Stop child screen exploitation NOW!

          Child neglect and abuse is happening every day, right under our nose, and we’re doing nothing to stop it.   In fact, we’re bankrolling it.  Been doing it for years. 

            I’m talking about kids appearing in what were once considered X-rated movies, but worse.  Kids doing and saying and outrageous things, things that would strip the chrome off a bumper.  Things that used to make adults blush, when blushing was in style. 

            It’s child exploitation under the guise of freedom of speech.  Hollywood sells and we buy.  We Cinemark, we Netflix, we Amazon Prime; we buy, rent and stream.  But most of all we silently accept.  We may flinch with each new encroachment on the bounds of decency, but we shrug and go on.  Every year more graphic, more flagrant.  Like frogs in heating water we’ve become desensitized and we stew in the caldron as our soul slowly melts. 

            I’ve silently vowed to do something for years.  But now it’s time to act.  The last straw is the new movie, Fist Fight.  Let me ask you, how many times is it acceptable for a little 10-year-old girl to say the f-word?  If you said more than zero you’d be considered a bad parent. 

            And that would be in the privacy of your own home.  How much worse would it be in public.  And how many times worse than that if it were captured on film and repeated on thousands of movie screens across the world, and eventually on millions of pads, tablets, tv’s for all time?  If one time is too many what about 5?  What about 10?  Try 25! 

            25 TIMES this 10-year-old child “actress” raps out the f-word, along with equal numbers of the s and b word, in front of a roomful of other young kids during a grade school talent show, with her on-screen dad coaching her and pregnant mom wildly cheering her every evisceration of whatever childhood innocence that we once used to cherish in children.    

            And her real-life parents?  They’ve sold her for big bucks.  These parents would be subject to child neglect and/or abuse charges in Kentucky.  Minors lack the capacity to make a contract.  Children do not have the life experience or wisdom to make decisions for their long and short term best interests.  That is why parents or legal guardians bear responsibility for them until they turn 18.  It is a relationship that demands actions that are always in the child’s best interest.

            Fist Fight is an R-rated movie.  It promotes high-school teachers having sex with students, teacher and student drug use, violence, bad—check—horrible manners and attitudes.  Children should never be allowed to even appear in R-rated movies, much less be active participants in the lurid action. 

            And PG-13 films are just as bad.  In fact, this film is just the latest tip of the child-exploitation iceberg Hollywood has built on societal indifference over the decades.

            Free speech comes with responsibility.  Those that violate this duty must be held to account.  We used to have standards and boundaries.  But as the line of acceptability has gotten increasingly extreme so have the bad statistics.  Higher rates of child abuse and neglect, child sexploitation, marital discord, drug addiction and deaths:   it’s all related to the descent of decent society. 

            I’m no goody two-shoes, and certainly not one to be preaching.  But providence has placed me in a position of awareness through my experience as a child advocate in DNA (Dependency, Neglect, and Abuse) Court.  Beyond that I act as a concerned citizen. 

            Contact your lawmakers.  Write the studios.  Boycott all movies by studios who produce such offending movies.  Boycott all other movies from the same director, production company and actors.

            It has gone too far.  It is unacceptable and we must stand for positive change.  We CAN do it!  And for the sake of our children, ourselves, and our future, we must do it. 

Richie's Reel Reviews 2015

Richie’s Reel Reviews 2015

It’s been a middling year for movies.  While I am sure that there are many under-the-radar quality films that I rarely have the privilege to enjoy--foreign, indie, and others that don’t fit into the mass distribution formula-- this review pertains to movies that do.  As I said, if you long for more in a movie than action, violence and boring, repetitive story-lines, it was not a banner year.  Still, there is always enough to keep the corn a poppin’. 

BEST OF 2015

The Martian—Science, drama, humor intergalactic Gravity-inspired cinematography, heart-tugging human sacrifice culminating in ultimate victory for the whole world!  This movie has it all—it’s one of the few (only) films I went back multiple times to see.

The Intern—A Robert De Niro tour de force.  It was as if the breadth of his entire movie career molded his conglomeration of characters into the perfect specimen of humanity, which Mr. De Niro played perfectly as Anne Hathaway’s intern.  I found myself hoping beyond hope that this was the REAL Robert De Niro, that this was how he was in real life.  I know he’s a good actor, but such humanity, grace, sacrifice and class is hard to fake, even for the best actors. 

Cinderella—Surprisingly, OUTSTANDING, EXCELLENT, UPLIFITING and entertaining!  I was just searching for SOMEthing to watch so I could feed my popcorn fix.  I thought I’d CINDERELLA a try and boy am I glad I did!  Story, color, costumes, acting and wow, what a moral.  As Cinderella teaches:  BE KIND, ACT BOLD AND ENVISION THE WORLD AS IT COULD BE, not as it is.

Spotlight—This true story covers the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning expose of child abuse in the Catholic Church.  “Spotlight” refers to the special team of reporters who focus on big assignments.  Liev Schreiber plays Marty Baron, the new editor of the Globe, an outsider, who was the first, and—being an outsider—possibly the only one to see the story for what it was, and who had the guts to direct the Spotlight team to prove it despite the enormous pressure the Catholic Church exerted in Boston.  Spotlight shows how absolutely indispensable good journalism is to our world.  A fabulous cast includes Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Stanley Tucci and John Slattery.  Certainly one of the best and most important movies of this century.

