Two Guns: No Country for Good Men

Movies

 

I watched a Netflix film called Two Guns, starring Denzel Washington as Robert “Bobby” Beans and Michael “Stig” Stigman played by Mark Wahlberg. Both are supposedly on the side of the law, but both assume the other is a criminal. Both were undercover agents unaware that the other is a lawman (of sort). Beans is undercover agent for DEA and Stig is an undercover intelligence agent for the Navy Seals. Stigs’ boss tells him to kill Beans so that the Navy can use the money to fund unauthorized undercover operations.

In other words, the line between criminals and cops has been rubbed so thin it is extremely porous.  The two cops/criminals decide to rob the bank where Mexican drug lord Manny “Papi” Greco stashed $3million, presumably to sting the other.  But the two get much more than $3 million. They get an extra $43, 125,00. That extra money, in cash, is obviously ill-gotten gains. In fact they quickly realize that criminals will be pursuing them for the cash and likely won’t ask politely for the return of their money.

The criminals whose money was stolen are actually black-ops CIA operatives led by Earl whose money was stolen and who make even the Mexican cartel look like Sunday School children. Earl says he is “the hidden hand of God.” Sort of like Adam Smiths free market and about as benign. He will do what it takes to get his money back.

In the ensuing action they  encounter a bevy of corrupt cops and corrupt criminals. In fact there are no good guys. None. Even the heroes Bobby and Stig are not that good either. I admit that he irreverent banter between the 2 is amusing, but we soon realize these guys aren’t really up to any good either. No one is.

Here is a conversation between Earl and the hapless bank manager who allowed the money to be stolen:

Earl:   The United States is the greatest country in the world because we accept a man at his call: greedy, selfish, and covetous.

Bank Manger: I had no choice

Earl: In America we line everybody up so you are on your own. Grab all you can grab.

Bank Manager: I’m innocent.

Earl: Nobody’s innocent. There’s just the guilty, ignorant, or unlucky.

Stig tries weakly to convince Beans they should do the right thing with the money.  After all there is a Code. Beans denies there is a Code. Like Earl you just do what it takes. The rest of the movie is designed to prove Beans was right. This is no country for good men.

There is no Code.

 

Once Upon a Time In Hollywood

Truth Seeking

 

This film makes us ask fundamental questions: what is  truth; where is the fairytale?  In modern terms: where is the fake news? And what is the difference between them? And it does that in amusing ways. It’s a very good film.

It toys with “true events”—the murderous rampage led by Charlie Manson and his band of followers. But that event which is expected throughout the film is only the background to the film. It is not the true story of those events. Or maybe it is. After all, what is truth anyway?

It tells the entirely fictional story of Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) Hollywood stuntman to star Rick Dalton (Leonardo diCaprio) a fading Western movie star and Sharon Tate, (Margot Robbie) a real person who was brutally murdered by the Manson gang. Dalton lives next door to the house shared by Tate and her husband Roman Polanski. That lends an ominous quality to the film right from the start. Given that Quentin Tarantino is the director we always expect (no dread) the worst. Al Pacino plays the role of a casting agent and Kurt Russell as a Hollywood hot shot and Bruce Dern plays an old blind former star  who wants to warm his hands one more time at the fire of life with a Manson girl. When Booth shows up at his home where he is sleeping and introduces himself as a stuntman, he retorts, “every man needs a stunt man.” For sure.

Though inspired by actual events nothing is straight-forward in this film. After all truth is murky. To misquote Bob Dylan, reality does not talk it swears. Characters in the film are or are not based on actual characters. What else would you expect about a film based on Hollywood’s golden age that went sensationally down in fire after the murder of Sharon Tate and friends?

