The Bluecoats - North vs South
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Great Scottish Heroes: Fifty Scots Who Shaped the World
Book
Which Scottish anti-slavery campaigner lost a son in a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp during the...
The Crash of 2016: the Plot to Destroy America--And What We Can Do to Stop it
Book
The United States is more vulnerable today than ever before - including during the Great Depression...
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Lincoln (2012) in Movies
Aug 7, 2019
Daniel Day Lewis, a man revered for his choice of films and roles, as well as his ability to portray characters with so much emotion and conviction, has done it once again. As the title character for this film, Lewis portrays one of the U.S.A’s greatest leaders and pioneers in a way that few other men could. Surrounded by some of the best actors in Hollywood (including Tommy Lee Jones), this star-studded film has a laundry list of very recognizable faces from all corners of Hollywood. The red carpet was clearly rolled out for this film.
The story starts amid the death and destruction of the American Civil War, an event that is both a fixed point of the story and a constant backdrop. Seeing the fighting and killing made me wonder how gritty this movie would get, but as it turns out, they kept the level of gore pretty low.
The film goes on to set the stage for the final footsteps into the southern theater that was the Civil War. In tandem, it follows the highly controversial 13th amendment, which was barely passed at the time due to racism and the belief that one color of human should be slave to another color. The absurdity of this notion is highlighted, but it’s also familiar in the way it parallels issues we face today: legalizing pot, gay marriage, prostitution, the right to bear arms, etc. Perhaps our grandchildren will watch a film in the future about these struggles, and regard it as we do a film about the Civil War. As I sat and watched this movie, I was nearly in tears at the thought of how African-Americans were once regarded as lesser beings. Will our grandchildren cry at the ridiculousness of our beliefs?
The cinematography was amazingly crisp. Many of the characters are introduced in such a way that they have a grand entrance through the mystique created by camera angles. I have to truly applaud Spielberg for what might be his best film yet. The camera work was immensely effective, relying heavily on the contrast between shadow and light. Coupled with richly detailed sets, it made everything staggeringly realistic, and absolutely convincing.
I will say this for Lincoln: I haven’t been so moved and taken aback by a period film in my life. This is a must see for everyone.
The dialog is highly political, and sometimes goes along at quite a clip; be prepared to miss a few things the first time around. However, watching it a second time surely won’t be a sin. The humor alone merits a second viewing. There are many good laughs to be had.
Lincoln is a work of art.
Narcoland: The Mexican Drug Lords and Their Godfathers
Roberto Saviano and Anabel Hernandez
Book
Narcoland describes a disastrous 'war on drugs' that has led to more than 80,000 deaths in half a...
David McK (3425 KP) rated Predator: If It Bleeds in Books
Jan 30, 2019
Both as sci-fi anthologies; both are based around their respective properties.
I read the latter first, and (truth be told) wasn't overly impressed: while there were some good stories amongst those included, none really stood out all that much.
As a result, I put off reading this until I worked my way through some 'proper' novels, and only came back to this relatively recently.
Thankfully, of the two anthologies, I found this to be the better (despite a somewhat ropey start). I think that may be due to the central conceit of the Predators: as (effectively) alien Big Game hunters, that allows these stories to be set at any point throughout human history, not 'tied down' to the future as the Alien stories are.
That's a concept put into full use in this, with stories that run the gamut from the traditional sci-fi setting of the future, to the American Civil War, to the Wild West, to feudal Japan, to present-day Third World countries and to pretty much every point in-between!
Brahmin Capitalism: Frontiers of Wealth and Populism in America's First Gilded Age
Book
Tracking the movement of finance capital toward far-flung investment frontiers, Noam Maggor...
Evangelical Gotham: Religion and the Making of New York City, 1783-1860
Book
At first glance, evangelical and Gotham seem like an odd pair. What does a movement of pious...
Five-Carat Soul
Book
Exciting new fiction from James McBride, the first since his National Book Award-winning novel The...
Fiction social issues
The Country Between Us
Book
Carolyn Forché’s The Country Between Us bears witness to what she saw in El Salvador in the late...