Archive for the ‘Movies’ Category
“THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES” PLUS THE 2021 NONSENSE CONTINUES
I saw a classic movie the other night: “The Best Years of Our Lives” It was a 1946 movie about three servicemen returning from World War Two and the difficulties they had re-adjusting to civilian life. Surprisingly, to me at least, it was quite watchable. I find it fascinating how some old movies become pretty much unwatchable after even a few decades, while others become timeless classics. Partly personal preference I am sure, but I am sure there are other factors at play. It was also interesting in that the movie took a very honest look at what we now call PTSD, these three veterans had serious issues. I’m sort of stuck on the idea that prior to 1980 or so most movies portrayed an idealised “Father Knows Best” view of American culture, so it was refreshing to see one with a more honest take. Unfortunately they all worked out their problems in the end and lived happily ever after, which is a far cry from the realities of PTSD.
Still, a movie I really enjoyed. As did the people at the time, it was a wildly popular movie, and won nine academy awards. Including the first time a non professional actor won an academy award, Harold Russel; and the only time a performer won two awards for the same performance, Harold Russell again. I guess it’s a good thing that a movie about people dealing with personal demons was so popular, even if the demons were unrealistically vanquished. It’s Hollywood, happy endings are what they are all about. Hey, even I, who recently lost all faith in humanity, liked it.
In politics: The utter ridiculousness of calls for Joe Biden to resign. It really is transcendentally absurd. 13 Americans die, and the GOP falls all over themselves claiming Biden is unfit to lead and should resign. Were there calls for Roosevelt to resign after Pearl Harbor? Reagan to resign after the Beirut Barracks bombing? Trump after Covid killed hundreds of thousands of Americans? Bush to resign after 9/11? Maybe, but not by mainstream leaders of the opposition party. This really shows just how out of touch with reality the GOP has gotten, because they refuse to accept Biden as the elected president, that somehow that translates into he’s unfit to lead. Give me a break. And whatever criticism one wants to aim at Biden, he successfully pulled off one of the greatest airborne evacuations in history, over 150,000 people evacuated in two weeks.
Not surprising, manufactured outrage is all the GOP has. They’ve been spreading a story that Biden repeatedly checked his watch during the ceremony as the US dead from Kabul were unloaded. No, he didn’t: Did Biden Check Watch 13 Times During Transfer of Fallen Soldiers? In fact he may once have glanced at his watch, though that isn’t even clear. No worries though, Fox News replayed the video at half speed to exaggerate the glance and make it appear more than it was: Fox News manipulates its own video to spread allegation that Biden looked at his watch during transfer of fallen troops. Kind of like how the British during World War Two edited a film of Hitler to make it look like he was dancing a little jig after the surrender of France. Of course Britain was at war with Germany at the time and making Hitler look bad was a very reasonable propaganda exercise. Um, is Fox News at war with America? Apparently, if they are happy to alter a film to make Biden look bad. Nonsense like this not only destroys the mainstream media’s credibility, it’s a big factor in tearing America apart and making it ungovernable. And Fox News isn’t the only one, but they led the way.
Sigh. A good article about China, Taiwan, and the US. More accurately, just how nation states are adamant about not letting provinces secede. The US paid a terrible price preventing the Confederacy from seceding, and if anything the Chinese are even more adamant that Taiwan is a part of China. For the US to go to war with China to prevent it reunifying with Taiwan is utter folly. Still, nations have gotten into stupid wars for no good reason throughout history, just hoping this doesn’t turn into one of those wars. Good read: American Civil War and the Lesson for China and Taiwan.
And then some of today’s truly whacked nonsense. A man who no doubt thinks of himself as a patriot and a Christian calls for tens of millions of Americans to be literally starved into supporting Trump’s “Stop the Steal” lies: ‘You Get Nothing’: Josh Bernstein Calls for Democratic Voters to Be Starved Until Biden Resigns. This would of course include millions of innocent children, not to mention millions of Trump supporters. This is called “collective punishment,” and is a human rights violation and war crime of the first order, something only the most hideous authoritarian governments do. (cough) Nazis (cough.) And unlike the Nazi’s who would massacre villages for supporting insurgents, he’s talking about collective punishment for people exercising their right to vote. And once again I apologize for my prior claims that comparing Trumpism to Nazism was overblown, I was wrong.
And for dessert: Christian Preacher: If Trump Isn’t Reinstated, Your Wives May Be Raped. The title pretty much speaks for itself. Thoughts and prayers to those impacted by Ida. And I am doing something about it, I write about Global Warming constantly to fight the fossil fuel industry lies that are making the consequences of Global Warming far worse than they needed to be. Hope all are having a good week, stay safe and dry everyone.
Copyright © 2021 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.
(Image: The Hitler jig photo, taken at the surrender of France to Germany on 22 June 1940. It was from a film that was altered to make Hitler dance a little jig, but I couldn’t find that online. Credit: Unknown, likely Public Domain under US copyright law, claimed as Fair Use in any case.)
