A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

“A Few Good Men” (1992) Directed by Rob Reiner Written by Aaron Sorkin, based on his stage play Starring: Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, Jack Nicholson, Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Pollak Rob Reiner’s courtroom drama “A Few Good Men,”  an adaptation of Aaron Sorkin's stage play,  starts with a brutal act of extra-legal disciplinary action against Marine Pvt. William Santiago at the Marine barracks in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, located on the southeast tip of Cuba.  At “Gitmo,”   two of Santiago’s fellow Marines, Lance Cpl. Harold Dawson (Wolgang Bodison) and Pfc. Louden Downey (James Marshall), stuff a rag into his mouth, hogtie his arms and legs with duct tape. Then they watch in horror as their squadmate starts bleeding copiously. Santiago dies, and Dawson and Downey are accused of conspiracy and murder. A few days later, Lt. Commander JoAnne Galloway (Demi Moore), a Navy legal officer assigned to the Judge Advocate General's Internal Affairs division, r

One month into his tumultuous Presidential term, Donald J. Trump’s approval ratings remain abysmally low. According to the latest Gallup polls, only 42% percent of Americans approve the way Mr. Trump is doing his job as the nation’s Chief Executive. Although Mr. Trump enjoys strong support from Republicans (87% of GOP voters who participated in last Friday’s poll say he is doing well at his job), 92% of Democrats and 65% of independents think otherwise.  ‘ Of course, Mr. Trump and his supporters dismiss polls that do not reflect positively on the President’s policies or his personal behavior. Don’t believe me? This is Mr. Trump, in his own words: “Any negative polls are fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election. Sorry, people want border security and extreme vetting.” What goes unsaid, of course, is that any positive polls are real news. As opposed to Kellyanne Conway’s “alternative facts.” Speaking of “alternative facts,” Mr. Trump (and not C

“Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season One” In the fall of 1986, following the success of “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”,  Paramount Pictures’ television division convinced  Gene Roddenberry to create a new Star Trek series. Roddenberry agreed after the studio agreed to give him creative control of the series, a condition he set because Paramount had placed Harve Bennett in charge of the post-”Star Trek: The Motion Picture” feature films several years before. The veteran “Star Trek” creator  reunited most of the Original Series’ brain trust, including D.C. Fontana, Robert H. Justman, Edward Milkis, and David Gerrold, and came up with a new concept built on the foundation of the 1966-1969 TV series and its movie spin-offs and yet stood on its own storytelling merits.     The new show was set almost 100 years after Captain James T. Kirk’s original five-year mission and featured a new Starship Enterprise. Given the Starfleet registry number NCC-1701-D, the   Galaxy- cla