La La Land (2016)

La La Land, to the best of my recollection, is the first musical I have ever seen only because I swore to finish this personal project of seeing every 2017 Oscar Best Picture Nominee.

As expected I find it hard taking the acting seriously and subsequently the story when people break out to sing and dance. So instead of a character I focused on a song and City of Stars stood out. The song was my emotional goal post. I appreciated the ending because through it I understood why.

Lion (2016)

I've seen eight best picture nominees now in the 2017 Oscars. La la Land, the 9th, will be the last. Even with one movie still out this one has risen to the top of my list.

Implicit in the title is the bravery and there was; but what makes this movie endearing is the tenderness hidden underneath. Lion actually is a story of love, the best kind that anyone will ever have in this life. 

Arrival (2016)

Arrival is the latest in a line of movies that can be described as watered down science fiction where flashy high tech is removed just to keep close to reality. Previous movies are Interstellar and The Martian.

Hidden Figures (2016)

It was funny at first, a woman in midsized heels running to another building just to pee. Then it became depressing as she still had to relieve herself in another building even under heavy rain. Eventually it was just idiotic because even in a great emergency Katherine Goble (Katherine Johnson when she married) would still be in the other building because she is black. 

via GIPHY

This is 1960s segregated America and even the National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA) is no exemption, space race notwithstanding. 

Moonlight (2016)

This is definitely not the stereotypical black movie.

In trying to recall the few movies with generally African American characters that I have seen these are what I came up with: Cage (ok ok, not a movie); The Nutty Professor; 42; He Got Game. Given that, the stereotypical black then would be a sportsman or gangbanger. 

Moonlight doesn’t fit in any of those because the protagonist does not know who he is which, for some reason, skewed into gender identity. 

Hell or High Water (2016)

I watched the movie without having seen the trailer so what I wrote I learned organically scene by scene.  Apparently the trailer contained what took half the movie to know which either speaks bad of the movie or of the trailer. You would have googled it anyway so I embedded the trailer in the end.

The opening was prototypical. 

A bank robbed by two men.  Cowboy hat and a large belt buckle worn by the manager meant it was Texas. Once the robberies became a spree it was cue in the Texas Rangers time. Bank robbery, cowboys, and Rangers in hot pursuit; if the movie had horses it might still have worked.  But even without horses, with the elements already available I can see an ending that would fit a Bon Jovi song.

Hacksaw Ridge (2016)

You just know a movie is so well put together when you see it.  It’s almost like a song, like the rhythm is right; you’re feeling no bumps.

Hacksaw Ridge is a movie that is beautifully put together, the best so far among the movies I have seen in this year’s list of Oscar nominees for best picture. So far I’ve seen Fences and Manchester by the Sea previously.  If the great Robert Downey Jr. who is the poster child of falling from grace and coming back again could not remove Mel Gibson from the blacklist - Robert was or is hoping Mel direct an Iron Man movie - then maybe Mel’s work can. From what I see in this movie, Mel has not lost a step since directing Apocalypto of 2006.

Manchester by the Sea (2016)

John Chandler’s (Kyle Chandler) last act, posthumously, was to call for a handyman, his own brother Lee (Casey Affleck).  He wrote in his last will and testament that Lee is to be his son Patrick’s (Lucas Hedges) legal guardian when he dies.  It was a wish meticulously thought of and prepared for. John even set money aside to make sure his brother comes back to Manchester from that handyman job out of town and perform his charge.

Fences

13 minutes… 21 minutes…

I’ve barely begun and already I’m counting out the scene – or is it three scenes? – waiting for the switch or at least when Denzel Washington concedes charge of it. The opening minutes of Fences felt as if Troy Maxson (Denzel) was going to carry the story by brute force; talking all the time and appearing in nearly every scene as the focal point and with almost the same energy. 

The People vs George Lucas (2010)

The spirit of The People vs George Lucas boils down to the ownership of the art in all its meanings. 

Burr

Burr by Gore Vidal

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Death is a refuge especially for people of history boxing them too either category: as a god or the devil. What I like most about this book is that it humanizes them, the American founders.