NO WINNER YET
No winner yet. Definitely trending towards Biden, he’s certainly doing better than Clinton did in 2016. Likely it will be settled tonight, in which case I’ll add that later.
The big problem is that Trump, Fox News, and Trump supporters at this point are absolutely convinced that the Democrats cheated wildly and if Biden wins, the election was stolen. Trump has already filed a flurry of lawsuits alleging this, that, and the other thing. So far the evidence of any voter fraud is non-existent, but it’s modern America, evidence, schmevidence. Non Trumpers have to understand that Trump only speaks the truth as far as Trumpers are concerned, if Trump said it, it must be true.
And an example from the same. A friend’s Trump supporting relative posted this on Facebook, reposted with permission. It’s in bold, my comments are in italics:
Ok all you Biden supporters. If he gets elected…Whatever comes next is on YOU. You HATED Trump so much that you sacrificed America?
That’s a ‘does not follow’ argument if I ever heard one. Not sure how exercising one’s right to participate in an election is ‘sacrificing America,’ but we’ll just go on and see where this is going …
Biden plans to make a vaccine mandatory! It won’t matter if you don’t want it, you WILL get it or go to jail.
The president can’t make a vaccine mandatory, and in any event no, Biden hasn’t said anything about mandatory vaccines. So, basically this is a lie.
Our gas is guaranteed to be over $4 a gallon. All YOUR fault. So when you are out of gas on the side of the road, call ole Joe to bring you some.
Again, what? The president has little control over the price of gas, and since the market is glutted with no end in sight, there’s zero reason to think gas prices will spiral upwards. This is ignorant fear mongering basically.
He supports murdering babies up to FULL TERM in the name of convenience.
So that 26 week preemie that is now 21 could have been aborted!!! That baby that was born today could have been aborted yesterday!! MURDER!
I presume the writer supports sex education, family planning, and birth control on demand, the only things that prevent abortions? Snort. And once again, the president has little power to do anything about abortion.
He plans to take away ALL gun rights! We will have no way to protect ourselves.
No one has proposed any federal gun control in decades, so again, ignorant fear mongering. And DC vs Heller confirmed the individual right to bear arms, so it’s not like Biden could take away guns even if he wanted to, which he doesn’t.
He plans to defund the police. Meaning the police WILL NOT be able to come to your side when you need them. And I assure you that YOU will be needing to dial 911 cause we will have a civil war! Crime will run rampant.
Since Biden has repeatedly and explicitly said he will not defund the police, this one is a lie. And in any event, the freaking president has no control over how local jurisdictions police themselves, so it’s another ignorant lie.
Biden will do away with Bonding companies. So if you go to jail, you will not have the luxury of calling a bondsman. You will sit until you have money to get out.
While Biden has called for reform of the bail system, again, it’s not something the president has power over on a state and local level. And Biden’s call for bail reform doesn’t include locking accused criminals up, which we don’t have the prison capacity for anyhow. It’s Trump who calls for locking people up, not Biden.
Biden voters, do you realize this is the America you chose. This is what YOU voted for and how you chose to allow our wonderful country to become a socialist country.
That Biden is going to usher in a socialist America is so divorced from reality that one must doubt the sanity of anyone espousing it. It would be as ridiculous as claiming Biden is a secret Muslim who wasn’t really born in America.
I hope y’all are prepared for what will happen if he does win. But sadly the majority of you don’t even know any of this because you only voted for him over your hatred for Trump.
No, most Biden voters don’t “know” any of this because they don’t watch Fox News, Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh and the other right wing “news” sources peddling these lies. What they do know is that by almost any metric Trump hasn’t been a particularly good president, and by the ‘fighting Covid-19’ metric, Trump’s been a disaster. That Trump and his supporters spread nonsense like the above instead of running on his accomplishments pretty much speaks for itself.
Well, at least the writer of this screed is sincere and inspired to make themselves heard. But really, how can one even have a discussion with someone whose understanding of the facts is at such variance with, well, reality? It wasn’t always this way, in the early 90s I engaged in spirited debate with conservatives about many things, and the war in Iraq in particular. Haven’t debated a conservative in a dog’s age, they don’t even comment on my blog anymore.
It’s not that there’s necessarily going to be a Civil War, but Trump and his followers, at least the ones who believe the above, have already seceded from the Union. The world this person lives in isn’t America. And I loathe Biden, he’s one of the founders of the modern American state, which is a mess because both parties sold out to corporate America decades ago. Trumpian alternate reality partisanship goes beyond politics though.
I can’t think of another way to put it, this screed is a religious polemic, it’s not debate. The country is already torn in two, this election pretty much put the nail in that coffin. I guess at this point, you know what, let’s split the country in two. Partition it so to speak. Or more than two countries. I’ll make a map. I’ve said for decades that balkanization was inevitable for America, maybe we’re here.
So the election hasn’t been called yet, Thursday November 5. Trump is claiming he won and proceeding accordingly. Wild claims from the Trump supporters, but only minor weirdness yet: Nevada man interrupts press conference, claiming Biden is trying to steal the election. Calm before the storm? IDK. Crazy times. This made me laugh and good night:
#StaytheFHome #WearaDamnMask #FelesRegula
Copyright © 2020 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.
