The Butlers

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Just Oprah being Oprah: Winfrey winning praise for performance in The Butler (with video).

I don’t think it is a particularly edifying thing to note that Filipinos have been the mess staff through history. But it is the truth. Today, only a few days after the global commemoration of the bombing of Hiroshima, almost no one remembers that more Filipinos died in the Battle of Manila than either atomic bombing.

Hollywood is often careless with the truth and perhaps one day the Hollywood version will be the only “truth” there is.

The video clip is from the Gallant Hours. One reviewer writes: “The most remarkable feature of The Gallant Hours is its willingness and effectiveness to show emotions seldom dealt with in military movies. One of these shows Halsey in the horrific dilemma of knowing that he is sending two close friends (Admirals Scott and Callaghan) to certain death, but being constrained by circumstance from any alternate course of action. In yet another sequence, Dennis Weaver gives a brilliant portrayal of a combat pilot dealing with the conflicting emotions of being relieved at having survived his mission and yet feeling both disgust and shame for what he is doing as he and his command “roll up a big score.”

There are no combat scenes – none. Yet the battle sequences are among the most powerful I can remember. Halsey, having bet the farm on his attack of a superior Japanese fleet, sits alone in his quarters waiting for the battle to begin, waiting for word from the Combat Information Center, while in the background disembodied radio chatter chronicles the preparations of war. Wow. Cagney’s face is all you need to see. Your tension increases with his. And then his transformation into a warrior leaves you unable to take a breath.

The stewards also died with the ships. In the same fire, storm of shell or flood of inrushing water. And though some were at their designated action stations, in the nature of things doubtless some will have perished with a cup of coffee or a platter of sandwiches in their hand, for their God, their admiral and for their country.

Did you know that you can purchase some of these books and pamphlets by Richard Fernandez and share them with you friends? They will receive a link in their email and it will automatically give them access to a Kindle reader on their smartphone, computer or even as a web-readable document.

The War of the Words for $3.99, Understanding the crisis of the early 21st century in terms of information corruption in the financial, security and political spheres
Rebranding Christianity for $3.99, or why the truth shall make you free
The Three Conjectures at Amazon Kindle for $1.99, reflections on terrorism and the nuclear age
Storming the Castle at Amazon Kindle for $3.99, why government should get small
No Way In at Amazon Kindle $8.95, print $9.99. Fiction. A flight into peril, flashbacks to underground action.
Storm Over the South China Sea $0.99, how China is restarting history in the Pacific
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