Aaron Burr has served under Benedict Arnold and George Washington during the Revolutionary War. He also had a successful law practice thereafter, sometimes taking cases together with Alexander Hamilton. He was vice president under Thomas Jefferson only at the 36th ballot in the House of Representatives; the 35 other times were tied.

His political career took a big slide after fatally shooting Alexander Hamilton in a duel. Wandering about in the new western territories Burr ended up in the middle of a conspiracy that would divide the United States. Along with guilt or innocence, Burr’s trial for treason, also pitted the rights and powers of the executive and that of the courts against each other. Although he was never pronounced guilty Aaron Burr was effectively thereafter a political corpse.

High Rise (2015)

Social classes are a vertical divide of the world; High Rise quite literally made the world into a building.    And like life itself the building experiences operational stresses; the residents instead of getting their acts together act only according to the meaning attached to the height of their floors to the ground. 

The Kryptonite Spear

The two reasons I hated Batman vs Superman are called Justice League: Doom and Dark Knight Returns.

Justice League: Doom is about Batman’s contingency plans landing in the wrong hands and used by the enemy against the Justice League. Against Superman, all that was required was a distraction and then a kryptonite bullet. 

Sherlock (S4) (2017)

All the scenes above are from season 4 which has become more graphic in its filming of thought than in previous seasons. Visuals coupled with humor are what set BBCs Sherlock over most procedural dramas.

Can you imagine Sherlock Holmes just talking?  And Sherlock talks about all his observations including day to day ones not included in story’s main case. CSI would have its tools to add to the flash the facts they have collected.  Molly Hooper, friend and occasional lab help, was never that flashy.  All talk would then the modern version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation would blend along with the rest.  

The Lobster (2015)

When hotel staff acted for guests the reasons to find a mate – since I can’t remember ever hearing the word marriage – it made me understand what the story is about. 

Lando's and Lorie's Banay Banay Eatery

I never had it so good at a local eatery: Kaldereta, Calamares, Bulalo, Barbecue.  There was what looks like grilled tilapia which I didn’t get because it was on the other side of the table. I had line of sight too for some kind of shrimp dish which I refused because the shrimp was small and I had to work a bit to get into the meat.  There are times when the best meal is one which I can just throw in my mouth and chew.

Midnight Special (2016)

Unearthly existence should have been able to change lives or points of view but I never felt that here.  Actually a change feels like a requirement since the protagonists came from a cult.

Midnight Special though sounding like a 24 hour deliver service is in fact a cat and mouse story that ironically ends in broad daylight with millions of witnesses.  The story’s sci-fi component was built up slow and steady. Drawback is that no one among the millions – on screen anyway – explicitly asked what it is they saw and that left me feeling empty.

Southbound (2015)

Southbound is B movie. You feel it when you see it; something about the visuals that says no budget which is not all together a sign of a bad movie.

Elstree 1976 (2015)

Immortalized and forgotten – that was my take away from the opening with its juxtaposition of toy and actor.   Toys went first with actor’s voices in the background talking about the action figures that represented them.  It was an odd mix so in my mind was always the question, who?  Who’s talking? Another set of visuals and images follow, this time actor follows the toy Star Wars character that they played.  They don’t ring a bell so I wondered who are they again?

Everyone remembers Mark Hamil, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford in 1977 when the original Star Wars was first released but in Elstree 1976 the focus now turns on extras and bit players. 

Lazer Team (2015)

Is it unfair to walk out on a movie before seeing the end; say that the fact I have not finished it, it therefore sucks.  Or, as in real life I should finish it all before I pass judgement. Almost always I try the latter; at least it gives me the reasons why I think that of a movie.

Sometimes I feel it in the beginning the urge to walk out or in the front of the PC, it’s the urge to press stop.  There’s being fair and there’s the right to keep your sanity. 

Almost always that first urge is triggered by the visual. Lazer Team is classified as a science fiction movie.  Sci-fi nowadays carries with it visual expectations and suffice to say the movie screams cheap and under budget – lights, composition, sets, costume.

The Daughter should say Goodbye

image from Vanity Fair

Disney has reportedly held meetings recently with its creative minds to discuss how to proceed with the story of General Leia now that Carrie Fisher has passed on. 