(Image: From the movie Groundhog Day. Used without permission, but since I’ve promoted this wonderful movie tirelessly, I hope I can be forgiven. Image 2: Attribution in the image, found on Facebook. Both images are claimed as Fair Use under US copyright law.)
RIP RUTH GINSBURG
Well, Ruth Ginsburg, the most senior Supreme Court justice, has died. And wow, doesn’t that just add a whole new layer of contention and volatility to the mix. Gasoline on the dumpster fire that is the 2020 election. Late breaking news, so no reactions yet, but one can speculate. Wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Trump insisted on installing a new justice before the election. His base will go wild for it, that’s all that counts. Instead of an election for president of the united States, we have two teams vying for political dominance. Any resemblance to a functioning constitutional republic is a hollow facade at this point, and it’s likely going to get a lot worse now.
The sickness comes in society when one faction blames another for all that’s wrong. I think every mass horror in humanity’s history has had that at its core. I mean there’s always individuals, but sometimes it metastasizes into actual collective action. Facism as a cancer. I’m sure others have made the comparison. Trump and his supporters have infinite belief in him, and they absolutely believe that liberals are the cause of the nation’s problems. Listen to Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones, and countless others if one has any doubts.
Well, for decades the right has been claiming they have all the answers, and liberals are the problem, and now Trump has had a four year mandate to fix things. The country is kind of a mess now, and his answer is, predictably enough, “The liberals did all this, and I need to be reelected to set things right!” Well, if he gets reelected, he’ll have his chance.
Even if Trump doesn’t, but claims he did? What’s the worst that could happen? Well … columns of armed pro-Trump militia attack protestors en masses, killing hundreds? Thousands? With local police standing by? It’s happened, in, well, countless countries. There’s no reason it couldn’t happen here in America. The bloodiest event in US history was the Civil War, where Americans took to arms in a treasonous revolt. It ended badly, in as much as it has ended as all.
Ideology only works as it is consistent with reality and science. Trumpism isn’t. It won’t end well. Anything is possible. Weird shit like foreign armies crusading through the USA like they did after the Russian Revolution during and after World War One. Canada declares a 100 mile martial buffer zone and is welcomed by the locals to restore law and order. (I claim royalties on the movie rights.) There’s worst case scenarios like any fan of the apocalyptic genre is aware. Myself included.
I chose this above image before hearing the news about Ruth Ginsburg. Bad weird shit’s coming people. I’m gonna keep blogging about it. Have a great weekend, hold your family close. #StaytheFHome #WearaDamnMask #InsanusTempora
Copyright © 2020 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.
(Image: Public domain Snappygoat image. Frankenstein?)
IGNORE THE CDC AND OTHER HORRIBLE RANDOM NEWS OF THE DAY
Random notes today. A friend of a friend died of Covid-19. 44, good health. He actually was hospitalized, went home, and took a turn for the worse and died. One would think that as more and more people die, the deniers might start waking up. We’re approaching the point where one out of every one thousand Americans will have died of Covid-19. The election campaign is more surreal all the time. Trump is now claiming that Biden is controlled by secret forces. “People in the dark shadows” and “people that you haven’t heard of” are working to get Biden elected. WTF is he talking about? No one knows. (Well, the Q-anon people no doubt think they know.) Conspiracy mongering at its best.
Having a president who is a science and reality denier is problematic at the best of times. During a pandemic, more than problematic: It Has Come to This: Ignore the C.D.C. Trump has basically forced the CDC to offer testing guidelines that are based on Trump’s desire to reduce the number of Covid-19 tests given, I guess he’s still thinking fewer cases make him look better. Yes, perception management as opposed to actually dealing with Covid-19.
Progress is being made on understanding Covid-19: A Supercomputer Analyzed Covid-19 — and an Interesting New Theory Has Emerged. Basically Covid-19 does seem to be a vascular disease, and science is starting to get some idea how it travels around the body wreaking havoc. Ain’t no freaking flu, that’s for sure. The other good thing is that this study suggests that some already FDA approved drugs might be helpful fighting Covid-19.
The Sturgis Motorcycle rally is now a Covid-19 test and trace nightmare. It’s believed that participants returned home to at least 60% of US counties. IE a one week rally was the equivalent of an outbreak in a major city in terms of its spreading potential. We’re not really an intelligent species when it comes right down to it. I think I want that on my gravestone. Anyhow, it was predicted: Revved by Sturgis Rally, COVID-19 infections move fast, far.
Speaking of which, Betsy deVos, the lady Trump put in charge of privatizing America’s public schools, says that the pandemic has been good for the US educational system. Yes, yes she did: Betsy DeVos is now arguing COVID-19 pandemic is ultimately a “good thing” for U.S. public education. It’s not really clear to me what exactly she means, she seems to be claiming it changed things. Strikes me as being akin to saying World War Two was ultimately a good thing for air travel. I guess, but pretty sure we would have developed jet airliners without World War Two. Just more of Trump’s efforts to play down, minimize, distract from the out of control pandemic happening on his watch.
