Pat's Pics

Film and TV Commentaries by Patrick McCray, MFA

Patrick McCray is my son and is one of the most interesting people I know. I would say that even if he was not my son, for it is a true statement. Here is a little about him.

Patrick is one of those fortunate people who knew his passion from an early age. All that I know is that he aspired to creating entertainment. As a small child, he did standup comic routines that actually were funny. He wrote short stories with content far beyond his chronological age. He created super heroes. He developed plots for movies, and then the stage. He never wavered in his goal to entertain, often with a message of heroism, ethics, and often, an off the wall humor. I admire him a great deal. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, he finished high school there (that is another story!), and joined me in San Diego, California, where he earned a BA degree in Drama at the University of California Riverside.

He went to graduate school and earned an MFA in directing from Louisiana State University. He now works as an educator in speech, drama, and film. At twenty, he was the author of a successful comic book series, and has directed over twenty plays in ten years. His production of PICASSO AT THE LAPIN AGILE won the Knoxville Area Theatre Coalition award for Best Play of 2000, and he has been an artistic associate of the Smoky Mountain Shakespeare Festival for the past four years. He was also cited by the Pulitzer-prize winning critic Roger Ebert in his essay on DUCK SOUP in his book, THE GREAT MOVIES.

So what he is doing on this website? Well, he read my movie commentaries and suggested far more ideas than I could accommodate, and some that I probably would have never listed. So, I offered him his own page, Pat’s Pics, and here we are. The following commentaries, reviews, and critiques are his own. I have not edited them. You are getting pure Patrick McCray at his critical best. Enjoy. You can reach him via email at Patrick McCray. He currently resides in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Patrick's Introduction to his Commentaries

When I was looking at my father's thoughts on film, I found them to be provocative, insightful, and most importantly, genuinely affirmational. That's a loaded word today, I think because it's been abused by the philosophy industry. The only similar word more abused is "inspirational," which is now almost exclusively a province of Protestantism. When I say abused, I mean that it's almost impossible to use either word without conjuring up an image of emotional quick-fixes and motivational sound-bytes. In the marketplace of ideas, ready-made affirmation has become the Rodney Dangerfield of notions. This is even more true in art. In many ways, I feel like the art world often confronts us with a false choice. The false choice suggests that if a work has emotional depth and validity, then it must in some way disturb, upset, or depress. Similarly, if a work of art promotes goodwill and a positive view of life, then it must lack depth and substance, and be largely decorative. In other words, your choices are Munch's THE SCREAM or a Precious Moments figurine. And if you're looking for a great piece of art, and are confronted by that choice, it's obvious: the Munch.

But that's a false choice, and we all know it. Shakespeare wrote a cavalcade of comedies, and, as Paul Rudnik said, even Brecht wrote showtunes.

In school, I was taught that art's purpose was to give us a new perspective on life from a radically different point of view from the one we normally hold. It's true that we often cling to a status quo because it is frequently easier than confronting real pain. The artist -- inevitably a figure somewhat marginalized by society -- has a vested interest in confronting the status quo. And who wouldn't? After all, it's their very status as an outside that gives them a fresh perspective and allows them to craft art, in the first place. It's natural that much art should be confrontational, disturbing, and malcontented. There's a damned good reason we fix HAMLET as the brightest star in the constellation of human artistic expression. As a director, I have indulged in my share of biting irony and upsetting assertions. I am hopeful that perhaps I changed a few minds with them. Art, in a sense, often serves as diagnostic litmus test, and when it outrages you, that means it's struck a nerve which needs attention.

But is that all there is? I don't think so. Negativity can be as abused
as anything else, and artists -- those noble outsiders -- are often the
most abusive. I think they often see two alternatives: selling out, or
becoming increasingly misanthropic; perhaps that's why so much misanthropy
ends up ringing just as false as Hallmark sentimentality. It ceases to be
social criticism, and becomes little more than overdecorated ranting.
Still, it is often a badge of intellectual legitimacy to wallow
exclusively in bitterness and scathing irony. But doing so creates its
own status quo, and an awfully dreary one, at that.

As a director of plays, I will tell you: finding plays that both affirm the more noble parts of humanity, and are crafted with art, is not an easy road to walk. But then, it has always been easier to destroy than create.

