The G.I. Film Festival and Gary Sinise: Supporting Our Troops

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the GI Film Festival at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. The Festival took place in one day and showed films that portray American enlisted men and women in a favorable light as opposed to the usual Hollywood fare. This festival was an offshoot of the main GI Film Festival which takes place in May every year in Washington D.C. The main event lasts seven days and includes showings of approximately 50 films. This was a one day shortened version in which the crème of the crop were exhibited. You can find out more details about the festival at: http://www.gifilmfestival.com. I also recommend that if you are so inclined, you make a donation to this worthy cause.

Among the screened films was a documentary entitled “About Face,” which was directed by Steve Karras. To me, the film is a masterpiece. It depicts a group of Jewish Refugees from both Germany and Austria that joined the American and British Armed Forces in WWII to fight against their native lands. The film was both moving and educational. In fact, I must state I was not even aware there was so many of these refugees. Apparently, they numbered approximately 10,000. And, because of their knowledge of the native languages of the enemy, many of them were placed in positions that put them directly into contact with the same Germans who were persecuting their family and relatives. (more…)

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Tags: armed forces, Bedford Virginia, D-Day, gary sinise, germany
Posted Oct 4th 2009 at 5:54 pm in Featured Story, Film, Military | 24059419 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/fdemartini/2009/10/04/the-g-i-film-festival-and-gary-sinise-supporting-our-troops/The+G.I.+Film+Festival+and+Gary+Sinise%3A+Supporting+Our+Troops+2009-10-05+00%3A54%3A44Frank+DeMartini

Walter Cronkite: Trailblazer of Bias

“Krankheit” in German is pronounced the same as the “Cronkite” following “Walter.” The German word means “sickness” while the “Walter” word means the man who infected TV news with the gazillion dollar-salary Star Anchor larger than the news he is supposed to be presenting. I don’t say that to be mean-spirited or disrespectful of a man who was “the most trusted man in America,” but nobody else appears to be pointing out that Cronkite was actually a liberal ideologue; an advocate of a politically correct, totalitarian world government who used his trust to influence public policy in accordance with his own beliefs.

Cronkite should be the poster boy for full disclosure of a reporter’s politics — something I strongly advocate. Instead, he continues to be lauded as “Uncle Walter,” the journalist who was totally unbiased in his reportage at a time when there were only three networks and the size of his news audience and personal influence on politics and national policy was far beyond anything that can be imagined by those who did not experience it. That meant Cronkite was the national oracle of fact and truth during his time as Anchor and Managing Editor of CBS Evening News from 1962 to 1981. But was he really unbiased? Well, that’s not quite the way it was. (more…)

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Tags: Bill Moyers, cbs, Karl Rove, Vietnam, Walter Cronkite
Posted Jul 29th 2009 at 5:03 am in Featured Story, Media Criticism, Politics | 19067447 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/dgifford/2009/07/29/walters-krankeit/Walter+Cronkite%3A+Trailblazer+of+Bias2009-07-29+12%3A03%3A47Dan+Gifford

Troopathon 2009: Heirs to the Real and Great America

When my son was in high school he was a member of the Air Force ROTC.  As the young men and women drilled around the campus, leftist teachers would slam the doors on them in hate and anger, thus putting the lie to the oft-stated canard, “We support the troops but not the war in Iraq.” 

When we hear about “the culture war” this is the war that we’re in at home, it’s between those who believe in things bigger than themselves and those who fear things bigger than themselves.  Why do they fear patriotic children?  Because patriotism is, to the Modern Liberal, an act of bigotry.  As you watch America’s new Commander-in-Chief running around the world belittle America, apologizing for “wrongs” that weren’t even committed by us (such as “colonialism” which was the Europeans) and literally bowing down before the “Keeper of the Holy places,” the Saudi King, you must recognize that he does so because he believes that love for America is bigotry and if there’s one thing a Leftist is not (in his own mind) it’s a bigot.  (more…)

