Sam Moffitt

GOODBYE CHARLIE – 1964 DVD Review and Tribute to Debbie Reynolds

It was a serious sucker punch to all film fans when we lost Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds within a day of each other. There have been many tributes to Carrie Fisher and rightfully so. I have not seen that many for Debbie Reynolds so I would like to pay her tribute by reviewing one of her lost gems of a movie, GOODBYE CHARLIE from 1964, based on a play by George Axelrod and directed by Vincent Minnelli.

I can recall seeing this on a network movie night in the late 60s or early 70s, I remember liking it but seeing it again after this many years I was astonished at how funny it really is, and how touching.

The setup is simple, Charlie Sorrell is a writer, sometime screen writer and notorious womanizer. At a Hollywood party on a yacht he is shot by a jealous husband (Walter Matthau in an early role and in rare form indeed!) Charlie, by whatever means, immediately comes back as a beautiful young woman, Debbie Reynolds. This causes all sorts of consternation for Charlie’s best friend, George Tracy (Tony Curtis) who has come back to California from his home in Paris to deliver Charlie’s eulogy at his sparsely attended wake. George is also a writer and the story makes it plain these two have done a lot of carousing around and womanizing, together and on their own.

GOODBYE CHARLIE shows its origin as a stage play through most of its running time, a lot of the movie takes place on one set, Charlie’s beach house high above the ocean.

I had not seen Goodbye Charlie in many years and was astonished at how funny it really is. I laughed out loud for most of its running time. It is a great showcase for the versatile talents of Debbie Reynolds, she is hysterical and totally believable as a man stuck in a woman’s body. Her male mannerisms are spot on. We never, ever lose track of the concept that all her dialog is being spoken by a man and Charlie’s learning how to be, and enjoying becoming a woman is precious. She is more than matched by Tony Curtis, who knew a bit about gender bending himself having just been in Billy Wilder’s landmark transvestite comedy Some Like It Hot. His reactions, especially when he is finally convinced that the beautiful young woman who ended up at Charlie Sorrell’s house, is in fact Charlie him/her self is priceless.

Priceless too is the moment when Charlie asks George to “come here and look at this!” and (off camera, in the bathroom) shows George some of her/his “female attributes.” The fact that this is DEBBIE REYNOLDS, second only to Doris Day in being a wholesome, girl next door kind of actress, inviting Tony Curtis to “come here and look at these!” Wonderful! Charlie comes out of the bathroom, buttoning up “her” blouse, takes a long look at herself in the mirror and states “now I don’t have to go to see Bridget Bardot movies anymore, I can just draw the blinds and take a look in the mirror!”

And it gets funnier from there, Charlie comes to actually enjoy being a woman but finds out very quickly the kind of bullshit women have to put up with. I would say GOODBYE CHARLIE was ahead of the curve on being a feminist movie but Charlie herself has a lot of misogynist comments to make before it’s all over.

You expect good work from both Debbie Reynolds and Tony Curtis but Pat Boone, (of all people!) is also hysterical. He steals every scene he’s in as a rich, spoiled Mama’s boy who immediately has a crush on Charlie. And the movie does more than hint that his character is probably gay, that he is responding more to the man inside Charlie than the woman outside.

We all start out female, in the womb every fetus starts as female and in the third trimester the change will occur that creates a male. Sometimes that process is not finished and thus many people are transgendered. So inside every man, no matter how manly or macho, is a girl trying to get out. Seriously, I’m man enough to admit to my inner girl, her name is Melissa, she likes to jump rope, have tea with her dollies and brush the cat and dog. But if you cross her she’ll burn down your house, more than a bit of Rhoda Penmark (The Bad Seed) in there too! So there are many men who feel their woman trapped inside. Rarely do women feel they have a man trapped inside. And that is the beauty and humor of GOODBYE CHARLIE .

It is a hoot to see Charlie, (again this is Debbie Reynolds!) going to a spa to have her hair and nails done and eyeballing every woman in the place. Pat Boone offers to marry Charlie and presents her with a ring with a diamond the size of the Waldorf. Her reaction is hysterical, touching and sad all at once.

And the ending comes perilously close to very bad taste. The jealous husband (Walter Matthau) who shot Charlie in the first place now has his own crush on Charlie, gets her alone and forces his intentions on her in what can only be described as date rape. Charlie even screams, “This can’t be happening to ME!”

The movie then boxes itself into a corner, but finds a way to bring back both Charlie and Debbie Reynolds, just not in the same body. As a tribute to Debbie Reynolds, and a memorial, you can’t get much better than Goodbye Charlie.

The dvd is a burn on demand dvd-r so there are no extra features, the movie is not even letterboxed but pan and scanned. It is still worth seeing. And this was a rare case of a remake being as good, maybe better, than the original. Blake Edwards Switch from 1991 with Ellen Barkin pushes the envelope much further than Goodbye Charlie ever could. Ellen Barkin (as Roger Ebert pointed out in his review) has always had a mannish look and is one hell of a strong actress. Her man trapped in a woman’s body is even more believable and gets to do things Debbie Reynolds probably wouldn’t dream of. But that is another story.

Debbie Reynolds was a class act. In a career spanning interview she gave to Scarlet Street magazine a few years ago she bore no ill will towards a Hollywood film business that kicked her to the curb when she passed a certain age. She simply reinvented herself as a Las Vegas entertainer and never had a bad word to say about anybody. She was rightfully proud of her entire resume, still astonished that she was picked to star with Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor in the landmark musical Singing In The Rain. She was proud of her work in What’s The Matter With Helen a movie some actors would dismiss as a cheap horror movie. And she spent a lot of her own money and time buying props and costumes from Hollywood movies that would have otherwise ended up in the trash. She had a collection of mainstream movie memorabilia to equal the fantasy collections of Bob Burns or Forrest Ackerman. She was a class act, she and her daughter Carrie Fisher will be missed, any of her movies are worth watching, but GOODBYE CHARLIE is something special.

HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT – Review

I was 12 years old in 1968. One of my favorite places was the library, in those days the closest library to us was the Tesson Ferry Branch in South St. Louis County. My most prized possession was my library card.

My Mother used to drop me off there on a Saturday or a summer weekday and I would spend the whole day reading. One of those days I pulled a book off the shelf called Hitchcock/Truffaut and sat down to read it. I knew who Alfred Hitchcock was from his television show, and from his monthly Mystery Magazine as well as anthologies that I was reading avidly, Tales That Frightened Even Me, More Tales for the Nervous and, my favorite, Stories to be Read After Dark.

I was aware that Alfred Hitchcock was most renowned for directing movies. I had seen a few on television, Saboteur was a mainstay on KPLR TV, channel 11 in those days. I got to see The Man Who Knew Too Much on television as well, but few others.

So it was Hitchcock’s name that drew me to that title, I had never heard of Truffaut but I liked the idea of the book. A film maker, a young one, got to sit down with Hitchcock and discuss every one of his movies. I started to read, I was hooked. I read that book cover to cover that day, sitting in the library.

Then I read it again. When my Mother came to pick me up I checked the book out and took it home and read it again. When I first got my library card I was constantly being told by the library staff I could not check out books above my reading level. I had no interest in kid’s books, it took my Mother coming in and giving the library a letter from her authorizing me to check out and read whatever I wanted.

I was depressed over the death of my Father in 1966, the year the book was published. I was one of those kids, picked on and bullied in school, very few friends, left to my own devices I took to reading, movies, music, comic books, anything, anything at all to take me out of the world I was living in. The book Hitchcock/Truffaut was a revelation to me.

I had never heard of most of the movies discussed by the two film makers. I had never heard of Vertigo much less gotten a chance to see it. I had heard of Psycho, Marnie, North by Northwest, had never seen one minute of them. Had never heard of Shadow of a Doubt, or Blackmail, or the 39 Steps, or Young and Innocent or The Lodger. The more I read the more I wanted to see them all, repeatedly. And I never thought I would ever get that opportunity.

I can still recall the thrill I had when the “lost 5” films were restored and released to theaters in the 1980s, when I was going to school at Webster University and shortly after. Rear Window, Vertigo, Man Who Kew Too Much, Trouble With Harry and Rope. I saw them all, at either the Hi Pointe or the Tivoli Theaters. About the same time period Dial M for Murder was restored and released in 3D, I saw that, three times at the old Varsity theater. I saw Vertigo five times on a big screen.

Around that same time period I had bought a good used 16mm projector and checked out complete prints from the St. Louis City and County libraries. Among many other features and short subjects, the original Man Who Knew Too Much, Young and Innocent, Sabotage, The Secret Agent, the Lady Vanishes and The 39 Steps. Just FYI those prints were supposed to be screened only in St. Louis City or County, everything I checked out was screened in Jefferson County. Don’t tell anybody, I wouldn’t want to get into any trouble!

I say all of this as an introduction to one of the finest documentaries about a film maker I have ever seen, and I do not say that lightly. Next to watching moves, reading about movies, writing about movies, and watching collections of trailers for movies, I love documentaries about the people who make the movies, directors, actors, writers, cinematographers, editors.

In Hitchcock/Truffaut we get to hear some of the audio tapes of the long series of interviews that Truffaut had with Hitchcock and see photos taken during those interviews. Truffaut’s credentials as a film buff and film maker were already coming along nicely. You may have heard that he wrote for Cahiers Du Cinema and was part of the French New Wave in film making that came about during the 1950s and 60s. Hitchcock had been dismissed for years as a “popular” film maker, the “serious” movie critics thought he was making “popcorn” movies and were not worthy of serious discussion. They said so in print, many times. Francois Truffaut had other ideas and so did film buffs and film makers, then and now, a great service by getting Hitchcock to discuss every one of his films, how he came to be a film maker and even what he thought of other film maker’s work.

Of course we get to see many clips from Hitchcock’s films but what makes this such a special documentary for Movie Geeks like me, and you probably, we get to hear several working directors discuss the book and Hitchcock’s films. It’s always good to hear from Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader but I have never seen Wes Anderson or Richard Linklater on film before. These are professional film makers discussing one of the most important directors of film who ever lived and the effect that Truffaut’s book had on their hopes and dreams of making movies. Most of these people grew up in the same time period I did and took Hitchcock’s game ball and ran with it.

Paul Schrader makes the important point that all of Hitchcock’s films are about the dream state, they are full of dream images, repeatedly Hitchcock focuses on keys, hand bags, luggage, trains, oceans, beautiful blonde women, hand guns and most tellingly, falls from a great height.

