Movie Reviews: The Big Heat

The Big Heat (1953)

directed by Fritz Lang

This is an earlier film which starred film noir standouts Gloria Grahame and Glenn Ford, later seen together in Human Desire, also directed by Fritz Lang. 

It is one of the better noir films in both its looks and the oft subversive actions of its characters. 

Although the film is set during a time in what later generations view as either a wonderful highpoint or ugly nadir of male supremacy in which women stayed in the kitchen and men made all the decisions, the male "hero" in this movie is shown to be compliantly washing dishes, doing other household chores, and routinely apologizing to his wife, should he offend her. 

The man may be bringing home the money but if he rules the roost, it's only because that's how his wife wants it. It's pretty clear who makes most of the final decisions at the home and it's not the man. The hero views his role as provider and protector, not necessarily as boss. 

Although the hero does a lot of running around and upsetting the applecart because he's set on justifiable revenge, it's actually the women who take actions which drive the story and make things happen. It's also, for good or bad, the women who often pay the price. In fact this is so pronounced that one could make an argument that the hero is something of an unwitting "femme fatale" ( homme fatale?) himself. 

Police Continue to Attack Black Men: Antone Austin and Caron Nazario

It is frustrating that I could change only the names and dates in the two stories in this post and the events would be identical to other incidents of police assault on Black men in America during the past four centuries. 

Police see a Black man and attack the Black man, even if the Black man was not committing any crime or civil violation. Police use or threaten deadly force when neither the use of force or the threatened escalation was legal or necessary. 

Police dismiss objections by saying the Black man deserved it for not immediately falling to his knees and begging massa not to whip him. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. 

These incidents can occur any time, any place. When police receive a call about a man violating a restraining order they should obtain information on who the man is, his name and description, his clothing and location. But apparently LAPD officers don't bother with those details. They select a Black man in the general vicinity and attack. Though the alleged violator of the restraining order was White, it was the Black man who was choked and beaten. Music producer Antone Austin says his life was turned upside down about two years ago when police officers arrested him and his girlfriend outside his California home in what a federal lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles claims was a case of racial profiling, excessive force and unlawful arrest.

Movie Reviews: Decoy

Decoy

directed by Jack Bernhard

This is an older and lower budget film noir that nonetheless stands tall as one of the most unabashedly hardcore noirs, with a femme fatale that runs rings around all of the men she encounters. This lady is cold, mean, and nasty but also extremely attractive. 

Her beauty allows her to get away with what she does as nobody believes that she will turn on him until it's too late. 

You might say that this film is a homage to the power of femininity gone wrong or conversely, an examination of how stupid men can be when women are concerned. One minor character finds the word 'dichotomy' in the dictionary and is fascinated by both its sound and meaning. He mispronounces it and repeats it. He's talking about Jean Gillie's character though he doesn't realize it. The audience certainly will though. 

There is a serious dichotomy between Gillie's character's looks and words on the one hand and her character's actions on the other. I've written before that people do themselves a disservice if they dismiss all older movies as having poorly written female characters. It's just not true. I think too often people believe that women must behave as men behave in order to be strong. Not the case. Gillie's character is never going to be mistaken, physically or otherwise, for a man. 

She's not going to be cursing, punching people out, or mouthing feminist platitudes. Gillie's character gets the most screen time, is perhaps the best constructed, and is fully in charge of things, from the beginning to the end. She's not nice at all though she certainly looks it. 

Senator Schumer Shields The Rich

One of the predictable things about life is that people are hypocrites. People sanctimoniously blast others for looking after their tribe or self-interests but rush to do the exact same thing when they are in power. One politician who exemplifies this more than most is New York Senator Charles Schumer. 

Some people have referred to old Chucky as the Senator from Wall Street because of his previous interest in ensuring that New York based financial entities are protected from legal accountability and get their "fair share" of any "gub'mnt cheese" that is being disbursed. Well as it turns out Senator Schumer is also, despite former hints to the contrary just fine with public funds being given to private schools. 