And in some final weirdness, an Evangelical group’s efforts to have a fiberglass dinosaur removed from a McDonalds has come to naught: Christian Group Seeks Removal Of Dinosaur From Tucson McDonald’s. (I hate it when people conflate evangelicals with Christians, the majority of Christians have no problem with science. If anything science has proved that God’s creation is vastly grander than the Iron Age creation myths in the Bible.) Apparently they believe dinosaurs were a hoax made up by scientists to discredit the Bible. 23,000 people liked the Facebook page before it was taken down. The McDonald’s franchise in question said no way, it’s been a local landmark for near 30 years.
Let me guess. They’re Trump supporters. I used to wonder if people like this group were serious. Dinosaurs a hoax, really? By about 1830, nearly 200 years ago, it was irrefutable that Earth was at least millions of years old and there’s never been a global flood. Yet here we are in the 21st century, and about one third of Americans believe stuff that is patented hogwash. This is why we got Trump. And why what was once the most modern country on Earth is sliding backwards. Utter hogwash promulgated for votes and ratings.
Stay safe everyone. My plan as a young person was to go to Mars. Maybe I should have stuck to the plan. Stay safe everyone. #StaytheFHome #WearaDamnMask #UtMelioremPeiusAnteTempora
Copyright © 2020 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.
(Image: Walt Kowalski in the movie Gran Torino. I feel like that some days. A great movie that really tried to make important points about racism and how to overcome it. Painfully wrong in some ways, but their base message, racism is BS and people can work to get past it was refreshing. Credit: IDK, used without permission. Hopefully I can be forgiven because I’m plugging and highly recommending the movie, here’s the trailer: Gran Torino. OK, Clint does sing in the final credits, hopefully that will be removed in the director’s cut. Rumor has it he lost a bet.)
“IT IS WITH MUCH EMBARRASSMENT THAT I RETURN.”
24 January, 41 AD. Roman Emperor Caligula is walking through Rome with his friends and cohorts, guarded by the Praetorian Guard, the Secret Service of their day. They come to a pedestrian tunnel, and the guard insists on separating Caligula from his cohorts while walking through the tunnel, for security of course. Then in the middle of the tunnel, the guard drew their swords and killed Caligula. Let’s just say Caligula wasn’t very popular. He had a nightmarish upbringing, so no surprise he turned into a monster. He only reigned for about four years, and was 28 when he died. The Praetorian Guard then proclaimed Claudius the new emperor, not the last time they would kill a caesar and appoint a new one.
I went and saw the latest Jumanji movie. It was what I call a parts movie. IE it had all sorts of good parts, good actors, good special effects, decent writing, all fun to watch. But it didn’t add up to anything, it was all basically formula. They took the previous movie, jazzed it up a bit, and ran with it. Modern sequels all just kind of blur together. If one likes Dwayne Johnson movies, or the previous Jumanji movie, lots of fun. Note it’s not a kids movie, at least little kids.
January 24th 1900, the Battle of Scion Kop. Part of the Boer Wars. One European colonial army conquering another European colony. The British of course. They got a lot of their empire by conquering other empires’ colonies. Hyenas feeding on jackals, colonialism is really ugly if one thinks about it, but so fully normalized in western society that the ugly bits are overlooked. Anyhow, yeah, bad day for the Redcoats. I don’t think they were wearing red in 1900 though, but I could be wrong. The British climbed to the top of a hill at night, made a disorganized and poorly planned attempt to dig in, and in the morning found themselves in a very exposed position. Which the Boers were happy to exploit, eventually driving the Brits off the hill with heavy losses. Speaking of Redcoats, the French went into World War One with their soldiers wearing bright red trousers, because, you know, that’s what Napoleon would have wanted. Turned out to be a bad idea on a modern battlefield.
Speaking of colonialism, here’s a wonderful example of the colonial mindset in action. Greta Thurnberg suggested maybe people shouldn’t invest in the fossil fuel industries that are knowingly destroying the climate for profit. A suggestion up there with saying maybe don’t invest in industries that use slave labor, IE one of those no-brainer suggestions. So the US treasury secretary suggested she go study economics before offering her advice. No need, letting the fossil fuel industry destroy the planet’s climate is going to be very bad for the economy. No economics degree required. Here’s a tip. Any time someone says “It’s going to be bad for the economy” what they mean is “It’s going to mean slightly less obscene profits for the rich.” Can’t have that.
“It is with much embarrassment that I return.” 24 January 1972, Shoichi Yokoi is discovered hiding in the jungles on Guam. He was a Japanese soldier in hiding since 1944 when the US recaptured Guam during World War Two in the Pacific. Mr Yokoi was among the last three such holdouts to be discovered. Guam is only like 10 by 20 miles, so hiding for 28 years is impressive. A replica of the cave he hid in is a tourist attraction to this day. The quote is something he said upon his return to Japan, it apparently gained some popularity there.
