Guilt

Jessep (Jack Nicholson): You want answers? Kaffee (Tom Cruise): I think I'm entitled to them. Jessep: You want answers? Kaffee: I want the truth! Jessep: You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls. And those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives...You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty...we use these words as the backbone to a life spent defending something. You use 'em as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to exp...

Movie Notes from the Rust Belt..........Youngstown, Ohio I cranked up the wide screen high definition Vizio and my beloved ROKU box today.  With my Netflix account, I took a gander at The Car, a 1977 spectacular starring James Brolin. The Car starts with a quote from the Church of Satan leader taken from the Satanic Bible, so you sort of know right from the jump where this story line (such as it is) is headed.  Not very much plot to get in the way of the mayhem here.....Evil entity dressed up like a customized 1971 Lincoln starts killing off wonderful hippie-type folks in a small town.  James Brolin is the heroic Sheriff who manages, at the end, to finish off the evil entity in a massive dynamite explosion.  Looks like the Devil wasn't all that hard to take care of after all, at least in 1977. In between the Satanic quote and the explosion, we have plenty of the normal mid-70s clap-trap---namely, some native American wisdom, some up-tight elderlies, some flowe...

The Seventies.  Nineteen-seventies, that is.  Before the Internet, cell phones, and, to the greatest degree, Velcro  When you ran low on fuel, you pulled into a “service” station.  No, not a “gas” station where you pumped your own, but a “service” station where a young man in a bow tie came to your car and greeted you, then sold you premium gasoline at 35 cents a gallon.  While the gas tank was filling, he washed your front and rear windows, checked your tire pressure, motor oil level, coolant (it was called it “water” back then), and your power steering fluid (maybe your brake fluid too, if you asked), and he did all of this at no charge.  When you paid for your gasoline, he presented you with a receipt, a hand-full of Blue Chip stamps (redeemable for merchandise) and a free steak knife.  If this Service Station Attendant worked 40 hours a week at a buck and a quarter an hour, he could afford rent, groceries, a late model used car, a girlfrien...

Movie notes from the Rust Belt-----Youngstown, Ohio. Via my beloved ROKU box streaming Netflix through my home wireless network into the 46 inch HD wide screen Vizio, my Bride and I recently took in a Tim Allen double bill of our own design.  The Six Wives of Henry LeFay and Crazy on the Outside. There’s never too much plot to get in Tim Allen’s way in his movies (or TV appearances, for that matter)--it’s pretty much always Tim playing Tim, and I approve. Six Wives has, as a story, the Tim Allen character being killed in a Mexico para-sailing accident, then having his many ex-wives, a current wife, a future wife, and his daughter deciding what to do about a funeral.  They are all still in love with him.  Much is told via flash-back.  Hilarity and sweetness ensues.  A dandy story featuring Tim Allen, South Carolina native Andie MacDowell, Barbara Barrie (Barney Miller’s wife), and the wonderful Larry Miller (from A Mighty Wind, among other stuff).  Wo...

I watched a brief news story (on FoxNews, of course) about a newly proposed California law.  Interesting stuff. The state democrats in Sacramento have been in control of California since the 50s.  At this point, they really can do whatever they want, whenever they want.  We also know that California democrats are, in general, anti-big business.....anti-business generally, but anti-big business to a large degree.  In general.  Usually.  Depends on the business, I guess. The newly proposed law (I suppose it’ll pass without much discussion given the make up of the state legislature) prohibits the smoking of tobacco products in your home if you share a wall or a ventilation system with any other place.  So, if you live in an apartment or a condo, you can’t smoke tobacco in your own home. It doesn't really bother me if they do this.  I left California many years ago, and quit smoking even longer ago.    But here’s the rub: ...

Did you know that all alligators are crocodiles, but that not all crocodiles are alligators? Crocodiles and alligators are both part of the reptilian order Crocodylia. But they're part of different families, Crocodylidae and Alligatoridae respectively. Usually when people say "crocodile," they really mean "crocodilian." In total, there are some 23 unique species of crocodilians, including those in the lesser known family, Gavialidae. So there, Crocodilian Dundee.

Movie Notes from the Rust Belt--Youngstown, Ohio I incessantly poke fun at the SyFy channel and some of it’s programming--specifically the Ghost Hunters stuff.  Not that I’m particularly insightful with this, but they make themselves such an easy target.  I just can’t help myself.  Nevertheless, that sort of nonsense has always had a rapt audience.  Probably because people have always been frightened at things that go bump in the night. In the public domain now is that 1972, um, thriller, I guess, The Legend of Boggy Creek.  The story is pretty straight forward.  This is the Fouke, Arkansas re-telling of the Bigfoot legend, made on the cheap by using the rural folks playing themselves and done in a sort of “docu-drama” manner.  The narrator was the local weatherman at the local TV station.  Most of the rest of the cast never appeared in any other film.  The guy who made the film, Charles B. Pierce, got funding for this movie by borrowing...