![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/glover6.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/gillan.jpg)
Blind man shooting at the world
Child in Time and Flight of the Rat are featured in the new action flick The Creator, released to theatres on September 29. Both can be heard on the car stereo while the protagonist (played by John David Washington) is driving the sufficiently retro pickup truck, escaping from the bad guys. Both tunes can only be heard for a few seconds, though. Blink, and you’ve missed it. Nevertheless, both tunes got the credit.
Thanks to dpv for the trainspotting report.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Good to hear In Rock getting some retro, Flight of the Rat is a classic indeed. One of my favourite tunes from that album. Nice one. Cheers
October 3rd, 2023 at 09:32Yo,
What a kick-ass song “Flight of the Rat” is hey ???
“Once I had a dream,
To sing before the Queen,
She didn’t want to know,
She wouldn’t see the show”…
Peace !
October 3rd, 2023 at 09:35Good to see that Richard Blackmore was co-credited.
October 3rd, 2023 at 18:13I asked Ian Paice once why (it is also one of my favorites) Flight of the Rat is never played live? He responded “We played it once and it didn’t seem to go over well so we never played it again” Those people at that show don’t know how lucky they were.
October 3rd, 2023 at 23:08George Martin (4): this song is also one of my favorites by the band. It would be fantastic if Deep Purple did some shows with several songs they’ve never played, or only played a few times. In addition to Flight of Rat: Living Wreck; Fools; No, No, No; Rat Bat Blue; Place in Line; Wasted Sunset and other great ones from the level with Steve Morse.
October 4th, 2023 at 13:04FotR was always my favorite song on In Rock too, after CiT of course. Loved Gillan’s vocal melody and Paicey’s drumming.
Unfortunately, there is not much to love about The Creator. I saw it last week, it’s as ham-fisted in transporting its (in principle laudable) messages as the Avatar franchise …
SPOILER ALERT!
Clueless to evil Westerners (believing their own propaganda lies) attempting to eradicate a culture they don’t understand, in this case a non-specified Asian one which has embraced AI and lives in harmony with it (AI specimen are, e.g., monks practicing Far-Eastern philosophy or take care of orphaned human children). References to past actual Western evils abound, helicopter raids on peaceful rural Asian towns (Vietnam I!), American soldiers threatening to shoot children to get information (Vietnam II or if you like Afghanistan/Iraq) and led by a narrow-minded white hard-ass woman (while the Asian women are all gentle and full of wisdom), sending air-to-ground rockets from stratosphere-high-flying ships commanded by grim American generals (Hiroshima I!), employing robot weapons looking like Little Boy on legs (Hiroshima II!), the only decent Westerner (well, there’s actually two) is of course a black man (in love with an Asian-looking woman) who has second thoughts (Vietnam III: the exploited being sent by their exploiters to fight their dirty wars) + one great conspiracy covering it all. Don’t get me wrong, Western history towards Asia, Africa and South America or the original inhabitants of North America or Australasia is anything but great and deserves repeated scrutiny in film, historical research and literature, but this film is as subtle about it as an AC/DC album.
AI is depicted as inherently good, they are all programmed to not hurt us humans so nothing can go wrong, or can it? More interesting questions like if a society where humans and AI live side by side with equal rights could still be a Democracy – Why should it if the robots know best and never mean to hurt us? Yet Democracy (also) means the right of the majority to err … – are not addressed and then there is of course the tired old trope of the savior child/new species.
As the end credits were running (thankfully, the film isn’t as long as some of the Marvel franchise, but still too long, they needed the running time for all the repetitive battle scenes), I was half-expecting to read “Generously sponsored by the People’s Republic of China – Ministry of AI Development and Deployment”).
SPOILERS OVER!
So no, I didn’t like it! ; – )
If you want to see from the same director (Gareth Edwards) a thoughtful film treading similar ground (instead of AI, it’s a tentacled Alien species this time which is persecuted for no good reason) and delivering the message more subtly, but also much more evocatively, then watch his debut from 2010:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2m5wgh2HbI
Bigger budgets don’t always make more for better movies. Hearing a snippet of Flight of the Rat (otherwise rarely played) in a contemporary flick still drew a smile to my face.
October 4th, 2023 at 16:54I wonder who recommended the two DP songs for this movie.
October 4th, 2023 at 21:13They’re both 52 years old, think about it, of all the songs that could have been chosen how did these songs get included in the film??? Just curious.
All of the film plays in Asia, most actors in it are Asian. Given Purple’s undeniable status in Asia, I think that was a conscious nod.
October 5th, 2023 at 01:06@ 6 – well all I can say Uwe is that I am glad you didn’t like that movie because for a moment there as I was being immersed deeper & deeper into your review, I thought you were going to say, ‘I really liked it’. Don’t worry it will probably break all box office records & it & Barbie can reign supreme & we will all be saved (again). Ha ha ha ha. Oh what drivel it all is. It is no wonder aliens just keep on flying by when they look down on this world & it’s inhabitants (present company excepted). In regards to AI a little while ago I was calling our ‘new leader’ AL. It is a wonder I am still here for that blasphemous misspelling. All hail AI then or should that be Barbie. I am getting confused as I don’t know who our new leader is. Apparently it is AI after all that. Barbie is already irrelevant (again). Cheers.
October 5th, 2023 at 05:21@7…Robert asks “I wonder who recommended the two DP songs for this movie.
They’re both 52 years old, think about it, of all the songs that could have been chosen how did these songs get included in the film ??? Just curious.
Interesting question, but if it wasn’t in the script, the director usually gets his way, as its “his baby” once the cash has been laid-down, & the film placed in the camera.
