One of the most appealing aspects of the new media is the immediate and passionate involvement of the reader, a dynamic in which the audience is as active and important as the originator of information. Since I started writing for Big Hollywood, my arguments have been constantly encouraged, dismissed, challenged. The highly intelligent and engaged readership of this great blog has thereby helped to crystallize and clarify my ideas the way no “polite” or silently detached audience ever could. 

So it is with great excitement that I present to you a bold new project of mine—one that I think will inspire and challenge you as much as you’ve inspired and challenged me over the years.  

Naturally, I am looking forward to the scrutiny and feedback that this teaser trailer and the premise of the film will induce, and I hope that you will be moved to support and make this film possible. 

Heal America is a feature film documentary following the legendary homeless activist Ted Hayes on his journey to heal racial and generational wounds in our society. Many know Ted from his work with the homeless on skid row in Downtown L.A. 

After living with the homeless for eight years, in 1993 Ted Hayes founded The Dome Village, a groundbreaking homeless shelter that addressed the problem of homelessness in an original politically incorrect way – by nurturing the spirit of responsibility and self-reliance. A true inspiration for several generations of the downtrodden, Ted is living proof of how one man can positively transform his desperate surroundings. 

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[Editor's Note: Script reviews of upcoming projects have been around for as long as there's been an Internet. Therefore it's no secret that a film can evolve into something quite different from its screenplay. Please keep in mind that this article represents a look at a particular script and not the final product.]

There are different ways to write and make movies. Very few are made from the heart; many more are formula based. There are movies inspired by dishwasher manuals and a great number derived from Marxist textbooks. And there is a special category of movies: those written and made by self-righteous hypocrites.

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“The Whistleblower” is a drama based on the experiences of Kathryn Bolkovac (played by Rachel Weisz), a Nebraska cop who served as a peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia and exposed the U.N. for covering up a sex scandal involving peacekeepers and an international ring of sex traffickers. The cast also includes Monica Belluci, Vanessa ‘best friend of Israel after Obama’ Redgrave and David Strathairn among others.

As Kathryn investigates the exploitation of young and underage girls, she discovers that “sex lords” are bribing the UN officials to run the illegal prostitution clubs that spring up like mushrooms across the war-ridden and apocalyptic Balkan terrain. Moreover, not only are the UN officials are being bribed to close their eyes on sex slavery but, in fact, the clubs are really operating to serve the UN peacekeeping force. The story also flashes back to how an underage Ukrainian girl is tricked into sex slavery by her own relatives.

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In his article on Robert Mapplethorpe’s X Portfolio and the controversy that ensued because of its pornographic imagery, art critic Dave Hickey noted that the efficacy of Mapplethorpe’s art was in enfranchising “…ultimately, that senator from North Carolina [Senator Jesse Helms] and insist[ing] upon his response.” In Hickey’s opinion, if you “deal in transgression,” the response and respect of a hipsterish art cognoscenti has no value. The only response that really matters is the outrage of the senator, ‘only the senator, the Master of Laws, the Father…” 

Robert Mapplethorpe was not the first and certainly will not be the last child who managed to outrage the father.  Criticism of religious and social order is not really a modern phenomenon and, however tempting, cannot be attributed to deconstructive neo-Marxists tendencies in American art. 

Child’s perpetual desire to dethrone father is usually matched by father’s not so subtle urge to devour his offspring. Some fathers need to be enraged, rebelled against, and dethroned. One could only wish that Saddam Hussein’s sons would’ve inspired a national rebellion against their father’s authority instead of becoming his instruments of torture and pillage. 

Director Ingmar Bergman, on the other hand, rebelled against the patriarchal religious order of rigid Scandinavian Protestantism. He upset many fathers, including his own pastor dad who did not approve of his son’s obsession with theater and the lantern’s ability to project images on a wall. 

But the efficacy of Bergman’s rebellion was in his ability to outrage the father, not as a juvenile, but as a child coming into his own. His rebellion was sincere, his criticism of authority genuine and threatening. 

It was also self-aware. As a true thinker and artist who could travel in time, Bergman knew that every child is just an intercourse away from becoming a father. Not surprisingly, one can find more religious insight and earnest attempt to understand the mystery of God in Bergman than in many of the more pious currents of his time.

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French mystic Eliphas Levi had the most profound, yet, mostly ignored observation about his compatriot Voltaire when he said that Voltaire was a great man but he laughed at every opportunity when he was supposed to learn. 

