On The Basis of Sex

I went to see the movie On The Basis of Sex   today.  If you are not familiar with it, it is the story of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in her early years, and her legal fight, with others, to eliminate the legal discrimination by sex (gender) allowed in the United States.  It is a good story, a good movie, well worth seeing if you have not.  I never did appreciate Justice Ginsburg as much as I should have.  It is sad that she has been treated for cancer recently, and unable to attend Supreme Court sessions, although she has kept up with the hearings by reports, and able to render her opinions. She has made a profound impact on this country, one that I am grateful she made.  

Green Book

This afternoon, I went to see the movie Green Book.  It was a very good movie, on many different levels.  I would highly recommend it.  If you are not familiar with the story it is about Don Shirley, a Black pianist who takes his trio South on tour in 1962.  The rest of his trio is Anglo, and he hires an Anglo driver Tony Vallelonga.  The story is about the transformation of Shirley and Vallelonga.   

Hidden Figures

I am reading the book Hidden Figures, the book about the women who worked for NACA and later NASA ,  computing equations about aircraft, and later spacecraft and flight trajectories and what have you. In fact the women who were doing the work were called computers, before that referred to electronic computers. 

Who would think that a story about women doing math could be interesting, but Margot Lee Shetterly was able to accomplish that.  

You may not have heard of the book, but this may sound familiar, because it was made into a movie of the same name:  Hidden Figures.  I really enjoyed the movie, so of course, I wanted to read the book!

Little did I know, but one of the main characters to this story, Katherine Johnson, turned 100 years old yesterday, August 26, 2018!  Hers is quite a story, and she deserves the recognition and accolades afforded to her by this book, and by this country!

The Post - The Movie

I went to see the movie "The Post".  This is a movie I would highly recommend to anyone who wants to see a really good story.   Or, I should say, stories.

Of course, the major plot is The Post  trying to catch up to the news scoop by the New York Times of releasing what became known as The Pentagon Papers.  But, there is so much more.

There is the whole issue about the immorality of the Vietnam War, and sacrifices caused by the Vietnam War, as well as the conflict the war has caused in the United States society.  

There is the issue of the people in the press using a double standard to report the news based on their personal relationship with those involved, a common practice in years past(and present).

There is the major issue of deceit by the government for decades, known to those in power all that time, and not acting on the facts.  Who says we can trust the government?

Central to the plot is upholding of the first amendment, the freedom of the press, and the need to protect sources which is essential if the press does its "job" to keep society informed of events in government and politics.

There is the issue of the role of women in society, and how Kathryn Graham just accepted that her father would give The Post to her by the time of the movie deceased  husband, while she stayed home and raised the family and maintained her social life.  And the movie shows how she ran the newspaper, and maintained her social life. 

There is the issue of the relationship between President Nixon and The Post.

And, of course, the desire of The Washington Post to be more than a home town newspaper, but remain family owned, and survive financially. 

And, all the while I watched the movie, I was thinking about our current day president and his relationship with the press, his obvious attempts to present a different story than the press often presents, and his claims about "fake news" as well as his denials of things we have seen and heard from his own self while on TV.  Obviously, the nuances similarities are intentional.

Those of us who lived in that era know the history, but if the movie can hold your interest when you know the outcome, it has to be good.  And it was.

"The Darkest Hour" the Movie

I went to see this movie today.  I knew it was about Winston Churchill during World War II, but not much else. I suspected it was about the early war days, because those are the days Churchill referred to as "our darkest hour."  And, that is just what it was.  It was about the change of the prime minister from Neville Chamberlain to Winston Churchill, and his decision not to negotiate for peace but to fight for England.

I don't know why, but this movie moved me to tears.  It was a good story.

I Remember Mama

When I was growing up, one of the TV stations used to show a movie a week, in 5 installations.  We saw a lot of classics and one was I Remember Mama http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040458/.  I do not remember ever seeing that movie before or since. It was a very memorable movie.  I have looked it up on the internet, and watched scenes from it.  But this afternoon, I am able to watch the whole movie.  And it is just as fine as I remember I more than 50 years ago, and some of the scenes are just as I recall.        