But the finale still surprises. There are multiple story lines but all revolve around the world of make believe, and of course, we never believe. No one tells the truth, and no one cares. An 8-year old child star sounds like a middle-aged matron. Actors may or may not be acting. Like the Beatles said, ‘Nothing is real.” Nothing to get hung-up about. It’s all Helter Skelter, reputedly the words in a Beatle song that inspired Charlie Manson. For a while the action moves to the Spahn Ranch, that was also used as movie set, was where the Manson team hung out in dilapidated splendour is the scene. Here we get to meet the Manson clan on their own territory and it is not a pretty sight.

Tate spends an afternoon girlishly watching herself in a recent Dean Martin film. Dalton plays scenes that may or may not be real.

Needless to say, the night of the planned murders do not go according to plan. It is a melee. The Manson gang goes to the wrong house, but they see that Dalton is a worthy candidate for murder too. After all why not, “kill the guys who taught us to kill?” Since we’re in Hollywood that makes sense doesn’t it? To the others it seems like a “great idea.” The night ends up being the blackest of comedies.

Here is a conversation between Cliff and a young Mansonite:

Cliff: “You are real right?”

Teen: “Real as donut.”

Cliff, thinking it is all a joke, asks, “Who are you?”

Teen: “I’m the devil and I’m here to do the devil’s business.”

That explains it. Or does it?

When all is done, the survivors party on. No one cares about the dead. Would you? After all, nothing is real. Except maybe escapism of Hollywood movies. That is true escapism. True lies.

Salute to the Heroes of the Pandumic

Epidemics/Pandemics, Truth Seeking

 

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah presented a salute to what they called the Salute to the Heroes of the Pandumic. They included clips from various right-wing media pundits, starting with Sean Hannity in which he bombastically delivered a mocking and sarcastic comment, alluding particularly to the suggestion that anyone who takes the coronavirus seriously is a wimp:

“Tonight I am here to report, the sky is absolutely falling, we are all doomed, the end is near, the apocalypse is imminent and you’re all going to die. Or, at least that is what the media mob would like you to think.”

Next up was Rush Limbaugh, who said on February 24, 2020:

“I’m dead right on this. The coronavirus is the common cold! The hype of this thing as a pandemic, as the Andromeda strain, as the ‘Oh my God if you get it you’re dead.’”

Maybe he will be dead right on this.

The came Pete Hegseth a Fox commentator who said on March 8, 2020:

“This is one of those cases where the more I learn about coronavirus the less concerned I am. It’s a lot of hyperbole.”

Then we heard Lou Dobbs, also from Fox on March 9, 2020:

“The national left wing media playing up fears of the coronavirus”

 That was followed by Fox’s Tomi Lahren on March 10, 2020:

“The sky is falling because we have a few dozen cases of Coronavirus on cruise ship. I am far more concerned about stepping on a used heroin needle than I am about getting the coronavirus but maybe that’s just me.”

Of course they had to include Judge Judy (Jeanine Pirro) with her comments on March 7, 2020:

“It’s a virus like the flu. All the talk about coronavirus being more deadly doesn’t reflect reality.’

They also showed Dr. Marc Siegel commenting on Fox News on March 6, 2020 as follows:

“This virus should be compared to the flu because at worst, at worst, the worst case scenario it could be the flu.”

 Next came former lawyer turned television pundit, Geraldo Rivera on February 28, 2020:

 “The far more deadly, the far more lethal threat right now is not the coronavirus, is the common old flu. Nobody has died yet in the United States as far as we know from this disease.’

Then there was Laura Ingraham also on March 9, 2020,

“The facts are actually pretty reassuring, but you would never know it watching all this stuff. ”  

We were also blessed with commentator Jesse Waters on March 3, 2020,

“You know how I really feel about the coronavirus? If I get it I’ll beat it. I’m not afraid of the coronavirus, and no one else should be that afraid either.”

Of course we had to have Matt Schlapp on March 11, 2020:

“It is very, very difficult to contract this virus’.

 On March 2, 2020 there was a reassuring comment from another physician, Dr. Drew Pinksy:

“The fatality rate is gonna drop.’

