Good ol' future boys: Interstellar and sci-fi's obsession with Americana

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Jessica Chastain and Casey Affleck stand amid the cornfields in Interstellar. Photograph: Legendary Pictures/Allstar

Before Interstellar got anywhere near the CGI labs, Christopher Nolan went back to the land. Maize is the Earths last viable crop in the films near-future, and before filming began the director decided his team would go the full Jolly Green Giant. After consultation with respected agricultural authority Zack Snyder, who had grown a field of the stuff for Man of Steel, Nolans team laid down 500 acres just south of Calgary, Canada. They mowed down some with a 4x4, burned a fair load of the rest. But there was still enough maize left that Interstellar actually ended up making money on its farming offshoot.

The endless green sea of crop, the white clapboard homestead, Malick magic-hour glow breaking over the top of good ol boy narration. Interstellar, from the very first trailer, seemed so rooted in the homespun imagery of the American heartlands, I half-expected Matthew McConaughey to enter the wormhole in a rocket-boosted combine harvester.

But its only the latest in a recent group of films to cloak sci-fi futures in classic Americana: Rian Johnsons Looper (2012) posits a world dominated by China, but its climax boils down to a telekinetic dustup on a Kansas homestead; in 2011s Real Steel, Hugh Jackman and his clapped-out robot fly the flag for troubled US rust-belt industry in an age of hi-tech automaton fighting bouts; the denizens of 22nd-century Los Angeles in In Time (2011) may have potentially infinite lifespans, but they still drive around in Lincoln Continentals and loiter near the Sixth Street viaduct, noirish backdrop of choice since the 1970s. Even Transformers has been getting down-home, with Age of Extinction picking a backwoods Texas farm to host the first epic robot battle. Well see what kind of spin the forthcoming Westworld TV series, to be developed by Interstellar screenwriter Jonathan Nolan, puts on wild-west Americana.

This new wave of sci-fi Americana isnt quite retro-futurism as we know it (though Interstellars pseudo Dust Bowl-era talking-head interviews flirt with that, as do Loopers blunderbuss-armed hitmen and In Times noir fetish). Its much more austere and earnest, an assertion that timeless American values can play just as much a part in shaping the future as technological prowess.

The same self-reliance and ingenuity that hauled Americans across their continent will get them across the cosmos is Interstellars message. Its mission to the stars is led by the remnants of Nasa, and the films simple white spacesuits and blazing atmosphere-exit footage are meant to suggest continuity with the 1960s and 70s space programme, the last great period of US frontiersmanship. America can still do this, Nolan solemnly cheerleads throughout the film; his mouthpiece is McConaugheys character, Cooper, a maverick manqu who belongs among the envelope-pushing hotshots of The Right Stuff.

Alfonso Cuarn presumably agrees about the land of the free: in Gravity, Sandra Bullock might be headed for the Russian and Chinese space stations (symbolism alert!) the emerging economies of our time but only under the guidance of George Clooneys yarn-spinning, country-music-listening, old-timer space cowboy, the literal touchstone amid the void who opens the film.

Back in the real world, theres one pressing practical reason for the Americana revival. The countrys dynamic cityscapes and wisecracking gumption were once the default blockbuster mode, but the physical and spiritual presence of America on screen has been watered down as Hollywoods audience has become more global. You can see films like Gravity, Age of Extinction, Interstellar and its mentor-in-agronomics Man of Steel (which also majored in midwestern imagery) as attempts to keep the US audience on side by returning to hallowed classic scenery, while still cranking up the technological CGI blast that now powers the global blockbuster industry.