I can still recall when I was attending Junior College at Hillsboro, Missouri’s Community College the first film course I took was Film Appreciation with Professor John White, an excellent teacher. We watched North by Northwest the day after Sir Alfred Hitchcock died April 29, 1980. Professor White made the comment that in film making, timing is everything! He also commented that Hitchcock’s Vertigo, which I still hadn’t seen yet, was unique in its examination of the dream state. A wiser writer than me pointed out, just a few years ago, when Inception was released and caused a flurry of internet comments as to what was “real” and what was a “dream” in Nolan’s film, that ALL movies are a dream. Every film that has ever been made or ever will be made is an artificial construct to make “reality” (whatever that is) into something better. That includes documentaries by the way, including this one.

For this is a dream of a documentary, it needs to be seen by everyone who loves film, who treasures the work of not only Hitchcock but any really good director of film. In fact this is the type of documentary that I can, and have, watched repeatedly. In fact I wish it were longer. There are dozens of extras with additional comments from all the directors who participated. Bogdanovich in particular is always good to listen to, all of the directors have excellent things to say about Hitchcock’s work. These are professional film makers, not critics, not Movie Geeks, real pros discussing the minute details of film making, the nuts and bolts of it, and how Hitchcock used every means at his disposal and even, within the parameters of Hollywood rules, managed to make experimental, avant garde works of film art. Some of his more famous experiments, Lifeboat, with a cast confined to one small area, Rope, a movie which appeared to be made in one continuous take, in “real” time, and Dial M For Murder, a 3-D movie with almost no 3-D effects.

That is the only fault I can find with this excellent documentary, only a select few of Hitchcock’s films are discussed at length, all are touched on, sometimes too briefly. I would love to see this expanded into a series, a sort of high road version of Mystery Science Theater 3000, where a screening room full of directors, or maybe only 3 or 4 at a time, discuss a Hitchcock film as they watch it. Several directors I would love to hear from are notable by their absence. I would sincerely be interested to hear comments from JJ Abrams, Steven Spielberg, The Coen Brothers, David Lynch, Walter Hill, Tim Burton, Francis Ford Coppola, Sofia Coppola, Robert Zemeckis and any number of other directors on the choices Hitchcock made for every one, well almost every one, of his films. Mel Brook’s input would also be welcome but his comments are many and varied and on the record in his own career spanning documentary, Make A Noise. Brooks got very chummy with Hitchcock and had his blessing to make his brilliant parody High Anxiety.

One genuinely touching part of the whole story, Hitchcock was very encouraging and actually a mentor to Truffaut. He gave him feedback on every one of the films he made while he still lived and was openly admiring of other directors work. Hitchcock did not work in a vacuum, he thought very highly of John Ford, Howard Hawks, William Wyler, George Stevens, John Huston and many others. One story I treasure, Orson Welles was astonished when Hitchcock told him at a Hollywood function that he thought Lady From Shanghai was a masterpiece, a film Welles just wanted to forget. For the record I agree with Hitchcock on that.

And Sir Alfred Hitchcock was also sincerely honest about his own limitations as a director. He admitted he’d be useless on a western, war film or a musical comedy. But as Mel Brooks pointed out Hitchcock became a genre onto himself. To this day any suspenseful set piece is usually described as “worthy of Hitchcock.” He is part of the vocabulary of film, and this documentary is worthy of being on the same shelf with Orson Welles: Magician, George Stevens: Film Maker, Stanley Kubrick:, A Life in Film, David Lynch: Pretty as a Picture, Cameraman: the Life and Work of Jack Cardiff, or any other film maker documentary you can name. Great stuff! Five stars! Now, I have not watched Strangers on a Train in some time, excuse me will you?

WOMEN WHO KILL – QFest St. Louis Review

WOMEN WHO KILL screens Friday, Mar. 31 at 7:00pm at the .ZACK (3224 Locust St., St. Louis, MO 63103) as part of this year’s QFest St. Louis. Ticket information can be found HERE

When anyone starts a new relationship there is almost always some hesitation. Most people will ponder, for at least a few moments, “what am I getting myself into?” “Do I really know this person enough, even if I love them, to not get hurt in this?” And what if our deepest, darkest fears about another person turn out to true? What if we have gotten ourselves into a relationship with someone abusive, controlling, dangerous, maybe even…..a serial killer?

Women especially have such thoughts, I have known several women who have told me exactly that. And what if both people are women, and one of them is a serial killer? That is the set up for Women Who Kill a terrific first feature written by, directed and starring Ingrid Jungermann who produced F to 7th and The Slope for television. I’m not familiar with those shows but for a first feature, which she also stars in Women Who Kill is confident, assured and, as any good thriller should be, tense, edgy, creepy and, at times, very funny.

In a simple set up Morgan (Jungermann) and her ex girlfriend Jean (Ann Carr) are more than a bit obsessed with, what else, Women Who Kill. They produce a podcast devoted to female serial murderers and even visit one in prison, Lila (Annette O’Toole). Jean and Morgan seem to get along very well, even though they are no longer a couple. Morgan works in a food co op, has the task of training new workers at the co op and thus meets Simone (Shelia Vand) a vulnerable looking woman with a Betty Page hair style. Morgan and Simone hit it off right away, but something is not quite right. Morgan being an expert on serial killers comes to suspect Simone might be The Clipper, a woman who killed several times and had the trademark of clipping the fingernails of her victims and keeping them. And she was never caught. And Simone is full of secrets, while Morgan wants to know everything. Simone has a special box, locked, which seems to be a reference to Barton Fink directed by the Coen Brothers. A couple of scenes seem to be inspired by the style of David Lynch. The theme of falling in love with someone who not only is all wrong but may be a dangerous killer echoes all the way back to Hitchcock’s Suspicion, and many, many thrillers that came after.

But Women Who Murder is its own special project. I have not seen a lot of gay movies, of films made by lesbians and based on the life style I particularly admire Marine Story, which is a subject for another review entirely. It’s interesting indeed to see a film where all the major characters are not only women but are committed to, and happy with, the lesbian life style. There are some men in Women Who Kill but they stay on the edges, where they belong. I believe Jungermann is playing with audience expectations by casting herself as the possible victim. Morgan is one of the most mannish looking women I have ever seen, she looks more mannish than a lot of men. Simone appears vulnerable and frail in all their scenes together, Simone is at least a foot shorter than Morgan. Yet it’s Morgan who feels threatened and starts to panic when other people say she’s crazy for thinking Simone might be out to add her nails to her collection.

And I try never, ever to give out spoilers, but Women Who Kill does not end as you might think it would. I truly did not see the ending coming and that is one of the highest compliments I can say about any movie. Some of the acting is a bit amateurish, as you would expect in a low budget independent movie. But all the major characters are spot on, a stand out is Shannon Patricia O’Neill as Alex played as what many people think of when they hear the word lesbian, a heavy set mannish woman with a weird haircut, wearing men’s clothes and calling other women “dude!” She steals every scene she’s in and needs to have her own movie. We even get a women’s’ softball game, which I have been assured by lesbian friends of mine really is a major lesbian obsession. Women Who Kill is a terrific piece of work, it deserves a wider audience than just members of the LGBT community.

BURLESQUE: HEART OF THE GLITTER TRIBE – Review

“You like naked ladies huh? “ So I was asked by Hiroko Politz, a good friend of mine and a fellow SGI member and Buddhist. I was telling Hiroko about my recreational time at Paradise Lakes and Lake Como, two of the many nudist resorts north of the Tampa, Florida area. This was in the 1990s and yes, one of the reasons I moved to Florida was to visit these nudist resorts. Because, to be truthful, yes I do like naked ladies. Ladies in general are my favorite people, undressed even more so.

Raised in a church going family I had a Mother was insisted the human body was never to be seen. Accordingly she burned a good many magazines featuring naked ladies. Not just mine but my three older brothers before me. Likely a good many of those magazines might be worth money now.

Being a typical American male, naturally this just made me want to see ladies naked all the more. Nudist resort women were always my favorite just because of circumstance; nudists are people who choose to be naked. For health, recreation, relaxation, what have you. They are not paid to get undressed, they are not talked into it, they do not have their own agenda such as a Playboy Playmate might have to advance their own career.

After nudist resort women I found I had a fascination with Burlesque performers, strippers (ecdysiasts is the more fancy term) who undressed to music in front of a room full of drunks. Classic strippers back in the day had their own routines, to quote from Gypsy, the musical based on the life of Gypsy Rose Lee, one of the most famous and popular of old time strippers “You gotta have a gimmick.” Lili St.
Cyr, Blaze Starr, Jenny Lee and Virginia Belle, and many others, had their own style, props and costumes and made up their own dance routines in order to fleece the “suckers” out of their money.

Not long ago I reviewed a documentary on the golden age of burlesque Behind the Burly Que. Technically that kind of burlesque show has disappeared. Exotic dancers now, who pole dance and collect huge tips from the drunks who congregate in topless bars don’t really put on a show. Not like the old days of classic burlesque.

Which brings me to a wonderful new documentary BURLESQUE: HEART OF THE GLITTER TRIBE. Apparently Burlesque is still alive and well, in the Portland, Oregon area anyway. But it is somewhat different from the old days. The Glitter Tribe is a troupe of dancers, women and men, who put on full blown shows in the Pacific Northwest. We meet several of them here, we are given their stage names, there is not one “real name” provided.

First up is Zora Von Panonine who apparently lives with her Mother, makes her own costumes (they all seem to make their own costumes and props) and tells us that she spends so much time on costumes, rehearsing and doing burlesque that she has virtually no time for anything else. She painstakingly sews, glues rhinestones and attaches feathers to her various costumes.

There are also males dancers, most prominent Isaiah Esquire, who admits to having been severely abused as a child and always being a misfit in school. In fact if there is one theme running through all the on camera interviews it is the feelings among all the dancers of never having been accepted anywhere, until they found burlesque.

Isaiah and all the other male dancers are quite proudly gay, and gender bending seems to be a natural part of these modern day burlesque shows. The audience appears to be both male and female, straight and gay. Which is not really much different from classic burlesque. Even back in the straight laced 1940s and 50s burlesque shows featured female impersonators.

The male dancers admit, paraphrasing Monty Python, a female nude is sexy, a male nude is comedic. So saying one of the male dancers during his routine reveals a bird mask in his groin area. Other male routines are equally funny.