 He was followed by Ed Henry on March 10, 2020,

“In it context it is not quite as scary.’        

And of course the inimitable Fox commentator, no famous for intelligence, Ainsley Earnhardt on March 13, 2020, who opined as follows:

“It’s the safest time to fly. Everyone I know is flying right now. The terminals are pretty much dead, and then the planes, remember back in the day when you had a seat next to you possibly empty, you could stretch out a little more, its like that on every flight now.”

We also had the benefit of advice from Republican Congressman Devin Nunes on March 15,

“If you’re healthy for you and your family it’s a great time to just go out, go to a local restaurant. Likely you can get in easily.”

Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz on March 4, 2020 added a colourful prop for his statement by wearing a gas mask when he mocked concerns about the spread of the virus.

On March 11, 2020, a reporter in the Capital asked Senator James Inhofe who famously called climate change science a hoax and brought unseasonable snow into the Senate to “prove” his point, what precautions he was taking  related to Coronavirus he confidently extended his arm and asked the reporter, ‘Wanna shake hands?”

Of course there is the razor sharp mind of the leader of the President’s task force on the coronavirus, Mike Pence, who said on March 10, 2020, saying,

“In our line of work you shake hands. I expect the President to continue to do that and I’ll continue to do it.’

Of course, Pence, unlike some of us, can no doubt rely on divine intervention to protect him. A fine example for us indeed.

Then there was the President’s man Larry Kudlow on February 25, 2020 who said,

“We have contained this. We have contained this. I won’t say airtight, but pretty close to airtight.”

 Of course no such salute would be complete without a word from Kelly-Anne “Alternative Facts” Conway who said on March 6, 2020,

 “This is being contained. And do you not think it is being contained?’

 Then were shown more of Sean Hannity, saying on February 27, 2020,

“Zero people have died in America form the coronavirus. Zero!’

 Finally, we were given the benefit of Donald Trump’s words, on February 26, 2020,

“This is a flu. This is like a flu. Its’ going to disappear. It’s like a miracle, one day it’s going to disappear.’

 Of course after downplaying it for weeks, and calling the reporting of the virus or the virus itself, a “hoax,” on March 17, 2020 Trump changed his tune,

“I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic. I took it very seriously.’

 Even Sean Hannity on March 18, 2020, following Trump one day later said,

“This program has always taken the coronavirus very seriously.’

It takes real chutzpah to lie so brazenly. Both Trump and Hannity have that in abundance.

 

Are none of them feeling at all guilty or at least embarrassed about having misled the public into minimizing the importance of this pandemic?

Sometimes I have to applaud politicians, even one’s I don’t like

Epidemics/Pandemics, politics

Sometimes I have to applaud politicians, even one’s I don’t like that much.

On March 25, 2020, the Canadian House of Commons, after resuming discussion at 3:14 in the morning, passed a massive spending bill which then passed all phases of the House before sunrise. It was the biggest spending bill in the history of the Canadian Parliament. Some politicians, like Canada’s staunchly conservative Member of Parliament from Manitoba , Candace Bergen, not my favorite politician even though

she is a member of my tribe, had a very hard time swallowing it.

As the Winnipeg Free reported,

 “This is a very heavy load to bear,” Bergen told her colleagues, her voice echoing through the nearly empty chamber.

The Manitoba MP is among the most partisan on the Hill, but wasn’t on this day.

“I am glad we can be here together — not always agreeing, but agreeing on one thing, that we are putting the needs of our fellow Canadians first and foremost,” she said.”

Then the Senate passed the huge bill in less than 4 hours.  Without the traditional ceremony Governor General Julie Payette gave her royal assent while sitting at a table in a massive lobby at Rideau Hall.

Sometimes politics works!

