Reality Check and Uncle Tom

[Pahonu]

Everyone’s experience was different. My wife’s uncle was in the unit that mopped up after the New Year’s Day battle of 1968 depicted at the end of the film. He said it was the most brutal event he experienced there. Stone was involved in it with the 25th infantry. One of my uncles was a door gunner in a Chinook and the only survivor after being shot down. He almost never spoke of it and has since died. The other was infantry and I’ve never heard him once talk about it. A third uncle was on the carrier Oriskaney off the coast but never in country. All very different experiences from what little I know. I don’t think anyone’s experience is definitive. Stone was telling his. It was the first film written and directed by a Vietnam vet.

[K Hale]

When General William T. Sherman published the second edition of his memoirs, he wrote in the preface that he had gotten complaints from old army guys who wanted to argue with him about stuff he had written in the first edition. His response was words to the effect of, “These are my memoirs. If you remember something different, write your own.”

[Pahonu]

When General William T. Sherman published the second edition of his memoirs, he wrote in the preface that he had gotten complaints from old army guys who wanted to argue with him about stuff he had written in the first edition. His response was words to the effect of, “These are my memoirs. If you remember something different, write your own.”

Well put, and definitely more succinct than my explanation!

[Steve]

When General William T. Sherman published the second edition of his memoirs, he wrote in the preface that he had gotten complaints from old army guys who wanted to argue with him about stuff he had written in the first edition. His response was words to the effect of, “These are my memoirs. If you remember something different, write your own.”

Well put, and definitely more succinct than my explanation!

I guess I started this side thread off by complaining that my son's class only saw two movies in an entire semester of a Cinema class I like both movies they saw but was trying to point out that there is an entire world of movies, music, TV shows and literature that in my opinion, many aren't learning about.......One of his friends told me he would never watch a movie in black and white. I couldn't imagine a world not ever seeing ;

Citizen Kane
The Best Years of our Lives
To Kill a Mockingbird
Psycho
Paths of Glory
Grapes of Wrath
Well, hopefully you get my point....

[Pahonu]

When General William T. Sherman published the second edition of his memoirs, he wrote in the preface that he had gotten complaints from old army guys who wanted to argue with him about stuff he had written in the first edition. His response was words to the effect of, “These are my memoirs. If you remember something different, write your own.”

Well put, and definitely more succinct than my explanation!

I guess I started this side thread off by complaining that my son's class only saw two movies in an entire semester of a Cinema class I like both movies they saw but was trying to point out that there is an entire world of movies, music, TV shows and literature that in my opinion, many aren't learning about.......One of his friends told me he would never watch a movie in black and white. I couldn't imagine a world not ever seeing ;

Citizen Kane
The Best Years of our Lives
To Kill a Mockingbird
Psycho
Paths of Glory
Grapes of Wrath
Well, hopefully you get my point....

I understand completely. I often point to later films shot in black and white for artistic reasons to point out the short-sightedness of a statement like that. Schindler’s List and The Elephant Man come to mind. To Kill a Mockingbird was in the 60’s when very few films were still shot in black and white, but can you imagine sleepy, depression-era Maycomb Country being shot in dazzling Technicolor. Think about the brilliant color in 1939’s Wizard of Oz, but Kansas was in black and white, a brilliant decision.

I mentioned in a previous post that your son’s class seemingly wasn’t a general survey of film history. I took a three-part course series like that. We covered many dozens of films. I also took several courses highly focused on just a few like your son seems to have. Just different course types.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

I would have asked him who Chuck Norris was.

LOL! Good question. Why do so many kids and teens know who Chuck Norris is? Walker ended in 2001.

The answer is simple... tropical madness!

Yes, folks, I was weened on Chuck in my formative years. As well as Ah-nuld and Sly and Van Damme and Seagal. Then later I got into James Bond big time (but that's a different story). But there was something about Chuck that made me gravitate towards him. Of course being able to catch a new episode of WALKER every Saturday night on CBS certainly helped.

