Bogart In Space

When watching the last few minutes to Casablanca, I realized that the coolness that comes from Rick is generated by his sacrifices. Faced with the decision to either support Victor's cause or run the bar in isolation, Rick chooses to sacrifice his life of luxury to do what he sees as right. The character Spock from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan also makes a sacrifice because it is the right thing to do. Throughout the movie, the antagonist Khan follows the opposite standpoint on sacrifice that Spock does. Khan's sole purpose in life is to get revenge on Captain Kirk for abandoning Khan's crew on a barren planet, and Khan is willing to kill any amount of people, including his own crew, to get what he wants. Ultimately, Khan only cares about himself and getting his own revenge. Conversely, Spock realizes that the most logical philosophy of life is that the needs of the group are always greater than the needs of individual people. This philosophy comes to the test when Spock chooses to sacrifice his life to save the Enterprise. The way that Spock is able to give up his life for the good of the crew is incredibly cool because most people are not willing to go that far for the good of other people.

Another person who generates coolness from sacrifices is House. Although I've already shown House to be a dissident, he is also willing to sacrifice himself for others. For example, in the latter part of the fourth season of House, House's best friend Wilson starts dating Amber, a woman who House dubs "Cutthroat Bitch". In the minds of his colleagues, Amber is dragging Wilson away from House, leading House to resent Amber, but in House's mind, Amber is leading Wilson into a horrible relationship that will end in a broken heart for Wilson. In the penultimate episode of the season, it is revealed that Amber is close to death because of a bus crash. Even though saving Amber would mean Wilson becoming less of a friend, House decides that Wilson is in love with Amber, and that letting her die would make Wilson heartbroken. In addition, to save Amber, House must risk his own life by performing multiple dangerous operations in an attempt to access memories about the bus crash. In the end, House's strongest attempts are failures, and as a result, Amber dies. However, even though he was unsuccessful, House was willing to sacrifice his life just for the happiness of his best friend. It is this kind of act that truly defines sacrificial coolness.

Read this or you'll regret it soon and for the rest of your life!

In recent years, I have fallen into the habit of not watching movies or television. The cause for this is the almost certain disappointment that I get when I expect to spend a portion of time being entertained and end up horribly uninterested. However, movies like The Public Enemy and Casablanca have made me look into the past for my future entertainment.

After about five minutes of watching Casablanca, I started to think that it was going to be a horrible movie. I did not want to spend my Wednesday night watching a story about people passing through a bar. When Bogart made his appearance on screen, I questioned everyone's statements of how cool he was. Fortunately, as the characters of the movie developed, I was drawn deeper and deeper into the fantasy of Rick's Cafe Americana. Rick ended up being my favorite character from the film. His progression from a cold and distant saloon owner to a passionate man doing the right thing definitely solidified his position as a very cool character.

I believe that Rick's ultimate motivation is to do the right thing. At first, he is withdrawn from the world because of the way Ilsa hurt him in Paris. As a result, he is afraid to stand up for what is right because he does not want to be hurt anymore. However, when Ilsa returns in his life, Rick's motives become revitalized. He goes from being an isolated businessman to being an active participant in people's lives. For example, when the Germans are singing in the cafe, it may be Victor who tells the band to play La Marseillaise, but it is Rick who nods to the band, giving them the permission to play the anthem. He does this because he views Victor's actions as good and wants to help him in any way necessary. The ending scene of the movie also shows Rick's commitment to doing the right thing. By giving Victor and Ilsa the papers, he sacrifices any chance of a relationship with Ilsa so that she will be happy with Victor. In addition, this sacrifice gives Rick, Victor, and Captain Renault the opportunity to help France.

Out of the supporting cast of the movie, Sam is the most interesting. While Sam is not a horribly interesting character from the standpoint of the plot of the movie, I am interested by the way a black man was portrayed in the movie. Although the point where Sam and Rick are drinking late at night puts Sam as a friend of Rick, the way Sam is referred to as boy occasionally and the way that Sam calls Rick boss all the time puts Sam as an inferior person to the white men in the movie. Fortunately, although Sam is portrayed as inferior, he is also shown as a kind person who is genuinely goodhearted.

