THE CONTENDER REPLAYS THE CLINTON TAPES When President Clinton was asked whether he had an extramarital affair, was the question itself proper? This is the conundrum subliminally posed in The Contender, written and directed by Rod Lurie, who has improved greatly from the misspelled and misfired Deterence (2000) by cloning the classic Advise and Consent […]
THE CONTENDER REPLAYS THE CLINTON TAPES When President Clinton was asked whether he had an extramarital affair, was the question itself proper? This is the conundrum subliminally posed in The Contender, written and directed by Rod Lurie, who has improved greatly from the misspelled and misfired Deterence (2000) by cloning the classic Advise and Consent
Political Film Review #87 Read More »
THE “WAR ON POVERTY” WORKS IN ENGLAND In Ratcatcher, Scottish director Lynne Ramsay, Jr., who also plays an acting role in the film, presents a vivid picture of the working class slums in Glasgow with a very different slant from Ken Loach’s My Name Is Joe (1999). Before World War II, sociologists used to think
Political Film Review #86 Read More »
THE “WAR ON POVERTY” WORKS IN ENGLAND In Ratcatcher, Scottish director Lynne Ramsay, Jr., who also plays an acting role in the film, presents a vivid picture of the working class slums in Glasgow with a very different slant from Ken Loach’s My Name Is Joe (1999). Before World War II, sociologists used to think
TIGERLAND EXPOSES THE ABSURD MILITARY TRAINING FOR VIETNAM American combat troops in Vietnam were not particularly revered, and there have been few war heroes aside from those who suffered as prisoners of war in the Hanoi Hilton. Although some have attributed the American defeat to various factors, it was not until the release of Tigerland,
REMEMBER THE TITANS WARNS THE SUPREME COURT NOT TO RESEGREGATE AMERICA Although the Supreme Court ruled that school segregation was unconstitutional in 1954, some 500 of the 1,500 school districts in the United States had done nothing to integrate enrollment by 1968, when the Supreme Court ruled that immediate integration was required. In 1971, Alexandria,
Remember the Titans Read More »
REMEMBER THE TITANS WARNS THE SUPREME COURT NOT TO RESEGREGATE AMERICA Although the Supreme Court ruled that school segregation was unconstitutional in 1954, some 500 of the 1,500 school districts in the United States had done nothing to integrate enrollment by 1968, when the Supreme Court ruled that immediate integration was required. In 1971, Alexandria,
Political Film Review #85 Read More »
PARIS SHORTCHANGES CHILDREN TO “SAVE” THE FRENCH ECONOMY During the 1990s, French unemployment hit 10 percent. The province of Nord-Pas-de-Calais (the same province featured in the recently released Humanité) had an unemployment rate of 33 percent, but government agencies turned a deaf ear to the social consequences, according to the fact-based story in Ça commence
It All Starts Today Read More »
PARIS SHORTCHANGES CHILDREN TO “SAVE” THE FRENCH ECONOMY During the 1990s, French unemployment hit 10 percent. The province of Nord-Pas-de-Calais (the same province featured in the recently released Humanité) had an unemployment rate of 33 percent, but government agencies turned a deaf ear to the social consequences, according to the fact-based story in Ça commence
Political Film Review #84 Read More »
WORKERS ARE DEHUMANIZED AND DISCARDED IN HUMAN RESOURCES Tension between the imperatives of business and the dispensability of workers in the current era of economic globalization is featured in Human Resources, a French film (Ressources humaines) directed by Laurent Cantet. Frank (played by Jalil Lespert), a business school student in Paris, returns home for the