Big, Loud and Live 2017

Big, Loud, and Live https://www.fandango.com/dci2017:bigloud26live14_202428/movieoverview aired August 10, 2017 presented by Fathom Events https://www.fathomevents.com/.  A colleague and I met up to watch the show.  It was a very good presentation, lasting close to 5 hours, not counting waiting for the tallying of results, which we did not wait for.

But for close to 5 hours, we heard blaring drum corp music, which is enjoyable to listen to and the performances are fun to watch.  But the music is loud, and jarring. Because of that, it takes me a long time to wind down after seeing a performance.  So, I planned to take off from work on the 11th of August. The problem is, I need to get up early to be ready for the air conditioner/furnace replacers. 

So now, I am home and have cleaned out the area for the air conditioner/furnace replacers to work, finished reading email, finished playing computer games, have had some wine, and am watching a second interesting movie, having already watched In the Heat of the Night  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061811/.  Now I am watching The Bedford Incident  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058962/.  

I like submarine movies, and thought I had seen The Bedford Incident before.  But I do not remember anything about it.  I do remember my father and brother talking about it when it came out, or maybe, they discussed the book. My father did not read a lot of books when we were growing up, but he liked a good military or historical thriller. 

So, I am waiting to get sleepy enough to so to sleep.  If I try lying down before I am sleepy, I just toss and turn, and waste sometimes the whole night trying to sleep.  I try using relaxation breathing, and progressive muscle relaxation, but it does not work.  This has been my life's history regarding sleep.  It just is, and I have only had a few periods in my life when my sleep was better.  But, I don't mind. Especially when I do not have to be on my best game the next day.

Detroit

I went to see the movie Detroit http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5390504/ today.  It was a very brutal movie, about a very brutal time in our history.  However, I am a firm believer that we need to know and understand our history because it can help us to improve our future.

I remember the news stories about riots across our country when I was a teenager.  The horror, the senselessness, the destruction.  I learned about the rage of black people who had been subjugated for years and years. As I watched the movie, I recalled the news about the Algiers Hotel.

I was raised to respect police, and not until I was well into my adult life did I realize or accept the fact that police and authority figures in this country could be just as unlawful and vicious as criminals.  I should have known better. But I was too gullible and accepting.

I am glad that in this day and age, with body cams, cell phone videos, street cams and other security surveillance, we have information about how people behave in public, including the police. We have information about police being inappropriate, and we have information about police having to make impossible split second decisions that involves deadly force.  Policing is a very difficult career, and we have to allow them to do their jobs, but criminal behavior by police is still criminal behavior.  I think that was brought home very clearly in this movie.  

I do not find it ironic that this movie was produced during this time of high scrutiny of police behavior and possible misbehavior. 

Dunkirk

I went to see the movie Dunkirk http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5013056/ today. This is a part of World War II history, that I only know a little about.  It is time for me to read more about it. The movie was good, lots of action and violence, which is to be expected in a war movie.  I wish they had explained more about the history.  It touched on what was done, and used captions, but I think a few more captions would have helped people who nothing about the story to have a better understanding of what was happening.   

Hidden Figures

I went to see the movie Hidden Figures http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4846340/ on Sunday.  Wow, it was an amazing movie.  Just amazing.  Based on a true story https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062363596/hidden-figures.  The most amazing thing to me is what everyone I know who has seen the movie has said.  Well, two things they have said.  This is a wonderful, marvelous, inspiring movie.  But it was a piece of history that we did not know about. Why did we not know about this piece of history?  It is a shame we did not know this piece of history .

When the movie announced the Katherine G. Johnson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, I joined the applause in the audience.  It was awe-inspiring. 

You know the book will be on my reading list.

Spoiler alert:  Two scenes I especially love are when Dorothy Vaughn goes into the IBM computer room, where the IBM computer lies silent because the IBM techs cannot figure why it does not work, and changes a connection, and voilá.  Fact or poetic license? Do I care?  And when Ms. Vaughn gets a book on Fortran, learns it, and teaches her co-workers so they will be prepared to move into the computer world. 

Movie Day

I went to see the movie, "The Free State of Jones" http://stxmovies.com/freestateofjones/ today. It was a good story, but it was a sad story, because in the end, Newt Knight could only help a few people to freedom.  And he did not really impact racism in a big way. But he did impact it.  But it was a noble story, because he was  a man that had principles and stuck to them.

