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The Wind Rises
2/3/14 00:04I don't think The Wind Rises will go down as one of Miyazaki's great movies; but I think it's a very good movie at what it does.
Miyazaki's great early movies, Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind and Laputa: Castle in the Sky, were about pure-hearted young people resisting having their talents co-opted by military/industrial/nationalist systems. The Wind Rises is about a pure-hearted young person who knows that his talents are going to be co-opted by military/industrial/nationalist systems, and who doesn't resist. I've thought a lot about whether it's too easy for Nausicaa and Sheeta to succeed, if Miyazaki is a little too optimistic about the possibilities of pure-heartedness and soft power. Maybe this movie is the one that says yes, it's too optimistic, but the alternative to that optimism is terrible.
Film Critic Hulk has a good take on the movie, one I generally agree with. I wonder if I'm reading the movie too sympathetically given what I know of Miyazaki, and Miyazaki's previous movies. I'm not sure if it's possible to make a movie that's anti-war that also glories in the sheer beauty of war planes the way The Wind Rises does, and it's certainly not as left-wing as I might have wished; still, it's a movie that's willing to ask complicated questions, and not give them simple answers.
( A bit spoilery? )
Miyazaki's great early movies, Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind and Laputa: Castle in the Sky, were about pure-hearted young people resisting having their talents co-opted by military/industrial/nationalist systems. The Wind Rises is about a pure-hearted young person who knows that his talents are going to be co-opted by military/industrial/nationalist systems, and who doesn't resist. I've thought a lot about whether it's too easy for Nausicaa and Sheeta to succeed, if Miyazaki is a little too optimistic about the possibilities of pure-heartedness and soft power. Maybe this movie is the one that says yes, it's too optimistic, but the alternative to that optimism is terrible.
Film Critic Hulk has a good take on the movie, one I generally agree with. I wonder if I'm reading the movie too sympathetically given what I know of Miyazaki, and Miyazaki's previous movies. I'm not sure if it's possible to make a movie that's anti-war that also glories in the sheer beauty of war planes the way The Wind Rises does, and it's certainly not as left-wing as I might have wished; still, it's a movie that's willing to ask complicated questions, and not give them simple answers.
( A bit spoilery? )