With this in mind, I think it is the greatest challenge, and the most rewarding one, to seek out and recognize art that promotes goodwill with style and intelligence. Roger Ebert has often suggested that movies are an emotional medium, and I agree. I see affirmation as a high and challenging endeavor -- and in art, it is frequently challenging a status quo of shallow-but-catchy misanthropy. But misanthropy ultimately does not help us put our shoes on in the morning. Sometimes it helps to be reminded that there's actually a point to the whole mess and merriment of life. This emotional medium of cinema condenses a powerful dose of art -- hundreds of contributions, thousands of images, thousands of words, millions of creative decisions -- into the most concentrated shot ever devised by the mind of man. It is not a power to be underestimated, especially regarding the often-ignored mission of reminding us why we go on at life, in the first place.

I am a firm optimist, and I am an optimist with irony and insight. My father's list is a good one. It's thoughtful, and genuinely affirmational. Here are a few additions of my own.

STAR TREK III - The Search for Spock This movie gets better every time I watch it. Unfortunately, it has the bad luck of following KHAN. That shadow obscures the film on casual viewings. More careful viewings reveal a film which I believe to be closest to the essence of what gives Star Trek its value. What happens when you take away all of the primary institutions that have ostensibly been the support of the series? You are left with the characters, and the lengths to which they will go for each other. KHAN shows one character doing this in an extreme, emergency situation, with a very tangible objective: save hundreds of lives by repairing the engines *now.* Many of the losses in III are more calculated, and the goal is far more abstract. Still, we see people evaluating their higher priorities, and making surprising trades based on their discoveries. This is a movie about hope, and I think it really, really completes the story begun in KHAN. Do yourself a favor, and watch them back-to-back, as one three-and-a-half hour movie. I think you'll be really surprised.

A Comparison of Star Trek and Star Wars in which Patrick makes some very interesting assertions and and points out intriguing differences in these two sci-fi icons. Commentary by Ron

THE 7 FACES OF DR. LAO What life-lessons *aren't* in this film? One of the great fantasy films, great children's films, great western films, great circus films, and great comedies, all rolled into one. Have you watched this lately? The script is by Charles Beaumont. If you do an imdb search on him, you'll be very surprised at what you find.

LES MISERABLES (1995, Claude Lelouch, director) Yeah, I know, it's subtitled. Watch it, anyway. It's a real "movie movie." There are plenty of memorable characters, action sequences, and harrowing moments. It is, literally, a movie with something for everyone. It's about a man whose life parallels the events in the novel. All I can say is, watch the movie. It's long - about three hours. But you won't regret it. This is the best movie I saw in 1996. It has everything. You will be glad you watched it. It has an intensely happy ending, but through most of the film, you wouldn't expect it - it's that well constructed.

CINEMA PARADISO Yes, another foreign film, but worth it. The best movie about the film going experience ever made. It's hard to talk about movies without eventually getting around to this film.

A father's note - this film features as the main plot focus, the relationship over several years between a small boy (in the beginning) and a theater projectionist. It is not dissimilar to Patrick's own experience growing up near a neighborhood theater.

Richard Lester's Musketeers Series - a special commentary. Click here.

ZELIG - Forgot about that one, I bet. If you want to start a discussion about being true to yourself, this is a good place to start.

THE RIGHT STUFF - Lessons on bravery, concentration, teamwork, ambition. Maybe my favorite movie, ever.

FEMME FATALE - Imagine a deeply metaphysical meditation on the practical value of compassion in everyday human affairs, disguised as a stylish and witty diamond heist movie. The best part is that you don't realize it's anything *other* than a diamond heist movie until the last sixty seconds of it, when suddenly everything is pulled into a completely different focus.

SPIDER-MAN - Don't underestimate this one. In a hundred years, we'll still be looking at a handful of fantasy films from the 1900's -- WIZARD OF OZ, KING KONG, STAR WARS, RAIDERS OF HE LOST ARK, LORD OF THE RINGS, and SPIDER-MAN. Within all of the action and flash, there's a story about characters going on, here. Coming of age, the responsibility concomitant with power, the vagueries of friendship and love - this film explores all of these.

FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING -- EXTENDED EDITION - If you don't have a DVD player, go to Walgreens and pick one up for sixty bucks to watch this movie. A great film about the value of loyalty and the hazards of power has been made even better. This isn't a slapdash effort to squeeze a few more bucks out of slavish fanboys. Everything about a great movie has been tremendously improved. This series of films is going to change everything about what we expect from cinema, and we're getting to experience it as it happens.
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Dark Shadows (TV and films) - A special commentary.
Click here.

More later...