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And a crazy little footnote: Steve ‘interesting’ Davis!

I wanted to watch a WWII naval film, having just finished a book about the Arctic convoys of WWII that supplied Russia with war materiel. But I couldn’t find any on that rather specific theatre of the war. And amongst the WWII naval movies I did find, there weren’t any I fancied that I hadn’t already seen.

So instead I chose The Post, thinking we hadn’t watched it. But we have! Teresa pointed this out very early on. And at that point I was adamant we hadn’t. But as the movie progressed, I realised she was right. It’s a bit worrying for me that I can forget a film so completely!

Directed by Steven Spielberg, The Post stars Meryl Streep as Katherine Graham, owner of the Washington Post, and Tom Hanks as Ben Bradlee, the Post’s executive editor. The film winds together several very interesting sociopolitical threads, one being Graham’s struggles as a woman in what was then a pretty exclusively male world, the other being freedom of the press (and, in the US, the ‘1st Amendment’), vs the power and interests of the State/government.

Beautifully filmed, expertly directed, with a very strong cast and extremely timely subject matter – the film came out during Trump’s presidency – it’s a very worthy film. And it received the plaudits it deserves. But it’s not problem free.

I don’t know enough about the details, but some criticise the movie for factual inaccuracy. One thing’s for certain, in true Hollywood style, Spielberg, an expert in cinematic drama, ‘plays’ the story on many levels, from simple atmosphere (the high drama of the news room) to emotional heart-wringing (the conflicted loyalties of powerful press folk and their politician friends).

One suspects – well, no, one knows – that fly on the wall documentation of these things (such dirty doings as Nixon was busy with, in the stuff that lead to Watergate), whilst sinister and immoral, is also most often a lot more humdrum. But, whilst these are real issues, ultimately I think the film succeeds, both as a movie, and as wagging finger in the moral political debate.

That said, despite starting with a brief ‘in the field’ Viet Nam segment, it’s very much what one would call a ‘procedural’ drama, with Spielberg doing his best to make numerous board meetings and suchlike visually and emotionally dramatic. And, witness my forgetfulness, as worthy as it is, it’s not the most exciting or memorable of films.

In fact, in a rare instance of advertising not totally misrepresenting the product, the poster at the top of this post accurately captures the drab monotone vibes of the ‘corridors of power’, the corporate culture in which the movie occurs.

It’s a very mixed bag, in the end. And whilst very worthy, in certain respects, it’s own compromised artifice undermines any gravitas it ought to have. Ultimately I found it rather disappointing.

I find it continually astonishing and very depressing that, despite all these years of Tory misrule, right wing idealogues still hold the reigns of power. And they continue to accelerate us backwards in time politically and economically, all the while lowering our standing in the global community.

And what’s perhaps as depressing as the damage they continue to inflict on the body politic is their snake oil patter, by which means they attempt to dress up their depredations in a favourable light, such that a gullible public fails, year after year, decade after decade, to attribute the mess the (barely) United Kingdom is in to these piratical free-market freebooters, who somehow keep either being elected, or succeeding to power.

The only thing Brexit was ever about, for the Tory robber-barons, was escaping those meddling EU restrictions on unfettered rapine capitalism. They now have the brass monkeys to suggest that ‘unleashing’ capitalism will bring about the much touted ‘levelling up’ that it delivers nowhere on earth. Only with strict government supervision and intervention can capitalism be prevented from its most ‘natural ’ outcome, which is to increase wealth disparity, concentrating wealth in the hands of the few at the expense of the many.

That’s what this latest budget unashamedly does. And not only that, they dress up the flogging off of more public assets, and the stripping of safety measures and environmental protection as some kind of ‘liberation’. It ought to be astonishing beyond belief. But such Orwellian double-speak is the stock in trade of modern Toryism, and has been ever since Thatcherism.

Teresa picked another Hammer movie from her boxed set. And she served up home made pear and currant crumble, with lashings of custard, for pud’. Made with home-grown pears. Lovely!

The movie, Quatermass and The Pit, is an old Hammer film (1967). Based on a character created by Nigel Kneale, professor Bernard Quatermass, who became a BBC TV success (which also lead to spin off books!), it’s kind of sci-fi horror. Perfect Hammer schlock!