Had Voltaire been alive today, who knows, he might have had a show on Comedy Central between Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert spots. Not to equate the hit and run style of Jonnie and Stevie’s social ridicule to the genuine wit and devastating satire of Voltaire but the early Enlightenment secularists and their late night TV comedian descendants are the representatives of the same school of social criticism through ridicule. 

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The analogy between bucolic Rousseau and another nocturnal creature Bill Maher falls within the same line- both men embarked on a journey to expose the emptiness of the religious beliefs of their time.   

Mockery and ridicule are the most used and powerful tools in the armory of secular liberalism. Once I ran into Woody Allen in New York.  Since I lived on the Upper East Side, a block away from his office, I knew that one day I would run into one of my favorite directors. 

I saw his “Annie Hall” more than I saw my father when growing up, so Woody was, however strange this may sound, my childhood hero. 

I was ready for the encounter; to tell him how much I loved his movies. 

Then it happened. I was dumping garbage into one of those New York metal bins reminiscent of  Hitler’s bunker when I saw my hero rapidly approaching me along with his wife.  To my astonishment my only thought was, “If not for his movies and humor, this guy could not get laid in a whorehouse.”  (more…)

In 2006 Turkish movie “Valley of the Wolves: Iraq” was a great hit in Europe and almost made it to the US theatres.  Since the flotilla incident in May 2010, the movie has been constantly playing on Turkish television becoming the most viewed movie in the Turkish television history. 

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In 2006, The Washington Time reported:

“Valley of the Wolves” is not the work of independents or amateurs. With a budget of $10 million, it’s the biggest-spending Turkish film in history. The international cast includes Hollywood actor Billy Zane of “Titanic.” Within three days of its release, the movie had been seen by 1.2 million people, a 40 percent increase on the previous viewing record. At a gala performance, the actors rubbed shoulders with Turkey’s elite.

“I feel so proud of them all,” said Emine Erdogan, wife of the prime minister, comfortably ensconced in a seat next to the actor playing Alemdar.

The movie opens with a real-life incident: the arrest in July 2003 of Turkish special forces in Sulaymaniyah, northern Iraq. The soldiers were led out of their headquarters at gunpoint, with hoods over their heads. America later apologized, but it appears the offense ran deep. At the time Turkey took the incident as national humiliation. In this film the fictional hero sets out for revenge. (more…)

A sudden revival of appreciating my European filmmaking roots was curiously prompted when the game between the Saints and the Cardinals abruptly intensified in the second half. The Pig and Whistle restaurant on Hollywood Blvd.—where I was watching the game with my friend Ryan, an unconscious Cardinals fan—became so loud and erratic that I and everyone in Ryan’s radius decided to get out for a breath of fresh air not contaminated, yet, by Ryan’s gradual collapse into drunken insanity.

The Pig and Whistle is an old Hollywood joint right next to one of the oldest American theatres, Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre, the home of the American Cinematique.  As Hollywood Blvd. has become safer and relatively less bizarre over the past several years, the Egyptian has become a more frequent host of various film events.                                                                

That day, it was hosting a Q&A with directors of foreign films nominated for Golden Globes. By the kitchen exit of the Pig and Whistle, Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore was giving an interview just a few steps away from Austrian director Michael Haneke, who was talking to enthusiastic film buffs (and was generally ignored by the Cardinals’ fans).  Among the directors were also the young Chilean director of “The Maid,” Sebastian Silva, and a French director of a prison saga “The Prophet,” Jacques Audiard. (more…)

The storyline of the movie The Book of Eli is a cross between I Am Legend, Fahrenheit 451, and a B-movie western. In post-apocalyptic American wasteland, a strange wanderer named Eli (Denzel Washington)—who is a cross between St Francis of Assisi and Mad Max—carries the only surviving copy of the Bible. His task is to bring it to a destination (unknown even to himself) in the West where God told him to go and where the Book is most needed.

Along his lonely way, Eli stumbles into a town resembling those of the Old West. The leader of the town is a self-appointed, ruthless leader named Carnegie, played by Gary Oldman who is simultaneously a cross between Mickey Rourke from 9 ½ Weeks and Mickey Rourke from The Wrestler, as well as the whole process of evolution between the former and the latter. Carnegie is an evil megalomaniac who sends his lowlife savages in search of the Book, convinced that possession of a copy of the now-extinct Bible can help him spread his rule and establish control over degraded humanity.