Bridge of Spies—True story of 1950’s Cold War intrigue, heroism in the face of public scorn and, in the end, justice for all.  Tom Hanks plays the attorney who takes to heart his duty to defend a Russian spy.  He then engineers a swap for American spies held in the USSR and East Germany.  You shiver with him as he snakes his way across the Berlin Wall on a typical German grey, freezing and snowy winter day, where he wheels and deals with various Communist officials.  The period detail, from New York streets in the fifties, to the jail cell, the wood paneled law offices, the courtroom, the still war-torn Berlin society—with stark differences between east and west—combine with a suspense-filled script and outstanding acting to create an outstanding movie.

Selma—A long overdue true account of the quest to make America’s laws match its pledge, “And liberty and justice FOR ALL.”  SELMA covers the crucial three-month period in 1965 when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led the violent, dangerous movement to secure equal voting rights.  You can never appreciate the gauntlet the marchers from Selma to Montgomery had to overcome:  an intransigent army of white citizens BACKED BY STATE and local POLICE! Who beat, clubbed and killed those who dared to march…IN PEACE.  I had no idea what was involved, the courage and sacrifices made, and the backroom politicking Dr. King did on LBJ, to get the power of his Presidency behind basic human rights in America.  SELMA is a gripping story you can’t look away from, even as you tell yourself “this could not have been this bad before…”

The Big Short--Just released movie about the mortgage crisis.  It shows on the one side the smug and greedy bankers and mortgage brokers, greedy and foolhardy, all the while knowing the American taxpayer would bail them out when things would inevitably collapse, and on the other those who profited from the collapse by creating the "credit default swaps."  It is a repeat tale from the 1929 crash and ensuing Depression, where government, corrupted by big money insiders, de-regulated the system, allowing the wolves to oversee the chicken coop.  Privatization of profit, socialization of the risk, i.e. the few won, the many lost. Watchable movie, but bring a puke bag.

Mission Impossible—Rogue Nation—I love international locales, high-tech glitz, and plot twists and turns on par with well-placed action.  This film has it all and I should know:  I chomped through nearly two big tubs full of popcorn!

Mr. Holmes—Ian McKellan is unreal as an aging Sherlock Holmes.  The period detail and cinematography are stunning, from Holmes’s haberdashery to the billowing plumes of the locomotive as it winds through the verdant English countryside.  Plot twists and human compassion combine with Holmes’s cold objectivity to create a winning and very satisfying movie.   

Max—Great true man’s-best-friend story of Max, a Belgian Malinois dog used by Marine Kyle Wincott in Afghanistan to root out weapons and bombs.  Max gets injured in an advance on a suicide bomber and Kyle gets killed in a shootout.  Fast forward to the funeral in Texas, where Kyle’s family lives.  Max is barely held on the leash as he struggles towards the casket in the front of the church.  He paws it, then lays at its base, legs outstretched, eyes looking up over forlorn, wrinkled brows.  In this early scene you can easily relate to the connection we all feel with our pets, as real and as deep and as heartfelt as the dearest human relationships.

Max, however, is a wild dog, inconsolable as he is uncontrollable at the loss of his master.  Uncannily he gravitates to Justin, Kyle’s younger brother after the funeral.  The army brass tells him that he is the only chance to save Max from the executioner’s blade, so Justin and his parents agree to take Max.  The rest of the story is an exciting and feel-good triumph, with a surprise ending.  The movie celebrates both our furry friends’ invaluable contribution to the service of mankind, and also the truth that they are often as good or better humans than their owners.

DECENT movies of 2015 (watchable)

Ex Machina—Cool movie about a reclusive billionaire tech genius who has developed the latest robot.  He runs a contest for a volunteer experiment, and another tech genius-in-waiting wins.  He is aired off to the very, VERY remote secret location, in an ultra-secure structure deep within the forests of somewhere (Alaska? Siberia?).  In it he meets the inventor and his new love-to-be, the seductive robot who eventually convinces him that their mutual attraction is real, and that the inventor is really an inhuman bad guy.  The end is shocking, surprising and will leave you wondering about the unintended, but entirely possible, consequences of science run amok.  NOTE:  Last year’s CHAPPIE was a great movie about a good robot who is a model for how humans should be.  By contrast EX MACHINA shows what computer perfection looks like divorced from human values.

My All American—Blink and you missed it, but go get it!  True story of a real hero, Freddie Steinmark, who famed University of Texas football coach Darrell Royal called his favorite player.  A brilliant movie about a fine young man and his infectious optimism and positivity. 

Spectre—The umpteenth James Bond entry BARELY makes the cut.  And only the international settings and the fact Daniel Craig is the perfect model for today’s svelte suits save this boring overdone, and (yet again) humorless movie from my “avoid at all costs” list, which I can hardly wait to get to, so I will!

Daddy's Home--Just released Will Farrell movie.  Just okay, but enough laughs and a nice ending to while away an hour and a half.

HORRIBLE, OVER-RATED AVOID AT ALL COSTS

Mad Max—I finally had to walk out about half way through, feeling as though I needed to take a shower to get rid of the dirt, dust and muck and heavy-metal noise that dominates this wretched excuse of a movie.  Avoid at all costs!!

The Hunger Games Mockingjay—Part 2—OMG, horrible!  I tried TWICE to sit through the whole thing but HAD to leave.  Not even the terrific Jennifer Lawrence can save this one.  

