THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY

My favorite TV channel, TCM (Turner Classic Movies) has done it again. Over the past several weeks on Monday nights it's been running episodes from Mark Cousins's documentary THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY. It's one man's (or mainly his) interpretation of what is most important in that history, and I don't agree with all his conclusions, or even connections, but it's still been a treat to watch.

I taught film criticism and film history in a college for a few years back in the early '70s, and wrote movie reviews and then spent a few decades of my life working in the film industry, so I know a little about it. What's most original about this history of film is its inclusiveness. Unlike earlier "American" attempts at film history, Cousins recognizes the influence of international filmmaking on Hollywood and not just vice versa.

A lot of classic international films that were overlooked in earlier histories of the movies are included here, as well as a lot of the usual Hollywood suspects. But Cousins's take on even those expected films is usually skewed in a unique way, emphasizing and focusing on scenes and interpretations that go beyond the familiar to the sometimes almost deliberately contrary.

Not as consistently compelling as a more tightly edited version might have been, still the interludes of contemporary (the film was made, or at least first shown, in 2011) clips of real landscapes and scenes with Cousins's voiceover in his Irish accent (that will probably sound a little unfamiliar to those used to typical movie brogues or NPR reporters more schooled Irish accents) would make up a very interesting experimental documentary on its own.

His film making sometimes reflects what's he's discussing or emphasizes it, but equally often seems almost perversely arbitrary, ultimately making the entire fifteen episode (originally) documentary a unique film experience worth having. And on top of that, after each episode is aired TCM shows one of the seminal "foreign" films mentioned in that nights' episode, so that if you had the time and watched every episode every Monday night and then the film shown afterwards, you'd have a few semesters worth of advanced film history under your belt.

You should at least catch one Monday night's showing, just to see what a unique trip it can be.

ANOTHER FAVORITE QUOTE

"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that's where they should be. Now put the foundations under them."       —Henry David Thoreau (from Walden)

MUHAMMAD ALI'S GREATEST FIGHT

Though this HBO flick isn't the greatest, it's still worth watching. Most of all, because rather than hire an actor to play Ali in the story of the Supreme Court ruling that overturned his conviction for avoiding the draft and affirmed his conscientious objector status based on his Black Muslim religious beliefs, the filmmakers use clips of the real Ali at the time, from interviews and fights.

Man was he special, and not just entertaining to watch but enlightening and inspiring. The historic clips of him were worth the whole flick. But there are also a bunch of wonderful older, mostly male, actors that make it worth watching as well, from Christopher Plummer and Frank Langella to Ed Begley Jr. (full disclosure, an old friend), Danny Glover and Peter Gerety.

If you get the chance, check it out, and bask in the glow of Muhammad Ali's charisma at its peak.

THE OLD FASHIONED WAY

I still read books. I read articles on the Internet, and messages and blogs and poems and reviews and columns etc. And I can see how the convenience of some kind of e book reader makes sense and maybe saves trees etc. But, I still read books.

On my night table next to my bed, or end table or whatever it's called, in its two deep shelves are books, and on top there are three piles of books—poetry books, fiction books and nonfiction books—over sixty in all, and I like to read in several before I go to sleep.

Sometimes I get caught up in one or two books and for a few days and/or nights I read only those until I finish them. But most of the time, I'm reading several books at a time, and at one time or another I've read a few pages out of each of those over sixty books.

I will finish them all eventually, some sooner than others. I don't think there would be any way for me to do that with an e book reader. Especially since these books are mostly ones I've been sent by the writers or their publishers, with a few I picked up in my local bookstore on a whim or because I wanted to read them (like Alice McDermott's latest novel, SOMEONE, one of my favorite authors and a really nice woman I got to read with once many years ago).

So, I'm not gonna get an e reader yet. Cause I still like reading books.

TERENCE WINCH NAILS IT (AND POLITELY)

My friend poet/writer and Irish musician, Terence Winch, sent me a copy of an email he wrote to a columnist at The Washington Post, encouraging me and everyone to send our own emails to hopefully wake up those in the media who continue to avoid placing blame where it clearly lies:

"Dear Mr. McCartney:

I always read your column, and almost always agree with your take. As a retired federal employee, I appreciated your point today about the important work done by many dedicated civil servants. What I have trouble with---and this is a problem, I believe, at the Post and throughout much of the establishment media---is the vague blaming of "our leaders" and generic partisanship for the shutdown & other problems with Congress. It is the Republicans in the House---in particular, a small subset of extreme right-wing Republicans---who are responsible for all this dysfunction. They are seeking to block a law that was passed handily by both houses of Congress, was signed by the President, upheld by the Supreme Court, and re-affirmed by "the American people" (who Boehner keeps trying to tell us oppose the law) in the last election. It is not at all helpful to allow Republican readers and voters to believe that this situation is a two-sided one.  You and your colleagues owe it to your readers to identify those really responsible for all these problems. If they pay no price & get no blame, they'll just keep doing it.

yrs,

TW"

BEST ANALYSIS OF THE "SHUTDOWN"

WARREN FOR PRESIDENT

Love this woman. Gotta watch it to the end.