Some key issues it looks like are story choke points: the reunion of the twins, Leia and Luke; the reunion of Leia and Kylo Ren. Regardless if such scenes were already shot for Episode VIII or reserved for IX, the story cannot be played out to fruition now without deep consideration.

Postcards from the Edge (1990)

“Who could resist my stunning layered and moving not unlike Mary Poppins performance...?”  Carrie Fisher said that referring to Princess Leia during her one woman show Wishful Drinking. The audience laughed especially when Carrie paired it with Mary Poppins.  They understood what she meant. 

Now I don’t know what the technical definition of layered is – besides that analogy on onions – but I have seen Star Wars many times and all I remember is the gung-ho princess. Not even Han Solo managed to peel off a mushy side of her.  Not even the destruction of Alderaan revealed an orphan of an entire planet now that I think about it.

For much of Carrie’s life millions of fans – more so if they lived outside the States like me – Princess Leia was never peeled off the late actress’s life.  And when Carrie died this Christmas break I decided to change that and peel off Princess Leia from my eyes, see what I have missed.

What the CEO Wants You to Know

What the CEO Wants You to Know: Using Business Acumen to Understand How Your Company Really Works by Ram Charan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My favourite is Chapter 2 which has the title Every Business is the same Inside: Cutting through to Cash, Margin, Velocity, Growth, and Customers. I attended a seminar once on financial statements, the lecturer was very good but the allotted schedule was too short because the topic felt like basic accounting. It was a struggle to keep awake because there was all these terms and the table looks complicated for me to keep track of.

Having read that chapter I now feel that I finally get it even when I can’t remember anything after a year of non-use. Finance is not my area. In the seminar it is tables and terms I had to memorize on the other hand Chapter 2 gave me why a business makes money: cash, margin, velocity, growth, and customers. The book has formulas but it has no tables which may have helped ease my mind into it.

Silly 2016

You don’t know how silly you have looked at 2016 until you’ve seen this trailer produced by Friend Dog Studios.

The trailer is modeled like a slasher/horror movies.  Cuts or timing was right for the genre; the music elicited dread; composition had a dark feel to it; and the general feel of the story was ‘what the hell is happening?’ and ‘who’s next?’

But what’s missing? 

King Rat

King Rat by James Clavell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If I compare to Tai-pan and Shogun, this book, King Rat, would be my least favorite. There is a restrictive feeling about it since it is a World War II POW camp in Singapore: Changi. The first two books had an epic nature about them, one was control on Imperial Japan and the other was control of East Asia by means of trade by the English.

Shogun

Shōgun by James Clavell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In Chinese philosophy the Yin and Yang are the two opposing forces beneficial to the well being if there is harmony. In the book Shogun harmony is Wa. While I sound philosophical let me be clear that Shogun is not a philosophy book. The best modern pop culture analogy I can give would be Game of Thrones only here you have the real world of samurais.

The harmony or the Wa I speak of is to the quality of the book. James Clavell has mixed east and west elements often opposing into a seamless story worth 1,000 pages long.

Tai-pan

Tai-Pan by James Clavell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Tai-pan is another East and West tale in the quality of Shogun, Clavell’s other popular book. Though in the later there is more versus between East and West, in Tai-pan there is more “diplomacy”.

For one reason the story of Tai-pan is more economic and business in nature. There is more subtlety in business than there is with the story of the samurai.

Lonesome Dove

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

To think of Hollywood westerns is to set oneself up for wrong expectations in this book. Hollywood or the movies for one is a visual medium and books are never made into movies as they are written.

I fell into that expectation at the beginning of the book almost always expecting gunfights every few pages. After finishing a few chapters I thought writing gunfights every so often will ultimately be boring. The scene was best if it was watched with its quick draw and the gunfighters just flipping their guns into their holster.

Then we go into the genius of the book of moving to and from the concept of boring to epic. My only complaint of the author is that he uses euphemisms for anything sexual even rape. I had to read that paragraph twice at that rape section to understand and feel pity for the character. It was a weird choice to use indirect words when overall the author has been so vivid in describing the life in the old west.

Brooklyn (2015)

Reading letters is a plot device. 