Not long ago we watched Brian DonLevy as Quatermass, in the 1957 movie Quatermass II. That was fun! Donlevy’s Quatermass has more charisma than Andrew Keir, who is somewhat eclipsed by some of his co-stars, James Donald and Julian Glover in particular.

As an aside, Kneale also did some very interesting sounding TV plays, including 1968’s Year Of The Sex Olympics, which anticipates the rise of lowest common-denominator TV and reality shows (and the ‘bating* culture also imagined/lampooned in the film Idiocracy). But – so far at any rate – Quatermass And The Pit isn’t that sort of social satire. Instead it’s that fun but rather pulpy style of sci-fi horror that’s conjured by all those paperbacks with garish covers from yesteryear…

* When masturbation has become a mainstream addiction/pastime.

Well, some time later… that was a bit slow to get going. And not, truth be told, terrific. But after a while, towards the end, things go properly mental! I don’t know that I like the film, to be honest. But it’s worth seeing, even if only for the last part, with… well, see the pics below:

To modern eyes the effects look lamely amusing. They really struggled when depicting global apocalypse, back in those pre-CGI days. That said, there are scenes that look like WWII Blitz style devastation. And such stuff was still a very recent and vivid memory/experience. But the whole ‘sky demon’ bit, right near the end? That’s still quite powerfully weird!

Not, for me at any rate, amongst my favourite Hammer movies. But still worth seeing.

A few days ago, after a largely sleepless night, during which I experienced a very weird ‘teatime of the soul’, so to speak, I wound up thinking long and hard about stopping blogging altogether.

It seems a peculiarly modern, shallow and vapid pursuit, in some respects. And then there’s the issue of sharing too much of yourself with complete strangers, some of whom will be, tragically, evil internet ne’erdowells. Indeed, I’m barraged daily by far more crap from this latter category than I am genuine interest in or interaction with my blogging content.

So from the point of view of energy investments and general safety, online and otherwise, I’m profoundly doubting the worth of blogging. I’m even worried that the only things that genuinely keeps me doing it are habit, and – worse – possible addiction!

Anyway, there is another less gloomy side. And that’s the simple pleasures of what is in effect an online diary. One thing I might well do… no, make that will do… is go over the blog(s), at some point, and tidy them up, from an internet security perspective.

This may be a bit behind the times, butt…

Ok, I love Steve Bell. I think his art is superb, and I think his political satire is and has long been very prescient. Both funny and cuttingly near the bone. Might it cause offence? Of course. And so it should.

Is this image – cropped above, in full below – the same as Nazi imagery of Jews? Personally I really don’t think so. Is the core point of it to demonise Patel on ethnic/racial grounds? Of course not!

I will admit that it’s a long way from surprising, re the stink it kicked up. And it’s no surprise to hear that it’s those on the right, including religious folk, invoking ‘hate crime’ censorship of a left wing view they dislike.

Indoctrinated hordes of right wingers, of all ethnicities, might believe Jeremy Corbyn is a 50/50 blend of Stalin and Hitler. And that’s the kind of ludicrous fantasy propaganda modern satire ought to be able to help fight.

It’ll mostly be people willing to believe in that weaponising of ‘anti-semitism’, in what very clearly was a character assassination witch-hunt, which aimed at – and succeeded in – smearing a very anti-racist man* as the very thing he so frequently campaigned against, who are getting so upset by Bell’s cartoon.

But, rather ironically, one of the greatest of all English print cartoon satirists, Gillray, was actually – for the most part – paid to produce satire that served the ruling Tory elite.

Bell has tipped his metaphorical tile to his antecedent and occasional inspiration, Gillray, sometimes reworking his imagery. I won’t say reworking ‘his ideas’, as usually Gillray, unlike Bell – the roles of artists have evolved! – was for the most part drawing to order, for his Tory patrons. And, just like modern Tories, Gillray’s paymasters abandoned him, after his years of sterling service, to poverty and insanity in the end.

It seems, in a way that has echoes of Clarkson getting sacked by the BBC – not remotely similar in many ways, and yet… – that the Guardian, like the BBC, is willing to lose a ‘long-term asset’ in order to ‘move with the times’. Whether either decision was primarily based on ethical concerns or not… who knows? But in our venal times one tends to be sceptical!