The Force Awakens—They should have let sleeping dogs lie.  Actually, that’s an insult to dogs (see Max above, e.g.).  This movie breaks no new ground, repeating refrains and storylines that were new and kind of neat (just “kind of”, I never was all that impressed with the Star Wars phenomena) in the 70’s.  Long, boring, over-hyped and underwhelming.

A Thanksgiving Appreciation

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for…HANDS!

My hands that allow me to do so much, SO much!

The hands of others, without whom I would have little life.  The hands of the Shenzen seamstress.  The hands of faceless nameless workers throughout the world who make the countless products I use every minute of every day.

The hands that clean my house.  The hands that rid my trash.  The hands that stock the shelves.  The hands that ring the sale and that are always accompanied by a smiling face and cheerful spirit.

The hands that clean.  The hands that cook.  The hands of colleagues and court clerks.

Thank you for the hands that brew, and for the hands that help me chew.

The hands that plant, the hands that toil, the hands that harvest from the soil.  The hands that pack and prepare for shipping foods of all manner from all the world’s quarter just for me and my belly in the store down the corner.

The hands that prep, the hands that heal, yes, even the hands that polish the still.

The hands that paint, and draw and write, all hands that bring me great delight. 

Hands that hold the camera, hands that hold the script, hands that pop the corn and show me to my seat.

Hands that keep us safe and sweet: the checkers of the flame, the walkers of the beat, the providers of our light and heat.

Hands that tend the gardens, mow the lawns and change the bulbs, hands that trim the trees, the bushes and the shrubs.

Everywhere I look I see reason for thanksgiving.  I have earned NOTHING, I deserve NOTHING, but there those hands are, caring for me, providing for me, saving me.  Especially the hands from above.

So to all those countless hands here and there, near and far, I say--THANK YOU! 
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! 

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PS  and a special word of thanks to….(drum roll) the turkey vulture!  Yes, I just read this piece on the enormous debt of gratitude we owe the turkey vulture.  Fascinating read:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2014/11/25/how-vultures-evolved-to-live-on-rotting-feces-covered-meat-and-what-we-can-learn-from-them/

The Last Cicada

BZZZZ-Z-Z-Z! BZZZZ-Z-Z-Z! The verdant path through the neighborhood forest now rings with the call of just one. One lonely sycophant still searching for its mate.

Weeks earlier the tropical canopy was a deafening riot of screaming cicadas, each trying to out-maneuver the next. Imagine your lifetime of sexual energy condensed to one 30-day period. The maniacal buzzing and whirring went non-stop 24/7, so loud and frantic it was comical.

For 17 long years these nymphs sucked sap deep underground from the tall trees’ roots. Finally mature, they’ve come out and shed their skin for their summer prom, engagement, honeymoon and funeral all in just a few short weeks.

My evening walk’s now mostly calm, save this last cicada. Why, pray tell, is he still unmated? Pimples? Shy? Two left feet? Too picky? Off key?

Are the females all gone that his wails go in vain?

Or maybe he don’t give a damn, he just wants to be the last man standin’.

The toughest dude in the brood.

The last cicada.

Richard Dawahare

(originally published September, 2005)

RICHIE’S REEL REVIEWS! New and updated

It’s been a while since I have weighed in on the flics. Frankly, there has been a dearth of what I consider commendable films.  I will therefore start with the most recent of the very very few that I have actually seen.  OBVIOUSLY, there are bound to be many films that were I to see them I would heartily recommend.  I put them in the category of “I will always have something to look forward to!”

CHEF

If a movie is not bad, it is generally watchable, meaning I am okay spending the $6-$9 for the ticket and another $7.50 for the popcorn.  I may not see it a second time, but hey, it wasn’t bad.   The vast majority of films are either bad, or not bad.

But sometimes on a rare occasion—just once or twice a year—a movie transcends this categorization and is truly good.  Some are even GREAT! 

Chef is such a movie.  It has it all:  story, humor, drama, music—FANTASTIC latin music—setting, cinematography, acting, and a fabulous surprise ending.  The movie establishes Jon Favreau who WROTE, DIRECTED AND STARS as today’s premiere Hollywood talent.  In short, this film is a masterpiece.

A word about music in movies:  it can either make or break a film.  As an example—the music in Chef enhances the emotions you are supposed to feel at whatever point in the movie it plays.  It does this so PERFECTLY that you can’t wait go buy the soundtrack. 

By comparison, I sat halfway through a really bad film (Grown ups 2) earlier this year that is typical of most bad films in that the music is forced, as if putting a popular song in a terrible movie will somehow save it.   This was very amusing to me—way more than this horrible film (thus my early exit).

A HUNDRED YARD JOURNEY

Quite a coincidence that the two best movies this year involve chefs and food!  Helen Mirren is the owner (Madame Mallory) of a one-star Michelin restaurant in a French village near the Swiss border.  She is obsessed with getting another star.  

A family from India, led by “Papa”—whose wife was killed in the fire that destroyed his Bombay restaurant—stops in this village because their car broke down.  Papa determines to open his new restaurant in a vacant building right across the street from Helen Mirren’s classic French establishment.

His son is an expert Indian chef, who turns out utterly delicious food.  Madame Mallory can’t stand this new competition and fights back.  Her and “Papa” go at it and the hilarity begins!

Without giving the plot away, all I can say is that this is a deliciously satisfying movie.  Everything works, no wasted words, scenes, music, or dialogue.  Rich colors, superb acting, fitting musical score and a tight script.  Oh, and everything Helen Mirren is in is outstanding!  This is one great movie!  GREAT!

