Stand By For Action

I saw a very interesting, very funny picture on TCM yesterday. "Stand by For Action", was interesting because in the world of old Hollywood it was neither fish nor fowl. The story involves a now cliched standard issue war movie plot of the spoiled rich kid who goes to war and is forced to serve under the grizzled old vet who mistreats the crew and issues commands that prize Naval discipline and the good of the whole over any individual life. And the spoiled rich kid is forced to grow up and see the world through new eyes. There is a cute sub-plot involving a rescued boat of new-born babies which of course adds hilarious complications to the story. We've seen it all before so we know what will happen. Except, none of the things we expect to have happen ever do.

Although it was very funny it wasn't really a "service comedy". And though it had some great action sequences it wasn't really an "action" picture. It contained one very powerful patriotic speech (more about that later) and was made in the very first days of WW II but it was in no way a "propaganda" film.

The cast was also kind of oddball. Robert Taylor (who I've never understood - he always seemed like a second rate William Powell to me) was the lead and played the Harvard grad "40 day wonder" type assigned to work under the mean bastard captain played by Brian Donlevy. Charles Laughton appears as the Admiral who puts the two of them together. Supporting roles are taken by Douglas Dumbrille, Henry O'Neill, Walter Brennan, and Chill Wills. And I think the casting is the main reason I got such a kick out of this movie.

In the days of the studio system actors had to be able to do a little bit of everything. Type casting was common, but you were expected to be able to sing, dance , do comedy, do drama, do whatever the part called for on any given day. So in this picture we are given four of the screens "villian" specialists Donlevy, Laughton, Dumbrille, and O'Neill, but none of them plays a villian.

Laughton and Donlevy were wonderful together. As near as I can tell, and my research is incomplete, this is the only movie they made together and it's a shame. They play off each other, and our expectations of them, very well. Made seven years after "Mutiny on The Bounty" I kept waiting for Laughton to do something evil or nasty or Bligh-like. Instead, he delivers one of the best "Let's go Navy" speeches I've ever heard, yet manages to prevent it from turning into overt propaganda. He does broad comedy while refusing to go over the top, and delivers a very human, hilarious performance.

Likewise Donlevy is able to use the expectation of another Sgt. Markoff from "Beau Geste" type to deliver a performance that's funny, touching, and a tough but human character.

I should also mention that while there is a great deal of humor in this picture there is also a very nice battle sequence played out between Donlevy's destroyer and a Japanese battleship that's one of the best I've ever seen.

While the plot is a bit hackneyed. the performances and characters make this well worth seeing.

Play Ball

A new baseball season has begun and I could not be happier. Especially with the results of the first game. A shutout pitched by the inimitable Mark Buehrle with an assist from Putz and Matt Thornton. A 6-0 win over Jake Westbrook and the Cleveland Indians. Before proceeding I am required by law to state the obligatory:"it's only one game". However, what a game it was. And if you are looking for reasons to be hopeful, you didn't have to look hard. Great starting pitching. Excellent relief pitching. Enough offense, and stellar defense.

Oh and if you just want to have coincidence in your favor, there's that as well. Scott Merkin points out on the Sox site that five years ago the Sox opened their season with a shutout win over the same Indians. The opposing pitcher that day was the same Jake Westbrook. The result at the end of that season? A White Sox sweep of the Houston Astros in the World Serious. Baseball symmetry, catch it.

On Leaving "The Church"

I was on my way out to the 9:00 mass when this caught my eye. It's kind of an interesting, although somewhat melodramatic, story about one man's problem with the Catholic faith, and if I read him correctly, faith in general. I understand where he's coming from.

What I don't understand is how do you become a non-Catholic. I mean who do you write to in order to quit the religion? Where do you turn in your resignation letter?

