Month: September 2018

Robin and Marian – A Movie Review

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I struggled with whether I should classify this as a classic movie.  I decided to be technical.  Since I saw this movie at its premiere in 1976 and since I was born in the late 1950s I assume that categorizes it as post-classical, more or less.  The story takes up twenty years after Robin and Little John have followed King Richard the Lion Hearted to the Crusades.  Disillusioned and tired of war he returns to take up his life in England.

When I saw this movie the first time I was shocked to see that James Bond was old, balding and apparently way out of shape.  I liked the movie but it didn’t make a huge impression at the time.  I re-watched it last week.  This time it clicked.  Sean Connery as the aging hero is very believable.  The action contrasts intentionally against the swashbuckling portrayal of Errol Flynn in “The Adventures of Robin Hood.”  In the 1938 edition when Flynn is attempting to flee the Sheriff’s castle he cuts the rope holding up the portcullis to the castle gate which allows the weight of the gate to propel him effortlessly to the top of the wall from which he then laughingly escapes the Sheriff’s men.  In the Connery version when the gate is closed on Robin, he and Little John begin to slowly and painfully climb the wall.  These are two middle aged men struggling to do what they used to do effortlessly.  By the time they reach the top of the wall soldiers are upon them and the escape is anything but light-hearted.  The comical and yet stirring scene sets the stage for the action in the rest of the movie.  We see Robin and his re-assembled band of arthritic merry men painfully re-acquaint themselves with guerilla warfare against the Sheriff of Nottingham.  And we find Maid Marian is now Mother Superior of the local convent.  She is about to be sent to prison by the Sheriff for some policy against the church by King John.  Robin rescues her, against her will, and carries her off to Sherwood Forest to try and rekindle their interrupted life together.  Audrey Hepburn an actress that I’ve only liked rarely in film is almost as well cast as Connery.  She brings humor and feminine grace to the part and is totally believable in the role.  The screen romance is extremely well done and balances out the adventure sequences in a remarkable way.

And finally, the counterbalance to the merry band is the Sheriff of Nottingham, played by Robert Shaw.  And he is allowed to be a chivalrous foe who seems to be as fond of Robin as he is disdainful of his own oaf-like associates.  Of course, he knows that this collision with Robin will end in their long-delayed duel.  And that duel is the climax of the adventure story.  But the finale is the resolution of Robin and Marian’s star-crossed fate.  Always separated by war and duty that robbed them of their youth and the happiness they hoped for, they see before them more conflict and the certainty that age and weakness will eventually win out over them.

This is an older man’s Robin Hood.  You have to be at the point where running up a few flights of steps has you panting a little to really appreciate this movie.  It is heroic to “rage against the dying of the light.”  And it is especially admirable to do it with a little self-deprecating humor.  For any of you folks out there with more than a few gray hairs, this movie comes highly recommended.  And if you have a long-time sweet heart it’s a good date movie.

Tyler Childers – Live on Red Barn Radio I & II – A Country Music Review

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Regular readers know I’m a fan of Tyler Childers.  He’s a country singer-songwriter from Eastern Kentucky and he combines interesting vocals, his acoustic guitar playing, an excellent mix of country instrumental accompanists with his very creative lyrics.  I especially enjoy his ballads, a stand out being “Banded Clovis” on his “Purgatory” album.

The present review is of a live album from 2013.  The eight songs include two that were on other albums, namely “Whitehouse Road” from Purgatory and “Bottles and Bibles” from the album of the same name.  Listening to some of the other songs I would say you can tell that they come from an earlier period of his song-writing career.  They are simpler and less ambitious in terms of imagery and effect.  But they’re good and I take them as an excellent addition to my collection.  Interestingly two of the songs were written by other artists, “Rock Salt and Nails” by Bruce Utah Phillips and “Coming Down” by John R. Miller.  Now I guess I’ll be forced to look up their stuff.  How I suffer for my art.

Anyway, if you like Tyler Childers’ other stuff you’ll almost definitely like this live album.  Highly recommended.

Trump vs the Handmaid’s Tale – Part 2

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Trump vs the Handmaid’s Tale – Part 1

 

Dramatis Personae – President Trump – (PT); Vice President Pence (VPP); Melania Trump – (MT);

Scene 1 – White House West Wing, Oval Office, 8am Wednesday

(President Trump seated behind the desk, with Vice President Pence in a chair facing him)

VPP – So let me see if I understand this Mr. President, you want me to advocate for today’s feminist, godless, sex-obsessed women to forsake their materialistic and anti-traditionalist ways and embrace modesty, chastity before marriage, motherhood and deference to their husbands.

PT – Well sure, if you say it like that it sounds like a snooze.  But if we put the Mad Men to work on this we can make it sexy as hell and they’ll be breakin’ down the doors to sign on.  Remember, young people are idiots.  Think of the incredibly stupid things they buy into.  You can convince them that a guy in a dress is a woman and that Obama is smart.  So if you give them something that actually works and just convince them that it’s edgy and original you could stampede them to the altar in a mob.

VPP – Don’t you think it’s dangerous to manipulate people about something as serious and vital as marriage?

PT – Look, we’re not trying to scam anyone, it’s your job to get the sequence and the motivation all straight.  Make sure they wake up from the millennial malaise they’ve been immersed in and commit to something that gives meaning to their muddled existences.  It’s up to me to make the sales pitch compelling and hook them.