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

Another “MARVEL-ous” entry, perhaps the best of the Marvel Comics collection of movies.  This movie is shockingly great!  It works best for me as a COMEDY and MORALITY play, but of course there is action and special effects galore.  Chris Platt is the hero.  Glen Close, John C. Reilly, Vin Diesel, Zoe Saldana and Dave Bautista are all outstanding.  Platt plays Peter Quill aka “Star Lord”, who leads a crew of intergalactic misfits on a hunt for a mysterious all-powerful orb.  The music, as in the other films on this list, fits p-e-r-f-e-c-t-l-y!

I tell you, this is what movies should be all about:  humor, creativity, action, messaging—and in this case, a high moral message that leaves you feeling great at the end!! GREAT.

BAD WORDS

You may not have heard of it—it only stayed in the local theater a week or so, but this is one of the best, most entertaining, funny movies of the year!!  Jason Bateman is a 40 year old who finds a loophole in a middle school spelling bee and competes for the championship.  Nearly everything he’s in is good , especially THE CHANGE UP—see it if you have not—so I knew this would probably be good.  It is GREAT!

LUCY

Scarlett Johansson is a college student in Taiwan who is kidnapped and force to be a mule of for a Chinese drug lord, who sews a bag of a new drug—CPH4—that causes the human brain to increase its capacity (humans only use 10% of it—this new drug can get it to 100%).  She gets kicked in her just opened stomach and some of the drug enters her bloodstream.  Then look out!

This is a French-made sci-fi film shot in Taipei, Paris and New York.  It’s a really good movie.  Though  the end is a little weird, it’s well worth watching. Not bad.

THE GIVER

You know…it’s okay!  In 2048, after “the big war” leaders create futuristic world designed to maintain peace by taking all humanity, all emotion and all color away.  There is no romance, no love, no kissing, no competition, no nothing, except a contented community.   The apparent utopian society starts to unravel as we learn more about it.  A young man, under the tutelage of Jeff Bridges, escapes and strives to return the world to its former humanity.  Watchable, not bad.

2012-2013  MOVIES:  (listed simply as “GREAT” “GOOD TO GREAT” “NOT BAD” or  “BAD”

GREAT:  Philomena, 42, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, Side Effects,

GOOD TO GREAT:

 Argo, Walter Mitty, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Draft Day

NOT BAD: 

The Avengers, Moonrise Kingdom, Life of Pi. The Great Gatsby, Die Hard 5, Safe Haven, Emporer, Olympus has Fallen, Place Beyond the Pines, Mud, We’re the Millers, Rush, Gravity, Her, American Hustle, 12 Years a Slave, Captain Phillips, Divergent, 50 to 1, Captain America, Bears

BAD:

Skyfall, Les Miserables, Looper, The Cabin in the Woods, Django Unchained,

The Master, Zero Dark Thirty, Cloud Atlas, Burt Wonderstone, Pain and Gain, The End, The Way Way Back, Two Guns, Elysium, Insidious, The Wolf of Wall Street, Anchorman 2, The Monument Men, Robocop, Son of God, Heaven is Real, God is not dead, Noah, Neighbors. 

SPECIAL NOTE—all the “religious” movies were really, really bad.  Truly sinful!

Charlie Chaplain--so much more than silent screen superstar!

Charlie Chaplain.  The image those two words conjured up in my mind was always that of the funny mini-mustached “Little Tramp" who waddled with a cane in a bowler’s hat.  It was not until I saw The Great Dictator on Turner Classic Movies that I learned how supremely talented, and more importantly how supremely PRINCIPLED Mr. Chaplain was. 

Charlie Chaplain stood tall for peace in the face of war.  He wrote, directed, scored and starred in The Great Dictator, which parodied Hitler and the Nazi’s in 1940.  This was at a time when Britain and the U.S. were reluctant to become involved.  They tried to discourage Chaplain from releasing this controversial movie, which in reality was a soaring political, moral and philosophical statement.  

By standing up for what he KNEW to be right Charlie Chaplain bucked power, he bucked public opinion, he bucked governments.  He was the FIRST entertainer, if not the first major public figure, to stand up to Hitler, fascism, injustice and the inhumanity of greed, human exploitation and war.

Below appears his rousing final speech, one of the best you will ever see.  Mr. Chaplain essentially states his purpose for making this movie in his plea for love, charity, compassion and justice, which will create peace and happiness for all. 

Charlie Chaplain is in fact a prophet, proclaiming human morality as the one and only sure path to peace and prosperity.  His speech applies as much today as then, and will tomorrow, too. 

To be sure, his is not the only voice for truth.  But I guess my discovery that such an intergalactic vocal statement came from the superstar of silent film made it all the more impactful.    

To actually see this incredible speech please go here Charlie Chaplain final speech in The Great Dictator.

HERE'S THE SPEECH:

"I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor.  That’s not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone.  I should like to help everyone - if possible - Jew, Gentile - black man - white.  We all want to help one another.  Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness - not by each other's misery.  We don't want to hate and despise one another.  In this world there is room for everyone.  And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone.  The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.  We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in.  Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want.  Our knowledge has made us cynical.  Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little.  More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost....

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together.  The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men - cries out for universal brotherhood - for the unity of us all.  Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world - millions of despairing men, women, and little children - victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people.

To those who can hear me, I say - do not despair.  The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed - the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress.  The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people.  And so long as men die, liberty will never perish. .....

