Comments on: From Obama to the Wild Bunch

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:09:07 +0000

But… Frederic March, Henry Fonda and James Stewart all had nasal voices! It’s the cultural context that rendered them masculine and dignified–the moral choices they were required to make. Stewart, incidentally, in “Rope,” is pretty much a Ward Churchill type professor who, unlike Churchill, admits the error of his half-thought-out teachings after his own personal 9/11.

By: mojo

mojo — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:26:41 +0000

That scene at the end of “The Wild Bunch” is one of my absolute favorites, especially Ernie Borgnine, sitting there whittling and obviously pissed as hell. Holden comes out and old Ernie says “Well, it’s ABOUT GODDAMN TIME!”…

By: Pajamas Media » Obama’s Wedge Politics

Pajamas Media » Obama’s Wedge Politics — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:02:27 +0000

[...] Read the entire post here. [...]

By: Christopher

Christopher — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 02:13:32 +0000

Bravo on Breaker Morant. A fine film, educational, real. And the longer I live, the more those lessons ring true. John Wayne, in anything he made, beats anything Hollywood offers today. He used to represent America, he loved it, stood proudly upright for it. Our culture is committing suicide, from the illegal invasion to the liberal nuetering of the american male. I’m glad The Duke isn’t around to see it.

By: Trudy B. Taylor

Trudy B. Taylor — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:49:26 +0000

just when mccain seemed to be building a bridge to the core conservatives in the republican party someone (at least i pray that it was someone else-who can be fired) convinced him to open up on north carloina’s state republican party for an instate pol ad against 2 liberals running for governor who’ve endorsed obama. what is mccain doing? this is a republican state. it is obvious to me that i have no handle on his socio-political view of reality. this was a fight he did not have to start, yet start it he did. thank heavens preacher wright escaped house arrest and is out making more outrageous and ludicrous statements. maybe it’ll take the interest off mccain’s self-imposed showdown with the n.c. state rep party. lord i hope so…

maybe the middle class has found the elements of physical ordeal and elemental challenge elsewhere in todays media. i, for one, am mightily drawn to mike rowe’s dirty jobs-and not for the poo jokes- here one gets an ode to the working man/woman who goes out and takes care of business. as an extra benefit i seen real people making real choices about recycling and conservation that make sense and are devoid of political correctness. maybe this is the new venue for middleclass values in entertainment.

i never forgave hollywood for dressing shane in bucskins when everyone knows he wore black serge. dont tell me it doesnt make a difference–it does.

hollywood isnt all bad these days. a while back we got ‘the ghost and the darkness” out of them. and for anyone who enjoyed that rousing tale, try reading perterson’s personal account of the devil cats in “man-eaters of tsavo”. it would seem that hollywood left out some of the scarier parts…

By: J.E. Dyer

J.E. Dyer — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:40:13 +0000

Another great from my service (Navy): The Enemy Below. A study in character and leadership as much as naval warfare and the many ironies of war — and its lead characters are entirely believable.

I haven’t seen the more recent Master and Commander mentioned either. A very affecting but unsentimental look at maritime life 200 years ago, in which a captain and his ship’s doctor can play music together, and argue over leadership vs. tyranny, yet not come off as anachronistic metrosexuals. Better done than Gladiator from this standpoint, IMO. A truly marvelous movie.

By: tsmonk

tsmonk — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:35:03 +0000

Hawks was right to criticize “High Noon.” The notion of a lawman begging civilians to pitch in to do his job repulsed Hawks. His movies, by and large, had a common theme: leave the job to professionals. Not everyone is cut out for the job. That’s why he made “Rio Bravo” – John Wayne accepts help only from professionals to do the job (even if he’s outmanned, one guy’s a drunk, and another’s Walter Brennan).

By: Zhombre

Zhombre — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:12:18 +0000

Thank you, Dr. Hanson, once again. The Wild Bunch is one of my favorite movies. It is as close as Sam Peckinpah got to being an American Kurosawa. He had a cast of worthies to work with, in addition to the ones you’ve named, fine actors Robert Ryan and Edmond O’Brien (their final scene at the end if echoic of Treasure of Sierra Madre) and the Mexican actor Emilio Fernandez (who makes General Mapache as cruel and sated as an Aztec god). And Slim Pickens’ death scene in Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid is one of the most elegiac and eloquent scenes in an otherwise flawed movie. The only movie I would add to your list is Clint Eastwood’s The Outlaw Josey Wales.

By: M.E.

M.E. — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 18:09:08 +0000

To BLOC:
Your question: “Why doesn’t Obama throw Wright under the proverbial bus?”
I think the answer is very simple. To satisfy my ethnological curiosity I have discovered the blog “Your Black Gospel” (http://yourblackgospel.blogspot.com/2008/04/it-is-time-to-pray-and-march-for.html). In the main page you can see a photomontage with various images. The central image is that of smiling Obama putting the hand on the (also smiling) Rev. Wright’s shoulder. There are many other images that I could not single out (I’m not expert in the black political ethnology). For Obama, to disavow his intimate relation with Rev. Wright would mean to lost immediately the enormous quantity of followers that see in Rev. Wright, Jesse Jackson, Luis Farrakhan, Rev. Eric Lee and other black predicators their “spiritual” and above all political guides. I see here a very serious problem. Martin Luther King gave positive direction to the black movement (Black Panthers and Muslim Nation point out another direction that would be disastrous). With the coming of St Obamus the black radicalism, full of hate for the white “establishment”, came out with violence from the underground to the surface of the American society. It is possible to say that is the “historical meaning” of Obama’s phenomenon, i.e. to make visible what many don’t want to see. I don’t make the rhetoric questions “what do the black radicals want?” or “why do they hate the white who helped black people to have all civil rights and economic prosperity?”. Hate is irrational. All these big and little black messiahs (except the truly great Martin Luther King) were and are prophets of this irrational hate.
What about the Obama’s white supporters? Leftists, liberals, common criminals, usual politically correct idiots, all by-products of American society, all of them are gathered around Obama, found in him their authentic Guide.
The sane part of America that hasn’t lost common sense has gathered around John McCain, because one can agree o not with this man, but it is possible to discuss rationally with him. With his adversaries any discussion is inutile. John Wayne has said once: “I don’t believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people”.

By: Steven L.

Steven L. — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 17:52:36 +0000

On some of the left-wing blogs, young white women are explaining their support for Obama instead of Hillary by claiming that Obama “actually has more feminine qualities than Hillary does: Nurturing, emotional, thoughtful.”

This not only says something about Obama, but also says that today’s young women wear being “emotional” with pride (which would horrify the older women who remember the bra-burning heyday of the feminist movement).