Kill The Lion by Cody Clarke- Review

Before we had tweets we had epigraphs- pithy, wise, and memorable aphorisms quoted at the beginning of books that lay down the context and served as a guiding hand for what followed. Now such famous phrases are unmoored from the anchor of a larger text and float about freely as social media posts and cursive tattoos on the limbs of seemingly everyone I see on the street, like so many Guy Pierce’s in Memento but it’s mangled words of ancient wisdom rather than hard-won murder clues.

Anyway. I mention epigraphs because the book we are going to discuss today has one of the most clear and precise use of epigraphs I have encountered in a new release in some time, especially in one that is self-published. And as these two epigraphs lay the foundation and conclusion of Kill The Lions diptych structure so shall I quote them here as a means of laying out my own structure for this review.

Ready?

Revulsion to Revolution

True revolution comes from true revulsion— when things get bad enough, the kitten will kill the lion.”

~Charles Bukowski, The People

My internet friend Cody Clarke is a filmmaker, and a revolutionary one at that. Cody is at the vanguard of what he calls ‘Truly Independent Film’ his name for the staunchly anti-Hollywood, (virtually) zero budget form of filmmaking that is beginning to blossom far from the fading glamour and underhandedness and sleaze of the mainstream movie industry.

The revulsion for Hollywood, with its bullying and its exploitation and its dirty dealings, let alone its excesses and the bland, soulless overproduced and overpriced product it turns our summer after summer has truly set in. This pandemic year and the attendant closing of the multiplexes and the fading of celebrities from the public consciousness has been an awakening for many. We don’t miss the bombardment of blandness. We don’t miss the out of touch films and their surgically enhanced and steroidal stars. A summer without superheroes and CGI and eardrum-perforating machine gun fire and explosions feels like blessed relief.

Now that the sensory overload has subsided many are seeing Hollywood fare for the confidence trick that it is. What was has been in the air among the cognoscenti for a while (cinema attendance has been falling for years for a reason, Parasite won the best picture Oscar for a reason) has filtered down to the Everyman.

Which is where Kill The Lion steps in.

Clarke’s main contention- and it’s a bold one- is that cinema as an art form is in its infancy. He calls the past century or so of cinema The Prologue Era, as it was a walled-off, undemocratic medium with gatekeepers and more barriers to entry than could be realistically scaled by those who don’t want to play ball with the Hollywood power structure.

But that has all changed now. And though the pandemic may have brought to light some of the issues of the old structure, it has only acted as an accelerant for what was already slowly happening on the margins.

The democratising of filmmaking is a question of economics. Of technology. A shift in zeitgeist might be the spark that sets the explosion off, but the fuels has to already be present. And fortunately for the truly independent filmmaker, this is now the case.

The Economics Of Creativity

“Film will only ever be an art form when its materials are as inexpensive as pen and paper.” ~ Jean Cocteau

We have reached Cocteau’s turning point. This is an immensely exciting fact and one that is criminally underreported and under acknowledged. In spite of all of the YouTube influencers who make super-high quality videos (from a technical if not artistic standpoint) it doesn’t seem to have sunk in that it is now possible for anyone to make a feature film. Like the Six Million Dollar Man ‘we have the technology’ and fortunately it doesn’t have a six million dollar price tag.

It is only very, very recently then with the affordability and access to cameras and editing software and so forth that film can truly be said to have even begun.

As Cody puts it:

Imagine if the only books that existed were written by people who were let write a book— the simple materials necessary to do so, such as pen and paper, being lightyears beyond the price range of everyone but the rich. Under such conditions, could we safely say we knew what literature was yet?

Well, ‘pen and paper’ is now available to all. A miracle that those great geniuses who slaved away and compromised their vision within the studio system of Hollywood’s ‘Golden Age’ would have killed for. Just take a moment to mull that over.

This is an unbelievable freedom, an unbelievable opportunity that many fail to take advantage of primarily because of fear and ignorance. Why do you think fame has been pushed so hard as an aspiration for everyone? Because wide-scale fame is the only thing that the gatekeepers can plausibly offer that you cannot now instead create for yourself, often on a shoestring. And it is a poisoned chalice at that.

Think about it- if you can create what you want, how you want, when you want and distribute it exactly how you want and retain a fair share of the proceeds from it then why on earth would you need to go hat in hand to some gatekeeper?

I think it is only Stockholm Syndrome, lack of vision, apathy and fear then that keeps this fame-driven status quo afloat. And I think the pandemic has proven to be a nail in this particular coffin.

And I think Kill the Lion is another.

The How And The Why

Like Cody I am an independent artist and so I can write about whatever I want in whatever manner I want. Unlike the ‘professional’ reviewer I do not have to review things that I dislike. I do not have to dunk on things for clicks and attention. So I only review or talk about things that I like and that I actively endorse and recommend. The very existence of a review of something means that I like it and believe that it is worthwhile, no star rating or marks out of ten required.

So in lieu of a metric I’ll simply state what I believe is valuable about this book and why you should follow my unaffiliated links to buy it.

First of all Cody walks the walk and has maximum skin in the game here. His life is his sermon and his films are his argument. This book just gives flesh and clarity to the argument that runs implicitly through his body of work.

Second this book absolutely brims with enthusiasm, which is a refreshing tonic in and of itself. I am on record as saying that this new decade will be a great one for the arts and it is gratifying to encounter someone who shares the same sentiment in spite of the culturally fostered tendency for people to default to an attitude of pessimism and defeat.

Third, if you actually are a filmmaker or have aspirations in that direction ‘The How’ section of this book is a step by step guide through literally the entire process. And it all makes it seem doable and, dare I say it, fun. Not only are the gatekeepers irrelevant but the mental barriers are all knocked down like so many dominos. As someone who has previously felt zero desire to shoot a film I have to say that this book got my excited about the prospect. I suspect that Kill The Lion will make many people throw their hat in the ring. This can only be a good thing for grass roots, anti corporate culture generally.

Fourth and finally, even if you have no desire to become a filmmaker theirs is still an awful lot of valuable material here when it comes to writing, the muse, how to approach life and social situations, how to interview people and play to their (and your) strengths, how to set yourself up to win and create more with less and how to overcome your erroneous and unhelpful objections and mental limitations.

If you can read between the lines, then, I truly believe that there is something in this book for everyone.

So follow the link and buy it. Find out for yourself. There is a place for everyone in the Soaring Twenties. And this book may spark ideas that help you discover yours. But only you can make that journey.

 

Until next time,

Tom.

 

P.S. I haven’t been writing here as much because my Substack newsletter has been going from strength to strength. Join 1150+ weekly readers by clicking here and signing up. A quality essay to your inbox each Sunday.

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