I'm coming at this from the perspective of a "cradle catholic". I had nuns in grammer school, Irish Christian Brothers for High School, and I even went to the S.J.'s for the first two years of university. Chicago is known as "The City of Neighborhoods", but it's equally known as "The City of Parishes". I grew up at the tail end of a time when if you asked somebody where they lived they would give you the name of their parish. "Ahhh, I'm from over in Dennis". "Oh yeah, he grew up in Sabina's, but then moved to Leo's" You never needed to use the Saint title.

Throughout the years of my adulthood I have experienced a steady decline in my loyalty to mother church, but not because of anything the church has done, although the pedophile scandal was pretty bad. I have just gradually come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as God. Since there is no God it makes it difficult to participate in an institution dedicated to a man who is supposed to be the Son of God.

But this is where things get weird. I haven't been to communion in 7 or 8 years. I probably didn't step inside a church for 5 years, but I still feel Catholic. To paraphrase my good friend Barack, I don't think I could stop being Catholic anymore than I could stop being Irish. I understand that in order to be a member of the Church, you should believe what the church teaches, and believing in God would seem to be the minimum requirement. Here's the thing. I've been going to Mass for about a year now. I don't receive communion, but I do participate. The way I see it, I don't believe in God today, but I don't rule out the possibility that I might believe tommorrow.

In life things change. My parents had an unshakable faith in Jesus and the teaching of the Church. It was what got them through the incredible challenges they faced. I didn't get that faith, but I keep thinking if I just leave myself open to the possibility....life'll surprise you sometimes.

Uhh... this is unfinished, but I'm going to post it anyway. "King of Kings" is on. Happy Easter.

Where have you gone Harold Washington...

...the nation turns it's lonely eyes to you. Seriously, I am really starting to have some serious Harold deja vu.

It started just after Barack's amazing speech on Tuesday. I don't think anybody reading this would have missed it, but just in case you did, do yourself a favor and go watch it now . It's about 40 minutes long, but every minute is gold. I watched the speech in total amazement. I have never heard a politician speak with such honesty about a problem. As a matter of fact, in my mind at that moment, Obama crossed a very wide chasm from politician to statesman. When he was done I had two immediate thoughts. First, he's just locked up the Presidency. Second, he's just lost the Presidency, the Faux News crowd will figure out some way to twist this and destroy this man.

As the week has gone by it is starting to look like I was more correct with my second thought. I don't think the country is really ready for somebody like Obama. He speaks the truth with honesty and intelligence. As John Stewart said he, "spoke to Americans as if they were adults".

Which brings me to my main man Mr. Harold Washington. If you weren't living in Chicago in the mid-80's and didn't get to know Harold (as he was known to friend and foe alike), you really missed out on something special. He blew into town on the back of a snowstorm, had to fight one of the most racially divisive campaigns (vs. Bernie Epton) in history, and by the time of his too soon passing had become a beloved figure in Chicago and not just in the predominantly black wards on the South and West sides, but also in the ethnic bungalow belt of the Southwest and Northwest wards of the city. Harold used the power of his outsized personality and charm to turn around a white working class city from a position of fear and hate, to if not exactly love at least respect and some understanding. I know. I was one of those whites who thought Harold's election would only spell trouble for the city. Shows how wrong a guy can be.

When Obama started his campaign for President, I thought we had gotten past all that nasty stuff that went on in Chicago in '83. I thought we had grown up. But once again, the events of this past week have shown how wrong a guy can be. Right now I feel like it's '83 all over again.

While looking for information about Harold, I found this article from Ed McCleland in Salon which says what I was thinking about the Barack/Washington connection better than I can. But I will end with this - I think Barack is every bit as capable as Harold was to turn around these voices of division and assuaging people's fear, to unite the country.

Lay off Mickey Rooney

Personal to Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune:
Lay off Mickey Rooney. He's made a movie or TV show appearance almost every year since 1926. He's the last living link to the silent era. He's one of the few people left who can say he sat down and had conversations with Clark Gable, Louis B. Mayer, Spencer Tracy, Jimmy Cagney, and Judy Garland.

It's idiots like you who pushed Frank Sinatra off the stage at The Grammys (for which a very classy Gary Shandling apologized) in what turned out to be his last televised appearance.