A major difference from old time burlesque, there are no baggy pants comics in between dancers. In modern burlesque, at least for the Glitter Tribe, the dancers ARE the comics. Many of the routines are meant to be funny, and they are.

Which brings me to the breakout star of Glitter Tribe, a feisty young lady who calls herself Babs Jamboree. She works as a tree trimmer during the day (all the dancers have day jobs, every one of them admits they do not make enough money to live on dancing, what money they do make goes to costumes, make up and props) and says she only wears make up while dancing. I don’t know Babs’ real name but she deserves to become a star, not just in burlesque, this young lady needs to be cast in a Hollywood movie or tv show.

She tells us about her creative process whereby she came up with a burrito costume, because she likes to eat burritos. And, trust me on this, it looks as ridiculous as it sounds. In fact food is a major theme for Babs’ costumes and routines. Food and being ridiculous. Her burrito strip really has to be seen to be believed.

Babs also came up with a “reverse mermaid” costume, fish on top, and woman on the bottom. And what happens to fish? They become fish sticks of course! Complete with sizzling grease sound effects and a huge paper bag to carry dinner home in. Babs has her own website and Facebook page, I highly recommend looking her up on line.

I am quite sincere now, Babs is so energetic, so funny, so wise and intelligent, so charismatic I started hoping the entire documentary would be about her alone. Every time she is on camera she owns the whole project. I would consider a trip to the Portland, Oregon area just to see her perform…no kidding.

Angelique Devil is another star dancer, her dance moves are some of the best I have ever seen and the documentary spends a lot of time with her at her cabin in the woods while she tells pretty much the same story as the other dancers. Never fit in anywhere, hard to keep a relationship going, not in it for the money but for the satisfaction of “putting on a good show!”

Another stand out performer is Ivizia Dakini who dances with fire. She admits she is not in control of the fire, she works with it. She admits to having been burned a few times, but not “too much.” Ivizia also has a “Jesus puppet” which is just what you would think, a ventriloquists figure made to look like the accepted image of Jesus. She is not a ventriloquist, she has simulated sex with the puppet…really.

One of the charms of Glitter Tribe is the film makers capture the excitement of “putting on a show.” I have some experience in Community Theater. I played Frankenstein’s Monster in House of Frankenstein and a drag queen in Return of the Pink Panther (and I got to sing and dance in that so I know a bit about “putting on a show.”)

The Glitter Tribes’ shows look as they were meant to be, wildly entertaining on a very low budget. Impressive lighting effects, good choice of music, a serious amount of rehearsal time, especially the choreography, and a serious commitment from all the performers, and put forth on tiny little stages, complete with homemade props and costumes makes for a hell of a show.

The Glitter Tribe is actually something more than old time burlesque for a modern audience, it is community theater, cabaret, standup comedy, performance art and karaoke all rolled into one.

And not all the routines are for comedy. When some of the dancers get serious it is quite impressive. Especially Zora, Angelique Devil and Ivizia Dakini. When these ladies are on top of their game and the lighting and music are just right, it is magic.

This is one of those documentaries I was sorry to see come to an end. When this is released on dvd or blu ray I sincerely hope there are a great many additional interview moments, especially Babs. I can’t recommend Glitter Tribe enough, you have to see this.

So yes, to answer Hiroko’s question, I do like naked ladies, a lot, especially when they are this talented and committed to an art form that could have died out years ago. Oddly enough Hiroko, a very attractive Japanese lady, was a pole dancer for a while at a St. Petersburg club called Mermaids, never saw her act though, damn it! Now she drives a long haul truck with her husband. Maybe everybody, female and male, straight and gay should give burlesque performing a try! I’m afraid I’d clear the room if I tried it now!

BURLESQUE: HEART OF THE GLITTER TRIBE opened in select theaters March 3rd and premiered on VOD / iTunes March 7th.

TRACKS (2013) – The DVD Review

Sometimes a movie is worth waiting for. If you know anything about the production of motion pictures you may know that it can take years, sometimes decades, to get a film made. One such Hollywood story was the movie Jacob’s Ladder, the script for which became legendary as having been read by almost every producer, director and actor who works in the production of movies. When it finally did get made, well, if you’ve seen it, you probably know its pretty damn good.

In the 1980s I read Robyn Davidson’s book Tracks about her crossing the Australian Outback with camels starting at Alice Springs, the largest town in the outback. The journey was almost 2000 miles and was covered by a photographer from National Geographic, at Robyn Davidson’s request.

Her book was fascinating, and at the time,( this was in the 1980s,) I thought it would make a great movie. Her story was filled with irony and very poignant memories. She went into great detail about the problems involved with rounding up camels and training them to carry your gear and supplies. The Australian Outback is a rough place and, as she was told repeatedly, not really a place for a young, single woman. She took a job as a bartender and had to scramble to find enough money for the trip.

She wrote to National Geographic offering them the rights to her story and to take photos in exchange for some funding. She would come to regret that as one of the main goals of her trek across the outback was to be alone. Davidson was disillusioned and frustrated with main stream society and, at the same time with the counter culture, and with humanity in general. She found more comfort and peace in the company of animals and decided she wanted to walk across the Outback, starting at Alice Springs, all the way to the Indian Ocean, a trip of over 1,700 miles, with camels carrying her gear and a dog, (named Diggity) for companionship.

Her book and the movie go into great detail about how hard it was to raise money for this journey. We get a lot of the “nuts and bolts” of training camels. My fiancé Radah was surprised to learn there are camels in Australia. They are not native but have been there for decades, brought in to help with settling and exploring the Outback and a great many of them got loose. The Aussies assumed they would die out, no, they flourish in the wild, go feral and can be quite dangerous if aroused.

Davidson finds a professional camel trainer and we see, possibly too much, of how a camel is neutered. Trust me guys you may not want to see this part, painful to see! Human testicles are tiny by comparison! The movie doesn’t spend a lot of time on Davidson’s preparation for the trip. If I recall in the book she said it took a couple of years to get ready.

We learn that camels are really huge, can be very dangerous and each has their own distinct personality. Davidson give names to each camel and eventually even we the viewer have no trouble telling them apart.

As you would expect she encounters obstacles all along the way. The Australian Outback is not a nice place, drawing parallels with the American Wild West even in the town of Alice Springs it looks like a hard place to live in. Every person in town gives her a hard time and tries to talk her out of her plans. National Geographic sends a photographer, Rick Smolan (Adam Driver) who immediately pisses her off by always being around, and getting in the way. He has to constantly remind her she asked for National Geographic’s help in getting the trip underway. Worse yet word gets out about her trip and tourists come from all over the world to see “the camel Lady.” Several times she actually hides to avoid these encounters. Her wish to be alone with her camels and dog are constantly thwarted. She also wanted to get to know Aboriginal people who mostly live in the outback at “missions”, Australia’s version of our Native American “reservations.” She succeeds in this and manages to find Mr. Eddy a tribal elder who helps her part of the way and offers advice on how to survive in the Outback. In a great irony she comes to depend on Rick the photographer who goes ahead of her to leave containers of water in a particularly arid part of the Outback.

Her worst heart break comes when her faithful dog Diggity eats poison meant for Outback nuisance animals. This part is also hard to watch, if you have ever loved a dog this is truly wrenching. In fact Davidson encounters opposition at every turn. Every single person she tells about her goal advises her not to even try it, even the Aborigines are aghast at her plans. Adam Driver’s character is truly dumb founded by her and constantly tries to get her to stop. She ends up having sex with him at one point and we get the idea she did that to make him stop talking. This part is also just a bit queasy, in her book and as is obvious in the movie, Robyn Davidson did not get much chance to wash regularly. I’m sure you can imagine what I’m talking about here.

It’s part of my post duty orders here at We Are Movie Geeks to shine a light on movies that get lost in the shuffle. Tracks is certainly one of those movies that got lost, if it had a theatrical release I did not hear of it. Tracks came out about the same time as another “based on a true story of someone taking a long walk,” namely Wild, 2014, with Reese Witherspoon, a good movie in its own right, (although my friend here on the website Tom Stockman did not care for it much – his review HERE.) We also had A Walk in the Woods, 2015, with Robert Redford and Nick Nolte, also based on a true story. And in 2010 there was The Way with Martin Sheen about a father walking the El camino de Santiago in Spain to honor his deceased son.

These movies in one way or another are about taking a long walk as a spiritual journey or a journey of self discovery or both. Tracks isn’t really about either of those themes. Tracks is a long meditation on what it really means to be human. Why do we do the things we do? Why does one person stay within fifty miles of where they grew up and another travels all over the world trying to visit every country on Earth? Is either way of living better? We all have choices we make and who is to say what is a better way to live? Just as an example I have never been attracted to or tried gambling very much, many people become addicted to gambling and have to enter rehab to stop placing bets. Gambling is one of those things that I just don’t get. Does that make me any better or more intelligent than someone who likes to play poker every Saturday night? Doubtful. So if we don’t “get” why Robyn Davidson took that long walk with her camels does that make her wrong or crazy for doing it? As Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay famously said, when asked why they climbed Mt. Everest “because it’s there!” She rounded up her camels, took a long walk and that’s all we really need or want to know.

After losing her beloved dog and being bone weary from her journey she actually is ready to give it up at one point. Rick the photographer, of all people, talks her into continuing. Sunburned, dirty and exhausted she and her camels finally reach the ocean and a certain closure to this remarkable adventure.

In one of the best making of documentaries I have ever seen we meet the real Robyn Davidson who admits even she does not know why she did it. And we realize just how great and spot on the casting of this movie is. Mia Wasikowska looks and sounds so much like the real Robyn Davison it is spooky. She is proving herself one of the best young actresses working today, her take on Davidson brings an obvious intelligence, determination and at the same time a forlorn quality to the role. This young woman is obviously very unhappy and we don’t know if her long walk across the Australian Outback will bring her any hope or comfort. Likewise Adam Driver (who is also proving himself an excellent actor with a tremendous range) not only looks like the photographer he is portraying he sounds exactly like him, their voices match! The entire movie was filmed along the same route that Davidson and her camels took. It has been years since I read her book but the movie, as clearly as I can recall follows every last detail, as written.

And finally one can’t help but compare this film to another long walk across the Outback movie, the now legendary Walkabout, which if you have not seen I would highly advise you experience this remarkable classic film as soon as possible. There are several moments that recall Walkabout, but that was yet another spiritual journey, and a clash of cultures story. Tracks is about something else altogether.

