The cosmic green-blue with the blinding white light across the bottom: at 0:16, it's like the point where the aliens are about to emerge from the spaceship in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."
At 0:24, Trump steps into the light and we know him from his silhouette, though it's just a pudgy old man shape. It's not the kind of glorious female body we're used to seeing introduced in silhouette. For example, the models just before the runway walk on "Project Runway"...
... or this bit from "Seinfeld":
But it's not the only time an unshapely man has worked a silhouette. Alfred Hitchcock used it every week to walk onto our television screen:
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At my place of work, where we were watching the convention unfold, I shook my head slightly at Donald Trump's grandiose entrance and wondered aloud, "What will they play for his entrance when he accepts the nomination? 'Jesus Christ Superstar'?" Whereupon a youngin' suggested "Jesus Walks" by Kanye West, which prompted another youngin' to laugh.
How nice to have my 45-year-old cultural reference torpedoed by a 2004 one. (Yes, I had to look it up.)
They're so angry at grandiose, arrogant Obama, so they nominated THIS man.
One man's glorious is another man's nondescript.
pissing off all the right people.
Where were the foam Greek columns?
Gahrie beat me to it. I was wondering the same thing.
Doberman as Alfred Hitchcock.
Re: Gahrie:
Where were the foam Greek columns?
Oh, I bet they're on their way. He'll accept his nomination in a purple toga and a golden laurel wreath.
It just goes to show the candidate and his campaign are grossly incompetant and have no business running the country. This spectacle was over the top funny.
The foam Greek columns have been replaced by a pair of teleprompters, rising from the ashes of the Obama presidency. Or something like that.
It was probably choreographed by the same guy who wrote Melania's speech.
It's the white light, right? The full color spectrum in harmony.
At his advanced age, and with a melanin disparity, Trump will not qualify for the Nobel Pieces... I mean, Peace Prize. The Twilighters are looking for a savior to calm their cognitive dissonance.
Each candidate, in their different ways. is far worse than the other.
Hoping, waiting for the deus ex machina that will solve this problem.
WWF has good guys and villains, Heroes and cheaters.
So this entrance is appropriate for "The most dangerous man ever to run for President."
Donald the Great. Alexander of Macedonia set a high mark for Great. Donald wants a shot at it. So bring on the mists of legends.
Trump is having fun. It is fools like Obama we need to fear who believe their own hype.
Seen at Reddit..
Why does Trump take Xanax?
For Hispanic attacks.
Rewatched -- I think the staging was a miss, in that they went to the trouble of emphasising his silhouette before the screen lit up with pictures, but once it lit up with pictures, he just blended into the pictures, visually -- the colours and contrast were just too close.
If it were up to me, I'd have recommended they apply a colour filter of some sort (at least to the part of the screen he overlapped) to make sure he pops. Light blue, perhaps? Although I think it has the unfortunate tendency of making his orange skin "pop" in a not especially attractive way.
The difference between Trump's entrance and Obama's is that Trump was explicitly playing for the sort of campy entertainment spectacle that made his TV show successful. Were wild west shows still all the rage, I would have fully expected Sitting Bull's great-grandson to have galloped in whooping. The whole convention celebrity guest list was built on that explicit, well-advertised premise; NPR has been flogging Trump's "not falling asleep after the 19th speech" quote for days.
Obama, on the other hand, was entirely unironic and un-self-conscious in his entrance. He was the one he had been waiting for.
The Donald sure knows how to push the buttons.
Except for the lame song used at the RNC, at first it reminded me of the Drake skit with Trump on SNL.
Is this some kind of elaborate put on? Is he winking at us with false eyelashes?.......,I have seen pictures of his home. Is his grandiosity due to a surfeit of grandeur or just bad taste? Anyway, you know he's in the room.
Unknown said...
It just goes to show the candidate and his campaign are grossly incompetant and have no business running the country. This spectacle was over the top funny.
7/19/16, 10:21 AM"
Indeed its comedically entertaining unlike Clinton who is a tragedy in the making. I prefer to laugh than to cry.
The opening credits/original song of any James Bond movie ie babes get your attention!
Trump meh, not so much ...
Nobody Does It Better
I digress.
Trump is having fun. It is fools like Obama we need to fear who believe their own hype.
That's the way I see it.