There were a number of Japanese holdouts after World War Two. A subcategory of “people hiding from civilization.” One could write a book I suppose. A family of Old Believers discovered in remote Siberia. The Bounty mutineers. The Australian aborigines I blogged about. A handful of stone age tribes. The guy who hid in the woods in Maine for decades. I’m debating it myself. I have no family, and my friends hate me. And I have lived in a cave before. On the plus side, I’m a moderately successful blogger. Life, always full of decisions. I guess when you’re dead, no more decisions. The appeal of suicide suddenly becomes clearer.
But no. As a friend once said, you’re gonna be dead a lot longer than you’re alive. Have a great weekend everyone.
(Copyright © 2019 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.
(Image: An 1887 painting of a famous Old Believer being arrested. Credit: Vasily Ivanovich Surikov 1848-1916. Public Domain under US copyright law.)
HAPPY NEW YEAR
January first, New Year’s Day. Oddly enough starting the year on January 1st is a relatively new thing. In much of Europe it wasn’t until after 1500. In the Ottoman Empire it wasn’t until 1918. And in Thailand not until 1941! Yes, there are Thai people alive today who remember when New Year’s Day wasn’t January 1st. Before then it was April 1st. So that means there must have been an extra long year or an extra short year when they made the switch. Must of been a huge hassle with contracts, birthdays, and such. The legal equivalent of when Sweden switched to driving on the right.
So, any interesting history on January 1st? A little, there’s always something. The Chenogne massacre in 1945, where American troops in retaliation for the Malmedy massacre killed a like number of German POWs. I’m of a mind that events like this should be taught in school. On the same day the Luftwaffe launched its last air offensive, Operation Bodenplatte, an attempt to destroy a crippling number of Allied aircraft on the ground in Belgium and France, giving the Germans control of the skies over the then raging Battle of the Bulge. It was a catastrophic fail, destroying easily replaced Allied aircraft and losing many irreplaceable trained and experienced German pilots. So it was the Luftwaffe’s last gasp as an organized force, and through the end of the war the Allies completely controlled the skies over Europe.
In 1947 Canadian citizens became Canadian citizens instead of British citizens. I didn’t know that, but it was more a formality and legal nicety than any big change. Going back further, in 1804 “Haiti becomes the first black-majority republic and second independent country in North America after the United States.” That’s from Wikipedia. I guess the hundreds of Indian nations in the Americas didn’t count as independent countries? In 1801 Ceres was discovered, the first and largest asteroid discovered. It was considered a planet for some time, then an asteroid, and now a dwarf planet. Science marches on, if confusingly sometimes.
Back in the here and now 2020 rolls in with a new crisis. Iraqi protesters swarmed the US embassy in Baghdad, causing damage, but no deaths or hostages yet. My first thought on hearing the news was, wait, what, isn’t the US embassy inside the Green Zone, the huge fortified crusader complex the US built in Baghdad? How did protesters even get to the US embassy? Turns out the Iraqi government let them in. Sigh, what a mess. Trump publicly blamed Iran, claiming they orchestrated the attack somehow. At least he’s mastered that aspect of Neocon World Middle East, if anything we don’t like happens, it must be Iran’s fault! That the US airstrikes against Iraqi militia forces killed dozens of people and just might have enraged Iraqis, nope, not relevant, it’s Iran!
Even if Iran did have a hand in this, it’s just another indication of how America’s hard line policy towards Iran is failing. And he’s threatening Iran that they are going to pay “a very big price.” It’s not like he can sanction them further, so I’m not exactly sure what he means. He’s going to bomb Iraq some more? And no, our embassy wasn’t attacked because Trump has made people around the world not respect us. Good chance most of the protesters don’t even know who Trump is, but they do know America has brought nothing but suffering and death to Iraq for decades.
That’s one of the most frustrating things about Americans, most of them are now oblivious to the carnage and subsequent ill feelings our endless wars in the Middle East are causing. Somehow they are all habituated to it, like it’s normal to be dropping bombs on poor people on the other side of the planet. If some other country routinely bombed the USA Americans would most definitely be attacking their embassy, Americans would be outraged. Do as we say, not as we do, the imperial disease illustrated.
In any event here’s hoping cool heads prevail, the last thing Trump or the nation needs is another war. Even watching the impeachment show is preferable to seeing another war on TV. Speaking of which, I did see a great movie recently, ‘Long Shot’ with Seth Rogan and Charlize Theron. It was as funny as ‘The Hangover’ and ‘Game Night,’ to give the gentle reader an idea of what movies I find funny. And now I will never hear the word ‘cracker’ again without giggling. I hope everyone had a safe New Year’s Eve, welcome to 2020.
Comments and shares appreciated.
(Copyright © 2019 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.
(Image: Haitian revolution: The Battle of Palm Tree Hill Credit: January Suchodolski 1897-1875. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1924.)
‘THIS ISLAND EARTH’ AND THE FICKLENESS OF FAME
I just watched “This Island Earth,” a 1955 Science fiction movie. I never saw it before, or if I did, it was in my youth and I completely forgot it. Nothing in it twigged the “Wait, I’ve seen this before” reaction. It’s free to watch on Youtube, spoilers ahead in case one wants to watch the movie first.