Was it worth the wait to see this remarkable film made from an incredible book? Absolutely, I’m glad it finally got made and it deserves a bigger audience. And I highly recommend reading Robyn Davidson’s book first. At one time I even had the National Geographic issue with all of photos we see being taken in the movie, if you can locate it that is also rewarding. I have to give Tracks five out of five stars, please see this movie.

Veteran’s Day Tribute: THE TEN BEST NAVY MOVIES

Veteran’s Day is November 11. While we all try to escape from the most exasperating Presidential Campaign in our history let me pay tribute to the Men and Women who have served in the military to insure we keep our electoral process and our freedoms.

Having served in the Navy four years (there he goes again!) I have a keen interest in any movie about the military, especially the sea service. I did serve during peace time so had no experience with combat but still spent most of my tour of duty at sea on an aircraft carrier, the USS AMERCA CV66. Among other jobs I ran the ship’s television station for almost two years. Movies have always been important to me and so providing a few hours of entertainment every day when we were at sea was just about the best job I could have had.

The author in his Navy days

So in no particular order here are ten of my top favorite US Navy movies and some honorable mentions.

The Sand Pebbles 1966 Directed by Robert Wise

A true epic in every sense of the word The Sand Pebbles stars Steve McQueen when his career was really starting to take off. The San Pablo (called the Sand Pebbles by her crew) is a Yangtze River gunboat, a branch of the US Navy that is long gone. Protecting American interests in China ( as Will Rogers said, how would we feel if the Chinese Navy sent gun boats up the Mississippi to look after Chinese laundries in Memphis and St. Louis?) the Sand Pebbles begins in Hong Kong in 1926. Steve McQueen is Holman, an Engineman First Class, a part that McQueen was born to play. McQueen loved machines, especially engines and he looks at home and comfortable in Navy dress whites. The Sand Pebbles covers a lot of ground, politics, social upheaval, the everyday routine of Navy personnel. Candice Bergen falls for Holman, even though she is the daughter of a Missionary and Holman tells her not to get involved with “a China Sailor.” In the opening scene Holman reports for his new duty station at Fleet Landing Hong Kong. Shore patrol tells him there is no liberty. The next thing he does is go into a bar and get himself a drink and a woman. That my friends is a true fleet sailor in anybody’s Navy!

Sink the Bismarck! 1960 Directed by Lewis Gilbert

For the United States the shock of being pulled into a World War started at Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941. For the English it began for real with the sinking of the HMS Hood by the Bismarck. England was already at war with Germany, as was most of Europe. The English had thought the Battleship Hood was unsinkable. The Germans thought the Bismarck was too. The Bismarck story is to the military what the Titanic was to ocean liner travel. The Bismarck was on its maiden voyage, in fact was still going through its sea trials. The Germans knew it was invincible. After the Hood was sunk word came from Winston Churchill himself “we must Sink the Bismarck!” and that the English Navy did, basically by surrounding it with every ship they had and blasting the son of a bitch until it sank Having lived on board a Navy vessel four years I find Sink the Bismarck one of the best Navy movies. Most movies about the Navy only show the ship from the bridge and the gun decks, or flight decks if it’s a carrier based movie. In Sink the Bismarck we see berthing areas, mess decks, even heads on the German and British ships. The sea battles are done with miniatures but they are very well handled. And it even inspired a hit song by Johnny Horton, which if you ever listen to it you will not get it out of your head for days!

Billy Budd 1962 Directed by Peter Ustinov

There are many great films about the Navy in the days of sailing ships: Master and Commander, Far Side of the World to name one, Damn the Defiant for another. Billy Budd is a true masterpiece, impeccably directed by Peter Ustinov, who also plays the ship‘s Captain and beautifully filmed in black and white Cinemascope (a combination rarely seen these days) Billy Budd is based on a short novel by Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick. Billy leaves a merchant ship in mid ocean to take on duties on a Royal Navy vessel, even though his ship mates warn him against such a move. He is liked by everyone on board, except the ships Quartermaster, Claggart played as one cold hearted son of a bitch by Robert Ryan. Billy tries to make friends with the man, naively thinking that everyone is a basically a good person. He accidently kills the man in a fight. The Captain and his officers feel compelled to follow Naval law to the letter, put Billy and trial and against the wishes of the entire crew hang the poor lad. Melville knew how to tell a story and Billy Budd was given first class treatment by Ustinov and his entire crew. It’s a shame he did not get a chance to direct more often. And the credits are curious indeed, every single actor who has a speaking part speaks his character name during the credits, when each actor’s name appears on screen. I have never seen this done in any other movie.

On the Town 1949 Directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly

Three fleet Sailors (Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munchin) have one days liberty in New York, and somehow everything goes both wrong and right. They manage to do every single thing a sailor might like to do on liberty in a city like New York. One of a series of MGM musicals made by the legendary Arthur Freed unit On the Town first is a delight due to being filmed almost entirely on location in New York City. It is a beautiful snapshot, in Technicolor, of a New York that is long gone. Based on a hit Broadway show the music and dances are terrific. And the ladies the sailors hook up with are dazzling, Ann Miller and Vera Ellen more than keep up with the men in dancing, Betty Garrett is woman taxi driver who has to seduce Sinatra into her arms as he is more interested in going to museums (an in joke if ever there was!) And the ladies are one reason On The Town is one of my favorite musicals and Navy movies. Here is a movie from Hollywood’s Golden age singing the praises of one night stands. There is not one trace of romance anywhere in the movie. The ladies know they are not going to see these guys again and they are ok with that. None of the sailor’s promises to write or to ever see these women again, and everybody, including the NYPD is happy at the end credits. Oh for the good old days!

6.Enemy Below 1957 Directed by Dick Powell

Submarines are a special kind of vessel, demanding a special kind of crew. I doubt that I could have served on a sub, and I doubt I could have made the cut for submarine duty. The crew lives in such close quarters you have to learn to get along or you’ll be at each other’s throats. Living on board an aircraft carrier, a much bigger vessel with many more places to hide, drove me crazy. To this day I do not like to be crowded, small spaces do not bother me, but if people are literally breathing down my neck I get very antsy. Which leads me to Enemy Below the story of a German U Boat and a US Navy destroyer escort in a deadly game of cat and mouse in the South Atlantic. On the German boat the skipper is Curd Jurgens, playing the kind of part he owned in the 1950s and 1960s, the loyal German officer who never did like the Nazis, is sick and tired of the war and just wants to go home, hopefully still alive. His executive officer is Theodore Bikel, who may be the only actor to play submarine officers in the German and Russian Navies (he was the skipper of the submarine in The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming!) On the American side the Captain is none other than Robert Mitchum, he has help from both Al (David) Hedison and Frank Albertson. There is not that much action until the very end but the tension level is worthy of Alfred Hitchcock. Dick Powell was a top notch director and one hell of an actor. One of the best submarine movies ever made.

30 Seconds Over Tokyo 1944 Directed by Mervyn Leroy

In the days after Pearl Harbor America was in deep shock and extreme paranoia, not knowing when or where the Japanese might attack again. Our brand new enemies were gaining ground all over the Pacific rim. The Japanese were convinced we could never touch their home islands, much less actually win the war. President Roosevelt insisted the military come up with some way we could hit the Japanese, and he didn’t care how it would be done. The Army Air Force and the Navy came up with what was then, and now, an insane idea. Fly heavily armed bombers, big ones, off the deck of aircraft carriers. My brother Philip is even more of a military historian than I am and told me once this was his favorite WWII movie. As he put it, the pilots who flew those bombers “had balls made out of titanium steel!” Not only were bombers never designed to fly off a carrier, carriers were not designed for that big of an aircraft. Plus the planes carried a heavy payload, plus it was done in rough seas and heavy rain. The actual Doolittle raid did not do that much damage, some of the pilots were captured and tortured by the Japanese, others made it to China and were rescued by the Chinese Nationalist or Communist troops. But the damage to Japanese morale was incalculable.

The Last Detail 1973 Directed by Hal Ashby

One of the movies that put Jack Nicholson on the map as a major acting talent The Last Detail is probably my favorite of any movie dealing with the US Navy. Nicholson and Otis Young are career men, first Class Petty Officers waiting for their orders in the Norfolk, Virginia Naval base transient barracks (where I spent a few days when I was mustered out of active duty in September 1979.) They are assigned what the service calls “chaser duty” they are tasked with escorting a loser of a sailor (Randy Quaid) to the Portsmouth, New Hampshire Naval Prison. The movie was filmed in sequence beginning with the Norfolk Base (and a brief glimpse of what was called “The Strip” right outside Gate One, a string of bars, massage parlors and other dens of iniquity, the strip was bought up by the Navy and torn down right before I arrived at my duty station). Traveling by bus and train up the Eastern Seaboard Buddusky (Nicholson) decides to “show the kid a good time” which includes getting him drunk, getting him laid with a hooker (Carol Kane) and getting into a fist fight with Marines in the NYC Port Authority bus terminal bathroom. There is much in The Last Detail that any former fleet sailor will recognize. Clifton James as the Master Chief Master at Arms asking Quaid “do you know why these Petty Officers have been tasked with escorting you to the Portsmouth New Hampshire Naval Prison? Because they’re mean bastards when they want to be and they always want to be and they are not about to take any shit from a pussy like you!” But the crowning moment, the most pure Jack Nicholson moment in his resume, in a bar in Washington DC Buddusky is told by the bartender he will not serve Quaid as he is underage, “the law says I have to serve him” meaning Otis Young who is black. Highly offended Buddusky gets real hot, real quick. The bar tender threatens to call Shore Patrol (Buddusky having put away his Shore Patrol arm band and .45 automatic.) Out comes the .45, slammed down on the bar with the exclamation “God Damn It, I AM the mother fucking shore patrol mother fucker! I am the mother fucking shore patrol!” This may have been the first time a white actor actually said “mother fucker” in a Hollywood movie. Based on a novel by Darryl Ponicson, which is much different than the movie, The Last Detail is incredibly accurate as to what the Navy was like in the 1970s, I know, I was there.

