And, oh, what a ("Mandate") year it has been.

One more before we ring in the New Year. Concerning that Florida kid who secretly traveled to Iraq to do his bit for King George and Country, Blah3 has this interesting insight:

However, as befitting a member of his school's Republican party club, Farris seems well in tune with the current resident of the White House in other ways as well. As a matter of fact, it strikes me that in both cases we're dealing with:

--a rich kid with more money than sense;
--someone who went against everyone else's advice;
--a plan that was carried out in secret;
--someone without even a basic knowledge of Arabic;
--a complete lack of understanding of what dangers might await;
--a plan that involves only the vaguest notions about spreading democracy;
--and someone who eventually needed some adults to rescue him.

Yes, Farris has learned a lot from George. But there's two big differences: Farris actually seemed to be in earnest about his goals, and unlike the Boy King, Farris didn't kill anyone.

Munich

Of all the movies coming out this season, Munich was not near the top of my list of films to see. My main thought when I first heard about it was how Spielberg must have busted his ass to get it done so soon after War of the Worlds. Quick filmmaking, in this case, does not in any way translate into inferior filmmaking. The things I keep reading about this film and the directions it takes astonishes me. An excerpt from Slate's glowing review:

Is Munich an apology for Palestinian terrorists - for men and women who barbarously murder civilians? I don't consider a movie that assigns motives more complicated than pure evil to constitute an apology. The Israeli government and many conservative and pro-Israeli commentators have lambasted the film for naivete, for implying that governments should never retaliate. But an expression of uncertainty and disgust is not the same as one of outright denunciation. What Munich does say - and what I find irrefutable - is that this shortsighted tit-for-tat can produce a kind of insanity, both individual and collective. As members of Avner's own team (played by a blond Daniel Craig, Ciaran Hinds, Mathieu Kassovitz, and Hanns Zischler) are picked off in chilling ways, his escalating paranoia - and his hunger for absolutes, for a "world of our fathers" that is long gone - transcends his time and place.

There are sequences in Munich that make you sick with fear, that are impossible to shake off - among them one in which a Palestinian professor's little daughter is on the verge of answering a booby-trapped telephone. Most horrible of all is the movie's one pure vengeance killing, which is among the most appalling things I've ever seen. We want that revenge - we want it fiercely. But it's staged with such ugliness - as a sexual violation - that we choke on it.

Munich reinforces the idea that - great Miltonian allegories notwithstanding - the notion of evil has become profoundly maladaptive. Today, saying our enemy is "evil" is like saying a preventable tragedy is "God's will": It's a way of letting ourselves off the hook for crimes committed in our name. Not incidentally, it's also a way for our enemies to let themselves off the hook.

Spielberg has taken some heat from those who have bolstered his name in the past. Jews who sang his praises after Schindler's List are now heaping scorn upon him after suggesting that we look upon the efforts of Mossad as anything but righteous. Spielberg, for his part, is having none of it. He recently defended himself in an interview with Roger Ebert:

"Some of my critics are asking how Spielberg, this Hollywood liberal who makes dinosaur movies, can say anything serious about this subject that baffles so many smart people. What they're basically saying is, 'You disagree with us in a big public way, and we want you to shut up, and we want this movie to go back in the can.' That's a nefarious attempt to make people plug up their ears. That's not Jewish, it's not democratic, and it's bad for everyone -- especially in a democratic society."

Yet what is he saying that has people so disturbed? Careful attention to the film itself suggests that it's not so much what he says as that he dares even to open up the Middle East for discussion.

"My film refuses to be a pamphlet," Spielberg said. "My screenwriter Tony Kushner and I were hoping to make it a visceral, emotional and intellectual experience, combined in such a way that it will help you get in touch with what you feel are the questions the film poses. He said he was taught by his parents, his rabbi and his faith that discussion "is the highest good -- it's Talmudic."

But what about the issue of "moral equivalence," the charge that he equates the Israeli and Palestinian causes, when the rightness of one (or the other) is seen as not debatable?