However in the 2016 Best Picture nominee Brooklyn directed by John Crowley reading letters – this is snail mail mind you – was more than a plot device but was also the visualization of a heartbreak and thus highlight of my watching experience. They act as my goal posts wherein I could judge what condition Eilis (Saoirse Ronan) was in and where she was going.  The letters or rather the reading of it was what hooked me.

Rogue One (2016)

It seems reviews today need to come with a disclaimer in the beginning as to whether there are spoilers or not so in compliance with the requirement I'd say yes there are spoilers. There are spoilers even though I tried to be as vague as possible but its impossible to describe what I like or don't like without giving even just a little.  My advice as someone who tries to avoid spoilers every so often it is best not to read anything at all.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is better than the prequels (The Phantom Menace, Attack of theClones, and the Revenge of the Sith) especially if you see it side by side with A New Hope.  It is even better than the newest sequel the Force Awakens which felt like a rip off of A New Hope.

Start-up Nation

Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle by Dan Senor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As Asian whose culture is subscribe to elders, seniors, people of title it is a big surprise for me that Israelis with a prominent military culture can still have a culture of openness and reject the rigidity that comes with hierarchies. Telling your leaders they are wrong is frowned upon in other cultures.

Actually every entry about the military is an eye opener for me. Perhaps it is only real in the Israeli context but before reading this book when I thought of armies I thought rigid and closed. Here it’s a springboard. There’s team; it’s one of the most important social glue in the country. There’s intermixing of disciplines including high tech.

I also like the part of clusters. I always thought about that subject in a smaller sense (an office) wherein it’s not always about the infrastructure and the systems, there is an informal social glue or links you have to consider, and you can’t just manufacture.

There are also parts about Israeli history, explanations of how they became that way or like in the kibbutz, how they overcame challenges. The book is quite comprehensive. A must read.

View all my reviews

The Judge (2014)

“[My father] loved me tenderly and shyly from a distance, and later on took a naive pride in seeing my name in print.” ― Arthur Koestler

Jarvis said it was refreshing to see a video of Tony Stark in clothing being that there were so many of them in armor.

Felt the same for a while watching The Judge.  It was refreshing to see Tony Stark in another movie. He talks smart; he had fancy clothes, he had swagger.  No doubt Tony Stark or Robert Downey, Jr. can play a great lawyer as required.

Person of Interest (CBS)

image from Hello, Tailor

Reading the news makes one think that the Orwellian Big Brother is already a reality. Abroad, the all-seeing eye of the National Security Agency is an issue among Americans and allied nations, meanwhile in local news the Philippines, always a copycat for hot items abroad, wants an all-seeing eye of its own.

I didn’t give Person of Interest a second glance when I first saw it.  Jim Caviezel never attracted my attention even when he was Jesus Christ and Michael Emerson was a weird match for him as a partner.  The series had technology and some kind of surveillance going on in the mix but as a magic formula, it didn't pop out. What crime fighting series doesn't have surveillance? Cops do surveillance.

Can the Avengers survive?

Can all the ego; all the differences in personalities and skills, inherent in a large group of people, a team, be properly addressed in a forced ranking system such as the Performance Based Incentive System?

Be Sad, Be Angry

“Sa bawat estudyanteng mulat sa mga napapanahong isyu sa lipunan, at sa halip na magreklamo lang sa Facebook ay nagmumungkahi ng solusyon: SONA mo ito.” – President Benigno S. Aquino III, SONA 2013

Be sad to see that a President of a country is so bothered by students that he recited a small paragraph in the 2013 State of the Nation Address just for them.  

World War Z (2013)

Movie gross notwithstanding Z trumped S. S of course refers to Man of Steel which came a week before World War Z. 

In writing this I had second thoughts about comparing a superhero story and a zombie apocalypse story.  Should I?   I couldn't help it in the end after feeling pleasantly surprised at how World War Z turned up.  The story didn't leave an empty feeling in the mouth, walking corpse or whatever notwithstanding.

Magic 76

According to survey there is a magic 76 percent who have found their calling. 

These employees as the Ateneo Center for Organization Research and Development (CORD) defines it see, “work as an endeavor one engages in for the satisfaction of doing it, a lofty, nonmaterial goal or a sense of self, and feels highly energizing and fulfilling.”  

Where's the Water Gonna Go?

