Having had a streak of bad work days, little Kiddo was settling in for another slug fest with the email system when my super sweet office mate, Spalette, came to my cubicle. She was a little giddy, and Kiddo was not feeling the good vibrations, until Spalette pulled forth from her purse one of the more thoughtful gifts I've received in recent memory: an NTSC version of Iron Sky, the Nazis-from-the-moon movie made almost entirely from fan donations...There are several reasons for my fascination with the movie, not least of which is how it was financed. Number 1 reason is the ridiculosity embodied in the idea of moon nazis. Much like zombie nazis, there just aren't enough ways in the world to poke fun at a bunch of people who took them selves so seriously.
Fears, I have found in talking to my friends Sugar, Pho Poet, Skinny Dancer, and now Hunter, should here be quelled: Nazis are bad guys. I inherently understand this as well as the next human being. What they wrought with such exemplary perfection combines humanity's 2 most instinctive disgusts: genocide and incest. You really have to work hard and be in very specific place in history for such things to even be comprehensible. This movie does nothing to discredit this conclusion.
Number 2 reason for loving the previews of Iron Sky are the flaming zeppelins in space. Yep. For a steam punk chick in a cyber punk age, you really can't top such a spectacle. The visuals and effects don't stop there either. In fact, it's the number one best thing (distinct from Kiddo's favorite thing) about the movie. There is good reason for it too.
Watch the credits for Iron Sky. There is a screen full of actors, writers, and directors, and two minutes of constantly scrolling credits for animators, props guys, costumers, and sfx kids. Look further into them, and you find all those animators, prop guys, costumers, and sfx kids all came to this project from super high end films with awards. Most notably the costumers from Schindler's List. It's a kind of completion in thought that makes my humanist side tremble with joy.
Which is why I was so excited to see it.
Watching with Hunter though, was a little nerve wracking. There was discussion of the need for no humor to surround genocide. There was questioning of some of the campier aspects of the film (a UFO landing in a marijuana field, inexplicable losing of lady clothes in an airlock). I was a bit defensive.
How does one overcome being defensive of a beloved thing? Inflict more of that thing on the offender.
We watched Cannibal the Musical immediately thereafter.
