WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD If you are watching “Succession” and have not yet seen the series finale, you may want to wait to read this until you have done so. Trust me, you don’t want to watch that amazing 90 minutes already knowing the outcome. For the rest who have seen it, and for those who never watched the series, allow me to continue.
Have not watched "Succession" and do not intend to watch it. There are just some things I do not need reminding of. One of those is that the nature of this nation has been first, second, third and always - get the money no matter what it takes. In lots of ways our nation which has never said it (meaning the white majority that has run things from the beginning) has never admitted it has done things to others, mostly those who are black, brown, women, men, children, and impoverished whatever the color of their skin, that were morally and ethically wrong, reprehensible, violent and completely antithetical to the words "liberty" and "equality" in the Declaration of Independence. You can take your pick but for me the whole matter of enslavement which, in a word is about getting work out of people while NOT paying them anything, seems to continue to be the backbone of all business plans especially of those entities trading on the stock markets of the world. I would suggest you read, Ira Berlin's book "Many Thousands Gone" along with Edmund Morgan's "American Slavery, American Freedom" - Slavery created a permanent laboring class. Greed made slavery. Slavery made race. Race made racism. The US is not alone in this approach to what it means to live on this planet. The mixture of religious nationalism, whatever flavor, does the same. This business model flourishes throughout the world, and it is a source of pain, anger, and violence everywhere. So, I did not watch a story about it, because we're all living in the mess of it 24/7. I have read that Ukrainians have taken a look at the drones/missiles they've shot down, what's left of them, and they can tell there are parts inside these things that are - surprise - made by companies in the "free world". It is actually quite a miracle that fascism did not win World War II. Of course fascism is alive and even thriving in various states of our nation, but too many people cannot see it, and aren't sure how to resist it politically, ethically or morally. Fascism is quite a chameleon. At any rate - my rant continues internally. Support Pride Month. Support Gun Violence Awareness Month. Support your local library.
all beautifully put, but you should watch "Succession" because the writing is superb. the production values are also amazing, but the writing is a whole other dimension of smart. it might be up there with Milch's dialogue is "Deadwood," which is saying a great deal. but I haven't decided yet.
and oh yeah, it also made Brian Cox, who'd previously been one of the most underrated Great Actors around (and who's also a really nice guy...eminently approachable) a megastar.
Now that I am the owner of a Really Big TV (the good friend of The Best Neighbor Ever, who lives across the street, died recently without family, TBNE took care of things for him and found this Big TV still in its packing, and gave it to me) I have finally connected the TV to the internet and since I have HBO on cable I now have "Max" free, so I am going to watch both Deadwood and Band of Brothers again.
"Succession" as a modern "Lear" has gotten a lot of comment. And Brian Cox played Lear so often he wrote a very good book about the play. I think "Succession" really is "Lear" modernized.
that was my thought on first seeing it, but I think the "Lear" stuff was just a jumping-off point.
I thought I might be the only one I'd ever meet who read Cox's "Lear Diaries." I missed his Lear by a few months...at that time, there were three major productions in London and I couldn't get away. but I caught a National Theatre Platform Talk after the production and before the book came out and had a talk with him in the bookstore after the talk (his experience of playing Lear wasn't a wonderful one). the talk inspired me to write some fiction about a guy playing Lear and what happens to him, and I tried a little but gave up. I saw him a year so later in this one-man play in a tiny off-off Broadway theater on the far west side in midtown. I'd gone with a good old grad school friend and a weird thing happened. Cox was just there, in front of us, a regular guy who could have been mistaken for a semi-well-heeled bum. then, at the precise time the performance was supposed to start, he changed completely...you could actually SEE this whole other "thing" (power? vital force? Dionysus entering him?...who the fuck knows). but we both just gasped and turned to each other at the same time and asked "shit...did you see THAT??"
and when the play ended, he was once again the same guy you'd pass on the street and notice only that he's very short.
so I'm inclined to like Brian Cox a LOT.
I also very recently received a gift (very similarly acquired) of a HUGE (65") tv. I was embarrassed the first few days, because buying something that size is something I'd never have done (it would've represented too much of a commitment to television or something dumb like that). but after those few days, it grew on me. I will say that watching something like basketball on a screen that huge can get me a little nauseated, but I watch basketball very seldom. the old movies on it (especially with those great new prints you can see on Criterion, which is an extra monthly charge but well worth it) look absolutely GORGEOUS. I do find that films shot in a digital medium don't quite look enough like FILM for me. but that's just me.