Saved by Jobless Growth

Since 2010 the Department of Budget and Management has lost: An Assistant Secretary to resignation. An operations director to the Office of the President.

Another Two operations director to resignation.  They are now consultants somewhere else. Another operations director to, I am not sure, optional retirement or resignation.  

Is there a really difference, either way they are no longer with the Department.

Tagging makes Clark Kent obsolete

“Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure.” Marianne Williamson

The most famous underwear in comics is that of Superman.  There are two reasons. One, because it is red and two, for some reason he does not wear it under the blue tights.

When I saw the publicity shots of Man of Steel I thought finally the franchise found people with good taste.  Then I finally learned where the underwear came from.  In a featurette Man of Steel director Zack Snyder states the inspiration for the famous red underwear were those of Victorian era strongmen.

Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

If there is any doubt in your mind that the White House can be taken, then that doubt is all you need to avoid the film Olympus Has Fallen.

I had my doubts and it made the first few scenes hard to swallow and predictable.  In real life the White House would be hard to capture, to consider it possible still limits you to a few possibilities.  And to watch in unfold on film makes those choices even fewer and apparent snuffing out the excitement. 

Inspire, Motivate, what?

Money can motivate.  Exemplary employees will stand out and get rewarded for the fruits of their hard labor, sure that’s possible. Nurture team spirit?  Sure, everything is always possible.

However it is wishful thinking or maybe delusional is the word to think that money alone especially money with extra added baggage an inverted pyramid would be the magic bullet in solving employee motivation. 

After 7 Months...

217 days or 31 weeks or 7 months and 5 days since Deputy Presidential Spokesman Abegaile Valte announced a story about 3 bonuses for government employees coming December 2012: the 13th month pay, the Productivity Enhancement Incentive, and the Performance Based Bonus.

How much can Employees see?

Employees can always see each other and judge the Performance Based Incentive System from there.  Are their co-employees as productive as the money and rating implies or are they just better at kissing ass?

It still begs the question how much of the other bureau’s performance can they see and accept.

Statistically the Slogan is false

Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap.

The line puts in simplistic terms the state of the nation.  Gloria was evil.  There was poverty all around.  If she via her anointed will lose control of the Presidency in that 2010 election then candidate Aquino will clean up government.  Once the government is clean and is following the straight path (daang matuwid) prosperity should follow.

Man of Steel (2013)

Man of Steel the movie has resurrected that perfect man from the planet Krypton.

Actually reborn is more apt description instead of resurrection as the franchise is trying to be reborn into something other than a continuation of a saga.  It went to such great lengths that what the older generation has referred to as the red briefs over pants is gone.  Gone also is the iconic John Williams intro that made movie goers feel they were flying up to the sky.

Man of Steel will make it on its own for this generation or it does not, and the first few days in the box office are looking good.

It's a Calling

76 percent say it’s a Calling.

The outlook on work serves no purpose especially if lumped together.  How we see work is a personal choice; to each his own as they say.

The trend shows the young are not buying and the old in this Department if that is their honest feeling are figuratively dying out anyway.

The statement serves no purpose, except to convince the people to shut up.   Who dares go against the 76 percent of co-employees they do not see. 

Do you see the 76 percent anywhere around you?  Look to your left, right, in front; how many do you see?

Floods and Traffic Lights

There are colors in the news bulletins today that I only heard of now so I had to look it up just so I don't mistake Code Red for Signal No. 3.  

One of the sources I came upon was a Twitter post by the Official Gazette of the Philippines.  The color codes refer to floods not storms, and the used colors are the same as that of a traffic light: red, yellow, and green. Red means Evacuate.

Avengers (2012)

I have been watching Carmine Gallo for a while, always wondering if I can apply his lectures to a class report someday. Actually I was more hoping that I will cease to be the kind of person who Jerry Seinfeld describes as picking the casket instead of the person delivering the eulogy. 

Carmine was a former reporter and anchor on CNN and CBS; he now consults for big corporations advising them on effective communications. Among his lectures is a message map wherein there is one message supported by three supporting messages.

Now how does this relate to the Avengers?  That answer is simplicity.  

I have been thinking about the recent blockbuster a lot.  It made $1.4 billion dollars as of June 30 according to imdb.com and with revenues like that everything’s good right?