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Tags: Carter, Obama, ROTC, Troopathon, Vietnam
Posted Jun 25th 2009 at 6:33 pm in Military | 170714One Commenthttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/esayet/2009/06/25/troopathon-2009-heirs-to-the-real-and-great-america/Troopathon+2009%3A+Heirs+to+the+Real+and+Great+America2009-06-26+01%3A33%3A38Evan+Sayet

Troopathon 2009: Letters Like Clockwork

Not long after our present wars began in Afghanistan and Iraq the letters started to arrive.  One a month, two, sometimes more… We received one just last week. They come from most every military organization you can imagine. Some are about care packages, others are about air conditioners, and a few have to do with adopting a soldier to share correspondence with. None ask for money. They’re thank you notes, thanking “Mr. and Mrs. John Nolte for your generosity.”

Only through these letters do I ever learn of my generosity. This is my wife’s doing.

Since the arrival of the first letter we’ve had some lean years and some flush, but still they come. Only the amount we’re being thanked for ever changes. Frequently, during those leanest of times, my wife would get angry because what she could afford to donate barely covered the costs involved in the sending of the thank you.  So she’d scrape up another donation and send it along with an attached note politely advising: “To Whom It May Concern: No reply is necessary. Please use the money for the troops.” (more…)

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Tags: letters, Military, Troopathon, Vietnam
Posted Jun 25th 2009 at 5:14 pm in Military | 171086No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/06/25/troopathon-2009-letters-like-clockwork/Troopathon+2009%3A+Letters+Like+Clockwork2009-06-26+00%3A14%3A31John+Nolte

Troopathon 2009: The Only Soldier I Ever Met

I never met a real soldier.  My family didn’t know much about the military.  We fancied ourselves more artistic and sophisticated than that.  As a boy, I lived in terror of the draft, afraid of my 18th birthday, when I would have to register with the Selective Service (or they’d come and get me).  And all I ever heard at home was how the Vietnam War was maiming and disfiguring our beautiful young men – all for nothing.

World War II was different.  Even my family remembered it almost fondly.  Soldiers back then seemed like the real thing, thanks largely to the patriotic black-and-white movies of the 1940s – still played repeatedly on our rabbit ear TV.  Hard to believe, but once upon a time, Hollywood actually pitched in to the war effort – stars like Bette Davis, John Garfield, Carole Lombard, Betty Grable, even Marlene Dietrich, all went out of their way to boost the national morale. (more…)

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Tags: 9/11, Gulf War, Iraq, Troopathon, Vietnam
Posted Jun 25th 2009 at 7:22 am in Military | 1677262 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cwinecoff/2009/06/25/the-only-soldier-i-ever-met/Troopathon+2009%3A+The+Only+Soldier+I+Ever+Met2009-06-25+14%3A22%3A56Charles+Winecoff

NBC: National Broadcasters Against Conservatives

Robert Avrech’s lovely paean to the patriotism of Old Hollywood reminds me, by way of contrast, of a blink-and-you-missed-it scandal from seventeen months ago. Even in a cultural arena rife with liberal outrages against military families, it marked a new low. And although it was but one small battle in the culture war, it is worth recalling in the wake of Memorial Day as a reminder of just how far our popular media has fallen from the sterling ideals of our forefathers.

What does NBC stand for again? National Broadcasters against Conservatives? No Blessings for the Corps? On December 7, 2007, as the country solemnly remembered Pearl Harbor and the timeless sacrifices of soldiers long dead, one of our major television networks decided that running ads praising today’s modern armed forces constituted a bridge too far. The two thirty-second spots had been produced by Freedom’s Watch, a now-defunct conservative action group which aspired to be the MoveOn.org of the right, using “grassroots lobbying, education and information campaigns, and issue advocacy” to fight the good fight against the legion of hippy-dippy protesters, nihilists, and ideological bullies that perpetually rage (and increasingly reign) throughout blue-state America. (more…)

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Tags: "It's Morning Again in America" (commercials), 30 Rockefeller Plaza, A Room with a View (1985), A.N.S.W.E.R., bob hope
Posted May 27th 2009 at 6:51 am in Media Criticism, Military | 1434103 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2009/05/27/must-see-tv/NBC%3A+National+Broadcasters+Against+Conservatives2009-05-27+13%3A51%3A50Leo+Grin

A Republican Platform For The 21st Century

I have been a proud conservative Republican my entire life. My father and Jimmy Carter saw to that. My first vote ever was for Ronald Reagan in 1980, and I have never voted for a Democrat. Ever. Even today, the reasons for my being so have not changed, despite the media’s and liberal Democrats’ tireless efforts to discredit my belief system. Though the times may change, core principles never do. I have also served this nation proudly in uniform for six years, and don’t regret a minute of it.

