WCBE 90.5 FM: It's Movie Time - "Another Year at the Movies: The Culture Wars of 2004" (SEGMENT ONE-FINAL)

WCBE’s “It’s Movie Time”
"Another Year at the Movies:
The Culture Wars of 2004"

SEGMENT ONE-FINAL (WITH MUSIC)

IT'S MOVIE TIME: with John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Producer/Director: Richelle Antzcak, WCBE
"Another Year at the Movies: The Culture Wars of 2004
Air Date: February 2005
Taping Times:
4:00 pm, Wednesday, November 10, 2004 (Segment One)
4:00 pm, Wednesday, November 17, 2004 (Segment Two)
3:00 pm, Thursday, January 27 (Segment Three)

The Script:

SEGMENT ONE

MUSIC #1 (ONLINE TO MINI DISC)
HEADLINE MUSIC:
FOUR SONGS GEORGE M. COHAN
FROM (HTTP://WWW.USAFBAND.COM/RECORDING.CFM?START=31),THEN UNDER FOR:

Clay

It was show time in America last year, from Hollywood to Baghdad to Washington the culture wars were quite the rage . . .

John

Anti-war protesters stood in line to see Robert MacNamara confess his sins in "The Fog of War" . . .

Clay

Super Bowl fans were shocked during half-time when Janet Jackson showed more than her dimples . . .

John

Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill 2" was a brilliant exposure to the ugliness of revenge . . .

Clay

And busloads of movie goers learned from Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" that the misuse of power was nothing new under the sun . .

MUSIC #2 (CD)
“TEAM AMERICA”
(CUT 11 “TEAM AMERICA)
THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

WCBE presents "Another Year at the Movies: The Culture Wars of 2004" with your hosts John DeSando and Clay Lowe . . .

MUSIC DOWN AND UNDER JOHN AND CLAY

John

I'm John DeSando.

Clay

And I'm Clay Lowe.

MUSIC UP, THEN HIT/OR CROSS FADE TO
MUSIC #3 (CD)
"THE FOG OF WAR"
(CUT 1: “100,000 PEOPLE”)
ESTABLISH, THEN UNDER FOR JOHN AND CLAY:

Clay

John, the cultural warriors battled it out for the soul of America last year. To the Republicans, America was witnessing the dawning of a new age. To the Democrats, America was witnessing the end of the American dream. And to the independents, America was dazed and confused and they were caught in-between.

John

Liberal vs. conservative, freedom freaks vs. control freaks, the bipolar
ideologies were as apparent on screen as off whether in Troy or Baghdad.

Clay

And nowhere did they become more apparent than in Errol Morris's Oscar winning "The Fog of War" . . .

MUSIC UP, BRIEFLY, THEN UNDER FOR:

DeSando ("The Fog of War")

Clay, in 2004 the liberal Morris brought us "Fog of War," maybe the best documentary to fuse a controversial historical figure (McNamara) with his grandest moment (the Vietnam War).

Clay

My. My.

John (Continues)

McNamara's ambivalence about the event and his responsibility gave the film an authenticity and humanity that last year was shared only with "Capturing the Friedmans."

Although McNamara wanted to seem liberal in his veiled opposition to escalation, he could be the progenitor of Donald Rumsfeld and his take-no-prisoner conservatism.

Applications to human nature and current events abound. The cool necessary to operate under murderous circumstances is reflected in this wonk's slick hair, rimless glasses, and self-serving dialogue. The parallel to the war in Iraq is painful. He warns in his first "lesson" we must learn from our mistakes. If Vietnam was a grand mistake, why are we forgetting it again?

Clay

Got me.

John (Continues)

Could the liberals themselves have turned conservative?

Clay ("The Fog of War")

Could be, John, but more than a few compared the war in Iraq to Vietnam last year, as did Morris when he accepted his Oscar for “The Fog of War”: "Forty years ago," he said, "this country went down a rabbit hole in Vietnam and millions died. I fear we're going down a rabbit hole once again -- "

In Morris’s "The Fog of War" we saw former Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, admit he'd been wrong about Vietnam. Just as in Peter Davis’s “Hearts and Minds,” way back in 1975, we had seen McNamara’s successor, Clark Clifford make the same confession.

John

I remember him.

Clay (Continues)

When questioned about his support for the war, Secretary of State Clifford had also replied: "I couldn't have been more wrong."