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

First of all nobody shot at anyone at the cinemas so safe to say the only copy cat the Philippines is going to have are Pirates.

After seven years of waiting for every few years for a new sequel to come in the trilogy is finally complete. 

Chronicle (2012)

With Avengers and Batman still months off, I was honestly dumfounded looking at the Now Showing movie posters in Gateway.  I didn’t want to go home but I wasn’t sure what to watch.

The 4th installment of Underworld first caught my eye, and I would have watched it too since it had a hot lead star. Eventually I caved in to my uneasiness, with the narrative of the franchise went backwards before going forward I felt was not a good sign this 4th installment will be a good one.

Thor (2011)

Claws. Sharp ,three bladed, indestructible. Back then in high school it seemed most of my peers wanted, pretended, or wondered if a real life human being can ever have one. Why? Because Wolverine was a star.

I always thought he was cool but I never joined the bandwagon. Thor was the one for me. His firepower, the chivalric-like culture in the stories, and all the meaning that comes with being called a god drove me to the Asgardian rather than the cigar smoking mutant.

The Other Woman (2009)

 

 

I’ve always thought a pretty face is as a plus in any movie.  But often if they can’t act it makes me think I’d  would have had a simpler time just googling for images.  Fortunately there are those who can act and Natalie Portman is among them.

Before winning an Oscar as ballerina in Black Swan, this particular pretty face was in a small film called The Other Woman.  Adopted from a book called Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, the movie as its title implies, is a story is about the woman outside of the marriage, or to be more accurate, the woman of the second marriage. 

via GIPHY

Constitution and By-Laws of the Budget Union for the Declaration of Genuine Employees' Thrusts (B.U.D.G.E.T.)

PREAMBLE

            We, the employees of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the Procurement Service (PS), in order to promote our moral, social and economic well-being, protect and uphold our individual and collective rights, promote our common welfare and interests, foster morale, efficiency, integrity and above all, honesty in public service, as well as foster relationship among ourselves, do hereby ordain and promulgate this Constitution and By-Laws.

Priestly VFA?

“Fact-finding body

In this country, Rosales said, complaints against priests who commit sexual abuse may be raised before bishops. The subject priest would be made to answer the allegations before a fact-finding body.

If found meritorious, the case would be elevated to the Vatican, where it would be decided whether the priest should be defrocked, Rosales said.”

Nothing But the Truth (2008)

Anecdotal evidence has always been against the middle man or against that middle ground. 

In business removing the middleman means raised profits since the middleman needs his cut just like any other which raises overheads.  In fights, riots, or brawls, the man in the middle or as they say the "taga awat" is the one who gets crushed.  In romance, well let’s just say, one will be flirting with a broken heart if there is a middleman. 

Perhaps in some definitions the Persian messenger in the movie 300 is not a middle man since he is a servant of the Persian King Xerxes; but considering his fate would anyone want to be in the middle of two warring kings.  Maybe an army is better than be crushed in the middle of two kings because at least you’d have the chance to fight.  Maybe...

Nothing But the Truth is about another entity in the middle: the media.  In today’s society, media acts like a middleman, as our eyes and ears on all sectors of society.

Like the Persian messenger, the media in the film finds itself in the middle of the government eager to defend itself against all who dare question policy and its need to protect its integrity which depends on it being a institution where any citizen can express his ideas, including knowledge of a crime without fear of persecution.

The lead character is Rachel Armstrong (Kate Beckinsale), a reporter with a monster of a scoop and naturally already dreaming Pulitzer Prize. She stirred up a political hornet’s nest with her piece alleging the President ignored a recommendation from the CIA regarding Venezuela’s involvement on an assassination attempt on the President himself.  The information, had it been considered, could have stopped a war against Venezuela.

It would have been simple for Rachel had it been reduced to a he said she said bout with the government but unfortunately for her national security was the government’s ace in the hole.  

What made Rachel vulnerable is that she had uncovered and named in her article the CIA agent as Erica Van Doren (Vera Farmiga) the wife of US Ambassador to Venezuela.  Revelation such as that imply not only squealer or worse a mole within the secretive CIA but that would also mean that the entire network of contacts at home and especially in Venezuela could be exposed.  

