A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

U.S. soldiers wade ashore at Omaha Beach, June 6, 1944. Photo Credit: U.S. Coast Guard  Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force: You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hope and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.  Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely. But this is the year 1944! The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to victory! I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory! Good luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking. —Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander, 6 June 1944. Seventy-five years ago today, an assault force of 175,000 American, British, Canadian, and Free

My dad. (Photo Credit: Author's personal collection) If you could bring back any 3 people from the dead, who would they be? Why? My answer depends on the following variables: In which state do I want to revive them? Am I allowed any flexibility as to how old they are and their state of health when I bring them back, or am I locked in the Stephen King-like Hobson’s Choice of “Yeah, you can bring them back to life if you want, but you’d have to settle for getting them at the same age they were at the time of their deaths.” Is there a certain time limit that I can have them with me? You know, like “You can have them back, but only for a week. Then they die again and you can’t revive them again.” To be honest, I’m not really sure if I  could  do this - if I had the power to bring back people from death. But let’s say that I  could  and that I retrieved three people from “the undiscovered country” at the prime of their lives, in good health, yet aware of who I was, these ar

© 2019 Salon.com On Quora, right-wing member and hater of all things liberal David Bolick asks this about Quora sponsor Salon : Why does Quora allow such offensive sponsors as this? I replied thusly: Well, for starters, because  Salon  is  not  what most rational and educated people would consider “offensive.” It is not, say, a site that peddles porn of any kind, incites violence, or promotes bigotry, misogyny, or engages in conspiracy theories. Of course, if you happen to be a self-identified conservative with what others might consider extreme right-wing views, i.e. all liberals are “evil” and “Democrats should all be shot,” then I can see - all too clearly - why someone might consider  Salon  offensive. For those Quora members who are scratching their heads as to why someone would consider  Salon  “offensive,” here are the basic facts about the website: Here’s Wikipedia’s description of  Salon: Salon  is an American news and opinion website, created by  David Tal

If you could have 1 movie that you’ve seen in the past erased from your memory, what movie would that be and why? That’s easy.  Bolero. © 1984 Cannon Film Group Now, I have seen more than my fair share of movies that, for one reason or another, I don’t enjoy at all or once liked but have changed my mind about as I have grown older.  Me Before You  is an example of the former;  Avatar  and  Midway  are exemplars of the latter. But writer-director John Derek’s softcore porn movie disguised as an “adventure in ecstasy” is still the dumbest, most boring film I ever paid a movie ticket to go see in an actual multiplex. It’s so bad, in fact, that my friends (yes, I went with a coed group of buds from college) and I decided, collectively, that as spectacular as Bo Derek looks naked, she was way too old to play a nubile if naive girl in her 20s. The story was just a barely-there plot woven together around a series of nude scenes (including the obligatory girl-girl scene) that

In Star Wars could the “Chosen One” apply to all Skywalkers? No. The “Chosen One” that the old Jedi prophecy from  The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones,  and  Revenge of the Sith  refers to was, is, and always will be Anakin Skywalker. The messianic figure who we met as a young slave on Tatooine, saw grow up into a conflicted Jedi Knight, then turned to the Dark Side and became Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith was the realization of the Jedi Prophecy: " A Chosen One shall come, born of no father, and through him will ultimate balance in the Force be restored. " That’s per the creator of the  Star Wars  Saga, writer-director George Lucas. In many interviews and - most importantly - the behind-the-scenes materials (featurettes, audio commentary tracks, making-of documentaries) in the DVDs and Blu-rays, Lucas does not veer away from this through-line:  Anakin, even after becoming Darth Vader, was still officially the Chosen One and not Luke. Obviously, the prop

© 1978 Ballantine Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (as The Star Wars Corporation) Should the Star Wars Expanded Universe (Legends) be continued even though Disney made it non-Canon? No. Contrary to the belief held by many  Star Wars  fans who really dig the Expanded Universe (EU) novels, comic books, roleplaying game supplements, and even video game backstories, Lucasfilm Ltd. always considered them apocryphal. In other words, as far as the company and its founder, George Lucas, were concerned, the EU that began with the publication of Marvel Comics’  Star Wars #7  in October of 1977 and Alan Dean Foster’s  Splinter of the Mind’s Eye  several months later was  never  canon. Marvel Comics' Star Wars #7 was arguably the first Expanded Universe publication. © 1977 Marvel Comics and Lucasfilm Ltd. As I wrote in my answer to  What exactly did Disney add and remove from the Star Wars universe/story? The main issue behind  What exactly did Disney add and remove from the Star

Melania Trump on the cover of Vanity Fair Mexico. Photograph © 2017 Douglas Freeman.  Do you think Melania Trump is a victim of Trump's wrath? Nope. I’m not a fan of either President Trump or First Lady Melania Trump, but I don’t think they have such a toxic relationship that Donald would take out his anger on his third wife. Is  Melania happy with Donald Trump, especially now that he is President? I’m not sure; I don’t follow Melania’s doings or sayings except when she makes either a social faux pas (such as embracing cyberbullying as her “Kids, Don’t Do This” pet cause and giving it a silly slogan -  Be Best  - while being the spouse of a President who has weaponized Twitter) or a sartorial one, like when she wore a safari outfit, complete with that infamous symbol of European colonialism, a pith helmet, on a goodwill tour of Africa. Call me "Bwana"? Photo credit: © 2018 Doug Mills/New York Times If Melania is unhappy with the fact that Trump had sex wi