Robert Burrows Posted May 25, 2020 Share Posted May 25, 2020 The most horrifying and heartbreaking film that I have ever seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Bulman Posted May 26, 2020 Share Posted May 26, 2020 Very disturbing. Considering it was near 40 years ago. I don't recall ever seeing it advertised as being in theaters or on tv for sure. Not an M$M production. I bought Imagine when the album came out. I remember the sad day Lennon died. The school shootings, mass shootings of the last 20 plus years are brought to mind as well. The innocence of youth seems but a dream. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Andrews Posted May 26, 2020 Share Posted May 26, 2020 Film by the late Leonard Schrader, who often worked on films with his brother Paul Schrader, author of Taxi Driver and director of Hardcore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kishan Dandiker Posted May 26, 2020 Share Posted May 26, 2020 Probably the best documentary I've seen. Puts people like Michael Moore to shame. Using the JFK assassination at the start, portraying the start of a cycle of violence in the 60s and 70s, says it all. Not for the faint of heart though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Mitcham Posted May 27, 2020 Share Posted May 27, 2020 Unfortunately it's blocked over here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Brancato Posted May 27, 2020 Share Posted May 27, 2020 Police are still killing black men. Has anyone watched the incredible French series now on Amazon in the US called A French Village? Or the current HBO series Watchmen, based on a graphic novel of the same name? A French Village ran in France from 2009-2017. It is the story of a small town in the Jura, beginning with the German invasion in 1940 and going through the war. It is complex, beautifully acted and filmed, and covers the slowly developing resistance to Nazi occupation. I can’t recommend it enough. Watchmen is essentially an examination of what might have happened had some black survivors of the Tulsa Oklahoma massacre of 1921 become vigilantes later, passing that through to future generations. Unlike the Black Panthers, who became sitting ducks because their rebellion was so public, and their membership so heavily infiltrated with police and FBI agents, the Watchmen go underground, fully comprehending the necessity to do so. It’s not an easy series to follow, but the pieces come together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James DiEugenio Posted May 27, 2020 Share Posted May 27, 2020 (edited) Thanks for this Robert. I had heard of this film before but had not seen it. Leonard Schrader was the brother of Paul Schrader, who wrote the script for Taxi Driver. The images in this film are pretty powerful, and it shows how documentaries seems to have an inherent advantage over feature films in that sense. Two overall themes I think can be discerned: the triumph of the NRA ,which turned the USA into a shooting gallery and led to the rise of gun crazy demagogues like Alex Jones. Second, how after Kennedy's death, the war on poverty and the civil rights issues were bungled by LBJ and then run asunder by Nixon. By the way, the Whitman case was the basis for Bogdanovich's film Targets. Which is kind of underrated. I like the way they sound four shots during the Z film. Some problems: Ray did not kill King. The film is ambiguous about Sirhan. But they admit RFK was shot from behind. Sirhan could not have done that. The numbers of guns and killings in the USA vs England and Japan are always interesting and compelling. AOC says why do we needs all these billionaires? How about, why do we need 200 million guns? A lot of these cases though are just pathologies: Bundy and Kemper. But there may be more I think to Jonestown and Lennon. Jim Hougan wrote an interesting essay on Jones. Len Osanic has been trying to get Lennon's lawyer on his show. Today, the problem is modified because of the rise of rogue cops , since the problems with guns have gone utterly crazy and many cops are racists to begin with. I know in LA, Parker recruited from the Deep South. Edited May 27, 2020 by James DiEugenio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Micah Mileto Posted May 27, 2020 Share Posted May 27, 2020 Oh no, is this the same kind of anti-gun garbage? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James DiEugenio Posted May 27, 2020 Share Posted May 27, 2020 BTW, I am surprised that no one has mentioned in regards to Schrader's film how it looks forward to Natural Born Killers. Stone turned this whole tragic situation into a noirish comedy that featured some excellent acting by Tommy Lee Jones and some really imaginative directing. Its one of his three best films, along with Platoon and JFK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James DiEugenio Posted May 27, 2020 Share Posted May 27, 2020 One other point. Remember the early books by Joseph Wambaugh? And before that the Dragnet series, and all of those TV cop shows like Adam 12? The exaltation of the police is today impossible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph McBride Posted May 28, 2020 Share Posted May 28, 2020 The 1960s DRAGNET shows are unintentionally hilarious today. I preferred Ben Alexander in the original TV version to Harry Morgan, though Harry is funny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Mellor Posted May 28, 2020 Share Posted May 28, 2020 17 hours ago, James DiEugenio said: There may be more I think to Jonestown and Lennon. Len Osanic has been trying to get Lennon's lawyer on his show. Interesting. I know next to nothing re:- Jonestown, but I do dig into other assassinations & intel links to these cases. Regarding Lennon's killing, it smells to me. British lawyer Fenton Bresler published 'Who Killed John Lennon' in late 80's which highlighted many similarities with Mark Chapman & other 'patsy' figures. Other writers have also had suspicions of CIA links to doorman Jose Perdomo. The Stones drug bust in '67 involved intel agent Richard Schneidermann, over from the States to supply a wide range of drugs & set up the arrival of cops. Schneidermann was the only person to walk away free, & flew back to California. He was reportedly CIA. Jimi Hendrix's manager was Military intel, & Jimi's demise is full of rumour & doubt. The 'accidental' death of Diana Spencer in Paris also stinks of intel involvement & the official story is as wild as the JFK case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Brancato Posted May 28, 2020 Share Posted May 28, 2020 Unfortunately the film doesn’t look deeply at anything but the mind of the killers. I mistakenly assumed after watching the first scene that the film was about police killing, hence my post. But I will repeat - A French Village, showing on Amazon, is perhaps the best and deepest film series I’ve ever seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James DiEugenio Posted May 28, 2020 Share Posted May 28, 2020 The more things change: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/28/minnesota-governor-national-guard-minneapolis-riots-287869 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Bulman Posted May 29, 2020 Share Posted May 29, 2020 2 hours ago, James DiEugenio said: The more things change: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/28/minnesota-governor-national-guard-minneapolis-riots-287869 Rodney King/Watts, a worse crime, murder. All the way back to MLK's assassination and Vietnam as they allude to about 1967 though 1968 was maybe worse. Hopefully it won't end up like Kent State. While not the same subject, racisim vs Vietam, what the National Guard is capable of. A powerful video to me at least. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=four+dead+in+ohio+neil+young&view=detail&mid=2C57B5BDF07A93253DDE2C57B5BDF07A93253DDE&FORM=VIRE0&ru=%2fsearch%3fq%3dfour%2bdead%2bin%2bohio%2bneil%2byoung%26form%3dPRUSEN%26mkt%3den-us%26httpsmsn%3d1%26msnews%3d1%26rec_search%3d1%26refig%3d15b2deb86cb74c459f8b6e581552b855%26sp%3d-1%26pq%3dfour%2bdead%2bin%2bohio%2bneil%2byoung%26sc%3d3-28%26qs%3dn%26sk%3d%26cvid%3d15b2deb86cb74c459f8b6e581552b855 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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