A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

On the morning of Sept. 17, 1944, taking off from 24 airfields in southeast England in what was "the greatest armada of troop-carrying aircraft ever assembled for a single battle," the leading elements of three Allied airborne divisions roared aloft and set a course for their designated drop zones in Nazi-occupied Holland. Aboard this first lift of a scheduled three, men from the veteran American 82nd and 101st Airborne and the British First Airborne Division -- which was making its first combat jump -- anxiously waited for the green lights to light up and to step out into the Dutch sky in a daring and unprecedented daylight parachute and glider landing. Their mission, to capture -- "with thunderclap surprise" -- a series of bridges that spanned the Albert Canal, the Waal River, and the last river between the advancing Allied forces and Germany: the mighty Rhine.  On the Belgian-Dutch border, the tankers, soldiers, artillerymen, engineers, and vehicle drivers of Gen

When I was a much younger  Star Wars  fan in my early teens, one of my hopes was that George Lucas would create a TV spinoff based on the adventures of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca, C-3PO and R2-D2 as they faced off against the evil Darth Vader and the legions of the Empire. Of course, I had no idea that Lucas had made the film now known as  Episode IV: A New Hope  with two other films in mind, nor did I (being naive and unschooled in the business of filmmaking) realize how expensive it would have been to adapt  Star  Wars from the big screen to the little one and make it work as well as the late Larry Gelbart had done with the TV version  of M*A*S*H. After the disastrous one-time airing of the   misbegotten  Star Wars Holiday Special  in 1978 and the somewhat lackluster live-action set-on-Endor TV movies Lucasfilm released in the early 1980s, I realized that maybe  Star Wars   wasn't really one of those film sagas that was meant to be given the  M*A*S*H  tr

Mom as a teenager (circa 1943) Although I do not plan to turn my blog into a dreary litany of gripes about my current situation, I need to be able to get a few things off my chest.  I don't have too many people to turn to these days, and although I could probably start a discussion on my Facebook page about the dark side of care giving, I think that would do more harm than good. I'm writing at a moment of relative peace and quiet.  Margarita, the morning aide, came by and cleaned up Mom in bed since my mother no longer gets up to take showers even when she has assistants.  Margarita is only here for an hour on Saturdays and Sundays, so much of her time is devoted to cleaning Mom and doing light housekeeping chores in the bedroom, kitchen (if I haven't done it yet) and living room areas. Because Mom wanted to sleep late today, I ended up giving her breakfast at an hour more suitable for lunch: 12:15 PM.  I've been up since eight in the morning, having fallen as

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – The Complete Season Four During the 2008 fall television season, the Time-Warner-owned Cartoon Network and Lucasfilm Limited returned to George Lucas’s “galaxy far, far away” with a new animated series titled Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Set during the intergalactic conflict from which its title is derived, Star Wars: The Clone Wars is a 3D computer-animated follow-up to the 2003-2005 2D Cartoon Network “micro-series” Star Wars: Clone Wars, which bridges the three-year gap between the Prequel Trilogy’s Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.   (Supposedly, the two shows are intertwined, with the newer series taking place between Chapters 22 and 25 of the 2D series, even though there are always going to be some continuity issues that hopefully will be addressed as the narrative of  Star Wars: The Clone Wars evolves.) Although the feature-length film Star Wars: The Clone Wars was not warmly received by many Star Wars fans and media

If you are a regular visitor to my blog, you've probably noticed that as of late most of the entries are movie reviews, some of them which are complete and others which are essentially "teasers" which contain links to the original versions at Epinions.  Over the past few months, that's all that I've really been doing; I've written a few "op-ed" columns about Trayvon Martin and the civil war in Syria, but not much else which can be called original blog content. If this disappoints some (or all) of you, I apologize. I started this blog last year with every intention of providing a variety of entries that weren't limited to movie reviews and/or the creative process. I wanted to explore all kinds of topics which may be of interest to a diverse audience, and that is still my hope, because I want this blog to, as the Vulcans say on Star Trek, "live long and prosper." However, I must point out that this is possibly one of the lowest points

One of the problems about making a movie an actual conflict while said conflict is still raging is that sometimes events on the ground tend to overtake the filmmakers’ production schedule, especially if the movie is set in a specific place where battles are being fought.  This is exactly what happened to producer Robert Fellows when he was making  Back to Bataan , a blend of action-adventure, wartime propaganda, and a not-so-subtle reminder to the American public that the Philippines wanted independence not only from their Japanese occupiers but also from their U.S. “protectors.”  Written by Ben Barzman (who was pro-Communist, as was director Edward Dmytryk), William Gordon, and Aeneas MacKenzie,  Back to Bataan  starred John Wayne as a U.S. Army colonel who stays on Luzon to help organize a U.S.-Filipino guerrilla group to fight the occupying Japanese forces and help pave the way for Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s long-promised return.  During the filming of  Back to Bataan,   which took 13

v Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan is a trusted advisor in Chancellor Palpatine's inner circle. An impassioned supporter of civic virtue, Bail regrets that to counter the Separatist threat, the Republic must deploy a newly discovered clone army. Although the Republic garners an equivocal victory at the Battle of Geonosis, it is only the first step in a much larger, carefully conceived Clone War. The noble Senator stands in somber observation as thousands of clone troopers, marching in military formation, board countless warships and disperse throughout the galaxy to new battlefronts. - From the Hasbro Star Wars Saga - Bail Organa (Alderaan Senator) action figure's package blurb   Introduced in 2003 as the 33rd action figure of the Saga line,  Bail Organa (Alderaan Senator)  is the very first figure depicting one of the future founders of the Rebel Alliance.   As "action figures" go, this is a good example of how Hasbro lavishes attention to detail on figures whose cha

Garindan, a Kubaz informant, works only for the highest bidders - usually the Empire or Jabba the Hutt. Garindan followed the young Skywalker and his mentor Ben Kenobi through the alleys of Mos Eisley.   - From the package blurb.  The shadowy spy retroactively named Garindan only appears briefly in  A New Hope  as the shrouded figure with the long nose and goggled eyes, he is the character who tips off the Imperial stormtroopers that Luke and Obi-Wan Kenobi have gone to Docking Bay 94 in Mos Eisley.  He appears twice or thrice, following the Jedi Knight and his new apprentice through alleys and bystreets and muttering into a handheld comlink in a squeaky language.  Garindan is not identified by name in the film or the 1976 Alan Dean Foster-penned novelization; the figure is also known colloquially as "Long Snoot" because of his long proboscis.  The Figure:    Height:  1.85 Meters Status:  Spy Classification:  Kubaz Affiliation:  To The Highest Bidder Weapon o