Wait...What? This isn't a documentary about anti-social media?

From the AP news archive:

Review: 'Ingrid Goes West' looks at social media's dark side

Quick, what's more important: social media or real life?

For the title character in "Ingrid Goes West ," there is no question, and perhaps no distinction.

Every once in a while, Hollyweird holds up a mirror for us instead of a propaganda poster.

Once in a great while, that is.

Powered by Aubrey Plaza's searing performance, director and co-writer Matt Spicer's feature debut explores such a dark side of social media obsession, it's hard to consider it satire. It's a story about young women who find validation in likes and followers, who equate social media experiences with real-life ones.

Like so many millennials, Ingrid (Plaza) is an Instagram junkie.

Her phone is always in hand, a portal to all that is #perfect and #blessed. Any free moment is spent scrolling through photos. The double-thumb-tap she uses to "like" images is as instinctive as blinking.

But she's also obsessive and mentally unstable. She once crashed a wedding and attacked the bride after fixating on her expertly curated Instagram profile.

Flush with cash after her mother dies, Ingrid moves to Los Angeles to be near her latest social media obsession: Blonde, beautiful Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen), whose life on Instagram looks like a chic California magazine captioned with literary quotes and hashtags like #weekendvibes.

Ingrid styles her hair like Taylor's. She eats at her favorite breakfast spot. She buys the purse Taylor posted about. Then she works out a way to meet the Instagram star so they can be friends.

Olsen is pitch perfect as sunny, superficial Taylor, who says everything is "the best" and has no qualms about asking a gas station attendant to lay on the ground to snap a perfectly-framed social media pic.

The screenplay by Spicer and co-writer David Branson Smith looks at how Taylor's appetite for admiration might allow for a friend like Ingrid — her sycophantic fawning feeds right into Taylor's million-follower ego.

Plaza disappears into the unhinged Ingrid, a character exciting in her sheer unlikeability. She lies and steals to get what she wants. She exploits trust and kindness. But she brims with a deep human fear of inadequacy, one she hopes internet popularity might remedy. Plaza brings a vulnerability and desperation to Ingrid that makes her relatable. She's obsessive and unstable, but she just wants to be liked, online or anywhere.

O'Shea Jackson plays Ingrid's landlord/neighbor/admirer Dan, this story's version of the manic pixie dream girl. Though Jackson gets to show off his sparkling smile more here than in "Straight Outta Compton," his character exists to be Ingrid's savior and moral foil.

"Ingrid Goes West" has fun with some social media tropes and Southern California tendencies, but it feels less like a satire than a cautionary tale, for both the envious and the envied. It dips into rich territory by examining the covetousness social media inspires, not just for things, but for attention. Still, even someone with millions of followers can feel lonely or unseen.

Taylor and Ingrid may approach Instagram from opposite sides, but both live in a world where "likes" have tremendous value.

"Ingrid Goes West," a Neon release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for "language throughout, drug use, some sexual content and disturbing behavior." Running time: 97 minutes. Three stars out of four.

___

MPAA definition of R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.

Jerry Lewis, Requiescat in pace.

I don't know if Mr. Lewis was a nice guy or a genius as the French think, but he was a funny guy who raised more money for sick kids than you and me combined. In my book, that makes him better than average, at least. May God have Mercy on his soul.


Jerry Lewis Dead: Comedy Legend Was 91 | Variety

Jerry Lewis, the brash slapstick comic who became a pop culture sensation in his partnership with Dean Martin and then transformed himself into an auteur filmmaker of such comedic classics as “The Nutty Professor” and “The Bellboy,” has died in Las Vegas. He was 91.

Lewis died at his home in Las Vegas at about 9:15 a.m. Sunday morning, his agent confirmed.
For most of his career, Lewis was a complicated and sometimes polarizing figure. An undeniable comedic genius, he pursued a singular vision and commanded a rare amount of creative control over his work with Paramount Pictures and other studios. His legacy also includes more than $2.5 billion raised for the Muscular Dystrophy Association through the annual Labor Day telethon that he made an end-of-summer ritual for decades until he was relieved of the hosting job in 2011.

But Lewis’ brand of humor did not always wear well as times and attitudes changed. Over the last 10 years of his life, his reputation soured slightly as he was forced to apologize for making a gay slur on camera during the 2007 telethon, continued to make racist and misogynistic jokes, and didn’t hesitate to share his right-wing political views.

In addition to his most famous films, Lewis also appeared in a number of notable works, such as Martin Scorsese’s “The King of Comedy,” but was largely offscreen from the late ’60s on and was more active with his telethon and philanthropic efforts. As late as 2016, Lewis continued to perform in Las Vegas, where he first debuted his comedy routine back in 1949.