The movie was interesting on multiple layers. It was about a studly handsome scientist (he can fly a jet plane!) who is abducted by aliens to participate in a research project the aliens are running in a last ditch attempt to save their homeworld from evil aliens. Lots of adventure, the aliens do bad things to humans in their project, the scientist and his cute co-scientist love interest visit the alien world, but it’s too late to help, and they are able to escape back to Earth.
A thinking movie for its day, and some of the questions it explores are still unresolved. How much collateral damage is acceptable if one’s cause is just? Would it be OK to sacrifice one person to save the life of everyone on Earth? Most of us would say yes I am guessing. How about if one could sacrifice everyone on Earth to save one’s own life? Is that OK? Most of us would say no I suspect. Where is the boundary between the two extremes? Beats me, I hope I never have to decide.
The special effects were cutting edge for the time. Which means means hoakier than 1960s Star Trek, but still impressive for 1955. I tried to imagine I was watching it in a movie theatre from a 1950s perspective, and it was pretty cool. One could see how a lot of the special effects were harbingers of effects to come. And this was when one was still expected to use one’s imagination to fill in the details. It was a play put to film so to speak, hyper realism not required.
The movie was lily white of course, as was all of America in the 1950s. Snort. At least the racism was invisible, black people didn’t exist in this world, see, no racism ma! Casual sexism and misogyny, yes, that was there. Just peppered throughout the movie, a sign of the times. And yes, the men all wore suits and the women dresses.
The star of the movie was one Rex Reason (1928-2015), this was the peak of his career and what he is most remembered for today. Rex Reason was his real name, and it took him awhile to be able to use it in Hollywood, since it sounded like a screen name. His earlier movies were made under the screen name Bart Roberts. The whole screen name thing is weird. Heard about a guy who had a great sounding real name, but he couldn’t use it as his screen name, because someone else had already used it. OK then.
His co-star, Faith Domergue, was an early “scream queen” in 1950s and 1960s horror/scifi films. This movie for her too was pretty much peak career, afterwards reduced to B-movies and guest appearances on TV. She was discovered at age sixteen by Howard Hughs, and while her career peaked in 1955, she did have a long and varied Hollywood career. She guest starred on Bonanza, I mean, is that cool or what? She passed in 1999, aged 73-74, sources vary.
The other actors in the film were all similar, none are household names, all had modest acting careers, none ever achieved big name status. Such is Hollywood, many play, only a few achieve greatness. As far as I can tell none of the other people involved in the film achieved greatness either. The director had a few other 1950s scifi hits, but that’s about it. A good movie for its time, still remembered by those who appreciate the history of movies, but nothing to write home about.
Still, there is one aspect of this movie that has flown under the radar. One of the minor actors in this movie went on to have a wildly successful Hollywood career, winning Oscar level awards twice. An actor who achieved great success despite a reputation for biting co-stars. None of the other actors in this movie would ever have guessed it, but the goddamn cat in the movie went on to fame and two PATSY awards, the Oscar of Hollywood animal awards. Boy, that must have rankled the cast. Did they get together in bars in later years to badmouth Orangey, for that was the cat’s name. He went on to star with Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” while they were reduced to B-movies and guest star appearances on 60s TV shows. Fate and fame are such fickle things.
Hope everyone is rounding out a good holiday weekend. Three days of ‘diet, schmiet’ and now I’m back on starvation rations. Six pounds from my goal, four weeks from Christmas feasting. The race is on.
Copyright © 2019 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.
(Image: A mutant alien servant from This Island Earth. Credit: Universal Pictures. I’m assuming that since it’s free to watch on youtube that it’s Public Domain under US copyright law.)
BLEACHING LAMPSHADES
The cat got my frozen dinner roll the other night. I was distracted because I was bleaching a lampshade. It ran under my housemate’s bed, much yelling. The cat, not the lampshade. Finally driven forth, sans partially eaten dinner roll. My life.
In the entire history of the human race, the above paragraph will likely never be written again. I find that astounding. It’s why card games are fun. Get a deck of cards. Shuffle it well. Lay it out. That particular order of cards has likely never been shuffled before, and likely never will be again. Keep shuffling if you don’t believe me.
So, yes, I really was bleaching a lampshade. It had coffee stains on it. My housemate processes coffee constantly, there’s almost always coffee stains after he passes through the kitchen. He’s like Pigpen on Charlie Brown, except it’s a haze of coffee droplets, not dirt. And he was near the lampshade once apparently. The shade looked good when done, matches the newly waxed floor. Still, my cleaning jag may be getting out of control.
In other news, apparently Trump is considering pulling out of the Open Skies Treaty. Who cares about preventing nuclear war when you’re as great as the US I guess. On the plus side, by the time Trump is done no one will ever negotiate a treaty with the US again, why bother if someone like Trump is going to come along and cancel it? I’m missing the greatness in this, but I’m having trouble seeing the greatness in anything Trump has done lately. Still waiting for infrastructure spending, withdrawal from Afghanistan, health care for all, and taxes on the rich. Snort. On the other hand, our media is so messed up now that who can tell. I recommend this article on the failure of the American MSM.
