What are you watching?

I finally saw the Blu ray of 42

First: I do not consider great sport figures to be heroes. They do what they do for a great deal of money. I admire many, respect a lot, and are disappointed more often than I want to be.

But Jackie Robinson is one of my heroes. What he went through, along with his wife Rachael, was not just unbelievable, but something I could never have done.

Believe it or not, that is why I had low expectations for this movie. As a history lesson, something I want to show to school children it was great, as a movie. I give it 3 out of 4 stars and I did enjoy it.

You see when controversial figures, such as Patton have movies made about them, they can be three dimensional characters, with all sides of their personalities shown. They can be shown not to be perfect people and that makes them more interesting. Shindler, in Shindler’s list was fascinating because he was complex, not perfect, and could be shown turning a corner.

The first time I notice this was in PT 109, a movie about President Kennedy, produced when he was alive. It was a good film, but with no great depth of character. Kennedy a sailor, was a perfect person. Even as a sailor he didn’t curse, dressed perfectly, and always did the right things. Cliff Robertson was really good, but there are limits you can do with living people and so the movie was a bit bland. If you watch the movie The Right Stuff, notice that Astronaut Gus Grissom was the only character shown to do wrong things. Also note that Gus Grissom was the only astronaut dead at the time the film was made. *

That’s what I found here. This movie was more of a documentary (and a good one) than a great drama. Many of the principals, Mrs. Robertson and many of the Dodgers are still alive. The script, mostly, showed events, but did not show the inner Jackie Robinson. There is very little depth here. Chadwick Boseman played him stiff and too internal for a movie. He was not the dominate actor needed for this role, in my opinion.

The second male lead, Harrison Food, who played Branch Rickey seemed, too often, to be a characterization, sometimes an inappropriate funny one, of the person. He didn’t seem real to me at all.

These two performances in particular made me feel that I was watching a Biography Channel reenactment sometimes, rather than a real movie.


*The movie made it look like Grissom botched up and lost his capsule. When the capsule was recovered, ten years later, the evidence showed that Grissom was 100% right. And did you know Gus Grissom was the ONLY Astronaut selected for all three manned programs? Mercury, Gemini and Apollo? He died in the tremendous accident of what we now call Apollo 1.
 
[h=1]The Prisoner resumes tonight:[/h]
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My first thought about The Prisoner in the year 2013: Will it hold up?
The answer is yes, it does. But that’s not necessarily a good thing.
The secret to watching The Prisoner is understanding the three “secrets” which I will mention.

The Prisoner: The Complete Series [Blu-ray]
This show should first be judged from the perspective of the era it came from. Our government has always controlled our paths of free speech. That is, the Post Office had stopped many magazines from being distributed and the FCC really stopped major issues of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s from being discussed on TV and radio. While every network had censors, they were only there because the FCC came down hard on networks for showing things they didn’t want to be shown or discussed. You may be too young to remember things like “The Fairness Doctrine” and “Equal Time” laws, but they were in place so that the government’s side of the issues was ALWAYS presented. And the government “punished” the networks, economically if they did not conform. So TV shows were pasteurized, it was hard to get things that related to war, politics, and social issues through.
Everyone wants to be first, so QB III and Rich Man, Poor Man are often proclaimed to be the first mini-series for TV. This totally ignores that in the 1960s and into the 1970s, TV often had summer replacement shows. One of those shows was The Prisoner, made in England, and first aired here on CBS in the summer of 1968, as I recall. It was like nothing I had ever seen.
So here is the first secret:
You have to watch this series twice, and it helps if you watch it in order, not the jumbled way it was put on TV. You see, the show seems to be a mystery and when you begin looking for clues and then you miss the bigger picture.
The show is “WAY OUT” and it tells you that in its introduction. (Look for that sign on the door). A “nameless” government agent, played by Patrick McGoohan, resigns his post in anger and is kidnapped and placed in the Village…a strange place where people are given numbers and not names, but everyone there seems to have been at one time or another associated with the government–or a government, you may not know which one. This was the era of the Cold War, of a divided Europe.
Who was Number 6? Was he John Drake?
We don’t use this term anymore, but Number 6, was a “non-conformist.” He was someone who didn’t seem to care what other people thought of him and went his own way. Back then it was often implied that you were selfish and not “part of the group.” As if there was something wrong with individuality. Today, we don’t think that way (but we really act that way).
John Drake was also played by Patrick McGoohan. He was a NATO agent in a TV show called Danger Man, that aired from 1960-1962. This 30-minute show (available on DVD) was a great influnce to the Bond movies which followed, in plot, in devices and in casting. After the Bond movies become popular, they brought back the show in 1964, renamed it Secret Agent, and made it an hour long.
One other thing: Drake was no longer a NATO agent; he no longer was connected, in any way, to America. His character was absolutely based on John Drake, but unless they wanted to pay the creators of Danger Man residuals they could not use his name. So they didn’t and it added to the fun. There was no political or storytelling motivation here, it was all about money. For some reason this take up a lot of people’s time. The other part is that this was a surreal show, a fantasy, not the realistic show like Danger Man. By the way, several episodes of the Danger man were filmed in the Welsh resort of Portmeirion, which served as the village. And, in several episodes actors from the first series showed up in the village and Christopher Benjamin even appears as the same character.
The show is not a mystery, it’s not a whodunit.
The show is mostly asking questions, not answering them. If you are looking for answers you will not find them here. Which is why the show holds up after all these years.The world had turned since WW II and things were not as clear as they once were.
The show on education, for example, asked whether people were learning and processing information or just memorizing facts. It didn’t answer the question.
In the end, where the differing political groups so very different?
Why does every new leader promise to be different, but turns out to be nearly the same, answering to the same people?
And why do we seem to wind up where we started from?
It’s not a mystery; there is no secret at the end, because there is no end. The joke about The Prisoner is that the big picture may be smaller than you thought it would be.
The acting is great, the show has great drama and great humor and even great music. It looks better on Blu-ray than it ever did, but it was still a British show filmed (which means the colors are a bit off, it always raining there). So it gets 3.5 (out of 5) for both sound and picture.
But 5 stars for the show.
PS: Notice that I didn’t try to explain too much about the setting, the plots or the characters. It would take too much time, everything here is unique. If this review isn’t clear enough, or perhaps a bit confusing, then I succeeded.
Patrick McGoohan was asked in 1977, how has the Prisoner changed by the end of the last episode: “I think he is essentially the same. I think he got slightly exhilarated that he got out of this mythical place and felt like doing a little skip and a dance and singing a bit and felt very happy to be going back home with his little buddy, the butler, you know. We never did a cut with him when that door opened. We just saw the door open and went in with the butler. You never knew if his exhilaration was lost when he saw that sinister door, that was left in abeyance. Unfinished Symphony… He just wants to get out. And he uses a technique that he hadn’t used before that which is violence. Which is sad, but he does. And that’s how he gets out. And in fact in the final episode he goes back to his little apartment place and he has the little valet guy with him and the door opens on its own. And he goes in and the cars there and you know it’s going to start all over again because we continue to be prisoners.... He’s got no freedom. Freedom is a myth. There is no final conclusion to it. And I was very fortunate to be able to do something as audacious like that with no final conclusion to it. Because people want the words “The End” put up. The final two words for that thing should have been, “The Beginning.”
 