TC addresses right from wrong in "SUCCESSION" HELD A MIRROR UP FOR ALL OF US, by pointing to the decisions made by Tom Wambsgans, in ‘Succession’ and those made by Sir Thomas More and Liz Cheney.
‘When the history of our time is written, Cheney’s story will be one that is told as an example. “Resolve to do what is right, even when it’s hard, you’re alone, even when you’re afraid — especially when you’re afraid.” (TC)
She is an excellent example of TC’s reasoning. We may also remember Liz Cheney’s commitment to the fossil fuel sector,
‘EXCLUSIVE – Republican Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney on Thursday introduced new legislation blocking President Biden's executive order to ban oil and gas leasing on federal lands and a potential coal moratorium.’
‘The bills, titled The Safeguarding Oil and Gas Leasing and Permitting Act and The Safeguarding Coal Leasing Act. would block Biden's moratoriums unless Congress enacts a joint resolution of approval.’
"The executive actions from the Biden Administration banning new leasing and permitting on federal land endanger our economy and threaten our national security," Cheney said in a statement. "The legislation I am introducing today would safeguard against these damaging orders, and prevent the job loss, higher energy costs, and loss of revenue that promises to come with them."
Cheney introducing bills prohibiting Biden coal, oil, gas …' (FoxBusiness.com) See link below.
‘During a news conference, Cheney denied that she and Wyoming’s Senators are trying to take advantage of the war in Ukraine saying that they’ve been pushing for less regulation and energy independence for some time. As to the accusation that oil and gas companies are sitting on existing leases, she blamed uncertainty over where the Biden administration's policies are going.’
“Increased production would certainly help with the prices we are seeing at the gas pump and I think that requires a commitment on the part of the administration to cut the regulations and reverse and roll back what they put in place. They (also) ought to open up the Keystone pipeline,” said Cheney.' (WyomingPublicMedia) See link below.
Just reported today by the Washington Post: ‘A team of top scientists says that it has assessed the planet’s health against eight key thresholds needed to protect life on Earth and that human activities have led to seven of the eight of the boundaries already being breached.’
“The window is rapidly shutting; we’re very close to irreversible tipping points,” Johan Rockström, a director at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the lead author of the study published this week, (WAPO) For more information, open link for ‘study published this week’.
I look at the current crop of politicians, especially those in positions of power, and I realize sadly that Admiral Tarrant would not be asking where do we get such men.....sad.
"Bridges at Toko-Ri" did NOT have a "Hollywood ending," which is all to its credit. and it came out well before "The Naked and the Dead." it really was the fault of the production code. William Holden didn't murder anyone, so the sad ending was...SAD.
"The Naked and the Dead" VIOLATED its source. Mailer was so pissed that he actually tried to sue the studio to get his rights back, but the case didn't get to court. it's a truism that when you sell a book to the movies, it's probably best to assume it'll get fucked up and try not to let it bother you. I doubt Walsh (who directed god-knows-how-many eminently watchable movies as well as hanging out with Pancho Villa playing John Wilkes Booth in "Birth of a Nation") cared about it. he'd seen HIS action.
btw Tom...you'd know if his stories about actually flying in the Lafayette Escadrille were true. were they?
The interesting thing about "Bridges at Toko-ri" is that it is based on real events James Michener witnessed while aboard USS Valley Forge in late 1952. There was a real Chief Forney (who wore a green baseball cap rather than a top hat) and a real Harry Brubaker (who really was "a lawyer from Denver") and there was a rescue attempt that everyone believed at the time ended in failure. Except "Forney" and "Brubaker" lived - captured that night - and they walked over the Freedom Bridge at Panmunjom on August 1, 1953, the day after Paramount bought the rights to the novel that was published the previous May. (The whole story of the "real" Bridges at Toko-ri is in my book "Holding The Line")
Walsh also claimed to have done it, but there was some doubt about it. and wasn't Hawks also in the LE? or did he fly in WWI at all? he sure made great movies about flying ("Only Angels Have Wings" is one of my favorite movies).
“Succession” is about horrible people in power; a corporate kakistocracy that American’s have misinterpreted as success and competence. It’s a huge misinterpretation from a series of really stupid assumptions about those with money. It certainly highlights the pitfalls of “Citizens United.” As for Death Santis--I suspect he takes his cues from a wife who reminds me of Evita Perón. . . Ironically, Florida currently lacks adequate supplies for breast cancer treatment; wouldn’t that be poetic justice.
