Category: movies

movie – The Fog of War

On By Rick McIn government, Islam, movies, product endorsementsLeave a comment

I only knew “McNamara” from the reference in the Simon and Garfunkle song:

I been Norman Mailered, Maxwell Taylored.
I been John O’Hara’d, McNamara’d.
I been Rolling Stoned and Beatled till I’m blind.
I been Ayn Randed, nearly branded
Communist, ’cause I’m left-handed.
That’s the hand I use, well, never mind!

source

The first album I ever bought was Simon and Garfunkle.

Though I grew up in the Vietnam era, I was never a vocal protester. My mind was on local things. Sport. School. Friends.

Later I became strongly anti-war. (that’s a separate post)

I’d heard great things about a documentary called The Fog of War and finally got around to downloading it.

It’s fantastic.

160px-robertmcnamara55.jpgRobert Strange McNamara is one of the most interesting and compelling figures in modern history.

He was hand-picked by President Kennedy to become Secretary of Defense in 1961 and was a senior advisor on US policy through until he was fired (or quit) in 1968.

McNamara recommended the Bay of Pigs invasion and was at the table during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Three times the USA came close to using nuclear weapons.

McNamara has said that the Domino Theory was the main reason for entering Vietnam. His resolve to “win” the war waned, especially after protester Norman Morrison set himself on fire Nov. 2, 1965, dousing himself in gasoline, holding his baby girl, in front of McNamara’s office. (The baby was saved.)

Though McNamara was “the chief architect of the Vietnam war”, he eventually came to believe it a mistake. LBJ lost confidence and let him go.

Film maker Errol Morris had a fantastic story. And did a fantastic job of editing. I recommend it to one and all.

Though many of the “lessons learned” could be applied to Iraq, McNamara has consistently refused to comment. And he has never apologized.

The Fog of War - Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara

The Fog of War – Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara

The Fog of War – Wikipedia

You can watch the movie free in a tiny window with streamed video.

movie – The 300

On By Rick McIn moviesLeave a comment

I cannot recall more astonishing, exciting movie trailers than for the soon-to-be-unleashed film The 300.

Computer generated images meld with (old-fashioned) human actors.

The “look” is great.

Based on the epic graphic novel by Frank Miller, 300 is a ferocious retelling of the ancient Battle of Thermopylae in which King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and 300 Spartans fought to the death against Xerxes and his massive Persian army. Facing insurmountable odds, their valor and sacrifice inspire all of Greece to unite.

watch the preview: Apple – Trailers – 300

300-poster3.jpg

McAcademy Awards – Apocalypto wins big

On By Rick McIn movies, product endorsementsLeave a comment

Mel Gibson may be a racist drunk, but he is also one of the most important film makers working today. (Hate the sin, love the sinner.)

Talk about shattering the Hollywood blockbuster formula!

Apocalypto is great. What a film.

Too bloody? Perhaps. But depictions of the “noble savage” historically have erred on the noble side. Fact is that North American indigenous populations were more savage than noble.

Life was hard on this continent.

No doubt Forest Whitaker will win best actor. For me he will always be Idi Amin just as Ben Kingsley will always be Gandhi.

Helen Mirren deserves the statue for “best actor female”. (What is wrong with “actress”, again?) But for her career body of work. Mirren’s performance in The Queen was very good, but not nearly as good as Forest Whitaker.

Jennifer Hudson’s natural, believable performance in Dream Girls will still be studied by film students in 50 years. No one will remember Mirren in The Queen.

But Rudy Youngblood wins the McAcademy Award for best actor. He was unbelievably good in Apocalyptic, McBest Film of 2007.

Apocalypto

Apocalypto

movie – The Corporation

On By Rick McIn economics, government, moviesLeave a comment

UPDATE:

If you have not seen The Corporation, a torrent download is available for free or donation. This is a legal download by the makers of the documentary. (Might be a good chance for you to find out what bitorent is if you have never used it.)

This film is of particular interest to cold-hearted, atheist economists.

details on the download – Torrent Freak

“The Corporation” is a surprisingly rational and coherent attack on capitalism’s most important institution.” – Economist magazine

I expected a confused left-wing mishmash of fact and exaggeration. But the documentary is well done and very thought provoking.

The conclusion is that you cannot trust corporations (even Google) as they are true only to the bottom line of the next quarter. Corporations will cheat, steal, lie and sell their mothers at any opportunity.

All true. This is the capitalist system. I like it far better than alternatives where, for example, totalitarian governments do exactly the same thing with far less incentive to do right by the population.

The Corporation makes no attempt at finding solutions to the problems of our corporate model. But does an excellent job at laying out the abuses.

