Movie Review of "The Pervert's Guide To Ideology"

"Maybe something new only emerges through the failure, the suspension of proper functioning of the existing network of our life work where we are."

(If you plan on watching this film after reading this amateur review, you should probably use subtitles)

Now, the film starts off in the middle of a scene from the movie called They Live starring Roddy Piper (who I had no idea even existed until I watched TPGTI). The camera then pans over to a dumpster where the narrator and main character of the film first appears. His name is Slavoj Zizek and he holds the most interesting ideas in his philosophical mind.

Although I had quite a hard time trying to find my interest in this film, I realized why I thought it was such a great idea to give it a shot. For those of you who do not know what ideology is, it is a system of ideas and ideals, especially one that forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy. Also, it is not pronounced "eye-dee-ology" but it is pronounced "id-ee-ology". Throughout the film, Zizek tries his best to connect the concept of ideology with our modern day entertainment and even our food. After he attempts to make a connection with the movie They Lived, he then moves on to a personal favorite of mine, The Sound Of Music starring Julie Andrews. 

He explains how, in the movie, Maria Rainer (Julie Andrews) is a nun who finds herself full of desire for a man named Georg von Trapp. When she returns to Nonnberg Abbey, she explains to the Mother Abbess that she has been noticing her feelings towards Georg von Trapp and the Mother Abbess immediately tells her to follow her desires. To me, this shows that the Catholic Church does not want to tie you down and force you to believe in their religion. They simply want you to find your "desire" whether it is in another human or if it is in their God.

Zizek then takes a swift turn from films to beverages that almost every person on this planet has consumed. Coca-Cola. Now, our understanding of the perfect bottle of coke is ice cold. At least, that is the way that I like my Coke. Zizek explains that Coke is truly Coke when it is cold and fresh, not hot and flat. You will never see a commercial for Coca-Cola of a man holding a bottle of coke that does not have condensation on the outside of it. A warm and flat coke is NOT a good coke. Just like Zizek says "when it is cold, it has a certain attraction."

Zizek then goes on about the Kindle Surprise egg (chocolate egg that has been banned from many countries), he spends some time going over A Clockwork Orange, which I am not a fan of. It has to be the most disturbing movie I have ever attempted to watch. Because of this, I was slowly losing interest in the film. Now, I do not want the writing of ACO to go unappreciated. It is definitely one of the many well-written pieces of literature that I have read but I would most likely never read it nor watch it ever again. I was about ready to exit the film until Zizek moved on to West Side Story.

The best part of Zizek's opinion of this movie's connection to ideology was the accuracy compared to my opinion. It is the most relatable and simplest explanation of why young men/women fall into the "delinquent" title. In WSS, the boys sing about why they are considered punks to the cops in the city. Their parents are junkies and drunks so automatically, in the cops mind, the child will follow in their footsteps. 

Unfortunately, I will skip through some of the movies that Zizek goes over because the movies that I think will make much more sense and be much more familiar to our generation are the movies that we have all most likely seen. For example, Titanic.

As much as I would like to say that I want to go on vacation and meet a handsome young man with enough money to buy me a Jr. Frosty from Wendy's but the artistic talent of Da Vinci, I won't say it because that was complete sarcasm and I am not interested. But, this movie is the perfect representation of how women see the perfect relationship. You meet this cute guy and he just so happens to like you too and you are currently in a relationship with a rich man who is manipulative. Now you are stuck because your family wants you to marry this rich man but you are falling in love with the charming poor boy who stole your heart. Oh no, what are you going to do? Wake up. Because one guy just wasn't enough for you? If you are in a relationship and you allow yourself to fall for someone else then you need to ask yourself why you are in a relationship. You know what other movies are just like Titanic? Aladdin, Twilight, This Means War, and many more. The perfect relationship is the one that works out for you. It is as simple as that.

I will be the first one to say that I have little understanding of ideology but I feel confident in myself when I say that I am now well informed of the topic. The entire film is just an eye-opener. You are watching the movie and you realize that everything around you is made to keep your head in the clouds. Everything has a subliminal message and the only way we can see them is by changing the way we dream and changing our dreams to fit our reality. I would only recommend this movie to someone with an open-mind or with an interest in changing their process of thinking. Many people can watch this movie and think "yeah, he has a point but then what happens when we are all stuck in reality?"

Simple.

You make your new reality become your dream come true by having a realistic plan and a realistic possibility of an outcome. No one ever said that reality was boring. You are just dreaming without a plan.