It’s a bank holiday weekend, so what better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than by watching Zulu one more time? Granted, the movie is riddled with historical inaccuracies but so what? ‘Tis grand, stirring stuff. And the “sing-off” between the Zulus – “Well, they’ve got a very good bass section, mind, but no top tenors, that’s for sure” – and our Welsh heroes is splendid, ranking behind only the superb rendition of the Marseillaise in Casablanca. Here it is:
So, a big hello to Cappuccino Culture, the Spectator’s new culture blog where I see Pete has reposted the list he helped compile for the Spectator’s 50 Essential Films supplement. Just for good measure, Pete’s added another 35 films that would be contenders for his own personal list. Brother Hoskin is a much greater cinephile than I am, but his inclusion of Eyes Wide Shut as a candidate for his own “Top 50” suggests he’s also keen on offering needless provocation. That said, I was delighted to see that the charming Whisky Galore! also made his list. Since everyone love to make movie lists, here are some films that, off
I’m far from being a zombie aficionado, but isn’t this obvious? If zombies actually existed, an attack by them would lead to the collapse of civilisation unless dealt with quickly and aggressively. That is the conclusion of a mathematical exercise carried out by researchers in Canada. They say only frequent counter-attacks with increasing force would eradicate the fictional creatures. My confidence in this research is not, mind you, boosted by this Professor Robert Smith? (the question mark is part of his surname and not a typographical mistake) and colleagues wrote: “We model a zombie attack using biological assumptions based on popular zombie movies. “We introduce a basic model for zombie
A tip of the stetson to Radley Balko for reminding (that is, telling) me that today is the thirtieth anniversary of John Wayne’s death. It’s tough to pick one’s favourites from a great career that spanned 171 movies but, though I know that in many ways The Searchers and Stagecoach are the greatest of the Duke’s movies, my five favourites are: Red River She Wore a Yellow Ribbon The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence Rio Bravo The Horse Soldiers What are yours? Below the jump, some clips! UPDATE: James Joyner joins the party. I second his endorsement of Rooster Cogburn. From Red River: She Wore a Yellow Ribbon: And,
Has anyone at the Republican National Committee actually watched Goldfinger? Apparently not. My friend Garance Franke-Ruta picked up on a web video posted on Youtube by the RNC which compared Nancy Pelosi with Pussy Galore. And this is supposed ot be an attack ad? Sheesh, when did being compared to Honor Blackman become a bad thing? I take no position on the question of whether or not the CIA misled Congress – the ostnesible subject of the ad – but this wilful ignorance of all matters Bondian cannot be allowed to stand. Do these people not realise that Pussy Galore is the movie’s heroine? Granted, her coversion to the cause
This is normally Melanie’s territory and it is disgraceful. The chain of events seems to be this: 1. The Edinburgh International Film Festival invites Israeli film-maker Tali Shalom-Ezer to show his her* short film Surrogate in Edinburgh. 2. The Israeli Embassy in London contributes £300 to help pay for Shalom-Ezer to come to the Scottlnd. 3. The so-called Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign objects to this and threatens to picket the festival. 4. EIFF says, “do your worst”. 5. SPSC do just that, recruiting Ken Loach who calls for a boycott of the festival. 6. EIFF caves and returns the donation to the Israelis. The sum involved is, of course, trivial.
Stephen Walt and Dan Drezner each list ten films they think merit inclusion in a Foreign Policy Film Festival since they shed some light, one way or another, upon international relations. Well, that’s a parlour game everyone can play. No need to hold tenure! Professor Walt suggests that war movies, spy capers and propaganda films ought to be excluded so, playing only moderately fast and loose with his criteria, here’s another list: The Man Who Would Be King (1975): You must have an Afghanistan movie these days and this is the best there is. Kipling’s tale of imperial adventure, folly, ambition, lunacy and greed is also a great buddy movie
Oscar commentary is outsourced to the always-splendid Peter Suderman: The half-calculated, half-panicked seesawing between self-important Art and anxious populism means that the Oscars aren’t really an indicator of quality anymore, but rather an indicator of Oscarness. Oscarness does, admittedly, overlap with quality (see last year’s awards), but it is not the same thing. Undoubtedly, the biggest triumph for Oscarness this year was Sean Penn’s Best Actor win for his portrayal of Harvey Milk. It’s part political statement, part Hollywood politics, and part bias toward the self-important and showy. I thought Milk was a fine film, especially the first hour, and Penn was striking in the lead role, but he never
It was great to hear Katharine Gun the GCHQ whistleblower on Saturday Live this morning talking about the morality of the leaker. I suppose the pretext was the banking crisis, but Katharine used the opportunity to explain why she had revealed details of a US/UK spying operation on the United Nations just prior to the outbreak of the Iraq war in 2003. I have a close connection to the story as the journalist who received a copy of the original email request from the States. I published the revelations in the Observer in March 2003. The war went ahead despite Katharine’s efforts. Katharine was later arrested and charged for breaching the Official Secrets Act, although the case