In the early 1980s, my military service brought me to some of the darker corners of the world. I spent time in South Korea and Marcos’ Philippines when both countries were under martial law. Knowing I could be shot just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time really woke me up to what exactly it is we have here in America. Seeing a thousand Vietnamese Boat People pulled out of the South China Sea in one day only reinforced my belief in America, Sweet Land of Liberty.

Today, the Party of Lincoln and Reagan appears to be in political disarray, which is why I am writing this OpEd now. Yet many promising developments, along with some huge mistakes by Congress and the Obama Administration, have opened many new doors for us. If only we will enter. (more…)

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Tags: abortion, Africa, Al Franken, amnesty, apology tour
Posted May 2nd 2009 at 3:13 pm in Featured Story, Politics | 12196215 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jtsimpson/2009/05/02/a-republican-platform-for-the-21st-century/A+Republican+Platform+For+The+21st+Century2009-05-02+22%3A13%3A08John+T.+Simpson

Top 5: If Hollywood Was Your Only Source of History

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If present-day Hollywood had their way here are five things you’d never know…

1. That JFK had way more in common with Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush than most of today’s Democrats: By modern standards, Kennedy was a fairly conservative Republican; forward-leaning on national defense and a tax cutter who may not have called it trickle-down but to improve the economy and grow the treasury he cut taxes across the board (yes, including the evil rich). Kennedy’s “tax cuts for the wealthy” not only worked but would become the starter blueprint for both the Reagan and Bush II tax cuts. (more…)

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Tags: Charlie Wilson's War, Film, george w. bush, hollywood, Hollywood propaganda
Posted Apr 20th 2009 at 6:49 am in Politics, Top 5 | 1087064 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/04/20/top-5-if-hollywood-was-your-only-source-of-history/Top+5%3A+If+Hollywood+Was+Your+Only+Source+of+History2009-04-20+13%3A49%3A06John+Nolte

From Desk of: All the Congresses and President, Hope Change Without Bush Update

FROM : ALL US CONGRESS AND PRESIDENTS OF THE US

TO: ALL THE PEOPLES OF THE EARTH AND THE AMERICA.

CC: Madame Pelosis, Hary Reide, Sen. Frank, Not Bush. Mr. Gietner Taxes.

Dear American Friend!,

Oh the happytimes for us are coming without Bush. Assureing the future pleasent times for the Americans. Her’is what we are doing for this things: (more…)

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Tags: "China", British, Christmas, England, Erupe
Posted Apr 9th 2009 at 4:53 pm in Political Humor | 98710No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/emannix/2009/04/09/from-all-the-congress-and-president-americans-hope-status-update/From+Desk+of%3A+All+the+Congresses+and+President%2C+Hope+Change+Without+Bush+Update2009-04-09+23%3A53%3A18Ernie+Mannix

Harvard 29, Yale 29, Audience 0 (Final)

“The best football movie ever!” declared one reviewer.  “It’s the ‘Hoop Dreams’ of football!”, chirped another.  Which is why, as a lifelong devotee of independent films, documentaries, and college football, I decided to see Harvard Beats Yale 29-29, a film by Kevin Rafferty about the “epic” 1968 game between the Ivy League rivals.  Like most epic football games, the 1968 Harvard-Yale game was between two teams nobody cared about, and it ended in a tie.  As if the fact that Harvard and Yale played to a tie in 1968 wasn’t enough to drag me into the theater, this film also features Tommy Lee Jones, a guard on that 1968 Harvard squad, and Yale quarterback Brian Dowling, the inspiration for “B.D.” in the comic strip Doonesbury that was so popular back when Jimmy Carter was president.  So what’s not to like?

