THE MT VOID
07/21/23 -- Vol. 42, No. 3, Whole Number 2285

Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
Sending Address: evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
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Topics:
Mini Reviews, Part 1 (THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD,
THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS, RAT FILM) (film reviews
by Mark R. Leeper and Evelyn C. Leeper)
Hugo Finalist Reviews (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
MOBY-DICK (letter of comment by John Hertz)
This Week's Reading (COME, TELL ME HOW YOU LIVE;
APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)

===================================================================

TOPIC: Mini Reviews, Part 1 (film reviews by Mark R. Leeper and
Evelyn C. Leeper)

And with the incrementing of the volume number of the MT VOID comes
the re-setting of the mini-reviews sequence numbers. This is the
first batch of mini-reviews for this season, all documentaries:

THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD (2018): THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD is a
documentary done as part of the centenary commemoration of World
War I, but it is different from most such documentaries in two
ways. First, the film is composed entirely of actual World War I
documentary footage and first-person unscripted narration. And
second, the actual war footage is colorized to make it more
realistic and immediate to modern audiences. The home front scenes
are left in black-and-white, both as a contrast and because there
is less need for the viewers to get a visceral feeling for the
scenes.

Warning: The documentary footage of the war is disturbing, even
more so because of the colorization. However, the disturbing
scenes are all still photographs rather than live-action filming of
combat deaths or injuries. Whether this is due to the nature of
filming and photography at the time, or director Peter Jackson's
decision not to show these scenes (possibly out of respect for the
families) is unclear. [-ecl]

Released theatrically 1 February 2019. Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4),
or 8/10.

Film Credits:
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7905466/reference>

What others are saying:
<https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/they_shall_not_grow_old>

THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS (2020): THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS was nominated for a
lot of awards, but its charm--or whatever--escaped us. It is a
documentary about a few elderly truffle hunters and their dogs (I
thought it was pigs) who are still hunting white Alba truffles. In
2001, they were selling for $1000-$2000 a pound. Since then prices
have skyrocketed; some large specimens sell at auction for about
$100,000/lb. (We can't help but feel that it is more a status
thing--are the large ones that much better than the small.) These
truffle hunters are being pressured to reveal their best hunting
grounds, having their own property "poached" by others, and just
plain retiring. The documentary offers no solutions and is more
just a look at them and their lifestyles, contrasted with the
(IMHO) ridiculous auctions for truffles at prices the hunters will
never see. [-mrl/ecl]

Released theatrically 12 March 2021. Rating: +1 (-4 to +4), or
6/10.

Film Credits:
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11394318/reference>

What others are saying:
<https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_truffle_hunters>

RAT FILM (2017): RAT FILM is a history of Baltimore and the Norway
Brown Rat. While it does cover both Baltimore and the rat, there
is no much intersection between the two. Yes, it discusses
redlining, and how the environmental conditions in the Black
neighborhoods are such that rats proliferate there. But much of
the information about rats is not specific to Baltimore, and the
Baltimore history is probably typical of other cities as well
(especially the redlining and other segregationist aspects).

We do see some unusual sights. There was a guy with a blowgun
stalking a rat in his backyard, leading Mark to ask, "This is the
peak of civilization?"

We discover that amateurs use poison in peanut butter;
professionals use a poison that coats the tunnels--it gets on the
rate and the rats ingest it while grooming it off.

We see people fishing for rats--with fishing poles. This doesn't
scale up very well.

Curt Richter's rat poison actually increased the rat population; it
turned out that fixing the environment (more frequent garbage
pickup, improved sewers, etc.) worked better. There's whole
"subplot" about rats as lab animals, including for social factors
The Maryland Medical Examiner's Office has a collection, "Nutshell
Studies of Unexplained Death", which contains eighteen miniature
crime scenes. If this sounds like C.S.I.'s "Miniature Killer", it
is because they inspired C.S.I.'s writers to create the character.
After the film was made, the miniatures were displayed at the
Smithsonian in Washington, but the exhibit was returned to
Baltimore and it is no longer open to the general public. (The
C.S.I. connection and the film probably made it just too popular.)

In any case, it had nothing to do with rats. And I don't think
Edgar Allan Poe gets mentioned at all, even though his was a case
of unexplained death.

In short, this film was all over the map (no pun intended), with
some interesting parts and others that seemed to go nowhere.
[-mrl/ecl]

Released streaming 03 October 2017. Rating: +1 (-4 to +4), or 6/10.

Film Credits:
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5840448/reference>

What others are saying:
<https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rat_film_2017>

===================================================================

TOPIC: Hugo Finalist Reviews (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)

Joe Karpierz's review of John Scalzi's THE KAIJU PRESERVATION
SOCIETY can be found at
<http://leepers.us/mtvoid/2022/VOID0422.htm#kaiju>.

His review of Mary Robinette Kowal's THE SPARE MAN can be found at
<http://leepers.us/mtvoid/VOID0317.htm#spareman>.

Joe says he hopes to review at least three of the remaining books.

I hope to review (or at least comment on) most of the Dramatic
Presentations, Long Form. I *may* try doing the Short Stories as
well, depending on availability. [-ecl]

===================================================================

TOPIC: MOBY-DICK (letter of comment by John Hertz)

In response to Evelyn's comments on MOBY-DICK in the 05/03/23 issue
of the MT VOID, John Hertz writes:

Once, just once, at a Starbucks coffee shop I found a copy of
MOBY-DICK on the shelf of things for sale--and it was the
Northwestern-Newberry edition! I haven't compared the Norton
edition with it; Evelyn, have you? [-jh]

Evelyn responds:

No, I haven't, and apologies for taking so long to get your
comments included. I saw your letter was rather long, and didn't
realize that most of it was not a LoC (or is it "an LoC"?) that
didn't need to be typed in. [-ecl]

===================================================================

TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)

COME, TELL ME HOW YOU LIVE by Agatha Christie Mallowan (Bantam
Agatha Christie Hardcover Collection, ISBN 0-553-35049-8) is not a
mystery novel. The fact that this was published as "Agatha
Christie Mallowan" rather than just "Agatha Christie" or "Mary
Westmacott" should be a clue that this is not your ordinary work of
fiction. For starters, it is non-fiction, and not just
non-fiction, but autobiographical. This is Christie's account of
the time from 1934 to 1938 she spent at various digs in Syria with
her husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan.

It is obvious that Christie's experiences on these expeditions
influenced (and provided background for) several of her novels and
stories, such as APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH, MURDER ON THE ORIENT
EXPRESS, "The Gate of Baghdad", "The Pearl of Price", and
especially MURDER IN MESOPOTAMIA.

There is, I will note, a fair amount of (negative) stereotyping of
the various local people Mallowan employed. Yes, she has some
positive things to say, but then again, positive experiences are
just not as interesting, literarily, as negative ones.

And while we're talking about Agatha Christie, let me add to my
comments about the ITV adaptions of her Poirot stories (in the
06/23/23 issue). The ITV adaptation of APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH
(William Morrow, ISBN 978-0-062-07392-1) by Agatha Christie ...
where to start? The victim has an entirely different backstory (as
do almost all the characters), her stepchildren are now her adopted
children, her son-in-law is now her stepson, her husband is still
alive (and searching for the head of John the Baptist), the method
of murder is entirely different, and even the killer has been
changed. [-ecl]