A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

(C) 1981 St. Martin's Press. Book cover photo: Goodreads In the early 1980s, back when I was in high school, I developed an interest in the Vietnam War, a conflict that took place when I was too young to understand but was a shadowy presence in everyone's lives in the 1960s and 1970s.  Around the same time that I was navigating the hallways of my senior high school's campus as a wide-eyed sophomore, Canadian writer-producer Michael Maclear's 13-part documentary series, Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War , was aired in syndication in the U.S. Written by Peter Arnett and narrated by actor Richard Basehart ( Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea ), this series - which originally aired on Canadian television in 26 half-hour episodes but was presented in 13 one-hour installments in U.S. television markets - was the first in-depth examination of what was, until the post-September 11, 2001 war in Afghanistan, America's longest war.  Like many documentaries of this genre

Cover  Design: Giulio Turturro; Cover Photo: Edward Steichen. (C) 1999 Sony Masterworks/Sony Classical On July 27, 1999, nearly two years after the successful debut of Cinema Serenade, Sony Masterworks dropped Cinema Serenade 2: The Golden Age, an album that reunited virtuoso violinist Itzhak Perlman and conductor John Williams for a 12-track collection of movie themes – or songs used in movies – during the Golden Age of Hollywood. For this sequel, Perlman and Williams are joined by “America’s Orchestra”: the Boston Pops, which Maestro Williams led from 1980 to 1993 and still serves today as the ensemble’s Laureate Conductor.  In contrast to their first album since their collaboration on Schindler’s List, Perlman and Williams chose a program of compositions heard in films released between 1936 ( Smile from Modern Times ) and 1952 (the traditional Irish gig St. Patrick’s Day from The Quiet Man ).  They chose wisely, for as the liner notes by Royal S. Brown point out, “t

(C) 2002 Anchor Books I rarely read books about politics or political figures, even though my main interest in the non-fiction genre – military military history – is, in essence, an account of political decisions gone wrong. When I do read books about Presidents, it's usually about the Cold War ( The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev – 1960-1963 ) or specific events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis or that awful day in Dallas. Very rarely, though, do I read books about the personal lives of America's Chief Executives. I used to, as a schoolboy, read very generic accounts of those few Presidents I found interesting (Washington, Lincoln, the two Roosevelts, Ike, and JFK), but as I grew older I became less a generalist history buff and became more of a World War II/Cold War/Persian Gulf War specialist. Still, sometimes it's beneficial to step away from the familiar and explore uncharted territory from time to time. Kati Marton's 2001 book Hidden Power: Preside

On July 3, 2018, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment and Amblin Partners released 7 Days in Entebbe, a taut but somewhat offbeat dramatization of the hijacking of Air France jet by a team of pro-Palestinian terrorists, its journey from Tel Aviv to Entebbe – a city in Uganda – and the events that led to one of history’s most daring rescue missions: Operation Thunderbolt, aka Operation Entebbe. Wilfried Böse: We don't want to hurt anybody. We're humanitarians. Written by Gregory Burke ( ’71 ) and helmed by Brazilian filmmaker José Padilha ( Elite Squad;  the 2014 remake of Robocop ), this Focus Features film – released in the UK as Entebbe – premiered in theaters in March of 2018 and stars German-Spanish actor Daniel Brühl and Rosamunde Pike as Wilfried Böse and Brigitte Kuhlmann, the two German hijackers who helped two Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations (PFLP-EO) operatives commandeer Air France Flight 139 and, after a roundabout jo

On July 29, 1997, Sony Masterworks released Cinema Serenade, the first of two post Schindler's List movie themed albums featuring the collaborative team of violinist Itzhak Perlman and Oscar-winning composer John Williams.  Film scores have been a passion of mine since I first heard Williams' unforgettable score for Star Wars at the age of 14. Since then I have become acutely aware of movie themes and orchestral music's ability to affect one's perceptions and emotions. As a result, my musical collection includes many CDs of music by composers such as James Horner, Jerry Goldsmith and, of course, maestro Williams. Cinema Serenade, featuring acclaimed violinist Itzhak Perlman, John Williams and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, is a beautiful 13-track collection of movie themes by various notable composers, including  Quincy Jones, Elmer Bernstein, Michel Legrand, John Barry, Ennio Morricone, Luis Bonfa, Andre Previn and, of course, Williams. Because the f

(C) 1994 Workman Publishing Company James Dean as a boxer's corner man in a Martin-and-Lewis comedy film? Gregory Peck as a Soviet partisan fighting Nazi invaders? Sally Field as a Lolita-like teenager on a Westward bound wagon train? Kevin Costner in a soft-core "T&A" film? Michael Douglas as an antiwar activist who joins the Army? Every career has to have a beginning, and acting in films isn't any different, as readers of Damien Bona's Opening Shots: The Unusual, Unexpected, Potentially Career-Threatening First Roles That Launched the Careers of 70 Hollywood Stars will discover when they explore this witty, informative, and even a bit biting tome by the author of Starring John Wayne as Genghis Khan and Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards. Starting with Woody Allen's appearance in 1964's What's New, Pussycat? and concluding with Pia Zadora's debut in that same year's epic Santa Clau

On July 29, 1990 - per a notation I made on the compact disc's liner note booklet - I purchased CBS Masterworks' reissue of an album that featured two compositions by Joaquin Rodrigo: the Concierto de Aranjuez and Fantasia para un gentilhombre. Performed by the acclaimed Australian guitarist John Williams with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra (conducted by Eugene Ormandy) and the English Chamber Orchestra (conducted by Charles Groves), this "Great Performances" recording features two signature compositions written for guitar and orchestra composed by the brilliant Spanish composer and pianist. The Concierto de Aranjuez was composed in 1939, that fateful year that was marked by two connected historical events: Generalissimo Francisco Franco's rise to power as the fascist ruler of Spain at the end of that country's devastating civil war; and the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, one of the two right wing dictatorships which had backed Franco