Must See Film: Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth

Sat., 6/3 .... I am urging everyone I can reach, to see the documentary that opened in most theaters around here today ..... "An Inconvenient Truth" (Global Warming).

I've urged my offspring to take my bright grandkids, too ... it's such a magnificent piece of filmic work !

If you haven't already ... go, go, go .... NOW.

gary f

Read Roger Ebert's full review here.

Why I won't see United 93

Friday, 4/28

The newspapers as well as most radio and TV commentary programs, are packed with stuff about the movie that opened today - "United 93".

The New York Times reviewer ends his/her long and thorough - perhaps too thorough - review with these lines: ".... five years after the fact and all the books, newspapers and magazine articles, committees and scandals later, I think we need something more from our film artists than another thrill ride and an emotional pummeling. "United 93" inspires pity and terror, no doubt. But catharsis? I'm still waiting for that." (The NYT's always excellent reviewer, Manohl Dargis)

The equally excellent Los Angeles Times's reviewer, Kenneth Turan, review concludes with the lines: "... it (the film) may play better in the future. If we have one."

I sort of feel sorry for these highly respected film reviewers. One can only imagine the discussions and arguments that went on in the editorial offices, before these final reviews were put into print. Incidentally, I have no faith whatsoever, in most of the major radio & TV station commentaries vis-a-vis this film ... and if you need me to explain that last line, I'll do that as a separate writing.

I will never see "United 93".

Why ?

I don't have to. Nor do you. What can possibly be gained from sitting through this film/theatrical sound-stage recreation ... almost every detail of which (the actual event) is known, and which have been written about, over and over and over and over again. Why would any sane person want to have his emotions rung out by having himself put through this filmic wringer. It adds nothing to our existing knowledge of those horrible 9/11 events. It adds nothing to our knowledge, or our appreciation, of those last-moment, desparate, heroics of the United passengers and crew.

Actors.

On sound stages .... under 2000-watt movie lights ... and breaks for lunch and dinner.

And the viewers' emotions inevitably damaged and processed - perhaps beyond even long-time repair.

For what purpose, other than "entertainment", since it is surely not a documentary ?

Can't think of any.

Gary S Franklin

Gary Franklin Commentary

Thursday, 3/9/06 - Herewith tryimg out new commentary website ... Writer is a German-born, former New York and Los Angeles broadcast news-writer/producer/air personality (ABC, CBS, Westinghouse, etc.) and LA area film/media critic 1955-1998 ... as well as much-exhibited and published documentary and art photographer ... currently completing work on book, "The Jew of Christian Street".

Most recently viewed (at the Laemmle, in Encino) film: the German "Sophie Scholl -The Final Days" ... the true story of a young German student, her brother and close friends who, in 1942, just after Germany's Stalingrad military disaster, were caught distributing anti-Nazi, anti-war literature. They were swiftly tried and executed (via beheading).

Although the Sophie Scholl story has been often told - via print, film and TV - this version is most powerful, because it avoids scary scenes, such as Gestapo torture and/or execution scenes (the latter - the beheading - is told very quietly, against a dark, blank screen ... no wordage, no screams).

A fascinating German film ... and particularly emotion-packed for German-born me ... If she had lived, Ms Scholl would be just a few years older than I.

Another film, currently playing: "Mrs. Henderson Presents:" - also a WW2 story - this one (also a true story) about a rich widow, who created female-nude musical theater for Allied servicemen in downtown London. Nothing extremely deep or thought-provoking ... but two hours of good, old-fashioned, filmic entertainment.

Because of a projection problem, and delay of the day's first showing of the Henderson film, the Laemmles had me sit and wait in one of their other showings at the Encino complex ... " Transamerica " ... couldn't wait to get the hell atta that screening room ... awful, ragged stuff about a man undergoing a sex-change ... and traveling across the nation with his/her son ... who doesn't know she/he/it is his dad/mom ... I never got to see the end of the film ... because they fixed the other projection room ... and I jumped at the chance to get out of that theater.

More blogs to come.

Lemme know if you find the above interesting.

Gary Franklin

kzlot88@earthlink.net

Photos

Thur., 2/16 - 3pm'ish

... Interesting medical findings announced yesterday: seems that better educated, and brighter, people don't suffer Alzheimer's so easily at below-60's (possibly because active and activity keeps the brain muscles exercised ... but there's a negative flip-side to this finding: when the condition hits a man at a more advanced age, the bad effects come faster and more powerfully.

