A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

"Those Rebels sure picked themselves a planet in the middle of nowhere, didn't they?" (C) 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corporation The Case For Rebellion Cast Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) See Threepio (Anthony Daniels Princess Leia Organa (Ann Sachs) Han Solo (Perry King) Chewbacca Artoo Detoo Lord Darth Vader (Brock Peters) Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin (Keene Curtis) Admiral Conan Antonio Motti (David Clennon) Commander Willard Rebel 2nd Rebel Red Leader General Dodonna Gold Leader Wedge Antilles Biggs Darklighter (Kale Brown) PA Voice Narrator (Ken Hiller) Announcer: OPENING CREDITS. Music: Opening theme. Narrator: A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, there came a time of revolution, when Rebels united to challenge a tyrannical Empire. In the Rebellion's greatest crisis, the Empire unleashed its ultimate weapon, the Death Star, a spacegoing fortress capable of destroying entire planets. An oddly met group of Rebels have ma

I have never understood why  some  science fiction/fantasy fans insist that  there has to be an “either/or” choice  and that one has to like one franchise but not the other. I was three years old and living outside the U.S. when  Star Trek: The Original Series  premiered on Sept. 8, 1966, and the show did not air in the South American country where we were until 1970. Thus my introduction to Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and the voyages of the  Starship Enterprise  was not under the most optimal of circumstances. We only had black-and-white TV (even if you owned a color set, that country didn’t yet broadcast in color), and of course the series was dubbed in Spanish. I was a kid who had forgotten any English that I’d learned as a toddler, but even at the age of seven I noticed one detail about Latin American TV: every imported American show used the same voice actors to dub the Spanish-language audio track. As a result, the US shows, which at the time included  Star Trek, Hogan’s Heroes, T

Because of my long-time interest in the topic of World War II, I have watched countless dramas, action-adventures, biopics and documentaries which focus on history's biggest and deadliest clash of arms. Sometimes, of course, I watch World War II movies merely to be entertained; there are lots of movies set during the war that have no greater "mission" than to raise one's adrenaline levels ( The Dirty Dozen, Von Ryan's Express ) or get guffaws out of the audience ( The Pigeon That Took Rome, What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? ). Most of the time, however, I tend to seek some sort of enlightenment, understanding or inspiration - sometimes in purely fictional accounts of men in combat ( Saving Private Ryan, Memphis Belle ), and sometimes in "based on the true story" films that try, within the paradigm of commercial filmmaking, to recreate historical events that took place during the war. Naturally, to get any understanding about the causes and consequenc

Not in the slightest, considering that Donald J. Trump is neither one of the richest persons in the world nor one of the most successful, at least as far as his business expertise is concerned. So if you think that all the discontent with our current Chief Executive is based on mere envy, well…no. It’s not. If anything, I strongly dislike President Trump for various reasons, most of which are based on his behavior and utterances over the past 30 years, including: 1. His penchant for having extramarital affairs, divorcing two of his wives to marry the women he was having the affairs with, and constantly hitting on other women  even though he was married.  The first time he did this, he ditched first wife Ivana for Marla Maples; the second time he did this, he ditched Marla for Melania Knavs. 2. His spiteful campaign to bring back the death penalty to New York State after the “Central Park Jogger” rape case in 1989, as well as his stubborn insistence that the five teenagers wh

Two days after 20-year-old James Alex Fields, Jr. killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injured 19 others when his Dodge Challenger deliberately hit a group of counter-protesters who were leaving a white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia., President Donald J. Trump finally spoke out against the KKK, neo-Nazis, and other hate groups.  "I just met with FBI director Christopher Wray, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions," Trump said. "The Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into the deadly car attack that killed one innocent American, and wounded twenty others. To anyone who acted criminally in this weekend's racist violence, you will be held fully accountable. Justice will be delivered." Trump added, "As I said on Saturday, we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence – it has no place in America. And as I have said many times before, no matter the color of our skin

"You can't win, Darth. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine." (C) 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corporation The Jedi Nexus Cast Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) See-Threepio (Anthony Daniels) Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi (Bernard "Bunny" Behrens) Han Solo (Perry King) Princess Leia Organa (Ann Sachs) Chewbacca Artoo-Detoo Lord Darth Vader (Brock Peters) Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin (Keene Curtis) Comm Voice 1st Trooper 2nd Trooper 3rd Trooper Narrator (Ken Hiller) Announcer: OPENING CREDITS Narrator: A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away there came a time of revolution, when Rebels united to challenge a tyrannical Empire.  Sound: Death Star up in background.  Narrator: Now many strands in the web of galactic events have come together onboard the Empire's ultimate weapon, an enormous spacegoing fortress called the Death Star. At large in its vast interior, pursued by Imperial stormtroopers, is