Alone Together In the Dark, by John Ostrander

John Ostrander

John Ostrander started his career as a professional writer as a playwright. His best known effort, Bloody Bess, was directed by Stuart Gordon, and starred Dennis Franz, Joe Mantegna, William J. Norris, Meshach Taylor and Joe Mantegna. He has written some of the most important influential comic books of the past 25 years, including Batman, The Spectre, Manhunter, Firestorm, Hawkman, Suicide Squad, Wasteland, X-Men, and The Punisher, as well as Star Wars comics for Dark Horse. New episodes of his creator-owned series, GrimJack, which was first published by First Comics in the 1980s, appear every week on ComicMix.

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17 Responses

  1. mike weber says:

    My own all-time favourite film, Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West, which alternates between huge wideopen vistas (including beautiful footage in Monument Valley) and incredible closeups on on equally monumental actors – Charles Bronson, Henry Fonda, Jason Robards, Woody Strode, Jack Elam (Leone loved the Techniscope format that let him shoot that close without distortion in widescreen), Absolutely cries out to be seen the first time on the big screen.Sure, you can enjoy it on DVD – i do, couple times a year – but it was made for theatrical viewing, and that's that.

    • Paul Wargelin says:

      I attended a Sergio Leone retrospective at the Film Forum in NYC in 2003 where I not only saw Once Upon a Time in the West on the big screen, but The Good, the Bad & the Ugly , For a Few Dollars More, and A Fistful of Dynamite. Unfortunately, I missed the screening of A Fistful of Dollars. And they're all meant for theatrical viewing.

      • mike weber says:

        Well, yeah, they all were.But OUaTitW is the acme of Leone's love affair with the camera and the closeup, which is one reason i mentioned it specifically, and, as i said, it is my *favourite* film of all time..

        • Paul Wargelin says:

          Yes, I agree that Once Upon a Time in the West is Leone's masterpiece. I attended this exhibition a few years ago, you may find it of interest:http://www.autrynationalcenter.org/leone/

          • mike weber says:

            The DVD of Once Upon a Time… has the info about that.

          • Paul Wargelin says:

            That's right it does. The exhibit was a lot of fun, with lots of props, Carlo Simi's production designs, posters and interactive stations where you could listen to Ennio Morricone's soundtrack music, and watch clips of the films, as well as interviews with Clint Eastwood, John Carpenter, John Landis and other filmmakers Leone influenced.There was also three lifesize statues of Woody Strode, Jack Elam, and Al Mulock standing in the same positions as if waiting for Charles Bronson to enter the exhibit hall. :-)

    • Mike Gold says:

      I agree with these sentiments, but I await the day when I shall possess a flat-screen that is roughly the size of a Talking Heads video. In that world, there will be no commercials, no squawking kids, no squawking adults, and if anybody is making comments they consider clever and witty, it'll be me. Of course by then I'll be so old I'll need the 70" screen in order to see anything.

      • Mark Behar says:

        They sell a 70" model, with a price tag of $35k, at the Sony Store next to my office at the Eaton Centre. I think that this size will probably become the standard in two or three years' time– giving all of us just one more reason to avoid the theatre and the ten minutes of ads for Mazda, Oliver Jewellery (only Toronto readers will get that reference), and the chewing gum that's so damned icey that it leaves you with a permanent facial tic. Truth be told, I don't understand the movie-on-an-iPod craze either, though. Everyone wants the largest TV they can find and movie theater multiplexes grow larger every year, yet a half-hour trip on the subway seems like it's no longer bearable without access to your favorite episode of The Chappelle Show on a one-inch screen. I suppose it's a byproduct of a generation that's been conditioned to avoid silence at all costs– and therefore craves constant media bombardment, whatever the format.

        • Mike Gold says:

          Movies on iPhones are cool if you're on long commuter trains, like from my place to Manhattan, or on airplanes. Although porno is a little superfluous.Is that $35k Canadian, Mark? 'Cuz right now, that would be, what, about a quarter million dollars U.S?But I can still trade you guys for gasoline!

        • Alan Coil says:

          Fortunately, in my neck of the woods they show all the commercials before the movie's start time. When it is the movie start time, they show the Previews and then the National Amusements 'fanfare' clip, then the movie. All you have to do to avoid the commercials is to walk into the theater exactly at the listed show time.

      • mike weber says:

        They're going to begin offering a 108" LCD soon (story here); only $120,000, custom-built in place.

