tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post939261616984307637..comments2024-03-28T21:32:41.763-05:00Comments on driftglass: The Reviews That Time Forgot: The Green Berets (1968)driftglasshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09379167083253389153noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-72682699561858333102015-05-25T15:41:48.229-05:002015-05-25T15:41:48.229-05:00The great comic book series The 'Nam had a mem...The great comic book series <i>The 'Nam</i> had a memorable critique of the film and all its ludicrous elements.Batocchiohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02193752396025012825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-64899541729643834662015-05-25T09:28:02.918-05:002015-05-25T09:28:02.918-05:00I forgot to mention that Stalin's purges, just...I forgot to mention that Stalin's purges, just a few years earlier, had slaughtered much of his officer corps, and left the survivors scared to make any decisions without approval from on high, which inhibited their efficiency.<br /><br />Really, the Soviet Union won its end of the war (once Hitler attacked, the USSR bore the bulk of the war effort against Nazism), more in spite of Uncle Joe's "brilliant" leadership than because of it.Ivory Bill Woodpeckerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01318699512583970467noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-58000445668136869522015-05-25T09:14:19.447-05:002015-05-25T09:14:19.447-05:00"The stupid part is that Bush and the neocons...<i>"The stupid part is that Bush and the neocons actually bought into their own lie, which is the first step on the road to disaster."</i>--ML<br /><br />Indeed. Perhaps the greatest weakness of the Axis Powers of WW2 was that many of their political and military leaders started believing their own propaganda that they had the Biggest Cocks Ever To Swing From Primate Crotches, and they could overcome all material disadvantages through the sheer power of their oceans of testosterone.<br /><br />Of course, the following things helped to feed that delusion:<br /><br />(1) In 1940, most of the French and British generals did not know how to use tanks. France had a greater quantity <i>and quality</i> of tanks than Germany, but the French tanks were dispersed as fire support for infantry units, rather than gathered together as "iron cavalry", which is how the Germans used them.<br /><br />(2) In 1941, Stalin foolishly crowded many of his troops and aircraft near the Soviet border, in reach of one of the patented German <i>blitzkriegs</i>, instead of keeping the bulk of his forces back out of range of a first strike.<br /><br />(3) Also in 1941, our commanders did not take the idea of a Pearl Harbor raid seriously enough, partially because air-dropped torpedoes required a certain depth of water not to bury themselves in the mud below, and PH was thought to be too shallow. The Japanese got around that problem by attaching balsa-wood frames to the rears of the torpedoes, which lightened them and slowed their falls just enough to prevent most of them from burying themselves. (I say most, because IIRC, there are still a few torpedoes which DID bury themselves in the mud of PH, and are still lying there--yikes!)<br /><br />To sum it up, cheap early victories due to enemy blunders, coupled with the basic arrogance inherent to fascism, gave enough of the Axis leaders a severe enough case of overconfidence to doom them, even faster than their basic and drastic material disadvantages would have doomed them alone.Ivory Bill Woodpeckerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01318699512583970467noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-36951516047822262292015-05-25T02:16:09.729-05:002015-05-25T02:16:09.729-05:00@marindenver I had the same dream, that we would i...@marindenver I had the same dream, that we would in the future be wise enough to avoid stupid wars, but as early as the late seventies it was clear that the military (in conjunction with the Republicans (who were at that time not yet bugfuck insane) and the right Democrats) had a long term plan to wean the People away from their squeamishness over war. First they rebuilt, then they ran small successful operations (with Grenada puffed up to hide the embarrassment of Beruit), then they ran Panama and Iraq I to demonstrate that we always win fast and cheap and bloodlessly - for our side, at least. They died by the thousand, but that was all part of the fun. The stupid part is that Bush and the neocons actually bought into their own lie, which is the first step on the road to disaster.Mike Lumishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14083545582415707582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-52663510179893328712015-05-24T19:19:34.819-05:002015-05-24T19:19:34.819-05:00I missed that one: it was not showing at the Nha T...I missed that one: it was not showing at the Nha Trang cineplex in 1968 when I was there.sticklerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11468746880489986775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-54894255959008334442015-05-24T16:58:45.492-05:002015-05-24T16:58:45.492-05:00I reckon the neocons thought the only reason we lo...I reckon the neocons thought the <b>only</b> reason we lost the Vietnam War was that the other superpower was backing the NVA, so we couldn't go all-out.<br /><br />Since no other superpower was backing Iraq, and the Iraqi army had fought so badly in the 1991 war, we could enjoy a "cakewalk" this time--and get our hands on all that lovely petroleum, which I suspect was more important than anyone's daddy issues.<br /><br />Of course, as usual, the neocons were wrong. <br /><br />It turned out Iraqis fight one hell of a lot harder when they're fighting for people and things they love, rather than a dictator's ambitions. You know, <b>like any other human beings.</b><br /><br />Also, of course, as usual, the neocons were not dismissed from power for their blunders--for as our Fearless Leader often reminds us, <b>THERE IS A CLUB.</b>Ivory Bill Woodpeckerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01318699512583970467noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-8198049305560049212015-05-24T15:21:30.979-05:002015-05-24T15:21:30.979-05:00See, I actually thought that we LEARNED something ...See, I actually thought that we LEARNED something from the clusterfuck that was the Vietnam War. I actually thought that we'd never get ourselves mired in something like that again and because of that we wouldn't invade Iraq. I totally underestimated the extent of Shrub's daddy issues.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-52982630676663705022015-05-24T15:11:34.960-05:002015-05-24T15:11:34.960-05:00OK, here's the way it works.
