Review of Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993) by Sheila W — 02 Apr 2005

[b][u]Glenn Gould[/u][/b].

My friends and I do this thing, called SNFT, Show and Fucking Tell. We take turns showing off something/someone that we admire (generally in an artistic sense). We've watched movies, read poetry, looked at photography, done holotropic breathing and had a tour of a funeral parlour.

Last night, Kelly (a musician) introduced us to Glenn Gould, a composer and pianist. He (Glenn) was a child prodigy who became the first pianist from the West in Russia. He eventually abandoned performing in public in his thirties and instead devoted himself to recording. His Bach sonatas are famous, I believe. His music was also sent into space in the Voyager mission back in the 70s.

We watched the film "Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould", which is highly recommended. Each vignette presents some aspect of his life and art, from his 6-hour conversations by phone to his arrangements of people speaking about particular topics. Just fascinating to watch.

[b][u]The Punisher[/u][/b].

When we got home, we watched "The Punisher" on TV (my ex used to have a ton of Punisher comics, so I have read a bunch). It's the later version, with Thomas Jane, not the Dolph Lundgren version, which I've also seen. It was adequate, I suppose, although frightfully predictable and surprisingly violent. Travolta is wasted.

[b][u]Stephen King's "The Dark Tower"[/u][/b].

I just finished reading the three final volumes in Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series: "Wolves of the Calla", "Song of Susannah" and "The Dark Tower".

"Wolves" is actually a pretty good stand-alone story, heavily borrowing from "The Magnificent Seven/The Seven Samurai". I hadn't read any of the previous books since they came out ("The Gunslinger" came out nearly 20 years ago! holy shit!), but that wasn't a problem at all. 8/10.

"Song of Susannah" is a bit thinner (both plotwise and by volume)...it's really just a bridge to get us to the end. The whole Susannah story and character never really grabbed me (I'm more of a Jake and Oy fan), so I was glad this one was short. 6/10.

"The Dark Tower" felt very anti-climactic, particularly the end, which just pulls the rug out from under you. Kind of disappointing but appropriate, really. I cried - I cry whenever people die, whether it's in books, on TV or in real life - when...well, I don't want to spoil it, but people die. 8/10.

As for the device that King uses - writing himself into the stories (this isn't really a spoiler, it doesn't ruin any plot points) - I've read the criticisms about it, but I kind of liked it. It made sense, in the universe(s) that King created, to have his own story integrated into that of the Dark Tower.

Overall, I don't think "The Dark Tower" is King's best book or greatest achievement. I think that he may have gotten that out of his system...maybe he'll write something better one day. There's been a lot of speculation as to whether he'll retire now (from the public and from him), but I hope he doesn't.