In the above ‘Female Enoch’ cartoon, Bell nicely captures a far more odious, real and deep rooted form of racism, as practiced by a woman ‘of colour’ in power. Just because she’s female, and of non-white ethnicity, doesn’t absolve her from the possibilities of racism, or even sexism, or indeed any -ism.

Indeed, as Spitting Image lampoon, in one (or more) of their recent satirical episodes, having members of ‘out groups’ or traditionally discriminated against ‘minority groups’ in positions of power, can help the ruling elite camouflage their oppression of the groups these favoured individuals appear to belong to.

Thatcher did precious little for women’s rights, aside from the mere fact of being a woman in a traditionally male role. And to take the idea further, into the kind of fascist mud-slinging some on the right have the temerity to invoke, the Nazi’s loved to use favoured individuals from their victimised out-groups’ to lord it over the oppressed masses, infamously using fellow Jews as concentration camp Kapos.

I fear Patel and her Tory ilk, not for her ethnicity, but for the self-serving moral vacuum that’s where a human heart or conscience ought to be, far more than Steve Bell, who I don’t believe to be racist.

Would those attacking Bell’s satire approve of his being gunned down by an offended Hindu fundamentalist? And say he deserved such a fate? I don’t think such a thing is as likely as an equivalent scenario involving an enraged Muslim, in response to an image such as that below:

I’m with art critic Waldemar Januszczak, who tweeted thus in response to news of the Guardian not renewing Bell’s contract: ‘I worked with Steve Bell when I was at The Guardian. He was and is an evil genius. Anyone who thinks it’s a good idea to get rid of Steve Bell is a pitiful thinker. Pitiful.’ Amen to that.

Bell himself has said that his non-renewal at The Grauniad is, as far as he’s aware/concerned, due to economics, not ‘effin’ Patel’… or words to that effect!

* I’m no Corbynista, and I don’t claim he’s a paragon of perfection. l

Teresa and I watched this very slick biopic tonight (or, more strictly speaking, yesterday evening. We really enjoyed it.

It seems popular with Amazon Prime viewers as well, rated at 4&1/2 stars. That’s the platform we watched it on. I note that numerous film critics are quite critical, calling it a ‘cookie cutter’ type affair.

I k in box of get where such critiques are coming from. And yes, the balancing act of retelling a real life story with the affiliated danger dangers of sugar-coated hagiography are a very real problem in this f

Anyway, without going into any great depth. Here are a few thoughts. Yea, we see the usual beautification of characters. Aretha and ex-pimp hubby #1, Ted White, are particularly glammed up. The role of religion in the story is fascinating.

Jennifer Hudson is great as Aretha, albeit admittedly too conventionally pretty. It’s interesting to note that this was Franklin clan sanctioned movie, and Aretha herself effectively cast Hudson in the role!

Forrest Whitaker is great as her Pops, the Rev C L Franklin. And the whole cast Aquitaine themselves admirably. The evocation of Jerry Wexler and his Muscle Shoals crew is very well done.

The movie fares admirably in the ‘Hollywood vs History’ stakes, ticking a lot of the factual boxes. But ultimately it is a kind of love-letter, and not a scholarly fact finding mission.

To me Aretha is pop. And I’ve never been massively into pop. This film, as reverent and cornball as at times it might be, helps me appreciate Aretha as both a person and an artist, so for this alone I think it’s hit to be considered – for me at any rate – a success.

And, with typical irony, her 1972 gospel album, itself the subject of a film, which the record moguls feared would be too niche, confounded the experts gloomy forecasts, and wound up being her biggest seller!

Ok, this isn’t a five star ‘classic’, perhaps. But it is a solid well made telling of a popular story. And a suitable celebration of a great talent, that’ll almost certainly encourage a whole new generation to check out this diva’s fabulous musical legacy.

I’m trying out a tiny little MP3 player, as part of my ongoing participation in the Amazon Vine product review program. It’s an X16, and at present I’m struggling to learn how best to import music such that I can browse it easily.

I had one before, and couldn’t get the thing to work at all! So they – the supplier/manufacturer – sent me another. Both are now working. But at present I can only dump MP3s on the SD card, meaning they’re not grouped by album, or artist, or anything.