4.42 - THE JUNGLE BOOK (2016) & Individuality

This week’s film is the Jon Favreau live action/CGI remake of the 1967 film. After some opening reviews (and Sam admitting that he might have given the film too much credit), we talk — in one of our more cerebral chats — about selfishness, understanding, and change, particularly in our reading of the end of the film.

Next Time
Our next film is Rob’s favourite Disney film, which Sam (gasp) hasn’t seen: 1991’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.

Recent Media
FIRST COW (2019): Kelly Reichardt, Jonathan Raymond, John Magaro
ALL OR NOTHING: TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR (2020): Anthony Phillipson, Tom Hardy, José Mourinho

Recommendations
IRON MAN (2008): Stan Lee, Jon Favreau, Robert Downey Jr.
SCHINDLER’S LIST (1993): Steven Spielberg, Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley
PACIFIC RIM (2013): Guillermo del Toro, Idris Elba, Charlie Hunnam
CLUELESS (1995): Amy Heckerling, Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash

Footnotes
Firstly, here’s an article on the art of playing the pantomime villain: www.thesimplethings.com/blog/panto-villains; I know Shere Khan in the 1967 film wasn’t one of these in the strictest sense, but he was something of a more risible stereotype figure certainly than Idris Elba’s incarnation. Rob mentions the POV shot at the beginning of the film, and there’s more on this idea here: www.premiumbeat.com/blog/power-point-view-pov-shots. This short response to a trailer from the film focuses on a particular moment of comparison between the two films: www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/jungle-book-2016-new-trailer-recreates-scene-where-kaa-tries-eat-mowgli-a6936251.html. When I was looking for content on the idea of individuality, I came across this video (not at all relevant to the film, but I can’t resist a TED video…): www.ted.com/talks/margot_amoyual_individuality_an_identical_twin_perspective. Finally, in another link that’s not entirely relevant...we mentioned the idea of transgression on screen, in talking about Mowgli and Shere Khan; this is a list of transgressive movies (see? I told you it wasn’t relevant…): whatculture.com/film/10-transgressive-movies-that-went-beyond-the-boundaries.

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