In case abusing his concubine, killing some people, and treating the rest like dirt was not enough to convey that Carnegie is a bad guy, we are shown that his favorite read is Mussolini’s biography. Yet, with all the weight of culture going against him, Carnegie is the only person who had managed to forge some semblance of a settlement with brewing elements of potential civilization.   His wild town—reminiscent of an Old West settlement but surrounded with cannibals instead of Indians—is the only semi-safe and positive place in an otherwise out-of-control and collapsed world. He is assembling a hierarchical society and he needs the Book to bring, as he thinks, “all the weak and wounded” under his dominion. His intentions are sinister and self-serving, but he seems to be the only person who understands the real power of the Book and its ability to transform and civilize the brutally egotistical and animal nature of disintegrated humanity . . . while at the same time correctly assessing any man’s, including his own, inability to re-create functioning societal interactions without a binding belief system. (more…)

 When the second plane flew into the World Trade Center, our family friend, Albert, who was watching the attack on TV in Armenia, had a major heart attack. His sister was working in the second tower. Three hours later, she called him. Her voice was trembling; she had a nervous breakdown but she was uninjured. My friend heard the good news in the emergency room. He died two weeks later at the age of 54. 

Albert was the last casualty of 9/11 that I know of. Although, I am sure there are more people who were indirectly impacted by the attack to some serious and even fatal degree. 

Albert was also famous for his devastating sense of humor, so when I read about the highly heralded eco-melodramatic documentary “No Impact Man,” I vividly imagined Albert ripping this self-righteous excretion of bored urban utopians a new one. (more…)

I have been watching a lot of 40s movies lately. Being radically anti-celebrity, I was taken aback by how easily mesmerized I was by the movie stars of that period. 

After all, why wouldn’t any man (straight or gay) imitate Cary Grant’s walk up the stairs to save Ingrid Bergman at the end of Hitchcock’s “Notorious?”

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And why wouldn’t any honest woman try to talk and look like Barbara Stanwyck? 

I was at a pool party in the Hollywood Hills once where agressive supermodels were trying to seduce fake producers. That entire pack of semi-nude nymphs had less seductive power than the play of the anklet on Barbara Stanwyck left leg in Wilders’ “Double Indemnity.”  (more…)

I caught a live tribute to Ted Kennedy on TV the other day. Family, friends, and colleagues were praising him as a champion for universal social justice. 

I started thinking about how much I’ve been hearing the word “universal” lately.

“Universal” is the “it” word, as in universal health care or “The Universe will guide me,” or “Leave it to the Universe.” 

There was a different word for it back in the day, more imposing but less confusing: God. But God is not a trendy word anymore. God is not popular, just like the Republicans. You are guilty by association with both. Even C.G. Jung was annoyed by it (the not calling God a ‘God’ part, not the Republicans). 

There was also that video tribute by Ken Burns to Ted Kennedy’s legacy.  (more…)

If someone like Beethoven had a vision of the future and realized the impact his music had on humanity, would he be able to compose with the same fortitude and confidence, or rather, would the pressure of the realization of his own importance would eventually render him dysfunctional? 

I don’t confuse this hypothetical inquiry with Beethoven’s realization of his genius. I’m sure he knew of his own greatness. This is different, though, from the pressure that one may experience if his or her genius is also perceived in its historic context and significance. 

In other words, would Beethoven be able to remain Beethoven if, well, he was conscious of the fact that he was Beethoven, (or Beethoven the way he is perceived today)?

These musings of mine could easily be dismissed as exercises in futility or outbursts of excessive if not useless imagination if they were not so coincidental with the policies and style of our current government and prevailing cultural mindset.  (more…)

Remember Gorbachev, that bold round-headed Russian tractor loving peasant-Secretary whom the West loved so much?  The West loved him perhaps because he was the first one in the short but depressing succession of the Soviet leaders who did not really aspire to wipe out Poland from the face of the earth. 

I remember him too, in a different way, though. Half of the country hated his guts back in the Soviet nightmare. Gorbachev was liked abroad but gradually became hated within his own country for the same reasons he was loved outside. He seemed not to be working in the best interests of his country, or let’s say, the interests that he was pursuing were far more interesting for the West than the people of the Soviet empire. As he was actively pursuing warm relations with the West, his own country was rapidly collapsing from within. Not that it was a country worth saving or that it was his fault or that he really didn’t care about his country. It just seemed that way.  (more…)

I quit smoking years ago but love second hand smoking. I especially love watching women smoke. It is more of a cinematic fascination. It looks good. Women are magic and when they come with their own pyrotechnic effects, they are precious.

