EMANCIPATION FOLLOWS A SLAVE ON THE ROAD TO FREEDOM When Peter (played by Will Smith) hears from one of his masters that the Union Army is freeing slaves in Baton Rouge due to Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, effective January 1, 1863, he decides to flee horrible conditions near Clinton, Louisiana, where slaves are assisting in […]
HOLY SPIDER CELEBRATES A WOMAN WHO STOPPED A MASS MURDER During the year 2000, bad news came from the holy city of Mashhad, Iran. Women were being murdered, and the local police appeared unable to stop the continuing slaughter. Accordingly, in 2001 journalist Rahimi (played by Zar Amir-Ebrahimi) goes from Iran to Mashhad to investigate
SHE SAID TRACES THE BEGINNING OF #MeToo Women no longer play traditional roles. They work alongside men at most occupations today, including all layers of the film industry. However, gossip in Hollywood has long indicated that men doing the hiring impose a requirement on women when they open their pants during a job interview. Even
TILL HONORS THE WOMAN WHO STARTED THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT The film Till begins on August 1955. The initial focus is on a happy African American extended family living in Chicago. Mamie Till-Mobley (played by Danielle Deadwyler) is the only Black working in an air force office. Her son, Emmett Till (Jalyn Hall), is 14
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT PROVIDES A GERMAN PERSPECTIVE The 1928 novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I, All Quiet on the Western Front, has now been made a third time. The actual German title is Im Westen Nichts Neues, translated as “In the West Nothing New.” An anti-war
All Quiet on the Western Front Read More »
In 1823, slavery still existed in Africa. Europeans were recruiting from the Oyo Empire, which in turn was trying to conquer the Dahomey Kingdom using firearms traded for slaves. The focus in the film is on the Agojie warriors, an army of female soldiers that consistently prevail in combat but oppose slavery despite Dahomey’s participation
In 1816, Argentina declared independence but had a checkered political history until 1983, when a military junta stepped aside, and Argentina has been a democracy ever since. One reason the military relinquished power was that they lost public support in the “dirty war,” when an estimated 30,000 citizens disappeared, some dropping some into the ocean
PURSUIT OF FREEDOM DEMONSTRATES REFUGEE ANGST Based on a true story, Pursuit of Freedom begins in 2007, when life of a Ukrainian family near the Russian border is depicted as precarious (though most filming is in a town in Texas). Razmig (Mike Markoff), the father, is trying to support his wife, three children, and a
Pursuit of Freedom Read More »
NO NO GIRL DEALS WITH THE AFTERMATH OF JAPANESE INTERNMENT In 1942, some 120,000 million Japanese, whether born in Japan or the United States, were told to leave their homes for internment camps until the war with Japan ended. They abandoned jobs, homes, and the property inside homes. One such family lived in Tustin, Orange
OPERATION MINCEMEAT REVEALS MORE WORLD WAR II SECRETS As more classified information about World War II is revealed, Operation Mincemeat reveals why the British landing on Sicily occurred with minimal casualties, based on a nonfiction book with the same title by Ben Macintyre, who updates information about the plot that was previously presented in the
Operation Mincemeat Read More »