In other sagging greatness news, the once great National Geographic has issued a “Science of the Supernatural” special that any scientist or right thinking person will find appalling. They were always a sexist, racist, and colonialist publication, but at least they fostered an appreciation of science. No more, it’s just another sensationalist rag now writing for its chosen demographic. Which apparently no longer includes anyone who appreciates science. RIP old friend.
Lastly, the Golden Rice saga. Misguided environmentalism may be the death of us all yet, I swear to God. Global warming is going to end civilization as we know it, and so much activism is aimed at side issues like GMOs or glyphosate. Or worse, fighting against nuclear power, our last best hope for shutting down the coal fired plants that are destroying the climate. The good news is that claiming global warming will be the death of us all is no longer alarmism. That’s because it’s already happening, it’s not some nebulous future threat as the MSM likes to pretend. Fun times.
For Halloween viewing pleasure, watch this movie. Under the Skin. It’s on Netflix. Wonderful movie, but definitely not the typical Hollywood sci fi schlock. It’s about an alien on Earth. I guess. Reminded me of “The Man Who Fell to Earth.” Sort of. Or maybe “Being Human.” Or unlike any of them, idk. It’s a thinking person’s movie, atmosphere, subtlety, etc. No giant robots duking it out, no explosions, nothing bursting from anyone’s chest.
There will be a Halloween horror post, there may or may not be a Friday post. Happy Halloween Eve. Thinking of starting a new Halloween tradition in my home. Roast cat. Goes good with dinner rolls.
(Copyright © 2019 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.
(Image: Scarlett Johansson in “Under the Skin.” Credit: Various parties involved with making the movie I guess. Used without permission. Since I’m enthusiastically promoting the movie, I hope I can be forgiven.)
‘ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD’ AND OTHER NONSENSE
I went and saw the latest Tarantino movie, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” Some general spoilers ahead, as opposed to specific spoilers. People’s preferences for spoilers vary, some don’t want to hear any, other friends want me to describe the movie or book in detail. I have a friend who when he gets a new book, he reads the last few pages first. I still have trouble grasping the appeal of that, but whatever floats his boat. OK, the Tarantino movie. If one is a Tarantino fan, fine movie; not as good as his best, better than his worst.
If one isn’t a Tarantino fan, the movie is two and a half hours of boredom followed by ten minutes of blood curdling violence. “Look, she’s watching a movie!” “Look, what a cute dog!” “Look, they’re driving a car! Again!” I got so bored I started watching the backgrounds to count how many times the same vintage cars were used in the various scenes. Then blood everywhere, the end. See, I saved the reader $7. Or $37 if they live on the east or west coast.
So yes, immediately after the movie, I hated it. Upon further reflection, I don’t hate it as much. It was a tribute to 1970’s Hollywood, and in retrospect that part worked. The main plot and subplots all tied together nicely. There was some quirky Tarantonio style humour. The thing I liked most about the movie, well, I can’t say anything about it without giving it away. I guess all in all using a four star system, I give it a provisional three stars. To recap, If one isn’t into Tarantino films, meh, I can’t recommend ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.’ Everyone else, enjoy!
In real news India lost their first Moon lander Friday. And the first human attempt to land something at the Moon’s South Pole. Bummer all around. Well, they didn’t lose the Vikram Lander, they just lost communication with it moments before it landed. The lander’s orbital component, the Chandrayaan-2 satellite, spotted the Vikram Lander intact on the surface. That doesn’t mean it had a soft landing unfortunately. Attempts to resume communication with the lander will go on for at least two weeks, but it’s not looking good. On the plus side, the orbiter has the best camera yet to orbit the Moon, it can resolve features down to .3 meters (about a foot) accross. Most space missions these days have multiple functions, so that baring a catastrophic failure, at least some science can come out of it. In this case, great science, the best pictures yet of the lunar surface.
No clue yet why Chandrayaan-2’s lander failed, but like airliner crashes, a lot of work has been done in identifying why space missions fail. Teams of experts are likely already meeting to discuss the possibilities. And there are a lot of possibilities, space is a brutal environment. Extreme heat and cold, radiation, and even at the Moon’s distance (1.3 light seconds away from Earth) real time control from Earth isn’t possible. And I’ve always thought there must be all sorts of ways to subtly sabotage space missions. India has at least one rival who won’t be sad to see India fail.
In other world news, Trump has walked away from talks with the Taliban. So much for the US pulling out of Afghanistan and ending America’s longest and possibly most pointless war. Of course when it comes to pointless or even counterproductive wars, 21st century America is a Viking. So once again after a promising start to negotiations, Trump’s efforts at diplomacy have yielded a big fat nothing. At least he’s consistent.
In other Trump news, Trump is still tweeting about his incorrect hurricane prediction. It’s kinda scary, he apparently is unable to admit he was wrong. That’s not a pretty character trait in anyone. The image above was sent to me by a Trump supporting reader. It made me laugh and facepalm. What can I say, if someone’s painting shit on overpasses, they’re likely not too bright to begin with. Speaking of Trump (God, he seeps into everything these days, as if America was just one big load of white laundry that a red hat got tossed into,) every time now I wish readers to have a great week or weekend, I wonder if readers think it’s some subtle allusion to Trump.
