5. Billy Jack (1971) Available on
Netflix.
Knuckle-dragging, racist, sexist, commie-hating, flag-waving
homophobes attack a gentle-spirited commune run by hippies and
other leftist “constituency groups.” Gandhi is to the far right of
these peace loving victims. Billy Jack (Tom Laughlin, also writer
and director and producer) is forced to resort to violence to fend
off the bad guys.
I first saw this film in 1971 in an Ashland, Oregon auditorium
packed to the gills with patouli-dripping pot-smoking hippies, and
perhaps the blue haze entered my bloodstream; As the credits rolled
I wanted to burst out giggling at this unintentional over-the-top
self-parody of lefties. But the lights came on and I saw hippies
sobbing all around, and some of them were named Wolf and Bear and
looked like it and carried big knives. I knew enough about how the
many local hippie communes really operated to know that I’d better
not giggle in public.
These days, lucky me, I can visit fellow TAS
contributor Bill Croke in ultra-conservative Salmon, Idaho, and
watch Billy Jack, and we laugh until our sides ache. Trust
me, any true conservative will guffaw all the way through
this iconic pic.
Yes, Virginia, there really are liberals, and this is what they
looked like 40 years ago. Some still look like that, while others
now wear suits and ties and get elected President and run our
federal government just the way they ran the commune in the movie,
only now they extort money from the knuckledraggers. And now that
the hippies run the government it’s okay for government to use guns
to coerce, or threat to coerce, citizens. Right on! Far out!
6. The Titanic (1953) Available on
Netflix.
Starring Clifton Webb, Barbara Stanwyck, and Robert Wagner, this
film is a forgotten gem that should have you blubbering at the end.
Ten-year-old Norman (Harper Carter) gives up his seat on a lifeboat
(freeing it for a woman) and remains on board the sinking vessel so
that he can act as a true man — just as we conservatives won’t
abandon our principles as the U.S.S. America sinks.
7. THX 1138 (1971) Available on Amazon
Instant Streaming.
George Lucas’s wonderful film about the utopia of the future. Or
is it a dystopia? Depends on if you’re a liberal or
conservative.
Robert Duvall is our hero, THX 1138, an obedient citizen of an
underground prison-state, gestated and educated by the state,
controlled by state media, state drugs, and state-owned android
police. He resists. Hardly an original storyline, but it’s told so
damn well! And for the educated conservative EOTW movie-watcher, we
are reminded that being an individual with a free mind can be a
very lonely prospect.
I did find it curious to learn that Lucas made the film, in
part, as an anti-consumer, anti-corporate statement. Complying with
state advertising of the sale of blue and red balls, THX 1138
purchases blue and red plastic balls from the blue and red plastic
ball store and sets them on his shelf with other blue and red balls
and smiles with satisfaction. This is perhaps the lamest element in
Lucas’s story. The irony, of course, is that Lucas has earned
at least a half-billion dollars from selling merchandising
rights for his Star Wars movies. Is purchasing blue and red balls
any different from purchasing 13 different plastic figurines of Jar
Jar Binks? I wonder. But I also take pleasure in savoring the way
liberals embrace manifold contradictions.
8. Children of Men (2006) Available
through Amazon.
P.D. James’s novella of the same name, starring Clive Owen as
our hero Theo Faron. Directed by favorite Harry Potter director,
Alfonso Cuaron.
Set in the near future, we see a world where no children have
been born for 20 years. No one knows why. A virus? God? Mother
Nature? The end is nigh, and economic chaos and ruin have set in,
along with civil wars and the like. Reminds you, almost, of Western
civilization where declining birth rates predict suicide for
America and Europe and where economic chaos… but wait, you can
watch that show on the nightly news.
I like the anxious societal atmosphere this film presents, an
atmosphere I just might live long enough to witness firsthand,
depending on how this and that play out.
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 6:27AM
Contest at Wednesday's - "The Honourable Backup".
Read the New Rules.
It would seem, by the look of Today's Menu, that The Contest is sorely needed.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 11.30.12 @ 7:16AM
Basically, this article is the equivalent of 10 entries in the contest.
Al Adab| 11.30.12 @ 8:33AM
Seems the contest has been adopted by AmSpec.
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 8:41AM
The word is STOLEN.
Al Adab| 11.30.12 @ 3:03PM
Only if you hold a copyright.
