Posts tagged country
“The Sapphires” a Sweet Story Set During Vietnam War
Apr 20th
“Sweet Story Set During Vietnam War”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE SAPPHIRES is inspired by the unlikely, but true story of four girls from the aboriginal outback of Australia who form a singing group that entertains the American troops in Vietnam during the war.
The movie begins in 1958 in Australia, and we see four little girls who love to sing performing before an audience. Suddenly a group of government officials show up, and one of the little girls, Kay, is taken away from her family by the officials, because she has light skin, and forced to live in a city with a white family.
This was all part of a government program to integrate aborigines into Caucasian society.
Then the movie shifts to 1968, and we meet Dave Lovelace, played by Chris O’Dowd, who is sleeping in his car and arrives late to work in a bar where he is the emcee of a local talent show, and his boss puts him on his last warning.
Dave says to the audience, “I sort of start off slow, and then I slowly peter out.”
Two young aborigine girls, Gail and Cynthia, are singing in the talent show, they announce that they are from “black fella’ country,” and they sing a country song that the audience doesn’t pay much attention to.
But when their younger sister, Julie, suddenly joins them on stage, their singing becomes much better and so does the audience’s appreciation.
After the talent show, the girls approach Dave, show him a newspaper clipping about an audition in Melbourne for singers and dancers to perform for the troops in Vietnam, and ask him to help them go to the audition.
Dave agrees to help, but says they should sing soul music instead of country music and that Julie should sing lead instead of Gail, which doesn’t please Gail one bit.
Also, while they are in Melbourne, they track down their cousin, Kay, who had been abducted 10 years earlier, and she is able to join them for the audition.
Ironically, while Dave is coaching the girls and teaching them choreography, he says that they should sing their soul songs “blacker.”
So, the girls, accompanied by Dave as manager and chaperone, entertain the troops in Vietnam, where there is danger, conflict, and even romance.
The Sapphires is a sweet and mostly true story set during the Vietnam War.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“A Good Day to Die Hard” a Video Game of Mass Destruction
Mar 10th
“Video Game of Mass Destruction”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
A Good Day to Die Hard is the fifth in the series of movies starring Bruce Willis as wisecracking action hero John McClane, which began in 1988, and of all the movies in the series, this one is the most recent.
In other words, if you can see only one of the five movies, don’t start with this one.
Yes, there is plenty of action, yes, there are plenty of explosions, yes, there is plenty of gunfire, yes, there are plenty of McClane wisecracks, but no, there is no plot.
Unless you call McClane going to Russia to shoot it up and blow it up to help his estranged son a plot.
McClane hasn’t heard from Jack in years, doesn’t know what he has been doing lately, and yet McClane says, “He could never get out of his own way, he had a lot of problems, but he’s still my kid.”
So, when McClane hears that Jack is on trial for murder in Moscow, McClane decides to go to Russia and help Jack in whatever way he can without even being asked.
And let the mayhem begin.
Jack is willing to testify under oath that another man on trial, Yuri Komarov ordered Jack to kill a third man, but the real purpose of the trial is to force Yuri to hand over a sensitive file he has to authorities.
McClane arrives at the courthouse just as all hell breaks loose, there are explosions, Jack and Yuri escape and seem to be working together, and then McClane joins them to Jack’s obvious displeasure.
McClane and Jack are estranged, remember?
So, now the three of them try to keep from being captured or killed, retrieve the sensitive file, get Yuri’s daughter, and all escape the country.
There are foot chases, there are car chases, there are truck chases, and there are even helicopter chases, all with an excessive amount of gunfire and explosions and even a double cross or two.
Oh, and don’t forget that McClane and Jack will obviously reconcile whatever problems caused their estrangement.
In other words, there is a lot of blithering blather in the movie, too.
A Good Day to Die Hard is nothing more than a video game of mass destruction, and I say don’t waste your money on this sorry excuse of a movie.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
AART finds a master of “tole” (decorative) painting, and Russ’s mother
Feb 12th
Raised on a farm, she learned the importance of hard work and determination. She raised a family,
all the while dreaming of using her artistic skills. She taught herself the skills
of decorative painting, and over the next 30 plus years has become one of the most
recognizable and respected decorative painters in the country.