Soldiers!  Don’t give yourselves to brutes - men who despise you - enslave you - who regiment your lives - tell you what to do - what to think and what to feel! Who drill you - diet you - treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder.  Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men - machine men with machine minds and machine hearts!  You are not machines!  You are not cattle!  You are men!  You have the love of humanity in your hearts!  You don't hate!  Only the unloved hate - the unloved and the unnatural! Soldiers!  Don't fight for slavery!  Fight for liberty!

In the 17th Chapter of St Luke it is written: "the Kingdom of God is within man-- not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people have the power - the power to create machines. The power to create happiness!  You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure.

Then - in the name of democracy - let us use that power - let us all unite.  Let us fight for a new world - a decent world that will give men a chance to work - that will give youth a future and old age a security.  By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfil that promise. They never will!

Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people!  Now let us fight to fulfil that promise!  Let us fight to free the world - to do away with national barriers - to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance.  Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness. Soldiers! In the name of democracy, let us all unite!"

  

 

 

Mom, what's a Jewish

This true life tale appears on my new blog, Dog on God: http://dogonegod.blogspot.com/ http://dogonegod.blogspot.com/

NEW blogsite: Dog on God

     I have create a new blog, Dog on God.  "Dog" is the nickname that my beloved fraternity brothers at Phi Gamma Delta (Kappa Tau chapter University of Tennessee '77) bequeathed to me.  It is short for "Doghair" which was a variant of my last name that followed me most of my childhood.

     I love dogs.  I love God.  But God is a mystery, dogs really aren't.  This blog will contain my musings on God, a lifelong work-in-progress.  I start in no particular order.  The first post is my latest article in our church newsletter, The St. Raphael Herald.  

      Here is the link to the new blog:  http://dogonegod.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-word-of-god-yes-but-which-word.html.  http://dogonegod.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-word-of-god-yes-but-which-word.html

The New Aristocracy

Hello!

It's been a while since I last posted (2012!) but as the Lexington Herald-Leader recently published a condensed version of my observations about how the New Aristocracy is threatening our nation's future I felt it necessary to post the full version.  I will say the Herald-Leader did a great job of editing to make the piece fit the limited space available, so this is no criticism of them.  I'm actually thankful for this opportunity to re-engage!
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                                                            The New Aristocracy

Money isn’t speech, it’s volume.  And corporations aren’t people, they’re a legal fiction.  Yet today’s so-called “conservative” Supreme Court majority has radically redefined the Bill of Rights, and in the process further enhanced the power of the ultra-rich, the corporate supremacists, and the favored few, i.e., the New Aristocracy.  

            No surprise really, for this is all part of the Reagan/Randian trickle-down ruse. They promised that slashing taxes for the rich would flood their pockets with so much wealth that a little would eventually trickle down to the parched peons below.  Yeah, right.

Three decades of trickle down have exposed the fraud that it is.  Inequality has reached pre-Depression levels.   An October, 2011 report from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office showed that since 1979 incomes of the top 1% grew by 275%, the middle by only 39% and the low by a mere 18%.  The top 10% took over half of the nation’s income in 2012, the most ever in a century of recorded history according to noted economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty.  

            Likewise their “tax cuts fuel job creation and economic growth” promise was breathtakingly wrong.  After his famed tax cuts in 2001 President George W. Bush presided over the worst economic performance in 70 years.  According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics average annual job growth during his tenure was a mere .2%, the lowest ever since Herbert Hoover.  GDP grew at the slowest pace since WWII, while consumer debt reached pre-Depression levels. 

But this is nothing new.  America’s greatest periods of prosperity have always coincided with higher tax rates.  In the 1950’s, when the top marginal rate was 90% real average growth averaged 4%, more than twice that of the Bush years, when the top rate was just 35% according to Michael Linden, Director of Tax and Budget Policy at the Center for American Progress.  All told, when the top rate was less than 39.6% growth averaged 2.1%, compared to a robust 3.8% in years the top tax rate was 39.6% or higher.

This is not to say that higher rates necessarily lead to higher growth.  But the facts most definitely show that conservatives’ justifications for cutting taxes are completely wrong.  Yachts aside, boats not only did not rise, they have nearly capsized from the crushing wake of consumer debt as concentrated wealth cuts its way across the waters of one of the world’s most quickly dissipating democracies.

The flip side of trickle down is “pour up.”   While Republicans seek to slash spending on social welfare, they shower it on those at the top who already have it all (Democrats are also complicit in this).   A Huffington Post analysis by Bill Quigley, law professor at Loyola University New Orleans, listed some examples of corporate welfare and welfare for the rich.  These include direct federal subsidies total nearly $100 billion a year, with state and local governments adding another $80 billion; special breaks that cut corporate tax rates from 35% tax rate to just 13%, costing us $200 billion a year.  Most galling is the federal tax breaks for hedge fund managers that allow them to cut their top tax rate from 35% to only 15%, costing taxpayers $83 billion per year.  

            The fact is that the nation was strongest, and more people lived better when taxes were higher, when the wealth gap was narrower, when social services were more plentiful and when the government truly regulated in the greater public interest. Currently we’re paying less federal income tax than at any time in the last 60 years.   Worse, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports that most of the rich pay a lower overall tax rate than the middle class, thanks largely to a capital gains tax of only 15%.

Top income earners must pay more.  Corporations must pay their full fair share.  Steeper progressivity in the tax code and elimination of illogical and unfair tax breaks and subsidies are the keys to properly funding government and narrowing the inequality gap.  

