Moondance
Book
Bittersweet, at times funny, and always emotionally raw, this is by far the most moving and honest...
Radio's Digital Dilemma: Broadcasting in the Twenty-First Century
Book
Radio's Digital Dilemma is the first comprehensive analysis of the United States' digital radio...
David McK (3713 KP) rated Dark Prince (Greek Series, #2) in Books
Jul 25, 2020
As the novel starts, Alexander is but a 4 year old and Parmenion is out of favour with Philip of Macedon, who is jealous of the Spartan general's success in battle. Alexander is still plagued by the Chaos Spirit, and - at around the 1/4 mark - is magically transported into an alternate Greece, where the myths and monsters of Greek legend are all real. With a little help from Aristotle and the Siptrassi stones, Parmenion is soon off on a rescue mission, accompanied by Philip's assassin Attalus (without Philips knowledge). The bulk of this novel - parts 2 and 3 (of 4) - then takes place in that alternate Greece, with Parmenion - again - reliving his past and playing a key role in proceedings, before it returns to 'our' Greece for the final part of the novel.
As is standard for Gemmell, lots of musing on the nature of Good and evil throughout, and with a conflicted central protagonist.
Giant: George Stevens, a Life on Film
Book
Marilyn Ann Moss's Giant examines the life of one of the most influential directors to work in...
Days Like These: A Life Cut Short by Cancer, a Love That Touched the World
Kristian Anderson and Rachel Anderson
Book
When Kristian Anderson received the diagnosis that every devoted husband and father fears, he...
Epitaphs of the Great War: The Somme
Book
Limited by the Imperial War Graves Commission to 66 letters - and that included counting the space...
Fix Your Life - Now!: The Six-step Plan to Help You Fix Your Life
Victoria Hislop and Duncan Goodhew
Book
By the time many men get to 40, they are starting to lose their battle with the bulge, they work...
Fire Stations
Book
The architecture of Britain's fire stations is not a simple story of form following function. The...
David McK (3713 KP) rated The Last Samurai (2003) in Movies
Feb 6, 2021
And this.
Which is a strong contender for one of the best of those films.
The film stars Tom Cruise (who, for once, is not playing Tom Cruise) and Ken Wattanabe, with the former a world weary US Civil War veteran (suffering from PTSD?) who is hired to train the modernising Japanese army, and the latter a Samurai leader who thinks Japan is losing its identity; moving too fast into the future.
Captured by that Samurai leader following an early battle, Algren (Cruise's character) soon finds himself beginning to wonder is he fighting in the right side...
Yes, the plot is somewhat akin to 'Dances with Wolves' (or even 'Avatar'), and I've heard the charge of the film being a White Saviour story - a charge, I have to say, that I do NOT find any merit in: indeed, I would argue the opposite (that Cruise's character is saved rather than the one doing the saving) is more true.