"Frankly, I think that's a stupid charge. The people who attack the movie based on 'moral equivalence' are some of the same people who say diplomacy itself is an exercise in moral equivalence, and that war is the only answer. That the only way to fight terrorism is to dehumanize the terrorists by asking no questions about who they are and where they come from.

"What I believe is, every act of terrorism requires a strong response, but we must also pay attention to the causes. That's why we have brains and the power to think passionately. Understanding does not require approval. Understanding is not the same as inaction. Understanding is a very muscular act. If I'm endorsing understanding and being attacked for that, then I am almost flattered."

A-men. The issues are important ones and are ones that need to be communicated to a wide audience. Munich will not have Jurassic Park like numbers, to be sure, but the subject matter will get out there and start people talking.

From Saving Private Ryan to Minority Report to Catch Me If You Can to War of the Worlds to, now, Munich.

Damn.

Please keep up the good work, Mr. Spielberg. You are very much still worthy of our attention and admiration.

Keep pulling me back in

I swear I was going to stop posting for awhile. But just as the man who starts a diet right before Christmas (Trust me. Of this I know), I foolishly called for a break just before Bush goes on the brink of totally losing it (mind and presidency). Reposted whole cloth from Demagogue:

Looks like Bush's people didn't get around to scrubbing this speech from the whitehouse.gov site.

"Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution." - George W. Bush, April 20, 2004

There you have it ladies and gentlemen-- Bush clearly states that he knows that wiretaps without court orders are unconstitutional at the same time he is/had been secretly authorizing the NSA to conduct order-free surveillance of American citizens for two years.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus!

So much for faith healing

I had to break my hibernation ever-so-briefly to post this (click to enlarge):

Thank you, Trudeau. You've addressed the Evolution vs. Intelligent Design ridiculousness and the obscenity of some Pharmacists refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control. On target, as always.

Hibernation

Diesel Powered Nuns

Don't worry. I'll be getting back to what that means in a minute.

Earlier this year, I came across a satirical blog post that charted the general stages of most personal blogs in terms of content and frequency. Included amongst this is the declaration from the imaginary blog's author that they have gone into a rut and is taking a break for awhile.

And so goes Acrentropy.

It could just be the busy time of year. It can also be the fact that my fellow employees and I will be busting our hinders in the coming months (years?) due to a dearth of support staff. In any case, Acrentropy and I will be taking a sabbatical for the most part. There will be new posts, but not nearly as frequent as before. The next one you see should be the inauguration of "Quote of the Month" for a new year and a new actor on January 1, 2006.

More of my energies will be spent on the La-La Land Library, which is in itself a library project and thus deserving of my dwindling time reserves. The site's support blog, the aforementioned Diesel Powered Nuns, serves as a repository for newly found links I come across before they are added to the ever-expanding entertainment directory.

So if you're a first time visitor or one of the faithful few, I invite you to visit La-La and DPN. Make some use of my directory to answer any film or television questions you have. And if you have a question that those sites can't answer, then email me and I'll do my best to find it out for you.

After all, I'm a Librarian. It's what I do.

There's typecasting, and then there's typecasting

Of all the actors who have appeared in the various Star Trek TV shows, one of the most prolific in terms of steady, noticeable work is Colm Meany. With the release of Kingdom of Heaven and Syrianna this year, Alexander Siddig can now be added to that group of Star Trek actors who have been able to progress past their Federation term of service.

The interesting thing is that while most Trek actors have been doomed to play related Sci-Fi roles ever after, it would seem that the golden ticket for these two particular folks is another typecasting altogether: Ethnicity. During his tenure with ST-TNG and DS9, Meany started playing Irishmen in Far and Away, The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain and a starring role in The Snapper. He's now gotten to a position where he can get roles that have nothing to do with his being Irish (witness his intense turn in the recent Law & Order: Criminal Intent two hour special) yet will still find himself in such Irish charm overloads as the recent The Boys from County Clare.

Now Siddig is starting to get some major attention for his two big films this year. For his part, he appears to welcome the opportunity to play these Arabic roles, and who can blame him. Hollywood isn't really swimming in prominent Arabic actors, so he has the opportunity to be a real trailblazer. More power to him. And it's nice to see these guys able to have a career outside of futuristic jumpsuits.