Torpedo Bay 1963 Directed by Charles Frend and Bruno Vailati

A variation on Enemy Below and an Italian English co production Torpedo Bay tells a “based on a true story” of an English minesweeper and an Italian Submarine engaging in the area of Gibraltar. Both ships pull into a the neutral port of Tangiers where the Italian and English find they have a lot in common, including bar room brawling, in which the Italians actually side with their English counterparts against the locals . All thrown into the same cells the English and Italians continuing their bonding and find it hard to get back to the war once both ships are back at sea. Pretty much a programmer Torpedo Bay is worth seeing for James Mason’s portrayal of the English Captain. This is yet another Naval officer whose heart really isn’t in killing the opposition, and really who wants to do that? If you get to know your enemy you might not want to kill him.

Follow the Fleet 1936 Directed by Mark Sandrich

I have to say that probably my favorite series of franchise movies, outside the Universal and Hammer series of monster movies, would have to be the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers series of musicals from RKO in the 1930s. Elegant, glitzy, unreal, fantastic in sets and costumes these films bear no relation to the real world what so ever. Top Hat for instance gives us a Venice that looks more like an indoor amusement park. Flyin’ Down to Rio presents a song and dance from the wings of airplanes. Astaire was always in top hat and tails, Rogers in the most outrageous ball gowns (as was pointed out by someone wiser than me, she did everything he did only backwards and in high heels!) Follow the Fleet was one of their movies that actually tried to ground them in a real world story. Astaire is a fleet sailor, his ship is home ported in San Francisco, his Petty Officer is none other than Randolph Scott. He used to be a dancer, with Sherry Martin (Ginger Rogers) and their reunion is heart breaking. Rogers falls apart completely at seeing someone she really cared for and never thought she would see again. Of course they dance, of course there are misunderstandings, between them and Randolph Scott and Harriett Nelson (yes, THAT Harriett Nelson, Mrs. Ozzie Nelson!) and of course it all works out in the end. But Follow the Fleet also presents us with a song and dance number built around…..suicide. Face the Music and Dance, one of the best songs they ever danced to, is all about two people who are on the verge of giving it all up, throwing in the towel, killing themselves. Who but Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers could have gotten away with that? Did any of the suits and ties at RKO object to that number? Also precious is a dance number on the ship while out at sea. Astaire is giving dance lessons to his ship mates (on a battle ship no less) dozens of sailors ball room dancing with each other, then the Marines show up! And look fast for Betty Grable and Lucille Ball.

Das Boot 1981 Directed by Wolfgang Peterson

For sheer unrelenting realism, especially about life on board a submarine Das Boot is the last word. Made for German television and edited for a theatrical release Das boot is a grueling, riveting experience. Peterson put his actors through hell, the main set was on gimbals and could rock back and forth, up and down, the actors were drenched in sea water and breathed diesel fumes every day. Das Boot is another submarine movie that deals with the problem of getting past Gibraltar, a British port , when you are at war with Britain. At one point we assume the sub is doomed, they are at the bottom and engines are dead. Somehow they get moving again, but this being a German movie we know these guys are doomed. Das Boot makes no comments about politics or morality. I understand that German U boat crews had very few Nazi true believers on board, they were loyal Germans who simply did as they were ordered and tried to survive, what any soldier or fleet sailor or airman tries to do, in anybody’s military. Das Boot is a masterpiece, but this is not light entertainment, it is the Navy’s version of Saving Private Ryan, grim stuff.

I have high hopes for the upcoming release of the USS INDIANAPOLIS Men of Courage, although I question the wisdom of casting Nicholas Cage as the Commanding Officer, maybe it will be ok.

I have to do some honorable mentions:

The Fighting Lady 1944 is a great documentary about life aboard a WWII aircraft carrier, and in color!

Men of the Fighting Lady 1955 concerns carrier combat during the Korean War.

Run Silent, Run Deep 1958 another first class submarine movie with the highest level of testosterone in movie history, Clark Gable arguing with Burt Lancaster for 90 minutes? Let me find some place to hide!

Midway 1976 A historians movie more than entertainment, Midway gives a step by step accounting of how the Pacific war turned around in just 15 minutes. Originally presented in Sensurround Midway makes use of lots of archival footage.

Tora, Tora, Tora! 1970 Another film from a former enemies viewpoint Tora is about the best movie that will ever be made about the attack on Pearl Harbor (there, I just mentioned the other one!) We get to see the inside of Japanese air craft carriers down to the most minute detail, I especially love how the flight deck crews were uniformed. And we get to hear Admiral Yamamoto’s famous statement about “awakening a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve!”

Destination Tokyo 1943 Another submarine movie and more tense dramatics at crush depth.

They Were Expendable 1945 John ford weighed the cost war with a movie about the PT Boats and the incredible cost in lives it took to use them. They Were Expendable had the balls to present one character after another, that we come to like and appreciate, and then have them killed until almost none of the original cast remains. Few war movies have that kind of courage.

PT 109 1963 The (mostly) true story of John Kennedy’s war time service as skipper of a PT boat.

South Pacific 1958 A super wide screen Technicolor musical involving the Navy in the South Pacific (naturally) filled with great songs, but for Navy men “We Ain’t got Dames” has to be the highlight!

The Caine Mutiny 1954 I had shipmates on board the America reciting dialog from this movie, without them even seeing it! “Who took those strawberries?” and “I proved with geometric logic that someone took those strawberries!”

Men of Honor 2000 The true story of Carl Brashear the first black Master Diver in the US Navy and the obstacles he had to overcome, including losing a leg, to make Master Chief as well. Brashear was still on active duty when I was on board the AMERICA.

And I suppose I should mention Top Gun 1986, there I just did!

Onionhead 1958 Leave it to a movie about the Coast Guard to have some of the best details about life onboard a ship. Made as a follow up to the hit movie No Time for Sergeants this is one of Andy Griffith’s best, as well as Walter Matthau “Onionhead, you gotta make cinnamon rolls!”

And speaking of the Coast Guard Finest Hours 2016 is probably the best movie ever made about the incredible risks they take. We used to make fun of the Coast Guard in Norfolk, Uncle Sam’s Floating Boy Scouts or Uncle Sugar’s Canoe Club but the reality is, “when the Navy comes in the Coast Guard goes out!” Search and rescue in foul weather and drug interdiction on the high seas are not child’s play.

And finally, a dream project. I recently had a long talk with a woman veteran, 25 years in the Air Force and retired as a Major. Among many other things we discussed, I told her about the talk when I was on active duty as to when and if women should be put on Navy ships, especially combat ships. Most people higher on the food chain said it would be a distraction, in many ways. My feeling at the time, as I told this particular veteran, give women their own ship. Staff a Destroyer, a Submarine or maybe even a carrier with all females and stand back and let them do the job. This lady gasped in surprise and asked me if I had written a screenplay with that idea and submitted it to Hollywood? No, but that is an idea.

So, in a what if situation, my idea of a dream cast for such a film? Start with Helen Mirren as the Secretary of Defense, Demi Moore as an Admiral, Cate Blanchett as the Captain, Scarlett Johansson as the Executive Officer, Gal Gadot as a Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant, Helen Hunt as a Master Chief, Tilda Swinton as a LTJG, Emily Blunt as a LTCD, Reese Witherspoon as another Master Chief (Boatswain’s Mate, with an anchor tattooed on her forearm, and smoking cigars!) Quite frankly done properly such a film could have speaking parts for every working actress in Hollywood and give a break to a lot of young actresses to play the crew. I know I’d pay money to see Jennifer Lawrence, Rihanna, Kate Beckinsale and Mia Wasikowska fly F14s on and off a flight deck! Or Sofia Vergara work on a helicopter engine.

And with that I’ll ship out for parts and ports unknown. I will be at the VA Cemetery on the 11^th, paying my respects. If you meet any veterans, please thank them, and maybe watch a movie or two.

JACK THE BEAR – The DVD Review

As part of my post duty orders here at We Are Movie Geeks it is my privilege to shine a light on movies that never quite found an audience, that may have slipped through the cracks. Movies that got very little or n o theatrical release, not much publicity or went straight to video (very common these days.) Such a movie is JACK THE BEAR . I can recall being vaguely aware of the movie when it was released in 1993, it did play in theaters but I don’t recall much advertising devoted to it. In that time frame I either was too busy or too broke to take in a movie, usually both.

In JACK THE BEAR we have sort of a male version of Mermaids. An all male family with an eccentric Father John Leary (Danny DeVito ) who keeps moving his family around the country. John makes his living as an entertainer, usually a circus or birthday clown. He has found a niche, sort of, being a late night horror show host, in Oakland, California, in the early 1970s. John’s wife died in a car accident, for which he blames himself, and like a lot of dysfunctional parents in movies, drinks too much. His oldest boy Jack (Robert J Steinmiller Jr) has learned to do a lot of the parenting for his young brother Dylan (Miko Hughes) due to John’s being absent either due to work or drinking. In their new neighborhood is a handicapped man Norman Strick (Gary Sinise) who lives with his parents, whom nobody in the neighborhood ever sees. We expect Norman to be presented sympathetically due to the kids in the area being afraid of him.No, he turns out not only to be prejudiced, but a straight up Nazi. This leads to confrontations with John and his kidnapping of Dylan leading to the Leary family pretty much imploding. The whole Nazi thing doesn’t really work. Based on a novel by Dan McCall (which I have not read) it may have worked better on the page than on the screen. However, there is much to enjoy here. DeVito is excellent (I have never seen him do less) he is always sincere and believable as a single parent carrying a heavy load of guilt but still being a very fun loving, and loving, Father to his two boys. His character’s work as a horror show is also believable. But here is where the movie actually strains credibility. Very few horror show hosts ever made a living on just that particular gig. Most local tv horror show hosts, in the 1970s and now, had other sources of income. I have interviewed both Jack Murdock who hosted Zone 2 in the St. Louis, Missouri market, playing a host named Cronos and the legendary Dr. Paul Bearer (Dick Benedict) who hosted horror movies in the Tampa, Florida market for years. Both of them told me exactly the same thing. Making commercials and doing supermarket openings and hosting beauty pageants was what paid the bills.

