A gutterbucket of words.....

I do not really know what words I will put down on the page now. I am something of a sesquipedalian myself. The death of William F. Buckley Jr. on Wednesday struck a nerve. I have always leaned more to the left, but Buckley`s beliefs in unbridled enterprise harnessed sympathy with me. I grew up in a very conservative environment in Dallas Texas in the 1960s. The spirit of free enterprise was ever an object of affection. This was at the height of the cold war, and the threat of international communism was perpetually on the horizon. William F. Buckley Jr. was the consummate Cold Warrior who helped to propel the career of Barry Goldwater, who believe it or not, was to the right of Richard Nixon. Yea, for me this is astonishing! I`m reminded of the Johnson TV spot from the 1964 presidential election. 5,4,3,2,1…then a nuclear explosion. Yes, we probably would not be here now if Goldwater had been elected. His words often echo through my head and chills appear: “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.” Indeed, this means for me that the end justifies the means. I think not. The same argument is being made now in Iraq, that if we can lay a beachhead of freedom and democracy, then the loss of a few citizens that were getting in the way anyway, is of no consequence. En contrar, my fare weathered friend! “It keeps eating,… New York like any metropolis is an organism that changes, mutates, building sprout-like chromosomes on the DNA of the streets.” Erica Bain-The Brave One. These words echo the pariah of communism throughout the world. Castro was a thorn in the side of the US and Che Guevara spread revolution pandemically throughout Latin America. Claims have been made that Buckley forged the conservative foundations that led to the emergence of Reagan and Bush, and therefore helped to end the Cold War. I don`t buy this, but it`s a good theory. The Soviet economy imploded basically…but this was due to the Afghanistan war. The Iran to Contra scandal once again showed that the Reagan administration was willing to let the end justify the means in order to squelch the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. This is at best contemptible, and Oliver North is no hero. After all this was funded by the sale of arms to Iran and the sale of drugs too to provide the funding. Come on…this is worse than Watergate, and now Daniel Ortega is back in power anyway. But Buckley did offer a level of eloquence and sophistication that is non-existent today. Fred Barnes and Bill Crystal and the folks at Fox are mere shadows to Buckley, who was very persuasive to people on the left, like Norman Mailer. Bill O`Riley is a wildcard for the right and does nothing but help us liberals with his quasi-patriotism and altruistic Bush trumping shallowisms. Boycott Fox my fare weathered friends! The sooner people turn it off, the better the country will be. No, conservatism rolled over dead once it lost William B. Finally, Bush will leave us too, another mutant byproduct of the ‘conservative coalition’ that has helped to cripple our economy, put us in debt, bog us down in a quagmire of Afghanistan and Iraq, make the rich richer and the poor poorer…Buckley too was against the War in Iraq! What does that tell ya? I greatly respect the man and will peruse some of the volume of his words. The current outcome of events was not of his design.

OSCARS NUMERO 80

OSCARS NUMERO 80

These are my preferred choices, not the ones that I believe the Academy will pick. I know I will be dumbfounded on Oscar night when the choices are the midget in the casket from “Death at a Funeral”.

Tommy Lee Jones from “In The Valley of Elah” for Actor in a Leading Role. There weren`t any fantastically black & white, a...obvious choices this year. Daniel Day put me on a bummer in There Will… The reason for this is that the camera was always in his face, and did not concentrate on the other roles in the film. This got beaucoup boring after a while. Too, the mood of greed was rather two-dimentional, if you get my drift!

Javier Bardem will easily take away Best Supporting Actor category. Right On Chigurh with the cattle equalizer!

Ellen Page otta take Best Actress (but may not)…my second choice is Laura Linney in “Savages”. That was a good one too! I preferred Savages over Away From Her for the alzheimer`s projects.

For Supporting Actress I will say Amy Ryan in “Gone Baby Gone”. I just saw that on DVD yesterday, and it is an unappreciated flick this year. I like Saoirse Ronan too in “Atonement”. I`m okay with either of those gals (a..I mean LADIES.)!

Animated Feature Film-Persepolis (I need to see it, by the way, if I can sneak in and not be accused of being al-Quada?!)

For Art Direction, Cinematography, and Costume Design: Atonement sweeps those categories! Please read my piece again on NewsBlaze (for the millioneth time)!

Directing goes to “No Country…” The Coen Brothers produced a timeless masterpiece-their best yet!