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 4:06PM
Obviously, Al Adab means Benedict Arnold, in Arabic.
Occam's Tool| 11.30.12 @ 4:41PM
TLP: Yeah, but unlike the Libtards, TAS steals from the BEST! Happy weekend, my friend. I will think of you as I do my weekend on call (12 days on, 2 days off).
Might I recommend the new novel, The Last Policeman?
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 5:05PM
You might,
As the Alternate Universe Spock said to this Universe's Captain Kirk: I shall consider it.
Have Fun.
Skippy| 11.30.12 @ 6:34PM
"A Boy And His Dog."
"Zardoz."
"End of Days."
"Damnation Alley."
"Twelve Monkeys."
I could go on and on.
Skippy| 11.30.12 @ 6:39PM
"Deep Impact."
"Failsafe."
"The Road Warrior."
"Total Recall." w/Ahhnold
Looks like I did!
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 8:28PM
Why are you wasting your time at Brand X.
Come to The Real Contest at Wednesday's Story - "The Honourable Backup".
The Contest runs until Saturday Night at 7pm.
We'd love to have you.
Jack in Wi| 12.1.12 @ 5:41PM
A very well written and intresting piece. I have seen a few of the movies and this makes me want to see more of them. I saw the 1953 Titanic film in the theater when it came out. I always thought it was a great film.
TLP| 12.1.12 @ 8:23PM
It sounds Gay.
RJ| 12.2.12 @ 4:04PM
I would join the contest if only I knew where it was. Dr. Zhivago needs to be one of the movies. It is one of the best movies in demonstrating how unrestricted state power exploits individuals.
Alan Brooks | 11.30.12 @ 6:51PM
National Lampoon needs you, Jack.
Alan Brooks | 11.30.12 @ 6:53PM
...National Review Meets National Lampoon.
Cobalt| 11.30.12 @ 7:11AM
On the Beach (1959)
JimH| 11.30.12 @ 8:04AM
Doctor Strangelove.
Joellen| 11.30.12 @ 8:25AM
The Time Machine.
Al Adab| 11.30.12 @ 8:34AM
When Worlds Collide. Much better book than movie of course. Would be really worth doing with todays' technology.
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 8:40AM
What are you doing?
JimH| 11.30.12 @ 8:48AM
Joellen – The Rod Taylor version I presume. I’ve always thought that the Morlocks got bad press. They kept a civilization of sorts running. The Eloi were just a sort of free range hippies. Tastes just like chicken.
Al Adab – I agree a cool movie. A remake would be more visually impressive though they would probably change the selection criteria for who gets to escape on the rocket. We must have our quota of bi-racial lesbian poets after all.
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 8:53AM
You are falling in to the Trap.
This RIPOFF is the Contest Equivilent of Obamacare. Plain and Simple.
And, I am KEEPING TRACK.
Al Adab| 11.30.12 @ 2:52PM
TLP:
Do you mean you have an enemies list? Shades of RN or is it now Obie-one?
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 3:04PM
Something like that.
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 8:51AM
You too, Joellen?
If we were Married, and in Saudi Arabia?
I'd be Stoning You, right now.
And, deservedly so.
Joellen| 11.30.12 @ 9:10AM
I'am just warming up my man. I'll be there later on. What's our time limit this weekend?
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 9:20AM
7pm - Saturday.
TRIATORESS!
Bob Grant| 11.30.12 @ 9:33AM
TLP,
Keep your shirt on. Do you think Ray Kroc freaked out when Burger King came along?
Come on man. You're the McDonalds of analogy games.
Bob Grant| 11.30.12 @ 9:37AM
...and by that I mean a cheap substitute to a delicious, nutritional meal.
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 10:20AM
Last I looked, McDonald's Stock was Falling.
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 10:24AM
And, I don't wanna be the McDonalds of Analogy Games.
I wanna be the Kim Jung Dildung whateverthefuckhisnameis in North Korea, of Analogy Games.
I thought you knew that?
Bob Grant| 11.30.12 @ 10:46AM
Heh, Heh!
Occam's Tool| 11.30.12 @ 4:58PM
I thought you wanted to be the PSY of analogy games, and do it Gangnum Style.
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 5:08PM
I don't get it.
But I appreciate it, just the same.
