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Reviews
Joan of Arcadia (2003)
Thank you sci-fi channel
I'm glad to see that Sci-fi picked up this series in re-runs. I only was able to watch a few episodes when it was on CBS but both the premise and the cast got my attention. Funny, beautifully acted, relevant to life in general and respectful to the guy upstairs.
Of course it had to be canceled. What we really need is more people making fools out of themselves, acting like pigs and generally making a mockery out of civilization. I guess that's why I watch nothing on the major networks.Besides I don't fit their demographics.
I can't quite understand why shows like "Joan" don't get a chance when they represent reality as it is and are replaced by shows called "reality" shows that have as much to do with our day to day lives as Oz does.
The Extraordinary Seaman (1969)
What a piece of Crap
I don't know, maybe it started with "The Americanization of Emily", a great movie which I loved then and still love except for the message. The message? That all wars and even WW II are wasteful, useless, stupid, dumb and that there is really not that much difference between them and us. In this case, "The Extraordinary Seaman", Alan Alda is prematurely playing the role of Hawkeye Pierce from "Mash". David Niven is a slightly loony ghost who believes in duty and honor. I guess that's why he's loony. In this farce (in the bad sense) the ghost is trying to do the right thing as he sees it while Alda knows he's wrong. Somehow, twenty-two years after the Greatest Generation saved the world for the rest of us ingrates, it became OK to poke fun at them and what they believed. They were apparently all Colonel Blimps.
Somehow, The rape of Nanking, the Bataan Death March, the real Bridge on the river Kwai and the notorious vivisection and germ warfare experiments conducted in Manchuria by the Japanese either went away or became lost in some crazy moral equivilency drug haze by the folks who brought us this trash. Yeah, we flattened their cities but after they started it. Freshman logic, if A then B.
And yes, what a zinger of an ending, it was all for naught. I especially liked the chess game. A war just ended that took perhaps 50 million, yes that's million lives and our admirals and their admirals sit down for a game of chess. I wonder how Bull Halsey liked the movie? More than that, I really , really wonder how all those buddies of my father, who never came home in 1945 would have liked this movie? We don't deserve what those guys gave us.
To anyone who actually enjoyed this thing, I recommend mandatory viewing of "The Cruel Sea" until they finally "get it".
The Real Glory (1939)
a lesson for modern times
I had never even heard of this movie until I viewed it today. Thank God for the library's VHS collection. The plot, five US Army officers are tasked to be military advisors in the establishment of the Phillipine constabulary in 1906. Despite the colonel's plea, the war Department has decided US troops will no longer be responsible for protecting the local people because they will never learn to do it themselves if the US Army does it all. Sound familiar to anyone? The enemy are the Moro insurgents, who just happen to be Muslim. They are bent on establishing a Muslim state and are not too particular about how they do it. The movie points out that not all Moros are bad, not all agree with the radicals and some are quite helpful to the advisors. The plot cautions us however not to take everyone at face value. There are traitors in their midst.
I find the lead (Cooper's) character solutions to winning hearts and minds to be fantastic. The guy could have been a role model for counter insurgency. Perhaps he was the first Green Beret. I won't go into his methods, watch them yourself and then think IRAQ. Of course with 24/7 news cycles and instant communication blended with micro-management it is hard to see this happening today. If we had those things back then, well, the course of history in the Phillipines would have been very different.
All in all, an excellent movie with a great cast highlighting an interesting period of US History that is all but forgotten today. It is interesting to think that people who actually participated in the Phillipine Insurrection were still around when it debuted in 1939.
The Searchers (1956)
the best western ever, something new each time it's watched
I first saw this with my Dad in 1956, he was a great western fan. When I came out of the theater I was stunned. I knew there was something mystical there. Over the years saw it again and again on TV, mostly black & white, almost forgot it was in color. Finally released on video I practically required my four kids to watch it. Kicking and screaming they did. They got into it in about ten minutes and the rest was beautiful to behold. The movie holds up, Its just as fresh today as it was then. I've seen all of Wayne and Ford's movies and this is without a doubt the best they made and perhaps ever made of the genre. At about the 20th viewing I started wondering who was Debbie's dad. You really have to watch it that many times, and replay his sister-in-laws reactions around Ethan to ask that question. "Lorena" as the theme music was masterful. It's haunting. Ethan's dealings with the Indians usually characterized as racist are a lot deeper than that. The Indians they trade with, Marty's "accidental" wife and Ethan's treatment of her betray no hint of racism. Ethan takes no pleasure in the massacre done by the cavalry.
Scar represents pure evil to Ethan. Like an avenging angel, Ethan must destroy him. Throughout their quest, Ethan shows an appreciation of Indian culture and custom. He understands and does not condemn their ways but Scar and his band are a different matter entirely. It goes even beyond revenge. The question asked by the director is, What happens to the soul of a man when he assumes the role of an agent of God? Others have asked that question in other films, but not like it was done here. The redemption sequence, his acceptance of Debbie and his return to civilization were masterful. Those of us who have tried to write fiction , especially myself would have been lost at this point and had no clue how to wrap up the end without blowing it. This is where Ford and Wayne earned their spurs. There was nothing trite nor saccharine about that ending. Even Ethan, framed by that doorway,turning his back on it and walking away sent the message that there are those who are separated from the rest of us, who are different, who accept the impossible challenge and can never be part of the life we lead. This should have been Wayne's Academy Award, not "True Grit".