Documentary-“No End In Sight”-by itself it`s strength of argument can help to Stop the War!

Editing: "No Country", Music: "Juno".

Original Screenplay should easily be awarded to Diablo Cody for "Juno" duhhhh!

Best Picture: Atonement-that is simply because of Ian McEwan`s perfect novel-excellent story and that is coming from a non-fiction dude. Got to run to prepare for Rote Day Job-see ya!

SELF-PROMOTION & JUNO

I am proud of the fact that my 'My Ten Favorite Movies for 2007' was read 1,376 times on News Blaze for January. Please be sure to read it on News Blaze! I have never had that many people look at anything I`ve done before. I need to thank Judyth Piazza, the editor over there, for giving me a great opportunity for my pieces to be read a little. My new one for Atonement just was released on News Blaze on February 5th, my dearly departed friend`s birthday, John Franzen. It has 310 reads so far in just four days. Hey, just trying to get my numbers up a little! Some day I would like to have a number one review, just like I wanted a number one vinyl single...smash hit when I was a kid! Still just a dreamer at 55, if the truth be told. Please send the piece over to a friend or two, if you do not mind. They have that feature at the top. Oh...please spread my blog around a little too. A few comments would be appreciated, even if they are somewhat ragged...any promotion is better than nothing. CLAUDE BOVEE ENDORSES HILLARY CLINTON! IT IS OFFICIAL!
....................................................................................................................................................
The best soundtrack for 2007 is Juno! Please get it! Juno is anchored with such delicious classic rock ditties as: All the Young Dudes, Well Respected Man (this was in my repertoire when I was young), Superstar (written by Bonnie Raitt & Leon Russell...um didn`t know that), Sea Of Love, & I`m Sticking With You, but has some scrappy folk/punk by Kimya Dawson and I am glad I discovered The Moldy Peaches! Add it to your sides, chicks & dudes!

ATONEMENT

ATONEMENT SHOULD GET THE ACADEMY AWARD FOR THE CATEGORY OF ‘BEST PICTURE’ THIS YEAR!
by John G. Kays

‘Within the half hour Briony would commit her crime. Conscious that she was sharing the night expanse with a maniac, she kept close to the shadowed walls of the house at first, and ducked low beneath the sills whenever she passed in front of a lighted window…She thought how she might describe it, the way they bobbed on the illuminated water`s gentle swell, and how their hair spread like tendrils and their clothed bodies softly collided and drifted apart. The dry night air slipped between the fabric of her dress and her skin, and she felt smooth and agile in the dark. There was nothing she could not describe: the gentle pad of a maniac`s tread moving sinuously along the drive, keeping to the verge to muffle his approach. But her brother was with Cecilia, and that was a burden lifted. She could describe this delicious air too, the grasses giving off their cattle smell, the hard-fired earth which still held the embers of the day`s heat and exhaled the mineral odor of clay, and the faint breeze carrying from the lake a flavor of green and silver.’-Chapter Thirteen-Atonement-by Ian McEwan

The occasion for this review is the discovery of a movie ticket stub on the walkway as I took my morning sabbatical only a few fleeting days ago. I postulated that an anonymous senior citizen had seen Atonement on January 18th at the Arbor Theater in North Austin by the looks of the evidence; why then had he or she dropped this movie stub at this particular place and time on the sidewalk by the Convention Center will verily remain an ‘unsolved mystery’ `til we part ways on Doomsday? Yesterday I paid a visit to the public library since I was scouting out some titles on Pop Art, but as I renewed my library card, I remarked to the jocund lady-staff personage that all of the copies of Atonement by Ian McEwan had been purloined sagaciously, and I interrogated her as to whether she had already read it? She replied that yes she had, and retorted with perky enthusiasm that: “it is truly a most blessed novel”! As a result of this I lumbered expeditiously over to BookPeople and voraciously snagged up the last living paperback that rested precariously on that barren shelf.