MUSIC UP, THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT/OR SEGUE TO
MUSIC #4 (CD)
"THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST"
(CUT: 4 "PETER DENIES JESUS - JOHN DABNEY)
THEN UNDER FOR

Clay ("The Passion of the Christ")

But, you know folks, the occupying army of the Romans had gotten it all wrong too. And all of those busloads of middle America who flocked to see Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” knew more than most, that the Roman’s get-tough-floogin and final crucifixion of Jesus, only radicalized Christians for generations to come.

How blind we sometimes are to history.

MUSIC UP, HOLD, THEN UNDER AGAIN FOR JOHN

John ("The Passion of the Christ")

If you push a Biblically conservative agenda, then meanness and violence overshadow the humanity of the Sermon on the Mount.

Clay

Is that possible?

John (Continues)

This much-heralded Mel Gibson version of Christ's suffering is a testimony to the fact that the meek won't inherit the earth. Be flamboyant about your film's controversies; watch the silver coins come in from the evangelical fervor over the film's realism.

Clay

Bloody realism.

John (Continues)

What's good about the film? The inspiration from Caravaggio's paintings gives the film a darkly elegiac visual tone. Also, the relationship between Mother Mary and Christ has possibilities. But Gibson doesn't expand this possibility because of his obsession with the purgative province of violence. The selection of conservative conflict over liberal love mirrors the global choices of 2004.

I do hope there is a heaven, so I finally can ask to see a life of Christ
worthy of its subject.

MUSIC UP BRIEFLY, THEN UNDER

Clay ("The Passion of the Christ")

John, I hope there's a heaven too because I'd worry about you in hell. But yes, Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" goes way overboard in its depiction of seemingly unmotivated violence that the Romans and the Jewish religious establishment inflicted on the man from the city of Nazareth.

Driven by the stoicism of Jesus in the face of unexplained hatred and violence, the rest of the movie’s cast, unfortunately, were reduced to card board cut-outs. There were the bad guys, there was a good guy, there were weak-kneed disciples, and there were the passively suffering women, who stood helplessly by.

Only a miracle could have saved him, but that miracle was denied.

MUSIC UP, THEN CROSS FADE TO
MUSIC #5 (CD)
"MIRACLE"
(CUT 5: "DON'T FEAR THE REAPER" - BLUE OYSTER CULT)
ESTABLISH THEN UNDER FOR:

Clay ("Miracle")

But John, we did have a miracle when Hollywood when Hollywood replayed those Cold War days when the U.S. celebrated its off-the-battlefield victory over the Russians in the 1980 Winter Olympics.

MUSIC UP, THEN UNDER AGAIN FOR:

John ("Miracle")

Clay, The film "Miracle" is what American filmmakers do best: a rousing true tale of an underdog overcoming insurmountable odds to win the prize.

Clay

Oh, do we love a winner.

John (Continues)

It is even more exuberant than "Seabiscuit" because the team represented the renewal of American spirit for times gloomy in the recounting.

MUSIC UP BRIEFLY THEN BACK UNDER (IF IT WORKS)

John (Continues)

"Miracle" is about veteran hockey coach Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell), a
remarkable man whose vision was that only the most grueling practice will prepare them for the best team in the world. Americans prevailed in a victory the director makes immediate and visceral with Steadicam, close up, and swelling music. The spirit is still decidedly conservative. Victory at any cost, USA uber alles.

Clay

Oh, be careful, John

John (Continues)

Darrell Royal, commenting on football coaches, gives an insight into Herb Brooks' success: "A head coach is guided by this main objective: dig, claw, wheedle, coax that fanatical effort out of players."

MUSIC UP BRIEFLY, THEN BACK UNDER AGAIN

Clay ("Miracle")

"Seabiscuit," DeSando? How about "Hoosiers" on ice? Change the names and the scripts are the same.

John

Yeah.

Clay (Continues)

Two unsung coaches. Two unsteady young teams destined to go up against two seemingly invincible rivals. Real-life hockey coach Herb Brooks and real-life basketball coach Norman Dale were Hollywood-made-to-order. Infused with the respective personas of the doggedly-determined Kurt Russell and the ever-lovin' charms of Gene Hackman, there was nothing in heaven nor hell that could have prevented these two films from becoming two big box-office bonanzas.

MUSIC UP, THEN CROSS FADE TO
MUSIC #6 (DVD TO MINI DISC)
"SPARTAN" (FIRST CUT FROM CLOSING CREDITS)
ESTABLISH THEN UNDER CLAY

Clay (Transition to "Spartan")

Not quite the boxoffice bonanza of “Miracle,” however, David Mamet’s “Spartan” unknowingly prepared us for the questions raised when the abusive photographs of U.S. prisoners at Abu Ghraib first appeared.

