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To date, this is how the very few interactions I've had with Never Trumpers have gone, because I want to talk about the Befor...
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“This maybe the year when we finally come face to face with ourselves; finally just lay back and say it—that we are really j...
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My favourite Christmas movie. We made a tradition years ago to watch on Christmas eve... knew you would too. Happy Zappadan!
I was thinking the other day about the evolving causes for war over history and one great cosmic irony. We have gone from wars over religion, territory, empire and just plain whim, to what we have seen and are probably about to see more of: wars over resources.
The irony being that just as we develop to a technological level that should make scarcity obsolete, our stubborn tendency toward greed and refusal to share in those resources will doom us to more conflict.
We actually produce enough food to feed everyone, yet millions starve.
We have vaccines to cure diseases that scores perish from every year.
We have long had technologies to make oil for power irrelevant, yet the coming years will see more wars for control over the supply.
We can make sea water drinkable in large quantities, but there will be wars over drinkable water as the climate changes.
One character flaw makes our accent drive us to our descent.
Oh well....Happy Holidays!
On my short list for best movie, evah.
The Lion in Winter is way up on my list too. Very theatrical - a fine, chess-like play. The lame Stewart/Close remake shows just how much an aristocrat like Hepburn was required. (Hint: a remake is a bad idea if you can't improve on the original, or at least bring something new.) O'Toole's best work. Interesting early glimpses of Hopkins and Timothy Dalton.
Other Christmas DVD-watching ideas:
* Brideshead Revisited (again, not the lame remake.) Best TV evar.
* Tinker/Taylor - Smiley's People (BBC) Second best TV evar. Looking forward to the remake (but not to shortened length.)
* Hitchhiker's Guide (BBC) (again, not the lame remake.) Hilarious sci-fi. Production values hit exactly the right delicious note of cheesiness.
* The Children of Paradise. Unbelievably made during the french occupation. High art to be savored slowly.
* The Red Shoes. Also high art; Cinema and Dali bring surrealism to the ballet-within-the-movie. Great echoes and influence of the Ballet Russe, esp. via Leonid Massine, Diaghilev's protege after Nijinsky.
* The Night of the Iguana. Tennessee Williams intensity with an unexpected uplift. Ava Gardner perfect for this part (incl. accent) - pairs better with Burton even than Taylor in _Woolf_.
* Civilization - A Personal View. Labor of love by Kenneth Clark (hard to find). Sweeping view of Western Civilization through art.
* Repo Man. Subversive fun.
* I, Claudius. Plus ca change...
* Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Could only have been made in the '70s. Fine performances by Kristofferson, Coburn, Pickens and "just 'Alias'".
* Waking Life. Unique animation; unique, hallucinogenic movie. Pilot your dreams. Looks like L.A. but it's Austin. Dream-inducing.
* Wallace and Gromit - 3 Amazing Acbentures. "Robot Pants" is so funny you may mess yours.
* Blood Simple. IMO, the Coens have never topped this early short film.
* Changi. Australian TV series about the infamous Japanese prison camp. Refreshingly non-US (emphasis on manliness rather than macho.)
* The Razor's Edge (once again, not the lame remake.) Living life as opposed to getting stuff. From the superb Maugham novel.
More video suggestions, esp. for political junkies:
A Very British Coup (BBC TV). A theme prominent in British drama today as well as in this excellent '88 piece: Perfidious America. People dramatize what they dream, and dream what they think; this doesn't bode well for future relations with our favorite ally (I don't mean Israel.)
The World At War. British. The most comprehensive, and probably the best, World War II documentary. Fine understated narration by Laurence Olivier.
The Source. Excellent TV doc of the beats, by the guy who did that lovely short '100 Years of Cinema'. "We won't be told how to live by people who scarcely know how to live at all" -Gary "Dharma Bums" Snyder. "People ask me if I have any advice for the youth of today.... If you're doing business with a religious son of a bitch, Get It In Writing. - Wm. S. Burroughs
Where the Day Takes You ('92). Very good drama about teens living on the streets of Hollywood. Has several Twin Peaks alumni, Will Smith in a wheelchair, and some rising young talent such as Balthazar (hobbit Sam) Getty. A talented actor with the very un-Hollywood name Dermot Mulroney looks like a young Zappa, leads the gang and steals the show.
The Year of Living Dangerously. Worth watching Gibson for the political message and Linda Hunt.
House of Cards trilogy. Another fine BBC TV series about corruption in high places. Ian Richardson breaks the forth wall and gleefully demonstrates how the game of being a lying conservative shitbag is played.
Lion in Winter is a must for making the top 10 list of great movies.
Thank-you for reminding us of the great Hepburn/O'Tool portrayal of HenryII and Eleanor of Aquitaine engaged in their dysfunctional family holiday rituals.
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