Atonement begins in the summer of 1935, and takes place in a wealthy bucolic English manor; it is the story of Briony Tallis, an imaginative playwright at the tender age of thirteen, who is an eyewitness to three events that she gravely misinterprets. These are the critical events, the vehicle for the story be told. In the first incident she sees a casting off of clothing by her sister Cecilia, before the eyes of Robbie Turner, a colleague from the lower orders, then Cecilia takes a whimsical dive into a Bernini-type fountain. From Briony`s point of view this is a ‘ritual of erotica’, a brazen breach of morality. Little did she know that Cecilia was actually retrieving a broken vase by way of a treasured family heirloom. The second event is the delivering of an outlandish letter from Robbie to Cecilia which Briony takes a peep at, then she walks in on a romantic interlude between the brand new lovers in the library. Briony misreads this as an intrusion by Robbie, and she shades it with a dearth of consent by her capricious sister, Cecilia. The third and most profound occurrence is the witnessing by Briony of the rape of Lola, her cousin as I recall, down by a nearby lake, after the twin cousins had suddenly vanished. Briony accuses Robbie Turner of the dastardly crime and this lays carpet for the remnant of the plot.

The second phase of the movie takes place in France and is six years later; these were the dark days of the Allied evacuation at Dunkirk, May of 1940. Robbie Turner is lost and runs cautiously about the countryside of France. The exchange of heart-felt letters between Robbie and Cecilia is projected creatively on the screen in fantasy syncopation. Cecilia and Briony are nurses for the army and their hardships are put under a microscope. Especially Briony`s flaming pangs of conscience are exposed with her perpetual scrubbing of filth; one is reminded of Lady Macbeth: “Out damned spot!” Visits back in time to the Tally estate drift in and out, details are laid in nicely, however the storyline morphs between truisms and wishful thinking, yet you are not cognizant of this until the final frame. Events heat up around the Battle of Dunkirk, but much is left untold. The third phase with the elderly Briony played by Vanessa Redgrave, ties up many of the loose ends but punches you in the gullet with a bodacious blow!

I do believe that Atonement (be sure to shuffle through these 43 pics) should be awarded the Best Picture for 2007 at the Academy Awards on February 24th. I had not seen it when I wrote my ‘Best Of’ about a month ago, but it generates positive ions/vibes that I had not detected in alternative offerings for our year just gone by. The costumes are dreamy, and if you just see it to experience Keira Knightley in the exquisite green gown then that would be a fitting excuse for jubilation. Jacqueline Durran did the costume design (she did so for Pride and Prejudice [this is Jane Austen`s novel] as well) and she is up for another Academy Award, and I hope she gets it. The music is moody, stylish, and evokes chameleon-like alacrity; the composer, Dario Marianelli is up for an Oscar and jolly well may walk the victory carpet. The scenes at the manor in the English countryside reek of picturesque abandonment and whimsy; I was reminded of Lewis Carrol`s Through the Looking Glass; `tis a rare fanfare of Victorian ambience, I should think. By contrast the scenes of Dunkirk smacked of the starkness of modern war; this was a logical demarcation in the film`s evolving landscape.

The acting was carefully orchestrated with Ian McEwan`s novel and Keira Knightley was a palatable fit as Cecilia Tallis, with a proper British accent and gazelle-like forbearing, very taut and angular and emotive, but in a substantive acting role with gravity. James McAvoy is certainly competent as Robbie Turner, the educated son of a servant of the Tallis family. Even with that said the consummate achievement in acting goes to Saoirse Ronan as the youthful and mischievous Briony Tallis; she is up for an Academy Award for best supporting actress, and I hope she grabs up the golden statue. Saoisre flits about as naturally as the fairy Puck in A Midsummer Night`s Dream, and her blonde bangs are bouncing freely and stylishly as she romps through the English countryside. Romola Garai as the middling Briony in the role of a nurse, tending the wounded after the Dunkirk rout, is mostly gripping; then at last the capstone role of Vanessa Redgrave as the elder Briony, an accomplished author by that time, reflectively inserts the last pieces into the sorrowful puzzle. The editing was tricky, with the necessity of mirroring the subtle time sequencing of the novel, the many flashbacks involved, that is, but I was riveted by the scissor to celluloid. As I read the novel I recollect (I only saw the movie one week ago) the loyalty of the editing to the story in words. I am lost on my journey with regard to Joe Wright, the director, but Pride and Prejudice should be plopped in my paltry mailbox this very day.

