Find yourself a copy of Raymond Briggs' When the Wind Blows on eBay. It's an animated feature about a retired couple that faithfully follow the British government's instructions on how to prepare for a nuclear event. The day arrives and they get busy... in a humorous, but sadly infeffective way. Be glad you've got a HSS or a Secure Home.
Read more about this movie at http://www.toonhound.com/whentwb.htm
Do you recommend any movies that would interest this audience? ...movies that show (in)effective preparation, liberty-oriented activity, etc.
Thanks.
Poverty in America
Film 'Rent' mirrors real life of too many of our neighbors
December 4, 2005
By MARILYN DUNCAN, Columnist
The Courier
The movie "Rent" opened Thanksgiving week in area theaters. I saw the stage version twice, and, as art often does, it allows us to experience a condition without actually living it. "Rent" follows several themes. Most of all, it's about being poor in America.
The whole country was shocked a few months ago when Hurricane Katrina revealed the depth of poverty in New Orleans. Unfortunately, none was more surprised than the country's current administration, but New Orleans is not unique; the poor are abundant. In America, however, we prefer them to be invisible.
The ranks of the poor are swelling. According to an Associated Press report in September, census data show that almost 80,000 more Indiana residents fell into poverty between 2003 and 2004. Caught between the increasing costs of energy and medical care, and a dwindling supply of well-paying jobs, the middle classes, which have been the country's strength, are sliding down the economic scale like molasses down the side of a bottle, slowly but surely. Is no one noticing? Or are things at the top just so peachy that no one cares? A TV program noted that orders are up for yachts and that the yachts are getting bigger and more opulent. Now, who doesn't need a bigger yacht?
In a movie about Wal-Mart, which was shown several times recently in the Tri-State, its CEO starts a speech by praising his "associates," a euphemistic term Wal-Mart gives its workers in lieu of a living wage. He also indicates that Wal-Mart is oh, so happy to offer low prices to all those unfortunate people who need them. He seems unaware that his hapless "associates" are the same people who need the low prices in order to exist - while Sam Walton's heirs just keep getting richer.
Much the same sort of disconnect dwells in Washington, D.C. There is a line from "Rent" that goes "when you're living in America ... you're what you own." And when you're living in President George W. Bush's "ownership society," being poor is probably unpatriotic. Meanwhile, Congress, whose membership is mostly rich, white and male, makes cavalier decisions about which programs to cut - mostly those that affect poor folk. We ought to feel ashamed that there is a need for Venezuela to provide heating assistance to U.S. citizens this winter. Undeniably, Hugo Chavez has a political motive for making such an offer. But it is the indifference of the U.S. government, and of our wealthy corporations, to the plight of U.S. citizens that has given Chavez the opportunity to make political hay.
The day after Thanksgiving, several TV channels treated us to images of people being trampled as crowds pushed and shoved - not to escape a burning building, but to buy things. We've been sold on the idea that more stuff somehow equals a better life; we don't care who we have to mow down to get it at a better price. I believe America's values have become seriously skewed.
Unless our government and society turn soon to policies and values that promote upper mobility - not consumerism - for working men and women, and compassion and real assistance for those in need, I fear that it will be through living, not through art, that more and more of us will experience the message of "Rent."
http://millennium-ark.net/NEWS/05_USA/051206.US.poverty.html
http://www.courierpress.com/ecp/editorials/article/0,1626,ECP_768_4284619,00.html
Music, not a movie:
Listen to the first track of Atom Bomb by the Blind Boys of Alabama.
MP3 sample: http://static.grassrootsmusic.com/mp3b/blindboys41.mp3
Album: http://www.grassrootsmusic.com/artist/blindboys/blindboys4
'A Scanner Darkly' Reveals Near Future Police State
A new movie set to hit the big screen this summer depicts a near future America that has lost the war on drugs and capitulated into the tentacles of a pervasive control grid. A Scanner Darkly represents the latest example of a refreshing and burgeoning trend in Hollywood that seeks to enlighten the viewer into recognizing the real world prison barriers being erected around society today.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2006/220206scannerdarkly.htm
A Slew of New Movies Puts Post-9/11 Terrorism under the Spotlight
Forget its R rating — should "V for Vendetta" come with a Code Orange alert instead?