The high regard in which his comic abilities were held in France — he received the Legion of Honor award in 1983 — became a running joke in the U.S. long after Lewis’ style of broad physical comedy fell out of fashion. His final film, “Max Rose,” screened at France’s Cannes Film Festival in 2013.

The telethon, like other aspects of Lewis’ life, was beset by controversy. The comic’s offstage persona was anything but humorous. He was, by his own admission, an impatient man, and over the years battled numerous illnesses and a prescription drug dependency. His parting with Martin in 1956 after 10 years as a duo was acrimonious. And the telethons were awash in claims that there was a disparity between the money pledged and the money collected.

Lewis’ pairing with Martin, featuring their improvisatory backbiting and physical chicanery, was an instant hit in 1946. When producer Hal Wallis saw them performing at the Copacabana and at Slapsie Maxie’s in Hollywood, he saw the potential for a new Bob Hope and Bing Crosby and signed them to a Paramount Pictures contract.

For the next 10 years, Martin and Lewis turned out one silly film after the next starting with “My Friend Irma” in 1949 and including “The Caddy,” “The Stooge,” “Artists and Models” and “Pardners.” None of their films grossed less than $5 million, a handy sum in those days.

The premises of the films grew tired, and the more Martin and Lewis worked together, the more disparate they appeared. In 1956, after their film “Hollywood or Bust,” they made their last dual appearance at the Copacabana.

By the time of their breakup, Martin had a prosperous career as a recording artist and actor. And soon Lewis, too, was a hot solo ticket.

Shortly after they broke up, Lewis filled in for an ailing Judy Garland in Las Vegas. Over the next five years Lewis developed a slicker, more sophisticated stage persona and would continue to play Vegas until 2016.

Onscreen he made a go of it in such films as “The Delicate Delinquent” and “Rock-a-Bye Baby.” Lewis even had a million-selling single in the “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby” title track, which led to several albums on Decca Records.

He then extended his efforts into writing, producing and directing films, signing what was then a mammoth $10 million deal with Paramount. The first two, 1961’s “The Ladies Man” and 1962’s “The Errand Boy,” showed him at his best. His talents also dovetailed with director Frank Tashlin’s style in films such as “Cinderfella” and “The Disorderly Orderly.”

“The Nutty Professor” (1963) was his biggest success ever, grossing $19 million. But by then his mugging and exaggerated body gyrations had become out of control, as had the syrupy moments in his films.

Lewis signed a nonexclusive deal with Columbia that resulted in several uninspired films such as “Three on a Couch,” “The Big Mouth” and “Don’t Raise the Bridge, Lower the River.” Even Lewis had to admit, “Jerry Lewis is never just OK or adequate; he’s either very funny or he’s awful.”

While Americans largely dismissed him, Lewis had developed a following at French film journals Cahiers du Cinema and Positif.

He was born Joseph Levitch in Newark, N.J. Both his parents were in show business and, at the age of 5, Lewis made his debut at a Borscht Belt hotel singing “Brother Can You Spare a Dime?”

Perhaps because his parents spent a great deal of time on the road, Lewis was demanding attention through humor by the time he was attending Irvington High School in New Jersey. By age 15 he was pantomiming operatic and popular songs and was booked into a burlesque house in Buffalo.

In 1942 he tried out his comic pantomiming at Brown’s Hotel in upstate New York, where he was also working the summer as a bellboy. Comic Irving Kaye was sufficiently impressed to land Lewis some bookings and became his road manager.

Lewis met the young singer Dean Martin at New York nightclub the Glass Hatt and was first paired with him in 1946. Afters years of rupture, Martin made a surprise appearance on the Muscular Dystrophy Telethon in 1976, a reunion orchestrated by their mutual friend Frank Sinatra. The pair also reconciled after the death of Martin’s son in the late 1980s. Martin died in 1995.

In the early ’70s he continued to direct uninspired fare such as “Which Way to the Front?” and then tried a serious film, “The Day the Clown Cried,” though he famously shelved the completed work (some footage of it finally surfaced in 2013). He attempted a live TV variety show that failed, as did an attempt at a Broadway musical, “Feeling No Pain”; it was followed by the acrimonious “Hellzapoppin,” which was ditched out of town in Boston at a loss of $1.25 million.

In 1972 he lent his name to a string of 200 movie theaters for Network Cinema Corp., which led to bankruptcy proceedings in 1974. His heavy schedule also brought him to the verge of a nervous breakdown, serious ulcer problems and painkiller drug dependency. In 1982 he had double-bypass heart surgery and gave up his four pack-a-day smoking habit.

