A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

1. In the 1970s, the Miami TV station now known as CBS4 (call letters WFOR) used to be Channel Six (call letters WCIX) and was the big independent station in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale market. It was on Channel Six that I watched such vintage shows as I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, Hogan’s Heroes, Family Affair and – in the late 1970s once I got into it – Star Trek: The Original Series. (Channel Six, in its last year as an independent station, also aired the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.) It was also on Channel Six where I first watched many of the older movies I’ve reviewed online at Amazon, Epinions and Viewpoints. Before cable and videocassette recorders took off in the 1980s and changed the way Americans watched movies at home, the only way most of us were able to see older theatrical releases on the “boob tube” was by watching edited-for-TV editions of films which were no less than two or three years old on the three major networks’ “night at the movies” shows...

Jaws was a very big deal back when I was 12! (C) 1975 Universal Pictures It's been a very long time since I've read Stephen King's The Stand (in either the original or the Uncut, Unabridged editions), but among the many details and characters in that huge doorstop of a novel, King had one of his main dramatis personae (Frannie Goldsmith) keep a journal in which she sometimes wrote about the pre-Apocalyptic world so that her unborn child would have some idea of what life in the pre-plague years had been like. Because I have not cracked The Stand open since at least the year 2000, I am not sure if Fran merely jotted down lists of people, places, events, foods and other slice-of-life items which were part of her life or if she wrote more detailed descriptions, but I figured I would try to do something similar here, not only to give readers a glimpse into pre-21st Century America but also to help me jog my own memory about my younger days. From the 1970s, starting aro...

As a rule, even though I am a history buff and love historical films, I am not a big fan of biographical films about politicians, especially politicians who lived way before the 20th Century. I suppose it is because (a) Hollywood biographies tend to cherry-pick through the subject’s life to reinforce certain story points the writers or directors want to make, and (b) pre-20th Century set movies tend to be costume dramas as well as history lessons. These are unavoidable realities, but I tend to feel restless when I sit down to watch any flick set before 1860. So when a friend of mine loaned me his three- DVD set of 2008’s HBO miniseries John Adams, I was quite prepared to simply set it aside for about a week and then return it, unwatched, with a polite thank you note attached. Since I really don’t know as much about the American Revolution and the early days of the Republic, I figured I ought to at least watch Part One to see why John Adams had gotten so much good buzz. Lu...

Although the naval battle of Midway (June-4-6, 1942) is often called the "turning point" of the Pacific War between the United States and Japan, many historians consider the six-month-long Guadalcanal campaign to be the true pivot point on which the tide of battle turned in favor of America and her Allies. Midway, for all its merits as an "incredible victory" for the U.S. Pacific Fleet and a morale boost for the nation six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, had been a defensive engagement; the breaking of Japan's JN-25 naval cipher code, cool-headed leadership on the part of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, the availability of three U.S. carriers, bad planning on the part of the Japanese, the carefully-laid ambush of the Japanese carrier force, the bravery of U.S. aviators and a great deal of good luck all contributed to stopping Japan's eastward advance and a possible invasion of Hawaii. However, the United States could not have defeated Japan by...

It’s hard to believe this, but 34 years after I was given my first Kenner Star Wars action figures – R2-D2 and C-3PO – and a Landspeeder for my 15th birthday, I’m still one of those geeky guys who buys collectibles based on the characters, vehicles, creatures and locations shown in George Lucas’s space-fantasy saga. Several years ago, for instance, my neighbor Maria drove my mom and me to the Mall of the Americas to go pick up my new prescription glasses. I didn’t plan on going on a major shopping trip – what with the economic slowdown, my shaky finances and all – so I left my credit card at home. However, I did take a $20 bill given to me on my birthday just in case I had a chance to browse around for an inexpensive DVD or music CD. Because I have been collecting Star Wars figures since I was in junior high (middle school to younger readers or people unfamiliar with the designation), I also harbored a slim chance that the KB Toys store at the Mall of the Americas still exi...

Is there life after high school? Moving on is simple. It’s what we leave behind that’s hard.” - Author Unknown What is it about the whole high school experience that has such a powerful hold on our imagination, our emotional compass? Two years, five months and several odd days after visiting my alma mater with one of my Class of 1983 classmates, Maggie Wunderlich, I’m still somewhat bemused by how many memories can get stirred up by the simple act of opening a door and crossing one’s old high school’s threshold. I had last visited South Miami Senior High in the spring of 1989; Conchy Bretos, then the person in charge of Miami-Dade Community College’s Recruitment and Retainment Department, knew that I had attended that school from August 1980 to June 1983. I was a somewhat respected college-level student journalist at the time, so Ms Bretos thought I’d be suitable to explain to a ninth-grade English class what Miami-Dade was like in comparison to high school and what the College ...

Adapting a literary work, no matter if it's a novel, play, short story, poem or a non-fiction book or magazine article, is a process which requires a lot of careful analysis, patience and a knowledge of how film differs from the various written media. The biggest difference between, say, a novel and a movie derived from it is that though both tell essentially the same story and feature the same protagonists and antagonists, the form in which they're presented and (of course) "consumed" is very different. Take, for instance, Stephen King's It , a 1000-plus page doorstop of a novel which is set in two different time periods (1958 and 1985) and has a huge set of characters and situations, as well as a complex plot and a very "big" finale. Before ABC-TV aired the television miniseries based on the novel, my friends and I often wondered how such a huge novel could ever be adapted into a satisfying audio-visual experience. After all, It not only had a ...