Interesting photo news: news stories yesterday ... I think it was in Europe ... an Ansel Adams print went ... at an auction ..... for more than (if I recall correctly) $ 2-million ... a new record for a photograph.

Hey, I've got some great Gary Franklins, I'm willing to sell for a sacrifice one-million smackeroos .... maybe even for a sacrifice $ 750,000 !

Rain forecast for this part of California, next few days ... so travel plans uncertain.

Cheers,

gsf

The whole Kwan

Sunday 2/12 evening

... A shame about Michelle Kwan's groin ... but now she'll make millions as a future TV commentator ... and I think it's cute that a gal named Cohn is about to take her place ... can't wait to see how the Arab sports commentators handle that one. It'll also be interesting to see how the loss of Kwan will further affect Olympics' TV ratings ... which ain't been great so far. (NBC tried to get Kwan to come aboard as a commentator, after her resignation ... but that smart gal refused.)

Incidentally, the TV show "American Idol" beat the so-far Olympics ... which sez something, but I don't know what.

And then, there's VP Dick Cheney accidentally shooting lead into a fellow hunter's face and shoulder ... in that great sport: people shooting animals for fun.

Cheers,
gary f

Olympics and other observations...

Fri., 2/10 afternoon ....

I know it ain't funny, but I think it's funny: note on the sites today, that Elizabeth Vargas - the other half of the ABC evening news anchor duo - is knocked up ... and expecting in the late summer. Meanwhile - and certainly NOT funny - her partner, Woodruff, so badly hurt in the Iraq thing, is still in intensive care ... with hardly any details on his condition - present and future - leaking out. What a dilemma for ABC !
Other things:
Am I in a tiny minority ? ... but why do I find myself not giving a rat's ass about the winter Olympics in Italy ... so much stuff going on with drugs ... and all the commercialization ... and the gambling interests ... but then I've never cared much for professional sports and those guys painting up their faces in the pro football audiences. Last time I paid to get into a ballgame audience, was when I was around 12, and an uncle in the Bronx thought he could interest the German 'fugee kid in the fortunes of the New York Giants, at the Polo Grounds. I think admission price (for good seats !) at the time, was $ 1.50.
One other touchy subject:
One of the very bright people with whom I e-communicate, seems to be a bit upset with me, because I wrote in one of my short tomes, that I was raised in an environment, headed by a superb physician-father (and recognized, during the '30's, as a leading expert on venereal disease control), who worked his profession on the theory that most male homosexual activity was medically dangerous .... and this was long before AID's. (Since neither he nor I believe(d) much in psychiatry, the mental/emotional/social aspects of homosexuality, were/are far less important, than the physical dangers.). As a result, I may be losing a writing partner .... seems the fellow considers me a Neanderthal on this subject.
And I worry about any of my four grandkids (including the one female) falling victim to these people with their same-sex urges. Actually, I couldn't care less about their bed-activities ... but with Hollywood now sort of legitimizing homosexual activity in several new films, including making one a leading Oscar contender (and who knows, how many in preparation or production) ... it feels quite OK not to be in the critic-biz any more.
Touchy subject; I know.

Happy Friday.

Cheers,
gsf

News Biz

Tues, AM ... Hi ... death being as certain as taxes, no great surprise that Reuven Frank - ex NBC news head and creator of Huntley/Brinkley - has kicked the bucket at ripe old age of 85. I remember vividly ... for several days, watching Reuven Frank and his crew putting together the nightly NBC news, just as H-B was starting. Boy, they were smooth and exciting professionals ... and I'm sure those few days of study under the WAAM Fellowship, had a permanent effect on my news thoughts, theories and practices.

Another giant gone .... and what's left ? Good-looking guys and pretty, perfectly coiffed, young femmes ... both, mostly under-educated & under-experienced ... and network organizations that send a guy like Woodruff into the awful Iraq mess (the fact that, so far, we're getting no further medical details on his condition, would seem to indicate that things ain't good). No way to convince me that sending an anchor - just beginning his new evening anchorship - into that uncontrolled and deadly mess, just for the sake of publicity ... makes any sense at all. (Can you imagine how much the regular ABC foreign correspondents, on the scene, must have become steamed, over having their New York hot shot fly in for a few days, don all that battle gear and do some quick, unremarkable standuppers ? ... and yet, I feel so damned sorry for his family, which was just beginning to enjoy the Multi-Million-$$-New York Broadcasting&! nbsp;Big Time.)