Lewis was offscreen until 1979’s low-budget “Hardly Working,” which he also directed; it did not reverse his fortunes. But in 1982, director Martin Scorsese harnessed the brash, cynical side of Lewis’ persona for the role of a kidnapped latenight talkshow host in “The King of Comedy.” Though he reportedly resented being upstaged by Robert De Niro and Sandra Bernhard, the film represented some of Lewis’ finest work. Another high point was a similarly caustic appearance as a lethal underworld figure on the TV series “Wiseguy.”

Most of his later film work, however, failed to impress, such as “Slapstick of Another Kind,” “Cookie” and 1992’s “American Dreamer.”

In 1995, he appeared in Peter Chelsom’s film “Funny Bones” and took over the role of the devil in a Broadway revival of “Damn Yankees,” which he took on tour in the U.S.; he then appeared in a London production of the musical.

In 2003 he provided a guest voice on an episode of “The Simpsons”; in 2006 he did an episode of “Law and Order: SVU” in which he played the insane, morally befuddled but bizarrely benevolent uncle of Det. John Munch (Richard Belzer).

Lewis long sought to create a sequel to “The Nutty Professor”; eventually, Imagine Entertainment produced and Universal released the 1996 remake starring Eddie Murphy on which Lewis was credited for the screenplay to the 1963 version and as an executive producer.

Lewis also hoped to bring a musical adaptation of “The Nutty Professor” to Broadway. By summer 2012 an ailing but still enthusiastic Lewis made his stage helming debut with such a musical, with a score by Marvin Hamlisch and a book and lyrics by Rupert Holmes, in Nashville, where it played for seven weeks.

In 2013 Lewis starred in the long-gestating project “Max Rose,” written and directed by Daniel Noah and also starring Claire Bloom, Kevin Pollak, Kerry Bishe and Mort Sahl. Lewis played a jazz pianist who recently became a widower.

In 2009, Lewis received the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences’ Jean Hersholt Award for his charitable work. In May 2014, he added his footprints to those of other screen luminaries at the Chinese Theatre.

In 1944 Lewis married former band singer Patti Palmer, with whom he had six sons, Gary, Ronnie, Scott, Anthony, Christopher and Joseph, who died in 2009. Gary for a time had a rock career as the lead singer of Gary Lewis & the Playboys. The marriage ended in divorce.

He is survived by his second wife, SanDee Pitnick, with whom he adopted a daughter.

TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.

This could be dumbass or it could be really cool.

From MonstersAndCritics.com:

Hip-hop meets fishing in Breaking Bass with Carnell 'Dimension' Lee ...

Hip-hop designed to make the fishies pop is coming to Complex Networks and digital platform go90 today with new series Breaking Bass — starring hip-hop artist Carnell Lee and fishing movement founder Oliver Ngy.

Breaking Bass has a fish-out-of-water premise: Take two pals from different parts of the USA, put rods in their hands, equip them with a powerboat and create one of the most unlikely buddy reality series of all time.

Carnell Lee and Big Bass Dreams founder Oliver Ngy come from different fields but travel the country together to meet and greet fellow anglers of all stripes — smashing stereotypes and showing fishing is for anyone.

Ngy is a respected angler and has made a splash with his viral videos, while Carnell Lee, a musician also known as Dimension, is a SoCal native who discovered his love of fishing while living in Oklahoma.

Breaking Bass premieres today exclusively on go90 and debuts new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays over the course of an eight-week run.

In the clip below, Ngy says: “We’re on a mission to find the biggest, baddest fish and we’re here to show you that fishing is dope. But isn’t just about the fish, it’s about the journey, the cool people and the crazy places that we discover along the way.”

Together they show viewers the tricks of the big-mouth bass-catching trade as they teach new fishermen and women how to reel in the monsters while exploring each town they roll into after the tackle box is put away.

The series kicks off in Nashville, Tennessee where the crew hits up J. Percy Priest Lake, as they visit the Party Fowl restaurant and bar and a legendary recording studio.

Next stop is Kentucky where a friendly competition is waged. Then over to Arkansas, where Cypress tree-filled waters of Lake Conway pose a serious issue for the boat

Breaking Bass airs Tuesdays and Thursdays for eight weeks premiering today. The series is airing on Complex and go90.com, a free, digital entertainment platform. Available on the web, iOS and Android, go90 is part of the Verizon Communications family of companies. Anyone with a smartphone can download go90 on the App Store or Google Play.

TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.

Haruo Nakajima, Requiescat in pace.

Original Godzilla suit actor Haruo Nakajima dies - BBC News

The man who first bought the beloved and feared monster Godzilla to life has died, the film company behind the monster says.

Haruo Nakajima, who wore the Godzilla suit in 12 movies, died on Monday from pneumonia at the age of 88, it said.

In an interview this year Nakajima explained how the original 1954 costume was created from ready-mixed concrete and weighed up to 100kg (220lbs).

He said he studied animals in the Tokyo zoo to prepare for the role.

Nakajima started off as a stunt actor in samurai and war films including "Seven Samurai" by Akira Kurosawa.

He first played Godzilla - a giant beast who emerges from the deep after a nuclear test - in the 1954 film entitled Godzilla directed by Ishiro Honda and produced by the famed Japanese film studio Toho.

He went on to play the character in consecutive sequels as well as playing other beasts Rodan, Mothra and King Kong.

His last outing in the suit was in the 1972 Godzilla vs. Gigan.

Godzilla has since become a monster classic with dozens of Japanese and Hollywood movies made featuring the character. Most of the newer movies use computer graphics to create the monster.

Boo! Hiss!

The latest instalment called Shin Godzilla was released last year under the original Toho studio.


TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.

Martin Landau, Requiescat in pace.

Mr. Landau is what I think of when I hear the word "actor".



Martin Landau Dead: Oscar-winning Actor Was 89 | Variety


Oscar-winning actor Martin Landau, most closely associated with scene-stealing character turns in such films as “North by Northwest,” “Crimes and Misdemeanors” and “Ed Wood” as well as the classic TV series “Mission: Impossible,” died Saturday in Los Angeles, according to his publicist. He had been hospitalized at UCLA where he experienced complications. He was 89.

The lanky, offbeat-looking veteran of the Actors Studio, for he which he was currently West Coast co-artistic director, had many ups and downs in his career.  His greatest successes (three Oscar nominations and one win) came later in life when he returned to character roles like the one that first won him notice, as James Mason’s sinister gay henchman in Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest.”

He was Emmy-nominated five times, and most of his leading man roles came on television, most notably as Rollin Hand, a master of disguise on “Mission: Impossible.” He later spent a couple of years starring in syndicated sci-fi series “Space: 1999,” on which, as with “Mission: Impossible,” he co-starred with then-wife Barbara Bain.

After a dry spell, his career roared back to life in the late 1980s when Francis Ford Coppola cast him in “Tucker: The Man and His Dream,” which brought Landau the first of three supporting noms. It was, he reminded one journalist, the first time this “Jewish kid from Brooklyn” took a role that called for him to play Jewish.

An even more impressive turn as a successful Jewish ophthalmologist haunted by a secret in Woody Allen’s drama “Crimes and Misdemeanors” brought him an Oscar nomination for the second year in a row.

In 1994 came the part of a lifetime for a character actor, the dying, once-famous screen ghoul Bela Lugosi, in Tim Burton’s whacked-out “Ed Wood.” Landau won the supporting actor Oscar.
Landau made his first bigscreen impression in Alfred Hitchcock’s action suspenser “North by Northwest,” playing the villain who does Mason’s dirty work. The role led to a major supporting role in the epic “Cleopatra,” on which Landau spent a year, only to find most of his role as General Rufio on the cutting-room floor. “What could I do?” he later lamented. “They couldn’t cut Richard Burton or Elizabeth Taylor.”

During the 1960s he had character roles in “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” “Nevada Smith” and “The Hallelujah Trail.”

Landau had been doing television work since the 1950s but got busy in TV in the mid-’60s, with several guest appearances on sci-fier “The Outer Limits” and spy skein “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” He was producer Gene Roddenberry’s first choice for the role of Spock on “Star Trek,” but the role wound up going to Leonard Nimoy after Landau opted for “Mission: Impossible.” (Nimoy would later take a recurring role on “Mission: Impossible.”)

On the enormously successful “Mission: Impossible,” Landau and Bain played well off one another and with the rest of the regular ensemble, which included Peter Graves. Landau stayed with the series for three years, through 1969, drawing Emmy nominations three years in a row. He said his reason for leaving (and Bain’s as well) was artistic differences over the general direction of the show, though others claim salary demands were the real problem.

However, roles in “A Town Called Hell,” “Operation Snafu” and another villain role in “They Call Me Mister Tibbs” didn’t result in major acclaim.

Television came to the rescue again with the two-year run of “Space: 1999” in the mid-’70s. Numerous TV movie turns reached a nadir with “The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island” in 1981.

