Sleep is not my friend, and every once in a while, insomnia hits me big time. The last two nights were like that..so first night I binge watched The Unabomber and last night watched MIB International with Robin & Colter. Commentary follows.
The story of how the FBI caught Ted Kaczynski was interesting from the perspective that 1) the story that came out in the media at the time far differed from the ‘real’ story; and 2) the FBI caught Ted in spite of their efforts, not because of them. If Ted’s sister-in-law Linda hadn’t bugged her husband David into indirectly contacting the FBI anonymously, they’d still be looking. Investigating the anonymous tip required extraordinary effort on the part of a female agent; without that work on her part, he’d still be out there making and sending bombs.
It’s always difficult to discern how accurate these biopics are – you know, individuals are ‘composites’ of several characters, time frames might be changed, and details of the take down of the suspect are often exaggerated for dramatic effect. But in this case, I think the facts are pretty straightforward, if flawed. You have to read Ted’s manifesto to see that. The main character, an agent named ‘Fitz’, aka James Fitzgerald, must persist mightily with the POB to get them to go after the likes of their nemesis. They were looking for the exact opposite of Ted, using their old methods of detection. Maybe that was part of Ted’s plan – he was a genius, after all. But I don’t think that’s it at all. It was a case of macho male thinking versus intuitive, female-style thinking which apparently Fitz had a smattering of. He also had help – from women, naturally. In fact, the female agent that was the key to the whole thing got fired for breaking the rules. That came out in the story, but apparently Ted never knew about it. Otherwise, he might have used it as part of the defense he wanted to invoke: the fruit of the poisonous tree as he called it. But his efforts concerned the wording of the warrant and the lack of precedence for linguistic usage as a basis for searching his cabin. Nobody was going to buy that anyway…the evidence was overwhelming, and it hinged on the material found in the cabin. Sorry, Ted – public defenders wanted to put you away too. Or get you sent to a mental institution instead of the SuperMax torture chamber in Colorado.
The error I reference above was Fitz noting the use of the words broad or chick and Negro in the manifesto. He assumed Ted was older because nobody used those words any more. But Ted was using them in context – in fact, identifying them as old expressions for women and African Americans to make a point. But I’m being nitpicky. Who knows if that was the writer’s imagination or a path Fitz actually followed. But the series was worth watching. MIB International was not.
In spite of a host of stars (blonde Emma again..jeez), MIBI stunk because the writing was bad. The same guy who wrote the original Iron Man script wrote this one, with another guy. The plot was trite and totally predictable. The emphasis was on CGI creatures versus a real story; and the name actors just walked through their parts instead of interacting effectively with one another. Having said all that, the movie made 2 1/2 times its costs back in ticket sales. Just goes to show – a winning franchise name is all you need these days to make money. So sad.