Tributes pour out for Stuart McLean
“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,” wrote the poet Robert Frost in 1914. But it took more than a century, and the combined might of the Chinese and Hollywood dream factories, to determine what that thing was.
Turns out it was monsters. In the latest action picture from Zhang Yimou
we learn that the Great Wall of China was constructed in part to defend the realm against slavering beasts called taoties that attack every 60 years.
William (Matt Damon), a mercenary and sometimes trader, stumbles on this in what the film’s press notes refer to as “an alternate vision of ancient China, circa 1100.” (You may now indulge your own President Trump/alternate facts/ wall-building jokes. I’ll wait.)
It’s a very alternate vision indeed; one in which the Chinese invent human balloon flight some six centuries before the French, and where Damon’s character can marvel to one of the Chinese warriors: “You speak English!” (In 1100, Old English as it is now known sounded more like German. But hey, it’s only a movie!)
William and fellow mercenary/ sidekick Tovar (Pedro Pascal) are captured by agents of The Nameless Order, led by General Shao (Zhang Hanyu) and later by the fierce, English-speaking warrior Commander Lin (Jing Tian, also in the upcoming monster movies and
The prisoners meet Ballard (Willem Dafoe), another captive.
The Europeans have come in search of a new weapon called “black powder,” which the Nameless Order is using to fight the taoties. Along with “screaming arrows” and “ring of fire,” these are either cutting-edge defensive tactics or Johnny Cash hits; possibly both, as when a drumbeat from the great wall’s sentinels gradually morphs into the film’s rousing score.
There has been much handwringing over the notion of Damon showing up to rescue the Chinese from their demons, but in fact William’s character just gets lucky; he happens to have a hunk of magnetic ore on him that temporarily stuns the taoties. And he learns some important lessons in trust from Commander Lin, who eventually lets him join in the fight.
represents a great leap forward in U.S./China co-productions, which have previously been the stuff of terrible acting (John Cusack and Adrien Brody in
and awkward proCommunist/product placement messages
There’s a bit of the former here — Damon’s acting is wooden, but it’s a pliable wood, like young bamboo. And while this isn’t Yimou’s best work, it’s still an effective monster/ action picture.
There are a few plot holes, not least why the “crane corps” of fighters look more like a flying acrobatic troupe than effective warriors. And how do you even recruit fighters to an outfit called The Nameless Order? But the taoties are superbly designed. They even look Chinese, in that their rippling skin carries a design motif that I later learned was copied from ancient Asian pottery and is called — wait for it — taotie. It may be an alternate history, but it features some intriguing overlays with the real thing.
Former CBC colleagues, entertainers and politicians have expressed their grief since news spread of the death of Stuart McLean, host of CBC Radio’s
The bestselling author and humorist, who had been diagnosed with skin cancer, died at the age of 68 on Feb. 15, in Toronto.
Some of the tributes friends and admirers shared: — Comedian Mark Critch the CBC show on Twitter. of — Former star Arlene Dickinson, on Twitter.