RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/04/the-undying-glory-of-the-ten-commandments/

Why does Cecil B. DeMille’s retelling of the Moses saga still hold our attention 65 years later?

There are three stages of watching Cecil B. DeMille’s epic of all epics The Ten Commandments.

As a kid I watched it just because it was on. Sprawled out on the floor in front of the TV, I’d always fall asleep before Moses found his way out of the desert. Never once did I make it to the parting of the Red Sea.

As a young adult, I found the movie a bit . . . cringe. Is the double-crossing Hebrew Dathan (Edward G. Robinson) from the Canarsie section of Cairo? Is there a worse actress than Anne Baxter as Nefretiri? Could they have found a less Jewish actor than Charlton Heston to play the Deliverer of the Hebrews? Why is God turning Moses’s staff into a cobra that devours two other snakes, anyway? That sounds more like a Satan kind of thing. And those special effects, which were cutting-edge when the film was released, came to look ridiculous over time.

Still, though: I always liked Yul Brynner’s Rameses, the epitome of an antagonist who inspires respect because he sticks to his sense of honor. “Better to die in battle with a God than live in shame,” he says, as demanding of himself as of others. Baxter’s acting may be campy (“Oh, Moses, Moses, you stubborn, splendid, adorable fool!”) but she makes for one of the era’s classic bitchy vixens. As for that desert scene I never got to the end of as a little kid, it reaches a powerful climax when Moses silently contemplates a lamb who serves as the herald of a life-saving oasis. Is this the holy Lamb of God we all heard of in so many church services? It’s a beautiful, simple image of salvation.

Charlton Heston may have made a preposterously Gentile Jew, but his oaken style of acting grew on me over the years. He’s playing Moses; he’s not supposed to be hip or loose. He shouldn’t come across as a self-questioning, internally tormented Marlon Brando type. He is the Lawgiver, one of the all-time heroes, and he is there to personify fortitude and leadership. Heston is stately, manly, commanding.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/03/turner_classic_movies_goes_woke.html

Dear TCM,

Imagine my surprise last week when I clicked on the cable listing you’d posted for a primetime airing of Gone with the Wind and found, in place of the brief synopsis you customarily provide, a trigger warning that the film contained ‘imagery and depictions that may be offensive to modern audiences.’

Just to be sure, I checked with my local cable provider to see if this was their doing and confirmed that the wording for the listing was indeed furnished by TCM. A quick web search later, I learned this treatment was part of a monthlong promotion TCM would be running for March, titled ‘Reframed: Classics in the Rearview Mirror,’ in which your on-air cast of 30- and 40-something woke sherpas would be revisiting a handful of Hollywood’s greatest productions – from Breakfast at Tiffany’s and My Fair Lady to Psycho and The Searchers – to retroactively enlighten us on why these classics, the films we’ve all come to love, are “problematic.”

This, of course, comes on the heels of cancel culture’s collective scalpings of Dr. Seuss, Mr. Potatohead, Pepé le Pew, and Mallard Fillmore as insidious avatars of violent insurrectionist, toxically masculine, militant white supremacist America – cultural touchstones every bit as dangerous to the nation’s youth and delicate sensibilities as boxes of razor wire — and fentanyl-laced Tootsie Rolls handed out by Pennywise on Halloween.

Alyssa A. Lappen
5.0 out of 5 stars Profile in Courage

Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2021

After reading Saturday evening that Amazon had removed this documentary from its rental streaming library, and next from its inventory of DVDs available for purchase, I immediately rented it from Vudu.

By censoring this film, Amazon proved Clarence Thomas correct and, moreover, guaranteed the film’s unrivaled success on other platforms.

I remember the Clarence Thomas hearings. I was then a senior editor at Working Woman.

This is a phenomenal report, regardless of your standing on the political spectrum, and it is a testament to human strength and the true tenor of courage.

Exceedingly well-documented, it tells of Thomas’ rise from an impoverished backwater in rural Georgia, with the help of his loving, wise, no-nonsense grandparents, illiterate though they were.

Through a grueling educational process he learned he had no choice but to achieve 100 percent 100 percent of the time.

https://thefederalist.com/2021/02/26/minari-shares-one-familys-american-dream-of-yearning-to-belong/

Director Lee Isaac Chung and co-star Yuh-Jung Youn discuss ‘Minari,’ a drama that shows the importance of family ties and faith in the American experience.

After five decades on-screen, 73-year-old actress Yuh-Jung Youn has been winning global accolades this year. In “Minari,” released Friday via on-demand platforms, she co-stars as a no-nonsense grandmother — not unlike herself — in the story of an immigrant family that moves to Arkansas to pursue the American dream.

Youn demurs when asked how the film speaks to current events. “I’m sure everybody has a different opinion,” she told me in an interview. “Always when I have a premiere in [South] Korea, they ask: ‘What message should we get from this movie?’ But I’m not some kind of crusader! If people feel something or are moved by this movie, I’ll be very grateful.”

Writer-director Lee Isaac Chung loosely based the story on his childhood, when English and Korean were spoken interchangeably at home. In the mid-1980s, his father (fictionalized as Jacob in the film) bought a plot of land in Lincoln, Ark. aiming to raise a farm — and a better life for his family.

His wife Monica isn’t so convinced their sacrifices will be successful. Their children, seven-year-old David and older sister Anne, are alternately diverted by and complaining about their unfamiliar new home.

