Thursday, September 06, 2012

Somewhere in a movie balcony...

Gene: Welcome to "At the Rheology Movies". I'm Gene Visko, film critic for the Chicago Tan Delta

Roger:...and I'm Roger Elast, film critic for the Chicago G Prime. Tonight we review the rheological thriller Rubber, a 2010 release directed by Quentin Dupieux. The movie is a very dark, and yet humorous film that follows a tire which goes on a bloody killing spree. If that doesn't make any sense to you, then this segment should help you feel more comfortable with the idea:

If you can accept that whole concept of "no reason", then you will enjoy the movie immensely.

Gene: Well Roger, I could accept that whole concept, but I really think it makes for tired film making, excuse the expression. Without that whole prologue, the movie would be just flat (excuse the expression). I do have to admit that the whole prologue made the movie roll along much better (again excuse the expression), and so I do have to give Quentin credit for that. More film makers should be using that trick. It would only inflate (groan) their bad movies by a couple of minutes. Maybe I'll just mentally insert this scene it in my mind whenever I am sitting clueless in a movie again, like say The Room. Now that I think about it, that introduction would help out "The Room" tremendously.

Roger: Gene, I loved this movie. It didn't take itself seriously and was almost a parody of a B-grade horror movie.

Gene: But Roger, look at the total disregard for rheology in it. The tire is able to internally generate a little set of vibrations which then cause the heads of people across the way to explode. Even accepting the whole "no reason" clause for every stupid aspect of the movie, look at how unrealistic the killer tire is. Internally generated vibrations like that violate the 2nd law of thermodynamics, and then being able to transmit that energy at a distance without any visible meanings of concentrating it so as to overcome the power drop with 1/r2 is just fantasy. Not "no reason": fantasy.

Roger: Gene, it's apparent to me that the vibrations are at the resonance frequency of the tire which allows them to become amplified without bound.

Gene: But there still would be viscous damping.

As an aside Roger, there was one point in the movie when the question arose of whether the tire would sink in water. You and I spoke of this before the show and I think we agree that the density of a tire would induce it to sink, what with the steel wires in it, the carbon black and more.

Roger: At least we agree on something. The movie is rated R and available on DVD. To summarize, I gave the movie a thumbs up and Gene went thumbs down. So until next time, the balcony is closed.

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