So bad are most Hollywood movies that only a good review can motivate
me to see one now and then. Fred Mazelis succeeds here in making this "
60s radical " want to see " Trumbo ". You get a glimpse of his
stunning anti-war book " Johnny Got His Gun " in the movie version of
the Ron Kovic story " Born on the Fourth of July ".
I learned about the McCarthy era witch hunts directly from an old-and sadly too devoted - long time Communist Party member in Rhode Island- one John Hovan. About 5 years ago he was honored by the government of Spain for his service in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade during the horrendous and tragic Spanish Civil War. Hovan was transformed into a communist by his experience of the Great Depression in America. This story made the front page of the Providence Journal.
In the old fashioned card catalog files at the Providence Public Library I came across less " honoring " references to Providence Journal articles on HUAC's interest in this " commie " John Hovan. He too was hounded and persecuted by the local sanctimonious and patriotic Red hunters -saving America from godless communism.
In truth, Hovan was quite innocuous in those Cold War days of the 1950s. My " left -wing infantile " friends joked about John's vision of " socialism in one neighborhood ". But John was a very tough " survivor " - an honest friend of the working class - and very working class himself.
Just one humble suggestion for Hollywood movie makers that want to rise above the usual trash : they can learn from the style and the subject matter of the post-war Italian cinema. I suspect that Italian " commies " had no small influence in these stark black and white -social realism- unforgettable films. A while back I watched again " Umberto D "- available at the Providence Public Library.
[ PROVIDENCE -- In July 1937, John G. Hovan boarded a France-bound boat to fight the rising Fascist powers.He headed to Spain, south across the Pyrenees, where thousands of other volunteers were already fighting a civil war that proved to be a prelude to World War II. The war was lost; an authoritarian regime ruled Spain for nearly three decades, cementing its power through military tribunals and political purges. On Thursday, Hovan, 93, who went on to fight in the Pacific...]
[ NOTE ON " Born on the Fourth of July "
" as far as fidelity to authentic detail and sustained concentration, this is his best. There are a thousand details that Stone got exactly right, from Dalton Trumbo's paperback novel of a paraplegic from WW I, Johnny Got His Gun, that sat on a tray near Kovic's hospital bed ....]
I learned about the McCarthy era witch hunts directly from an old-and sadly too devoted - long time Communist Party member in Rhode Island- one John Hovan. About 5 years ago he was honored by the government of Spain for his service in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade during the horrendous and tragic Spanish Civil War. Hovan was transformed into a communist by his experience of the Great Depression in America. This story made the front page of the Providence Journal.
In the old fashioned card catalog files at the Providence Public Library I came across less " honoring " references to Providence Journal articles on HUAC's interest in this " commie " John Hovan. He too was hounded and persecuted by the local sanctimonious and patriotic Red hunters -saving America from godless communism.
In truth, Hovan was quite innocuous in those Cold War days of the 1950s. My " left -wing infantile " friends joked about John's vision of " socialism in one neighborhood ". But John was a very tough " survivor " - an honest friend of the working class - and very working class himself.
Just one humble suggestion for Hollywood movie makers that want to rise above the usual trash : they can learn from the style and the subject matter of the post-war Italian cinema. I suspect that Italian " commies " had no small influence in these stark black and white -social realism- unforgettable films. A while back I watched again " Umberto D "- available at the Providence Public Library.
[ PROVIDENCE -- In July 1937, John G. Hovan boarded a France-bound boat to fight the rising Fascist powers.He headed to Spain, south across the Pyrenees, where thousands of other volunteers were already fighting a civil war that proved to be a prelude to World War II. The war was lost; an authoritarian regime ruled Spain for nearly three decades, cementing its power through military tribunals and political purges. On Thursday, Hovan, 93, who went on to fight in the Pacific...]
[ NOTE ON " Born on the Fourth of July "
" as far as fidelity to authentic detail and sustained concentration, this is his best. There are a thousand details that Stone got exactly right, from Dalton Trumbo's paperback novel of a paraplegic from WW I, Johnny Got His Gun, that sat on a tray near Kovic's hospital bed ....]
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| Hollywood can learn from post war Italian cinema |
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Ron