In WWII, every ad...OK, here's the way it works.<br />In WWII, every adult male got a draft classification. If you were 1A, top classification, you were going to be drafted at some point. John Wayne was classified 1A, got the studio to get hime deferred to 2A status, was later reclassified again as 1A and got himself deferred again back to 2A, this time for the for the rest of the war.<br />There's a term for that, it's called "draft dodging". bowtiejackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03269786110593961195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-13249316585455599002015-05-24T13:34:54.466-05:002015-05-24T13:34:54.466-05:00My father, may he rest in peace in Raspberry Heave...My father, may he rest in peace in Raspberry Heaven, was a fairly conventional moderate conservative in most of his worldview.<br /><br />However, he despised John Wayne, considered him a draft dodger, and generally thought the Duke's macho routine was as phony as a $3 bill.<br /><br />I suspect Dad and HST might have gotten along surprisingly well, had they ever met.Ivory Bill Woodpeckerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01318699512583970467noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-37612315277387143032015-05-24T12:54:11.898-05:002015-05-24T12:54:11.898-05:00I wonder if, three years later, a certain Doctor o...I wonder if, three years later, a certain Doctor of Journalism had this review in mind when he wrote his John Wayne/Hammerhead piece:<br /><br />http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/30/1041178/-The-Hammerhead-Mentality-in-America<br /><br /><i>The brainwaves of "The Duke" are like those of the Hammerhead Shark - a beast so stupid and irrationally vicious that scientists have abandoned all hope of dealing with it, except as an unexplainable "throwback." The Hammerhead, they say is no different today than he was in One Million B.C. He is a ruthless, stupid beast with only one instinct - to attack, to hurt & cripple & kill.<br /><br />[N]ot one of these blood-hungry Hammerhead scumbags will ever be nailed to the final whipsaw judgement they all deserve.<br /><br />Not because of what they did. But because they did it in the name of a Dream & a Human Possibility that was fragile from the start, but strong enough to survive almost every abuse and cruel failure that human beings were capable of . . .<br /><br />. . . except the Hammerhead Ethic, and the beasts who rode it to power. These were the swine who found their model in a brutal freak like John Wayne.</i>Neo Tuxedohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15455041641080873400noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-22547571121979845812015-05-24T12:31:27.860-05:002015-05-24T12:31:27.860-05:00The last sentence of that review is fucking prophe...The last sentence of that review is fucking prophetic.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13190550390894019841noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-30946453188971640852015-05-24T07:32:18.182-05:002015-05-24T07:32:18.182-05:00When you have a film career where you are always p...When you have a film career where you are always playing a character with a gun, everyone looks like a Pilgrim...Pilgrim.Hallbowski23https://www.blogger.com/profile/14875117803114822897noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-78980157332422424572015-05-24T05:47:58.056-05:002015-05-24T05:47:58.056-05:00What strikes me is the critic's blunt, straigh...What strikes me is the critic's blunt, straightforward thrashing of the film. Are critics that candid today? Also, I keep forgetting how deep the divides were in this country during the 60's. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08141640791663745884noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-21341100313339657912015-05-24T03:42:21.287-05:002015-05-24T03:42:21.287-05:00Good morning, Mr. Glass.
1. So "An American ...Good morning, Mr. Glass.<br /><br />1. So "An American Carol," 40 years earlier.<br />2. Given that I was born in 1978, I must ask, what's with the occasional references to "the left" in this review? Because to me these references almost sound like some sort of prequel to "Both Sides".<br /><br />Enjoy your day.<br /><br />---Kevin HolsingerKevin Holsingerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17568539831959033188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-8021422582380062752015-05-24T02:06:02.698-05:002015-05-24T02:06:02.698-05:00Zero Duke ThirtyZero Duke ThirtyWilliamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10340697439623009731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-49270682800319510852015-05-23T22:02:40.240-05:002015-05-23T22:02:40.240-05:00"If the left-wing extremist's nightmare o..."If the left-wing extremist's nightmare of what we already are has become the right-wing extremist's ideal of what we ought to be we are in steeper trouble than anyone could have imagined."<br /><br /> We were. Five months later Richard Nixon was elected.<br /><br /> -Doug in Oaklanddinthebeasthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12941071534250216503noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-20769664755573454452015-05-23T20:05:44.551-05:002015-05-23T20:05:44.551-05:00The main thing I know about TGB is that it was a b...The main thing I know about <b>TGB</b> is that it was a big break for Walter Koenig.<br /><br />George Takei spent much of <b>Trek</b>'s 2nd season off filming <b>TGB</b>, so many of Sulu's places in that season's <b>Trek</b> plots were re-written for Chekov.Ivory Bill Woodpeckerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01318699512583970467noreply@blogger.com