Hi Czar,
Seagal, eh? In 1990 I went outside Angelo's restaurant in NYC's Little Italy, across from SPQR, to fire up a Cuban cigar while my friends lingered inside over coffee.
My buddy Dave worked for the State Department and those boys always had Cubans. Anyway I was leaning against the building, when a strikingly beautiful woman
who seemed rather agitated approached me. I kept thinking, this night just gets better and better. She asked me for a light, edged close as a wind had come up, and
I lit her cig. She thanked me when suddenly at her shoulder appeared a pony tailed man, with a limo slowly keeping pace with him in the street.
In that neighborhood when a car lingers like that you look for some where to dive in case the bent nose boys were up to shenanigans. On the other hand the girl
was there. Suddenly pony tail grabbed her and snarled "get in the car" while glaring at me. I'm 6'1 and not small and was full of McSorleys finest ale from the
afternoon. I figured him for 5'10 and about 30 pounds lighter so I glared right back, as he demanded to know what she said to me.
I started watching his hands just in case, and was going to tell him to go pound salt when she patted my arm and TOLD him to get in the limo, he was embarrassing her.
They left and 5 or 6 people ran up to me pleading to know what I had been saying to Kelly LeBrock and her husband Steven Seagal.
I had been thisclose to telling him to F off, little knowing that was how close I might have come to getting slaughtered. Actually I didn't know till later as I had never
heard of Seagal. Still, that's a good object lesson in not needlessly crossing swords with a stranger.
I won't judge him, everyone has bad nights with their better half and he was half in the bag, but he didn't make a good impression either.
As for Kelly, wow, the camera doesn't do her justice, if a ten is a nine that owns a bar, she must own a brewery and rates an eleven.

[KENJI]

You tell a great story Dobie - loved it!!! You had me laughing with the brewery comment....also loved your McSorley's Ale comment......yes, good old liquid courage......thank goodness it didn't fully kick in, otherwise you would've been the one being kicked in two....that was a close one!
You should start writing your own memoirs thread as that one was a 10 in my books! Another thought......there's a reboot out there in need of better writers too.

[Pahonu]

Great story Dobie and well told!

I can add to the subject of celebrity insecurity. Also in the 90’s, me and a buddy scored passes from a writer friend to the premier of Robert Altman’s film “The Player” and the after party in Hollywood with the director. If you haven’t seen the film, it’s an insiders look at the Hollywood production system, slamming it really. Altman was a real maverick and known for working well with actors. Literally, several dozen celebrities made cameos to support Altman and most of them seemed to be at this after party.

Anyway, at some point in the party I was enjoying yet another cocktail off to the side and a woman said to me something like, “This party is a celebrity hot spot.” I agreed and then realized it was Mimi Rogers. I told her I enjoyed her work and it was nice meeting her. We made some small talk and then the guy she was with came up and pretty aggressively and awkwardly pushed his way between us and said something quietly to her. I just said excuse me and he turned around and glared at me. Now I’m a really big guy, 6-7 and a former college athlete, and he was a about chest high. I just stood there and he pretty much pulled her away by the hand as she said it was nice talking to me.

My buddy came up, having seen the last part and asked what I had said which was nothing really. The guy just seemed really threatened and insecure. I think this likely comes from being constantly surrounded by wealthy and beautiful people and this party was full of them, not me of course. Even other wealthy and beautiful people can’t seem to escape this insecurity. Just my thoughts.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

You tell a great story Dobie - loved it!!! You had me laughing with the brewery comment....also loved your McSorley's Ale comment......yes, good old liquid courage......thank goodness it didn't fully kick in, otherwise you would've been the one being kicked in two....that was a close one!
You should start writing your own memoirs thread as that one was a 10 in my books! Another thought......there's a reboot out there in need of better writers too.

Kenji,
Thanks pal. I have been in the Lions Club for decades, they give you a real education in public speaking. As part of it they encourage you to have
7 or 8 personal anecdotes, molded and improved thru frequent tellings, ready to go. You have that many, one of them will surely apply to most any occasion.
And if you have met a celeb, that right off will get people interested, but no BS ever, as truth has it's own charm and will ring true to the audience.
Consider Seagal has millions he could never spend, a goddess for a wife, limo on call, fame, yet still comes off as an miserable ass jealous of some regular
schnook from Jersey on a soft September night when the City should be his oyster. Said schnook is the content one, as there is nothing finer than Manhattan
in the Fall with good friends sharing food and spirits and tales, then stepping outside for a fine smoke, all the better for it being an illicit one.
If there's a lesson there, frankly I'm not buying it as Seagal was the one taking Kelly home that night. Keep the Havanas give me LaBrock.
Sigh.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

Great story Dobie and well told!