           And lest you think that this is not so important please think again.  700 global experts at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos listed the chronic gap between rich and poor as the world’s biggest risk in the next decade.  Income disparity and social unrest go hand in hand.  Accordingly, the Forum warned of a "lost" generation of young people coming of age who lack skills and/or opportunities.  "Disgruntlement can lead to the dissolution of the fabric of society, especially if young people feel they don't have a future," said Jennifer Blanke, the World Economic Forum's (WEF) chief economist.  "This is something that affects everybody."

Thus, we all must be part of the solution.  Such collective action for the greater good is as American as apple pie.  It was our founders’ credo.  Ironically, our forefathers depended upon it to escape the grasp of the corrupt English aristocracy, just as we must do to break the choking hold of today’s money lords.

 As John Adams said (in a 1776 letter to Mercy Otis Warren): "There must be a positive Passion for the public good, the public Interest, Honour, Power, and Glory, established in the Minds of the People, or there can be no Republican Government, nor any real Liberty. And this public Passion must be Superior to all private Passions. Men must be ready, they must pride themselves, and be happy to sacrifice their private Pleasures, Passions, and Interests, nay their private Friendships and dearest connections, when they Stand in Competition with the Rights of society."

            Better the truth from a lion of American history than the false and divisive rhetoric from would be destroyers of our social compact.

Richie's Reel Reviews--My top 11 films

Richie’s Reel Reviews—My FAVORITE Films and other CLASSICS

I present my top few movies.  The first 4 are locks.  The remaining 7 on the are nearly interchangeable in terms of actual position.  I will present additional favorites in subsequent entries. 

1.      NORTH BY NORTHWEST

The occasion of my serendipitous introduction to the film certainly contributes to its being my favorite movie of all time (although it’s close with 2-4).  It was October, 1977.  Kentucky was playing football at Penn State, who was heavily favored.  I was with my friend and law school classmate that weekend at his home in Louisville.  We were listening to it on the radio and to our great surprise and joy, KENTUCKY WON!  As it happened the game was going to be replayed in Lexington that very Saturday night, so we drove back to my house to see the replay.  Exhilarating!

Well, immediately following the game the station, WKYT, went right into its late movie, something called North by Northwest.  Doug and I were all smiles after the game so we just sat contented watching this movie unfold, from its alluring intro and incredible Bernard Herrmann soundtrack, all the way to the end, with very few commercial breaks.

We just looked at each other afterwards and said, WOW, where did this come from?!  A different joy replaced the now long forgotten game played earlier that day. 

North by Northwest has EVERYTHING, and I mean everything, a superlative movie SHOULD have—scintillating story, humor, drama, suspense, class, photography, acting, a surprise yet satisfying ending, a moving soundtrack, action--and has NOTHING, and I mean nothing, that a great and entertaining film should NOT have—graphic violence, crude language, irrelevant or meddlesome dialogue, depressing and humorless aura.

The action starts in New York, the late 1950’s, with the quintessential Cary Grant as an advertising executive dictating orders to his secretary in the back of a Yellow cab on a typically busy Manhattan ride en route from his Madison Ave. office to a business lunch meeting at the venerable (but now defunct) Oak Bar[1] located within the even more venerable Plaza Hotel (but also just as defunct—now converted into private condos).

From there a classic case of mistaken identity has Roger Thornhill (Grant) stalked and kidnapped by the bad guys, taken to a lavish estate whereupon the action begins in earnest.  The movie moves from well-heeled Long Island, where we meet cold war-era bad guy spies James Mason and a young Martin Landau, back to Manhattan, to the Plaza, to the United Nations, to Grand Central Station, aboard a train to Chicago, upon where he meets who to my younger eyes then, and still now!, the most gorgeous woman ever, Eva Marie Saint.

The action is just starting—to the corn fields of Indiana (first famed scene--“strange, that cropduster’s dustin’ where there ain’t no crops” a brown-suited Hoosier says to Grant moments before the plane turns on him), back to Chicago, to Rapid City, South Da-KOT-ahh, as Cary would pronounce it, culminating in the famed cliffhanger scene on Mt. Rushmore.  Along with CIA master spy, Leo G. Carroll ("War's hell, Mr. Thornhill, even a cold one"), he flies on Northwest Orient airline from Chicago to Rapid City, which is apparently the basis for the film’s title.

We get to see Americana as it existed in her heyday.  Luxurious hotels, newly developed national parks, city, countryside, Frank Lloyd Wright architecture, classy clothes (I am still on the hunt for Cary’s slate blue suit with matching tie that he wears from beginning to end, and I still believe Eva’s red and black print dress that she wears to the art auction is the most stunning I have ever seen), and incomparably witty dialogue—the best since Casablanca, which is number two on my list. 

Never is a long time, but I don’t believe another movie will ever rival this one—at least for me.  You just may like it too. 

2.      CASABLANCA

Released in 1942, the story of Europeans trying to escape the Nazis through about the only point left at that time, Casablanca, Morocco, could not have been more timely.  It takes just a little imagination to imagine yourself as a patron of Rick’s Café Americain, maybe looking to get—by any means possible—a letter of transit, and if you were really fortunate, an audience with Rick himself, played by the only guy in the world ever who COULD play that role, Humphrey Bogart.

What makes Casablanca perhaps THE greatest movie of all time?  I don’t know, I can only answer, as with all my reviews, why they are special to me.  First, every line’s a classic.  And I mean EVERY SINGLE LINE of dialogue is quote-worthy.  Not one wasted syllable, hem or haw, much less a wasted word. 

