Spanning the "Globes," and Much More
A win for "Oppenheimer," far too many losses in Gaza, and two new must-see movies.
Greg Mitchell is the author of a dozen books, including “The Tunnels: Escapes Under the Berlin Wall,“ and the recent “The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood—and America—Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.” His film “Atomic Cover-up” just debuted on PBS and you can watch here. And “Memorial Day Massacre: Workers Die, Film Buried" remains free on the PBS site. You can still subscribe to this newsletter for free:
Okay, a little bit of this and that today.
First, we skipped 3/4s of the “Gulden” Globes last night after we spotted this rave in NYT for new Danish film streaming, "Rose," which turned out to be one of best foreign movies of year with amazing performance by actress Sofie Grabol who starred in the original "The Killing" and deserves some sort of award recognition for this portrayal (sometimes witty) of mentally challenged woman and return to Paris. Director has been all over the map in his career going back to that girl with the dragon tattoo.
We did find Godland rather disappointing, however. But last week we were blown away by “Four Daughters,” which is a kind of drama/doc hybrid and showing up on a lot of Ten Best lists (and now my own).
With the Globes coming up a few days ago, I posted at my “other” newsletter, Oppenheimer & The Legacy of His Bomb, an easy bunch of links to my critiques of that film, and what’s missing in it, going back to an early screening in NYC last July. After it won the top drama prize last night, I tweeted this:
"Oppenheimer," which took no real issue with the collective punishment of 150,000 women and children in two Japanese cities, wins top award—as U.S. today strongly aids Israel bombing Gaza.
I didn’t see a single mention online of a single mention at the Globes ceremony of the killing of 20,000 civilians in Gaza, and our own government’s role in that. If you did, let us know.
Speaking of Gaza, several more journalists killed there in recent days adding to the highest rate of such slayings in any war ever (experts say). This prompted another tweet from me:
American TV journalists/hosts disgraced themselves in run-up to, and early weeks, of Iraq war, as I chronicled at the time and in my book “So Wrong for So Long.” It’s in some ways worse today, as they watch every day slaying of journo peers in Gaza and say little or nothing about that. A low point in 21st century history of U.S. journalism.
Feel free to comment on that also.
Meanwhile, Barry Blitt is back on the Trump beat at The New Yorker this week.
And from Mike Luckovich:
And for today’s birthday boy, David Bowie, a fine if rarely heard live cover of “Space Oddity” by Natalie Merchant.
Plus my piece asking: Did Bowie and Springsteen help bring down the Berlin Wall? His historic performance of “Heroes” below.
Young Dave, who, like my grandson Jules, first lived in Brixton…
