Intermarkets' Privacy Policy Support
Donate to Ace of Spades HQ! Contact
Ace:aceofspadeshq at gee mail.com Buck: buck.throckmorton at protonmail.com CBD: cbd at cutjibnewsletter.com joe mannix: mannix2024 at proton.me MisHum: petmorons at gee mail.com J.J. Sefton: sefton at cutjibnewsletter.com Recent Entries
Leftwing Media and Censorship Complex Seethes Over Meta's Abandonment of Leftwing "Fact"-Checkers; "Fact"-Checkers Worry They Might Lose Their Funding and Their Jobs
Liberals Agree: The Democrat/Progressive Failure Is Epochal and Democrats and Progressives Are Incapable of Reform Trump Files Emergency Appeal to Delay Merchan's Political Rush to Brand Him a "Convicted and Sentenced Felon;" Judge Aileen Canon Blocks Release of Jack Smith's Hitjob "Report" Donald Trump's Former Employer McDonald's Announces Walkback of DEI Practices Trump Press Conference: He'll Rename the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America," Still Wants Greenland, "All Hell Will Break Loose" if Hamas Doesn't Release Hostages by His Inauguration Zuckerberg Announces "Drastic Reduction" in "Censorship;" Says "Fact-Checkers" are "Too Politically Biased," Says US Government "Has Pushed For Censorship" The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition Mid-Morning Art Thread The Morning Report — 1/7/25 Daily Tech News 7 January 2025 Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024 Captain Hate 2023 moon_over_vermont 2023 westminsterdogshow 2023 Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022 Dave In Texas 2022 Jesse in D.C. 2022 OregonMuse 2022 redc1c4 2021 Tami 2021 Chavez the Hugo 2020 Ibguy 2020 Rickl 2019 Joffen 2014 AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published.
Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups
|
� Saturday Afternoon Chess thread 11-27-2021 |
Main
| Saturday Overnight Open Thread �
November 27, 2021
Saturday Evening Movie Thread [Moviegique]When I was a boy, the greatest of the secular holidays--if you'll forgive the oxymoron--was Thanksgiving. It sat defiantly on a Thursday and, fortified by the mythology of America, simultaneously closed the stores and clogged the airports and the bus stations. Gourmandizing aside, it was--and still is--a holiday that defied commercialization because its elemental substance was gratitude. So it is perhaps unsurprising that, encroached on one side by the increasingly commercialized Christmas and on the other by a Halloween metastasized from ever -expanding childhoods, Thanksgiving has not been a font of pop culture. Or, as Loudon Wainwright III put it: Suddenly, it's Christmas right after Halloween (Wainwright's thoughts on Thanksgiving can be found here.) Up until a few years ago, when John Hughes' Planes, Trains and Automobiles emerged from the cinematic soup of the '80s as a modern Thanksgiving classic (and setting aside the second best Peanuts special), the film I most associated with Thanksgiving was The Best Years of Our Lives. So ingrained was this in my head, I was rather surprised on a recent viewing to discover Thanksgiving makes no appearance in the film whatsoever--though it was released one week before Thanksgiving in 1946. No Thanksgiving, but a whole lot of giving thanks. Directed by William Wyler from a screenplay by Robert Sherwood (Rebecca,�The Bishop's Wife) from a novella/poem by MacKinlay Kantor (who also wrote the book Follow Me, Boys! was based on), it would be the top grossing film of the decade and win seven regular Academy Awards, including Best Director, Best Screenplay and both Best Actor Oscars, and two special Oscars. Our story begins with three servicemen returning from the war: An Army sergeant (Frederic March), a Navy Petty Officer (Harold Russell) and an Air Force bombardier (Dana Andrews) who share an uncomfortable 16-hour plane flight to get to the fictional town of Boone City where each discovers that while the town� hasn't changed, they and their relationship to it has. There's nothing more American than the fact that their status in the military service has nothing to do with their non-military lives (cf. "I've Got My Captain Working For Me Now"). Sergeant Al (March) was a wealthy banker, Petty Officer Homer (Russell) was a solidly middle class high-school sports star, and the highest status among them, Bombardier Fred (Andrews) was a soda-jerk from the wrong side of the tracks. (insert inappropriate joke about "getting over Macho Grande" here) Al returns to loving wife Milly (top-billed Myrna Loy) and two children who have grown to adulthood in his absence. Milly is so patient and so adept at handling Al that daughter Peggy (Teresa Wright) thinks that they've never had a single marital problem.�Although Al finds himself welcome back at his old job (in charge of G.I. loans), he wants to use his gut sense about men--his faith in their abilities as he saw them during the war--as a basis for making loans. (This is literally illegal today.) And he finds himself dealing with the stress by drinking. Homer's difficulties stem from the loss of his hands. Russell won two Oscars here, both for best supporting actor and an honorary one for supporting disabled veterans because the Academy assumed he couldn't win the regular Oscar, not being a professional actor. It's a powerhouse of a performance because Homer, who has already wrestled with his disability, has to repeat the grieving process with practically everyone he comes into contact with. In an excess of decency, he wants to free his best girl Wilma (Cathy O'Donnell) from feeling obliged to stay with him while she struggles to make him realize her feelings haven't changed. Getting a piano lesson from Hoagy while Andrews (way in the back) is doing the right thing. (Look at that blocking!) The main arc of the movie belongs to Fred. A genuine war hero who ends up working for the kid who probably was too young for the draft and whose home-town pharmacy was bought out by a big conglomerate, he's also suffering from what we now call PTSD, and his party-time pin-up gal wife Marie (Virginia Mayo), whom he married two weeks before shipping out, doesn't really have anything in common with him any more and also really hates that he can't hold down a job. The movie's great irony being that the least grateful and understanding person in the film, Marie, is the one who bitterly utters the words "the best years of my life". Complicating matters further is that an encounter with Peggy convinces Fred that she, rather than the bubble-headed bimbo, is what he really wants in a wife. This doesn't go down very well with Al. I hope it's not a spoiler to say that things more-or-less all work out for the best, and some critics, especially in later years, would regard the movie as too "neat", but the whole point of the film is giving thanks. When Homer is describing the process of how he has to put on the harness that holds his hook-hands, he says, "I'm lucky. I have my elbows. Some of the boys don't." (Sort of a variant on "I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.") It isn't really "neat", though: All three of our heroes have to face the fact that life is going to be full of new challenges. Al's challenge is moral and institutional, Harold's is physical, and Fred basically has to start over. But a big part of giving thanks, as it turns out, is not giving up--and the guy who stands in the future suggesting a movie like this should end in despair is like the conspiracy theory guy (Ray Teal) who calls the servicemen "suckers": he deserves a sock in the jaw. With a relentlessly emotional score by Hugo Friedhoffer (and directed by Emil Newman), and occasionally blocked so arrestingly that a home viewing has the vital advantage of letting you pause and rewind to appreciate it, this is a unique film that has me choked up for almost the entirety of its 2:50 runtime, every time I watch it--and feeling that I need to be more thankful. | Recent Comments
Lizzy:
"Suck trying to avoid Trump’s wrath. ..."