I think Clayton Hennesey might have it.
And this election may indeed turn out to be between classes.
Just wait until the lefties "bring out" Cankles.
Maybe they'll do a Hillary on the Half Shell.
That'd give anyone the willies.
I think he's just having fun, too.
More, the madder folks get, the more I seem to want to root for him to win.
That's what he wants me to feel, I reckon.
The entire convention is plagiarized!
Well, ya know... the dude did beat out ~16 challengers for the Republican nomination over the course of 9 months and a series of mind-numbing debates accompanied by an unceasing 24/7 barrage of media coverage that continues on to this day.
But no doubt our small-minded little church lady here prefers having the cameras follow a politician's expensively-shod feet interminably as he saunters through the bowels of the arena before making his grand entrance... that "champion's" most recent notable feat then was beating an impeachment rap stemming from pulling down his pants to ask a woman to kiss his wee-wee, diddling an intern in the Oval Office, and lying about it to a national TV audience and under oath in front of a judge.
He is simply shoving it way up the ass of the left and the GOPe. That entrance was a great big FU to the losers. Him champion; them losers.
I'm Fabi, and I approve this message.
Bodyshaming, Professor--that's bodyshaming.
How tacky, no styrofoam Greek col...somebody beat me to it.
Oh, wait, wait, wait.
Were his pants impeccably creased? We all know that could swing some votes...
Maybe they'll do a Hillary on the Half Shell.
She'll fly in on her broomstick the way Kerry crossed the Charles in SwiftVet One.
"More, the madder folks get, the more I seem to want to root for him to win."
Who is mad? We're laughing at him.
Some people like a Shriner parade, some don't.
All politics is show business to some extent.
I liked the part at 0:30 where it looks like his knees are mounted on a spring.
He did stuff with the WWE several times. If pro wrestling can do one thing exceedingly well, it is a splashy entrance. Should've added pyro and confetti streamers.
Indeed its comedically entertaining unlike Clinton who is a tragedy in the making
But with the only appropriate song being "Mr Roboto", Styx will get a much-needed payday for it.
Hagar said...
Some people like a Shriner parade, some don't.
--
Oohh..befezed delegates zipping around in those little cars...
"The opening credits/original song of any James Bond movie ie babes get your attention!"
Yes, I thought of that too, but had trouble finding a clip of what I had in mind.
Like the Nuremberg Rally, it’s difficult to discern whether Trump’s entrance is naive or deliberate Camp.
ans are not party national conventions supposed to be like Shriner parades?
Grandiose, yes, but not 1 millionth as much as Obama's Greek Temple at Mile-High Stadium in 2008.
I do wonder if they paid for and received the rights to use that song, though. Somehow, Trump does not seem like Queen's favorite candidate...
Earnest Prole said...
Like the Nuremberg Rally, it’s difficult to discern whether Trump’s entrance is naive or deliberate Camp.
7/19/16, 12:38 PM"
Never fear Hillary will have a carefully orchestrated Stalinist Socialist Reality entrance. Personally I prefer naive or intentional camp. But that is just me. You may prefer more of a North Korean spectacle.
Ann Althouse said...
"The opening credits/original song of any James Bond movie ie babes get your attention!"
Yes, I thought of that too, but had trouble finding a clip of what I had in mind.
7/19/16, 12:37 PM"
I'm old school Bond. Perhaps a clip from "From Russia With Love".
Trump just wants to enforce laws and repeal obamneycare. If he starts lowering the water in the oceans or solving global warming by checking everyone's tire inflation I will start to think he thinks too much of himself.
I do wonder if they paid for and received the rights to use that song, though. Somehow, Trump does not seem like Queen's favorite candidate...
Queen's opinion wouldn't matter. The campaign, I'd imagine, licensed it through the appropriate channels. The artists can whine if they so opt to do so.
Maybe they'll do a Hillary on the Half Shell.
I immediately thought of Botticelli's Venus, then immediately had to sit down for a few minutes.
"Yes, I thought of that too, but had trouble finding a clip of what I had in mind."
For Your Eyes Only w/credits Blu-ray 1080p
Did not know trivia: Sheena Easton remains the only artist to ever be seen singing the theme song to a James Bond movie during its opening titles.
shiloh - you might enjoy the James Bonding podcast on the Nerdist network. It has two funny guys (and usually a guest) discussing every Bond film in separate episodes--they are true fans and go through a ton of interesting trivia.