He and Bain divorced, and Landau spent the ’80s in roles in mostly obscure films. He also worked as an acting teacher.

After the successes of “Tucker,” “Crimes and Misdemeanors” and “Ed Wood,” Landau had a steady stream of mostly supporting work on the bigscreen from the mid-’90s through the late 2000s.

He brought poignancy to his role as a judge in “City Hall” and played Gepetto in “The Adventures of Pinocchio.” He contributed a memorable turn to “The X-Files” movie in 1998, worked for Burton again in “Sleepy Hollow” and took roles in “Rounders,” “The Majestic” and “Hollywood Homicide.”
He had a series of roles in small films including 2006’s “David and Fatima” and starred in 2008’s “Harrison Montgomery.”

There was also higher-profile work: Landau starred with Judy Parfitt in 2004 Holocaust drama “The Aryan Couple.” He also had a role in “City of Ember” and did voicework for the 2009 animated feature “9” and 2012’s “Frankenweenie.”

Landau provided voices for the 1997 Oscar-winning documentary “The Long Way Home” and appeared as himself in the docus “Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen’s,” “Cannes: Through the Eyes of the Hunter” and “Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There” (2003) as well as a 2011 “American Masters” documentary on Woody Allen.

He kept his hand in on the smallscreen as well, starring in the miniseries “Bonanno: A Godfather’s Story” and appearing as a series regular on the brief ABC series “The Evidence.” He recurring notably on “Without a Trace” as Anthony LaPaglia’s father with Alzheimer’s and on “Entourage” as a washed-up producer, drawing Emmy nominations in 2004 and 2005 for the former and in 2007 for the latter. Most recently he appeared in “The Last Poker Game” with Paul Sorvino, which screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, and in “Remember” for director Atom Egoyan.

Also in the 2000s, Landau worked as an acting coach in a venture with director Mark Rydell and screenwriter-playwriter Lyle Kessler.

The Brooklynite started out as a cartoonist, spending four years with the New York Daily News from 1948-51, then turned his attentions to acting. He claimed that he and Steve McQueen were the only two among 2,000 applicants whose auditions gained them admittance to the Actors Studio (of which Landau later became an officer).

Landau did some stage work, most notably touring with the Paddy Chayefsky play “Middle of the Night” in 1956-57. He married one of the understudies, Bain, whom he met in Curt Conway’s acting classes.

His film debut came in a small role in “Pork Chop Hill” in 1959, followed by a larger role in “The Gazebo.” Then he drew attention for his role in “North by Northwest.”

He is survived by two daughters, writer-producer-casting director Susan Landau Finch and Juliet Landau of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” fame, a sister and a granddaughter.

Donations may be made to Actors Studio West, Attn: Helen Sanders, 8341 DeLongpre Ave., West Hollywood, Calif. 90069.

TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.

SMASH THE RULING CLASS! CHOOSE CRUZ!

Does anyone think a rich [estimates run from $150 million to $10 billion] New York jerk is going to strike a blow [sorry] for the little guys? If you believe that, you might be a dumbass.

Restore the rule of law and slap down the rule of men - VOTE CRUZ!

If you want to know who Trumpsky [You know, " The Trumpskys make the revolution and the Trumpensteins pay the price for it."] really is, check out A Face in the Crowd (1957). Kazan was a genius filmmaker.

The good guys fight back, or, Propaganda in defense of reality.

2016: Obama's America 

 2016 Obama's America takes audiences on a gripping visual journey into the heart of the world’s most powerful office to reveal the struggle of whether one man's past will redefine America over the next four years. The film examines the question, "If Obama wins a second term, where will we be in 2016?"

 

   

 

 

Across the globe and in America, people in 2008 hungered for a leader who would unite and lift us from economic turmoil and war. True to America’s ideals, they invested their hope in a new kind of president, Barack Obama. What they didn't know is that Obama is a man with a past, and in powerful ways that past defines him--who he is, how he thinks, and where he intends to take America and the world. 












Immersed in exotic locales across four continents, best selling author Dinesh D’Souza races against time to find answers to Obama’s past and reveal where America will be in 2016. During this journey he discovers how Hope and Change became radically misunderstood, and identifies new flashpoints for hot wars in mankind’s greatest struggle. The journey moves quickly over the arc of the old colonial empires, into America’s empire of liberty, and we see the unfolding realignment of nations and the shape of the global future. 

Emotionally engaging, 2016 Obama’s America will make you confounded and cheer as you discover the mysteries and answers to your greatest aspirations and worst fears. 