I hate sounding like a crochety old, repetitive, outrageous veteran, but what the nets should be doing right now, is to revolutionize their business and bring it into the 21st century ... doing away with all the old, 60-plus-year-old styles, techniques and practices ... the old 6-7:30pm time slots for 1/2-hour 'casts ... do the news at 9pm, perhaps one-hour long (if you're gonna continue doing world news on the 3 old nets) ... perhaps do away with studio "anchors" altogether, and just have field reporting ... and voice-over visuals, when on-scene live coverage (such as finance or sudden weather disasters) is impossible.

Think about it ... do you click on a newscast, because of who's anchoring ... or because you think you'll get the best and most complete news coverage from that slot ?

Yea, Reuven Frank was one of the giants ... and among our broadcast journalism heroes ... but 1965 ain't 2006.

Cheers,

gsf

I send email

I thought you all might get a mild kick out of an e-answer I sent to a young lady who's doing a school research paper on the movies ....

g

Sat., 2/4, 9:10 pm - from Gary Franklin

Dear Judy F. - This is kinda embarrassing ... but despite my notoriety, during the '80's and '90's, and into the 00's, as a film (and other forms of entertainment) critic ... I never did become much of an expert on that medium, mostly because I had no interest in being an expert .... instead, I treated my job just as a sort of cultured and cultural investment advisor ... i.e., I got to see all those movies before their release, and then I told the folks whether I liked it or not ... and I was in the enviable position of being able to warn people about - what I considered - really bad and/or dangerous stuff ... and whether the admission price investment was - from my viewpoint - a good one or a bad one.

As Psychsue would probably confirm, there were only a few films that I truly enjoyed sitting through.

Towards the end of that career - the late 80's, early 90's - I really hated the job ... especially since, after my German misadventure, I worked for a station (the awful and aptly numbered Ch.13) which had its nightly news at 10pm, instead of 11pm ... which meant that I often had to leave the preview screening before the end of the film ... although that didn't really matter so much, because by that time ... after the thousands of films I had seen - sometimes as many as 10 per week ! - by the time a film was half-way through, I could usually predict the ending. 90% of the time I was right. ( It didn't really matter, because Ch.13's audience was/is small and the demographics such, that the studio PR people didn't give much of a damn what I had to say about it ... unless ... unless ... the movie was so god-awful, that its box office prognosis was minimal ... and by twisting my review words a bit, they could make it sound like a hit ... maybe something like this:
I'd say ," .... This awful piece of trash will, most probably, find enthusiastic approval only among weak-minded and uncultured nincompoops ...."

However, the quote ad would read:

" Will, most probably, find enthusiastic approval ! " - Gary Franklin, KCOP

Not a true example ... but almost .....

Anyway ... being an "entertainment" critic, paid a lot more than being a street reporter ... and, I guess, I did, in turn, entertain the news audiences with my clever and pungent reviews ... I've been told that I had a measurable effect on the stations' ratings as well as the films' box office ... so, I guess it worked out OK for everybody. (Would you believe that to this day, when I'm out among the people at, say, a shopping mall - I still get stopped by nice folks, who wanna know whether I'd seen any good movies lately .... but of course, those folks are now all gray-haired ... and I just smile and say "thank you for remembering", and I don't tell 'em that I now see, maybe .. four to six movies a year ...)

Finally, as I may have mentioned before, I truly believe that the film industry, as we know it, is in its death throes ... and being more than a hundred years of age, why shouldn't it be ? Electronic entertainment is taking over ... folks ain't gonna shell out $10-plus any more, just to sit next to a guy who's coughing without covering his mouth .... a a lady with a crying baby on her lap ... or some idiot teen broad, talking on her cell phone.

A Great New Day is A'Dawnin' ... that is, unless the Iraq situation escalates and escalates ....

I'm sure this long note is of very little help in your school research ... but it's also entertaining, isn't it ?

Best,
gary s franklin

The State of Movies

A longtime friend of mine, asked me to write to her college student daughter, who's preparing a long treatise on the American film industry, my thoughts on the influences, on the industry, by The Graduate and The Godfather ... and I thought you might find the answer interesting ... also perhaps irritating:

You guys are raising some interesting questions, re film, film-culture ... and our culture, as influenced by Hollywood.

I have a feeling that this reply to your e-mail, ain't exactly what you were expecting ... and that Susan hasn't told you that I'm not a mainstream person and that I got out of the film critic business because I could no longer stomach the 90% garbage that came - and is still - grinding through the California cameras.

Nevertheless, your questions interest me - and I'm flattered by your asking for my views.