I had no use for Dick Cheney. And not much for Liz for quite some time. But she revealed herself to be the real deal, a real American. When the chips were down, she stood up. And continues to stand. When it comes to pitchin' the truth when it counts, she can and has brought the heat, leaving the rest of her party throwing like a bunch of little girls with the ball getting nowhere near the plate. So of course, they kicked her out of the bigs. What else would you expect from a bunch of amateurs trying to pass themselves off as the real deal? But I expect future statisticians will note the difference.
I haven't watched the show and don't wish to, but know about it generally and can see where it could be the Murdochs and it could be the entire republican party and capitalist system. However, I am far more fascinated at the theory that Wambsgans had to take out three people to get ahead, and in 1920, Bill Wambsganss made the only unassisted triple play in World Series history for Cleveland against my Dodgers. That makes me think that the writers on the show know and love baseball, and that shows they are good people.
Matthew Macfadyen first came to my notice for doing a British TV show, "Ripper Street" set in Victorian England where he plays Detective Inspector Edmund Reid, who is developing "modern" police investigatory techniques with Victorian-era science and knowledge.
He's also really excellent in "Quiz" about the British TV scandal, and the 2017 "Howard's End." I want to see "Operation Mincemeat" (the story of how Ian Fleming, while in MI6 in World War II, faked out the entire German high command that we were not going to invade Sicily when the fact we would was so obvious no one could miss it - yes, *that* Ian Fleming)
I liked "Operation Mincemeat" quite a bit, despite my attachment to the earlier (and obviously, much more highly fictionalized) version from the '50s, "The Man Who Never Was." I especially love Gloria Grahame's big scene, in which she "dictates" the letter to leave on the dead guy's body to make "him" seem more authentic. but I've always been a sucker for GG, who was certainly the real deal in Sexy Fifties Movie Stars (maybe it was her unique light lisp that did it for me).
of course, "Operation Mincemeat" is based (yet AGAIN) on one of Ben Macintyre's long list of terrific books about WW II, espionage, etc.
I saw him on stage once in "Much Ado About Nothing." this was at least twenty years ago. I need to catch up on the MANY cable series he was in. I know he met his current wife (sexy Keeley Hawes) when they were both in a Brit series called "MI5." and I don't remember whether or not you've seen "Slow Horses" (which I THINK is on Apple, which I know you hate, but it's also a terrific series, also about MI5, with Gary Oldman once again proving how much he can do.).
Have to confess to not being a "Succession" fan. Watched it twice and felt my two showers were inadequate to free me of the gelatinous greed that was oozing out of the TV. But I like the comparisons to More and Cheney, the latter being beatified by some on the left for her one seemingly principled episode in politics. Kinzinger was more of a hero and gave up more, but his type is apparently too lackluster to inspire great modern literature. Too bad the anti-heroes have set and dominated the current national "tone".
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."
I started watching Succession several months ago and quit watching because I disliked the characters so much. But I decided to give it another shot with so much time on my hands recovering from the knee replacement. Could be the pain meds, or the hype about the last episode, but so far sticking with it this time. So I’m not reading this post yet TC.
I loved the ending of Succession but I didn’t understand your version of it and frankly, I think you’re absolutely right. I found the character of Tom to be compelling because he never would give up. I liked that he was always working and I had genuine pathos for his horrendous position in life as an interloper within a vicious family with no scruples. I genuinely liked him because I saw a certain humility in the guy. He kept getting beaten up by everyone especially his wife but the three children, in a sense, had no work ethic at all and why should they? They just felt entitled to the power and money and continually bitched and moaned. Tom was smarter than them but who knew?? The ending was a wonderful surprise for me. I loved that Shiv would have a father for her baby. I loved that the 3 kids could finally stop racing around like hamsters and get some kind of life. I think we all struggle to make the best out of the cards we’ve been given. Morality at this juncture of time is a complex concept. At the same time I love Liz Cheney’s challenge and her position and if she ran for President I’d probably vote for her.
BTW, for people who really like "Succession," I can wholeheartedly recommend the podcasts which are available for every episode. they definitely enhance the experience and for those of us who've come to "love" the characters (by which I sorta mean, those who find their very different personalities to be interesting), the long interviews with the actors are very compelling. search on your podcast app for "HBO's Succession Podcast."