  2. Russ Rogers says:

    I have a friend, a philosopher, actor, comedian and comic book artist and author, Steve Matuszak. I saw a performance piece he did about how the performer, the performance and any single viewer would essentially be the same the next performance, but this was the ONLY time THIS audience would be together. It's the audience's shared experience that is entirely unique. The film won't change. The single viewer remains relatively the same. But the SUM of the audience is always new and therefore exciting. It's the audience that makes the secret pact to come together and share a unique experience.When I was in college, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was paid $10,000 to come on campus and give a lecture. I remember him spending a large portion of his relatively short time (I think he spoke for less than 90 minutes) justifying why he was worth ten grand. He said, in comparison, his former son-in-law Geraldo Rivera charged $25,000. This was around 1985. Maybe Geraldo's rates have gone up since then. Kurt's rates certainly have. Anyway, I think it kind of irked Vonnegut that Geraldo could command $25,000 for an appearance. I don't think he had much respect for him.Vonnegut said there were many equally talented authors. And many lecturers who were much better than him. His conclusion as to why he was worth the money was that he was somebody (an event) that could draw several thousand students into the gymnasium (because the auditorium, theater and lecture halls on campus would have been much too small.) He wasn't what was worth the money spent. It was being able to gather such a LARGE audience for a common experience that made the expenditure worthwhile. It's circular logic: would as many students have shown up if Vonnegut had only made $750? Probably not. We are obsessed with polls and ranking and ratings. What movie was number one at the box office? Who is the best selling author? What TV show got the most viewers? Which Super Bowl Ad was liked the most? We not only want to use the rest of the world as a bellwether guide to what is good, we also want to know what is going to be the current common experience we can kibitz about around the water cooler. In a world full of billions, we need the security of a common frame of reference. Artists especially need to read and study Pop Culture, because it gives them a common frame of reference with their audience. It's why we study the Bible and Greek Myths in literature class. These are the common reference points for other stories. It's why more people need to steep themselves in a knowledge and understanding of other cultures. In a shrinking world, where you physically get to nearly any point on the globe in a week and make contact with any point on the globe almost instantaneously, we NEED a larger group of SHARED references points, just so we can understand each other. World Peace through Speed Racer.The Harry Potter novels are a must read, not only because they are good and entertaining, but because they have been read by SO many people. It's the vast SHARED experience that gives them a large chunk of their appeal. Maybe what makes Pop Culture popular is that it's popular long before it's culture. Does this mean that the biggest fad will always produce the best art? No. The Bay City Rollers aren't the Beatles. R.L. Stine isn't on par with J.K. Rowling. But I will suggest that it was the Beatles popularity that gave them the courage, confidence and freedom to experiment and innovate and truly become great. Fortunately, the Beatles had the talent to truly capitalize on their popularity. But the "Instant Classic" is still an oxymoron.I'm just restating much of what John has more eloquently said in this article. We want more than just the experience, we need the sense of involvement and community that comes from a shared experience. That is part of the magic of the Internet, the magic of ComicMix. These comments give me (and even the ones who don't write comments) the opportunity to participate in a community. They are proof that our experience isn't singular and lonely. The fact that this communication is near instantaneous, lends a sense of immediacy and spontaneity. And sometimes these comments expand and enrich our experience. This is our way of chatting around the water cooler. This is our way of becoming an audience.

    • Mike Gold says:

      If you could get Kurt Vonnegut today, he'd be worth a hell of a lot more than $10,000. He died 14 months ago, and I doubt even Stuart Gordon could reanimate him.Insider outed: Stuart directed the stage version of Vonnegut's Sirens of Titan back in 1874; his 1976 version starred Dennis Franz and Joe Mantegna.And yeah, Vonnegut was worth more on his worst day than Geraldo "here's our troop movements" Rivera.

    • mike weber says:

      I have a friend, a philosopher, actor, comedian and comic book artist and author, Steve Matuszak. I saw a performance piece he did about how the performer, the performance and any single viewer would essentially be the same the next performance, but this was the ONLY time THIS audience would be together. It's the audience's shared experience that is entirely unique. The film won't change. The single viewer remains relatively the same. But the SUM of the audience is always new and therefore exciting. It's the audience that makes the secret pact to come together and share a unique experience."How many times can you step into the same stream?"Anyway, I think it kind of irked Vonnegut that Geraldo could command $25,000 for an appearance. I don't think he had much respect for him.That makes two of us.

  3. Jeff Clem says:

    I certainly understand and identify with that perverseness you mention, when everyone tells you that you should see a great movie. Mine is "Schindler's List" and, yes, I felt that way before Seinfeld's sitcom. As far as the younger generation being ok with watching movies on ipods and such? Well, I remember some wit comparing something like that to watching "2001: A Space Odyssey" on a wrist-watch. Anyway, I envy you your experience of "getting" John Wayne once you saw "The Searchers" on a big screen; I have yet to experience that and look forward to it (one fine day). On the other end of the spectrum, I saw "Wizard of Oz" on a big screen at the NuArt Theatre on Santa Monica Blvd. in LA back in 1985 and, after years of having seen it on television, was disappointed. I mean, you see all the wires! :)

  4. Michael H. Price says:

    Right there with you, John. Still fonder of the communal audience experience. Can't be just any theatre, of course. The Rave Motion Pictures chain provides a particularly clean and comfortable environment, and its systemwide digital conversion uses the right intensity of projection.The 35mm holdout exhibitors need to be more careful with their film-handling and -projection procedures — easy to lose focus or film-feed tension, difficult to correct such problems in a timely manner.Our Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, dedicates its auditorium to imports and indies every weekend — throwing 35mm, using side-by-side, non-automated projectors, with an in-the-booth projection engineer. A classics exhibition during August will bring in a large number of MoMA-archive films — "His Girl Friday," 1930's "The Big Trail" in the original widescreen dimensions, various silents, some exemplary film noirs — for a sustained exercise in that communal big-screen experience.And yes, any film is its own experience. The bigger-than-real screen, with an absorbed audience, completes the experience. Dibs on the balcony, front-and-center.