Mamet Gets It

It's rare that I post twice in the same day, but I just finished watching David Mamet's Spartan again for the third or fourth time. It has always been one of my favorite films but it just got shot up the list even further. Actually it's my esteem for Mamet that is even greater. Why?

I've always liked the film because the writing and action scenes, like real life, don't wait around for you to catch up. It assumes you're as smart or smarter than it is and can keep up without back story or stupid dialogue where characters, that maybe are supposed to be elite soldiers, suddenly feel the need to ask if a regularly used acronym in their lexicon really means what it does so the "stupid" audience understands. It makes my teeth hurt.

So, as I'm watching one of the final scenes, that is supposed to be taking place in an aircraft hangar in Dubai, I noticed something--or the lack of something I should say. In every instance that an airplane appeared in the background, the tail registration is either blurred out of focus or hidden from view by the frame or a prop. That's because the hangar was really in L.A. and all the airplanes had American registration numbers. Mamet obviously holds his audience in high enough regard to assume they might be savvy enough to notice an American "N" number in a hangar that's supposed to be in Dubai.

Very cool.