Not sure I am up to watching Succession. I have a sense of the rise and adulterated acceptance (worship?) of cynicism, now at the foundation of so many anti- series now streaming, as the perverse guiding star is American politics. More pronounced in conservative, neo-confederacy candidates, probably, but just under the surface in the attitudes of so many aspiring to positions of power within their party or caucus. There is a Grey haze (stench) holding the motives, compromises, shifts in loyalty (a dying term) and allegiance to tony terms, rather than grand principles. Your writing today has me thinking about Liz as a Thomas More character, the one who could have been great, given a stand for the right,, once, and DeSantis pandering to the ignorance and fears of legacy Whites and established immigrants or hoping to be so Blacks. How cynical his aspirations are and how likely might he become by pursuing a tighter, more restructive philosophy to get their votes on his promise that they will be accepted, will be recognized, will wear a mantle of grey wool and glittering light all the way to his annointment to the presidency. And, then abandoned once the great leader is enthroned with his Eva.
from what I've read about her, I think she's much more of a Lady Macbeth type. all preparation, no follow-through.
and "Succession" really isn't as overtly "political" as it's starting to sound (the last season included a lot of politics, but really as more of a setting to demonstrate that the horrible family stuff has wider implications). it's much more about how horrible a horrible family can be.
Have not watched "Succession" and do not intend to watch it. There are just some things I do not need reminding of. One of those is that the nature of this nation has been first, second, third and always - get the money no matter what it takes. In lots of ways our nation which has never said it (meaning the white majority that has run things from the beginning) has never admitted it has done things to others, mostly those who are black, brown, women, men, children, and impoverished whatever the color of their skin, that were morally and ethically wrong, reprehensible, violent and completely antithetical to the words "liberty" and "equality" in the Declaration of Independence. You can take your pick but for me the whole matter of enslavement which, in a word is about getting work out of people while NOT paying them anything, seems to continue to be the backbone of all business plans especially of those entities trading on the stock markets of the world. I would suggest you read, Ira Berlin's book "Many Thousands Gone" along with Edmund Morgan's "American Slavery, American Freedom" - Slavery created a permanent laboring class. Greed made slavery. Slavery made race. Race made racism. The US is not alone in this approach to what it means to live on this planet. The mixture of religious nationalism, whatever flavor, does the same. This business model flourishes throughout the world, and it is a source of pain, anger, and violence everywhere. So, I did not watch a story about it, because we're all living in the mess of it 24/7. I have read that Ukrainians have taken a look at the drones/missiles they've shot down, what's left of them, and they can tell there are parts inside these things that are - surprise - made by companies in the "free world". It is actually quite a miracle that fascism did not win World War II. Of course fascism is alive and even thriving in various states of our nation, but too many people cannot see it, and aren't sure how to resist it politically, ethically or morally. Fascism is quite a chameleon. At any rate - my rant continues internally. Support Pride Month. Support Gun Violence Awareness Month. Support your local library.
all beautifully put, but you should watch "Succession" because the writing is superb. the production values are also amazing, but the writing is a whole other dimension of smart. it might be up there with Milch's dialogue is "Deadwood," which is saying a great deal. but I haven't decided yet.
and oh yeah, it also made Brian Cox, who'd previously been one of the most underrated Great Actors around (and who's also a really nice guy...eminently approachable) a megastar.
Yes, I agree on the writing.
Now that I am the owner of a Really Big TV (the good friend of The Best Neighbor Ever, who lives across the street, died recently without family, TBNE took care of things for him and found this Big TV still in its packing, and gave it to me) I have finally connected the TV to the internet and since I have HBO on cable I now have "Max" free, so I am going to watch both Deadwood and Band of Brothers again.
"Succession" as a modern "Lear" has gotten a lot of comment. And Brian Cox played Lear so often he wrote a very good book about the play. I think "Succession" really is "Lear" modernized.
that was my thought on first seeing it, but I think the "Lear" stuff was just a jumping-off point.