Occam's Tool| 11.30.12 @ 10:36PM
The Korean rapper and his incredible hit that has helped his Korean uber-capitalist CEO dad do very well. (It's actually quite cute and the translation reveals a song with its heart in a surprisingly right place---NOT misogynistic.)
TLP| 12.1.12 @ 8:51AM
Now I know why I didn't get it.
Occam's Tool| 12.2.12 @ 10:53PM
I am strange, aren't I? Wife thinks I'm autistic. Damn, damn, damn.
Von Mises Jr| 11.30.12 @ 8:13AM
Actually, growing up in the shadow of NYC with liberals abounding, it is like living in one of these movies. At a Christmas Party we will attend, an old colleague of mine and many of our mutual friends will celebrate the Holiday. But even though Obama won, every topic written about on this website for the entire year is off limits. Mere mention of the economy or politics elicits howls of "shut up."
Of course I will not which is what will make the evening enjoyable. I love to pull the pin and roll a grenade under the table. It is a challenge to see how few words it takes to bring out the ire.
But the satisfaction is upon departing and knowing that it is safe to think and enjoy free speech again. Then I give praise to God that I am an American and can say whatever the heck I wish.
Joellen| 11.30.12 @ 8:26AM
Good for you Von. That's what "they" expect us to do - go silently in the night. Be strong and stay strong - you dont know what seeds your plant at this party.
Cobalt| 11.30.12 @ 8:38AM
Show them that you won't succumb to cutural Marxism; that you give no quarter to political correctness.
pogybait| 11.30.12 @ 8:52AM
Well, It should be interesting to watch these people as the second term unfolds….hyperventilating in their ardor for Obama while their pockets are picked clean under the banner of fairness.
Von Mises Jr| 11.30.12 @ 9:14AM
We are happy warriors, pogybait.
The liberals making $150K in the Northeast do not even realize yet that in their greed and envy to give to the poor with other people's money who make over $250K, they just unwittingly raised their own taxes. I don't want to preen, but I kept posting how a family making $100K with $70K AGI pays $2K more in Social Security plus $4,269 more in Federal Taxes next year. If you make say $125K AGI with two people working, add another $1,500 or so for the 3% increment in the next tax bracket. So these dopes just voted them and their liberal moron friends a $650 per month tax increase. And if their employer doesn't give them the right health coverage, they will be fined about $1,500 more in 2014 escalating to $3,750 in 2016 unless they buy the Cadillac Plan themselves.
Nobody ever accused liberals of being smart. They may be too clever by half, but that is often giving them too much credit.
Obama now says his re-election is a mandate for raising taxes. He won't discuss entitlement reform until perhaps next year. So we are going over the cliff just as I war gamed the scenario for the last six months. They will no doubt be surprised.
CJW| 11.30.12 @ 1:33PM
Von
At these parties whenever one of our friends starts on the need to raise tax rates I ask them why don't they just pay more voluntarily, to set a good example for the rest of us knuckedraggers, and that usually either shuts them or provokes heated argument. Either way it is a win.
Occam's Tool| 11.30.12 @ 4:57PM
I normally mention that tax receipts rose under Reagan compared to Carter, and that raising tax rates to a certain point diminishes recipts.
CJW| 11.30.12 @ 5:34PM
Tax receipts also rose after the Bush tax cuts, but unfortunately we spent it. It is only logical. Tax rate cuts spur the economy. More people working leads to more taxes paid across the board, income tax, sales tax, etc.
Dems know this because when they talk of creating "empowerement zones" that means reducing or eliminating the taxes in that area. Or states, like New York, that have "sales tax holidays" to boost sales. And Dems love to tinker with the tax code to give credits and deductions to activities they favor.
The Reps should propose a tax rate reduction for all income earners up to $250,000, increase the tax rate on income over one million, and tax capital gains/dividends over one million at the high income tax rate.
This will shut up Gates, Buffet, and the rest of the super rich Dems. Call their bluff and argue the Dems want to protect the super rich like Buffet.
Von Mises Jr| 12.1.12 @ 7:45AM
Buffet and Gates don't care about paying a little more in taxes. There is a big difference between taxing wealth and taxing income. The Kennedy and Kerry families, like Buffet and Gates pay themselves very little in income. But if they tax the crap out of income, they are pulling up the ladder so that no one else can reach the top.
