A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Episode Seven: "The Veneer of Civilization (June 1968-May 1969) Written by: Geoffrey C. Ward Directed by: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Public support for the war declines, and American men of draft age face difficult decisions and wrenching moral choices. After police battle with demonstrators in the streets of Chicago, Richard Nixon wins the presidency, promising law and order at home and peace overseas. In Vietnam the war goes on, and soldiers on all sides witness terrible savagery and unflinching courage. - from The Vietnam War's Episode List.  On September 25, 2017, 300 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) stations aired "The Veneer of Civilization (June 1968-May 1969)," Episode Seven of directors Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's The Vietnam War. This epic 10-part documentary series is an in-depth exploration of one of the most divisive and controversial conflicts in American history. It is a "from the bottom-up" narrative told from the per...

The Pacific  is what I like to call a “cinematic bookend” to the Emmy Award-winning 2001 HBO miniseries  Band of Brothers.  It’s not a sequel because it doesn’t follow Army soldiers in the European Theater of Operations. It’s more of a “companion series” because it’s about three Marines (John Basilone, Robert Leckie, and Eugene Sledge) and their experiences in the war against Japan. Because Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Gary Goetzman teamed up with most of the writers, producers, and directors of  Band of Brothers,  the 2010 miniseries was not made to compete with the earlier show. It was made in part to address Pacific War veterans’ concerns that Hanks and Spielberg focused on the ETO  twice  in less than three years ( Saving Private Ryan  was released in 1998) and that  their  story wasn’t being told. (This, too, was a complaint that the late Stephen Ambrose received after he wrote a series of books about the war in Europe. He ...

24: The Complete Series           Reviewer’s Note: This Epinion focuses solely on the  24: The Complete Series  box set (DVD format) and its particular features.  It doesn’t contain any season-specific content. It doesn't discuss plot or characters, either. However, links to the author’s reviews of the seven seasons found in the Epinions database have been provided in the   Content  section of this review:  On November 6, 2001, the Fox television network aired the first episode of  24,  a hybrid of the action/espionage/political thriller and nighttime soap opera genres. Created by Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran ( La Femme Nikita ) and starring Kiefer Sutherland as Federal counterterrorist agent Jack Bauer,  24  portrays the events of a single day in “real time.”  The series ran for nine years and eight seasons – the seventh being delayed by almost a year due to the Writer’s Guild strike of 2007-2008; ...