VPP – Well I sort of see what you mean sir, but there are other considerations that could make all this moot.  For instance, nowadays it takes two incomes to survive and where does that leave our happy couple who want to raise a family?

PT – Way ahead of you.  That’s part of the bait I’m putting on the hook.  I’m going to propose that the federal government will rig the tax structure to provide married couples that want a stay at home mom to raise their kids with a matching credit to match the husband’s salary.  And this credit will continue until the kids are eighteen or even twenty-two if they take a useful college or vocational program.

VPP – But that will cost trillions!

PT – Yep.  But we’ll be couple it with the end of welfare.  No more single women raising children on welfare.  Any man who fathers a child will pay for it and unless he’s in prison he’s going to live with his family.  And with the women staying home with the kids men will be in demand again in the job market.  Salaries will rise and eventually we won’t even need to tilt the tax code very much.

VPP – You’ve thought this through I can see but I must confess I can’t imagine how you’ll make old fashioned marriage sound good to millennials.

PT – Actually, I’m gonna let Ivanka and Melania do most of the work on recruiting these young idiots.  And all you really have to do is convince the girls.  The boys will follow them like moths to a flame.  I was thinking of something along the lines of Momma Melania’s Match Making Service.

VPP – Have you spoken to the First Lady about this idea?

PT – Not yet, but how could she refuse to save her country from childless collapse.  In fact I’ll call her now.  (gets up from the desk, walks to and opens the door and starts shouting into the corridor)  Schmoopey, Schmoopey.  Schmoopeyyyyy!!!!

MT – (entering from the hallway)  Schmoopey stop shouting.  The picture of the Obama fell off the wall.

PT – I need your help.  We must save American womanhood from barren, childless loneliness.

MT – Oh no you do not.  You are staying right here.  No more Stormy the pornos for you or I will make you very, very sorry and the Secret Service will be too, too late to save some of you.

PT – No, no Schmoopey, I need you to teach the young women of America how to be good wives and mothers.

MT – Oh, this I can do Schmoopey.  I am full of the mother stuff.  I will teach them about make-up and shopping and finding a good maid.  I will need to freshen up my wardrobe to do this right.  Maybe three million dollars?

VPP – Just like Martha Washington.

To Be Continued …

 

Trump vs the Handmaid’s Tale – Part 3

What Could Fix the United States?

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According to our friends on the Dissident Right the answer is nothing.  Fate has marked our nation with the kiss of death.  We are already circling the drain and any moment the slightest hiccough will push us out of the death spiral and right into the maw of the Maelström.  I have to confess, every day it gets harder and harder to believe we aren’t in the situation they describe.  But for the sake of argument (and to fill out my daily allotment of blather) let’s speculate on how we could escape this death trap we find ourselves in.

And what is the greatest threat to our way of life?  I would say illegal immigration.  It combines an economic destabilization with the loss of national identity.  Inherent with the actual flow of illegal aliens is the cultural indoctrination that tells young people that it’s wrong to favor the real citizens of this country over the gate crashers.  This encourages the kind of lunacy you see in California where illegal aliens are provided all the same benefits as citizens and in some cases even greater advantage.  The state has even gone to the lengths of openly defying federal law by providing protection to illegal aliens from ICE agents.

Reversing the status quo would involve enforcing sanctions against employers who allow illegal aliens to get a paycheck.  It would mean deporting millions of illegals and putting in place barriers (a Wall) to keep them from returning.  And it would mean prosecuting those who break the law to protect illegal aliens.  This is a huge undertaking.  It would cost billions of dollars and would lead to violence and maybe deaths in the areas of the country heavily occupied by illegals.  But it would be very possible and the benefits would be immense.  The reductions in crime, government expenditures and chaos would more than compensate society for the disruptions and conflict that would be necessary.

The second most useful initiative and for me the most ethically justified is the cessation of reverse discrimination.  This includes the end of affirmative action for any and all quota-based classes of people.  This would put an end to the federal, state and local mandated interference in people’s lives.  It would mean that the words that Martin Luther King Jr. said about a man being judged by the content of his character rather than the color of his skin would now be in alignment with government actions.  No one would be suspected of incompetence because of quota based gerrymandering.  The best person would be hired for the job or given the spot in school because in most places talent is what counts.  In the few instances where that is not the case mediocrity is its own punishment.  But at least it will be a voluntary and free decision to be mediocre.  And I don’t have a problem with that, nor should the government.

And the final thing that would restore some measure of legitimacy to the concept of this being the United States is for the Supreme Court to strike down all the many State and Federal rulings that have weakened, and in some cases, nullified the Bill of Rights.  The first and second amendments are under constant attack by public and private enemies and for the most part the courts have been the worst offenders.  An active originalist Supreme Court could go an awful long way in restoring our rights and punishing corporations and even State governments that have been bullying and bankrupting individuals who attempt to exercise the very clearly stated rights that as Americans we supposedly enjoy.

So, these are the three initiatives that could bring America back to a semblance of the freedom and cohesion that it once enjoyed.  Could these things be done?  I would say definitely.  Will they?  In my opinion, only if President Trump gets a mandate from the American public in the mid-terms and then wins re-election with enough coat-tails to enact legislation comfortably in the House and Senate.  If he cannot legislate real change then it will never happen.  Then at that point I’ll have to agree with the Dissident Right and start building my cabin in the forest.  Time will tell.