Tonight, I am hoping Christine is down to watch Looper for her first time. I have been excited to hear what she thinks of it.

Just the right amount of Sci-Fi, for me.

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Last night I saw the HBO presentation of “Glickman.” It is the story of athlete turned announcer Marty Glickman who faced adversity, anti-Semitism, Hitler, and Avery Brundage and became one of the most respected and liked persons in his field.

There are no hidden back stories here, not “we now know he did these terrible things” that we see on all these bios that build a person up and then tear him down. This was just a very enjoyable thing to watch.

Sadly, the racism in this country, from the early 1930s into the late 1960s is on display here. Thank gosh, so much of it seems out of place and out dated, but, sadly racism is still around.

Glickman did look back, but he looked forward and helped so many people.

One really small complaint: In EVERY bio of this type I have seen, for athletes, writers, artists, broadcasters etc, the interviewees always say he was the best, the most, the only, the innovator the first to… etc. Here too.
 
Last night I watched this :: the 3D version :::

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* I was blown away by the set decors, the colors, the cars, the sumptuous houses, the entire extravaganza, the acting (in particular Joel Edgerton), the costumes, and all that period jazz.

I went fully dimensional into it (radically 3D) and let my aura get engulfed by Baz's own vision (montage).
...I was in no mood for any kind of expectation, and I was fully entertained. ...In my senses; visuals and auditory. ...Pleasantly.

If you haven't see it yet, check it out, in particular on Blu-ray if you that's your bag like it is for me. Recommended, and I don't care about what others have to say about it; me I liked it and I will revisit it. On Blu it definitely shines. :)
 
You know what Barry; there used to be a time when DVDs and Blu-rays were for rent in video stores. And I remember seeing that one at few of my local video stores; 'Antwone Fisher', and with first time director (and actor of course) Denzel Washington.
But I skipped it, so, no I did not see it (or at the very least I don't recall). ...And now that you just mentioned it I'll make an effort to eventually see it.
And I look forward on your impression from the book because that story resembles me and my Dad a bit. ...My Dad was tres tres reserved; never talked about his deepest emotions, just expressed the superficial ones (he was alcoholic for a long part of his life, but still a great guy). ...It's just the way he was raised (he lost his dad at age seven). He had a super great mother (my grand-ma and best friend), but a missing dad.

Anyway, cool that you mentioned a movie that truly deserves further exploration. :cool: ...And what I truly believe is missing in this world; emotional communication of a higher learning, for the better in our societies and to all the men, women, and children living in them.
 
Bob, I don't think there is a blu ray out on this, but if you haven't see it, get The Great Santini, eith Robert Duvall. It's really a great story about a very reserved father.
 
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