The acting even by the smallest roles is dynamite.  The film noir quality, which today could never be duplicated, adds to the drama and suspense, as does the fabulous music.  Dooley Wilson deserved an Oscar for his piano playing and singing (As Time Goes By, Knock Three Times) alone, much less his acting.   

True suspense, a surprising and MOST INSPIRING ending, to which Woody Allen famously paid homage in his movie Play it Again, Sam (which I believe I actually saw before I had even seen Casablanca).  Add a star-studded cast including Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre along with truly amusing character actors like S.Z. Sakall (who played Carl) and you have…a MASTERPIECE.

3.      To Kill a Mockingbird

Great movies often come from great stories, and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird ranks as one of the all-time best.   However, a great story is no guarantee that the movie will do it justice.  Thankfully, this movie captures, distills and delivers in a way that is for me very personal and emotional, and to just about anybody who watches it, a powerfully moving experience.

Shot in black and white, set in the depression-era southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, the story focuses on racial injustice and the efforts to rectify that injustice by one of the most noble and pure character of all time, Atticus Finch, who is played by my late mother’s favorite actor, Gregory Peck. 

The storyline, the setting, compelling child actors and a mostly anonymous cast of adult actors (Robert Duvall plays Boo Radley, a central character but with little on screen presence) along with a heart-tugging Elmer Bernstein soundtrack all combine to elicit smiles, tears and a yearning to stand tall for truth and justice. 

Again, what takes this movie over the top for me are two factors.  One, my mother’s favorite actor was Gregory Peck, she just loved him.  Also, it was my mother who encouraged me to go to law school, and I made a deathbed promise to her to do so.  Two, I saw this movie at the University of Kentucky Student Center while taking a break studying for law school finals.  I was not that well-read, and I really had no idea what the movie was about, only that it was a classic. 

To say that the movie influenced my life and encouraged my desire to be an agent for positive change is a vast understatement.   Thanks mom, thanks Ms. Lee, thanks Robert Mulligan (the director), thanks Mr. Peck, thanks Mary Badham and Phillip Alford (Scout and Jem), thanks to EVERY actor, stagehand, costumer, errand boy and musician for making this life-changing movie.

4.      IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE

 

Surely, you know this movie.  The fact that it is one of my favorite films points to MY criteria and therefore EXPECTATIONS of a truly great film: uplifting, positive theme and ending, along with humor, acting, photography and the like.  Many of the “Best Picture” Oscars I could give a tinker’s damn for, either because of the dark and cynical subject matter, the graphic nature or otherwise depressing storyline which many of them contain. 

 

It’s a Wonderful Life, as you know, is one of the most uplifting and truly, truly RELEVANT movies OF all time.  Which one of us could not use an occasional reminder how special our life—OUR life—truly is.  Even if we suffer, there are those who would suffer even more, the world would suffer even more, were we not in it, or had we never been in it! 

Wow, that is an awe-inspiring concept and generations of humanity have this film to thank for it.  Ahh, but I just gave the GRAVY of a great film.   What makes it great before you even get to the gravy, i.e. the fact that it is so inspirational, of course, is the incredibly moving performances by all the actors, particularly Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, the incomparable directing of Frank Capra, the soundtrack and…well you know!

 

5.      The Verdict

 

Paul Newman plays a down on his luck, alcoholic lawyer who tries to  turn his luck—and life—around on a gutwrenching case of medical negligence (his client was turned into a vegetable by being given the wrong anesthetic) against the best defense lawyer around (expertly played by the legendary James Mason). 

This movie reeks of old Boston.  Director Sidney Lumet makes sure that everything is consistent and authentic, from properly-accented character actors to setting, to a most appropriate TOTAL LACK of music!  Never was the saying “less is more” more fitting than the fact that there is nary a note of music in this entire film!

 

The foreboding, muted colors of a cold New England winter mirrors the increasingly desperate situation Paul Newman’s character finds himself in, out-maneuvered by a slick defense lawyer, and with virtually no chance to win a recovery for his client’s sister and her family who are utterly dependent on it.   The mahogany benches and diamond shaped old tile floor of the court room put you THERE, in the juror’s box as each side presents its case. 

 

A surprise ending that vindicates a positive, never-say-die attitude culminates what for me is an understated tour-de-force, one that I take the chance to see again whenever I can.  Oh, and by the way, I just happen to love Paul Newman, so that certainly contributes to this movie’s high standing on my list.  Perfect supporting roles by Jack Warden, Charlotte Rampling and Milo O’Shea complete what may be for you a surprising entry but what I consider…a masterpiece!

 

6.      The Graduate

Again, it was not only the actual movie, but also the circumstances under which I got to see it, that make this one of my favorites.  I was working one day after school in our store at the old Lexington Mall when Uncle Martin comes in from Whitesburg and asks if I want to see a movie with him.  “You’re the boss, SURE!” I said.  We went to the cinema in the Mall (in those days you got ONE movie if you were lucky).  I had no idea that I was about to see what turned out to be one of the best movies ever!   

Humor and outright laughs galore, fabulous acting from Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katherine Ross, Murray Hamilton, Alice Ghostly, cool California setting—Mrs. Robinson’s house still looks modern and contemporary, without a hint that this was shot in 1967.   Add to that director Mike Nichol’s ground-breaking use of Simon & Garfunkel’s[2] incredible soundtrack to create much of the aura and emotion and you have what is perhaps a new generation’s first Masterpiece.  At least for me it was…and is.

