#the convent scene is basically imprinted in my brain

[beemaya]

Whenever I see this take, the moment ron turnes, I wonder what is going through his head. Because he's hesitant and he looks tired, not only because of the whole war, the different type of tired, when you just want someone to talk to, someone to put your trust into. When you want a friend. Because in the show, we see ron always alone, distant from the camaraderie (that is, before he's adopted by the crazy easy company lol), I'd say he felt lonely, I'd say he wanted his new first sergeant to like him because that's what he heard about him: carwood lipton is this ray of sunshine, he treats everyone who deserves it with kindness. Ron wants him to know he deserves it, he wants him to know the rumors aren't true.

However, I think the conversation with lip made him question what he knew about carwood lipton, it made him think carwood will be wary and prejudiced because of those rumors. Or maybe he'll just keep his distance. Either way, ron didn't want that. Yes, ron basically denied those rumors but what if it didn't mean anything to lipton? What if he'd be once again feared and looked at through fingers?

When Ron turned, i think he fully expected to hear something else than what carwood said, something that would make the perfect and positive first sergeant look more like everyone else. But no, carwood proved to ron that he was exactly what ron heard about him: a good person, great first sergeant. And ron tells him, he makes sure carwood knows he respects him just like carwood respects ron.

Carwood saw in him something else than the gossip and I think that solely for that, ron would do anything the man asked of him.

[montyterrible]

Ernest Gets Faustian

Slam Dunk Ernest (1995) not only breaks the naming convention (“Ernest” + verb + noun) of the Ernest series of movies, but it’s also the first of a direct-to-video “trilogy” of sorts, followed by Goes to Africa (1997) and In the Army (1998). Maybe there’s something either auspicious or ominous in there somewhere. Like, is it a decline or the beginning of something? It’s fun revisiting these movies because of how they’re simultaneously so familiar that they’re basically imprinted on my brain, with just the slightest exposure or reflection basically unfolding an entire mental film reel, while also feeling kind of fresh for how I now get to look at them with adult eyes, looking for signs of low-budget production (for one thing) or zeroing in on elements I either glossed over or didn’t appreciate fully as a kid.

While I always knew about the supernatural elements of this story—with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s “Archangel of Basketball” versus Jay Brazeau’s Mr. “Moloch,” with Ernest as a sort of proxy for both in their play for something like a little piece of the young boy Quincy’s soul—I really appreciated the elements of weirdness and the layering of plot and theme that happen in the movie on this re-watch. I did not actually know who the mythological Moloch was back then, for one thing.

For another, there’s a kind of surreal seduction scene in a limo where Ernest is tempted by Moloch and the already fallen Erma Terradiddle, which is a literal hell of a name in this case, with garish lighting and visions of a successful Ernest that include him strutting the catwalk in this funny parody of a fashionable leather get-up just kind of draped over his usual denim outfit. He and Erma repeating “And me! And more money!” in this intimate sort of way over and over again definitely registered with me as more unsettling and, dare I say… erotic this time. Ernest arriving at the big game in a garish sort of popemobile accompanied by a bunch of people in animal costumes was also a nice weird, surreal touch. Earlier in the movie, there’s even a little small-scale representation of the large-scale heaven versus hell conflict where three of Ernest’s teammates arrange themselves in front of him in the locker room in a configuration that recalls one man with an angel and a devil on his shoulders.

It sounds weird to focus on something like emotion in an Ernest movie, but I kind of Felt this one, more so than Goes to Jail or Africa: seeing Ernest slowly lose his way and become less of the true-hearted bumbler he’s meant to be as Quincy simultaneously starts disrespecting his father, how Erma has her own arc of losing her soul to Moloch (and not breaking free in the end!), how the team breaks down thanks to Ernest’s supernatural abilities stealing the show out from under them, and how Ernest has his locker room epiphany and starts to throw the game so that the guys have to go back out there on their own and win with “hard work” like they need to for everyone to more or less get what they deserve... I guess I wouldn’t call it “original,” but I’d call it “competent,” as backhanded as that might sound. It’s an Ernest Sports Movie with a supernatural twist, and I think it pulls of its little story of temptation effectively.   

And, yes, it is also funny. The opening scene with kid Ernest, where he tries to shoot a basketball and it ends up causing chaos, with the ball ping-ponging from one innocent victim to the next, is really funny in that way where only the actual physical presence of actors and objects playing off one another (I think) can be. There’s a similarly visceral gag where Ernest tries to go to bed with the sentient shoes the Archangel gives him still on his feet, and, after a beat of calm, his legs burst from beneath the covers and try to run away on opposite sides of the bed in a manner that’s clearly unrealistic but all the funnier for it. In that vein, there are a fair number of scenes where Jim Varney gets to pretend to struggle against his own body (against the aforementioned shoes, but also trying to take a hat off his head at one point), and it just looks like a lot of fun. Obviously, Ernest’s physicality is a big part of the humor of the character, and a sports movie gives him room to indulge. It really makes sense as a vehicle for this brand of comedy, and that it comes packaged with the supernatural and heartfelt stuff just enhances it for me.