'Waco' (2018)

Waco (Paramount Network), a six-part mini-series, covers events culminating in the fiery destruction of the Branch Davidians' New Mount Carmel Center -- and the deaths on that day of seventy-six people, mostly women and children -- near Waco, Texas, in 1993. 

Waco begins with Ruby Ridge and ends by noting the deadly use of tear gas (and CS gas) that resulted in catastrophic fires from the 1970s onward (including the bomb dropped on MOVE in West Philadelphia in 1985).  

Like Wild Wild Country (Netflix), Waco fills in a lot of details about a dramatic historical happening, though unlike the former, Waco is not a documentary film. Both deliver worthwhile and fascinating versions of people and events. 

In Waco, Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights) plays David Koresh to the hilt, while Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road, The Shape of Water) takes on the role of FBI negotiator Gary Noesner. Shea Wigham (Boardwalk Empire) plays Mr. Macho, G-man Mitch Decker, who pushes escalation tactics at every turn. 

Waco is more sympathetic to the Branch Davidians than the ATF and FBI, who, despite their stated goal of avoiding another Jonestown, by their overly aggressive actions caused something more akin to the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890. 

Koresh (1959-1993) comes off as charismatic and eccentric, possibly a bit crazy, but he doesn't seem anymore so than say, Joseph Smith, Jr. (1805-1844), the founder of Mormonism, who was murdered in Carthage, Illinois, by an American mob at age thirty-eight. 

By the 21st century, G-men seem to have learned some lessons about escalation and de-escalation. The Bundy Bunch in Nevada (2014) and Oregon (2016) were handled with a minimum of casualties, despite high tensions and lethal weaponry carried by both sides. 

More de-escalation training is needed at all levels of government and society, and around the world, certainly.

Off the Double EE Ranch, I've seen the New Mount Carmel grounds in person: eerie and haunted. 

Today's Rune: Joy.     

Banana Yoshimoto: 'Kitchen' (1988, 1993)

Going though books discarded by the library, I've been sampling a variety of works that I otherwise may not have discovered anytime soon. One of them is Banana Yoshimoto's Kitchen, translated from the Japanese by Megan Backus (New York: Grove Press, 1993; originally published in 1988), which includes "Moonlight Shadow."  These are quick reads that update, in a way, the superb social films of Yasujirō Ozu (1903-1963) and Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998). 

Yoshimoto (born in 1964), like Ozu and Kurosawa, takes a close look at the fabric of a society under pressure. Though they are all three of them observing people through the scrim of Japanese culture, their tales have universal relevance. Changes -- whether brought about by the devastation of atomic disaster (Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Fukushima), earthquake, flood, fire, occupation, technology, demographics, or Westernized economic systems -- have led to the disintegration of traditional structures. Family systems crumble or evolve, as does civil society. 

More recently, the United States has moved into similar territory, and so all of these Japanese artists can communicate to distraught Americans.

In Kitchen, Mikage, the lead character, has lost her parents and, most recently, her grandmother, and she has no siblings. She is taken in by Yuichi, a fellow who knew her grandmother, and by Yuichi's transgender mother, Eriko. Though Mikage never entirely shakes off her depression, she does take some satisfaction in cooking. However, this is played out in a low-key, non-Hollywood manner. There have been Asian, but not American, movie adaptations.

"Moonlight Shadow" is a very streamlined tale of loss and survival, also, revolving around dead and living characters. The latter are Satsuki (the main protagonist), Hiraji, and Urara. In this one, there are surreal elements (think Twin Peaks) involving a bell, a bridge, a dress and the "Weaver Festival Phenomenon."  

Banana Yoshimoto is now on my radar. Her artistic approach can be reflected back to the corresponding concerns of master filmmakers Ozu and Kurosawa, and forward into the unknown. 

Today's Rune: Signals. 

Picasso and Dora: Take I

I love reading about the lives and work of artists. Here's another really good book of this type that I finished reading a few weeks ago: James Lord's Picasso and Dora: A Personal Memoir (New York: Fromm International, 1994; hardback published in 1993). 

Among the many real characters breathed back into life, there are three principals: James Lord (1922-2009), Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Dora Maar (1907-1997). Not far behind is Françoise Gilot, who even now in 2015 is still very much alive and kicking at 93 (born November 26, 1921).

Dora Maar, one of Picasso's key -- and romantically doomed -- muses, has some of the best quips and observations in the book.

Of Picasso: "'He doesn't know how to stop making things,' she said. 'It must be terrible for him. Of course, it's terrible for us as well.'" (page 107).

Of Picasso: "'It's simple,' Dora said . . . 'He would submit to anything to be able to keep on painting, and he knows that what matters in the end is not whether people say good things or bad things about you. What matters is to be talked about.'" (page 118).

And: "'I felt so alone I got into a taxi and told the driver to take me out of Paris. The trees were like balloons ready to float up in the sunrise . . ." (page 149). 

