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THE GREEN MILE SHOWS THE BLACKNESS OF THE DEATH PENALTY Only one film provoked the British public to repeal the death penalty—5 Rillington Place (1971). Several films have tried to shake up the American public in a similar manner, most recently Dead Man Walking (1996) and True Crime (1999). Now director Frank Darabont ups the […]

LIGHT IT UP ILLUMINATES THE NEED TO END STRUCTURAL VIOLENCE When Light It Up begins, we view run-down Lincoln High School in Queens. Principal Armstrong (played by Glynn Turman) has assigned Dante Jackson (played by Forest Whitaker), a highly decorated police officer who is on leave due to family stress, to deter school violence by

SALVADORANS FALL INTO TRAPS SET BY SOCIAL WORKERS IN EAST OF HOPE STREET As the film begins, we are informed that 73,000 persons are under the care of Child and Family Services, a County of Los Angeles agency. As the film proceeds, we see some of the 73,000 as well as a few social workers

THE INSIDER EXPOSES HOW “60 MINUTES” BOWED TO 30 PIECES OF SILVER Publicity about The Insider stresses the courage of a whistleblowing research scientist, formerly employed by a tobacco company, who in 1995 exposed the fact that cigarettes have been altered in recent decades to enhance their addictivity. As a result of his testimony, there

DEMOCRATIC VALUES ARE CHALLENGED AS FIGHT CLUB TURNS INTO PROJECT MAYHEM Fight Club appears to be a sequel to Clockwork Orange (1971) for the yuppie X Generation, half of whom see their parents get a divorce and are fatherless teenagers. (The word “clockwork” is in the script!) Jack (played by Edward Norton) narrates the film,

TEENA BRANDON IS BRUTALLY RAPED AND MURDERED IN BOYS DON’T CRY Earlier this year The Teena Brandon Story was a blockbuster documentary about a true story—a rape and preventable murder involving a Nebraskan male trapped in a woman’s body. Now a feature film, Boys Don’t Cry, dramatizes the same events. The film is directed by

NATURALLY NATIVE SHOWS THE PLIGHT AND HOPE OF AMERICA’S NATIVE PEOPLES Early films depicting the aboriginal inhabitants of North America showed them killed with single bullets by cowboys. From the 1960s, Native Americans have been portrayed with more sensitivity, though from the eyes of Caucasians. At last in Naturally Native, we have an opportunity for

AMERICAN WAR CRIMES AGAINST IRAQ EXPOSED IN THREE KINGS If war is hell, then going AWOL must be a relief. Not so in Three Kings (originally called “Spoils of War”), directed by David O. Russell, who also developed the screenplay after eighteen months of research about the waning days of Operation Desert Storm. At the

AMERICAN WAR CRIMES AGAINST MEXICO EXPOSED IN ONE MAN’S HERO When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the United States was aroused to respond to unprovoked aggression. When the United States performed a similar act of aggression against México in 1846 and marched triumphantly in México City in 1848, world public opinion was not mobilized against Washington.

EARTH NOMINATED FOR BEST FILM ON PEACE FOR 1999 When Britain contemplated granting independence to India, leaders of the future Pakistan encouraged Moslems to press for a separate country. When the partition occurred on August 15, 1947, with the collaboration of Britain and the Pakistani leaders and over the opposition of Mohandas Gandhi, Pakistan was