There’s nothing more American than a strong, beautiful woman blowing smoke in my immigrant face. It makes me feel like a full-fledged American citizen. I’m enchanted by the smoky veil of the American dream and feel the mighty fume coming out of the American land, a Native genie rising from the bottled mysterious desert of endless imagination… 

Tobacco was the first intimate bridge between the European settler, the American land and its native population. Smoking tobacco was one of the first peaceful cultural exchanges between settlers and natives. Tobacco was also one of the first uniquely American exports to the world and through the burning of this magnificent plant the New World covered the old world with the purifying smoke of freedom.  (more…)

There’s a dark cloud hovering over independent film these days and fears that as a production mode and as an artistic expression, the independent film is dying.

One of the reasons is that after seeing the potential of these films, the studios launched their own independent wings which eventually crippled the independent spirit. Filmmakers, who were not expecting studio profits, all of a sudden became involved with the studios and eventually succumbed to the dynamic of the machine; some out of greed, some out of necessity.

Another cause of the downfall was the sheer number of independent films which saturated the market, lowered the overall quality and hurt the brand. The result was an over-arching one that pushed independents towards becoming more and more commercial in order to get their movies sold and seen.

Another problem was the technological revolution that made the filmmaking process accessible to the masses. Anyone who could follow their dog on a skateboard with a video camera felt they had to conquer Hollywood. A cinematographer friend of mine calls this brand of camera owners, “7/11 filmmakers.” (more…)

One of the most unfortunate events that deterred a healthy development of a motion picture industry is that its childhood tragically coincided with the childhood of Communism. The Soviet era of Communism was the first totalitarian regime that recognized the power of a moving image and used it fully to align masses with its party line. Not unlike the liberal-Democrat film and media machine that so disgracefully uses it today and by far exceeds the standards of tasteless social realism initiated by their Soviet forefathers. 

Understandably, I float in a much generalized stream but nevertheless the essential point of this thought is well anchored in the truth. Let me try to substantiate myself with an example.

Did you notice how often when one prays in the movies or TV something of a terrible nature, usually involving lots of blood, happens to him or her? (more…)

The mystery of Abraham Lincoln was in his ability to unite opposing fractions of society while maintaining a divisive position. This ability to transcend opposites made him a subject of claim from diametrically opposed entities and worldviews.

Lincoln became an inspiration for Republicans and Democrats, evangelical conservatives and liberal-progressives alike. Even the ever dull Communists and ever angry radical socialists scraped a spark of inspiration from the mounting figure of Lincoln. But after every group had shaped its own statue of Lincoln according to its own manual, we’ve lost the real Lincoln. Lincoln has been turned into a concept and every concept began to be manipulated to fit ideologies and socio-political insecurities. And, as in the case of everything under the sun, the most insecure and the most unrelated ideologies manipulated Lincoln the most and claimed him the strongest.

In reality, there was and there is only one Lincoln. Many politicians have compared and continue comparing themselves to Lincoln without understanding that what transformed that poor tall Midwestern fellow into Abraham Lincoln was not his external attributes or his immediate surrounding. (more…)

The flood of superhero movies in the past several years has become increasingly worse.  Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Iron Man, X-Men and, oops, Catwoman, and then what? Underdog … these bustards are everywhere and they keep coming. Even bums are superheroes now – Hancock.

Ogres are superheroes – Hulk. It’s so bad that even the creatures of underworld are being enlisted into the superhero category, and I don’t mean Al Gore. (Although, what do you think Al Gore was doing in his documentary if not saving the world?) Who I mean is Hellboy, a creep who looks so evil that the logline’s compelled to explain, “Believe it or not, he’s the good guy.”  (more…)

During the 1963 Moscow International Film Festival, few doubted Federico Fellini’s “8 ½” was a masterpiece. The film was not merely contending for the Grand Prize; it was clear that no conventional prize could put a tag on the sheer artistic genius and refreshing power of the movie. Threatened by Fellini’s highly formalistic language, the Communist Party’s movie department (who were making decisions behind the scenes), as usual, suspected something potentially harmful for the cause of the international proletariat. They put pressure on the head of the jury, a Soviet filmmaker Grigori Chukhrai, not to award the Grand Prize to “8 ½.”

Chukhrai was in a tight spot. He had his share of problems with the system with his 1959 war movie “The Ballad of a Soldier,” when he did not depict Nazis as stupid animals but rather as a highly organized and evil intelligence. Because of that, some in the government tried to ban Chukhrai and label him a Nazi sympathizer. They failed. First, Chukhrai’s movies about the war were Soviet classics and second, Chukrai himself was a war hero who fought through almost every battle of the war all the way to Berlin. (more…)