If Hollywood is working out how much allegiance it owes to America, its not surprising that Americana sci-fi also displays a worrisome side regarding the national identity. Farming, that midwest mainstay, is linked with a kind of perilous subsistence thinking in Interstellar depending on the land for food, rather than striking out in search of bold new possibilities. Cooper only practises it reluctantly. Meanwhile, Loopers hip young hitmen, sent their instructions by time-travel from crime syndicates in the future, are the ultimate US consumers. To the extent of consuming themselves: they live it up in the short term on their criminal proceeds, with the knowledge that they will one day themselves be sent back in time to be killed. Suddenly, the Kansan sugar-cane fields where they off their victims look like a regressive dumping ground for the films hi-tech, Chinese-dominated future. The hitmens retro, cravat-fetishing affectations are mocked by their paymaster: The movies that youre dressing like are just copying other movies. Do something new, huh?

Interstellar, Looper and Real Steel in which Hugh Jackmans obsolete robot Atom is forever on the verge of annihilation by newer models all pose the question: is it the end of the line for American trailblazing? Nolans film amounts to 166 minutes of agonising about whether further expansion is possible for mankind; in business terms, Hollywood currently faces a parallel dilemma of trying to find unsaturated markets and new creative paths in order to keep growing. One solution is to not to expand at all, but to rejuvenate the US economy from within. Like the post-credit-crunch boom in small business entrepreneurs detailed by New Yorker writer George Packer in his 2013 book The Unwinding; folk returning to the land and repurposing it for 21st-century needs, like biodiesel.

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Good ol' future boys: Interstellar and sci-fi's obsession with Americana

CHRIS ROCK Reveals 9/11 Secrets! New Freedom Tower Opens ONE GOD HOUR After Twin Towers! – Video

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CHRIS ROCK Reveals 9/11 Secrets! New Freedom Tower Opens ONE GOD HOUR After Twin Towers!
The numbers don #39;t lie. The original Twin Towers Opened on 4-4-73 and would fall just before the 44th President. The New Freedom Tower would open under the 44th President one GOD HOUR after...

By: Enterthe5t4rz

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CHRIS ROCK Reveals 9/11 Secrets! New Freedom Tower Opens ONE GOD HOUR After Twin Towers! - Video

Visit Budapest, Hungary: Things to do in Budapest – The Capital of Freedom – Video

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Visit Budapest, Hungary: Things to do in Budapest - The Capital of Freedom
Visit Budapest - Top 10 Things which can be done in Budapest. What you can visit in Budapest - Most visited touristic attractions of Budapest City Park A public park close to the centre. It...

By: talancuta

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Visit Budapest, Hungary: Things to do in Budapest - The Capital of Freedom - Video

Candidate Linda Small campaigns in her home of New Freedom with campaign workers. #yorkvote @ydrcom – Video

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Candidate Linda Small campaigns in her home of New Freedom with campaign workers. #yorkvote @ydrcom
Candidate Linda Small campaigns in her home of New Freedom with campaign workers. #yorkvote @ydrcom By: Flint McColgan Published on: November 5, 2014 Source: http://www.tout.com/m/8i65lr.

By: York Daily Record/Sunday News

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Candidate Linda Small campaigns in her home of New Freedom with campaign workers. #yorkvote @ydrcom - Video

Britain's Prince Charles urges religious freedom, tolerance

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Britain's Prince Charles has called on governments around the world to do more to ensure religious freedom.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- Britain's Prince Charles has called on governments around the world to do more to ensure religious freedom and urged religious leaders to promote tolerance between people of different faiths.

In a video message recorded to accompany the release of a new report on religious freedom, Charles said current events in Iraq and Syria -- where Sunni extremist group ISIS has been massacring people of other faiths and sectarian tensions have flared -- were "horrendous and heartbreaking."

"We've learned with mounting despair of the expulsion of Christians, Muslims and Yazidis from towns and cities that their ancestors have occupied for centuries," he said.

"It is an indescribable tragedy that Christianity is now under such threat in the Middle East, an area where Christians have lived for 2,000 years and across which Islam spread in 700 A.D., with people of different faiths living together peaceably for centuries."

The report, by Roman Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, highlights the plight of Christians in particular, saying they "remain the most persecuted faith in the world."

