News Brief - 'Contagion' Film Review: Great Film, Dubious Politics
Added 2020-03-16 15:52:33 +0000 UTCIn this Patron News Brief we breakdown the dicey ideology of what Vox calls "the most relevant film of 2020" and discuss the complicated tension between the liberal state and police state.
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For Me, Rewatching ‘Contagion’ Was Fun, Until It Wasn’t
Wesley Morris | March 10, 2020 | The New York Times
Contagion’s Screenwriter on Watching His Movie Go Viral
Sam Adams | March 11, 2020 | Slate
‘Contagion’ Writer Scott Z. Burns Calls Out U.S. Response to Coronavirus Pandemic
Allie Gemmill | March 12, 2020 | Collider
National Survival - Racial Imperative
Louis O. Giuffrida | February 25, 1970 | US Army War College
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Comments
Yeah it was an underdeveloped and improvised observation but you’re basically correct we were being too glib. Maybe we should do an episode on this trope, it’s definitely a thing.
Citations Needed
2020-03-19 08:38:47 +0000 UTCOn a podcast about reactionary tropes, you laugh off after 10 seconds literally the original-sin Eve trope that has been weaponized to dehumanize/harm women and strip them of rights for thousands of years. This in an episode where you spend five minutes bewailing the treatment of a male blogger character. I think it’s relevant that in a film (that millions are rewatching right now) whose authoritarian bent you note, the faithless working wife is literally fridged (so moving for the male character!) while our all-American hero lives out a father-daughter survivalist dance with his pure girl child. Hilariously, said hero is played by noted mansplainer and sexual-harassment-minimiser Matt Damon. But yeah, “ha ha, not worth cancelling the movie over” as we rend our garments over Jude Law’s teeth. You do great work. I would just posit that going forward you might consider the humanity and representation of women on par with that of male bloggers and cheated-on dads. Anyway, whatever, hopefully we’ll all still be alive next week.
Emvee
2020-03-19 08:14:45 +0000 UTCwe do not release them publicly sorry.
Citations Needed
2020-03-18 14:52:49 +0000 UTCdefinitely didn't mean to dismiss it. We pointed it out, said it was bad but indicated we didn't think it, alone, was enough reason not to watch the movie.
Citations Needed
2020-03-18 14:21:16 +0000 UTCWhen I read your episode synopsis, the first political aspect of the film I thought of was the treatment of the Gwyneth Paltrow character as a jezebel who basically deserved to die. It’s depressing to hear you dismiss it so lightly. The blind spot for 50% of the population among the lefty male podcaster set is really depressing.
Emvee
2020-03-17 23:53:01 +0000 UTC