Like any spy movie would tell you, or just look at your daily life, a network of contacts is not easy to build. And since in the context of the film a part of that network is a spy the exposure brings with it a danger of life and death to everyone.  

The US Government in order to prevent revelations of its intelligence networks enacted laws such as the Intelligence Identities Protection Act.   And though Rachel had freedom of the press, the government was on a roll: there was a war, a retaliatory strike for an assassination attempt at that, and there was a law.  

Patton Dubois (Matt Dillon) plays the Special Prosecutor charged with the sole task of ferreting out the leak.  Rachel she was the only lead the government had and since the Special Prosecutor had nowhere to go and carrying the full weight of the government he had a fairly easy time railroading Rachel to jail time for contempt.  She and her paper were easily painted as unpatriotic.  Government outlasted all media attempts to paint her as a hero of the First Amendment.  

So that is, in a nutshell, the entire movie: will Rachel brake her vow not to reveal her source or not.  Let this be a warning for spy movie lovers; though there was a spy and her identity was revealed it was all a side show.  

Nothing But the Truth is about that middle ground: the media.  Government, citizen, any part of society can use it; spur debate; make changes; inform; hold people accountable.  The film asks of the audience those critical questions such as keeping sources secret, for that matter should government keep secrets?  Should Rachel talk and be with her family or should she keep to the ideals of the First Amendment and rack up those lawyer’s fees, be a mother in absentia?  Is the idea of a free press more important than one’s own life?

The Persian messenger comes to mind, "No one threatens the messenger", and we all know what happens next.   Leonidas and the US government in this film share the same motive.  Sure media can have its abuses but think about it, if there is no such thing as anonymity who wins?   What will happen to a society which looses that middle ground where there is a free exchange of ideas?

I like Kate Beckinsale if only because she’s pretty.  She did ok; a woman wondering if principles of the free press is worth her family.  But I wouldn’t so far and say she was excellent.  Oddly enough even with pen and notebook at hand she did not come off as a reporter to me.  

The rest of the characters were somehow forgettable which doesn’t bode well for the film.  The film has relevant issues yes, but somehow it seemed like a waiting game; will Rachel brake or not.  

Alan Alda was the film’s highlight in the sense the he verbalized the message.  He played Alan Burnside, Rachel’s Attorney.   When the case reached the Supreme Court he defended the right to keeping sources secret via the dissenting opinion of Branzburg v. Hayes.    'As the years pass, power of Government becomes more and more pervasive. Those in power,' he said, 'whatever their politics, want only to perpetuate it, and the people are the victims.'

"When we as a nation will no longer be able to hold those in power accountable to those whom they have power over-and what then is the nature of Government when it has no fear of accountability? We should shutter at the thought. Imprisoning journalists-that's for other countries; that's for countries who fear their citizens, not countries that cherish and protect them."

But the best moment I have to say was the revelation of the source was out of the blue and yet surprisingly very plausible.  If Alan Burnside invoked jurisprudence, the source was largely symbolic and effective.

As for middle men and middle grounds, it is inescapable for anyone to choose a side but I think it is not always bad to have a place where all sides can meet; a neutral ground, a middle ground; where people can compromise; make changes, or to just simply talk... 

Engineering an Empire (2006 - 2007)

image from Calgary Herald

Engineering an Empire: the title I thought was an interesting combination of two words: engineering and empire. It was enough to catch my attention.

Rewriting Pandora's Box

Search Pandora’s Box and moral lesson together in Google it will point to sites that say the myth is a condemnation of curiosity. ‘Curiosity kills the cat’ was even among those results.

Battleplan (2005 - 2006)

Battleplan is not the Art of War. Certainly it is not as poetic, insightful, or as comprehensive as Sun Tzu’s work.

While many say the Art of War can be a great philosophy for both war and life in any age, the History Channel production, Battleplan, is still one of a kind for having clearly defined the steps of well known battle plans in the past 100 years.

e-Minority Report

Yesterday I was googling “divine right to rule” at work. Politics was on my mind for many reasons other than the Nonoy Aquino for president campaign getting a boost. The term just came to me out of the blue, weird as it is.

Freudian slip or honest mistake?

Is there anything more hurtful than this caption to a sitting president?

Leaving your Car in the Flood