Cut to me in one of the comfy chairs at the Screening Lounge of the Landmark Theaters at the Westside Pavilion in West L.A last night. (Which is awesome, by the way– it really is just like a screening room.)  Things got off to a slow start when some guy, seemingly not noticing the half-empty room, informed me that I was sitting in his seat.  Like most of the other patrons, this guy gave every appearance of being either a Yale or a Harvard man. Speaking of which, does Harvard only admit pompous jackasses, or is becoming a pompous jackass a requirement for graduating from Harvard?  Ah, the eternal questions.  (Actually, that’s probably not fair.  I’m sure that plenty of normal, decent, men and women of average-sized egos have graduated from Harvard University.  I’ve just never met one.)  In any case, the seating issue was resolved, the film was soon underway and I settled in for what promised to be the cinematic experience of a lifetime. (more…)

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Tags: Al Gore, Brian Dowling, Coal Miner's Daughter, Doonesbury, george w. bush
Posted Mar 19th 2009 at 3:12 pm in Reviews | 8463861 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/nrice/2009/03/19/harvard-29-yale-29-audience-0-final/Harvard+29%2C+Yale+29%2C+Audience+0+%28Final%292009-03-19+22%3A12%3A45Ned+Rice

Watch Out For ‘Watchmen’

Editor’s Note: This piece was originally published Jan. 7th. It returns today for obvious reasons, but also for the benefit of new readers. The original post and comments can be found here.  

Last summer, Joss Whedon (yes, he’s my master now), caused a minor sensation with his Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog. One of the reasons the musical comedy about a would-be super-villain’s miserable love life was so successful — other than Whedon’s pact with Satan whereby he traded his soul, his mint condition Giant Size X-Men # 1 and a lifetime supply of HoHos in exchange for mystical word-talent – was that Whedon was standing on the shoulders of Alan Moore, the author of the landmark comic book Watchmen. More than anyone else, Moore is credited with “deconstructing” the comic book super-hero, and he probably deserves that credit. Though like with all great artistic innovators, Moore had his influences in this regard. Every artist has in his background a mob of ghostly helpers bigger than the crowd of phone technicians in that Verizon commercial. For instance, Marvel Comics (where my first loyalties lie, for the record) had already broken considerable ground in humanizing its heroes long before Moore started writing. Peter Parker, after all, was a terrible dork. (more…)

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Tags: alan moore, cold war, JFK, Nixon, Reagan
Posted Mar 5th 2009 at 7:45 am in Entertainment, Politics | 7305845 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jgoldberg/2009/03/05/watch-out-for-%e2%80%98watchmen%e2%80%99/Watch+Out+For+%E2%80%98Watchmen%E2%80%992009-03-05+15%3A45%3A56Jonah+Goldberg

Platitudes are not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things

The other day I was stuck in traffic behind a young woman whose rear bumper sported three popular cries for help: Hope, Free Tibet, and Save the Planet.  Her ass was covered.

For some reason, it made me think of my late grandmother, an English rose with a backbone of steel – what us Americans call a “tough cookie.”  As a young divorcee, she single-handedly raised my mother, and took care of her own mother, through the Great Depression and beyond.

I used to love asking her about all the events she’d seen take place in her lifetime: the rise of the automobile, the night of Orson Welles’s famous War of the Worlds broadcast, the blackouts during WW2, the “Stars Over America” war bond blitz (which even Hollywood nonconformist Bette Davis threw herself into), the arrival of television, and on and on.

As a boy, it seemed to me my grandmother had lived many lives, and seen more sweeping, historical changes than I could ever dream of.  I had missed the boat. (more…)

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Tags: AOL, Blackberry, bumper stickers, change, Che
Posted Feb 2nd 2009 at 10:00 am in Media Criticism, Politics | 3496645 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cwinecoff/2009/02/02/platitudes-are-not-healthy-for-children-and-other-living-things/Platitudes+are+not+Healthy+for+Children+and+Other+Living+Things2009-02-02+18%3A00%3A49Charles+Winecoff