A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

We have hope. Rebellions are built on hope. - Jyn Erso Rogue One: A Star Wars Story  is the eighth live-action feature film in the Star Wars saga and a direct prequel to George Lucas's original Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope. Directed by Gareth Edwards (who also directed 2014's Godzilla ) and written by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy (from an original story by John Knoll and Gary Whitta), Rogue One is the first in a series of stand-alone Star Wars Anthology movies produced by Lucasfilm Limited and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Rogue One was conceived by John Knoll, the chief creative officer at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and supervisor of visual effects for Lucas's Star Wars Prequel Trilogy. He came up with the concept of making a movie that explained the back story of A New Hope's famous opening crawl 10 years before Lucasfilm's new chairman, Kathleen Kennedy, approved it.  This crawl, in a nutshell, is the genesis of Rogu

This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.- Franklin D. Roosevelt, first Inaugural address, March 4, 1933 On September 14, 2014, producer-director Ken Burns' The Roosevelts: An Intimate History premiered on PBS. Written by Burns' frequent collaborator Geoffrey C. Ward ( Baseball, The Civil War, The War, and Jazz ), thi

(C) 2007, Alfred A. Knopf On September 23, 2007, PBS aired A Necessary War,  Episode One of Ken Burns' seven-part series The War. Co-written by Burns and historian Geoffrey C. Ward, The War is a 14-hour look at World War II and how it affected the U.S. through the experiences of four geographically-distributed towns in America - Luverne, Minnesota; Waterbury, Connecticut; Mobile, Alabama; and Sacramento, California. 12 days earlier, Alfred A. Knopf had published a companion book, The War: An Intimate History, 1941-1945. The 408-page hardcover was co-written by Ward ( Before the Trumpet: Young Franklin Roosevelt, 1882-1905 ) and filmmaker Burns. (Ward and Burns have co-written five books and collaborated on many documentaries since 1990's The Civil War, including Baseball, Jazz, Prohibition, and The Roosevelts: An Intimate History. ) The vivid voices that speak from these pages are not those of historians or scholars. They are the voices of ordinary men and women who

(C) 2013, Henry Holt and Co On October 22, 2013, Henry Holt and Co., a publishing company that operates under the umbrella of Macmillan Publishers, released the box set of  Rick Atkinson's  The Liberation Trilogy, a monumental account of how the Anglo-American alliance liberated Western Europe and helped usher in the end of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich.  The trilogy consists of the Pulitzer Prize-winning An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa 1942-1943 ; The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy 1943-1944 ; and The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe 1944-1945 . Published over a period of 11 years, these works showcase some of the best historical writing about World War II since Cornelius Ryan's A Bridge Too Far came out in 1974.  (Want to read my reviews of the three books? Just click on the links you see on the preceding paragraph.) The definitive chronicle of the Allied triumph in Europe during World War II, Rick Atkinson's Liberation Tri

"When you are given immunity, that means you have probably committed a crime." - Michael Flynn to Chuck Todd, Meet the Press, September 25, 2016 With the news that former national security adviser Michael "Mike" Flynn is offering testimony before the Congressional hearing about alleged links between the Trump campaign and Russian government officials prior to Donald J. Trump's election in exchange for immunity, cracks are beginning to open in the President's wall of denial and obfuscation. According to an Associated Press report published in MSN News, it looks like the disgraced Flynn - who was either fired or forced to resign after the revelation that he had talked about existing sanctions on Russian government figures with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak last December - is willing to talk...but only if he is granted full immunity.  "General Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it, should the circumstances pe

(C) 2016 Lucasfilm Ltd. and Buena Vista Home Entertainment In April of 2016, less than four months after the theatrical premiere of J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Buena Vista Home Entertainment (BVHE) released the blockbuster movie on Blu-ray and DVD. This home media release was a huge success in its initial run; The Force Awakens was the No. 1 best-selling Blu-ray/DVD combo set at Amazon and other retailers, including Best Buy. As I wrote in my review of that release: Buena Vista Home Entertainment did a remarkable job with its first BD/DVD of a Star Wars feature film. J.J. Abrams’ foray to that galaxy far, far away looks and sounds great on HD TVs, especially large sets connected to 5.1 stereo home theater systems. What I didn't know at the time was that Disney-owned BVHE had released, in addition to its regular plastic-packaged Blu-ray/DVD combo three-disc set, a SteelBook edition exclusively for Best Buy.  Now, if you are a regular reader of A Certa

Why do some American liberals admire these two Marxist revolutionaries, anyway? Although I used to consider myself a middle-of-the road voter when I was younger, I suppose some of my more conservative friends would call me a liberal. After all, I support women’s rights, LGBT rights, the Civil Rights movement, and I’m very open-minded about sex. I’m also not very religious   and   strongly support a woman’s right to choose. That having been said, there are some issues/opinions that are espoused by many liberals, especially those on the extreme left of the political spectrum. In no particular order, here are my top peeves: Anti-vaccination movement Free universal college tuition The notion that the military and intelligence communities are inherently “evil” and that the U.S. should  never, ever  resort to military force The 9–11 conspiracy theory that claims the attacks on Manhattan and Washington were carried out by the CIA and the U.S. military The idolization of Communist