Comments on: An Academy Member talks out of school – Part 2 http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2005/12/18/an-academy-member-talks-out-of-school-part-2/ The blog of the mystery writer, screenwriter and CEO of Pajamas Media Thu, 16 Feb 2012 06:23:56 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: garytheyoung http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2005/12/18/an-academy-member-talks-out-of-school-part-2/#comment-71651 garytheyoung Wed, 21 Dec 2005 16:23:58 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2005/12/18/an-academy-member-talks-out-of-school-part-2/#comment-71651 Did Haggis manage to find any there there? Did Haggis manage to find any there there?

]]> By: vegetius http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2005/12/18/an-academy-member-talks-out-of-school-part-2/#comment-71650 vegetius Wed, 21 Dec 2005 16:03:10 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2005/12/18/an-academy-member-talks-out-of-school-part-2/#comment-71650 Scott: "Didn't Lillian Hellman(good Stalinette)write one of those(happy peasants,tractor love,etc.).I think Diana Trilling once said that every word LH wrote was a lie,including the prepositions." It was Mary Mccarthy..Google 'Hellman McCarthy' and you'll get a good synopsis of the best literary cat fight of all time. Scott:

“Didn’t Lillian Hellman(good Stalinette)write one of those(happy peasants,tractor love,etc.).I think Diana Trilling once said that every word LH wrote was a lie,including the prepositions.”

It was Mary Mccarthy..Google ‘Hellman McCarthy’ and you’ll get a good synopsis of the best literary cat fight of all time.

]]> By: scott http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2005/12/18/an-academy-member-talks-out-of-school-part-2/#comment-71649 scott Wed, 21 Dec 2005 13:31:53 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2005/12/18/an-academy-member-talks-out-of-school-part-2/#comment-71649 Didn't Lillian Hellman(good Stalinette)write one of those(happy peasants,tractor love,etc.).I think Diana Trilling once said that every word LH wrote was a lie,including the prepositions. Didn’t Lillian Hellman(good Stalinette)write one of those(happy peasants,tractor love,etc.).I think Diana Trilling once said that every word LH wrote was a lie,including the prepositions.

]]> By: vegetius http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2005/12/18/an-academy-member-talks-out-of-school-part-2/#comment-71648 vegetius Tue, 20 Dec 2005 15:19:23 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2005/12/18/an-academy-member-talks-out-of-school-part-2/#comment-71648 Scott: If you howled at "Mission to Moscow" you'll gets some chuckles from "The North Star" and "Days of Glory". Not quite as wretched as "Mission" but leftoid silly in their own special way. Scott: If you howled at “Mission to Moscow” you’ll gets some chuckles from “The North Star” and “Days of Glory”. Not quite as wretched as “Mission” but leftoid silly in their own special way.

]]> By: scott http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2005/12/18/an-academy-member-talks-out-of-school-part-2/#comment-71647 scott Tue, 20 Dec 2005 06:15:13 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2005/12/18/an-academy-member-talks-out-of-school-part-2/#comment-71647 Exguru, Look,buddy,every thing I knew about communism in 1976,when I started college,was what I learned from the films "Julia" and "The Front",i.e.,red is good. George Cloony,if he wished,could adapt Whittiker Chambers' "Witness" for the screen,but I doubt he will. Exguru,

Look,buddy,every thing I knew about communism in 1976,when I started college,was what I learned from the films “Julia” and “The Front”,i.e.,red is good.

George Cloony,if he wished,could adapt Whittiker Chambers’ “Witness” for the screen,but I doubt he will.