I used to go to James Bond movies. I remember going to see "Thunderball" and thinking of it as LATE Bond.
I like the Bond movies and preferred Sean Connery to the later models. But my British husband pointed out that Connery was ill-suited to play an old Etonian, as Bond was written.
Hil will need to pump things up. Maybe deviate from the boring pantsuits.
Hillary on a half shell would be hilarious.
This entrance was fucking fabulous and high camp. Very drag queenish.
I await Althouse's clever snark regarding Hillary's pudgy pear shape next week.
How is Hillary going to dodge the debates? She can't even do a press conference. Will her supporters give her a sympathy vote if she has another stroke on stage?
You would suspect Trump is a fat old queen with a rug except that he uses the word fabulous unironically
I'm kind of old fashioned, and think of conventions about winning the election for the party.
Can you imagine if Lyndon Johnson came on stage like that? Just about everyone would be highly embarrassed.
That entrance I think, lost him the election. No Republican is going to elect a party leader who only thinks in terms of himself.
I think whoever planned that whole thing should have their credentials voided, and send them back to Hollywood.
It was a tragedy for the Republican party.
"How is Hillary going to dodge the debates? She can't even do a press conference. Will her supporters give her a sympathy vote if she has another stroke on stage?"
The dichotomy/contrast of Hillary who is disliked "debating" Trump who is more disliked and less prepared for in-depth political discussion will put her in her "wheelhouse" and quite comfortable.
The Benghazi hearings had Hillary taking rapid fire for a whole day and one by one Reps serving on the committee were becoming casualties from the return fire. It really wasn't a fair fight.
She's totally unflappable and will be quite prepared for any surprise attack by Trump. Been there done that.
As an Obama 2008 supporter can honestly say Hillary won most, if not all, of those primary debates.
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Trump's handlers, ok who am I kidding as there is no such animal ...
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Trump acting like a kindergarten kid in the Rep primary debate(s) will fall flat in a serious, no applause, presidential debate.
Crooked Hillary/lying Ted/little Marco etc. Indeed, one crooked Hillary or a reasonable facsimile thereof and Hillary will destroy him!
From everything we've seen Trump is totally incapable of changing his pedestrian tactics.
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What are the odds he uses a teleprompter for his acceptance speech? Rhetorical.
It was humorous and made people smile. The whole convention thing has become a carnival for publicity. The time when conventions actually chose a candidate are past. If the complete failure of the Never Trumpers at this convention doesn't convince you, wait until next week when Bernie is just a footnote. The whole convention is just for show. What Trump's entrance says about him is he has a sense of humor. Most conservatives have something liberals lack, and that's the ability to laugh at themselves.
Althouse. You watch entirely too much television.
That entrance I think, lost him the election. No Republican is going to elect a party leader who only thinks in terms of himself.
Go home coupe, you're drunk.
Besides champions, Queen devoted lyrics to silhouettes.
"I see a little silhouetto of a man,
Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?"
What is a Scaramouche? According to Wikipedia, he is "a stock clown character of the Italian commedia dell'arte. The role combined characteristics of the zanni (servant) and the Capitano."
What is a Capitano? According to Wikipedia, he is "a masked character from the commedia dell'arte. . . Il Capitano often talks at length about made up conquests of both the militaristic and carnal nature in attempts to impress others, but often only ends up impressing himself. He gets easily carried away in his tales and doesn't realize when those around him don't buy his act."
And there's this: "Cyrano de Bergerac, a play by Edmond Rostand, is the most popular variant on Scaramouche. It portrays [Cyrano] as a violent, easily angered braggart who is sensitive about slurs on his considerable courage, his rural Gascon heritage, or his ugly face (which is identical to the features of the Scaramouche mask). "
An "easily angered braggart who is sensitive about slurs?" Hmm.
"Thunderbolt and lightning,
Very, very frightening me."
Scaramouche is also a wonderful novel and its movie adaptation with Stewart Granger and Janet Leigh has one of, if not THE very best, sword fights in all of film.
In that novel and that movie, the title role is that of a man hiding in plain sight until he can exact his well-deserved revenge on his oppressors. Hmmm, indeed.
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