Dan Culberson
Dan Culberson is an author, TV performer, editor and publisher who has been writing about culture, politics and religion since 1994. He was graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in English literature in the Honors Program from the University of Colorado and was president of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He was born in Carmel, CA, but grew up all over the U.S. and Europe, living in Monterey, CA: Medford, OR; Lawton, OK (twice); Pampa, TX; Minot, ND; El Paso, TX; Tacoma, WA; Kennewick, WA; Erlangen, Germany; Lebanon, MO; Colorado Springs, CO (where he attended high school); Boulder, CO (where he attended college and now lives); and Heidelberg while serving in the U.S. Army and Sindelfingen, Germany while on assignment for IBM. He served three years in the U.S. Army, retired from IBM after 25 years with a career in publications and is a writer, editor and publisher who came of age in the Sixties, which he remembers quite well. He was named a Boulder Pacesetter in 1985 by the BOULDER DAILY CAMERA in the first year of that program and was a film reviewer from 1972 to 2014 for newspapers, magazines, radio stations and TV programs.
Homepage: http://c1n.tv
Posts by Dan Culberson
“The American” The Red Herring
Sep 14th
“The Red Herring”
THE AMERICAN stars George Clooney as the title character in what is essentially a foreign film and not just because it leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
Most of the film takes place in Italy, and because Clooney is one of the producers and also owns a home in Italy, cynics could say that Clooney made the film just so he would be able to sleep in his own villa every night.
Clooney plays Jack, although he sometimes goes by the name of Edward. The story opens in Sweden, and we see Jack and a beautiful woman out walking in the snow when suddenly they are shot at. Jack pulls out a pistol to the surprise of his companion and kills the man shooting at them.
Jack says to the woman, “Go to the house and call the police.”
What happens next is just the first of the many unanswered questions.
The next thing we know, Jack is in Italy, and he’s not wearing a beard anymore. He calls on a man who appears to be his handler and is told to leave town and to wait for a call from the man.
So, Jack drives to a small town and sets up shop, so to speak.
He tells a priest he meets that he is a photographer on a working vacation, but we never see him with any cameras. He also claims that he is not good with machines, but later he fixes the priest’s small truck for him when it won’t start.
Jack also exercises a lot and keeps looking out the window of his room with a pair of binoculars.
Then he meets a woman in a cafe by arrangement, and they have a very technical discussion, but there is also the suspicion that they are being watched.
Jack starts visiting a prostitute named Clara, and when he goes back and she isn’t working that night, he just leaves.
As you might have guessed by now, Jack could possibly be a hired assassin or he might not be. And if he is, you might have guessed who his next victim is going to be.
Unfortunately, we will never know, because the whole movie is one big buildup without any satisfactory payoff.
THE AMERICAN, in other words, is nothing more than one long, extended red herring.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Get Low” Get Down to Business
Aug 24th
“Get Down to Business”
GET LOW is a wonderful little film starring Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, and Bill Murray that will have you chuckling throughout and wiping away a tear at the end.
It takes place in the 1930s and is based on a true event in which a local recluse wanted to throw a funeral party for himself while he was still alive so he could hear what people had to say about him.
Duvall plays Felix Bush in an outstanding performance that could easily win him an Academy Award nomination in 2011 for Best Actor.
Bush is a local legend who has lived alone in his house out in the woods for 40 years, which causes the kids in town to gather up their courage and go out to throw rocks through a window.
Whenever Bush harnesses his mule to his wagon and goes into town, it causes a sensation, one that doesn’t always end well.
One day Bush goes into town to see the local preacher in his church; he pulls out a wad of money and says to the preacher, “About time for me to get low.”
When the preacher asks what he means by “get low,” Bush explains, “Down to business.”
However, when Bush tells the preacher what he wants, the preacher turns him down.
On the other hand, business has been bad at the funeral home, and when the funeral director, Frank Quinn, played by Murray, hears about Bush’s desire and especially about his wad of money, Quinn is eager to do business with the recluse.
However, Bush has more in mind than just a funeral party and hearing what everyone has to say about him. Bush has a secret that he wants to reveal, and he also wants to sell $5 tickets for a raffle, the winner to get Bush’s house on 300 acres of uncut timber when he does die.
Well, money makes people do funny things, and everything doesn’t go as planned, to say the least.
Spacek plays Mattie, a widow, and as Bush puts it, he once “had a go” with Mattie, but she also figures prominently in Bush’s secret and why he has been a recluse for 40 years.
GET LOW gets down to business as an excellent film that I admired for its story, the acting, and its rewarding conclusion.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”