It adds that "Muslims also face serious persecution; often from other Muslims who do not share their exact same beliefs," while Jews in parts of Western Europe are increasingly feeling threatened, prompting many to move to Israel.

Prince Charles, who is heir to the British throne, pointed out that the issue of religious intolerance also affects some African nations and many countries across Asia.

But some hope can be found in the efforts of certain communities and faith leaders who work to overcome division and hatred, and seek instead to engage in interfaith dialogue, he said.

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Britain's Prince Charles urges religious freedom, tolerance

Freedom ousts Fairview girls from PIAA soccer playoffs

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The Freedom girls soccer team had virtually no PIAA playoff experience heading into Tuesday's match against Fairview.

The Bulldogs looked like a veteran team in a big situation.

Freedom jumped on Fairview with two goals in the first 18 minutes and hung on against a second-half surge to upset the Tigers 3-2 in a PIAA Class A first-round match in front of 100 fans at Veterans Stadium.

"We gave too much away in the first half," Fairview coach Lyndsay Voriska said. "We couldn't get it all back in the second half. We changed things up and changed our formation. It definitely helped, but it wasn't enough."

Freedom (14-9-0), which reached its first WPIAL final last week and earned its first PIAA playoff win Tuesday, moves on to the quarterfinals Saturday.

The Bulldogs wasted no time during the afternoon match as Lyndsey Kauffman found Alexa Schwab for a goal in the fifth minute. Freedom extended its lead to 2-0 in the 18th minute when Kauffman found Taylor Petroff, who launched a deep shot to the top of the net.

"We told the girls we needed to score first with the wind behind us in the first half," Freedom coach Colin Williams said. "I was disappointed we gave one back in the first half, but we survived. We didn't play well last week in the WPIAL final and needed to get back to playing good soccer. We played tough and I think we deserved this one."

Freedom nearly scored again on a corner kick with 20 minutes left but it finally cashed in on one 3 minutes later. Petroff launched a corner to the middle of the box, which Kauffman headed in to make it 3-0 Bulldogs.

Fairview (19-2-0) responded immediately as Jordyn Sanner ripped a deep shot less than one minute later to get the Tigers on the board.

In the second half, Mya Fanazini set up Antonia Piazza, who scored from 30 yards out to cut the Freedom lead to 3-2.

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Freedom ousts Fairview girls from PIAA soccer playoffs

Haunted Files': The dark side of progressivism

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New Yorks liberal intelligentsia doubtless gave knowing nods last week when Sen. Mary Landrieu noted, The South hasnt always been the friendliest place for African-Americans.

After all, coastal progressives love to mock the ignorance and racism of other parts of the country.

Yet New Yorks intellectuals have their own history of ignorance and racism. Indeed, that history is on view now at a new exhibit at New York University.

Haunted Files: The Eugenics Records Office recreates an organization once housed in Cold Spring Harbor. Opened in 1910, the offices purpose was nothing less than the improvement of the human race. Its lead scientist (if you can call him that) was Harvard biologist Charles Davenport, assisted by Princeton alum Harry Laughlin.

With funding from the Carnegie Institution, the Rockefeller Foundation and land donated by the Harriman family (whose money came from the railroads), the Eugenics Records Office had the financial backing of the most important and forward thinking folks of the time.

With file cabinets, typewriters, meticulously edited letters and baskets for sorting correspondence, the office recreated at NYU seems the model of efficiency for the period.

Efficiency in service of what? Just look at the pedigree charts that try to sort out the race and genetic traits of different members of a family.

Eugenicists applied Mendels genetic theories about the inheritance of recessive genes in plants to human beings. There are files on dwarfism, sexual perversion and mulattoes.

Everything is neatly organized from newspaper clippings about mixed-race children to correspondence from field researchers about rates of degeneracy in particular populations.

More of the banality of evil than one thought could fit in a so few square feet.

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Haunted Files': The dark side of progressivism