No. I was saying ‘Have a great week!’ long before Trump was even visible in Clinton’s rear view mirror. Now though, I guess Trump has kinda claimed the word ‘great’ for his own. So, um, have a wonderful week everyone. (See, not an allusion to Trump.)
Copyright © 2019 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.
(Image: An overpass in the USA, circa Sept 2019. Credit: Anonymous, permission was given to publish it here.)
Yesterday, a Forgotten Battle. Today, One That is a Bit More Familiar. June 6 1944, D-Day.
June 6th 1944. The day John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, and Sean Connery waded ashore in Normandy. Oh wait, that was the movie. It was a good movie, at least that’s what I recall. I plan on watching it again soon, I see that it’s on Netflix. What an age we live in, I can have a movie I watched in my childhood beamed into my room. Plus 871 billion cat pictures. So, 71 years ago, the largest wartime invasion in history. And the most carefully planned military operation in history. It’s a big deal, no doubt about it. I’m sure there’s all sorts of articles about it, as always I hope to add at least some perspective. Or have some fun.
Could the invasion have failed? Eisenhower was prepared for that eventuality, he had a statement ready in case the invasion was a failure. German troops might have secret weapons, Rommel might pull off a brilliant feat. His worst fear must have been that the Germans had found out about the Allied plan and were ready for them. In any event, that didn’t happen, the Allies successfully fooled the Germans into thinking the attack would happen at Calais, 200 miles (300 km) away from Normandy. And in fact, extensive wargaming has shown that the invasion couldn’t have failed in any military sense, the forces the Allies deployed had an overwhelming advantage. The Allies for example flew more than 10,000 air sorties on D-Day. Two (count them) German fighter planes made a quick strafing run of the landing beaches. No, the only way the invasion realistically could have failed was if the weather had turned really really bad and stayed that way for weeks. Thus keeping Allied aircraft on the ground and limiting Allied shipping to the landing zone. Didn’t happen, and the Allies won a great victory and opened up the western front in the war against Hitler’s Nazi occupied Europe.
There’s a few common misconceptions about D-Day, as astute readers may know. While it was a great victory, and it hastened the end of the war, the war was already over before the D-Day landings. The Germans had suffered catastrophic defeats in Russia, and the Russian juggernaut had grown so huge that there was no question Soviet armies would be rolling into Berlin. D-Day was also not just an American affair, which one wouldn’t know from watching Saving Private Ryan. Only two of the five landing beaches were American, two were British, and one was Canadian. 25 Australians also came ashore, and I’m sure a scattering of other nationalities. 150,000 men … and one woman.
Losses were less that the Allies had planned for. Maybe 3,000 dead. Only one warship was sunk, an American destroyer, the USS Cory, was hit and destroyed by German shore batteries. It may have also hit a mine, and that’s the official story, not that it really matters. Over 100 aircraft were shot down by German antiaircraft fire, losses the Allies could easily afford. On D-Day the Allied soldiers were ordered not to take prisoners. That part Saving Private Ryan got right. The order was not always followed though, I mean, the Germans were white people. Japanese soldiers, yeah, they rarely made it to the prison camps. I digress. One group of soldiers surrendered to a passing American ship, not all the Nazi defenders were enthusiastic in their service to the Reich.
In any event, I’m not trying to discredit the American and Allied accomplishment. Perspective is everything. Just trying to strip it of jingoistic nationalistic nonsense. And see it for what it was, one of the great military efforts in history. And a great success, thanks to the careful planning … and the disaster during Exercise Tiger in April, where the deaths of hundreds of American GIs in a training exercise showed that there were some kinks in the plan still. In any event, I have no great wisdom to impart. I’ve no doubt written about D-day before, it just seemed like a good topic to get back into blogging with.
Lastly, yes, the picture I chose is somewhat grim. A dead American soldier on the beach. In today’s weird insulated media world where to Americans the only danger from war is the unlikely chance one will get electrocuted by their PlayStation, I just thought it was a reminder that no matter how great the victory, afterwards the victors have to clean up the bodies of their dead friends. One would think that might make people want to avoid wars, but I’m an optimist. One other point about World War Two, is that we still pretended soldiers coming home from wars were heroes, and couldn’t admit they had problems. Most people I know who had fathers who saw combat in World War Two said pretty much the same thing about them. They never wanted to talk about it, and it haunted them all their lives. Yes, World War Two veterans had high rates of alcoholism, drug addiction, and suicide. War is not healthy, and many of its survivors will be sick for life.
Even now this war is fading into history. Most of the veterans are long dead, in a few decades the last will die and World War Two will slip from memory into history.
(The above image was taken by a US government employee and is thus Public Domain under US copyright law. It’s what I said it was, I don’t know his name. I did promise some fun, but the only D-Day joke I could find was kind of lame. And, full disclosure, the PlayStation comment isn’t original.)
Doug's Darkworld 