But I digress…not only is DeVito very good, the two kids, in fact all the child actors are good. Steinmiller is excellent at portraying the frustrations of not only entering the teen age years but also carrying a heavy load trying to deal with a Father who isn’t always there for him. And Miko Hughes is also excellent, seeming more like a real little kid than a child actor. He steals every scene he’s in and is heartbreaking on his first day at a new school, wanting both his Father (laid out drunk) and his Mother (deceased) and having to make do with his big brother trying his best to take care of him. This is where Jack The Bear really hits the right mark. A family just struggling to stay together after the death of a parent, my friends, I have been there and done that, I know what that is like.JACK THE BEAR really should be beloved in the hearts of monster kids everywhere. In John’s hosting duties we see clips from Them, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and other films. And, unlike in, say a Joe Dante movie, they are not just there as reference points. This is part of John Leary’s job. And yet I have never seen Jack the Bear mentioned in Scary Monsters, Rue Morgue, Famous Monsters or any other magazine aimed at the monster kid crowd. As a member in good standing of that crowd I loved this movie. We see a good bit of the nuts and bolts of putting together a local, apparently live, television program in the early 1970s. And the period details are spot on. The cars, clothes, haircuts, the AM radios, black and white tvs, lp records and the players, are all accurate. Some of the cars are even banged up, rusted and burning oil. Much like a lot of cars did in the 1970s, including some of them I drove. In fact the movie and looks and feels like a 1970s movie, a neat trick if you can pull it off. There is even a young Reese Witherspoon, having just been in Man in the Moon, playing Jack Leary’s first crush at his new school. Their “date”, having dinner made by Jack’s Father is a wonderful sequence, showing us how DeVito’s John Leary really is a very good man, despite his faults. And we fully expect John to start a relationship with his assistant Patty (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and that doesn’t happen. It’s always nice to see Julia Louis-Dreyfus although the movie doesn’t give her much to do.

The dinner scene is wonderful but even better is a long sequence set on Halloween night. Accurately recreating a time when Halloween was still owned by kids Jack the Bear, by rights, should be a Halloween perennial, much like the different versions of A Christmas Carol and other movies celebrating Christmas.

As I said, to my knowledge this movie never seemed to find an audience. I am glad I finally got a chance to see it. Fox’s DVD is presented full frame which is fine. The only extras are three different versions of the theatrical trailer. I hope it brightens up your Halloween season. I give it three out of four stars

Top Ten Tuesday – Top Ten White People Doing The Right Thing

I think everyone in this country should be aware by now that our race relations are at an all time low. It seems every time we hear the news another black citizen has been shot by the police or police have been shot by someone angry about these shootings. It cannot continue. We as a nation cannot keep going down this road.

I have always sympathized with Black Americans. In fact as a Scot and Irish American I have always sympathized with anyone who ever got pushed around, starting with Native Americans, Asians, Jewish immigrants, women of any ethnic group, Hispanics from any country.

I also sympathize with the people who are tasked with law enforcement. It’s a tough job. I had some training in that area. A couple of years ago I was hired by a Security company and was trained in unarmed, and armed, uniformed security. I surprised myself by shooting very well at the gun range to get qualified to carry a firearm. But it was not a good fit. That gun hung heavy on my belt. As soon as I started wearing that security guard uniform I started getting feedback, negative feedback. The uniforms I was issued could never have been mistaken for real law enforcement. But I got negative feedback anyway, lots of it.

So I have always been emotionally effected anytime I see a white person doing the right thing in a movie towards a person of another ethnic group, including Black Americans, Native Americans or any other group.

Here are ten of my favorite such moments, although Hollywood has included many such scenes in many movies.

Red Tails 2012

The true story of the Tuskegee Airmen, black pilots with college degrees (there weren’t many in the 1930s and 40s) who trained to be fighter pilots during World War II. The USA needed all the help they could get in World War II, and the Government, and the military, reluctantly, very reluctantly allowed Black Americans to train in all the services, including being pilots in what was then called the Army Air Corp and later the Army Air Force. These pilots, it has been said, fought a war on two fronts, first against the Germans, on whom they unleashed all hell due to their frustration at living in a segregated country, and also against the white Military establishment who was, mostly, convinced that Blacks could not fly and shoot a weapon at the same time. The bigots were proved wrong, the Tuskegee Airmen, also known as Red Tails due to the distinctive markings on their planes, had the best record of any fighter group in the War. They never lost a bomber, which was their task as a fighter squadron, to protect bombers on their runs into Germany, their record was impeccable and they were highly decorated.

In one heart wrenching scene they are approached in the street by a white pilot, who calls them “colored boys” the Red Tails expect a fight, instead the white pilot renders them some respect, including a hand salute and invites them into a bar for a drink. The tension level rises in that bar but it is left unspoken that the Red Tails are there at a white officer’s invitation. Oh so briefly the color line is forgotten as white and black pilots, fighting the same war, have a drink and discuss their role in the biggest combat event in history.

The Tuskegee Airmen correct the use of the term “colored boys” and state that they prefer Negro. One of the black pilots advises the whites that white people “turn red when they are angry, green with envy or yellow when cowardly and have the nerve to call us colored people!”

The Tuskegee Airmen were so good at their task the bomber pilots asked for them to cover their back on bombing runs, the highest compliment I can think of.

My Favorite Year 1982

In one of the best comedies from the 1980s, or any decade really, the early days of television are recreated on a show that appears very much like the Sid Caesar show. A young man named Benji (Mark Linn Baker) a writer and would be comedian and hopeless movie geek (based on Mel Brooks the producer of the movie) is tasked with taking care of the week’s guest star Allan Swann, a washed up alcoholic Movie Star baring more than a passing resemblance to Errol Flynn as well as the actor portraying him, the legendary Peter O’Toole. (Although O’Toole denied he was anything like Alan Swann, yeah, right!)

At one point Swann accompanies Benji to the apartment he shares with his Mother, Lainie Kazan and her second husband, a washed up Filipino boxer named Rookie Carroca,(Ramon Sisson) a character whom no one seems to respect. Until the moment when the Big Shot Movie Star comes swaggering into the little apartment and focuses all his attention on “a lethal bantam weight named Rookie Carroca”! He even pronounces his name right, the only time it happens, it brings tears to my eyes every time! He even recalls a night he saw Rookie take Sailor Donovan down in San Diego in three rounds. No, “in two,” Rookie corrects him.

Swann renders that over the hill Filipino boxer some respect, something he doesn’t seem to have received since the night “Manny Serpa turned him into guava jelly at Madison Square Garden.”

Trust me on this, Filipinos are good people, I served with a good many of them during my time in the Navy (there he goes again!) And we don’t see many of them in our movies, and that is a shame, but what a great moment!

42 2013

The true story of Jackie Robinson, the first black baseball player to get into the major leagues, this story is all about trying to get past skin color. Robinson played himself in The Jackie Robinson Story in 1950, a pretty good version on its own. In 42 Chadwick Boseman gives an incredible performance as a man who was tasked with “not fighting back” when every vile racial insult was hurled at him daily, probably hourly.

Many of his own team mates did not want him there, at first. It is a powerful moment when Pee Wee Reese (Lucas Black) puts his arm around Robinson in front of a stadium full of Redneck Crackers shouting every kind of abuse. Captured in a famous photograph it is a great moment.

Robinson is so good at the game that eventually the other players come around to respecting the rookie who broke the color line.

But much more heartbreaking is the moment when Robinson and his wife (Nicole Beharie) are approached on the street by one Redneck looking character (William Flaman) who ominously advises that he “has something to say” to Robinson. He then states that he “is pulling for you. You got the goods and any man with the goods deserves a fair chance. And a lot of people around here feel the same way I do!”

He even tips his cap to Mrs. Robinson as he walks away leaving Robinson and his wife looking as if they cannot believe what just happened, for that matter neither can we!

The Magnificent Seven 1960

An American remake of a Kurosawa masterpiece (Seven Samurai) The Magnificent Seven is pretty damn good in its own right. A once in a lifetime cast including Yul Brynner, James Coburn, Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson team up into a group of seven gunfighters who stand up for a village of Mexican campesinos who get raided periodically by a group of bandits led of Eli Wallach.

The Magnificent Seven is one of the great western’s in movie history, still a hell of a good show and has one of the best, most epic soundtracks ever, by the great Elmer Bernstein. All the actors are good, you expect good work from Brynner and McQueen, Charles Bronson and James Coburn but this may be Robert Vaughn’s best performance ever. But it’s Brad Dexter, of all people, who steals the whole show, wraps it around his gun hand and sticks it in his hip pocket in his death scene.

As good a Western adventure as The Magnificent Seven is it’s the idea of a small group of Anglo Americans standing up for a village of dirt poor Mexicans that makes it really something special. These guys are Magnificent and they, and the movie, treat the Mexicans with utmost respect.

What’s Love Got To Do With It? 1993

The crown jewel in movies that feature Nicheren Buddhism (a subject for a different Top Ten List) What’s Love Got To Do With It? tells the true story of how Tina Turner (Angela Bassett) hit rock bottom and put her life back together by chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo (try it some time, it works!)

In a key moment Tina Turner not only gets the courage and strength to fight back against Ike Turner she runs away from him the night they are set to play a gig. She runs off with just the clothes on her back and very little money to a nearby hotel. Visibly beaten she runs in and asks for the manager. One hell of a Red Neck looking character (O’NeaL Compton: Attack of the 50 foot Woman 1993, Nell, Nixon, Deep Impact ) comes to the front desk. Tina explains who she is, that she has very little money but pleads for shelter. Tina, and we the viewers, fully expect to hear this guy say something along the lines of “Get this Negro wench out of my hotel!” Instead, when Tina starts to remove her jewelry to pay for a room he says “Miss Turner, that’s not necessary, don’t worry we’ll take care of you! It would be an honor!”

He tells one of the bell hops to “get Miss Turner a room and a Doctor!” It’s been said that great acting is when you can tell what a character is thinking. Compton (who has made a career out of playing country types, sheriffs, truck drivers and what have you, can be seen clearly thinking “if I ever get my hands on Ike Turner!” You can feel the rage, Compton is on screen for all of three minutes but this simple act of kindness by a white man towards a black rhythm and blues singer leaves a lasting impression. This was the turning point in Tina Turner’s life. And a great illustration of how Nicheren Buddhism can change a person’s life for the better. Check out SGI-USA on line if you want to learn more.

Invictus 2009

Invictus is a movie full of white people, living in a country famous for its official racist attitudes, pulling their heads out of their ass and doing the right thing.

Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) spent most of his life in prison in South Africa, because he did not want to live under South Africa’s miserable system of “apartheid” , which is actually pronounced “apart hate”. South Africa has a white minority, mostly Dutch, some English and Germans who kept the black majority, Native Africans, as a second class of servants and living in dire poverty.

