October 3, 2016
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children- Mini Review by G
"Because there is very little honor left in American life, there is a certain built-in tendency to destroy masculinity in American men."
-- Norman Mailer
Well, I always liked the above quote, but today I'd have to replace the word "tendency" with "perverted program."
Hi Henry, I'm just back from seeing Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. No, don't count on me for a cohesive review. I only have my reactions. Very weird and confusing movie where kids are stuck in a time loop that repeats the same 24 hours over and over again. Just happens to be the 24 hours before a Nazi bomb was about to be dropped on them during World War Two. Many Holocaust references, too, as the backdrop for this "kid's movie," with the villains being called "Hollowgasts," if my ears heard correctly.
But the very worst thing, and the thing I just had to get home to tell you about is the portrayal of the main character's father. He is presented as mush, and clueless, and totally unconnected emotionally to his teenage son. I was fuming when the thing was over. I kept waiting for dad to come to the rescue and for some love to flow, but Noooooooo! He just stayed dumb and vacant. Just one more of the (no exaggeration) hundreds of times I've seen men trivialized in the movies and t.v. It made me sick.
How very sad, let alone dangerous. Sad because the programming is certainly working, and the beautiful power that was/is men is dissolving and disappearing, taking with it the natural drive to be strong and heroic, to be a defender and protector of all that is good and innocent. Dangerous, because this makes us all more vulnerable, more unprotected, left open to the assaults of a ruthless and freedom-killing control machine. Yes, Henry, I know that few know this better than you, and I am grateful that you have been shining a light here for many, many years.
We know true masculinity has been hijacked by the military, turned into an upside-down perversion, using strength to kill, courage to plunder, and power to overpower. Can we rescue it back to where it belongs: to serving, protecting and uplifting humanity? Some of us love men just the way they are, the way they've been for millennia. For those altered by the tampering, I hope their essence can be reclaimed, and their determinism restored. So much at stake.
