the funny thing is, it hits very specifically on something that's been bugging me or the last couple of days. the other night, I watched the movie version of "The Naked and the Dead," which I haven't read in something like forty years; I hadn't seen the movie for at least thirty. let's remember, it's directed by R…
the funny thing is, it hits very specifically on something that's been bugging me or the last couple of days. the other night, I watched the movie version of "The Naked and the Dead," which I haven't read in something like forty years; I hadn't seen the movie for at least thirty. let's remember, it's directed by Raoul Walsh, who certainly knew how to make movies, and a few of them were plenty gritty ("White Heat," anyone?) and "The Naked and the Dead is certainly a gritty novel. for people who haven't read it or don't remember it, it's about a small army mission that's part of the larger effort to take back a tiny island in the Pacific. it's an essentially "meaningless" mission planned by a truly fascist general and led by a miserable, sadistic, very competent sergeant with the officer being a very green, idealistic lieutenant (possibly a stand-in for Mailer?). the guys in the platoon are guys who are supposed to represent "America" (although they're all considered "white" because that's how it was), and we get to know them through the use of flashbacks (a method pretty much stolen from Dos Passos, but Mailer pulled it off very nicely). to make a long story short, the mission "succeeds" by sheer dumb luck (and the sergeant's pretty much animal ability to stay alive). the general is a hero, the lieutenant is killed (essentially murdered by the sergeant) and that's that. the bad guys in the army win, the good guys get killed and the reader is primed for the postwar world of sick anti-communism and the arms race. I remembered the movie as being a good "war" movie and I remembered that (the production code sorta demanded it) the lieutenant survives and the sergeant is killed. what I didn't remember was this terrible Hollywood speech the wounded lieutenant gives the Nazi-adjacent general at the end about love ruling the world (even the army). so, the point of the movie is almost precisely the complete OPPOSITE of its source. I was infuriated. I've never actually read "The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit," but the upbeat ending always seemed ridiculous. I've never seen "What Makes Sammy Run?" but Schulberg was a highly underrated novelist, and "What Makes Sammy Run?" is still one of the best (and, I'll wager, most realistic) "Hollywood novel." what happens in the movie? does Sammy turn nice or something? I also wish that "A Man for All Seasons" (both the play and movie, which are very different in structure) had been able to show us both sides of More (for the bad stuff, Hilary Mantel is wonderful), but they make him out to be the saint he actually became and never was.
so, I got THAT off my chest.
and yeah, Tom Wambsgans (I pride myself on predicting it'd go to him for two episodes prior) IS a lot like DeSantis (it never occurred to me, because Tom seems like a much nicer guy...or is it just because he's very tall?) last week, I read a funny piece Alexandra Petri did in WaPo comparing "reviews" of "Cocaine Bear" and that DeSantis book (I refuse to look up its idiotic title). I was very surprised by the quotes she used from DeSantis because it feels like he might actually have written it. the style is an abomination. she ends the piece by saying that the book seems endless even though it's only 262 pages long. I should look it up, but this machine's been acting up and losing all this typing would be very depressing.
I wish the opposition media would spend a lot more time talking about DeSantis being the miserable opportunist he is. I don't care about the way he eats anything or about his ridiculous wife (long white gloves to breakfast??). I care more about the fact that he's demonstrated over and over again that his way of running things actually IS the way fascists run things. I am clinging to the fact that his personality is vile enough for self-immolation, but that has only made TFF stronger.
this world is, to quote Tom on another occasion, "not for the faint of heart."
an excellent piece, Tom.
the funny thing is, it hits very specifically on something that's been bugging me or the last couple of days. the other night, I watched the movie version of "The Naked and the Dead," which I haven't read in something like forty years; I hadn't seen the movie for at least thirty. let's remember, it's directed by Raoul Walsh, who certainly knew how to make movies, and a few of them were plenty gritty ("White Heat," anyone?) and "The Naked and the Dead is certainly a gritty novel. for people who haven't read it or don't remember it, it's about a small army mission that's part of the larger effort to take back a tiny island in the Pacific. it's an essentially "meaningless" mission planned by a truly fascist general and led by a miserable, sadistic, very competent sergeant with the officer being a very green, idealistic lieutenant (possibly a stand-in for Mailer?). the guys in the platoon are guys who are supposed to represent "America" (although they're all considered "white" because that's how it was), and we get to know them through the use of flashbacks (a method pretty much stolen from Dos Passos, but Mailer pulled it off very nicely). to make a long story short, the mission "succeeds" by sheer dumb luck (and the sergeant's pretty much animal ability to stay alive). the general is a hero, the lieutenant is killed (essentially murdered by the sergeant) and that's that. the bad guys in the army win, the good guys get killed and the reader is primed for the postwar world of sick anti-communism and the arms race. I remembered the movie as being a good "war" movie and I remembered that (the production code sorta demanded it) the lieutenant survives and the sergeant is killed. what I didn't remember was this terrible Hollywood speech the wounded lieutenant gives the Nazi-adjacent general at the end about love ruling the world (even the army). so, the point of the movie is almost precisely the complete OPPOSITE of its source. I was infuriated. I've never actually read "The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit," but the upbeat ending always seemed ridiculous. I've never seen "What Makes Sammy Run?" but Schulberg was a highly underrated novelist, and "What Makes Sammy Run?" is still one of the best (and, I'll wager, most realistic) "Hollywood novel." what happens in the movie? does Sammy turn nice or something? I also wish that "A Man for All Seasons" (both the play and movie, which are very different in structure) had been able to show us both sides of More (for the bad stuff, Hilary Mantel is wonderful), but they make him out to be the saint he actually became and never was.
so, I got THAT off my chest.
and yeah, Tom Wambsgans (I pride myself on predicting it'd go to him for two episodes prior) IS a lot like DeSantis (it never occurred to me, because Tom seems like a much nicer guy...or is it just because he's very tall?) last week, I read a funny piece Alexandra Petri did in WaPo comparing "reviews" of "Cocaine Bear" and that DeSantis book (I refuse to look up its idiotic title). I was very surprised by the quotes she used from DeSantis because it feels like he might actually have written it. the style is an abomination. she ends the piece by saying that the book seems endless even though it's only 262 pages long. I should look it up, but this machine's been acting up and losing all this typing would be very depressing.
I wish the opposition media would spend a lot more time talking about DeSantis being the miserable opportunist he is. I don't care about the way he eats anything or about his ridiculous wife (long white gloves to breakfast??). I care more about the fact that he's demonstrated over and over again that his way of running things actually IS the way fascists run things. I am clinging to the fact that his personality is vile enough for self-immolation, but that has only made TFF stronger.
this world is, to quote Tom on another occasion, "not for the faint of heart."