As I was driving, after having seen the movie, I heard the NPR interview with the writer and director Gary Ross http://www.npr.org/2016/06/25/483537325/telling-the-story-of-a-confederate-deserter-in-free-state-of-jones.  I thought it interesting that he said he could have ended the story when they raised the American flag, but the story of conditions and Newt Knight's fight after the war were not so "feel good."  But noble.


This link will lead you to the "true story." An interesting story.  Based on fact.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-free-state-jones-180958111/?no-ist

War Movies

I think I am weird.  Well, I actually know that I am weird.  And one of the weird things about me is that I like war movies.  I do not like war, and my mantra for war is "Support our troops, Pray for peace."  But I like war movies.  I do not like the blood and gut and gore of war movies.  I like the heroism, the bravery, the devotion and commitment to a cause of war heroes.

So, on weekends (or even weekdays) that commemorate veterans and war days, I usually look to one or more television channel to play a lot of war movies.  Memorial Day, D-Day, Independence Day, Veteran's Day, Pearl Harbor Day are times when this typically happens.  This year, Turner Classic Movies http://www.tcm.com/ played war movies. But I was not particularly impressed.  Hmmm. Some of the movies early on in the week were okay, but this weekend they played war comedies. And, in my mind, not even good war comedies.  Maybe I am just not in the mood for comedies.  Maybe I am seeing Memorial Day as a serious day to commemorate our veterans and their families and friends who sacrifice so much so the military members can serve. 

Well, I should not complain too loudly. No other TV channel even recognized Memorial Day except PBS, with its National Memorial Day Concert!

World War II Movies

I like World War II movies. I do not know why I like World War II movies, but I do. I do not know why I am thinking about this tonight, or this morning, but I am . My favorite World War II movies are The Longest Day http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056197/,  In Harms Way http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059309/ and Pattton http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066206/.

There are many other World War II movies I like: The Battle of the Bulge http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058947/,  Midway http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074899/,  Saving Private Ryan http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120815/, The Monuments Men http://www.monumentsmen.com/,  The Red Ball Express  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045072/,  Stalag 17 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046359/, The Miracle of the White Stallions  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057312/, Run Silent Run Deep http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052151/.

These are just a few of the many World War II movies I like to watch.  Call me weird, but it is what it is. 

The Moon is Blue

I watched one of my favorite movies tonight, The Moon is Blue http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046094/.  It is a wacky, cornball comedy, and I have a lot of fun watching it.  Tonight, Turner Classic Movies http://www.tcm.com/watchtcm/movies/ aired it.

A Favorite Movie

I think I have written about The Longest Day http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056197/  previously. I stumbled onto to it tonight on TV.  It is one of my many favorite World War II movies.  Many of the World War II movies strove to be accurate.  This one did. And it had an all star cast!

Just enjoying it.

I think about the sacrifice of so many during the wars fought by Americans.  My uncle had  a letter signed by Admiral Nimitz commending him for his participation in the D-Day landing. Like so many World War II veterans, he would not talk about his time in the war. If we asked him what he did in the war, he would say "I went to San Diego" or "I went to England."  And we had the pictures to prove it. Sailors standing around on various sights, but no battle pictures.

As I grew older, I realized that so many men who served in World War II were very much like my uncle. It was a time they wanted to leave behind. A heroism they did not want to revisit.

I think the thing that attracts me most to this movie is the song "The Longest Day."  

One of my favorite scenes is when the nuns move in and set up a hospital in the middle of the fighting!  Go nuns!

The Sound of Music - Sing Along

One of my most favorite movies is The Sound of Music.  As with so many of my favorite movies, I know the words to the songs and much of the dialogue.  Well, tonight, ABC is doing something different.  They are airing The Sound of Music http://abc.go.com/shows/movies-and-specials/listings/the-sound-of-music-singalong as a sing along.  That's right, they are airing the movie, and they are showing the words on of the songs on the screen so viewers can sing along.  This is wonderful!  What a delightful way to show a musical.  I hope ABC does this again with other musicals.

