Bury this one in sand ... lots of sand

The Sheltering Sky

A friend of mine has wondered if I apply standards to the movies I chose and I would have to say that I do. I think sometimes I may not apply them soon enough (as in before I rent them) but one does not always know what they will learn if they allow themselves to make mistakes. For instance, last night's movie was probably a mistake. I had watched the movie Out of Africa recently and this movie, Sheltering Sky promised to be of the same genre. It was a movie based on a novel about Africa, was it not. Striking landscapes, a romance. Anyway, that was what was promised. But that's a bit like saying that 20,000 Leagues under the Sea or Ghost Ship or Pirates of the Caribbean or Jaws are all like Titanic because they have ships in them.

Sheltering Sky is about ... is about ... ummmm ... meaninglessness in life and in human relationships. It is existential despair on film. It is Ecclesiastes in an African setting.

I gave up after a few minutes and went to find out what sort of idiot had made a meaningless movie about meaningless people's lives with a novel that was supposed to be a best seller as a basis. I discovered that the novel itself had this in mind.

"For Kerouac and the Beats, frenetic, directionless travel was proof of life - could even be held to "create" life. Bowles, in this slyly subversive book, reverses that. The three Americans who start out on this largely pointless journey into the North African desert, hope the mere fact of movement will resolve their deep spiritual lethargy - or at least delay their having to face it."

LOVELY.

"In one short passage, Bowles has ripped the lid off our world as surely as he casts Kit into the desert, another grain of sand among countless others. This book is about more than an encounter with the Sahara, it is about - and is itself - an encounter with human existence."

OH GOODY. LETS ALL GO KILL OURSELVES.

It is so interesting how I did not know that it was a plotless post-modernist existential dirge movie but thought so. But I should not be judging books by their movies and so I will either buy and read this book ... or not. As if it matters.

Question for Comment: Do you ever learn from movies and books that you do not like?