The Public Fable

From the opening scene of The Public Enemy, I immediately thought of the video game Fable II. Similarly to Tom, Sparrow, the protagonist of Fable II, starts out his life as a normal child with the potential to do either good or evil. However, through making bad choices, Sparrow slowly descends into a world of crime. Starting out, he only has to perform simple tasks like transporting slaves and stealing gold from houses. This is similar to Tom's early career as a criminal when he had to raid the rum warehouse. As time progresses, Sparrow becomes richer and more powerful through his evil deeds, gaining the wealth to gradually own businesses and houses. Although tasks like murder and enslaving innocent people definitely remain on Sparrow's list of things to do, he also gains the ability to extort the citizens of Albion by raising rent and charging extreme prices for basic goods. However, the rise of crime causes the city guards and assassins from opposing criminals to constantly attack Sparrow. This mirrors the last few days of Tom's life when he has extreme money and power but succumbs to the gunfire of opposing criminals. In a turn away from Tom's life, Sparrow actually lives through the constant opposition from his enemies, giving him the opportunity to make the final decision to be good or evil. (watch the video from 3:55 to 4:55)

Another person who shares the criminal coolness that Tom has is the Joker from The Dark Knight. Having a complete disregard for all justice and law, the Joker does not care about money. Instead, he only wishes to create chaos within society and gain power. Although Tom's goals are not centered on chaos, he does not care about money. For Tom, he only wants people to recognize him and fear him as the city's greatest criminal. In addition, the Joker has no problem killing innocent people. He even goes as far as to blow up a hospital just to make a point. Tom also has no problems killing people, as can be seen by the way he kills Putty Nose and walks away without a second thought. However, Tom does not go as far as the Joker does. Although he is ruthless, Tom cannot stand to harm his mother. Conversely, the Joker could easily kill his own family for the sake of one of his cruel jokes.

Although I can see the viewpoint of those who like cool criminals, I still do not find criminal activities to be cool. I may simply be too much of a goodie-two-shoes, but I am the type of person that finds Batman cooler than the Joker simply because the Joker harms innocent people. As for Tom, he has a slight glimmer of coolness in the way he cares for his mother, but his overall attitude towards everyone else makes him a very uncool person.

Implicity Defining Cool

While watching The Public Enemy, I did not find the main character to be cool. When contemplating why this supposedly cool person is not cool at all, I began to realize that defining cool directly is very hard. However, it may be easier to define cool through showing what I believe to be cool.

Kindness is a necessary component of cool. Although cool people may be evil or violent, I believe that a person must show kindness to some degree. For example, Dracula is a very evil figure in fiction. However, despite his disregard for most human life, he shows a very complex kindness in the way that he loves Mina. Though, in regards to good people, kindness alone is not enough to be cool. In order to be cool and good simultaneously, kindness is merely a necessary component in the puzzle of cool. Andy Griffith, an incredibly kind and goodhearted man, is not very cool because he lacks any other cool characteristics.

Another characteristic that is required for good people to be cool (and also help evil people be cool) is intelligence. Macgyver is a perfect example of someone that is cool through intelligence. By using his wits, he can solve any situation without resorting to the crude use of firearms. In comparison to Andy Griffith, Macgyver is just as kind and compassionate towards the innocent and attempts to serve justice to wrongdoers. However, the addition of intellect to Macgyver makes him considerably cooler than a Mayberry sheriff.

An additional part of cool that Macgyver, Dracula, and all other cool people share is the ability to lead. A person who exemplifies leadership along with kindness and intellect is Captain Janeway from Star Trek: Voyager. It is difficult to be at a maximum level of cool while following orders. As captain, everyone must follow her orders exactly and without delay. Although other members of her crew like Tuvok may be somewhat cool, Janeway is the coolest person in Star Trek because of her ability to orchestrate her entire crew to perform amazing feats. Another example of a person who is cool through leadership is Barack Obama. Similarly to Captain Janeway, President Obama is cool because he charismatically gained the support of millions of Americans. Now, as a leader, his coolness is remaining because he is acting as an intelligent leader who kindly acts with the voice of the American people. In contrast, President Bush is not a cool person. Although he does have the quality of leadership, he does not act with kindness and intelligence. His speeches are more forceful than fluid, causing a slight bit of intimidation in his voice, and his poor speaking skills create the appearance of a lack of intelligence.