eleven: ""Carter in a corrugated cardboard casket. That I w ..." zombie Nancy R.: "Just say no. ..." Suburbanbanshee: "Navy choir, did a great job. Kamala's eulogy wa ..." Soothsayer: " Re: Cuckerberg & his Facechimp site: If you c ..." mnw: "347 tubal That's perceptive. Our adversaries AR ..." Thanatopsis: "Hola ..." steevy: "LOL get fucked ..." Grump928(C): "What was that Conan with the penis head monster? ..." Skip : "Podium? ..." Gentlemen, time for a reckoning: "Most of the expansion of Islam was because the dev ..." ShainS -- Eliminate vast bureaucracies of civil servants, no longer servants and no longer civil[/b]: "Please Please Please Double-Down on Derangement De ..." Recent Entries
Leftwing Media and Censorship Complex Seethes Over Meta's Abandonment of Leftwing "Fact"-Checkers; "Fact"-Checkers Worry They Might Lose Their Funding and Their Jobs
Liberals Agree: The Democrat/Progressive Failure Is Epochal and Democrats and Progressives Are Incapable of Reform Trump Files Emergency Appeal to Delay Merchan's Political Rush to Brand Him a "Convicted and Sentenced Felon;" Judge Aileen Canon Blocks Release of Jack Smith's Hitjob "Report" Donald Trump's Former Employer McDonald's Announces Walkback of DEI Practices Trump Press Conference: He'll Rename the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America," Still Wants Greenland, "All Hell Will Break Loose" if Hamas Doesn't Release Hostages by His Inauguration Zuckerberg Announces "Drastic Reduction" in "Censorship;" Says "Fact-Checkers" are "Too Politically Biased," Says US Government "Has Pushed For Censorship" The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition Mid-Morning Art Thread The Morning Report — 1/7/25 Daily Tech News 7 January 2025 Search
Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Primary Document: The Audio
Paul Anka Haiku Contest Announcement Integrity SAT's: Entrance Exam for Paul Anka's Band AllahPundit's Paul Anka 45's Collection AnkaPundit: Paul Anka Takes Over the Site for a Weekend (Continues through to Monday's postings) George Bush Slices Don Rumsfeld Like an F*ckin' Hammer Top Top Tens
Democratic Forays into Erotica New Shows On Gore's DNC/MTV Network Nicknames for Potatoes, By People Who Really Hate Potatoes Star Wars Euphemisms for Self-Abuse Signs You're at an Iraqi "Wedding Party" Signs Your Clown Has Gone Bad Signs That You, Geroge Michael, Should Probably Just Give It Up Signs of Hip-Hop Influence on John Kerry NYT Headlines Spinning Bush's Jobs Boom Things People Are More Likely to Say Than "Did You Hear What Al Franken Said Yesterday?" Signs that Paul Krugman Has Lost His Frickin' Mind All-Time Best NBA Players, According to Senator Robert Byrd Other Bad Things About the Jews, According to the Koran Signs That David Letterman Just Doesn't Care Anymore Examples of Bob Kerrey's Insufferable Racial Jackassery Signs Andy Rooney Is Going Senile Other Judgments Dick Clarke Made About Condi Rice Based on Her Appearance Collective Names for Groups of People John Kerry's Other Vietnam Super-Pets Cool Things About the XM8 Assault Rifle Media-Approved Facts About the Democrat Spy Changes to Make Christianity More "Inclusive" Secret John Kerry Senatorial Accomplishments John Edwards Campaign Excuses John Kerry Pick-Up Lines Changes Liberal Senator George Michell Will Make at Disney Torments in Dog-Hell Greatest Hitjobs
The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny More Margaret Cho Abuse Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed" Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means Wonkette's Stand-Up Act Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report! Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet The House of Love: Paul Krugman A Michael Moore Mystery (TM) The Dowd-O-Matic! Liberal Consistency and Other Myths Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate "Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long) The Donkey ("The Raven" parody) |