Buffet and Gates just care more about their egos. They get to play crony capitalism with fascist government and get their names splashed across the news. Screw them.
Tim the Enchanter| 12.4.12 @ 10:16AM
Occam: I believe this is referred to as "the Laffer Curve."
Joellen| 11.30.12 @ 8:27AM
Gosh, my spelling is awful - that's you'll!
Von Mises Jr| 11.30.12 @ 8:32AM
No worries Joellen. Some of us are so busy thinking that we don't have time for spelling.
By comparison take Perp for instance who can either spell or learned how to use Spell Check, but confounds the meaning of most words resulting in properly spelled nonsense.
Louis Jenkins| 11.30.12 @ 8:48AM
Mr. Happy Jack:
One of the best articles I've read at AS in a long time. "Bezhin Medow" however, evades me. None-the-less, I read you loud and clear. Good ole' backslappin' guffhawing movies are indeed a guide for our demise, although none are quite as horrible as what's taking place in the District of Crimminals. Obama has been compared to the Joker, or a vampire (Twilight), or even a zombie. These are but renderings of someone's imagination, in reality, the most horrible summation is that Obama is destroying this nation! And he's considered a savior, worthy of being re-elected by the psychopants, the getters, too lazy to produce, of this nation. We are truly in a horror story.
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 9:23AM
"One of the best articles I've read at AS in a long time."
That one Hurt.
Bob Grant| 11.30.12 @ 9:49AM
Death by a thousand...analogies.
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 10:28AM
You could put that picture of Vincent Price next to that sentence from Louis Jenkins, with my name over it.
That's how it felt.
Paul McGrath| 11.30.12 @ 10:48AM
The comments here are funny as hell! I love you guys!
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 3:08PM
You, too?
Go to Wednesday's Story about "The Honourable Backstop".
Louis Jenkins| 11.30.12 @ 12:39PM
TLP:
No insult intended. Your writings is one of the things I enjoy reading (every day). Keep on with the good, or bad work, whichever you think. You are a writter of the obivous, and not so obvious. Although the picture of Vincent Price with your name on it is wrong, just plain wrong, sometimes I, too, feel your pain.
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 3:07PM
I'm talking about MY MOVIE ANALOGY CONTEST, that this Douchebag just Ripped Off.
Go to Wednesday's Story on "The Honourable Backstop".
Louis Jenkins| 11.30.12 @ 4:14PM
Just remember that imitation (or plagiarism) is the sincerest form of flattery.
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 5:10PM
That's not what my Lawyer is telling me.
Cobalt| 11.30.12 @ 5:58PM
"Just remember that imitation (or plagiarism) is the sincerest form of flattery"
Who said that? Joe Biden?
The Big E| 11.30.12 @ 8:48AM
You left off Silent Running (1972), which, like Billy Jack, is pure liberal self-parody, though in this instance, of enviro-nuttiness. Plus, it's set in outer space, has seriously first rate special effects for the era, a couple of cool robots unlike any you'll see in any other science fiction movie, and even some six-wheeled go-kart racing through the last earthly forests kept alive under giant domes in outer-space until they are nuked because of their inconvenience.
Al Adab| 11.30.12 @ 2:49PM
Just recalled the more recent, Day After Tomorrow, where LA is destroyed by tornados and New York freezes under a tsunami. Problem was, with that one, I kept looking for the downside.
But... Billy Jack?
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 3:09PM
Unbelievable.
Bill8472| 11.30.12 @ 9:08AM
Ultimately, they'll put the re-education classes on Reality TV. People will find it a hoot.
Doctor Right| 11.30.12 @ 9:34AM
Don't be hatin' on my sizable action figure collection, Happy Jack...
Doctor Right| 11.30.12 @ 10:08AM
Also...
Don't forget a GREAT movie made in the 1930's that unintentionally lambastes the very progressive ideals it was meant to promote:
THINGS TO COME
This is a MUST-SEE for anyone interested in EOTW movies and socialist dystopias. Unfortunately for the director and producer, they would be shocked by the latter.
It starts on New year's Eve, 1939, in the fictional city of "Everytown" (London), as two men discuss the anxious state of world affairs during a party.
World War soon breaks out, and this war drags on not for 6 years, but for 50. Civilization has reverted to tribalism and barbarism. Everytown is in ruins, and led by what was intended to represent a pseudo-fascist dictator known as "The Chief."
