripped off Return of the Jedi.
Spoilers ahead.
5 Das Boot (1981) — This is up there with Platoon, Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket when it comes to films that put the dumb social psychology of war under a microscope and then epoxy it to your corneas. Watch the director’s cut with the subtitles, I believe the translations are improved from the theatrical version.
What stuck with me:
- Lt. Werner’s character arc. Apparently previous English translations ruin what he says towards the end of the movie, “…I was drunk with those words.” I don’t think the full updated translations are available as text on the web.
- The Banquet Scene. The submarine captain and crew at the banquet know that officers can’t possibly comprehend what they’ve been through, but don’t have the energy to say much about it. The officers are so dumbstruck, placating and naive, it’s hard to watch. The dialogue about how a “hero” describes eating a fig is a perfect example.
How it ripped off Jedi: Lt. Werner is Darth Vader, the British Navy is Luke Skywalker.
4 Rebecca (1940) — “Garçon, coffee!” You know who said it first? It wasn’t Tim Roth, but it could have been Laurence Olivier. This film is awesome because the antagonist is dead the whole time, and she’s still terrifying. If you’ve ever felt like a nameless hayseed, you will appreciate this film.
What stuck with me: Karma. Often times people think of karma as bad people getting their comeuppance, like “the arc of history is long but it bends towards justice.” But that’s just one of many ways to think about it. Rebecca’s karmic legacy is not like that. She’s terrifying in death precisely because she was so admired for her beauty, grace and status in life.
How it ripped off Jedi: The Window Scene is the Throne Room Scene. Rebecca is The Emperor and The Second Mrs. de Winter is Luke Skywalker (who was also a hayseed).
3 A Ghost Story (2017) — If you told me in middle school that as an adult I’d love a film with five full minutes of a woman eating pie… and also kind of about Friedrich Nietzsche… Middle School Craig would say “that makes perfect sense because philosophy is fascinating!” This is a little like Jack and Rose in Titanic, except Casey Affleck doesn’t pointlessly die at the end — he dies pointfully at the beginning AND pointfully at the end.
What stuck with me: Satisfied minds and enlightenment. Neither of which are in the film but, in the parlance of our time, I’ll say they’re in the penumbra.
Jeff Buckley’s version of “Satisfied Mind” goes like so.
Money can’t buy back all your youth when you’re old
A friend, when you’re lonely, or peace to your soul
The wealthiest person is a pauper at times
Compared to the man with a satisfied mindWhen my life is over and my time has run out
My friends and my loved ones, I will leave, there’s no doubt
But, one thing’s for certain, when it comes my time
I’ll leave this old world with a satisfied mind
In Theravada Buddhism there are people who die not experiencing enlightenment but, based on their eradication of some of the ten fetters in their previous life, will experience enlightenment in one of their next seven lifetimes. One way to think of The Note is something that once read removes a fetter (maybe conceit, ill-will or jealously).
How it ripped off Jedi: The Pie is Jabba the Hutt, The Note is enlightenment frozen in carbonite and Friedrich Nietzsche is Bib Fortuna — like maybe if he didn’t spend so much time talking to unsavory pies, he would have lived longer.
2 Fish Story (2009) — I thought this was a documentary about a Japanese punk band. It’s really a film about the metaphysics of the universe. Champions of Justice come in groups of five to save humanity. Listen to your records even if today is the day that the world ends.
What stuck with me: This film is also about karma in its own way. “Keep making music. Keep making art. Keep doing whatever it is that you’re doing, and believe in yourself.” That’s not a quote from the film, Eddie Vedder said that in an mp3 that’s long since been forgotten by Google. Karma is also sometimes defined as intention, and this film is about actions of judicious and injudicious intent and how they shape the future.
How it ripped off Jedi: The Comet is the Death Star. Earth is Endor. Humans are Ewoks. The Indian Space Research Organization is The Millennium Falcon, Music is The Will of The Force, The News Anchor Who Looks Like Carl Sagan is R2D2 and/or C3PO.
1 Crazy People (1990)— At the exact moment when I needed to play this silver disc the most, it landed at my home. I was really sick. Recovering from sensory neuropathy kind of sick — but not knowing at the time if I actually was going to recover. I needed something playful, goofy and oddly inspirational.
What stuck with me: Even if all you can do is say ‘hello,’ there’s still opportunities for creativity and novelty in life.
How it ripped off Jedi: Hello is Yoda.
Honorable mentions
- The Grey (2011) — Profound film. If they had spent a few more dollars on the effects, especially on the wolves, it wouldn’t have taken me out of the last scene. That being said, I repeat the nameless poem on days when the circumstances demand it.
- Solaris (1972) — The story of Andrei Tarkovsky making this film in Soviet Russia out-shadows the film itself, which is incredible under the circumstances.
- PBS American Experience: The Civilian Conservation Corps (2009) — Best documentary of however many were in the 245.
¹ The Brave Little Toaster, never seen in glorious 480p. I had this at the top of my queue, but apparently Netflix didn’t have many copies…
² It lived here: http://dvd.netflix.com/RecommendationsRSS?id=[some unique identifier or whatever]
EDIT: A small number of people had their recommendations archived on The WayBack Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://dvd.netflix.com/RecommendationsRSS*