And gauging from Uwe’s spoiler-alert-post, it’s a comparison of the general-public-perception of the extermination that was the Vietnam war, & how little was said & done to stop this atrocity, compared to these-days, with AI directing the methods & goals of the war-pigs, whilst keeping the general public entertained, & blinded to subvert intentions.
For all intents & purposes, the 2 x tunes are great choices, & are still relevant today though written at the 1/2-way mark of the US-of-A’s official involvement in Vietnam, even if troops ( aka advisors ) & supplies were being delivered to aid France in the 1950’s over there..
It seems that “No,no,no” would work just as well too imo.
The more things change, the more they stay the same…
Peace !
October 5th, 2023 at 08:52Don’t throw stones at me, but I always thought that Blackmore had a hard time playing Flight of the Rat even in the studio, let alone playing it live – I get excited every time I listen to that arpeggio in his performance.
October 5th, 2023 at 12:30@10
October 5th, 2023 at 14:42That’s a Rush Quote! I guess it all depends on our Circumstances.
Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.
Barbie started hilariously funny in the first ten minutes and then quickly ran out of steam, it’s hard for comedies to keep up the pace, at least with me. They tried to create a movie that little girls could watch spellbound while still giving their parents something to think about – that didn’t really work for me. And I had real issues with Ryan Gosling as Ken. Gosling is a great actor when cast right, but bloody hell YOU CAN’T METHOD-ACT KEN! You need a certain lightness to play something so artificial credibly, Gosling’s part namesake Ryan Reynolds would have done a better job in that role me thinks. Gosling is an absolute failure at playing dumb and shallow.
I had no issues with the feminist undercurrent of the film at all, but so much more could have been done with it, maybe at the expense of it being watchable for little girls.
PS: You guys wanna hear a nasty, chauvinistic Barbie joke? Ok, which Barbie toy set is the most encompassing? No, not “Barbie’s Animal Clinic” or “Barbie’s Horse Farm”, it’s “Barbie Divorced!” “Barbie Divorced!”? Yup, that is a huge set as it contains
– Ken’s house,
– Kens’s car,
– Ken’s boat &
– Ken’s aircraft!
Ouch, that was wholly politically inappropriate, I know. I’ll crawl back under my rock. Despicable me.
PPS: As consolation, I did think that the recent real life adaption of The Little Mermaid with a – shock, gasp, horror, woke terror upon us! – darker-than-white-hued Halle Bailey was a cute little movie, she played that role well and sure could sing.
October 5th, 2023 at 14:53@ 11- it wouldn’t surprise me at all, many studio compositions don’t work out well being played live for different reasons. Flight of the Rat is a song that is also over shadowed somewhat by others on the In Rock album, so laying out a set list at the time would have been interesting. Having Child in Time as the tour deforce, may have also put any other lengthy song from that album to bed. @ 13 – I cannot believe Uwe watched ‘that’ movie. Perhaps a little lie down & then a nice cup of tea is in order. Not for Uwe, for me after reading his ‘review’ of that. Cheers.
October 5th, 2023 at 20:20Ha, always refreshing to see other people’s perspectives.
Never thought much of Flight of the Rat. It’s a cool track, but very very far from Purple’s best IMO. I’d say almost a filler if it wasn’t 7 mins long (a sign that the band themselves must’ve thought they had something there).
Nevertheless, Jon’s solo in that is absolutely killer. Probably the one thing that makes me give it a spin now and again.
October 6th, 2023 at 01:04Overshadowed? I always thought it stood out positively. It’s a simplistic riff for Blackmore, but it is alluringly primal, like something the MC5 or Hawkwind would have done. And Gillan’s vocal melody is sheer elegance plus there are three great solos in it (Hammond, guitar + drums!)
October 6th, 2023 at 01:14So many movies about fires of all levels .DP music was not the soundtrack, a nice collection of classics: “Into the Fire”,”Fireball”,”Fire In The Basement”,”Burn”…. Almost forgot SOTW 🙂
October 6th, 2023 at 03:26Not by me it isn’t overshadowed. However Speed King, Child in Time, Into the Fire were in the setlist we presume & possibly more at that stage. Although I have not ventured back online to ascertain that, I might just do that out of curiosity. I couldn’t imagine Bloodsucker would be, but who can tell. Let’s have a look. Cheers.
October 6th, 2023 at 07:14But Bloodsucker was played by Mk VII even before they had rerecorded it for Abandon!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMa1ZdzdfcU
(I had forgotten that Steve stood stage left initially with DP, looks weird now!)
Mk VIII continued the tradition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zayHMz8E_oQ
And Mk II played it (at least) at the BBC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR3neWFA3ng
October 6th, 2023 at 10:54Well I did venture back to the 1970 & 71 setlist’s, some were here at THS also from years ago. The big three I mentioned as we were well aware & also Black Night at certain times. Also Mandrake Root, Hush, Wring That Neck, Lucille & Paint It Black & of course heaps of improv & shenanigans & Gillan going to the pub occasionally. Evidently no room for Flight of the Rat even if they could. Cheers.
October 6th, 2023 at 11:08Just watched a movie on Netflix-WeHave A Ghost-
October 6th, 2023 at 19:43Had Highway Star jamming thru a car chase
Always nice to hear something Purple off the cuff!?
Haven’t heard good thins about AI.
@ 21 – that would be more like it in regards to Highway Star being one of the ultimate ‘car’ driving songs. Cheers.
October 6th, 2023 at 22:22Anyone, well anyone from the UK, remember an old Play For Today (I think it must have been that series) in which the music in the party scenes was all by one band and the rest of the incidental music by one classical composer, so the credit at the end read Music by Deep Purple and Beethoven. Jon, and Ritchie I guess, would have loved that.
October 9th, 2023 at 16:59