tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024294187880201878.post1159695658297865034..comments2024-03-06T14:34:45.635+00:00Comments on Sparks In Electric Jelly: The DamnedJez Winshiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02785738751849434806noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024294187880201878.post-84780227371214967372015-10-12T15:29:41.634+01:002015-10-12T15:29:41.634+01:00Hi Jez,
Firstly, I'd just like to commend you...Hi Jez,<br /><br />Firstly, I'd just like to commend you on your wonderful blogsite. I first encountered it a couple of years ago when I was doing some background research on Artemis 81 and have been a regular reader ever since.<br />Your review of The Damned is excellent and it prompted me to buy it on DVD. There's not much that I can add to such a comprehensive review other than a couple of observations. I can imagine that the film was quite disturbing and shocking at the time, dealing as it does with psychology and themes of rapid social change and breakdown of deference, something to be amplified in the later '60's with the rise of satire and counterculture.<br />I believe that both Joan and Freya could be viewed as threatening to the then prevailing traditional male attitudes. Joan, although something of a victim displays a conspicuously liberated sexual attitude. Freya is also independent and her own woman. As mentioned King and Joan have an ambiguous relationship and I am wondering (although it could be some Freudian thing on my part!) whether there is an element of repressed homosexuality in King's character. Its in the way he handles the warrior statue in Freya's studio and Joan's mentioning that he has never had a girlfriend. Perhaps the dapper clothing is also connected here, although this may just be aping and subverting of conventional attitudes?<br />Anyway, thanks for a great blog and review.<br />Stewart Mnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024294187880201878.post-36411069155659602602015-10-10T16:33:25.311+01:002015-10-10T16:33:25.311+01:00Hi Jez,
Firstly, I commend you on your wonderful ...Hi Jez,<br /><br />Firstly, I commend you on your wonderful blog. I first came across it when researching Artemis 81, and now regularly read your pieces. Also, thanks for this excellent review of The Damned, which I was prompted to buy on DVD after reading it. Like Artemis 81, I think it is a misunderstood and underrated piece. There's nothing much I can add to your comments except that I can imagine this film as being profoundly unsettling at the time. There is the lack of deference, something to be amplified in the later 1960's with the rise of satire and so on. Also, I can see Joan and Freya as offering a challenge to traditional male attitudes. Although Joan is something of a victim, there is a strong projection of independent female sexuality, surely threatening at the time. Also (and it might be just my mind!) there seems to be something of repressed homosexuality in King. I thought this in his handling of the warrior statue in Freya's studio and in Joan's comments that he had never had a girlfriend. The psychological and existential aspects of the film are, for me, the things that made it most interesting.<br />Anyway, please keep up the good work on your wonderful blog.Stewart Millernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024294187880201878.post-26983202535482566222015-08-10T23:27:05.078+01:002015-08-10T23:27:05.078+01:00Thanks Wes. I've not seen Figures in a Landsca...Thanks Wes. I've not seen Figures in a Landscape, but it does seem to relate quite closely to some elements of The Damned. I love the Dominic Sandbrook books, and did refer to Never Had it So Good whilst writing the notes for this. The Damned is exactly the sort of thing he would make reference to. He certainly loves his science fiction, and evidently has an in-depth knowledge of Doctor Who. There's a good chapter on growing eco-awareness and doomsday scenarios in the 70s in State of Emergency called The Green Death, taking its title from the Jon Pertwee adventure and also making reference to The Changes, Survivors and Doomwatch. I had a brief chat with him after seeing his talk at a Ways with Words literary festival a few years back, just after State of Emergency had been pubished. We didn't talk about politics or the cultural and social upheaval of the times. No, we talked about Doctor Who. And so, in a way, we did talk about those things too. <br />Jez Winshiphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02785738751849434806noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7024294187880201878.post-82813173836404383212015-08-10T21:07:03.901+01:002015-08-10T21:07:03.901+01:00Jez, an outstanding and comprehensively brilliant ...Jez, an outstanding and comprehensively brilliant account of the film. Very little to say about <b><i>The Damned</i></b> on foot of your excellent piece except to say I had no idea Dean Jagger vetoed Losey off <i><b>X the Unknown</b></i>. It's funny, you touched upon the difficulty in labeling the film as a sci-fi pic, or a youth movie and I'm currently re-arranging my DVD collection and was debating where to put the film - alongside my Hammers or alongside <i><b>The Servant</b></i>, <i><b>Accident</b></i> and <i><b>Figures In A Landscape</b></i> (which also features some remarkable use of helicopters!). You quite rightly mentioned the film as an index of the fears and anxieties of the era and I grabbed my copy of Dominic Sandbrook's <i>Never Had It So Good</i> (and it's sequel) to see if the film earned a mention but sadly it doesn't, so I think you scored a great point there.Weshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com