After the end of apartheid and Black South Africans gained full citizenship Nelson Mandela became the first native Prime Minister of what had been one of the most racist countries on Earth. The first thing he did on being released from prison was to forgive his oppressors. After becoming Prime Minister his dream was a South Africa where all its citizens were on the same page.

The white minority fully expected to be either driven from the country or slaughtered, as happened in the Belgian Congo and other African countries after the end of colonialism. Did not happen, Mandela was more than aware the country could not function without the white minority, they knew the economy, the government, the bureaucracy, the new South Africa needed them.

As a means to bring all its citizens together Mandela asked the South African Rugby team to win the 1995 Rugby World cup. For South African whites Rugby is the national sport, black South Africans supported soccer, what the rest of the world calls football.

Mandela asks Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon) captain of the team to win that cup. Pienaar has his doubts, his team has one black player, the only player black South Africans know and recognize.

The team visits the prison where Mandela spent most o f his life, they visit some of the black townships and view firsthand the wretched poverty.

They vow, as a team, to win that cup. Mandela’s security group enlists, reluctantly, the aid of the white security crew from the previous administration. Slowly but surely, black and white South Africans come to actually know and respect each other.

When the world cup game arrives, against New Zealand’s team, it is exhilarating to see that their team is fully integrated. Well over half the team is native Maoris. Their team does a Maori war dance before the game begins. Like Native Americans, Australian Aborigines or any other Native culture, it is a great honor to dance with the Maori.

In the stands White South African youths cheer when Mandela enters the stadium. Of course South Africa’s team wins, causing a lot of excitement for the whole country, just what Mandela had wanted. And we are excited as well, with the idea that if South Africa can make some effort to overcome its racist past, maybe we can too.

Race 2016

Another true sports story Race details the triumph of Jesse Owens (Stephan James) at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, known as the Nazi Olympics for Hitler’s faith that his Aryan youth athletes would dominate the games. Owens had the same struggles as other Black Americans in this same time period. Other athletes did not want him in the locker rooms, just getting him to the games was a problem. Even some Black Americans did not think he should go to those Olympic Games.

Improbably a German runner Carl ‘Luz’ Long (David Cross) openly befriends Owens in front of stadiums full of National Socialist true believers, Leni Riefenstahl’s documentary cameras (her documentary of these games is well worth seeing) and most wonderfully of all, in front of Uncle Adolf Hitler himself.

Owens put the lie to Nazi ideas of a “master race” and oddly enough Owens did not do so single handed. Other Black American athletes’ went to those games and some of them won medals. NPR did a nice story on that but for simplicities sake, as Hollywood often does, the movie’s focus is on Owens.

Carl Long’s insistence on treating Owens with respect and dignity back fired on him, as you would expect, at the film’s end we find out that Long was “enlisted” in the German Army and died on the Eastern Front.

Cool Runnings 1993

Another Hollywood movie about Black athletes going to the Olympics Cool Runnings is the Disney version (a VERY Disney version) of Jamaica’s unlikely goal of sending a bobsled team to the Winter Olympics in Calgary in 1988.

John Candy is a disgraced coach enlisted to try and get a bobsled team together in a country that has never seen snow. Good casting, by the way, Candy being Canadian would know quite a lot about winter sports.

Overcoming one set of obstacles after another the Jamaicans make it to Calgary, they don’t win any medals but they do manage to finish their run. Of course they are disrespected, wouldn’t you know, by the German team! Although virtually every one at those games, athletes and spectators alike, thought the Jamaicans’ presence very odd indeed.

When they manage to finish their run the German who has given them the most grief insists on shaking hands with one of the team and declaring “you did damn good Jamaica! We see you in four years, yah?”

I have worked with Jamaicans’ and have asked them about this movie, every one of them told me the same thing, virtually none of the movie is accurate about what happened, but they appreciate that the movie exists, at all! They also appreciate that Disney thought enough of the film to have its world premier in Kingston, Jamaica.

Schindler’s List 1993

The great epic of one white man doing the right thing, Oscar Schindler made a lot of money off the Nazis during WWII and at the same time saved the lives of a great many Jewish people who were in line for the gas chambers. One of many masterpieces on Steven Spielberg’s resume and filmed in immaculate black and white Schindler’s List is tough to watch, I have spent my life trying to get my head around the Holocaust, ever since I read the Trial of Adolf Eichmann when I was 12 years old.

And what a pity that there are some people who insist on denying it ever happened, despite museums full of evidence that it most assuredly did happen. When I was working as a security guard a couple of years ago I started at the St. Petersburg Holocaust museum and spent my first day touring the museum just to get the feel of the place. My museum habit has always been to read as much of the material posted at each exhibit as possible, since I had all day I read everything. There were many other saviors of lives besides Oscar Schindler. Our Holocaust museum has two walls dedicated to saviors including Raoul Wallenberg.

I would love to see a movie about Mr. Sugihara, a Japanese career diplomat assigned to the Japanese Embassy in Lithuania. A great many Jews managed to get there. Mr. Sugihara defied the Germans and his own government and wrote over 6000 visas by hand which got that many Jews out of Lithuania. His punishment? He was fired and sent home, he died peacefully in Japan in 1986. He is named Among the Righteous by the Israeli government for his actions, the only Japanese who is so honored. He deserves his own movie, as much as Oscar Schindler did.

Cookie’s Fortune 1999

Robert Altman has many masterpiece films in his career. Cookie’s Fortune was one of his last and best. A rich white woman, Jewel Mae “ Cookie” Orcutt (Patricia Neal) in a small Mississippi town commits suicide, for reasons of her own a relative(Glenn Close) wants it to look like murder. The only possible suspect is a black man, Willis Richland (Charles S Dutton). The only problem? None of the white people in town can believe he did it, not the Sheriff, not his deputies, nobody. All of the white people in town come to this man’s defense, and it’s believable! In the modern day south it’s easy to imagine such a thing happening. Not so long ago the black citizen may have gotten lynched just on a rumor of wrongdoing.

Especially fun is that Willis is, reluctantly, put into a cell, and the door is left open, local law enforcement knows he is not going anywhere. The white people in town bring him a tv, a comfy chair, homemade goodies, all very funny but also, again, it very well could happen.

I have to make several honorable mentions. Driving Miss Daisy 1989 for showing the friendship between a cranky old Jewish woman and her black driver and how they come to depend on each other. The Body Guard 1992 for presenting a romance between a white man and black woman without once mentioning race. Virtually all of John Sayles movies have white people trying to do the right thing especially Brother From Another Planet 1984 and Matewan 1987.

Monster’s Ball 2001 also deserves credit for presenting an interracial romance between two damaged people who really do need each other. Although I have talked about this movie with black friends who point out how easy it would be to fall for a black woman, who is Halle Barry! Also Green Mile 1999 for presenting a whole crew of white people trying to do the right thing for a black man condemned to “walk the green mile.” I like the movie but will always feel that a man like John Coffey, with what he is accused of, would have never went to trial in the 1930s, he would have been lynched on the spot.

And I have to mention Black Snake Moan 2006 a movie with the audacity to suggest that White people might actually learn something, especially life lessons, from Black people! Featuring an incredible performance from Samuel L Jackson (we expect no less at this point) Christina Ricci truly is amazing as about the nastiest little skank you could ever imagine, who somehow is still sympathetic and, yes, lovable. The music is great too.

In television a groundbreaking series was I Spy 1965 – 1968 which presented a duo of a black and white man functioning as a team and again, without making a big deal of race, at Bill Cosby’s request. Also Star Trek, which presented a multicultural crew of an intergalactic star ship, working in close quarters, in deep space, with no mention of race. This during the 1960s when race was very much a hot button issue.

I remember very well the civil rights era, I have always sympathized. I have told immigrants to this country my personal feelings about Black Americans, they are Americans, with all the rights of citizenship. And we are lucky to have them, for at least three major reasons. I am not a sports fan but obviously our sports teams are the best because of black athletes. American music is the best in the world, because of black musicians; I don’t want to think about a world without Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, John Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix or Niki Minaj. And the American sense of humor is both Black and Jewish. Some of the greatest comedians we have ever had come from both groups.

And they are just as good at the jobs all of us do, I have worked with Black police, administrators, machine operators, call center representatives, every job I have ever had I have worked with black people who do the job as well as anybody.

To sum up I thought we were finally getting beyond all this racial stuff that has plagued our country from the very beginning. I thought the election of Barack Obama to the Office of the President meant we were finally moving forward, no we took two steps, maybe more, back.

We are sliding down a very slippery slope. We very much need to learn to live with each other, respect each other, and yes, love each other, and I mean everybody, across the board, or we are in deep trouble. We really don’t have any other options.

FED UP – The DVD Review

I have an eating disorder. I have fought for years to try and keep my weight down. I am one of those people who have gained and lost the same 50 to 75 pounds so many times it is now very difficult to lose the weight at all. Yet I am determined to get my weight down to a healthy level and keep it there. I always thought I was doing something wrong, well obviously I have been, but I have had no help from the food industry in these United States. Along with recent documentaries about the unhealthy food we have available in our grocery stores and restaurants such as Food Inc, Super Size Me and Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead you can, and should, see Fed Up, an infuriating look at the processed foods we all have access to in our grocery stores.

Fed Up is definitely one sided, but for reasons that are obvious. Doctors, nutritionists, health care advocates and others are more than willing to talk about what’s wrong with the food industry. Those who produce the food? Not so much, very few are willing to talk on camera about what they do. In the end credits we see that Coke, Pepsi, Schwanns, McDonalds, and many other food producers refused to be interviewed on camera.

Katie Couric narrates and admits from the start that this documentary began as a short news item on NBC, but the more the journalists at the network dug into the story the more alarming it became. A featured player is First Lady Michelle Obama who caught a lot of flak for suggesting that children in school should have healthy food to eat. What are kids fed now in school? McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Burger King and lots of Coke and Pepsi. Easy to see how chronic and epidemic morbid obesity is taking over the citizens of our country. Like I said I have my own weight problem, I finally got down to just below 300 pounds, trust me, I have lost weight recently, but I need to lose a lot more. As recommended in Fed Up and in a diet plan put together by Dr. Joel Fuhrman I avoid processed foods as much as possible. I gave up drinking soda years ago, soda is one of the worst drinks you can have, no nutritional value and lots and lots of sugar. Juice is just as bad, juicing takes out every bit of nutrients you need from fruit or vegetables. You are better off eating one orange than drinking 6 gallons of orange juice.