Tucked into the $1.9 trillion pandemic rescue law is something of a surprise coming from a Democratic Congress and a president long seen as a champion of public education — nearly $3 billion earmarked for private schools. 

More surprising is who got it there: Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader whose loyalty to his constituents diverged from the wishes of his party, and Randi Weingarten, the leader of one of the nation’s most powerful teachers’ unions, who acknowledged that the federal government had an obligation to help all schools recover from the pandemic, even those who do not accept her group.

Brooklyn Bus Battle: You Back Up!

It's unavoidable. In life we will have arguments, debates, disagreements, altercations, squabbles, or outright fights with other people: friends, relatives, spouse, lovers, co-workers, and strangers. It is of course always more important to insist that you are right and that the other person acknowledge that he is wrong than to find a solution to an issue that is affecting both people. Okay, obviously that statement is hyperbole but people do act like that often enough such that it's a permanent problem in human relations, both individual and societal. 

Fortunately in a recent Brooklyn confrontation, there were only two bus drivers who were armed with nothing more than rising tempers instead of nations armed to the teeth and looking for a reason to start trouble. In this incident there were people around who were able to intervene, lower each antagonist's temperature, and find a solution that allowed everyone involved to maintain pride and solve the issue before anything other than  harsh words were exchanged. And that was good.

Two quarreling city bus drivers locked horns and refused to move their massive rigs in a bizarre stand-off on a narrow two-way avenue in Brooklyn, a video released Friday shows. 

Murder Over Stimulus Check in Indianapolis

When I read about the story below I was reminded of the Tolkien quote which headlines this post. I am not opposed to the death penalty per se.

But even in the most execution happy states of America, most first degree murderers never receive the death penalty. I'm not sure that imposing the death penalty would ever deter people from murder.  If you are willing to kill children then I'm not sure anything can deter you from your actions. There are some people who just don't care.  

Obviously the death penalty is also just filthy with race and class bias just like the rest of the justice system. I have seen too many cases where innocent (often Black or poor) men have been convicted of crimes and sentenced to multiple decades to the hell of state or federal prisons, often by openly racist prosecutors or jurors who ignored exculpatory evidence, for me to uncritically endorse usage of the death penalty. 

Having  written that, I don't think the world needs people who murder children. I DO think such people deserve death. If we had the death penalty for all murderers and carried it out after trial and limited expedited appeals would there be a deterrence impact? Should we only use the death penalty where there is absolutely no doubt of guilt? Or is that morally wrong? I don't know. I'm certain that the perpetrator of the below crime should pay with his life for his deeds.

INDIANAPOLIS — Her family said Jeanettrius Moore worked hard at a beauty supply shop to support herself and two little girls and appreciated the most recent $1,400 stimulus check issued to help Americans recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The father of her youngest baby, Malik Halfacre, thought he should get half.

Movie Reviews: Strangers on a Train

Strangers On A Train
directed by Alfred Hitchcock

I was only familiar with this film via the later spoof Throw Momma From The Train which starred Danny Devito and Billy Crystal. So when I had an opportunity to watch the original I decided to check it out. 

It wasn't a dark comedy like the DeVito film. 

This was a serious noir film. It was based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith, who also wrote the novels The Talented Mr. Ripley and its sequels. Many of these books were also adapted into films. Highsmith was a lesbian. This would not be relevant but for the fact that Strangers On A Train seems to contain some gay subtext. The viewer can decide on that for himself/herself. 

I haven't read the novel to see if Hitchcock turned up this subtext or if it was present in the book. Guy Haines (Farley Granger) is an up and coming tennis star with women problems. Big ones. He's married to a woman Miriam (Kasey Rogers, later seen in the tv series Bewitched) who not only gets around with anyone and everyone, she's pregnant. 

And Guy is definitely not the Daddy. Guy is, as you might suspect, a bit bummed out by this development. He wants to get a divorce so he can marry his own sidepiece, Anne Morton (Ruth Roman), the daughter of a US Senator.