I thought I might be the only one I'd ever meet who read Cox's "Lear Diaries." I missed his Lear by a few months...at that time, there were three major productions in London and I couldn't get away. but I caught a National Theatre Platform Talk after the production and before the book came out and had a talk with him in the bookstore after the talk (his experience of playing Lear wasn't a wonderful one). the talk inspired me to write some fiction about a guy playing Lear and what happens to him, and I tried a little but gave up. I saw him a year so later in this one-man play in a tiny off-off Broadway theater on the far west side in midtown. I'd gone with a good old grad school friend and a weird thing happened. Cox was just there, in front of us, a regular guy who could have been mistaken for a semi-well-heeled bum. then, at the precise time the performance was supposed to start, he changed completely...you could actually SEE this whole other "thing" (power? vital force? Dionysus entering him?...who the fuck knows). but we both just gasped and turned to each other at the same time and asked "shit...did you see THAT??"
and when the play ended, he was once again the same guy you'd pass on the street and notice only that he's very short.
so I'm inclined to like Brian Cox a LOT.
I also very recently received a gift (very similarly acquired) of a HUGE (65") tv. I was embarrassed the first few days, because buying something that size is something I'd never have done (it would've represented too much of a commitment to television or something dumb like that). but after those few days, it grew on me. I will say that watching something like basketball on a screen that huge can get me a little nauseated, but I watch basketball very seldom. the old movies on it (especially with those great new prints you can see on Criterion, which is an extra monthly charge but well worth it) look absolutely GORGEOUS. I do find that films shot in a digital medium don't quite look enough like FILM for me. but that's just me.
TC addresses right from wrong in "SUCCESSION" HELD A MIRROR UP FOR ALL OF US, by pointing to the decisions made by Tom Wambsgans, in ‘Succession’ and those made by Sir Thomas More and Liz Cheney.
‘When the history of our time is written, Cheney’s story will be one that is told as an example. “Resolve to do what is right, even when it’s hard, you’re alone, even when you’re afraid — especially when you’re afraid.” (TC)
She is an excellent example of TC’s reasoning. We may also remember Liz Cheney’s commitment to the fossil fuel sector,
‘EXCLUSIVE – Republican Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney on Thursday introduced new legislation blocking President Biden's executive order to ban oil and gas leasing on federal lands and a potential coal moratorium.’
‘The bills, titled The Safeguarding Oil and Gas Leasing and Permitting Act and The Safeguarding Coal Leasing Act. would block Biden's moratoriums unless Congress enacts a joint resolution of approval.’
"The executive actions from the Biden Administration banning new leasing and permitting on federal land endanger our economy and threaten our national security," Cheney said in a statement. "The legislation I am introducing today would safeguard against these damaging orders, and prevent the job loss, higher energy costs, and loss of revenue that promises to come with them."
Cheney introducing bills prohibiting Biden coal, oil, gas …' (FoxBusiness.com) See link below.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/cheney-legislation-biden-oil-gas-moratoriums
‘During a news conference, Cheney denied that she and Wyoming’s Senators are trying to take advantage of the war in Ukraine saying that they’ve been pushing for less regulation and energy independence for some time. As to the accusation that oil and gas companies are sitting on existing leases, she blamed uncertainty over where the Biden administration's policies are going.’
“Increased production would certainly help with the prices we are seeing at the gas pump and I think that requires a commitment on the part of the administration to cut the regulations and reverse and roll back what they put in place. They (also) ought to open up the Keystone pipeline,” said Cheney.' (WyomingPublicMedia) See link below.
https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/politics-government/2022-03-17/cheney-continues-to-push-for-more-energy-independence
Just reported today by the Washington Post: ‘A team of top scientists says that it has assessed the planet’s health against eight key thresholds needed to protect life on Earth and that human activities have led to seven of the eight of the boundaries already being breached.’
“The window is rapidly shutting; we’re very close to irreversible tipping points,” Johan Rockström, a director at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the lead author of the study published this week, (WAPO) For more information, open link for ‘study published this week’.
That was why I compared her with Sir Thomas More.
You are as a Blue Angel and juggler, TC, with a writer's touch. : 0 )
he is indeed.
YUP!!!!!
I look at the current crop of politicians, especially those in positions of power, and I realize sadly that Admiral Tarrant would not be asking where do we get such men.....sad.
"Bridges at Toko-Ri" did NOT have a "Hollywood ending," which is all to its credit. and it came out well before "The Naked and the Dead." it really was the fault of the production code. William Holden didn't murder anyone, so the sad ending was...SAD.