Even in the U.S. that massively divided country, where politicians seldom agree on what day it is, the next day managed to get things done as well. The American Senate, after vigorous debate and good old fashioned comprises on all sides, did itself proud and passed a $2 trillion economic relief package to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. It also was the largest package in the history of that country. You may not like the details, just as you might not like the details of farmer sausage, but at least they put aside their astronomical difference and reached a historic agreement. It was historic because a Senate that divided almost exactly along party lines on the impeachment of Donald Trump agreed on this package unanimously. That’s impossible isn’t it?

I wish the politicians could managed to agree on other issues besides financial crises or wars, but I have to give them credit by working together to compromise.

Maybe next time they can do that on climate change, or poverty.

All Minds on Deck

Epidemics/Pandemics,

 

I didn’t want to make this coronavirus a political issue. At least until it was over. But I noticed that every time Donald Trump speaks he makes sure to tell us what a great job he is doing as do his Fox News minions. He brags about how he gets all this free TV time. So this is a political issue, whether we like it or not. I didn’t make it political; Trump and his supporters did. I know some of my friends don’t want to hear me speak about Trump. But I will.

I have a confession to make. When Donald Trump got elected President of the United States in 2016 I was fearful. I did not panic, but I was scared. As President of the richest and most powerful country in the world, and our neighbour in Canada, the United States has a profound affect on Canada whether we like that or not. As is said, ‘When the U.S. coughs, Canada catches a cold.”

I was fearful that now the richest and most powerful country in the world was led by a man who was not very bright, but was narcissistic, shallow, bombastic, full of bluster, unaccustomed to modesty or humility, petulant, possessed as much empathy as a turnip, lacked basic curiosity, had not a jot of appreciation for the truth, ignored evidence and data, and in making important decisions relied on hunches, feelings, and instincts instead of critical thinking. And those were his best points!

American voters handed such a man the power to bring peace to the world or to annihilate it, and to save or wreck the world economic order. And he could do that more or less alone without significant foresight or oversight. The adults in the room who might restrain him, like Rex Tillerson or John Kelly, remember them, have long gone. I worried what would happen when we had the next financial crisis? I had admired President Obama and liked his strong support of solid thinkers in most areas of his cabinet. Trump had no such support.

Now in 2020 we have both a major economic crisis (and maybe soon, if not already, a financial crisis) and a major health crisis at the same time! This is not just a time for all hands on deck as the pundits and politicians keep saying. This is also a time for all minds on deck. And I fear—I deeply fear—that we don’t have that. At best we have mediocre minds on deck with some wonderful exceptions like Dr. Anthony Fauci, who does not hesitate to contradict the President.

A Crisis like this requires the best minds with the best data and the best advice. Do we have that? I think not. We have a mediocre mind (or less) at the helm. And he seems to be getting most of his advice from right-wing television pundits who seem to have, like their leader, distrust for science and experts when we urgently need both and have a taste for lies and untruth joined to loud bombast. These are scary times.

Frankly, this scares me.

The Upside.

Movies, Rebel

 

Chris and I went to see this film on a rainy day in Arizona last year. We both liked it a lot. It is a remake of 2012 French film. Dave Driedger, a friend,  told us he saw the original with English subtitles. That makes him a super intellectual. The movie tells the story of Phillip (played by Bryan Cranston) an extremely wealthy paraplegic and Dell (played by Kevin Hart) a black ex-con who applies for the job only because his Parole Officers demand that he get a job or come back with 3 signatures from possible employers saying they turned him down. Nicole Kidman plays Phillips crusty and protective assistant. Phillip hires Dell because he is the least qualified applicant and yet detects some ephemeral bond between him and Dell. The choice reveals for the first time his rebellious streak.

The black parolee ends up restoring life to Phillip beyond listening to opera which until then seems to be Phillips only pleasure and it seems a pretty thin one at that (even to one who enjoys opera like me). There is no doubt that there is some class stereotyping in relation particularly to Dell. Dell is a father to a young man who has about as much use for Dell as does his ex-wife.

