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

TWO FILMS FEATURING CITIES IN DISTRESSNOMINATED FOR BEST FILM ON PEACE What happens to otherwise normal people when the amount of civil disorder is so rampant that authorities cannot stop the chaos? Contrast Belgradians and Beirutians in two recently Political Film Society-nominated films: In most Eastern European countries as the Cold War ended, the answer

NIXON IS LAMPOONED; HIS SECRETS ARE EXPOSED BY FEMALE FORREST GUMPS Who was the “deep throat” who informed Washington Post reporters the secrets about Watergate? Who caused the 18½ minute gap in President Richard Nixon’s tapes? Since nobody in Washington is likely to divulge the answers any time soon, the puzzles are fair game for

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

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