AMERICAN TERRORISM IDENTIFIED IN TWO RECENT FILMS How extensive is terrorism inside the United States? The film Arlington Road, directed by Mark Pellington, poses this question through the words of Michael Faraday (played by Jeff Bridges), a widowed Professor of George Washington University, who lectures to students that most political assassinations and bombings are pinned […]
Political Film Review #48 Read More »
THE GENERAL’S DAUGHTER NOMINATED FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD The General’s Daughter, based on the novel of the same title by Christopher Bertolini which in turn is constructed from a true story, is a powerful film about discrimination against women in the military, recalling the publicity over the Tailhook incident and similar exposés. Directed by Simon
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THE GENERAL’S DAUGHTER NOMINATED FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD The General’s Daughter, based on the novel of the same title by Christopher Bertolini which in turn is constructed from a true story, is a powerful film about discrimination against women in the military, recalling the publicity over the Tailhook incident and similar exposés. Directed by Simon
Political Film Review #47 Read More »
XIU XIU NOMINATED FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD The Cultural Revolution (1967-1976) was perhaps the cruelest period of modern Chinese history. Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl, the latest portrayal of the ruthlessness of the People’s Republic of China in trampling on the individual during the Cultural Revolution, is based on Yan Geling’s novella Heavenly Bath (Tian
XIU XIU NOMINATED FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD The Cultural Revolution (1967-1976) was perhaps the cruelest period of modern Chinese history. Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl, the latest portrayal of the ruthlessness of the People’s Republic of China in trampling on the individual during the Cultural Revolution, is based on Yan Geling’s novella Heavenly Bath (Tian
Political Film Review #46 Read More »
HARD NOMINATED FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD William Friedkin’s Cruising (1980) startled filmviewers by portraying a serial killer of gay men who enjoy sadomasochistic sexual arousal, with an undercover cop who was straight. Hard, released to the general public in Los Angeles in midsummer 1999, ups the ante on Cruising by focusing on closeted gay homicide
HARD NOMINATED FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD William Friedkin’s Cruising (1980) startled filmviewers by portraying a serial killer of gay men who enjoy sadomasochistic sexual arousal, with an undercover cop who was straight. Hard, released to the general public in Los Angeles in midsummer 1999, ups the ante on Cruising by focusing on closeted gay homicide
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BASTARDS NOMINATED FOR AN AWARD AS A FILM EXPOSÉ The film Bastards reminds us that while in Vietnam for two decades, many Americans paid Vietnamese women for sex. An estimated 30,000 children were born as a result of these encounters. After the American pullout in 1975, these Amerasian offspring were ostracized within Vietnam, deprived of
BASTARDS NOMINATED FOR AN AWARD AS A FILM EXPOSÉ The film Bastards reminds us that while in Vietnam for two decades, many Americans paid Vietnamese women for sex. An estimated 30,000 children were born as a result of these encounters. After the American pullout in 1975, these Amerasian offspring were ostracized within Vietnam, deprived of
Political Film Review #44 Read More »
ITALIANS RE-FIGHT WORLD WAR II IN FILM Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy in 1922, more than a decade before Hitler. That he made the trains run on time was quite enough to inspire praise from ordinary Italians, but for the Americans and British living in Florence one might imagine that a lack of
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