Without giving too much away, into the story arrives - on his high-tech "Airship" (high-tech for 1939) - a representative of "Wings Over the World," a new kind of government(!) dedicated to "science and rationalism," and based in Basra, Iraq (weird, but there it is).
Anyway, the ironic part of the whole story is that "Wings Over the World" will instantly be recognized by any Conservative as the TRUE FASCISTS! They've come to bring a lasting peace and a lasting order, and do not tolerate dissent.
Of course, to the left of 1939, these "men of pure science" represented a progressive wet-dream.
Anyway, the film is well-acted, and the cinematography is outstanding. Definitely worth viewing to see what REAL socialism looks like.
PolishKnight| 11.30.12 @ 10:15AM
I'm surprised that an EOTW party with Charlton Heston films doesn't include Omega Man which included the styles of the 1970's, zombies and something all of us can appreciate: being the only reasonable, sane man in the world surrounded by crazies.
Doctor Right| 11.30.12 @ 11:47AM
He did include Omega Man.
PolishKnight| 11.30.12 @ 12:25PM
Doh!
Tom Kyba| 11.30.12 @ 11:04AM
The analogy of conservatives' feelings after the election with the end scene of Planet of The Apes was priceless.
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 6:06PM
Contest at Wedesday's Story - "The Honourable Backstop".
This Column is AstroTurf.
Join us.
Seek| 11.30.12 @ 11:16AM
I'll take "I Am Legend" (2007) and "War of the Worlds" (2005) as the best films for a front row seat for the apocalypse. And by the way, fellow conservatives -- cheer up: It's ain't the end of the world. It's just an election. And an election, like an erection, is a temporary thing.
Russell Kirk did speak often of the permanent things, did he not?
Who Knows?| 11.30.12 @ 12:07PM
Clichés ARE trite, but true.
“Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.” Mark Twain
And, what are movies, except fiction in motion---flipping pictures. As in, flipping the bird.
I have in mind an EOTW film, starring Robert Redford, that might surprise you---“The Candidate”. Here we have prescience!
Don’t you think ol’ Bobby might have recalled this flick, when Obama got elected? Remember, the movie ended right after the candidate got elected, and he said, “Now, what do we do?”
NOW we know!
Anyway, what does “end of the world” mean?
The “world” “ends” everyday, naturally, for the thousands of people who shuffle off their old mortal core, and slip into the unconsciousness before popping out in their next mysterious incarnation. And, what IS a “world”?
Ah, thinking about that “special” year of 1971, a humming memory is plucked from “my” brain!
In 1971, I was having suicidal thoughts, as my personal life was a mess, and I’d recently read “Nausea” by Sartre and been profoundly influenced by “The Population Bomb”, by Paul Ehrlich. A friend recommended I read “The Book” by Alan Watts.
Who Knows?| 11.30.12 @ 12:08PM
This popularization of Zen made me question who or what I was, and the barest hint of an awakening took hold---so, it was bye bye suicide! I wrote Watts to thank him, and he said I should read “The Laws of Form”, by G. Spencer Brown, since I was a math guy.
What a great book!
The reason I write this? He digs DEEP, and here’s his take on “world”---
“wer = man, ald = age, old. The world may be taken as the MANIFEST properties of the all, its identity with the age of man being evident through the fact that man is a primary animal with a hand (‘manifest’ coming from manus = hand, festus = struck). Thus the world is considerably less than the all, which includes the unmanifest, but considerably greater than ‘the’ universe (more correctly, than ANY universe), which is merely the FORMAL APPEARANCE of ONE of the possible manifestations which make up the world” footnote page 109, written in 1969
Welcome to MY world.
Cobalt| 11.30.12 @ 1:11PM
Say what?
Pecos Pete| 11.30.12 @ 2:59PM
Cobalt: You can say that again.
Who Knows?| 11.30.12 @ 6:27PM
What.
Butch| 11.30.12 @ 1:56PM
Happy Jack is sure right about Billy Jack. A few years after it hit early cable it polled number one in a "Rednecks' 10 Favorite Movies" poll. Even the good ole boys saw through it.