Because it's based on Lord's notebooks and scribblings made at the time things were happening, Picasso and Dora has an exceptionally crisp and intimate feel.

(To be continued . . .) 

Today's Rune: Partnership. 

Friday Night Lights

Checking out the 2006-2011 Texas-based TV series Friday Night Lights. It seems warm and familiar like The Last Picture Show (1971) or Dazed and Confused (1993) but also fresh and new, luxuriating in longer term character development, extensive moral dilemmas and the annual cycle of American football seasons. Very good stuff.

You can look at this from multiple angles. For instance: change versus tradition, sort of like Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" (1948).  The cool thing is that Friday Night Lights lets you see change as both a good thing and a sad thing; same for tradition. What is football, anyway? What does football -- or any popular social ritual -- mean to people, and why? Is it important, or whimsical, or both? Is it healthy, or damaging, or both? Is it life-affirming, or life-denying, or both? 

One can empathize with all the main characters, no matter where they're coming from or going. I like that. It's a fun, thoughtful and engaging series.  Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.  

Today's Rune: Partnership.    

David France: How to Survive a Plague (Part I)

If, as Frederick Douglass put it in 1857, "power concedes nothing without a demand," David France's How to Survive a Plague (2012) shows an immediate demand -- faster, more effective response to the AIDS crisis, more resources for effective treatment --  via well-organized groups ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and its 1991 spinoff TAG (Treatment Action Group). Much of this compelling documentary covers the late 1980s and first half of the 1990s. In it, one will see not only the rank and file of ACT UP and TAG and their allies, but also buffoonish conservative enemies like North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms, and let's not forget the mixed response of Pat Buchanan on Firing Line. Also: see George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Charlie Rose, among many others, drawn into the maelstrom. 

How to Survive a Plague is moving, fast-paced and exhilarating all at once. Fantastic!

Today's Rune: Signals.     

Welcome to Sarajevo

Michael Winterbottom's Welcome to Sarajevo (1997) looks at the Bosnian War (1992-1995) from the point of view of journalists who placed themselves in an up-close position to cover the bloodletting, and from the perspective of "ordinary" Bosniaks caught up in the mayhem. Coupled with Jean-Luc Godard's Notre Musique (2004), I found it to be conciousness-raising and valuable as a testament to recent historical events.

There's no doubt where Winterbottom's film stands on Serbian forces: they are the main aggressors here. Archival footage is interwoven with later filming in an effective way to incorprate some of the atrocities committed by Serbs. We also see a belated international response, with UN peacekeepers making some strides in better protecting civilians. Also, US 1992 Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton comes off better than President George H.W. Bush, and for good reason given their differing appraches to the conflict.

As in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere, the Bosnian War is most accurately understood as a painful disaster and human tragedy. In Welcome to Sarajevo, because the war is ongoing, the tram lines are destroyed and there's little thought of rebuilding yet, which is contrasted in the post-war film Notre Musique, when the trams are running again and the Mostar Bridge is nearly restored.

Ensemble acting is solid in Welcome to Sarajevo. Cast includes a couple of American stars (Marisa Tomei and Woody Harrelson) who play it low-key. Also, there's Croatian actor Goran Višnjić, Emira Nusevic, Stephen Dillane, Harriet Fox, Juliet Aubrey, Emily Loyd, Igor Dzambazov and Davor Janjić. Soundtrack is good and includes a well-placed song from the Rolling Stones ("Waiting On a Friend"). 

Today's Rune: Gateway.      

The Bridge

Jean-Luc Godard's Notre Musique (2004) devotes a fair amount of screen time to the Stari Most (Old Bridge) in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was heavily damaged (i.e. effectively destroyed) by Croatian tanks and artillery fire. Built in 1566 under the aegis of the Ottoman Empire, the original bridge met its end on November 9, 1993. After the Bosnian War and a global outpouring of support, the bridge was rebuilt between 2001 and 2004, incorporating salvaged stones from the Neretva River. In Notre Musique, even a trio of American Indians (aka Native Americans) show up for the reconstruction efforts.

The Stari Most and entire historic heart of Mostar's "Old City" comprise a UNESCO World Heritage Site. According to the UNESCO description: "The reconstructed Old Bridge and Old City of Mostar is a symbol of reconciliation, international co-operation and of the coexistence of diverse cultural, ethnic and religious communities."* Here's to hoping. For now, the chaos of war has moved on to Syria and other lands, still greedily devouring people and places as it roams.

Photo credit: Stari Most (Old Bridge) by Jason Rogers, November 11, 2006. Wikimedia Commons.
*"Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar:" http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/946

Today's Rune: Warrior.