I will briefly conjure up the issue of symbolism in the movie; this comes by way of the novel which I observe as ubiquitous within the lines. It may be discreet to disclose that I am only one-third of the way through the pages. Here is a nice review of the novel Atonement, for your perusal. The most obvious symbol observed is the illusive vase, which for me represents tradition or the heritage of the Tallis family. When it is shattered, into triangular shards, yet another symbol of the Holy Trinity, one intuits that tradition has been violated. To view this in class terms, or to give it a Marxist spin, Robbie is from the lower order and Cecilia is from the upper order. By romancing her Robbie is jumping or crossing classes. This is a societal no no of the highest caliber; this is so because it is both erotic and revolutionary. Briony sees it in just this way too, and it throws up a red flag for her, and yet it (class crossing) allows her to persecute Robbie freely based on the dynamics of class alone. The angle of class dynamics is an important one for me, how about you? The fountain overture is a mating motif; Cecilia strips down and transforms into a Venus figure, with a visible eros zone. Moreover, her dip in the fountain is a baptismal reference, but the truth be spoken, this is a sensual baptismal thing, if you can divine my meaning? At that instance Robbie and Cecilia`s love for one another becomes real, and is consummated, idealistically speaking! This is magical in nature and is right out of Ovid! Another symbol is Dunkirk, and it simply represents Robbie`s maturation into an ‘Age of Experience’(this is a moniker of my own invention). By way of contrast the experiences of ‘new love’ at the Tallis Estate in 1935 would call forth a notion that I will call the ‘Age of Innocence’; this would be a soft reference to William Blakes` beautiful poems from the 19th century that helped to inaugurate the Romantic Period in English literature. Okay, another! The hospital comes to mind also, and is a kind of sanctuary of purity for both Cecilia and Briony. They almost seem to have joined a nunnery, at least in spirit. Briony uses the hospital to purge herself of the grave misdeed that she committed, but in spite of her relentless scrubbing of hospital beds, the regret and guilt will not fly away. Finally, the wildflowers in the vase represent the bacchanalian abandon experienced by Cecilia and Robbie when stricken by Cupid`s arrow. This is not a planned or calculated feeling, but rather spontaneous, just as wildflowers spring naturally from the womb of the earth! For the author this is a no brainer, but may not seem obvious to the ‘moral majority’!

I overdosed on PPs this weekend, but am fond of this form. Last night I had an odd epiphany that Gone With the Wind was the very first PP…um, I wonder? Some have labeled the current film under review as a ‘Period Piece’, and as such this category might include such titles as Pride and Prejudice, Howard`s End, and the Age of Innocence, an unusual one for Martin Scorsese. I have not studied any formal definition of this genre, nor do I care to, but I suspect that most avid filmgoers have a clear grip on what this creature is. I should think that Jane Austen is the complimentary, canonized patron saint, and residing grandmother for the ‘Period Piece’? This is a truism that need not be further elaborated. As such, in my mind`s eye I am viewing our present film as a mere half-period-piece. Ian McEwan has been labeled as the Jane Austen of the modern English novel, but I believe he often utilizes motifs that are too modern to properly put him in this aforementioned camp exclusively! I am seeing bits of Faulkner and James Joyce, okay, and even the residue of Ernest Hemingway in his turn of phrase. Obviously, these writers were capable of writing PPs, but chose to deal with starker topics that surfaced in the early twentieth century. Enough said on that…for now, but power to the PP People!.

Simultaneously, Atonement has a panoramic, aromatic atmosphere as if you`re inside a harlequin pulp-romance book cover, a tear-jerker you see, and in addition, the sinewy true-grit of a Hemingway short story, oozing the existential inconsequence of cruel, mangling warfare. No further inquiry is required. Themes raise their tremulous visage herein; the primer is the catastrophic infraction of Briony, that haunts all her days and nights and will not vaporize, such as a bad dream! Much of this story is her attempt to purge this classic Christian sin from her soul, but such arduous efforts remain futile for her, save for the machinations of the ripe Vanessa. Another ‘platonic idea’ that comes in streams of idle reverie is the transparent cleavage betwixt reality and fantasy; Briony can exorcise demons by painting a rosy picture, wrought with confessions and tidied up lives-nay, but things could proffer for Cecilia, Robbie, and Briony herself, on another sunny day perchance? I will leave it at that as far as particulars go. The fundamental theme is the title itself: Atonement, which is a synonym for a…say contrition, or more clearly, righting a wrong, or…eureka Mister John …writing a wrong! We almost make it to the closing credits basking in bright yellow sunbeams, but unexpected cumulous clouds come rolling in, blurring the screen before we can de-wedge ourselves from our sticky velvet cushions and depart the movie house with peace of mind and spirit, for a change, or for goodness sakes! Oh,…I sure am glad that I stumbled on that stray ticket stub.