"The Naked and the Dead" VIOLATED its source. Mailer was so pissed that he actually tried to sue the studio to get his rights back, but the case didn't get to court. it's a truism that when you sell a book to the movies, it's probably best to assume it'll get fucked up and try not to let it bother you. I doubt Walsh (who directed god-knows-how-many eminently watchable movies as well as hanging out with Pancho Villa playing John Wilkes Booth in "Birth of a Nation") cared about it. he'd seen HIS action.
btw Tom...you'd know if his stories about actually flying in the Lafayette Escadrille were true. were they?
The interesting thing about "Bridges at Toko-ri" is that it is based on real events James Michener witnessed while aboard USS Valley Forge in late 1952. There was a real Chief Forney (who wore a green baseball cap rather than a top hat) and a real Harry Brubaker (who really was "a lawyer from Denver") and there was a rescue attempt that everyone believed at the time ended in failure. Except "Forney" and "Brubaker" lived - captured that night - and they walked over the Freedom Bridge at Panmunjom on August 1, 1953, the day after Paramount bought the rights to the novel that was published the previous May. (The whole story of the "real" Bridges at Toko-ri is in my book "Holding The Line")
It wasn't Walsh who flew with the Lafayette Escadrille, that was William Wellman, who was an actual ace, and who made "Wings".
Walsh also claimed to have done it, but there was some doubt about it. and wasn't Hawks also in the LE? or did he fly in WWI at all? he sure made great movies about flying ("Only Angels Have Wings" is one of my favorite movies).
Hawks was in the Lafayette Flying Corps - Americans in French Air Force not necessarily in Lafayette Escadrille - he flew in a French squadron.
thank you, Tom.
“Succession” is about horrible people in power; a corporate kakistocracy that American’s have misinterpreted as success and competence. It’s a huge misinterpretation from a series of really stupid assumptions about those with money. It certainly highlights the pitfalls of “Citizens United.” As for Death Santis--I suspect he takes his cues from a wife who reminds me of Evita Perón. . . Ironically, Florida currently lacks adequate supplies for breast cancer treatment; wouldn’t that be poetic justice.
Good comparison of Casey DeathSantis. I doubt anyone will be writing musicals about her though.
As they say, “Darling, it’s been DONE.”
LOL, some might say overdone.
you mean, like everybody who was unfortunate enough to buy a ticket?
but don't mind me...I HATE Sir Andrew and all of his terrible works (both the ones he authored and the ones he "inspired").
LMAO, thanks David.
thank YOU, Dave.
If the can make a musical about the Queen of Versailles (look it up) I’m afraid anything is possible.
And a sequel.
I had no use for Dick Cheney. And not much for Liz for quite some time. But she revealed herself to be the real deal, a real American. When the chips were down, she stood up. And continues to stand. When it comes to pitchin' the truth when it counts, she can and has brought the heat, leaving the rest of her party throwing like a bunch of little girls with the ball getting nowhere near the plate. So of course, they kicked her out of the bigs. What else would you expect from a bunch of amateurs trying to pass themselves off as the real deal? But I expect future statisticians will note the difference.
I haven't watched the show and don't wish to, but know about it generally and can see where it could be the Murdochs and it could be the entire republican party and capitalist system. However, I am far more fascinated at the theory that Wambsgans had to take out three people to get ahead, and in 1920, Bill Wambsganss made the only unassisted triple play in World Series history for Cleveland against my Dodgers. That makes me think that the writers on the show know and love baseball, and that shows they are good people.
they're mostly Brits, so I'm not sure any of them are baseball fans to that degree. they're ARE other writers, half of whom are "yanks."
and now it's time to actually read the Chris Licht story. what a scumbag. and STOOOPID as a bad day is long.
Matthew Macfadyen first came to my notice for doing a British TV show, "Ripper Street" set in Victorian England where he plays Detective Inspector Edmund Reid, who is developing "modern" police investigatory techniques with Victorian-era science and knowledge.
He's also really excellent in "Quiz" about the British TV scandal, and the 2017 "Howard's End." I want to see "Operation Mincemeat" (the story of how Ian Fleming, while in MI6 in World War II, faked out the entire German high command that we were not going to invade Sicily when the fact we would was so obvious no one could miss it - yes, *that* Ian Fleming)
I liked "Operation Mincemeat" quite a bit, despite my attachment to the earlier (and obviously, much more highly fictionalized) version from the '50s, "The Man Who Never Was." I especially love Gloria Grahame's big scene, in which she "dictates" the letter to leave on the dead guy's body to make "him" seem more authentic. but I've always been a sucker for GG, who was certainly the real deal in Sexy Fifties Movie Stars (maybe it was her unique light lisp that did it for me).
of course, "Operation Mincemeat" is based (yet AGAIN) on one of Ben Macintyre's long list of terrific books about WW II, espionage, etc.