Me? I am far less worried about corporate wrongdoing than the producers of this movie. I feel technology increasingly will keep companies honest. Insiders with cell-phone cameras are busting to post a “scoop” on their blogs. Millions want to be listed high on Digg.com by breaking a scandal.

For example: Lockheed Martin whistleblower uses YouTube to get the word out

There are ways we can hold corporations to account. If you believe Nike takes advantage of child labour in Asia, do not buy their shoes.

If you disagree with how Wal-Mart is changing the world of retail, do not shop there.

Simple.

The vulnerability of corporations is their greed. “The rich man will sell you the rope to hang himself”. – Michael Moore

The Corporation

movie – Munich

On By Rick McIn books, government, Islam, movies, philosophyLeave a comment

Munich (Full Screen Edition)Just saw the film Munich , the Hollywood version of the story of Israeli retaliation after the kidnapping and murder of 11 athletes at the 1972 Olympics.

Steven Spielberg directed and the quality is excellent.

I thought it was remarkably unbiased. Both the Palestinian terrorists and the amateur Israeli retaliation team are shown as people, not heroes or villains.

Spielberg focuses on “the cyclic nature of revenge and the moral price of violence”.

Everyone is a loser in this film.

The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist TeamI might have liked the movie better if I had not read the book on which it is based, Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team by George Jonas.

Jonas attempted to document the true story of one of the Israelis, Yuval Aviv, who is played by Eric Bana in the movie.

In the book the assassinations of people on a list who may or may not be involved in Munich was much uglier than in the film.

Well … the movie is “inspired by the true story”. The book criticized as being inaccurate regarding the true story. The facts are muddled.

But one thing is clear to everyone. Assassination and counter-assassination do not work, long-term.

I recommend both film and book.

Christopher Guest “mockumentaries”

On By Rick McIn movies, musicLeave a comment

I love them. Guest directed:

* Waiting for Guffman (1996) – and played Corky St. Clair
* Best in Show (2000) – and played Harlan Pepper
* A Mighty Wind (2003) – and played Alan Barrows

this_is_spinal_tap_200.jpgMy favourite still is This Is Spinal Tap where he played Nigel Tufnel.

When the golden oldies rock station plays Tap I turn the volume up to eleven.

TRIVIA – Wikipedia tells me Christopher Guest is married to Jamie Lee Curtis.

New Guest movie is on the horizon > For Your Consideration spoofing the Oscars (opening in November). Ricky Gervais is in this one along with the usual suspects.

movie – Inside Man

On By Rick McIn moviesLeave a comment

I’d heard mixed reviews but was still intrigued enough to watch it. After all: Denzel, Jodi, DeFoe. How bad could it be?

I have a soft spot for Spike Lee movies. If they aren’t too preachy (this isn’t) they are excellent. The one I reflect on most is another Denzel Washington / Spike Lee Joint called Bamboozled (New Line Platinum Series)

Inside Man (Widescreen Edition) is engaging, in fact. A nice twist on the standard heist movie.

Inside Man (Widescreen Edition)

author – Michael Crichton

On By Rick McIn books, movies, TVLeave a comment

Just finished Congo, Crichton’s 1980 book exploring themes of communication with great apes and the possibility that man and chimpanzee had inter-bred at some point in the distant past.

What I like about Crichton is that his books are accessible by a 10-year-old yet are based on serious scientific research. He is a medical doctor by training.

Of course he has had fantastic success translating his work to film and TV. I never realized until recently that Crichton wrote and directed one of my formative early films Westworld

I liked Crichton even better after I read his autobiographical book Travels:

Travels

In some ways Crichton’s heir is Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer…

Actually, (after I had written the statement above) I got the chance to ask Robert if he was influenced by Crichton and he said he had not read him since age 12. Though both have a scientific background, Crichton is “anti-Science” — in his books the scientific breakthrough always goes wrong. The dinosaurs run amok.

movie – The Party

On By Rick McIn humour, moviesLeave a comment

We got talking about Peter Sellers recently. His greatest movie was Being There, no question.

But I would rather re-watch The Party, where Sellers is a bad actor from India who literally crashes a big Hollywood party.

The Party

movies online – and so it begins

On By Rick McIn economics, internet, moviesLeave a comment

The “legal” download movie wars, I mean.

CrunchGear – Amazon’s Unbox Movie Download Service Launched

Amazon has launched a movie download page called Unbox.com with TV episode downloads for about $1.99 and movies for about $15. …

Each “purchase” gives you a DVD-quality video file and a Windows Media file for portable devices. It is currently Windows-only and movie rentals, which are cheaper, expire after 30 days.

Amazon surprised the pundits by being the first big player out of the gate. Reviews have been very negative.

I expect Apple’s about-to-be-announced service will be far better. Apple will be the market leader, as usual.