Well, maybe it should be western song for today ’cause on OCF we have both kinds of music; country and western. Play Colter.
Tag: Reviews
10MAY2024 – Country Song for Today
It’s a little over the top but at least Dwight’s not crying in this song.
People’s Republic – A Book Review
Kurt Schlichter’s novel, “People’s Republic – A Novel” is an action-adventure story set in a near future where the United States has fractured into two separate countries. The People’s Republic of North America encompasses the west coast and the Great Lakes and east coast down to about half of Virginia. The remaining states are still called the United States of America. There was at least some combat between the two groups of states but at the time of the story it has settled into a bickering of guerillas at the borders.
(Spoiler Alert – Skip down to last paragraph to avoid spoilers and read recommendation)
Now the story is not about the civil war or the current relations between the two countries. Rather it is an adventure story about an undercover operation by a family to rescue a woman who foolishly defected to the People’s Republic. The main protagonist is a former special forces soldier who earns his living by smuggling people across the closed border from the People’s Republic to the United States.
Together with the woman’s brother who is also a veteran they go on an odyssey to reach Los Angeles and rescue the girl and also carry back a data base full of the names of spies currently working in the United States. Along the way we see the results of the radical progressive agenda in the People’s Republic and the growing discontent with the extreme economic hardships that exist there.
The book is liberally seasoned with fights, gun fights and escapes. This is solidly in the action/adventure genre and provides a fast paced and well-written story. There is a fair bit of progressive bashing built into the plot but being a progressive-basher myself I enjoyed it pretty consistently. I would happily recommend this book to anyone on the right side of the political divide who enjoys action-adventure. Progressives will definitely not enjoy how the Left is characterized. Oh well.
An Entertaining Movie Review of “Independence Day”
There is a YouTube channel for a guy that calls himself “The Critical Drinker.” He has some kind of Gaelic brogue whether it’s Irish or Scottish or fake. And he pretends to be drunk in every review. And he swears a blue streak so be warned in advance that his videos are not safe for work or home or anywhere that genteel ears are present. But he is extremely funny and his criticism is often very accurate. This review of Independence Day is well done and identifies why this ridiculous film is still so enjoyable despite being a ridiculous film.
H/T to TomD for the Link to This Review of Civil War
Finally some reviews of this movie from the non-Leftist perspective. As I suspected the general tenor is the usual Hollywood narrative. Intrepid reporters risk life and limb to reveal the dastardly outrages of the troglodytic dirt people as they murder the good people.
Last word:
DON’T BOTHER WITH THIS MOVIE.
My Thoughts on the New Movie, “Civil War”
I have not gone to see the new movie “Civil War.” And unless something comes out to convince me otherwise, I won’t be. I watched a bunch of video reviews by people who went to the early IMAX screening. And based on these reviews I understood that the director wanted the audiences to feel that the movie is drawing no comparison between the existing political sides in the United States and the fictional factions that are at war in the movie.
The director wants the audience to think that the movie is about the unstoppable desire of the four journalists to document the war and also about the horrors that would break out in the event of an American Civil War. So that doesn’t sound like a partisan set-up waiting to mug unsuspecting conservatives after they plunk down their hard-earned movie money. But the more I thought about the details of the movie the less convinced I was that this was an even-handed film.
I think the first “tell” I found was the fact that in the movie the dictatorial three term president had disbanded the FBI. Now everyone knows that the FBI is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Obama/Clinton/Biden crime cartel. And that Donald Trump has called for the FBI to be purged and possibly closed down. To me this is the clearest sign that the rogue authoritarian president is meant to be Trump.
The second sign that the civil war is being presented as a battle between the Left and the Right is the scene where a “white” militiaman is pointedly asking the non-white journalist what kind of an American he is. The implication is that at least one of the seceding entities is made up of white nationalists murdering non-whites.
But for me the thing that makes it most likely that I won’t enjoy this movie is the choice of protagonists. The heroes of this drama are intrepid journalists. These pillars of democracy are there to present the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help them CNN. After all, when might we have seen journalists reporting from a war zone with less than the complete truth? Hmmm. Oh, I remember, the fiery, but mostly peaceful George Floyd riots when half of America’s cities were looted and burned. Yeah, that was it! Why wouldn’t I buy into a movie where these paragons of objectivity were the heroes?
Based on the reviews and the statements made by the cast and director they are putting this forward as a completely neutral film. Well, of course they are. Alienating the half of the country that enjoys action movies is a recipe for box office failure for a movie like this. But I’m extremely tired of paying for movies that portray me as what’s wrong with this country. I’ll let someone else pay for that.
And it’s a shame I won’t be going. From what I’ve read and seen, the war sequences are pretty exciting. And they do blow up Washington DC pretty convincingly, which sounds like fun. Maybe I’ll wait until it’s streaming for free or I can rent it from the public library. Oh, and one last thing. The guy who plays the evil president doesn’t look like him but he sounds exactly like Mike Pence. I’m okay if the Western Alliance takes old Mike away for high crimes and misdemeanors. That I’d be okay with.
What is This Quintessence of Dust
Back when all I knew of Mel Gibson was Mad Max, the Road Warrior, if you had told me that he would play Hamlet I would have laughed and said, “Sure, and Sylvester Stallone will be playing King Lear and Macbeth too!”
But who knew? Gibson is good.
I like this speech because it seems to cover the fact that depending on the events of the day each of us can view the world and all in it as either a lovely frame or a sterile promontory. Humanity can be either like an angel or the quintessence of dust.
Gibson is a good actor and I don’t think he loses by comparison to Olivier or Branagh when performing Hamlet.
Helen of Troy (1956) – A Movie Review
No spoiler alert needed. It’s just that bad.
