WHITE WOMEN BREAK THROUGH THE COLOR LINE IN THE 1940S & 1950S IN TWO FILMS Women’s liberation followed Black liberation in the 1960s, and White women played a role in the latter. Two recent films, The Rising Place and Far from Heaven connect us with the origins of the role of White women in breaking […]
Political Film Review #148 Read More »
MOORE TRACKS DOWN THE MASSACRE AFTER TEENAGERS BOWLED TOGETHER Still outraged that the world’s largest corporation, General Motors, closed down operations in his hometown, Flint, Michigan, Michael Moore tries to assign responsibility for the death of a six-year-old to the effrontery of the corporate closing in Bowling for Columbine, which he writes, produces, and directs
Bowling for Columbine Read More »
MOORE TRACKS DOWN THE MASSACRE AFTER TEENAGERS BOWLED TOGETHER Still outraged that the world’s largest corporation, General Motors, closed down operations in his hometown, Flint, Michigan, Michael Moore tries to assign responsibility for the death of a six-year-old to the effrontery of the corporate closing in Bowling for Columbine, which he writes, produces, and directs
Political Film Review #146 Read More »
A JEWISH STRONGMAN UPSETS THE NAZIS Directed by Werner Herzog, Invincible is a slow-moving biopic focusing on the last year in the life of Ziche Breithart (played by Jouka Ahola), a Jewish man so strong that he was called a modern-day Samson. The film begins in Eastern Poland during early 1932. Ziche and his young
SADDAM HUSSEIN’S LATEST “MUST” READING IS THE SIXTH REMAKE OF A BRITISH NOVEL Titles at the beginning of The Four Feathers tell us that in 1884 the British Empire extended over one-fourth of the globe, that young British men were expected to fight for their country, and that a white feather was a symbol of
MORE HOMICIDES, THANKS TO THE “THREE STRIKES” LAW Clint Eastwood personifies a police officer who relentlessly pursues criminals. In Blood Work, which he directs at the age of 72 based on the novel by Michael Connelly, he risks his life in the role of elderly FBI agent Terry McCaleb. When the film begins, he is
MORE HOMICIDES, THANKS TO THE “THREE STRIKES” LAW Clint Eastwood personifies a police officer who relentlessly pursues criminals. In Blood Work, which he directs at the age of 72 based on the novel by Michael Connelly, he risks his life in the role of elderly FBI agent Terry McCaleb. When the film begins, he is
Political Film Review #143 Read More »
BOXING CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY IN UNDISPUTED Undisputed is primarily for aficionados of boxing, with a lot of time devoted to fights. Film footage even includes Braddock’s knockout in 1937 by Joe Louis, whom one character, Emmanuel “Mendy” Ripstein (played by Peter Falk), regards as the finest boxer of all time. The plot is totally unrealistic, however.
LA REINA LOCA REDEEMS THE REPUTATION OF A LIBERATED WOMAN IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY Why is Spain’s Queen Juana known as Juana the Mad? La Reina Loca (retitled in the United States as Mad Love) seeks to answer the question. The film begins with a short scene of Queen Juana (played by Pilar López de
HAWAIIAN CULTURE DOMESTICATES A MONSTER OR TWO The Hawaiian word ohana means “family,” a family in which “nobody gets left out or forgotten,” according to the animated tale Lilo & Stitch, codirected by Dean Deblois and Chris Sanders. In the prologue to the film, naughty Six-Two-Six (voiced by codirector Chris Sanders) has been banished from