I read Dr Fuhrman’s excellent book Eat to Live a few years ago. He is not included in this documentary but many Doctors, nutritionists, journalists other people concerned with the obesity problem in this country agree with him. The food we eat, most of the food in our grocery stores, is killing us. Obese children used to be rare, not any more. Childhood diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke and heart attacks used to be nonexistent. No longer. In Fed Up we meet several children with obesity problems, one of them actually contemplates gastric bypass surgery, something that used to be unheard of, now commonplace.

Yes I have a weight problem but I am doing everything I can to correct that, after seeing Fed Up I started reading the ingredients on any processed foods I look at in a grocery store. As pointed out in Fed Up almost all processed foods have added sugar, a lot of added sugar. Under the slightest bit of pressure from the government food companies started reducing the fat content of their products. And as we hear in Fed Up, you take the fat out and food doesn’t taste like much of anything, so they started adding sugar, a lot, an awfully lot of sugar. Seriously this documentary will make you nauseous. Sugar is addictive, sugar is as much a legal drug and as addictive as tobacco, caffeine or alcohol, and about as healthy. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good doughnut and a cup of coffee as much as anybody. But my breakfast now is several pieces of citrus fruit, oranges or grapefruit, a couple of apples and whatever else is in season. Georgia peaches are good right now. Sometimes oatmeal and not the instant kind. I take my lunch to work while my co workers almost always get take out. While they have pizza or fried chicken or Chinese takeout I have raw vegetables, broccoli, carrots, celery, lettuce, tomatoes, steamed potatoes and beans or hummus. Sounds great right? Trust me, I would love to eat fried chicken or pizza every day for lunch, but that’s how I got to be over 300 pounds to begin with.

Eating vegetables every day I feel a lot better and that much fiber fills me up. After work I have a protein smoothie with some fruit and non dairy milk. I work in a call center; have been in call center customer service for well over 15 years, so like a great many Americans I have a sedentary job that is also stressful. But in addition to trying to eat right I go to a gym, I try to go at least twice a week, and take a yoga class, I walk as much as I can. And it’s still hard to lose weight, but I consider myself lucky, I have worked with a great many people who are so obese they have trouble getting out of a chair. I have watched some co workers take as long as 10 minutes to get out of a chair to take a 15 minute break.

Florida has a lot of people who have become so obese they are now on disability and ride around in the little electric carts that have taken the place of wheel chairs. All of this and so much more is touched on in Fed Up. This is one documentary that is infuriating. Any time there is any talk in the Government about regulating the food industry, especially in terms of school lunches, the corporate flacks come out of the woodwork to whine and snivel about “the nanny state!” And oddly enough I somewhat agree, I don’t want the government telling me what to eat, but it would be nice if the food companies at least had to label their products with the percentage of sugar added. Seriously, they don’t have to put the sugar percentage on the ingredients. You’ll see how many grams of sugar a product has, not the percentage! As someone wiser than me once said “Dude, that’s messed up!” It would also be nice if the food companies did not target and market to kids that are still in school. Comparisons are made with the fight to get tobacco labeled as the killer substance that it is. Big tobacco insisted for decades that their product was actually healthy despite all evidence to the contrary. The same thing with the processed foods industry. And as Fed Up points out, the obesity epidemic bodes ill for our country. Health care costs are already extremely high, the obese among us will always have health problems that are hard and expensive to treat. And who will be our first responders? Who will staff the military, police, emergency services?

Not long ago I tried working for a funeral home, transporting the dead. I picked up several people from hospitals and medical examiners offices who weighed well over 300 pounds, not an easy task. My coworkers told me they had to pick up a person who weighed almost 500 pounds, from a mobile home. They had to have help from firefighters, ambulance personnel and police to get that person loaded.

Fed Up is one documentary that needs to be seen by every person in this country, especially if they have children. The point is made that we would be outraged if our kids had unsafe water to drink, or if the air was poisoned in schools. Why should we not be outraged that instead of school lunches that are real food prepared by professional food service workers (cue Adam Sandler’s Lunch Lady song from Saturday Night Live!) kids are served lunch by McDonalds and Pizza Hut? I give Fed Up five out of five stars. If you see any people who fit this profile at WalMart or McDonalds please don’t be quick to judge, with the food that’s available in our grocery stores this can happen to anybody! Now I’m going to have some celery and an apple, I am out of here!

Blu-ray Review FRANKENSTEIN 2015

When I was just a boy I had a paperback that included Dracula by Bram Stoker, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Lewis Stevenson in one volume. There were certain books I would reread every year, that was one. Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury every summer, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens every December and that three in one book every October. I read it so many times I knew how to parcel it out daily up until Halloween, starting the first page of Dracula on October 1st up to the last page of Jekyll And Hyde on October 30th. That reading was just to get in the mood for Halloween.

I relate this, (not to brag,) to state I know those texts very well as a result. Dracula and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are great books, no doubt, their status as classic works of literature is assured. But Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a work of pure, undiluted genius. Written by a woman at a time when women were not encouraged to be writers (or much of anything else except wives and mothers) and by a girl of 17 and then 18 (the time span it took from her thinking up the story to writing it all down) is nothing short of astonishing. Young Ms Shelley created a character with real staying power that has become part of the popular culture landscape, worldwide. If anyone in the world sees a blank faced, walking corpse, with electrodes in his neck, they know who he is.

I say all this as an introduction to what may be the most faithful adaptation of Frankenstein yet put on film. Titled simply Frankenstein and coming on the heels of Victor Frankenstein (a project I have yet to see) and I, Frankenstein (a project I could not watch all the way through and about which I have nothing good to say) Frankenstein, written and directed by Bernard Rose, the director of Candy Man And Immortal Beloved, at first glance might appear to be a low budget knock off, set in modern day to save money. No, this is a very thoughtful, game changer of a film, with fresh ideas about this beloved monster story that is very often faithful to the both the letter and the spirit of Mary Shelley’s novel.

First, yes, this is modern day Los Angeles, we have two Frankenstein’s, husband Victor (Danny Huston) and wife Elizabeth (Carrie Ann Moss) who create their creature (Xavier Samuel) with, apparently, a 3D printer,( seriously.) We hear a voice over which is the Creature, with words taken verbatim from Shelley’s novel. This Creature, much like Michael Sarrazin in Frankenstein The True Story starts out looking beautiful. Soon enough he gets real ugly, real fast.

And of course he gets rejected. Victor Frankenstein feels no remorse what so ever in deciding to destroy this creature and start again. We fully expect Elizabeth however to try and protect this creature. Not only does he have the mind of a child, just born, much like Karloff in the classic Universal series, he appears to be a special needs child. Elizabeth seems to bond with this creature, bringing out her “natural” maternal instincts. He learns only a few words but one of them is “Mama.” So it is even more shocking when, yes, Elizabeth also rejects this Creature, and we never fully learn why.

The genius of Mary Shelley’s novel, part of what gives it such depth and weight and staying power is not the trite cliché that Frankenstein “tampered in God’s domain” That’s not what he did, he tampered in woman’s domain, attempting to create life without having a woman involved, stitching together dead body parts and finding a way to reanimate them.

Victor Frankenstein (who was not a Doctor or a Count or even a Von, he was a medical student, who didn’t even graduate, seriously, read the book sometime, it’s a real eye opener!) not only created life in an “unnatural” way he refused to take responsibility for that life. In Shelley’s novel it is Victor who is the monster. Shelley’s sympathy, and ours, is with the Creature (who never does get a name.)

Frankenstein accomplishes something I thought I would never see in a Frankenstein film again. It is scary, really scary, this Creature is frightening, we fear what he might do and we fear for him. He runs amok at one point with a bone saw, some of the scenes are close to torture porn levels. This Creature is a true loose cannon. Yet we never lose sympathy for him, he clearly does not understand the world in which he finds himself, or the consequences of what he is doing. I have never seen a Frankenstein Creature so abused. He endures so much misery it put me in mind of Sonny Boy, if you have seen that bizarre cult oddity you’ll know what I mean.

All the actors are good, Carrie Ann Moss is always in good form, but Xavier Samuel is astonishing. I could not recall seeing him before, he was in Fury but I did not recognize him. His Creature is a true high wire act, he does not lose our sympathy, yet his raw physical strength and unpredictability are terrifying. He does not top Karloff, I don’t think any actor ever will, but he comes mighty damn close.

Every famous scene is recreated. There is a girl throwing things in the water, he throws her in, then thinks better of it and saves her. I couldn’t help but recall Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein “what should we throw in now?” For his trouble he is shot by the police, even though he is unarmed and not posing a threat to anyone. In fact he is shot several times, once point blank to the head. We can’t help but think of the police shootings that have been so prevalent these days.

And the fact that gun shots seem to have no effect on him recalls Son of Frankenstein “three bullets in the heart and he still lives!” We are told this Creature has the strength of 10 men, and he proves it several times.

There is a blind man who teaches the Creature how to get by and survive. Now the blind man is a black homeless blues man played by the always wonderful Tony Todd. There is an accidental killing, more in line with Lenny in Of Mice and Men. This Creature is able to pass among us because he looks like a disfigured homeless man in a hoodie sweat shirt.

Carrie Ann Moss plays the first female Frankenstein I can recall since Sara Bay in Lady Frankenstein. That Frankenstein was only interested in creating a Creature that could “satisfy her strange desires!”

It is truly shocking, horrifying really when this Elizabeth Frankenstein rejects this pitiful Creature. And so of course the Creature pays a visit to the Frankenstein house, after walking along the edge of the freeway for several miles, recalling his threat to be present on Victor’s wedding night.

He even gets to see his replacement, the new creature they are building with their 3D printer, recalling Hammer’s Revenge of Frankenstein where the new creature not only sees his old body but destroys it.

Naturally there is no happy ending. The Creature even builds a funeral pyre, mentioned in the novel but rarely seen in any movie version of Frankenstein.

Several times we get lyrical, beautiful slow motion moments that are literally the dreams of the Creature.

Frankenstein is one of those iconic stories that are remade every few years for a new generation of film goers. Each new version, each addition to the legacy is part of a patch work quilt similar to the Monster himself, different pieces sewed together, awkward, stumbling, misunderstood and unloved, but unstoppable, terrifying.

This is simply the best Frankenstein movie in years, in many ways possibly the truest in spirit to Mary Shelley. The bluray has no extra features except some previews. It is well worth seeing, four of five stars.

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