Love him or hate him, you don’t know him.
 

About the Filmmakers

Gerald R. Molen

Gerald Molen has produced many of the most memorable films in the last three decades including blockbusters like Jurassic Park, Twister, Days of Thunder, Hook and Minority Report. He was a producer for the Academy Award winning film Schindler’s List and co-producer for Rain Man which won the Oscar for Best Picture.

Dinesh D’Souza

Born in Mumbai, India Dinesh D'Souza has truly lived the American Dream. He moved to the United States to attend Dartmouth College and upon graduation he went to work in the Reagan White House as a policy analyst.

He has been a fellow of the Hoover Institute at Stanford University and the American Enterprise Institute. He is also the author of the New York Times Bestseller The Roots of Obama’s Rage. His other book titles include the popular What’s So Great About Christianity, Letters to a Young Conservative, and The End of Racism. He is a popular speaker and has appeared on Hannity, The Colbert Report, Glenn Beck and Politically Incorrect.

Is Roger Ebert a moron or is he part of the War Against Catholics?

A review of For Greater Glory

by Roger Ebert

La Ebert seems to be hung up on the notion of all those millions of 1920's Mexican Buddhists the film makers ignored because of bigotry...


In the years 1926 through 1929, Mexico fought a war over the freedom of Roman Catholics to worship. As a result of the Mexican Revolution, the constitution of 1917 stripped great power from the church, along with half of its enormous land holdings. But it was not until the regime of President Plutarco Elias Calles, who began to strictly enforce the constitution, that an uprising ensued. Supporters of the Catholic Church, who called themselves Cristeros, began a campaign against federal troops and had surprising success after they hired Gen. Enrique Gorostieta Velarde to lead their forces.

An atheist and a hero of the revolution, Gorostieta signed on for the cash and because he supported the principle of religious freedom. In the context of a new English-language epic called "For Greater Glory," that principle apparently applies only to Catholics. No other religion is ever mentioned. [The truth is only the Catholic Church can and will stand up to the power-mad. The bad guys don't go after "protestants" or Shintoists for a reason. - F.G.] The war took heavy casualties on both sides, and the United States played a behind-the-scenes role in protecting the interests of U.S. oil companies whose concessions controlled much of Mexico's oil.

This war has all the elements to make it well-known, but I confess I'd never heard of it. A close Mexican-American friend, well-informed in Mexican history, told me she never has, either. Is it in the usual history books? You'll learn a lot about it in "For Greater Glory," the most expensive film ever made in Mexico, an ambitious production with a cast filled with stars.

It is well-made, yes, but has such pro-Catholic tunnel vision I began to question its view of events. One important subplot involves a 12-year-old boy choosing to die for his faith. Of course the federal troops who shot him were monsters, but the film seems to approve of his decision and includes him approvingly in a long list of Cristeros who have achieved sainthood or beatification after their deaths in the war.

The central figure is Gorostieta, played by Andy Garcia with impressive strength and presence. He values his own leadership expertise, defends the fact that he is serving because of the money, and indeed is a brilliant general. There's an effective sequence where he warns a jealous Cristeros leader he is probably leading his men into an ambush. The man won't listen. Gorostieta lets him go, and then leads his own troops up behind the ambushing federales, who are exactly where he predicted they would be.

President Calles (Ruben Blades), who can't believe the Cristeros can possibly be successful, pursues the war beyond what seems to be all common sense. It's one thing to enforce legal restraints on the Catholic Church and another — a riskier one — to order such extremes as sending all the bishops and foreign-born clergy out of the country and authorizing the murder of priests in their own churches. In an early sequence, Peter O'Toole plays a 77-year-old priest killed by the federales, and it is Jose, the altar boy who sees him die, who later becomes the martyr.

So dedicated are Jose and a young friend to the Cristeros cause that they ride out on horseback and find the secret camp of Gen. Gorostieta. He rejects them as soldiers and puts them to work caring for horses. But his love for the boy grows so much that he regards him as a son, and indeed the boy only dies because he is on a mission for Gorostieta. The general surely deserves some of the blame for putting a child in a hazardous position.

"For Greater Glory" is the kind of long, expensive epic not much made any more. It bears the hallmarks of being a labor of love. I suspect it's too long for some audiences. It is also very heavy on battle scenes, in which the Cristeros seem to have uncannily good aim. But in its use of locations and sets, it's an impressive achievement by director Dean Wright, whose credits include some of the effects on the "Lord of the Rings" films. If it had not hewed so singlemindedly to the Catholic view and included all religions under the banner of religious liberty, I believe it would have been more effective. If your religion doesn't respect the rights of other religions, it is lacking something.