 

7.      Woody Allen  (early years)

 

I LOVE, love, love early Woody Allen—and some of his later stuff too, but particularly his early films,  upon which I cut my “independent” movie-going experience, i.e. movies to which I could drive myself.  The first Woody Allen I saw was with my cousin Eddie (he was at UK, I a junior at Lafayette High), Everything you wanted to know about Sex but was Afraid to Ask which we saw at the old and long gone Turfland Mall cinemas. 

I recall us just laughing HYSTERICALLY at what was truly a never-before-seen subject matter and style of cinematic delivery.  I was hooked on Woody from that point forward.   

Next came Bananas, then Play it Again Sam, then Love and Death, then Sleeper, Manhattan, then his universal biggie, the Oscar winner, Annie Hall.  Before that he had made Take the Money and Run, (“No that says gub (not gun) what’s a gub” says the bank manager as hapless bank robber, Virgil Starkwell, played by Woody, hands over a poorly written demand note to the teller) but one I did not see until after I had seen his later fare.   

Oh my God, so many funny, reality-based vignettes and lines in those movies.  This guy is pure, unadulterated genius.  He makes me laugh like crazy, he makes me love New York evermore, and he introduced me to jazzy and classical music the likes I have never heard before.  He is a consummate artist, with a purpose—to make us see the often incredible inanity of everyday life, and to highlight enduring virtues in a MOST FUNNY way.  He is the best! 

Also, he bears a remarkable resemblance to my cousin, Joe.  Just an aside, but one that I guess endeared me to him even more.  So I include all these Woody Allen movies collectively as number 7.

 

8.      The Odd Couple/The Out of Towners

RE The Odd Couple:  For a guy in 7^th grade, to break cherry on such Neil Simon magnificence—the likes of Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon, along with a cast of characters including Vinnie, Murray the cop, Speed, Roy, the Pigeon sisters was bound to be an unforgettable experience.  HI-larity, absolutely and complete hilarity from near-beginning to end.  “Oscar, you missed it!  The greatest triple-play in history and you missed it!!” If you don’t know what I’m referring to you are just going to have to see it, I ain’t givin’ it up for free. 

And The Out-of-Towners, again pure comedic genius.  Jack Lemmon, Sandy Dennis, unforgettable character actors, a fabulous romp through New York, which would shortly thereafter become like a second home for me until our company closed shop in 2008, this is a film I could see over and over and over again.  As these two movies show, I just love movies shot in New York!

 

9.      Peter Sellers Pink Panther series

 

I again include these films as a set.  I could see ANY Peter Sellers movie over and over and over again.  Peter Sellers is the funniest, most effective comedic actor of all time.  His inspector Clouseau—well, you know, surely you know.  For me, not only him, but the European setting and all the other elements of great movie-making come into play to make him and his films some of my all time favorites.

10.   Three Days of the Condor

 

A perfect thriller.  Perfect.  Robert Redford and his literary team read books for the CIA, looking for hidden clues and plots that may be hidden within.  He goes out to pick up lunch, comes back and…they are all dead!  Thus begins a realistically haunting cat and mouse where he eludes the assassin’s hunt, while trying to outmaneuver his way to a solution. 

What makes this a masterpiece is the incredibly efficient dialogue (no wasted anything), much of which is artful, even poetic at times, the setting, again NEW YORK—and a little in Washington D.C.  Director Sydney Pollack orchestrates every nuance perfectly.  The Dave Grusin soundtrack  is superb AND, bonus! It was shot during Christmas so there are background holiday songs throughout—from the Salvation Army brass playing Good King Wenceslas to what I believe may be the Ray Coniff Singers singing Joy to the World, all while spies are looking to kill good Robert.

 

The New York cold accentuates Joe’s (Redford’s character) sense of utter loneliness and isolation.  The cast, unreal:  Faye Dunaway is Catherine Hale, who Joe kidnaps so that he can hide out in her pad, Cliff Robertson is the CIA control agent, ostensibly on Redford’s side, John Houseman is the CIA chief pulling all the strings and Kurt Von Sydow is the assassin, who listens to classical music as he details mini-figurines in his hotel while awaiting his next move.   Colorful character actors, the sights and sounds of New York life in the 70’s, suspense, action and as surprising an ending as you will ever see make this…a MASTERPIECE.  As I said, a perfect thriller.

 

11.  Forrest Gump

Tom Hanks, one of my favorites, in a Gomer Pyle (also one of my favorite tv characters) type character who exudes nothing but pure goodness and innocence and for whom, because of such innate faith, everything turns out well in the end for him and for those around him.  Over-the-top creativity from director Robert Zemeckis, lots of classics songs from the 60’s and 70’s, an incredibly touching story and a great ending.  What’s not to like, make that love!

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[1] The Oak Bar became my favorite NY hangout for years until it closed thanks to this movie.  The old portraits behind the famed bar, along with the whole room remained unchanged since the movie was shot!

 

[2] Simon and Garfunkel were a musical duo for ALL ages.  My dad, the late Woodrow Wilson Dawahare, detested “rock” music.  He was a fan of his music—big band, swing, the crooners he could dance to—and he loooovvved to dance.  But one day in his office I caught him hum-singing “Mrs. Robinson!”  I was elated, because they were and are one of my favorite groups.  It’s a scene I will always remember!