The two main characters learn from each other. Dell learns that it is useful to have some money and job. Phillip learns to have some fun. Both exchange musical tips. In the meantime they have fun riding around in Phillip’s fancy car, yanking the legs of cops, eating ice cream, smoking joints, and trading insights. Little insights that are sometimes the best kind. Dell learns that Mozart is not half bad. Dell learns that Aretha Franklin has something to offer. Both learn that a little rebellion goes a long way.

There is some genuine unforced humour in the film that fills it with joy. It is not a bad thing to go to a movie theatre and get filled with joy. Sometimes that is all it takes. Today was one of those days. I liked it.

The joy allowed me to overlook some of the more unlikely aspects of the film such as Dell creating a work of “art” that Phillip persuades his fellow owner in the New York condominium in the ritzy building. I say ‘go and see it for yourself.’ Perfect for a rainy day or, come to think of it now, a self-isolating day.

Pursuing Truth and Beauty

art, Truth and Beauty, Truth Seeking

 

I decided when I retired that I wanted to do something. Not work. Not chasing the all mighty dollar. Nothing wrong with that, we all have to do it, but I have done that for nearly 40 years (really more when you include the 7 years of post-secondary school education I had to do in order to qualify for my profession). Of course, given current market tribulations I might have to return to work again.

This next phase of my life was inspired by the English poet John Keats. In particular it was inspired by his famous poem, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”.

He wrote about an old urn that has an image on it showing Dionysian revelries. It showed young lovers in flight and pursuit. That urn freezes a moment in time. It is a moment of time—an instant—forever frozen by the artist’s art, which in turn is celebrated by the art of the poet. It opens like this,

 

“Thou still unravished bride of quietness,

Thou foster child of silence and slow time,

Sylvan historian, who canst express

A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:

What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape

Of deities or mortals, or both”

That bride that Keats refers to is forever pursued; forever uncaught, and hence eternally virgin. The bride never loses her luster. Her beauty lasts forever. Only true beauty can do it. The beauty of artistic achievement is forever. Keats always longed for permanence, but of course in life could never find it. He actually died very young. I think he died at 29 if I remember correctly. Only in art could permanence be found.

Eternity is inexplicable. It mystifies us. Everything of this world is subject to change, decay, and disintegration. Keats wanted more than that, so he lamented this fact but acknowledged the only way out, was art. He found permanence in an image on a Grecian Urn :

“Thou, silent form, dost tease out of thought

As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!

When old age shall this generation waste,

Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe

Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st,

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,–that is all

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

That is what I mean.  I think Keats meant beauty in a wide sense. He was not talking only about the beauty of a young woman—though that too. After all there is beauty in old women too. Even old men have a faint streak of it from time to time.

Keats wanted to include the beauty of artistic achievement. That is the beauty that lasts forever, or at least a long time. As close as we can get. A young woman’s beauty turns old. It is still beauty, but it is different it has changed. The beauty of the image on a Grecian Urn remains the same forever unchanged forever avoiding decay.

Now as I enter the time of my degeneration I notice the changes more deeply. Until recently I thought I would be healthy and powerful forever. I believed I would never decay, never diminish. Sadly, I now know clearly that this is not to be. I am not to be. I am draining away. But in my last years, I want to pursue truth and beauty, even though I know I will never catch up with them. Beauty and truth will be forever unravished by me at least. There will be no consummation. Keats urges the lover not to grieve for his lover will never “fade”, because even though the lover will never get to kiss her,

“She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss

Forever will thou love, and she be fair!’

Yet the pursuit, I hope, can be filled with grace, and wonder, just like the lover pursuing his bride of silence, forever uncaught, but forever beautiful. I will pursue truth and beauty because that is all I know and all I need to know. It will be part of what Keats called “a mad pursuit.” Yet he also says it is “wild ecstasy.”   That’s what I want—wild ecstasy.