Awards buzz for “Minari” has come in part due to what many consider to be a snub. The Golden Globe Awards, to be telecast on Sunday night, nominated it in their Best Foreign Language Film category. Yet that association did not consider it for Best Film, despite being shot in Oklahoma by an Asian-American filmmaker. Insiders await Oscar nominations on March 15 to see if it fares better with the Academy.

https://thefederalist.com/2021/02/26/amazon-strips-clarence-thomas-documentary-from-streaming-service-during-black-history-month/

Amazon stripped a documentary on conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, the only black justice currently serving on the Supreme Court, from its streaming service during Black History Month.

“This video is currently unavailable to watch in your location,” the website reads when the title is clicked.

While this article is being written in Denver, the outage appears nationwide, also reported by Breitbart News.

Amazon appeared to drop the PBS title, “Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words,” while still promoting a wide array of feature films under the category of Black History Month such as “All In: The Fight For Democracy,” with Stacey Abrams and two movies on Anita Hill, Thomas’ accuser of sexual misconduct who attempted to derail his confirmation. All come free to stream with a Prime membership.

The Thomas documentary released in January last year remains available to purchase on DVD. A simple search for “Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words,” comes up short for the title however. To find it, users must include “DVD” in the search box, and the documentary will come up as the 10th result. A search for “RBG” on the other hand, will bring three documentaries on Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s documentary to the top after promoting a sponsored post of her biography, “Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.”

Amazon did not immediately respond to The Federalist’s request for comment.

The company built by Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post, has only escalated its censorship of political dissidents to the progressive world order.

Just this month, the massive online retailer wielding unprecedented power over the digital public square deplatformed conservative scholar Ryan Anderson and his book, “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Movement.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2021/02/obamas-new-muslim-podcast-allahs-throwing-shade-daniel-greenfield/

Obama’s gotta do something with his time besides serving as the facade for a bunch of white socialists looking to wreck America. Besides that job only pays in the low six figures, so he’s got contracts with Netflix and Spotify through his own production company. 

The Obama podcasting game includes talking about how racist the country is to fellow working-class millionaire hero Bruce Springsteen, and this Muslim podcast.

Barack and Michelle Obama have their Ramadan plans ready.

The couple, who have spent the years since Barack’s US presidency came to an end focusing on developing multi-platform media projects, announced a new season of their Higher Ground podcast called Tell Them, I Am, which will feature a collection of narratives from Muslim voices.

No, Obama’s not actually in it. 

Produced by the Obamas, the pod will be hosted by Misha Euceph, a first-gen Pakistan-American and exclusively available on the platform, launching on the first day of Ramadan.

Euceph also appears to have hosted a Koran book club on Instagram. Here’s the description of one episode.

God is still throwing shade at the Jews and Christians this episode of #quranbookclub 

Meanwhile, social media is purging conservatives. But this sort of thing can help you get a podcast produced by Barry.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/02/reagan-the-movie-finally/

A great movie about the Gipper is in the works, and none too soon.

Saturday was the 110th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birthday. Just the day before, I spent some time in California with the team that is finishing a new movie on his life. It’s the first time that a film company has been allowed access to the Reagan Ranch and the nearby Reagan Library for such a project.

When Reagan: The Movie appears in theaters twelve months from now, America will have the big-budget film about the Gipper that should have made a long time ago. The telling of Reagan’s inspiring story and America’s rebound may have been delayed, but it will never be more timely. (You can find out more about the project at reaganmovie.com.)

Just watching 66-year-old Dennis Quaid (The Right Stuff, Soul Surfer) stride through the Reagan Ranch in a cowboy hat and jeans makes you realize the casting for this movie is perfect. Penelope Anne Miller (Carlito’s Way, Kindergarten Cop) is also a smart choice to play Nancy Reagan. The rest of the cast includes Jon Voight, Lesley-Anne Down, and Robert Davi.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-mob-inciters-become-lions-of-the-left-11610558248?mod=opinion_lead_pos6

The Chicago Seven were countercultural heroes in the 1960s. They thumbed their noses through one of the country’s most notorious political trials, taunting the judge and making a mockery of the proceedings with flippant courtroom pranks. Aaron Sorkin wrote and directed a movie about them last year, “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” which will probably win a few Oscars.

One thing people forget about the Chicago Seven is that most of them were guilty. Jerry Rubin admitted as much later: “We wanted disruption. We planned it. . . . We were guilty as hell. Guilty as charged.”

The crime they were accused of was crossing state lines to incite a riot. The defendants believed that Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s 1968 nomination for presidency was illegitimate. Nominations in those days were decided not by primaries but by backroom deals among party power brokers. The antiwar movement believed that a more democratic process would have produced a candidate opposed to the Vietnam War.

The question was whether the violent clashes between protesters and police outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago were an unfortunate consequence of peaceful marching that got out of hand, or whether the organizers intended for things to get violent.

https://www.netflix.com/title/80989924

Release year: 2019

From the attack on Pearl Harbor to D-Day, the most pivotal events of World War II come to life in this vivid docuseries featuring colorized footage.

Pearl Harbor. 50m. …
Battle of Midway. 50m. …
Siege of Stalingrad. 51m. …
D-Day. 50m. …
Battle of the Bulge. 50m. …
Dresden Firestorm. 51m. …
Liberation of Buchenwald. 50m. …
Hiroshima. 50m. To avoid a protracted ground war, the U.S. uses atomic bombs against Japan, causing unprecedented devastation — and changing the course of history.