Of course, The Graduate and The Godfather ... were fascinating films which ultimately had powerful effects on my generation (far beyond their "entertainment" values). They influenced our socio/political attitudes ... our dress codes ... our social and sexual behavior ... our choice of - or rejection of - leaders ... our glamorization of criminals (of which Hollywood has always been guilty) ..... etc.

Even though those were two great, highly entertaining films ... neither was as powerful as Orson Welles' Citizen Kane ... which, at the time, was a financial/box office failure ... and not just because an angry Hearst wouldn't carry their ads.

Right now - look at that leading Oscar contender: homosexuality has suddenly become big box office. Am I the only person who's scared to death by this new cultural phenomenon ? (I was raised by an MD-father who, with my mom, in their younger days, were real swingers ... wild parties, wife-swapping, etc. ... but who also was medically and culturally convinced that homosexuality was an illness ... and the mechanics of male coupling quite dangerous ... and that medical attitude was formed by dad long before AIDS).

(And there are others who have noted the dangers of "anal sex", even among self-identified gays, bisexuals, and even straight men, who have relations with other men, but exclude dangerous activity from their personal practices.)

I also believe that the film industry fatally damaged itself with its labor practices ... just look at the ever-growing credit lists at the end of current films ... No one can convince me that modern technology (and film emulsions) make that huge army of makeup people and lighting technicians ... generators ... huge lights ... etc. .... still necessary. Film dramas could easily be shot nowadays, for a one-tenth of their current cost.

Finally - with apologies - this inescapable fact: I firmly believe that the theatrical film industry is in its death throes .... that within the next five years, maybe even less (with the sudden upsurge of large-screen TV sales), you're going to see a massive shuttering of movie theaters.

With the hope that I haven't disappointed (or angered) you too much with this oblique reply to your request for my observations on matters filmic ...

All the best,
gary s franklin

P.S. If you want to soak in films with cultural artisty, then for this month just tune into Turner Classic Movies on cable. Each night this month, on TCM, they are showing hour after hour of Oscar winning films. If you are a young person and are not aware of the classic films, now is the time to gain some culture and watch these films. Besides being classics, they are also funny, insightful, and above all entertaining. Enjoy.

Mozart Day

Thursday, 1/27

What an interesting and powerful day this is for people like me - and perhaps for you, too:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born 250 years ago today ... and all day our classical music airwaves are being packed with his immortal sounds .... including remotes, originating in Austria.

You can't imagine how much I envy the hundreds of broadcast people from the various classical stations, like LA's KMZT ("K-Mozart") and New York's WQXR, who've been sent to Austria for today's concerts, massive church bell ringing (between 10 & 10:30 AM, the moment of Mozart's emergence from his mom's womb), etc. (KMZT in Los Angeles is running Mozart music 24 hours today)

I grew up to (NYC's) WQXR's programming (including its New York Times news) and now - up to this very moment, as I sit here typing: KMZT ... which just ran Beethoven's 5th (yea, Beethoven was pretty good, too...ha-ha) which I've heard hundreds - perhaps thousands - of times throughout my life and which still sends shudders and thrills through this aging, tho reasonably well-preserved body.

Those magnificent Mozart operas: Le Nozze di Figaro .... The Magic Flute ... Don Giovanni ... more than 500 compositions ! ... and all that from a very short life (only 35 when he died).

One of the many things I'm ashamed of: that, during the 60's,70's, into the 80's, I didn't take Michelle and Daryle to classical concerts, although we lived in cities that had some of the greatest orchestras in the world: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Cleveland ... in all of which I had excellent journalistic contacts to the orchestra's PR offices ... stupid, stupid, stupid.

Anyway, enjoy this day ... and if you have a moment, switch your radios to your local classical music station (as you may already have done, and without my obnoxious pushing) ... or, even better, pick up a disk or two, and get the kids to listen to some Mozart. They might even get to like it and clamor for more.
- - -
These are pretty heavy news days ... and there are massive changes a'comin' ... the SCOTUS turning sharply to the right ... today's dramatic political change in Palestine ... the dreary casualty reports from Iraq ... the awfulness of the physical giants/mental midgets, who populate the pro baskeball world ... the Washington situation ... the inevitable and ongoing disintegration of Hollywood and its output of theatrical films ... I give a maximum of three - maybe five - years to the remaining life of your neighborhood movie theater chain ...and then there's the rise and increase of awful TV programming, designed for the stupid and uneducated ...

Now aren't you glad you permitted me to cheer you up like this ?

Happy Mozart Day ...