]]> By: exguru http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2005/12/18/an-academy-member-talks-out-of-school-part-2/#comment-71646 exguru Tue, 20 Dec 2005 03:46:00 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2005/12/18/an-academy-member-talks-out-of-school-part-2/#comment-71646 While I haven't seen the Clooney love-in with Edward R. Morrow, and never will, I keep wondering what people born in 1987 or 1989 will think when they see these movies. Sharp kids will say to themselves, "If that man was so loathsome and repulsive, why was this Army-McCarthy hearing a national event?" Won't they wonder how a drunken slob like McCarthy became so important? And might they not just guess that there might actually have been a ring of Russian spies in America in the New Deal/Fair Deal years? And if they ever get that far, and give the subject a Google, might they not quickly run into the exhaustive work of the Hoover Institution, and discover the whole truth? I think they will, the sharp ones. And the flip side of that is that the attempted whitewash of Hiss and the Rosenbergs (and all the others) will backfire on its authors. It is rather fascinating, from Elizabeth Bentley to Whittiker Chambers, from Duncan Lee to the gay Englishmen, and Harry Dexter White, etc. Above all, though, the man who made Richard Nixon, caught for all time in that Yalta photo behind Roosevelt's chair, the pride of Johns Hopkins, America's founder of the United Nations, the late great Alger Hiss. These people kicked away our victory in World War II, and delivered America into a 45-year arms race with the USSR, while millions died on the gulag. They deserve to be remembered because their crimes were so awful. While I haven’t seen the Clooney love-in with Edward R. Morrow, and never will, I keep wondering what people born in 1987 or 1989 will think when they see these movies. Sharp kids will say to themselves, “If that man was so loathsome and repulsive, why was this Army-McCarthy hearing a national event?” Won’t they wonder how a drunken slob like McCarthy became so important? And might they not just guess that there might actually have been a ring of Russian spies in America in the New Deal/Fair Deal years? And if they ever get that far, and give the subject a Google, might they not quickly run into the exhaustive work of the Hoover Institution, and discover the whole truth? I think they will, the sharp ones. And the flip side of that is that the attempted whitewash of Hiss and the Rosenbergs (and all the others) will backfire on its authors. It is rather fascinating, from Elizabeth Bentley to Whittiker Chambers, from Duncan Lee to the gay Englishmen, and Harry Dexter White, etc. Above all, though, the man who made Richard Nixon, caught for all time in that Yalta photo behind Roosevelt’s chair, the pride of Johns Hopkins, America’s founder of the United Nations, the late great Alger Hiss. These people kicked away our victory in World War II, and delivered America into a 45-year arms race with the USSR, while millions died on the gulag. They deserve to be remembered because their crimes were so awful.

]]> By: Patrick Tyson http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2005/12/18/an-academy-member-talks-out-of-school-part-2/#comment-71645 Patrick Tyson Tue, 20 Dec 2005 01:00:08 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2005/12/18/an-academy-member-talks-out-of-school-part-2/#comment-71645 A few thoughts on <i>Good Night, and Good Luck.</i>: The audience I was part of skewed older and my impression is that they loved it. One of the gentlemen in front of me leaned over to his lady during the credits and asked if she'd spotted Bobby Kennedy. She had. It does no great injustice to the history of that time by allowing the characters anymore foresight than they might have had back then. It does no great injustice to the personalities involved by inflating and distorting their roles to make them look more heroic or more villainous than they were. The musical interludes add atmosphere (and provide linkage to the disjointed narrative); the framing device allows the principal to provide his perspective. Worth a look? Yes. Great. No. An improvement on another Clooney directed film about, among other things, television, <i>Confessions of a Dangerous Mind</i>? No. You didn't expect me to say yes, did you? <i>Confessions</i> is a Charlie script after all. It has done domestic box office of 22 million on a production budget of 7 million. ... Speaking of box office, the domestic take for the fourth Harry Potter movie surpassed the domestic take for the third this past weekend so things are back on track there. <i>Narnia</i> box office remains a bit of a question mark though it's hard to see how the investors won't manage to make their money back. Whether they have a franchise or not is an open question. I hadn't checked the box office on <i>Howl's Moving Castle</i> until earlier today. It's 12th worldwide and 147th domestically. Sad. All of which brings me to <i>King Kong</i>. By the time I saw it yesterday, it was clear that a <i>Titanic</i>-like pattern was all that was going to save it from disappointing earnings (domestically anyway) no matter how much business it eventually does. As the third hour was winding down all I could think (Kong is putting up the good fight preceeding death) is that Kong is no Leonardo DiCaprio. ... I'm one of those who found <i>Crash</i> annoying. A few thoughts on Good Night, and Good Luck.:

The audience I was part of skewed older and my impression is that they loved it. One of the gentlemen in front of me leaned over to his lady during the credits and asked if she’d spotted Bobby Kennedy. She had.

