What is Best in Life

Garth Ennis is one of my favorite comic book writers. But after reading his entire runs of Hitman, Preacher, Hellblazer, Punisher, Punisher Max, Punisher Max Presents Barracuda (max?), War Stories, Adventures in the Rifle Brigade, Fury and The Boys (all of which are more or less recommended except for the last one) I’m starting to see some familiar themes cropping up over and over again. Now I’m not saying this is such a bad thing (I’m a Howard Hawks fan after all), but the following list of his most common themes might be helpful to see just how your favorite Garth Ennis comic ranks on the “yep this is an Ennis book alright” scale.
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There is a strange theme in the plots of the two otherwise enjoyable movies; The Awful Truth (one of my favorite movies, as I explained in my previous blog post) and McLintock! (no masterpiece but still fun–plus, you gotta love a movie with an exclamation mark in the title). Both movies rely on a husband and/or wife thinking the other is cheating to create the split that must inevitably be reconciled by the end of the movie. Yet for some reason, after going to extreme lengths to prove the faithfulness of the wife, the husband’s transgression is left unaddressed! I have a couple theories as to why this is so, but first let’s take a look at the details.
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Screwball comedies were a popular film genre from the 30′s and 40′s. The name “screwball comedy” is a pretty apt descriptor, the situations the leads found themselves in were most often quite “screwy” “wacky” “zany” etc etc.

The storylines were designed to provide a bit of escapism for depression era audiences. Often the entire cast would seem to be independently wealthy without a thought in the world about money troubles. Or they showed how being poor wasn’t so bad after all by having some poor person stumble upon wealth with all its “drawbacks”, or some rich person find themselves living a poor life with all its “charms”.

Against this setting there was invariably some sort of troubled romance, usually with a misunderstanding causing the two lovers to be kept apart (and occupied by screwy, wacky and zany situations) until their reconciliation at the end of the movie.

Yet though such movies could easily have turned silly and formulaic, many of the greatest American movies were screwball comedies. The thirties and forties were a time when Hollywood directors were operating at the top of their game and many of the best chose to work in the screwball comedy genre.

There were many great screwball comedies. His Girl Friday may be the best film Howard Hawks ever made, and take my word for it, that guy made some superlative films. Capra’s It Happened One Night can most accurately be described as irresistible, and The Lady Eve was just one of an amazing string of brilliant movies made by Preston Sturges. The Screwball Comedy is one of the great American contributions to the world (along with the Western and Death Metal).
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Before we start I suppose it is only fair to point out you can stop the infinite hypnotic spectacle of Hasselhoff’s junk by hitting escape on your keyboard. OK, on to the post!)

The notion of infinity is one of those concepts that seems beyond the realm of our understanding. Endless, forever; ideas that at first seem easy to understand, disintegrate upon closer examination. As a quick glimpse into the strange world of infinity, let’s take a look at that old mathematical standby, the number line. (more…)