I saw him on stage once in "Much Ado About Nothing." this was at least twenty years ago. I need to catch up on the MANY cable series he was in. I know he met his current wife (sexy Keeley Hawes) when they were both in a Brit series called "MI5." and I don't remember whether or not you've seen "Slow Horses" (which I THINK is on Apple, which I know you hate, but it's also a terrific series, also about MI5, with Gary Oldman once again proving how much he can do.).
Have to confess to not being a "Succession" fan. Watched it twice and felt my two showers were inadequate to free me of the gelatinous greed that was oozing out of the TV. But I like the comparisons to More and Cheney, the latter being beatified by some on the left for her one seemingly principled episode in politics. Kinzinger was more of a hero and gave up more, but his type is apparently too lackluster to inspire great modern literature. Too bad the anti-heroes have set and dominated the current national "tone".
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."
I started watching Succession several months ago and quit watching because I disliked the characters so much. But I decided to give it another shot with so much time on my hands recovering from the knee replacement. Could be the pain meds, or the hype about the last episode, but so far sticking with it this time. So I’m not reading this post yet TC.
Good!! :-)
I'm glad you're giving it another shot, Karen. you won't be sorry.
You are correct David. I am officially hooked now.
One of your finest essays TC.
I loved the ending of Succession but I didn’t understand your version of it and frankly, I think you’re absolutely right. I found the character of Tom to be compelling because he never would give up. I liked that he was always working and I had genuine pathos for his horrendous position in life as an interloper within a vicious family with no scruples. I genuinely liked him because I saw a certain humility in the guy. He kept getting beaten up by everyone especially his wife but the three children, in a sense, had no work ethic at all and why should they? They just felt entitled to the power and money and continually bitched and moaned. Tom was smarter than them but who knew?? The ending was a wonderful surprise for me. I loved that Shiv would have a father for her baby. I loved that the 3 kids could finally stop racing around like hamsters and get some kind of life. I think we all struggle to make the best out of the cards we’ve been given. Morality at this juncture of time is a complex concept. At the same time I love Liz Cheney’s challenge and her position and if she ran for President I’d probably vote for her.
BTW, for people who really like "Succession," I can wholeheartedly recommend the podcasts which are available for every episode. they definitely enhance the experience and for those of us who've come to "love" the characters (by which I sorta mean, those who find their very different personalities to be interesting), the long interviews with the actors are very compelling. search on your podcast app for "HBO's Succession Podcast."
The closing comment about Licht cut deep! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
That's why his CNN nickname is "Lichtspittle."
Great essay, TC. It's not really about entertainment, is it?!
I am on my second watch of Succession. Most of the time I had second hand embarrassment for Tom. After all he said it, “ like my watches and money”
Not sure I am up to watching Succession. I have a sense of the rise and adulterated acceptance (worship?) of cynicism, now at the foundation of so many anti- series now streaming, as the perverse guiding star is American politics. More pronounced in conservative, neo-confederacy candidates, probably, but just under the surface in the attitudes of so many aspiring to positions of power within their party or caucus. There is a Grey haze (stench) holding the motives, compromises, shifts in loyalty (a dying term) and allegiance to tony terms, rather than grand principles. Your writing today has me thinking about Liz as a Thomas More character, the one who could have been great, given a stand for the right,, once, and DeSantis pandering to the ignorance and fears of legacy Whites and established immigrants or hoping to be so Blacks. How cynical his aspirations are and how likely might he become by pursuing a tighter, more restructive philosophy to get their votes on his promise that they will be accepted, will be recognized, will wear a mantle of grey wool and glittering light all the way to his annointment to the presidency. And, then abandoned once the great leader is enthroned with his Eva.
from what I've read about her, I think she's much more of a Lady Macbeth type. all preparation, no follow-through.
and "Succession" really isn't as overtly "political" as it's starting to sound (the last season included a lot of politics, but really as more of a setting to demonstrate that the horrible family stuff has wider implications). it's much more about how horrible a horrible family can be.