Charlie Wilson’s War

Last night I saw this movie on cable. It had sounded interesting in the reviews when it came out a year or two ago, but theaters no longer have much appeal for me. The movie was very good, very funny and made good points about the laws of unintended consequences.

A Texas congressman, Charles Wilson, in a position of power on the subcommittee for covert funding of the CIA, finds a  cause in the opposition of Afghan Mujaheddin to the Soviet occupation of their country. Funding hi jinks ensue, shady allies are recruited and the Soviets eventually are forced out of their occupation. And shortly the Soviet Union itself crumbles, Eastern Europe is freed, and Ronald Reagan is credited with the collapse.

The unintended consequences are what happens to Afghanistan afterward, when funding for rebuilding the country is harder to find than the billion or so in armaments which broke the Soviet occupation. We are quite familiar now with those consequences; the Taliban which will not go away.

But watching Charlie work his connections and bounce around the world with his CIA henchman in tow is astringently funny while it lasts. I was especially entertained by the dynamics of Charlie’s Congressional staff, all tall, drop-dead gorgeous young women, collectively called “jailbait” by the loose-living Wilson. I was reminded of my visit to the office of Senator John Tower in 1963, my first year in college, when as a member of the Young Republicans Club of the University of Virginia I went on a trip to Washington D.C.

Senator Tower was, of course, from Texas, and the first Republican Senator elected from that state since 1870, therefore a rising star in what would become the Republican revival galvanized by the Civil Rights legislation of the later 1960s. Sen. Tower’s office staff  exactly resembled the movie version of Charlie Wilson’s staff, long-limbed, beautiful and young. Must be a Texas thing.

I must get out to movies more. Some are worth watching.

YouTube Film Auteurs

The YouTube mania has largely passed me by. I only occasionally look at one of the legion of links cropping up in email messages, bulletin boards, blogs and so on. I ran across one mentioned in a blog that interested me today, a trailer for an independent and apparently unauthorized film version of Cormac McCarthy’s Outer Dark. A young aspiring director filmed it in the mountains around Asheville, NC.

As it happens, Outer Dark was the first McCarthy book I ever read. There was a very long caesura in my reading, since the book initially struck me as too strange to finish. I probably have mentioned the strange tale of this delay here, or elsewhere.

At any rate, this video interested me for that reason, and for the pointless daring of the director in making a film he cannot show anywhere, I would think, since there is no mention I can find of McCarthy granting permission.

The link to the Outer Dark trailer is:

Dark Images

War on Cable-Memorial Day Weekend

As the weekend progressed, the various cable movie channels (non-premium, no HBO etal. for me) trotted out every old war movie in their several libraries. From Iwo Jima to Normandy to Korea, heroism, suffering and cinematic war erupted. I sampled quite a few offerings, most of which I had seen either in theaters or on DVD.

I was intrigued by one pairing on one movie channel, the movie M*A*S*H followed by The Great Escape. Robert Altman’s black war comedy, filmed ostensibly about Korea, but in the late days of the Vietnam War, dealt savagely with the military mentality, late sixties and early seventies style. The Great Escape, based on a historical event during the Good War, WWII, dwelt on personal heroism and the Evil of Nazis, especially the SS. A large ensemble cast representing a cross-section of the allied forces in that war outwit and frustrate the German troops charged with containing them. The bestiality of war belongs solely to the Nazis. Clear lines of good and bad.

I have not seen a listing for Doctor Strangelove, but I suppose that would be going too far, even for cable.

Groundhog Day

February 2, 2008

They say we’re young and we don’t know
We won’t find out until we grow
Well I don’t know if all that’s true
‘Cause you got me, and baby I got you

The movie Groundhog Day, with Bill Murray, Andie McDowell and other talented actors, features the above song beginning over and over as the Day recycles endlessly for Murray’s character, a TV weatherman on location in Punxsutawney, PA awaiting the groundhog’s prediction of the end of winter.

One of the first movies to display Bill Murray’s (slightly) serious side, the movie is a cross between the stories in Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, wherein a character is compelled to re-examine his mean, pinched life, and Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, when supernatural intervention leads a character to do the same thing, in reverse: his life is far more important to the people around him than he realized.

Each morning the sounds of Sonny and Cher, along with the identical weather for the day greets Bill Murray as he awakens. Finally, self-realization releases him from the strange loop, and he goes forth renewed.

Happy Groundhog Day!

No Country for Old Men

I am a long-time admirer of Cormac McCarthy, whose long career as a novelist brought him critical acclaim, but little money, until the publication of his Border Trilogy starting with All the Pretty Horses, published in 1992. McCarthy has since sold many books, finally gaining some financial return for his long struggle as a writer of serious and sometimes difficult fiction. All the Pretty Horses was made into a movie some years ago, to little acclaim or box office success.

A week ago we saw another movie made from a McCarthy book, No Country for Old Men. Early indications are that this movie will be as successful critically and financially as McCarthy’s fiction. I certainly think both are deserved. The Coen brothers, Joel and Ethan, makers of highly individual movies for some years, acquired the rights to No Country for Old Men and have made a fine film, absorbing, horrifying and entertaining but always on target.

Cultural Memorials

Tonight I was channel surfing, and paused for an hour for yet another viewing of the last part of Shane, a really satisfying example of old Hollywood movie making. Following the movie, there were promotional blurbs for a series of Elvis Presley “vehicles” from the late fifties and early sixties. Elvis movies are a staple of jokes and comments on really bad films, so I was momentarily puzzled at the promos for a selection of those forgettable movies. Then I realized that the movies were to run this Thursday, the 16th of August. Of course. The date of Elvis’ death. Another memorial gesture for a rock and cultural icon.