Another liberal movie that was immediately seen as liberal self-parody was "Mandingo," starring some Muhammed Ali era old boxer, Ken Norton, maybe. The way-over-the-top depiction of the Massas' treatment of the slaves was so hilarious that Southern college fraternity boys showed pirated cable copies at drinking parties, laughing all the way through it. Warning: not suitable for everybody.
Alice Moore| 12.1.12 @ 9:24AM
I think Alex Haley's Roots was a plagiarization of Mandingo.
Sparky| 11.30.12 @ 3:05PM
My favorite EOTW movie is a hilarious head-scratcher from Japan entitled "Fish Story." In "Fish Story", a giant meteor is streaking toward the Earth, threatening to wipe out all life on the planet. The movie poses the preposterous question: Can an obscure song by a forgotten mid-'70s punk band save the day? Throughout most of the movie, this question seems a non sequitur. However, it provides the setting for a richly entertaining, ingeniously constructed comic gem.
Stick| 11.30.12 @ 3:07PM
The picture I have in mind is one of a good German burger with a destitute 1,000 yard stare. He wears a topcoat and holds a hat that have obviously seen better days. The picture was taken at the height of the collapse of the Weimar Republic. No movie is necessary. The man's face and clothing tells the story.
Ronsch| 11.30.12 @ 4:10PM
Sorry, TLP, but I gotta go "there..."
The Mad Max trilogy has to be my favourite TEOTWAWKI films...
I mean battling over petrol...That kicks it, and my Crown Vic will be the "last of the V8s."
Stevemmn| 11.30.12 @ 4:52PM
I thought Billy Jack was good. Not as an unwitting parody but because I thought Tom Laughlin was cool and because of the theme song One Tin Soldier by Coven. Then again I was only 14 when I saw it and all the PC nonsense in it sailed right over my head.
Occam's Tool| 11.30.12 @ 4:55PM
Speaking of EOTW movies, you forgot both a Clockwork Orange AND Fahrenheit 451, which are excellent choices.
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 5:12PM
That was like a Punch in the Stomach.
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 6:07PM
I hate you all.
Bob Grant| 11.30.12 @ 7:53PM
TLP,
May I share an analogy about AmSpec stealing your analogy concept, or will it hit too close to the bone?
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 8:52PM
It's not that Tyrell fckd me.
That's to be expected.
It's everyone that Posted HERE, and didn't Post at The Contest.
That's what hurt.
Maybe it's time to rethink the whole thing.
Maybe I was wrong about people, and their Loyalties to a Brand.
"What have you done for me, lately?"
Indeed.
You want it?
You can have it.
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 8:55PM
Good Luck.
Occam's Tool| 11.30.12 @ 10:39PM
I also posted at what I thought was the contest, Sire.
Arkady| 11.30.12 @ 6:45PM
Mr. Feder,
Ashland in '71? May have been in that litte auditorium down by Pioneer Market myself. Few blocks from the Log cabin & Lithia Park. Did you happen to know anyone named Maxwell, Thorpe or Devoe at the time?
EOTW, have to go with Soylent Green starring the mighty Heston & Edward G. How many B sci-fi movies can claim those chops??
TLP| 11.30.12 @ 8:53PM
Shut Up!
Marc Jeric| 11.30.12 @ 11:50PM
Marvelous article! I want to see these movies.
7-08| 12.1.12 @ 9:11AM
Vanishing Point,
uffdatorg| 12.1.12 @ 3:48PM
Someone wrote, "When you rob Peter to pay Paul, you will always get the vote of Paul."
JGW| 12.2.12 @ 2:59PM
Happy,
I just watched " A Matter of Life and Death" or, also known as " Stairway to Heaven ", on You Tube.
Sadly, it could be screened across these present United States, for free, with free popcorn and less than 25% of those who attend could understand it. Alas, who would go see it, no gun battles, sex, car chases et al. Blue state urban theaters would be empty.
Critics would pan it, if not deride it, demean it and accuse it of being a rightwing tool.
I, however enjoyed it to the hilt. Thanks for the heads up and I am referring it to friends and family.
Stormy| 12.3.12 @ 9:55AM
A new one for the list is the recent movie "Seeking a friend for the end of the world".
joemack| 12.4.12 @ 6:36PM
I have been listening to The History of Rome podcast. 179 episodes, from Aeneas to The End.
Contemplating the rise and fall of one ancient civilization somehow helps as my civilization has begun it's turn to ruin.