I can add to the subject of celebrity insecurity. Also in the 90’s, me and a buddy scored passes from a writer friend to the premier of Robert Altman’s film “The Player” and the after party in Hollywood with the director. If you haven’t seen the film, it’s an insiders look at the Hollywood production system, slamming it really. Altman was a real maverick and known for working well with actors. Literally, several dozen celebrities made cameos to support Altman and most of them seemed to be at this after party.

Anyway, at some point in the party I was enjoying yet another cocktail off to the side and a woman said to me something like, “This party is a celebrity hot spot.” I agreed and then realized it was Mimi Rogers. I told her I enjoyed her work and it was nice meeting her. We made some small talk and then the guy she was with came up and pretty aggressively and awkwardly pushed his way between us and said something quietly to her. I just said excuse me and he turned around and glared at me. Now I’m a really big guy, 6-7 and a former college athlete, and he was a about chest high. I just stood there and he pretty much pulled her away by the hand as she said it was nice talking to me.

My buddy came up, having seen the last part and asked what I had said which was nothing really. The guy just seemed really threatened and insecure. I think this likely comes from being constantly surrounded by wealthy and beautiful people and this party was full of them, not me of course. Even other wealthy and beautiful people can’t seem to escape this insecurity. Just my thoughts.

Pahonu,
Good points. Mimi's boyfriend's celebrity status counted for nothing when up against the real world bulk of a 6'7 threat to his ego. Wasn't Mimi married to Tom Cruise?
This boyfriend, did he have dark hair, speak with a Jersey accent and know all the words to Bob Seeger's "Just Give Me That Old Time Rock And Roll"?

[Kevster]

I'm a baby boomer yet I still knew who the movie and television stars of my parents were and couldn't imagine not knowing the classic films and TV shows, too many to list here. My son is 22 and in College his 2nd year when he told me he was taking a Cinema class I was thrilled beyond belief as I imagined discussing the racism of Birth of a Nation, the brilliance of Charlie Chaplin, the incredible movie Citizen Kane and the genius of Hitchcock movies. The class studied two movies: Pleasantville and Platoon????

Platoon was a great film. It was a game-changer in terms of its shockingly realistic depiction of the war for the foot soldier. I remember news stories at the time describing many vets, like two of my uncles, as being unable to watch the film entirely. One had to walk out and the other avoided it completely. It was still a very raw and controversial topic at the time, largely avoided. Magnum was the first TV show to even touch on it indirectly.

I was a film major and learned about all the films you mentioned and so much more. One class can’t come close to touching on the incredible depth of film history. It seems the class was not a general survey but more an in depth analysis of specific films. I took one class just on the avant-garde like Truffaut and the French New Wave and the neorealism of De Sica.

Same things reportedly happened when Saving Private Ryan came out. Surviving vets said it was as they remembered. The comment that kinds of surprised me is that a number of them said that as they watched, the smell flooded back to them! Obviously it was psychological, but the scars were still very real 54 years later.

[Pahonu]

I'm a baby boomer yet I still knew who the movie and television stars of my parents were and couldn't imagine not knowing the classic films and TV shows, too many to list here. My son is 22 and in College his 2nd year when he told me he was taking a Cinema class I was thrilled beyond belief as I imagined discussing the racism of Birth of a Nation, the brilliance of Charlie Chaplin, the incredible movie Citizen Kane and the genius of Hitchcock movies. The class studied two movies: Pleasantville and Platoon????

Platoon was a great film. It was a game-changer in terms of its shockingly realistic depiction of the war for the foot soldier. I remember news stories at the time describing many vets, like two of my uncles, as being unable to watch the film entirely. One had to walk out and the other avoided it completely. It was still a very raw and controversial topic at the time, largely avoided. Magnum was the first TV show to even touch on it indirectly.

I was a film major and learned about all the films you mentioned and so much more. One class can’t come close to touching on the incredible depth of film history. It seems the class was not a general survey but more an in depth analysis of specific films. I took one class just on the avant-garde like Truffaut and the French New Wave and the neorealism of De Sica.

Same things reportedly happened when Saving Private Ryan came out. Surviving vets said it was as they remembered. The comment that kinds of surprised me is that a number of them said that as they watched, the smell flooded back to them! Obviously it was psychological, but the scars were still very real 54 years later.

I believe it!

I’ve read that our sense of smell, while not developed as highly as most mammals, triggers more distant memories than any other sense. Don’t know why but I believe that too. I sometimes struggle to remember the sound of my grandmother’s voice from over 20 years ago when she passed but I recognize the scent of her perfume instantly and the memories flood back.