Posts tagged right
“Changling” Disturbing to Think About
Nov 6th
Disturbing to Think About
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
CHANGELING is the latest film directed by Clint Eastwood, which stars Angtelina Jolie, and it should not be confused with the 1979 THE CHANGELING, which starred George C. Scott.
The earlier film was a ghost story, and this one is more of a horror story, but not in the way you might think. It is based on actual events.
The time is 1928, the place is Los Angeles, and Jolie plays Christine Collins, a single mother of a nine-year-old boy named Walter.
Christine is a supervisor of the massive switchboard operation at the local telephone company, which requires her to wear roller skates and glide back and forth behind the long line of operators.
One Saturday morning, Christine is called in to work, and she is forced to leave Walter alone in the house they live in.
Walter assures his mother that he will be all right by himself, saying, “I can take care of myself. I’m not afraid of the dark. I’m not afraid of anything.”
However, when Christine comes back home that evening, Walter is gone and she cannot find him anywhere. She calls the police and is told that they won’t even begin looking for him until he has been missing for 24 hours.
So, Christine keeps calling, the police keep investigating, and Walter remains missing.
Finally, five months later, the police inform Christine that Walter has been found in Illinois, and he is being brought home. However, after Christine, the police, and the local reporters all wait at the train station for Walter’s arrival, when he gets off the train, Christine says, “He’s not my son.”
The police find themselves in an awkward situation, they insist that he is, the boy agrees, and Christine is told to take him home on a “trial basis.”
She is told that she is the boy’s mother and therefore in no position to be objective.
Then John Malkovich shows up as the Reverend Gustav Briegleb, who has made it his mission in life to expose the Los Angeles Police Department and all its corruption. He tells Christine that the police don’t want public dissent, contradiction, or embarrassment.
Because Christine represents all three to them, Christine is forcibly admitted to the Psychopathic Ward of the General Hospital solely on the captain’s signature.
CHANGELING is gruesome to watch and disturbing to think about.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Skyguy – What’s Hot about Mercury?
Oct 13th
The MESSENGER probe is circling Mercury right now. Why is it there? What’s so interesting about Mercury?
“Religulous” Lecturing to the Nonreligious
Oct 9th
Lecturing to the Nonreligious
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
RELIGULOUS (rhymes with “ridiculous is a very funny and thought-provoking documentary about the major religions of the world (with a passing nod to Scientology, even) and how fundamentalists and religious extremists can be seen as, well, ridiculous.
Comedian and satirist Bill Maher narrates the film and conducts interviews all over the planet, talking to leaders and followers of religions in a humorous and thought-provoking attempt to convince the audience that the religions and their followers are, well, ridiculous to believe in such claptrap.
As Maher says right at the beginning, “If there’s one thing I hate more than prophecy, it’s self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Maher himself knows more than a little bit about religion, as he tells us, because his mother was Jewish, his father was Catholic, and his family went to Catholic church every Sunday until Maher was 13, and then they just stopped.
We see Maher talking with his mother and his sister, too, and when he asks his mother about this, he asks her why his father just suddenly quit the church, and she answers, “I don’t know. We never discussed it.”
Maher also questions why believing in something without any evidence is “good” and then answers his own question with “It’s like the lotto. You can’t be saved if you don’t believe.”
And, of course, many people actually believe that. However, Maher also tells us that 16% of Americans say that they belong to no church and are therefore nonreligious.
The graphics are quite good, and many of the interviews are accompanied by film clips from old biblical movies as commentary to what is being said or claimed to be “true.”
We learn that in Italy, which is a very religious country, in a time of crisis, Jesus ranks only sixth as being called upon for comfort by the people. Maher then gets thrown out of the Vatican there.
He also gets thrown off the property in Salt Lake City when his film crew draws attention to what he is doing. If the religious believers don’t watch out, they could be accused of not having a sense of humor.
Although quite humorous, the film ends on a rather serious note as Maher covers religious predictions for the end of the world.
RELIGULOUS (rhymes with “ridiculous is not preaching to the choir so much as lecturing to the nonreligious.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”