"Golly, Fyodor, that stuff couldn't happen in a first world country..."

It happened in Spain in the 1930's, kiddies. And guess what political persuasion was gunning down Catholics then? [Hint: Again, it was the commies!]

BTW, do you think Benito and Myhell will let their two brats see these two visions of socialist utopia?

Check out the DVD of

There Be Dragons 

For Greater Glory opens today!

Take your children and grandchildren to see this movie. All must be taught "religious freedom" always always always hangs from a very thin thread.

For Greater Glory

 What price would you pay for freedom? In the exhilarating action epic FOR GREATER GLORY an impassioned group of men and women each make the decision to risk it all for family, faith and the very future of their country, as the film's adventure unfolds against the long-hidden, true story of the 1920s Cristero War ­the daring people¹s revolt that rocked 20th Century North America.

Academy Award® nominee Andy Garcia headlines an acclaimed cast as General Gorostieta, the retired military man who at first thinks he has nothing personal at stake as he and his wife (Golden Globe nominee Eva Longoria) watch Mexico fall into a violent civil war. Yet the man who hesitates in joining the cause will soon become the resistance's most inspiring and self-sacrificing leader, as he begins to see the cost of religious persecution on his countrymen . . . and transforms a rag-tag band of rebels into a heroic force to be reckoned with.  The General faces impossible odds against a powerful and ruthless government.  Yet is those he meets on the journey ­ youthful idealists, feisty renegades and, most of all, one remarkable teenager named Jose ­ who reveal to him how courage and belief are forged even when justice seems lost.

Director Dean Wright brings a visual power honed from years as a leading Hollywood effects guru ­ on such blockbusters as TITANIC, THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy and CHRONICLES OF NARNIA ­ to this real-life tale that has never been told on screen before.  The film is written by Michael Love.  The producer is Pablo Jose Barroso.  Garcia and Longoria lead a stellar multinational cast that includes the legendary Peter O¹Toole, rapidly rising star Oscar Isaac (DRIVE), recording star and actor Ruben Blades (SAFE HOUSE), Bruce Greenwood (STAR TREK, SUPER 8), Nestor Carbonell (THE DARK NIGHT RISES), Bruce McGill (LINCOLN), Santiago Cabrera (³Heroes,² CHE), Oscar®-nominated Catalina Sandino Moreno (MARIA FULL OF GRACE) and Eduardo Verástegui (BELLA).

Shooting on historic locations throughout Mexico, the equally accomplished behind the scenes team includes director of photography Eduardo Martinez Solares (BAD HABITS), Oscar®-nominated editor Richard Francis-Bruce (THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, SEVEN, HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER¹S STONE), production designer Salvador Parra (VOLVER) and Oscar®-winning composer James Horner (AVATAR, TITANIC, BRAVEHEART).


From Fox News:
 REVIEW: 'For Greater Glory' a sweeping, sentimental adventure

 “For Greater Glory” takes its cues from a bygone era of Technicolor Golden Age epics and delivers a sprawling political drama steeped in old-fashioned Hollywood romanticism.

During the 1920s, Mexico was thrust into civil war when President Plutarco Calles (Rubén Blades) outlawed Catholicism, banned religious activity, confiscated all church property and exiled clergy. Priests and nuns that protested were arrested or publicly executed and hung on display from roadside posts. Rebel factions formed by schoolboys to farmers to artisans rose up and thus started the Cristero War.

Andy Garcia gives an excellent performance as the legendary General Gorostieta, a militaristic mastermind hired to lead the directionless rebels against Calles. In pure movie fashion, one man becomes a symbol, uniting a country in its struggle for civil liberty and religious freedom. But Gorostieta’s story is an interesting one: He’s an atheist who joins the cause out of boredom – and a little prodding from his wife (Eva Longoria) -- but he quickly finds worth and value when he’s introduced to a young boy, José Luis Sanchez.

Newcomer Mauricio Kuri – with the most moving performance in the film -- is young José, a mischievous schoolboy who witnesses the atrocities of Calles’ law first hand and makes a pilgrimage to join the Cristeros and fight alongside General Gorostieta.