Being such an abstract concept, coolness is hard to discern through a direct explanation through words. The use of examples is almost necessary to show the difference between cool and square.

Another Dissident and Transcendent

I was watching the new episode of House on Monday when I suddenly realized that he is presently the coolest person on television. He lives as a contradiction to what should be acceptable in modern American society. House has a complete disregard for all rules. For him, the only important thing in life is finding the truth. While solving medical mysteries by using unconventional and often illegal techniques, House saves lives and forces his patients and fellows to acknowledge the truth. He truly believes that everyone holds lies and secrets, and that stripping everyone he sees of their protective secrets is the greatest service he can do next to solving medical problems. On many occasions, Dr. House must fight against the establishment of the hospital to perform extremely risky operations to save a patient's life. Strangely enough, a large amount of Christians find Dr. House to be cool even though he is an Atheist. However, I am more inclined to believe that the reason for this is that he is a horribly miserable man who is in constant pain.

While House is a cool dissident, Will Smith is made up of pure transcendent cool molecules. Smith's coolness comes from his talent as an entertainer. Over the past two decades, he has acted with extreme talent without developing the quirks that other actors have succumbed to. In addition, Smith has a kind of indescribable aura about him that permeates all of his roles regardless of how whimsical or serious they are. I would argue that Smith's coolness is so transcendent that his son Jaden has been able to absorb some of Smith's power and become cool as well. Considering that Jaden is also a very talented actor, I believe that Smith's coolness has been further enhanced by raising a star like Jaden. Even though Smith's acting is the primary cause of his coolness, he has also established himself as a rap artist with a smooth rhythm and flowing rhymes.

With the kind of cool qualities that Will Smith has, I view him as being the coolest real person in America today. However, including fictional characters, I could never place Smith above House as the absolute coolest person in modern America. House's search for the truth and his extreme hatred of arbitrary rules are traits that I find very cool. There is no one on Earth that could ever surpass his coolness.

Starting the "Cool" down

I have always had problems understanding the concept of cool. Personally, I have always believed that I am at the apex of uncoolness, and since hearing F. John's lecture on coolness, I still believe that I may as well invest all my money in the most square thing on the planet. Fortunately for me, listening to F. John has provided me with the tools to understand cool. According to him, the two primary forms of cool are dissident and transcendent. The cool dissident is the type of person that rebels against the mainstream culture and is accepted by a following of people. I specify that dissidents must have a following because not everyone who rebels is considered to be cool. An example of the dissident in American culture is Bender from the Breakfast Club. Although a rational mind would look at Bender and see that his future is one of either ditch-digging or weed peddling, an American teen in the 1980's would see Bender as a revolutionary who stands up against the prison of mainstream thought. Essentially, the type of dissidence that Bender portrays is cool because teenagers always want to dream about freeing themselves from adult tyranny and instilling their own brand of cool anarchy.

Almost opposed to dissident coolness, transcendent coolness is the kind of coolness that comes from being incredibly good at an ability that is valued by society. Again, there are some people who are incredibly talented but still uncool because of what they are talented at. One person who exemplifies transcendent coolness is Stephen Hawking. Hawking's sheer intellect and his ability to explain quantum physics on a level that almost anyone can understand has rightfully earned him the title of "Coolest Smart Guy on the Planet" in my mind. In addition, Hawking's handicap adds distinction to his achievements because he is able to reinvent physics while being practically paralyzed.

In addition to the ideas of coolness that we studied in class, I was very interested in the early history of film. I already knew about Edison's experiments with film and the nickelodeons, but I had no idea about the innovations made by the Lumiere brothers. I find the entire concept of early film very intriguing because of the transition that was made between pictures and movies. I find myself wondering what kind of new medium will take the place of the movies as the primary method of conveying coolness across America. While it is impossible to predict the future, I can only hope that the coolest piece of fictional technology in the history of television becomes reality before I die.