I liked Elvis. I had many of his records, at least those before his Army service. Among those records was one titled, “For LP Fans Only.” In this CD and iPod generation, the term “LP” may be unfamiliar. “Long Play” records, lasting thirty to forty minutes, were LPs. It turned out that the cuts on “For LP Fans Only” were some of the original Sun Records recordings, “Mystery Train,” “Lawdy, Lawdy Miss Clawdy” and others.

Elvis’ movies were not up to his recordings, although two, King Creole and Jailhouse Rock, were enjoyable. I pretty much abandoned Elvis after he became a Las Vegas show person and bloated up from prescription drugs until (reputedly) he died straining for a bowel movement.

The promos for Thursday’s movies did not mention King Creole or Jailhouse Rock. Pity. Elvis deserves better on the anniversary of his death.

Of Grandchildren and Books and Movies

We had a longer than usual day with the granddaughter yesterday and overnight. Another grandmother had the boy, so we were able to supply the granddaughter with the “star” status she pretty much commands, anyway. Our plans were to take her for the afternoon at the aquarium, with emphasis on the penguins, which I don’t believe she has seen. That activity was nixed by Herself, who was determined to see the current “Fantastic Four” movie, The Rise of the Silver Surfer. After a brief debate, we headed to the movie theatre. The good news is that the little girl was entertained, enough so that she discussed the movie extensively on the phone with her father this morning, before we returned said child to parental custody.

The bad news is that the two adults present for the movie (my Beloved and I) were bored. I at least enjoyed the extravagant graphics, but Babs simply wanted to leave as soon as possible. The granddaughter, however, even stayed for the credits.

(As a side note, for me, watching Jessica Alba was not uninteresting.)

Overnight, the process of getting our little girl to settle into bed was as usual a multi-stage process. She was pretty good, actually, only got up three or four times to request additional stuffed animals/dolls and a book to take to bed with her.

Amazingly enough, the book she took to bed was Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. It may be a first for a little four-year old girl to take that particular book to bed. I mean, it doesn’t even have pictures. She can’t read yet, apart from recognizing her name and sort of writing it, but the book had to go home with her this morning. At some point her Granny Babs told the little girl the title, which granddaughter immediately rendered as “The Sound and the Fairy.” Somewhere, Faulkner is cringing; or laughing, hard to say.

I love being a grandfather. I hope to continue for many years, looking forward to new experiences and the wonder of growing young folks who so completely own my heart.

Barnyard

Animated features have been big box office for years, especially since the advent of computer-generated graphics. Watching our grandchildren’s fascination with animation, I can see why. The kids can watch the same DVD over and over and over. Some of these features, like Ratatoullie, for instance, can entertain adults as well.

This past weekend we hosted the grandchildren traveling circus and witnessed Barnyard. Nothing particularly stellar about the plot and characterization. Coming-of-age story line about a young bovine who doesn’t want to follow in his dad’s hoofprints as the leader of the barnyard animals, with emphasis on guarding against the evil coyote.

I simply could not get past one feature of how these animals were rendered, however. The papa and son bovines both sported sizeable udders. They were neither bulls nor steers, apparently. Either that or they were taking massive doses of estrogen. Hormone abuse in children’s movies. What next?

I suppose that in a country where only a small fraction of the population have direct experience of farms and livestock, this was bound to happen.

As I say, I couldn’t concentrate on the plot, such as it was. If you have small children or grandchildren, be forewarned: gender-bending has reached the barnyard.

Ratatouille

I suppose taking a four-year old and a three-year old (nearly) to a movie theater would not be everyone’s idea of a good time. Not everyone is a grandparent. Babs and I took the Two Most Nearly Perfect Most of the Time grandchildren to see Ratatouille Friday afternoon, and all four of us had a very good time.

For a movie to be a good children’s movie, it must also be a good movie that an adult can appreciate. That is why the classic children’s movies last, and last, and last. One of the benefits of being a grandparent is that you can indulge the inner child, and still feel rewarded as an adult by the quality of the movie.

Counting the endless loops of local commercials, followed by a barrage of national spots, then a number of trailers, Ratatouille began about forty minutes after the advertised “start time.” Of course we knew the stated start time had little to do with the movie actually starting, but it had been a few years since we went to the theater, so we were not shrewd enough to research both the length of the film and the end time for this showing. We’ll remember, next time.

In spite of this long prelude, the children were completely absorbed almost for the whole movie. That alone is a credit to the appealing characters, the great graphics and a plot intelligible to both children and adults. The rat who wanted to be a chef; who has not wanted to be something beyond their apparent reach? That particular desire appears early in life, with children in a hurry to grow up. Fortunately for older folks, we can remember that feeling and re-live it with our grandchildren. We all four recommend this movie with as many stars as necessary. Take your children, your grandchildren, or borrow some, or simply go yourselves. Just remember to check the times more carefully than we did.

(Oh, and eat a good meal before going, or you will exit the theater ready to sack and pillage the nearest restaurant. You’ll see what I mean.)

Flags of our Fathers

We watched this movie on DVD the other night. I expected a good movie, both from the reviews and from my reaction to the movies of Clint Eastwood, especially the movies since Unforgiven. I was not disappointed. You cannot say of such a movie, given the subject matter, that you enjoy the experience, but you can say that you appreciate the artistry and are very moved by the story presented.