Like Steven Spielberg’s “War Horse,” “For Greater Glory” is a film displaced in time. This historical adventure feels like a fifty-year-old film minus Charlton Heston. Director Dean Wright (a visual effects master on films like “Lord of the Rings” and “Titanic”) keeps things old fashioned but never crosses the line to pastiche. With sun-soaked cinematography, beautiful panoramic vistas, a lush James Horner score and multitudes of idealist characters and pious speeches, “For Greater Glory” feels like a war movie from a much more innocent time. Though Wright deftly uses that old Hollywood glory against us; he alternates between Hallmark card sentimentality and raw contemporary violence. As the war progresses, the film becomes increasingly violent but never loses its classic film visage, which, whether intentional or not, is eerie and memorable.

Though similar in style to “War Horse,” “For Great Glory” is a much more satisfying journey, though could benefit from some additional editing. There’s a clear structure to the film and even the stereotypical characters feel better defined, from the fiendish Calles to Ambassador Dwight Morrow (Bruce Greenwood) to the contentious rebel “El Catorce” (Oscar Isaac).

Screen legend Peter O’Toole makes a brief appearance as the staunch Father Christopher and within those few moments the actor lives up to his reputation of an acting force to be reckoned with. From the iconic timbres of his voice to his statuesque appearance, at 80 years old, O’Toole hasn’t lost his edge one bit.

Meanwhile, Longoria is a lovely respite from the war-torn action scenes while Bruce Greenwood, Nestor Carbonell and Oscar Isaac round out the noteworthy supporting cast.

“For Greater Glory” is very heavy on religion [WTF? It's about people being massacred because of their religious beliefs! Of course it's heavy on religion, you dope! - F.G.], but a well-done war film nonetheless, overflowing with sentimentality and classic Hollywood adventure.

Here's a dumbass review from a McClatchy guy who should know better:






Movie Review | For Greater Glory: 'Historical' look at civil war more like propaganda


 By  Roger Moore
McCLATCHY-TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE


For Greater Glory is a meandering, malnourished epic of a forgotten Mexican civil war — the one “after” the Mexican Revolution, which made Pancho Villa famous.

The period piece, partly financed by the Knights of Columbus, is about the Cristero War, when Catholic priests and peasants took up arms against the Mexican government’s efforts to repress the Roman Catholic Church.
It is a preachy and violent movie aimed at the faithful — people who won’t grimace or roll their eyes at every character who declares, “God save us from these heathens!”

In 1920s Mexico, the leftist administration of President Plutarco Calles (Ruben Blades) takes Marx’s maxim that “Religion is the opiate of the masses” seriously. Calles introduces “reforms” and edicts ranging from the practical — taking church dogma out of the schools, especially science class — to the more alarming — mass deportations of foreign priests and violence against priests who refuse to leave.

A coalition of church officials and reactionaries, left over from the losing side of the recent civil war, rises up. They call themselves “Cristeros,” and the revolt rages off and on for years. Priests such as Father Vega (Santiago Cabrera) take up arms when priests such as Father Christopher (Peter O’Toole) are executed.
But as the revolt roils the country, the Cristeros see they need a leader. They turn to an agnostic hero of the Mexican Revolution, Gen. Velarde (Andy Garcia). For reasons both righteous and mercenary, he and his wife (Eva Longoria) realize that he can make a difference for the Cristeros.

Director Dean Wright, working from a Michael Love (Gaby: A True Story) script, manages the combat scenes — raids on villages, trains — well enough. But he has no sense of pace and has a hard time keeping the various factions distinct. And if he can’t keep them straight, what hope do we have?

Any movie set in a civil war or revolution is going to take sides, and, as in the Opus Dei-backed There Be Dragons, this one certainly has. But church backers need to make better, less laughably propagandistic movies about recent instances of Catholic martyrdom.

The history itself is dodgy.The horrific excesses of a government determined to reign in a church thoroughly allied with the former ruling classes are documented, but there is nothing about the Cristeros’ mass slaughter of rural teachers who dared to lecture on evolution.

If you’re tackling a subject this complex, you need to be more careful. And if you’re going to try to produce an epic, you need to spend more money.

"Complex"? The white martyrdom of American Catholics is well underway and if we are to avoid mass murder on religious grounds [Oops! We already have that. It's called "abortion".] this movie is the kind of lesson we need to learn. 

 

So, you want the story of the Christeros War told in English by Hollywood stars?

How about Andy Garcia and Peter O'Toole? {And Ruben Blades!}

Pray we can defeat the worshipers of power at the ballot box, but stock up on ammo just in case.

 For Greater Glory



 

Fyodor Presents Reel Cinema: The Last Christeros

Coming soon to a theater near you unless the forces of antichrist have their way...

LOS ULTIMOS CRISTEROS

(THE LAST CHRISTEROS)

 

 Of course it couldn't happen here, kiddies. There aren't enough real men like these Mexican peasants in our country.