Noise in My Brain

The last few days, I have been hearing the theme song from the movie The Longest Day  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056197/  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Longest_Day_(film) in my brain.  I do not think I know the tune, but as I get to the end of one segment, my brain tells me what the next segment of the song is. This is weird.

The first couple of times I saw this film, I thought it was all Hollywood. But as I grew older and learned more about D-Day, I discovered that there are some vignettes that are very accurate for a small piece of what happened on D-Day.

Of course it is not 100% accurate, but it is a very good depiction of many of the highlights of D-Day. 

The cast of the movie is "all star."  That is amazing to me also. 

If you like World War II movies, this is a must.

Woodlawn

I was looking for a movie to attend this past weekend, and I saw the icon for Woodlawn http://woodlawnmovie.com/, a football player standing in the end of a tunnel leading to a football field.  I like sports movies, so I did some checking.  It turned out that Woodlawn was less a sports movie, and more a Christian movie. So, as I was poking around looking at trailers for the movie, I stumbled upon the Liberty University Convocation http://www.liberty.edu/news/index.cfm?PID=18495&MID=168708 with Sean Astin and other members of the cast and  crew of Woodlawn. And, uncharacteristically for me, I watched it.  And liked what I saw.

I like sports movies. I appreciate movies about the civil rights movement and the efforts to bring segregation and equal rights to the minority groups in the United States (which we have not done very well, by the way.)  So this movie hit home for me on two levels.  I tend to shy away from "Christian" events, because they sometimes have a feel of fanaticism, and fanaticism scares me.  But as I listened to the Convocation, and to Sean Astin, I realized that I was very much like him.  I tend to be judgmental of "evangelism" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelism. And, sometimes, evangelism is not inappropriate. 

I tend to think that people who spout the word of God and give endless testimony to Him are just wordsmiths, and except for working in their church, are not very Christian in their approach to every day life.  They may not walk their talk outside of their church, in other words.  But, then I think, do I?

I am unchurched.  I try to conduct myself in a Christian way when dealing with people in my life, whether it is friends, co-workers, colleagues, or acquaintances.  I am not always successful. I am imperfect and always need help to be better. At work, I often find myself facing an enigma posed by a patient, and a deep breath, and a moment to reflect often gives me an inspiration that I believe comes from God.  I am not that wise or well educated.

I am an introvert, and sometimes in public situations, I wilt rather than do the right thing. Or call up my indignation and rant and rave instead of being calm and collected.  (I am getting better at that.) 

Woodlawn was about all of that. About learning to face our challenges. Learning to face our fears. Learning to face the difficulties we have in our lives.  And learning that we can be good Christians while engaging in secular lives.  On so may levels.

I would very much encourage you to go to see this movie.

The Judge

This is interesting to me.  Several years ago, I watch the production of the movie "Labor Day"  http://origin.labordaymovie.com/  in the Greenfield Recorder.  I do not follow the Greenfield Recorder much any more.

So tonight, I watched the movie The Judge  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1872194/   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Judge_(2014_film).

This is the kind of movie I like: maybe schmaltzy, but definitely about human relationships, difficult complex human relationships, because  it is so real.

As I was watching the movie, I thought the bridges looked a lot like the bridges in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. But what do I know. 

The movie was good. And I enjoyed it.

One of my nieces taught me to stay for, or watch for the credits.  So I did.  And the credits thanked the people of Shelburne Falls and Buckland, Massachusetts.  The Wikipedia article also noted that there was a scene filmed in the It's About Time Clock Shop in Millers Falls, Mass. which is my home town. 

That was really interesting to me!  I liked the movie, without knowing it was shot in Western Massachusetts and Los Angeles. 

Pride

I just watched Pride http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3169706/ a movie about lesbians and gays supporting the Welsh miners in their strike in 1984.  This is a feel good movie.  I love a movie about underdogs, solidarity, and good endings.  This movie had it all, including some bad times and harsh feelings. 

This is a piece of fairly recent history about which I was not familiar. It is a good story.  When you think about it, if you mix gays and lesbians, miners and the Welsh, you might not know what you will get.

In this story, you get a really heartwarming and positive story, with plenty of struggle mixed in. 

I stumbled onto this movie while mining Netflix http://dvd.netflix.com/MemberHome.