I’ve written several articles skewering HBO for producing political projects destined to air immediately prior to the 2012 election, where the vast majority of the cast and crew are passionate Barack Obama supporters, and where the content is aimed at the Democrat’s two favorite Republican villains: Sarah Palin and Dick Cheney. So, when I sat down to watch HBO’s Too Big to Fail, I prepared myself for the worst. What I didn’t expect was the big surprise awaiting me.

Too Big to Fail, which premieres on HBO on May 23, 2011, features a star studded cast recounting the events that led to the financial crisis and bailouts by the U.S. government in 2008. It is a mini-series packed into a 98-minute made-for-television movie where several essential characters are quickly introduced and where finance and economics are casually discussed. It may help if one has a baseline of knowledge about the crisis before watching the movie. If one doesn’t know who Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke, and Timothy Geithner are or what Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, and AIG are, it may prove slightly difficult to follow.

Although the Director, Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential, 8 Mile), was limited to telling a very long and complicated story in a very short amount of time, he was able to skillfully pull it off. Perhaps this is because the screenwriter, Peter Gould (Breaking Bad), deftly adapted Andrew Ross Sorkin’s 2009 prize winning New York Times Bestseller, Too Big to Fail. (more…)

Goddamn Army.

Why it’s a left-wing film

Maybe my eternal affection for director Robert Altman’s brilliantly irreverent comedy clouds my judgment, but I don’t want to be too hard on “MASH.” Yes, it uses Korea as pretty weak cover to deliver a withering anti-war criticism of Vietnam and the military, and in the person of The Mighty Robert Duvall’s Frank Burns, the attack on Christianity does, at times, border on mean-spirited (Burns is a cold, manipulative, ambitious, backstabbing, unbalanced hypocrite and the Catholic Father Mulcahy is bumbling and absolutely useless), but man this movie’s fun…

…And funny.

And brilliant.

And refreshingly politically incorrect.

But now we’re getting into…

Why it’s a great film

One of the very first jokes in “MASH” perfectly sets the tone for what’s to come. After a quick sequence at the 4077th and a subtle jibe at Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Capt. Hawkeye Pierce arrives in the person of Donald Sutherland. He’s fresh off a plane from the States and needs a ride to report for duty. While waiting by a jeep, Hawkeye barely gets a word out before a Black enlisted man from the motor pool dresses him down under the assumption he’s going to get pushy about demanding the ride right away. Hawkeye had no intention of getting pushy, barely gets a word out, and after the jerk walks off, Hawkeye mutters under his breath, “Racist.” (more…)

Hollywood has a problem.  They are currently losing the cultural popularity contest.  A new Pew research poll shows that only 33% of Americans have a favorable view of entertainment industry.  By way of comparison, Rasmussen reports that 48% of the public identify with the Tea Party movement.  To further add perspective, less than six months after he left office, CNN reported that President Bush’s favorable rating had climbed to 41%, eclipsing that of the denizens of Tinsel town.  So why is the entertainment industry losing the battle for the hearts and minds of the American public?  The answer is simple.  It’s all about values. 

Hollywood did have a Golden Age, and the current time is not it.  While most people know Clark Gable for 8 famous words, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” and his role in the film “Gone with the Wind,” what a lot of people don’t know is that he was a genuine American hero.  At the height of his popularity he enlisted in the military to serve his country during World War II.  As an observer-gunner on a bomber, he participated in 5 combat missions and was almost killed when flak and enemy interceptors nearly took down his B-17.  He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism.  He was eventually promoted to the rank of major.  While his valor and physical courage were probably uncommon, the values that he represented were not.  

We could pull example after example from Hollywood’s golden age of celebrities who represented values that were more in line with main stream America then they are today, but let’s fast forward about sixty years and see what passes for Hollywood values today.  (more…)

Brendan Frye: “Your muscle seemed plenty cool putting his fist in my head. I want him out.”
The Pin: “Looky, soldier…”
Brendan Frye: “The ape blows or I clam.”

Fast and clever dialogue is one of the best things about hard boiled noir films of the past.  Tough guys didn’t need to be big and buff; all they needed was a quick tongue to get them out of the stickiest of situations.  Very few films are able to recreate this today.

Brendan Frye (in a sticky situation): “Throw one at me if you want, hash head. I’ve got all five senses and I slept last night, that puts me six up on the lot of you.” (more…)

Picture a quaint Victorian house in the Hollywood Hills overlooking Los Angeles.  A modest insurance salesman shows up at the door, it is opened by a maid.  There is a beautiful woman at the top of the stairs; the sultry Mrs. Dietrichson, dressed in nothing more than a towel.  She gets dressed after the salesman tells her their car insurance doesn’t have them “fully covered.”

The following conversation takes place:

–

The fast, witty, and flirtatious dialogue in this scene gives us light into how a man could possibly get seduced into what was to come.  This is of course, the big murder/insurance scam from Billy Wilder’s classic 1944 film Double Indemnity.

There was a time when dark crime films were popular both with mainstream Hollywood films and B-grade productions. McCarthyism, Hollywood censorship, and World War II among other things all played a role in the shaping and growing popularity of what became known as the classic period of America’s film noir (1940’s-1950’s). (more…)