Since we have to wait for Obama to speak from West Point, thereby closing down all his "off ramps," we might as well be entertained. Thanks to Russ W. for this. pl
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In honor of our first black president, perhaps UOGB’s cover of Shaft will serve equally well.
Re Tuesday, he can’t say he wasn’t warned.
What a very odd choice of location for the speech. The innocents of the cadet corps at West Point. Where are the full scholarships for those who would wage “Peace” not “War”? And to induct 17-18 year olds primarily into the military “ethos” will doom the US just as Sparta never understood Athens. The reverse also true of course. Apparently the major lessons of Viet Nam for the US are now lost to those that did not directly experience that tragedy!
WRC
Yes. Officers have the privilage of peeing in a bottle under supervision just like everyone else. That has been the case for many years. What are you implying?
Cadets at the service academies do not have scholarships. They are paid because they are already members of the armed forces with a rank between sergeant-major and warrant officer. They are assigned to WP, Annapois, Colorado Springs or the Coast Guard place with required duty being to study. Some ROTC students have scholarships. Some enlisted people receive financial support to go to civilian colleges in degree completion programs before they become officers, you know, like Hasan. pl
Epic film which I’ve yet to watch. Col. sir, thanks for makin’ me take a mental note to acquirin’ the DVD. Almost any flick starrin’ Clint Eastwood is bound to be good. Wished those d*** kids I’m teachin’ could know what a Western is. Instead of all that all-flash-&-no- substance c*** they feature these days on the TV & the silver screen.
YT
The greatest of all the spaghetti westerns. pl
I like “Once Upon a Time in the West” but since learning that my grandfather arranged the music for all of them I’m looking forward to seeing them again. Casting Henry Fonda as a bad guy was pure genius.
Brilliant. Love the wah-wah voice effect near the end.
P.L. Two of many things I am suggesting. Review of all medical prescriptions of Dr. Hassan to patients and any unusal patterns, including suicides. Most modern psychiatry involves prescription of various psychotropic drugs, obtainable by many means and not the subject of routine drug testing. But glad to know all those Flag ranks have to pee in the bottle also. This is a very complicated issue with many recent exposures of federal drug testing labs as having been inadequately regulated and operated.
Clint learned a lot acting for and learning from the brilliant director, Sergio Leone. As a director Clint is like a fine wine, getting better with age.
The original version of Fistful of Dollars was Kurosawa’s Yojimbo. Definitely worth seeing.
Speaking of ukes (nsfw):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF3-_GTENqY
grego,
Do you think if I watch enough Toshiro Mifune films I’ll find one where he tells someone to “Get off my lawn”? Maybe in Sanjuro?
Director Hiroshi Inagaki’s “Samurai Trilogy,” three films covering the life of Musashi Miyamoto (Takezo,) Japan’s most famous swordsman of the early 17th century and perhaps of all time, is my favorite Samurai movie.
If you grew up in suburbia in the fifties and sixties, you knew men that guarded their putting green lawns like it was Fort Knox. As kids we were yelled at for the slightest territorial transgression. Never had a gun pointed at me for stepping on a lawn but also never had gangsters breathing down my neck. Did almost receive a load of buckshot in the butt that did deter me from further considerations of delinquent pursuits.
Once Upon a Time in the West is surely the best, has the most astounding scene with Frank/Henry Fonda about to blow a child’s brains out, and Sac Brat your gramps was genius, contributed mightily to this masterpiece with the most haunting music ever to accompany evil and murder to go along with it, cast of thousands, unforgettable,. . . if you’ve never seen it, well, opine no more until you have.
Henry Fonda’s blue eyed psychotic acting was a terror de force of cinema but the combination of Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach has never been beat. Neither has the music and it also started the fad of six-shooter sounding like canons.
optimax,
Yeah, still I like the works of Kurosawa Akira. Not watched ’em flicks by Hiroshi Inagaki. Thanks for the intro.
You should catch a glimpse of “Ten to chi to”, directed by Haruki Kadokawa. Epic reenactment of an epic battle.
Grego & SAC Brat:
You gentlemen should too.
YT,
Never heard of it and am always looking for good new Samurai movies. Will look for it, thanks. Also like noir, Kurosawa’s “High and Low” is a good Japanese noir.
Haruki Kadokawa’s movie Yamoto intrigues me since I read Japanese Navy staff officer Masatake Okumiya memoirs in the book Zero by Martin Caidin.
A fun samurai film is “Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo”. Check it out twice, as Joe Bob Briggs would say.