When is this country ever going to celebrate its' history and its' legends instead of trying to tear them down? How are our young people going to learn that there was a history before they arrived on this earth when no talent writers such as yourself think it's hip to denigrate people who have achieved more than you will ever hope to.

For my money, I would say skip the awards and the poorly designed frocks which you care so much about, and give Mickey Rooney the damned mic and let him spin stories about the history of Hollywood for as long as he has the breath to talk.

You're lame Maureen Ryan

True Hitler Parallels

People are always fond of using Hitler comparisons to demonize whoever is the enemy of the moment. Whether it was Saddam or Arafat or Khomeini the media and political leaders always throw out the Hitler line as an excuse for a military action of some kind. And in most cases these alleged Hitlers are usually low level dictators who have trouble running their own countries, let alone achieving world domination.

But let's look at a case where I see true parallels to Hitler's rise to power and where it seems not enough attention is being paid. Let's look at Russia.

Hitler came to power by using the defeat of Germany in WWI. He successfully appealed to the ego of the German people by blaming their misfortunes on "the other" (Jews and the Entente Powers), and proclaiming the German people a superior race.

Vladimir Putin came to power after losing a different kind of war - the Cold War. But he is equally bitter about the low esteem he feels towards Russia from the rest of the world. He feels Russia is a super power and wants to get his "props". Where Hitler used the Jews as his scapegoat, Putin uses the Chechens. Where Hitler used the Sudetenland to test the will of the Allies, Putin is becoming increasingly bold in interfering in the former Socialist Republics. Especially in Georgia and the Ukraine.

The thing that seperates Putin from other would be Hitlers is that he actually has the brains, the charisma, and the weaponry to stick it to the west anyway he wants.

Last week Putin made it pretty clear that he will assist Iran militarily in any "act of aggression" that is made against their territory. Meanwhile back in the land of the free, home of the brave we have the ass-clowns in Washington working harder every day to come up with a pretext to drop bombs on Tehran. Of course I blame the current occupant and his band of evil men, but I don't exclude the gutless wonders of the Democratic party (yes Dick Durbin, I'm looking at you). These schmucks have us all preoccupied with the illegal war in Iraq while Putin sits in the corner with his Cheshire grin, biding his time. Nobody seems to be manning the helm.

Look, I'm just a dope from the Southside of Chicago, and I'm no great student of world affairs or political history, but this stuff is starting to get me worried. The true tragedy is that none of this needed to be happening. As terrible as 9/11 was for this country, it also afforded us an amazing opportunity. For months afterward we had the world (yes even the Muslim world) on our side. It afforded us the greatest chance in my lifetime to settle things up in the Middle East. The Iranians were coming forward with deals, the Saudi's were coming forward with deals, even the Israeli's were willing to work for a solution to a Palestinian state. As the great philosopher Belushi used to say, "But Noooooooooo!"

Rummy and Cheney and Kristol and Wolfowitz and Perle and Bush and Rice and Kagan and Scaife and Abrams and Armitage and anybody who ever accepted a paycheck from or delivered office supplies to "The Project for The New American Century", your table is ready. It's located just inside the Gates of Hell

I want to close this by admitting I have to relearn how to imbed links, but most of what I have been reading about this came from the website of the Council on Foreign Relations http://www.cfr.org/ and a Google search of "Putin protects Iran".

In The Valley of Elah

There are a lot of Paul Haggis haters out there. I am not one of them. I think he writes ridiculously good scripts and after "Crash" and now "In the Valley of Elah", I think he is also becoming a very good director.

I suppose in the case of "In the Valley of Elah" one could say it's not hard to be a good director. When you're working with Tommy Lee Jones and Susan Sarandon it's probably best to stay out of their way and let them do their thing and everything will be fine. They are two of our finest actors and they don't disappoint in this picture.

At the heart of the story is a murder mystery, but in a sense the identity of the killer is actually secondary to an examination of the effects of wars on the young men who are sent to fight them.