It does no great injustice to the history of that time by allowing the characters anymore foresight than they might have had back then.

It does no great injustice to the personalities involved by inflating and distorting their roles to make them look more heroic or more villainous than they were.

The musical interludes add atmosphere (and provide linkage to the disjointed narrative); the framing device allows the principal to provide his perspective.

Worth a look? Yes. Great. No. An improvement on another Clooney directed film about, among other things, television, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind? No. You didn’t expect me to say yes, did you? Confessions is a Charlie script after all.

It has done domestic box office of 22 million on a production budget of 7 million.

…

Speaking of box office, the domestic take for the fourth Harry Potter movie surpassed the domestic take for the third this past weekend so things are back on track there. Narnia box office remains a bit of a question mark though it’s hard to see how the investors won’t manage to make their money back. Whether they have a franchise or not is an open question. I hadn’t checked the box office on Howl’s Moving Castle until earlier today. It’s 12th worldwide and 147th domestically. Sad.

All of which brings me to King Kong. By the time I saw it yesterday, it was clear that a Titanic-like pattern was all that was going to save it from disappointing earnings (domestically anyway) no matter how much business it eventually does. As the third hour was winding down all I could think (Kong is putting up the good fight preceeding death) is that Kong is no Leonardo DiCaprio.

…

I’m one of those who found Crash annoying.

]]> By: scott http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2005/12/18/an-academy-member-talks-out-of-school-part-2/#comment-71644 scott Mon, 19 Dec 2005 22:55:35 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2005/12/18/an-academy-member-talks-out-of-school-part-2/#comment-71644 "...skinnin''em while they're still movin'." Lord,I'm still laughing.Thanks,Rick. Maybe Cloony can remake "Mission To Moscow". “…skinnin”em while they’re still movin’.”

Lord,I’m still laughing.Thanks,Rick.

Maybe Cloony can remake “Mission To Moscow”.

]]> By: Pat Curley http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2005/12/18/an-academy-member-talks-out-of-school-part-2/#comment-71643 Pat Curley Mon, 19 Dec 2005 20:27:23 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2005/12/18/an-academy-member-talks-out-of-school-part-2/#comment-71643 The obsession with McCarthy shows that the Left in America has a good historical memory, even if it is highly selective. One of the funnier aspects of this is displayed in DC Comics, where Superman and Batman are published. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, many of the other superhero comics published by DC folded; they began to bring back the other superheroes in the late 1950s, in updated versions. In an effort to explain why the older heroes stopped fighting crime, the official continuity these days is that they stopped being superheroes in protest of the excesses of McCarthy and HUAC. The obsession with McCarthy shows that the Left in America has a good historical memory, even if it is highly selective. One of the funnier aspects of this is displayed in DC Comics, where Superman and Batman are published. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, many of the other superhero comics published by DC folded; they began to bring back the other superheroes in the late 1950s, in updated versions. In an effort to explain why the older heroes stopped fighting crime, the official continuity these days is that they stopped being superheroes in protest of the excesses of McCarthy and HUAC.

]]> By: dyscox http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2005/12/18/an-academy-member-talks-out-of-school-part-2/#comment-71642 dyscox Mon, 19 Dec 2005 15:22:51 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2005/12/18/an-academy-member-talks-out-of-school-part-2/#comment-71642 Personally, I found Crash to be a howler, climaxing in Sandra Bullock's fall down the stairs- don't want to give away the punchline! Personally, I found Crash to be a howler, climaxing in Sandra Bullock’s fall down the stairs- don’t want to give away the punchline!

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