Jean-Luc Godard: Notre Musique

Jean-Luc Godard's Notre Musique (2004) is set in Bosnia-Herzegovina less than ten years after the Bosnian War (1991-1995), a savage conflict involving three main factions: Bosnians, Croatians (Croats) and Serbians (Serbs). Sounds and images of significant contemporary documentary value depict street scenes in Sarajevo and Mostar. Without getting into the film proper (yet), a primary image that leaps out from the film is the functioning electric tram. Here it is so soon after the bloodletting, yet trams are humming along.

I couldn't help but think how Detroit used to have a major streetcar/trolley system and may again; how in Fort Worth, Texas, there is currently a discussion over reinstalling trolleys along 7th Street and other thoroughfares. In 1907, there were sixteen streetcar lines in Fort Worth. Today, Dallas runs trolleycars and other light rail, as do other North American cities such as Philadelphia, New Orleans, San Francisco, Mexico City and Toronto.

What does the electric tram represent in Notre Musique? I'm not sure, but it's worth remembering that Orpheus is a tram conductor and the god Hermes runs a tram station in Marcel Camus' Orfeu Negro/Black Orpheus (1959). Perhaps the electric tram represents a hope for the reconstruction of a well-woven social fabric after periods of mass violence and destruction, the kind that makes one think of Syria today, or the Gordian Knot of Israeli-Palestinian relations, which is another key topic in Notre Musique. Or perhaps it's simply making some of notre musique -- "our music."  

Today's Rune: Possessions.         

The War Room

Elizabeth Warren, Bill Clinton, et alia: more powerful arguments for the Democrats and the re-election of Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Wonderful rhetoric and supporting analysis.

My fellow Americans, all of us in this grand hall and everybody watching at home, when we vote in this election, we’ll be deciding what kind of country we want to live in. If you want a winner-take- all, you’re-on-your-own society, you should support the Republican ticket. But if you want a country of shared opportunities and shared responsibility, a we’re-all-in-this-together society, you should vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden. -- Bill Clinton, Charlotte, North Carolina, September 5, 2012.

Couldn't ask for a smarter, more persuasive approach.

Today's Rune: Strength.

Tony Scott: True Romance

In Texas, I was eerily in the middle of watching Tony Scott's True Romance (1993; Director's Cut, 2002) about the time Mr. Scott leaped to his death in California. Knowing of his demise put an edgy spin to the the rest of the movie.

Clarence (Christian Slater), his Dad Clifford (Dennis Hopper) and Detroit.

What's does True Romance have going for it? Scott, along with Quentin Tarantino's "naughty boy" script, follows the main characters (played by Patricia Arquette and Christian Slater) from Detroit to Los Angeles. They are carrying a suitcase full of uncut cocaine after a deadly confrontation, hunted by gangsters. The story line is as old as dirt, but appearances by Brad Pitt and James Gandolfini (before they became ubiquitous) along with Val Kilmer (as Elvis' Spirit), Gary Oldman (in dreadlocks), Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Walken, Dennis Hopper, Tom Sizemore, Michael Rapaport and Chris Penn, among others -- makes it a funhouse of quirkiness. Warning to the squeamish: as is Tarantino's wont, much blood flows in between the quips. Pulp Fiction came out a year later.

Today's Rune: Possessions.         

The Place Called Hope

I remember ducking into Hope, Arkansas, back around Elvis' birthday in January, 1993, bound for Austin, Texas, in that surreal period just after the 1992 US national election, right before Bill Clinton actually became 42nd President of the United States.  On the very day of that visit early in 1993, Little Rock had been a hive of activity and Hope was glowing, thanks in part to the memorable "believe" speech Clinton had delivered at the Democratic National Convention the previous July.

Now, in 2012, Hope's old train depot is an easily accessible museum that notes not only the presidency of Bill Clinton but also other folks from Hope who've achieved larger status, including Mike Huckabee. Pretty good work for a town of about 10,300 people. Furthermore, the Bill Clinton birthplace and first childhood home is now part of the National Park Service. At the site, the Park rangers are hospitable and enthusiastic -- one gave a fun tour of the house, which is not too far from I-30, the main highway connecting Little Rock and Texarkana and on down to Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. Wonderful.

Here's a link for more information: http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/presidents/bill_clinton_birthplace.html

Today's Rune: Partnership.    

Smoke Signals

Above shot: poster for a 2007 screening of Chris Eyre's Smoke Signals (1998), based on parts of Sherman Alexie's interconnected short story collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993).  My sister Linda was among the panelists discussing it. Seeing this on a tour of her office at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro recently thrilled me, not only because I like the movie and the book, but also because I've included both in Macomb College English classes -- yeah, synchronicity! Ideal for class discussions and response essays. Highly recommended.

Another good indie film with overlapping themes is Jonathan Wacks' Powwow Highway (1989), based on David Seals' novel The Powwow Highway (1979). Seals also wrote a sequel to the novel and movie, Sweet Medicine (1992).

Today's Rune: Wholeness.