The movie, opening March 17, is a futuristic fable about a woman named Evey (Natalie Portman) living in a rigidly controlled London in the year 2020, when everyone is monitored by an oppressive government.
She falls in with a mysterious masked terrorist called V (Hugo Weaving) and becomes his willing prisoner in an underground lair. But after experiencing the kind of officially ordered torture that forced V to fight the system, she comes to embrace his view that the only way to rebel against evil is by doing evil — like blowing up buildings…
Read about other movies coming soon and read the rest of this article at http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/march2006/050306movies.htm
Although the thought has been in my mind for decades, it took a trailer from the controversial new Turkish movie "Valley of the Wolves" to jar my consciousness into really recognizing what is happening.
America is being set up to take the fall for everything that's wrong with the world.
In the movie, Americans are portrayed as heartless killers, reminding me of the way Germans were portrayed as the evil perpetrators of World War II. And I sensed at that moment that very soon, if not already, Americans are going to be the targets of a worldwide backlash that will be far worse than anything the Germans ever experienced.
And rightly so, because what Americans have done to Iraq, Afghanistan and so many other countries is far worse than anything the Germans ever did to anyone.
(excerpted from “The Setup to Destroy America” by John Kaminski; Full commentary at http://warfolly.vzz.net/thesetup.html)
V For Vendetta’s Victory
The villainous head of England's totalitarian regime is Chancellor Sutler, played by the venerable John Hurt, two-time Oscar nominee for his lauded performances in Midnight Express and The Elephant Man. Sutler's government rules by fear, ensuring submission of its citizens through intimidating means - secret police, constant surveillance and the threat of imminent and apocalyptic dangers. Censorship, propaganda, and subverting freedom of speech are the order of the day...
More at http://www.raidersnewsupdate.com/lead-story399.htm
Here's a link to a trailer Devvy Kidd mentioned in her last article at NWV. I havn't viewed it yet but here goes http://www.freedomtofascism.com/w_high.html I just viewed this movie trailer and it's really good. Have patience because it takes a while to download, but it's worth the wait.
More Movie Reviews for “V For Vendetta…”
“This futuristic action flick hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons last year when its release was put back after the London bombings. Unsurprisingly, studio bigwigs reasoned it might be a touch insensitive putting out a film showing Parliament being blown up by terrorists. So V For Vendetta finally gets to hit the big screen and, of course, the question is was it worth the wait? Not really.”
Further comments from David Edwards at
http://www.mirror.co.uk/tvandfilm/atthemovies/tm_objectid=16817406&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=v-for-vendetta-name_page.html
To view trailer http://wwws.warnerbros.co.uk/vforvendetta/
http://wwws.warnerbros.co.uk/vforvendetta/trailer.html
Click on one of the three boxes, and then click on Real Player, Standard, etc.
For another “V For Vendetta” movie review/movie trailer, see
http://movies.msn.com/movies/article.aspx?news=218543
“V” For Vile
Kevin L. Wilson says new film excoriates conservatives, Christians.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49365
How The Elite Plays God
Like a cat toying with a mouse, the elite teases us with fleeting glimpses of our true predicament. One such peek was the 1998 movie "The Truman Show" directed by Peter Weir.
Truman Burbank, played by Jim Carrey, is unaware his life is a live reality TV show. Everyone, including his wife, is an actor, and everything that happens is staged.
In other words, his life is a fraud.
Truman Burbank's predicament describes our own. According to John Coleman, the elite has been writing and directing the script for almost hundred years at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations based in London.
More from Henry Makow, PhD at http://www.rense.com/general70/elite.htm