A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Did General George S. Patton retire from the military? No. George S. Patton, Jr. was still on active duty as commander of the U.S. Fifteenth Army in Germany at the time of his death on December 21, 1945, in a military hospital in Heidelberg. Patton had been only recently reassigned from the Third Army, which at the time was part of the U.S. occupation forces in western Germany. He was relieved from his most famous command on October 7, 1945; one week later, he assumed command of the Fifteenth Army, which by then was only a small establishment of military researchers and clerks charged with recording recent military history based on after-action reports and interviews with Allied and Axis military personnel and civilians. At first, Patton tried to put a positive spin on his new assignment; at one point he claimed he was thrilled because he had been enthralled with military history since he was seven years old. In reality, though, Patton was restless and soon lost interest in

Apollo 11 mission insignia. I was six years old when American astronauts landed on the Moon half a century ago.  Earlier this week, I watched director Todd Douglas Miller's 2019 documentary Apollo 11, a 93-minute "direct cinema" account of the first Apollo Project manned mission to land on the Moon. I thought it was a good way to begin commemorating the 50th Anniversary of one of the most significant human achievements in history, even though in some ways it left me feeling more than a little sad. Fifty years ago today, Apollo 11 was still four days away from its liftoff. American astronauts had orbited the Moon twice already by then; Apollo 8 was the first manned flight to orbit the Moon in December of 1968, while Apollo 10 (May 18-26, 1969) was a dress rehearsal in which the Command Service Module and the Lunar Module flew with three astronauts in the F mission that tested the equipment and maneuvers necessary for a successful lunar landing. But the G mission (the

On March 1, 2019, Neon (the production company that distributed 2017's I, Tonya ) and Universal Pictures released Apollo 11, Todd Douglas Miller's documentary about the first manned lunar landing. Produced by CNN Films and Statement Pictures, the documentary focuses on the eight-day period between July 16 and 24, 1969, with a few "flashback" sequences tracking the careers of astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins via montages of black-and-white and color still photos provided by the astronauts and their families. Miller, who also edited and produced Apollo 11, eschews the conventions of most documentary films by not using a mix of "present day" interviews, voiceover narration, or dramatic recreation of events. Instead, Miller and his team use a technique called "direct cinema," relying exclusively on archival material from the National Air and Space Administration (NASA), which consists of a mix of 16mm, 35mm, and newly r

On Tuesday, July 16, the 50th Anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11 - the mission to land two astronauts on the Moon by the end of the 1960s - HBO Home Entertainment and Imagine Entertainment will release the 1998 miniseries From the Earth to the Moon on Blu-ray for the first time. Produced by Tom Hanks, Ron Howard, and Brian Grazer as a complement to Howard's 1995 film Apollo 13, this 12-part miniseries is a docudrama that chronicles the American effort to beat the Soviet Union in a Cold War-era Space Race by, as President John F. Kennedy said in a May 1961 speech, a concerted effort ""to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth." Based in part on Andrew Chaikin's non-fiction book A Man on the Moon, the miniseries was originally aired between April 5 and May 10, 1998. Its focus was on Project Apollo, although Part One - Can We Do This? - also covered part of Project Mercury and

General Grievous is one of the several villainous "tools" used by Darth Sidious in his quest to destroy the Jedi Order in the waning days of the Republic. Photo Credit: © 2018 Hasbro, Inc. and Lucasfilm Ltd.. (LFL)  The Black Series When Hasbro introduced its ongoing The Black Series  (TBS)  collection of Star Wars toys in 2013, I was up to my forehead in the duties of being a caregiver to my ill parent. Even though I shopped online for new books, home media editions of movies I'd missed during their theatrical runs, music, and the occasional computer game, I didn't look for Star Wars collectibles of any sort. I had to choose my purchases carefully, and at the time I thought that spending $15 or more on Star Wars figures, vehicles, and other Hasbro products was a bit unseemly given my circumstances. I found out about the TBS line roughly around the time that Lucasfilm was getting ready to release Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015. I saw some of the 3.75-in

© 2007 Sony BMG/Legacy Records On February 27, 2007, Sony BMG's imprint Legacy released The Essential John Denver, a two-CD compilation album that rounds up 36 of the late singer/actor/songwriter John Denver's best-known songs. Like all of the albums in Sony's Essentials series, it contains all of Denver's "greatest hits," including Take Me Home, Country Roads (which is now one of West Virginia's four official state songs); Leaving on a Jet Plane; Sunshine on My Shoulders; Annie's Song; Rhymes and Reasons; Rocky Mountain High (Colorado's state song); Calypso; Thank God I'm a Country Boy; Goodbye Again; and Is it Love?  The Artist  John Denver (real name, Henry John Deustchendorf Jr.) was an "Air Force brat" who started his musical career in 1963 after dropping out of the Texas School of Engineering and entering the folk music scene in Los Angeles. He had learned how to sing in the Tucson (Arizona) Boys' Chorus while h

“The Continental Army suffered a bitter winter of Valley Forge, found glory across the waters of the Delaware and seized victory from Cornwallis of Yorktown. Our Army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do.” - Donald J. Trump, July 4, 2019 From the newly revised edition of "The British Are Coming," by Rick Atkinson and Donald J. Trump: General William Howe, commander of the British armies in North America, was flummoxed. One day after Congress approved the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, his spies noticed a buildup of Continental Army forces near La Guardia Airport, a vital gateway to the British transatlantic air bridge from the Mother Country. Writing anxiously to Lord North, Howe fretted that t he Rebels' latest endeavors threatened his troops' logistics, especially the all-important ability to resupply by air, and implored the Prime Minister to "send with the utmost of expediency

On Quora, Trump supporter Larry Walden asks: Why did the major TV networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN) not broadcast Trump's “Salute to America”? My reply: Because it was a ridiculous, poorly planned and expensive exercise that few people were interested in watching. First of all, the Fourth of July has never, ever been an occasion to showcase military hardware. It’s a national holiday, sure, but it’s traditionally a family-oriented one in which most Americans celebrate America’s birthday with picnics, concerts (some of which, such as  The Capitol Fourth  and  Pops Goes the Fourth , are broadcast live from Washington, D.C., and Boston), and fireworks displays. The Fourth of July is a festive occasion and  not  a martial one; the armed forces of the U.S. already get their due on Memorial Day (when we commemorate the fallen) and Veterans’ Day (when we commemorate not only the anniversary of the end of World War I, but remember our living veterans from our modern wars). Sec

On Quora, inquiring member Anthony Perez asks: Other than money, why did George Lucas sell the Star Wars franchise to Disney and make Kathleen Kennedy in charge of the franchise going forward? My reply: First of all, Lucas did not simply sell the  Star Wars  franchise, as your question erroneously states. He sold  Lucasfilm Ltd.,  the production company he founded in 1971 after leaving Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope, which he also helped to create back in ‘69. This means that Lucas not only sold Lucasfilm and its various subsidiaries, including Skywalker Sound, THX Labs, and Industrial Light & Magic; he also sold Lucasfilm’s intellectual properties, including  Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Red Tails  and  Willow. Before the sale to The Walt Disney Company (TWDC), Lucas had pretty much decided to retire anyway, but he didn’t want Lucasfilm to die off or be purchased by just anyone. He was 68 years old and did not want to spend any more time making blockbusters, bu