1st April 1998
The "Schindler's List"
Disappointment
Recently I watched a film on TV which I had wanted to see for some time. Schindler's List produced by the much hailed Steven Spielberg.
As most people will know, Steven Spielberg's first really big film was Poltergeist which, along with The Omen and The Exorcist, set a new standard in the horror genre. Spielberg's offering had a few flaws: the little girl disappears, the parents find it rather funny and the ubiquitous baddie is in the form of the owner of the property development company (but the baddie is a mainstay of the American film). But it was nevertheless an excellent film because the characters were complex, knowable and largely likeable.
His following films played on the vicariousness of American society with the principal character being deliberately underdeveloped. The themes of beings from outer space and baddies in the form of the Government were nothing new and personally I didn't enjoy any of these that I saw. I find it difficult to accept that beings might come from Outer Space and be incapable of avoiding unpleasant attention from mere Earthlings. But of course I'm a cynic.
Jurassic Park used a different plot, though not a new one. Frankenstein's Monster springs to mind. It continued the vicarious theme.
Then came Schindler's List.
Now there really can't be anyone who hasn't heard the stories of what went on during that period. Each telling tries to bring out some new and even more dreadful and gruesome tale but nothing can really shock anyone now.
This story was billed as a lone businessman who risked his life to save lots of people. It starred Liam Neeson, who has considerable talent and could hopefully overcome the inevitable casting of Ben Kingsley as a leading oppressed.
The story of Schindler was scant and almost incidental. The crowd scenes looked like a home movie done with schoolchildren in one take. The baddies were really bad. I thought the character of the camp commandant might have been the ideal opportunity for Alan Rickman to reprise his Sheriff of Nottingham character. As it was, no one seemed to have more than one character trait.
The filming was second rate, the story was dull and boring, the acting was amateurish, the lighting looked like it had been done with a table lamp and over all this was perhaps a film which holds up Steven Spielberg as someone who had one lucky hit, a few big budget yet undeserved successes and is now seen in his true colours: a rich Hollywood lauralite who is trying to revive his flagging career for a little bit longer by ranting standard versions of history daring anyone to find fault with his word so that the inference can be drawn that the fault in fact is with the established version of history.
Trip Back In Time?
Like a number of people, I have been continually surprised at how seemingly intelligent people can be constantly taken in by the hype surrounding each new development in the PC market, however slight and insignificant, and be led to abandon their existing kit to buy the latest offering.
I read a report in The Times (by a journalist called Nigel Hawkes) where he reports on some computers developed in several parts of America called Beowulf computers. What makes these interesting is, firstly, that they are made out of obsolete Pentium processors. Secondly, their performance for some tasks is in excess of the latest IBM mainframe. No details are given apart from saying that several Pentium Pro computers have been linked together. An analogy of this might be a group of ordinary mortals working together to fight Mike Tyson. Though I wouldn't fancy being one of the ordinary mortals.
Personally I find this interesting. I have been thinking for some time that the economic mania which is driving the computer industry (and a sizeable chunk of the economy!) is bound to eventually break when computer buyers allow their intelligence to regain control of their competitiveness. This development may yet be the tip of that iceberg. Older technology might not be dumped so readily and the vast incomes which computer companies are making from each new machine might start to dry up. Prices of older computers will rise and development of newer ones will grind almost to a halt.
I really don't think this is going to have an effect on 8 bit Acorns though. I would be surprised if it extended back further than 386 PCs. What it will do is encourage development of 8 bit processors into everyday electronic controls. These are sadly lacking, as is most of the digital technology. Yet these processors and their support chips have proved the test of time. They are reliable, robust and of course, easy to design, assemble and program since most of the ground work has been done.
The down side is that this will cause a global slowing down on the economy. If I'm right.
And Finally...
Please keep the submissions coming in. And please remember to contact EUG if you have any problems, giving as much detail of the problem as you can along with your computer, type of disk interface, other addons, etc. EUG has surprisingly few problems given the complexities of compiling it (and the number of different machines it is used on) but when problems do occur, I really need to know so they can be fixed.
Gus Donnachaidh, EUG #37
