THE POST CELEBRATES MORE THAN FREEDOM OF THE PRESS When The Post begins, Daniel Ellsberg (played by Matthew Rhys) is with a unit of soldiers in Vietnam in 1966, finding out that the Viet Cong rule the country in the night. One day, while flying home on Air Force One, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (Bruce Greenwood) summons […]
Political Film Review #558 Read More »
ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD IS A BIOPIC OF GETTY AND HIS GRANDSON’S FATE J. Paul Getty (played by Christopher Plummer) was one of the richest persons in world history. All the Money in the World, directed by previous Political Film Society nominee Ridley Scott, demonstrates how he got his fortune (by making the first deal
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A REPORTER’S CAREER BEGINS IN THE PIRATES OF SOMALIA When Jay Bahadur (played by Evan Peters) wrote a term paper about the peaceful transfer of power in Somalia’s democracy, he was hoping for a career as a writer. But after being turned down by publishers on his first efforts, he unexpectedly ran into a famous journalist, Seymour Tolbin
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A REPORTER’S CAREER BEGINS IN THE PIRATES OF SOMALIA When Jay Bahadur (played by Evan Peters) wrote a term paper about the peaceful transfer of power in Somalia’s democracy, he was hoping for a career as a writer. But after being turned down by publishers on his first efforts, he unexpectedly ran into a famous journalist, Seymour Tolbin
Political Film Review #557 Read More »
MAY 1940 IS ENGLAND’S DARKEST HOUR, BUT WAS IT CHURCHILL’S FINEST? Whereas the summertime film Churchill depicts a prime minister ignored by Allied military commander Dwight Eisenhower in 1944, and Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (1981) traces the decade after he was booted from a Cabinet position, Darkest Hour focuses on the days in May 1940 before and after Churchill’s rise to
MAY 1940 IS ENGLAND’S DARKEST HOUR, BUT WAS IT CHURCHILL’S FINEST? Whereas the summertime film Churchill depicts a prime minister ignored by Allied military commander Dwight Eisenhower in 1944, and Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (1981) traces the decade after he was booted from a Cabinet position, Darkest Hour focuses on the days in May 1940 before and after Churchill’s rise to
Political Film Review #556 Read More »
ROMAN J. ISRAEL, ESQ. IS ANOTHER NOIR FILM Holidays are the time for inspirational films with positive themes, but fictional Roman J. Israel, Esq. is not one of them. Directed by Dan Gilroy, the title role is for a humble African American lawyer (played by Denzel Washington). He prepares cases for an extremely prominent civil rights lawyer to
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THE BREADWINNER EXPOSES HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS UNDER THE TALIBAN The United States has been at war with the Taliban in Afghanistan since 2001. Some want American troops to pull out right away, leaving the country to its fate. The Breadwinner, directed by Nora Twomey, gives a picture of what that would mean for the Afghan people, particularly
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LBJ DEPICTS A CRUDE IF HUMBLE PRAGMATIST Directed by crass Bronx-born Rob Reiner, who exhibits considerable braggadocio on television, with personable Texas-born Woody Harrelson starring in the title role, the biopic LBJ portrays the latter as a clever, coarse-speaking politician who rose from a member of Congress elected in the 1936 landslide for Franklin Delano Roosevelt to became
LBJ DEPICTS A CRUDE IF HUMBLE PRAGMATIST Directed by crass Bronx-born Rob Reiner, who exhibits considerable braggadocio on television, with personable Texas-born Woody Harrelson starring in the title role, the biopic LBJ portrays the latter as a clever, coarse-speaking politician who rose from a member of Congress elected in the 1936 landslide for Franklin Delano Roosevelt to became
Political Film Review #554 Read More »