Top 10 Influential Movies with a Haiku
By Jeff Zittrain
War and our dark hearts
The Doors begin with The End
Reveal “The Horror”
Smells like victory
Also has five syllables
And so does this line.
Extreme prejudice
Never get out of the boat
I took the mission
Clint philosophy
We all have it comin’ kid
Face up to your life
People were singing.
Na na na na na na na
The Band and cool friends.
Martin Scorsese
Music as cool history
Robbie Robertson
Laugh-out loud brilliant
Important and insightful
Monty Python rules
Every scene is gold
“I’m Brian and so’s my wife”
Thank god for this film
Existential cop
Man must be responsible
Do you feel lucky?
World’s Greatest Wise-ass
Wish fulfillment fantasy
Be all you can be
I love Kristen Bell
As does the rest of the world
Fucking Dax Shepard
Music and violence
Little of the ol’ in-out
What makes us moral?
Observe the struggle
Tell the truths behind our world
Humor is healing
Fight against “The Man”
The Chief speaks of Juicy Fruit
The Human Spirit
My top 10 movie/haiku post-game analysis:
Here they all are in the order in which I posted.
Apocalypse Now
Unforgiven
The Last Waltz
Life of Brian
Dirty Harry
Stripes
Kristen Bell’s Africa
A Clockwork Orange
Richard Pryor Live in Concert
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
First some statistics:
There are 3 out and out comedies (Stripes, Life of Brian, Richard Pryor), 3 documentaries (Last Waltz, Kristen Bell, Richard Pryor), 2 Clint (Unforgiven, Dirty Harry).
3 are based on famous literature (Apocalypse Now, Clockwork Orange, Cuckoo’s Nest) (4 if you count Life of Brian…)
And one of these things is not like the others.
But still, if I have to pick a theme that runs through them all, it would be anti-authoritarianism and individual freedom. They’re all rebellious. But rebels with a cause. Bravely cutting through phoniness and revealing the truth, even if it’s dark and uncomfortable, which is still ultimately inspiring.
They expose the hypocrisy and lies of war (Apocalypse Now), gunslinging mythology of the old West (Unforgiven), religion (Life of Brian), government (Dirty Harry), civilization itself (Clockwork Orange), racial/social/gender issues (Richard Pryor), and society’s vision of normal (Cuckoo’s Nest).
Kristen Bell is the one that stands out as most different. It’s not a direct critique of anything – it’s the soul as unfettered by society and happy. And I think it still fits, in that her Veronica Mars (and The Good Place) persona is confidently anti-authoritarian – and, well, her cavorting through Africa is a nice balance as well as relation to Clint blowing people away. Veronica just did it with snark – and she never put up with any bullshit either.
I learned from movies
The self against phoniness
Actual spirit