Of course the next question is how to do that? How does one pursue truth and beauty in the modern world? There are many roads to truth. Art is one source of both truth and beauty. Keats knew that. Philosophy is also one. Philosophy is the pursuit of wisdom through thinking. Reason is the instrument of philosophy. When reason shows the truth, it is beautiful. Music is a source as well. An important one is nature. It is the unedited manuscript of god. Religion can be a source, though often it is a restrictive source of narrow thinking, that leads to falsehood not truth. Then it leads to exclusion, superiority, and hate. And then it ceases to be religion. An expansive religion—one, which connects us to the world, and to each other is a deep source of everything that is true and good and right.

Northrop Frye said that he had carefully arranged his life so that nothing ever happened to him. That gave him time to do what he really wanted; to read and think. What a great goal. To many it seems absurd. But it is not absurd; it is a delight. That is the way to pursue truth and beauty. That includes moral as well intellectual, artistic, musical, truth and beauty. And it’s all beautiful. And its all true.

Dark Water: A Much Bigger Question

Democracy, Environment, Movies, Pollution

 

I heard Mark Ruffalo who played Bilott, and Bilott himself on the PBS television show, Amanpour & Company and the real life Bilott. They made some important points.

Commenting on the legal fight that took almost 20 years of relentless endurance on the part of Bilott, Ruffalo had this to say:

“The system is rigged—against the people. They want us to think that it will protect us, but that is a lie. We protect us. Nobody else. Not the companies, not the scientists, not the government. Us We protect us. Nobody else.”

This is the fundamental idea behind the film. The system is rigged. Against us.

Of course, this was just one case. But is in any different in the pharmaceutical sector? Or oil and gas? Or tobacco? Or anywhere else? Not according to Ruffalo.

Ruffalo put it this way in his interview by Amanpour:

“We have a system where the government is not responsive to the needs of the people and where it is slavish to the corporate system. We have a democracy that is in service to an economic capitalist system, instead of that system being in service to our democracy. Yes that system is rigged. It has been rigged because there is so much money in politics. If you wanted to fix the problem, really quickly, you would have the state have a stake in health care. Then this stuff would get cleaned out really fast because right now we’re getting poisoned. We have to pay to get ourselves healthy and the state just keeps taking money from both sides, to keep the vicious circle going.”

In the American legal system the people have to prove the chemical harms them. The corporations can sit back and do nothing other than, of course, block the science of the opponents. This is a fundamental flaw.

According to the film there is still no regulation of PFOSA in America. And PFOA’s are ubiquitous. As Nathanial Rich who wrote the article on which the movie was based, explains,

“But if you are a sentient being reading this article in 2016, you already have PFOA in your blood. It is in your parents’ blood, your children’s blood, your lover’s blood. How did it get there? Through the air, through your diet, through your use of nonstick cookware, through your umbilical cord. Or you might have drunk tainted water…

Where scientists have tested for the presence of PFOA in the world, they have found it. PFOA is in the blood or vital organs of Atlantic salmon, swordfish, striped mullet, gray seals, common cormorants, Alaskan polar bears, brown pelicans, sea turtles, sea eagles, Midwestern bald eagles, California sea lions and Laysan albatrosses on Sand Island, a wildlife refuge on Midway Atoll, in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean, about halfway between North America and Asia.”

As Manohla Dargis said in a New York Times review of the film:

“But at its strongest, the movie makes you see that the poison that is killing Wilbur’s cows and so many other living things isn’t simply a question of toxic chemicals. There is, Haynes suggests, a deeper malignancy that has spread across a country that allows some to kill and others simply to die.”

 This is the bigger issue. The exploration of this issue is what makes this film, and the article on which it is based, so important and so interesting. Ultimately it comes down to these two closely related questions: is our modern political system democratic and is modern capitalism anti-life? Those are two very big questions. Worth thinking about.