The film Cowboy Bebop is an anime movie filled with intense fist fighting and insane jazz music in the background which adds to the interesting plot line and sets itself apart from other anime and films of it’s genre. The setting takes place on Mars in the 2071 and is interesting as that is, Mars is set up to look like a lot of American cities such as: New York, San Francisco and Chicago. The plot revolves around the main character, Spike, who along with his posse is trying to stop a fugitive who’s attempting to release a virus on to the planet of Mars. The capital city of Mars is offering an unbelievable sum of money as a reward to catch the culprit before time runs out. With spike and his crew being bounty hunters, they are gunning to get the man responsible to save Mars as well as get a ridiculous sum of money as a reward. The reason the movie is entitled Cowboy Bebop is because the name of the ship they use to travel around as bounty hunters is called “BeBop”. Overall I was fascinated with the movie and enthralled with the imagery and artwork that the director used in the setting. It was a very interesting set up because of the way the artist who animated the film almost directly mimicked American cities was mind-blowing to me because half of the time I was trying to pay attention to the plot line and the other half I was paying attention to the beautiful artwork and music that was put into the film.
Another compelling aspect or even some would say controversial aspect about the film, the reference to nine-eleven with the twin towers on Mars. Also the movie was originally titled Cowboy Bebop: Knockin’ on Heaven’s door but due to copyright laws, the director wanted to avoid any conflict with the copy of the famous Bob Dylan song “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”. As I was saying before I really enjoyed the music that was in the background for all of the fighting scene’s and the intro in this film. The name of the group who performed the score was called The Seatbelts and I would love to get into them as well as into the show series that was before the movie.
Hey Neil,
ReplyDeleteYour blog post drew attention to the music of the blog, which was very important! You are right when you mention that the music and feel in this movie is different than other animes and films. Its connection to the twin towers and the western cultures are very strong, which brings me to ask; why do you think there is such a strong connection to western culture? What is the message behind this cultural exchange and use of western culture music? Did Bob Dylan's song "Knocking on Heaven's Door" make a connection to you in the movie? Nice job summarizing the film and giving insight as to what the movie is about; I slightly wish there was more use of the spaceship Bebop. As far as I'm concerned, Cowboy Bebop could just be "Cowboy" because the Bebop wasn't even seen to be used very much! All in all though, good job on the blog post, it was a nice read!
Tracy