“Great are the stars. And Humankind are of no account to them.
But Humankind is a fair spirit.
Whom a star conceived.
And a star kills.”
—Johann Johannsson’s LAST AND FIRST MEN
I do not know why I was much moved by this movie.
I found myself at the end of it replaying that last Tilda Swinton uttered line.
I do not know why I was much moved.
Except this sole posthumous directorial creation, by the late, great composer Johann Johannsson (his SICARIO is one of my favorite scores) strikes me hard. Hard for his loss on top of my own myriad losses. The loss of a vibrant voice in music and now film, poorer we are all made.
The film is good. Adapted by Johannson from the source novel by Olaf Stapledon, there is in the film something that brings to mind the late, great Saul Bass’ sole directorial effort… PHASE IV.
Something about shapes, and structures, and group mind, and communication, and the fleeting nature of the concreteness of man ringing a chord between the two movies. But ultimately those themes are just that, thematic similarities, and this film, LAST AND FIRST MEN, feels wholly its own animal, its own brilliance.
I was moved by this film.
And the reasons for my being moved are as much about the film as they are about me, and about chords struck between the micro, and the macro. The fiction of the movie and the truth of my life.
My life personal. Which like most lives, is never far from being in shambles. And my life as part of a larger society, a larger zeitgeist, which itself is even closer to being in shambles.
it is 2024 at this writing and this world as it always is, is beset by the machinations of the venal, and the power-hungry and the mad and the ignorant.
We grope toward giving rights to inhuman symbols, corporations, machines, manufactured men… and all the while work tirelessly to strip away the rights of mankind. We look to grant rights to inhuman symbols of corporations and machines, when we can not even give respect and rights, to each other. To those born under the same sun, and beset by the same winds.
As I write this, in myriad places in the world, people are being…destroyed. Liberties usurped, lives… snuffed out.
And our lives are too… too fleeting for that.
Too fleeting to waste even one of them, in such pettiness.
Look up…. there are wonders
Look in… there are wonders
Look out… there are wonders
We can be better than this.
2024… we can be better than this. We can be better than those who play us fool. And have us squander ourselves for their amusement.
A mob is easily ruled.
Be better than that,
Be not a race of master less men seeking a master… be what you truly are
Be the stuff of stars
and see and act
toward nobler goals than money and hate and death.
I was much moved by this film.
It spoke of a larger world view. A humanistic world view.
And we need that more than ever, to save us from the fools.
Look up.
Movie of the day…. LAST AND FIRST MEN.
Catch it via your free Library or other Streaming service. Or pick up the Blu-ray. It is a keeper.
Heroic Times 