I’ve read chunks of the Iliad in Homeric Greek. Unlike some of my professors who preferred it to the Odyssey I’m more partial to that more human scale sequel. But I profess that there are scenes in the War Poem that are evocative and stirring.
I watched a 1950’s sword and sandal “epic” called “Helen of Troy.” They somehow roped in Sir Cedric Hardwicke to play Priam in this spectacle. I guess his salary ate up most of the salary budget because not another name of an actor or actress was recognizable to me except a very young Brigitte Bardot who played “the slave girl Andraste” mostly with her clothes on.
The movie had a budget of $6 million and in 1956 that was a lotta dough. And you can see where they spent it. There was a cast of extras that must have numbered in the thousands for the battle scenes and the elaborate props like siege towers and war engines not to mention the walls of Troy and the giant horse must have cost a bunch to make and then burn which of course they did in the last scene.
And it made about $3 million at the box office so it lost a lotta dough. And I can see why. The acting is shockingly wooden. The script is laughably bad and the fight scenes look as if the combatants had never seen a sword or a spear used, even in movies. My favorite fight is the duel between Achilles and Hector. Instead of hurling their spears at each other they use the butt ends as cudgels and only after pounding away at each other for a while does Achilles skewer Hector as if he were a pork roast.
Mercifully the gods are completely omitted from this remarkable cinematic monument. That surely would have been too much. But humans suffered enough here. Some of the Trojans are portrayed sympathetically. Unfortunately, none of the Greeks were. Achilles, Menelaus, Agamemnon, Odysseus, Ajax and Patroclus are all presented as swine of one variety or another.
The action of the war is compressed from ten years to something like a weekend. Hector and Achilles are finished off within five minutes of each other and before you know it the wooden horse is unloading its deadly cargo of Hellenic hoplites. As the final credits are rolling Helen is on the trireme headed back to Sparta and she muses how even though Paris was just brutally murdered by her once and future husband Menelaus and his henchmen in the preceding scene and died the beautiful death, in a sense he would always be there with her. Or something.
You know I like bad old genre movies. If I’m in the mood I can watch Demetrius and the Gladiators or Quo Vadis. They’re full of bad acting and historical inaccuracies but somehow, they manage to allow me not to suspend disbelief but rather, to revel in the conceit that I and the moviemaker both get to wink at each other and still enjoy a fake Age of Caesar or Bronze Age Greece that he’s conjured up. But this thing is not that. It’s too completely pointless and the characters are too unlikeable. Pass!
24 GOP Governors Message Solidarity With Abbott in Texas
24 GOP Governors Message Solidarity with Abbott in Texas
So, I was watching the Big Lebowski tonight. That movie has an odd effect on me. It’s a comic tour de force. It piles absurdity on absurdity with nothing but bizarre characters as far as the eye can see. And I find most of the humor highly entertaining. But it always sort of depresses me too. I guess it’s because even in their comedies the Coen Brothers are always laughing at us. And it’s not a friendly laugh. They’re dramatizing the meaninglessness of human existence. Well, at least that’s how it affects me.
Then I read this.
The full list is:
Governor Kay Ivey (AL), Governor Mike Dunleavy (AK), Governor Sarah Sanders (AR), Governor Ron DeSantis (FL), Governor Brian Kemp (GA), Gov. Kim Reynolds (IA), Governor Brad Little (ID), Governor Eric Holcomb (IN), Governor Jeff Landry (LA), Governor Tate Reeves (MS), Governor Mike Parson (MO), Governor Greg Gianforte (MT), Governor Jim Pillen (NE), Governor Joe Lombardo (NV), Governor Chris Sununu (NH), Governor Doug Burgum (ND), Governor Mike DeWine (OH), Governor Kevin Stitt (OK), Governor Henry McMaster (SC), Governor Kristi Noem (SD), Governor Bill Lee (TN), Governor Spencer Cox (UT), Governor Glenn Youngkin (VA), Governor Jim Justice (WV), and Governor Mark Gordon (WY). The only abstainers were Republican governors in Vermont and Nevada. But those aren’t conservative states so there’s no surprise here.
So, this is a mildly encouraging sign. Maybe the Republicans are starting to realize they have an enormous amount of leverage because of the panic about getting money for Ukraine. They should demand that Biden deport ten million illegal aliens before he gets a penny. But what are the odds of the House holding out for that? Probably pretty slim.
But I do see some good coming of the Republican governors finding common ground. And of course, I fantasize that they’ll go beyond a letter of support. What they should do is coordinate a plan to not only close the border but to eject the illegals whenever they show up in the red states. This is another case of federal law that is being ignored by the federal government. They could announce to the country that they are going to arrest all illegals and give them a chance to hand themselves over and instead get free airfare back to their homes.
This is the basis of what I was calling the Red State Council. The red states coordinating to circumvent the sabotage of the federal government and protect each other by enforcing the Constitution within their own borders. So there’s the tie-in to the Big Lebowski. It’s filled with nihilism, both explicit and implied. And that is what the federal government stands for and enforces. But luckily for us we don’t have to have a Coen Brothers moral to our story. It is possible to end up with a happily ever afterward story line. All we need is a bunch of red state governors who decide that twenty five states is enough to stand their ground and refuse to be stampeded on by Biden and his minions. Well, I guess I should get around to doing a review of the movie. After all, the dude abides.
British Perspective on the Movie “The Holly and the Ivy”
The Holly and the Ivy is one of my favorite Christmas movies. But it is an intensely English movie and so I thought it would be interesting to hear what a British movie critic would have to say about it.
Whether it is interesting or not I’ll leave to the individual viewer but I enjoyed it. However I was already a fan of the movie and didn’t require any convincing.