Gary S. Franklin

Films of Note

From ex-film-critic, gsf - 1/24

Now and then wanna let my small circle of friends-and-such know of films I strongly recommend .... but, on the other hand, saw one today that bored me to tears:

"The New World" - an endless, difficult-to-follow story of 17th Century settlers in the new world ... and the relationships endured and enjoyed by a pretty Indian maiden (her makeup mostly very 21st Century), who eventually ends up in the British royal court. Lots of brutal Indian massacre stuff, too. But the movie is endless ... with long scenes of lovers just staring at each other. Plus lots of shots of trees. And rippling waters. And more trees. Nevertheless, must have been an expensive production ... and one has to wonder how and why these things get made .... in this case, someone with a lot of spare money, was talked into investing in this dreary drama.

I saw "MATCH POINT", and found it one of the most powerful I've seen in quite a while .... loved the ending ! .... On the other hand - don't know why, but I now recall that a few days earlier, boredom made me squirm in my seat, while watching "THE PRODUCERS" ...

Saw another fascinating film, Memoirs of a Geisha - a fascinating study of pre-war (II) and post-war Japanese woman .... and makes me think about what life might have become, if I'd stayed in the post-Korean War U.S. military .... and maybe helped to breed Jewish/Asian kids.

So much Hollywood garbage flowing through the flick theaters nowadays .... childish sex-crap and feces humor currently dominating the neighbs .... and, lately, a sudden, scary, influx of homosexuality-themed Hollywood.

As I've said before, I think Hollywood - and theaterical film-going - ain't long for this current world. Attendance is way down. Sales of large-screen TV's way up. What other conclusion can one come to ?

Mark my words: The (theatrical) film industry is in its preliminary death throes .... another coupla years, and most neighborhood movie houses will be electronic/home delivery grocery supermarkets. The huge upswing in sales of giant-screen home sets, is a clear prognosticator. Remember: you heard it here first.

And then there's the sudden, scary upsurge of films and TV programs with dominant homosexual themes and basic story lines .........

Great new world.

Cheers,

gary f

Anyone ?

Good Morning: It's around 6:30am, 1/3 ... and I'm just beginning to learn how to use this kind of site ... so please bear with me, and the the fact that this - today's - text is mostly a test.

If you don't already know: I'm a retired radio/TV journalist and film/media critic ... once rather well-known on both coasts, during the 70's to the mid-'90's..

The film industry is in a lot of trouble. People are just not willing to shell out thirty dollars (not counting gas, parking and baby-sitter) or more, for a family of four to see a bad movie ... and people are investing heavily in large-screen home TV's.

Yesterday's Rose Parade, in Pasadena, was a rained-out disaster ... and boring on TV.

A lot of good new books being published these days ... and that's one of the things we'll talk about on this site, in the future.

More to come ... and thanks for dropping in.

Cheers, gary s franklin

PS: please lemme hear from you

Initial New Years Thoughts

December 28/29 - and for the first time in a buncha years, I'm composing thoughts and words via a website ... or whatever they call these blog things.

If you're in Southern California, you may remember me as a hard-news reporter, heard on the old KFWB (the "old" KFWB was quite different from the current station, which now is usually a "news" outlet in name only ... plagued by heavy sports programming ... and endless commercials; for that matter, its rival, KNX ... is only slightly better ... but it hardly matters ... the young people don't give much of a damn about news, unless the reports deal with crime, musicians, sports and traffic ... and the older folks can't hear so good anymore, anyway).

The older readers of this may also remember me as LA's most outrageous - and yet, most quoted ! - film, theater and TV critic, during the '70's and '80's. Before that, I was an eastern - local and network (ABC) - news writer/producer - working with such people as the late Peter Jennings and the just-sorta-retired Ted Koppel.

So here I am, joining the blog orgies ... and during these upcoming weeks and months, I'll express thoughts on most everything - ranging from the current state of our military (I served during the Korean War ... reached the high rank of PFC, but won some awards for work as a combat and documentary, Signal Corps cameraman) ... maybe a few of the current movies (despite the mostly-garbage that's exhibited on the large screens these days) ... and the current state of American medicine (my dad was an MD and I hold a degree in biology from CCNY - Class of '51).

So, we'll see how all this goes.

Lemme hear from you.

gary franklin - LA

Movies 2005

Peter Rainer in the Christian Science Monitor lists his picks for the best films of 2005. The CSM also has a detailed guide to the films that came out this year.

Roger Ebert also shares his 10 best list as does Jim Emerson on the Ebert site.