A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Because World War II was the defining conflict of the 20th Century - its aftermath continues to shape our lives almost 70 years later - and because it was a globe-spanning conflict, it is not surprising that many filmmakers continue to chronicle those awfully bloody six years that ended over 50 million lives - most of them civilian lives. Some, of course, are big Hollywood recreations of actual battles ( The Longest Day, A Bridge Too Far ) or fact-based miniseries along the lines of Band of Brothers and The Pacific. Others are fictional stories that range from the somber eulogy of Saving Private Ryan to the more action-oriented baubles a la The Dirty Dozen and Where Eagles Dare, both of which exemplify the Commando Raid Adventure sub-genre. Nevertheless, from the dawn of the Television Age back in the 1940s and ‘50s, the millions of feet of combat and propaganda footage shot by both the Axis and Allies have been mined for a plethora of documentaries made for television, st...

Capt. Picard: We are what we are, and we're doing the best we can. It is not for you to set the standards by which we should be judged!    Q: Oh, but it is, and we have. Time may be eternal, Captain, but our patience is not. It's time to put an end to your trek through the stars, make room for other more worthy species.    Capt. Picard: You're going to deny us travel through space?  Q: [laughs] No! You obtuse piece of flotsam! You're to be denied existence. Humanity's fate has been sealed. You will be destroyed.   When  Star Trek: The Next Generation  premiered on September 28, 1987, I – like many  Star Trek  fans – was eager to see if series creator Gene Roddenberry could pull off the daunting trick of continuing the story he began in the 1966-1969 original.  At the time, Paramount Pictures had already released a quartet of feature films based on (and starring the cast of) Star Trek: The Original Series .  In fact, the...

The Story:  It is November 1943, and the Second World War is in its fourth year. Adolf Hitler's Third Reich is fending off Allied advances in the Eastern Front and in Italy. German cities are being bombed "around the clock" by the American and British air forces. Across the English Channel, the Anglo-American forces are marshaling troops and making plans for history's greatest amphibious operation, which is tentatively scheduled for May of 1944.  But even though Germany has suffered great defeats in North Africa and the vast territories of the Soviet Union, Hitler still has hopes of winning the war. Desperately seeking a significant propaganda victory and inspired by the rescue of fellow dictator Benito Mussolini by a team of German special forces, the Fuhrer (egged on by SS chief Heinrich Himmler) orders the head of Military Intelligence (Abwehr) to carry out an even more daring special forces mission: to capture British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and bring h...

Since the late 1940s - as a result of the passage (in 1944) of what is colloquially known as the GI Bill - Americans have been brought up to believe that almost universal availability of a college degree is the Golden Key to attaining the American Dream.  For the young men (and women) of the Greatest Generation, their kids and grandkids, the idea that going to a college or university and earning a degree practically guarantees success in getting a good-paying job, owning a house, and the ability to raise well-educated children has been drummed into our collective consciousness that it almost seems like an inalienable birthright. From my perspective, although there are many grains of truth to the Great American College Myth, it seems to me that going to college and earning a bachelor's or post-graduate degree is less a guarantee of getting a well-rounded education and attaining financial security and more of a quixotic endeavor that does more harm than good. According to Time ma...

On November 4, 2008, roughly seven years after Lucasfilm Limited and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released the two-disc DVD set of  Star Wars – Episode I: The Phantom Menace  and slightly four years after the unveiling of the somewhat controversial  Star Wars Trilogy  box set, the two companies went ahead and issued the first box set of  Star Wars: The Prequel Trilogy  in tandem with a redesigned  Star Wars Trilogy  box set comprised of the 2006 Limited Edition DVDs which contain – due to high demand from fans – both the enhanced Special Edition and original theatrical release versions of  A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back  and  Return of the Jedi . For some reason, Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment waited a bit over three years to produce a box set of the Prequels –  Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Episode II: Attack of the Clones  and  Episode III: Revenge of the Sith  – which had pre...

Pros: Visually stunning HD remastering; more in step with source novel Cons: Might be too long for non-Tolkien fans; otherwise none The Bottom Line: As good as Peter Jackson's adaptations of The Lord of the Rings books are, these Extended Edition versions are even better. Plot Details: This opinion reveals no details about the movie's plot. Author’s Note: This review is solely based on 2011’s   The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy – Extended Edition  Blu-ray Collection.  There will be some comments on plot and characters in the critiques, but no reviews of the films themselves. Although I have always been more of a  Star Wars/Star Trek  buff than a high fantasy one,  I’ve been a casual fan of John Ronald Ruel Tolkien’s Middle-earth stories – primarily  The Hobbit  and  The Lord of the Rings -  ever since I saw Ralph Bakshi’s laudable 1978 animated adaptation of the latter novel during its theatrical rel...