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eBook – The Empire Striketh Back

eBook –  The Empire Striketh Back Full title :  William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back By : Ian Doescher  Iillustrations :  Nicolas Delort Score : 9/10 Year : 2014 Publisher : Quirk Books  eISBN :  978-1-59474-716-8 Based on  978-1-59474-715-1 (hard cover) Pages : 176 *  Language : English From Goodreads : Hot on the heels of the New York Times best seller William Shakespeare’s Star Wars comes the next two installments of the original trilogy: William Shakespeare’s The Empire Striketh Back  (and not reviewed as yet,  William Shakespeare’s The Jedi Doth Return.) Return to the star-crossed galaxy far, far away as the brooding young hero, a power-mad emperor, and their jesting droids match wits, struggle for power, and soliloquize in elegant and impeccable iambic pentameter. Illustrated with beautiful black-and-white Elizabethan-style artwork, these two plays offer essential reading for all ages. Something Wookiee this way comes!  *** As he explains at the end, Ian Doescher
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Movie – Pleasantville



Movie – Pleasantville 
Score : 7/10 
Year : 1998 
Director: Gary Ross 
Photography: John Lindley
Country: USA 
Language: English 
Duration: 2h04 
Writer: Gary Ross 

 As David and his sister Jennifer fight over a strange remote control, they end up trapped in Pleasentville - a 1950's sitcom imagined for this movie, as a metaphor for american lifestyle and society. 


The movie starts in color, but when David & Jennifer get trapped in Pleasentville, they are just like said sitcom, in black & white. As they break more and more 1950's societal rules and taboos, colors start to re-appear ; the special effects for this part are quite good and stand the test of time (thus far at least). 

 The scenes have both black & white, and color portions ; they look natural.

 The metaphors deal with american prude society, with taboos around sexuality ; some dialogues and scenes deal with these topics which gave Pleasentville its PG13 rating.
Additional metaphors deal with american-centric geography and educational system, as well as relationships, parenthood, idealism, and misogyny (that one isn't hidden, it's in plain sight)... 
The movie also discusses personal potentials and growth, and characters may evolve (or stagnate). 

 The acting is overall good, though I would've wished for more dramatic delivery of the dialogues (it is, but not enough). 

 Pleasantville is a pleasant movie, mostly. I don't really care for the music, though it's evidently appropriate to the era. 

 It was odd to see that after nearly 2 hours of tremendous attention to details, the director and editor both missed a massive goof at the end, with someone's makeup swapping 3 times in a row in the same scene... 

 Cast : 
• Tobey Maguire as David/Bud 
• Reese Witherspoon as Jennifer/Mary Sue 
•Jeff Daniels as Bill Johnson 
• Joan Allen as Betty Parker 
• William H. Macy as George Parker 
• J. T. Walsh as Big Bob • Paul Walker as Skip Martin 
• Marley Shelton as Margaret Henderson 
• Giuseppe Andrews as Howard 
• Jenny Lewis and Marissa Ribisi as Christin and Kimmy 
• Jane Kaczmarek as David and Jennifer's mother 
• Don Knotts as a TV repairman 
• Kevin Connors and Natalie Ramsey as the real Bud and Mary Sue Parker 
• David Tom as Whitey
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