I watched some cricket when play commenced but we were not doing well, and also kept half an eye on a boring one sided pre season game of football soccer between Liverpool and Portsmouth watched by enthusiastic Asians, in Hong Kong, I think. The game was won on penalties by Portsmouth against the odds. In between the TV sport and working on the computer, and for the second time this week I caught the end of a former Walton's John boy movie about a Korean baby rescued by the crew of an aircraft carrier and brought back to the USA and where John boy obtains instant discharge from a position as naval doctor to arrive home on Christmas Day to surprise his wife with the child, having previously expressed unwillingness to give up his service career. It was at the level of the Walton's at Sea. The title is Narrow Escape.
Christopher Reeve as a Catholic priest in the US forces in wartime Italy also had several narrow escapes in The Monsignor watched the previous day. During his rise to Cardinal in charge of the Churches finances at the Vatican and to become a buddy of a new Pope, he takes over a machine gun post to prevent an enemy advance, seduces a nun who thinks he is an unscrupulous black-marketer GI, makes the church rich by being one trading with the Mafia, taking over the Swiss bank which the Mafia use to hide their money and colludes with the killing of a childhood mate who tries to make off with a small part of the horde. The church only gets upset when it looks as if the dodgy dealings will become public, but the Hollywood argument is followed that it is better that criminals financially sponsor the church than use the funds for further criminality. I look towards a book case holding Huxley's Ends and Means and Catholicism for Dummies placed above the voluminous master Catechism.
This evening I watched the Sentinel, which arrived from my mail order club. I thought it was a film about black and white devils, but is a hymn to the skills and dedication of the Presidential guards: the US secret service. There is much technical accuracy designed to impress the US public and I did not guess who was the blackmailed mole, although I correctly ruled out Michael son of Kirk Douglas and Kieffer Sutherland of 24 hours, ably representing the men and women who sign up to giving their lives to protect their President and more recently since the death of Bobby, Presidential Candidates. I also like the notion that wives of Presidents will be protected during their lifetime, unless they remarry, but Bush has changed the position so that when he leaves office the protection will last only for ten years. This may be something to be reconsidered. The link between this film and the series 24 became clear when in the former a toilet is used to abduct the President's daughter while in the latter it is used for a clandestine meeting between a personal chief guard of the President and the President's wife with whom he is having an affair. I am not sure why the American's produce so many films in which their President and his family are under constant attack by foreign led nationals. Perhaps the nation should stop boasting about the American dream and concentrate more on its nightmare? But then we should talk!
No comments:
Post a Comment