The Post – A Movie Review

When American military analyst, Daniel Ellsberg, realizes to his disgust the depths of the US government’s deceptions about the futility of the Vietnam War, he takes action by copying top-secret documents that would become the Pentagon Papers. Kay Graham must decide whether to back down for the safety of her paper or publish and fight for the Freedom of the Press.

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Stepping Into The Confederate Statue Debate

Well, I suppose it won’t come as a surprise to anyone that I’m going to step into the debate about Confederate statues. It has obviously become something of a lightening rod after the incidents in Charlottesville, VA last weekend. I am seeing what too often happens, and it started with Trump’s tweets. There is this effort to try to claim there are two-sides to this, and that everyone is at fault, so the White Supremacists are not at fault…or something like that.

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Dunkirk – A Movie Review

The film depicts the dramatic and true story of the Dunkirk evacuations from a war-torn beach and harbour in France, after the seemingly doomed plight of allied soldiers in World War II. As the enemy forces close in it seems the troops have nowhere to go, but help is at hand.

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Hidden Figures – A Movie Review

As the United States raced against Russia to put a man in space, NASA found untapped talent in a group of African-American female mathematicians that served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in U.S. history. Based on the unbelievably true life stories of three of these women, known as “human computers”, we follow these women as they quickly rose the ranks of NASA alongside many of history’s greatest minds specifically tasked with calculating the momentous launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, and guaranteeing his safe return.

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Straight Outta Compton – A Movie Review

The movie delivers an edgy, powerful film, and should stand the test of time as an accurate portrayal of seminal moment in music history. Starting in 1987, a group of 5 individuals start what came to be, the group N.W.A and with their powerful lyrics, strong wills, and big dreams, they got the ball rolling for the hip hop and rap music industry that we see today.

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The Tuskegee Airmen – A Movie Review

During the Second World War, a special project is begun by the US Army Air Corps to integrate African-American pilots into the Fighter Pilot Program. Known as the “Tuskegee Airman” for the name of the airbase at which they were trained, these men were forced to constantly endure harassment, prejudice, and much behind the scenes politics until at last they were able to prove themselves in combat.

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Bridge of Spies – A Movie Review

During the Cold War, an American lawyer is recruited to defend an arrested Soviet spy in court, and then help the CIA facilitate an exchange of the spy for the Soviet captured American U2 spy plane pilot, Francis Gary Powers.

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Spotlight – A Movie Review

Starring Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, Brian d’Arcy James and Stanley Tucci, SPOTLIGHT tells the riveting true story of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe investigation that would rock the city and cause a crisis in one of the world’s oldest and most trusted institutions. When the newspaper’s tenacious “Spotlight” team of reporters delves into allegations of abuse in the Catholic Church, their year-long investigation uncovers a decades-long cover-up at the highest levels of Boston’s religious, legal, and government establishment, touching off a wave of revelations around the world. Directed by Academy Award-nominee Tom McCarthy, SPOTLIGHT is a tense investigative dramatic-thriller, tracing the steps to one of the biggest cover-ups in modern times.

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Movie Review – Conspiracy

This movie could have been entitled, “how to chair a board meeting” or “how not to chair a board meeting” – given that the outcome of the meeting was the “final solution”. Gen. Heidrich with consummate skill and care manipulated the gathered Nazi hierarchy to the pre-arranged and pre-destined solution to the Jewish question. The historical recreation of the 1942 Wannsee Conference, in which Nazi and SS leaders gathered in a Berlin suburb to discuss the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question”. Lead by SS-General Reinhard Heydrich, this group of high ranking German officials came to the historic and far reaching decision that the Jews of Europe were to be exterminated in what would come to be known as the Holocaust.

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Band of Brothers – A Mini-Series Review

This is the story of “E” Easy Company, 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division from their initial training starting in 1942 to the end of World War II. They parachuted behind enemy lines in the early hours of D-Day in support of the landings at Utah beach, participated in the liberation of Carentan and again parachuted into action during Operation Market Garden. They also liberated a concentration camp and were the first to enter Hitler’s mountain retreat in Berchtesgarten. A fascinating tale of comradeship that is, in the end, a tale of ordinary men who did extraordinary things. Worth everyone of it’s 705 minutes.

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Only Looking Forward Is Not An Option

No less than former President Richard Nixon’s White House Counsel says that we must consider investigating (and if appropriate) prosecuting members of the Bush 43 Administration for torture and crimes against humanity. If, as Dick Cheney seems to believe, they have done nothing wrong, and he and George acted legally in all respects, then I would think they would welcome a special prosecutor so as to clear their name for history. However, they don’t seem to be interested in confessing what they have done and what orders they have issued.

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