Ironically, it was Hollywood that has taught us to make heroes out of tough guys. Think John Wayne in “The Sands of Iwo Jima,” Clint Eastwood in “Dirty Harry,” and Val Kilmer in “Spartan” and you’ll get the picture.

John ("Spartan")

Maybe "Spartan," the best spy movie ever made by a practicing playwright/director. Director and frequent screen writer Mamet has crafted a thriller peppered with his stylized, epigrammatic dialogue that takes on the presidency and world corruption.

Clay

Either or, John?

John (Continues)

Mamet lets us see that this plot is much more than a potboiler about lascivious, ruthless president's lost daughter, for it comments on the hidden forces behind the electoral process. I must remind myself to have students write essays about appearance and reality in Mamet's films or about conservative Florida's ballot of victory in 2000.

Spartan lawgiver Lycurgus once said, "Those who are trained and disciplined in the proper discipline can determine what will best serve the occasion." Mamet best serves this occasion with a superior thriller about a man of discipline serving his country in spite of itself.

Clay ("Spartan")

John, a man of discipline indeed. Kilmer's Special Forces officer plays his part as though he were interviewing for a position at the Abu Ghraib prison.

Slamming bodies against walls, breaking the arms of those who resisted him, threatening to cut out the eye of an uncooperative detainee, and even slapping around a rather fragile old woman. Val Kilmer's character is Bruce Willis, Alec Baldwin, and Clint Eastwood all rolled into one. No wonder audiences loved him.

No doubt audiences were caught up in the movie's fast moving plot, outrageous twists, and deliberate deceptions. But it’s hard to believe that the Bush supporters watching the movie would be able to accept the movie’s preposterous premise. Which was, that a president of the United States would willfully have people killed in order to carry out his political purposes.

John

That’s not possible.

Clay

Dream on, John

MUSIC UP, THEN CROSS FADE TO
MUSIC #7 (CD)
"ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND"
(CUT 1: THEME)
THEN UNDER

Clay ("50 First Dates"/"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind")

Equally preposterous to romantics like you, John, would be for you to imagine that a lover would be capable of trying to wipe out her memories of you.

John

That’s not possible either.

Clay

Hope you’re not wed to that idea, because that’s exactly what happened in two of the year’s most romantic comedies: “50 First Dates,” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”

In the light-weight "50 First Dates," Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler’s characters fall in love in the first scene in the film, but because Barrymore is suffering from short term memory loss, Sandler discovers he has to begin each day courting her all over again.

In the more emotionally and intellectually demanding "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," Kate Winslet plays "Clementine," a feisty young lady who has had so many bad moments with her lover (as played by a rather morose Jim Carrey), that she goes to a brain doctor who erases her memory of him. Watching the devastating effect of her memory loss upon her former lover is what the movie is all about.

A worthy theme in a time, once again, that we seem to be forgetting the lessons of history.

MUSIC UP, HOLD, THEN SLOWLY CROSS FADE TO
MUSIC #8 (CD)
"25 GREATEST CLASSICS"
(CUT 16: FUR ELISE - BEETHOVEN)
THEN UNDER FOR

John ("Elephant")

Well, Gus Van Sant's "Elephant" is Oscar worthy but won't be an Oscar contender.

Director Van Sant fictionalizes an average high school at which a Columbine-like massacre takes place. Interestingly, he makes no attempt to relay the underlying causes for the young men's decision to slaughter; in fact, he seems to try hard not to supply any reasons except for a brief segment with a boy watching a show on Nazis and a faceless mother serving pancakes.

It's just that the viewer must give in to the director's vision of teenage life as essentially devoid of humor, excitement, and rationale. As one of the murderers tells the other at the beginning of the rampage, "Have fun."

Similar to the current debate about foresight and intention in the Iraq war, the neocons barely explain their wars, and the liberals deplore without alternatives. In other words, crime and its criminals are inscrutable.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT/OR CROSS FADE TO
MUSIC #9 (CD)
"KILL BILL 2"
(CUT 14: "MALEGUENA SALEROSA" -CHINGON)
THEN UNDER FOR

Clay ("Kill Bill 2")

Well, John, "Kill Bill: 2" takes as its setting the inscrutable plains and
desolate barrens of Mexico.

Much slower moving than Vol. 1, "Kill Bill 2" has a pressure cooker beginning, that commences when Bill (David Carradine) makes a surprise entrance and goes face to face with the Bride (Uma) just before her wedding.

No flashy yellow jumpsuit for Uma in "Kill Bill 2," but lots of screen time for her to talk out HER feelings and her determination to revenge the death of her unborn baby.

You'll see her hunting down Bill, you'll witness the bloody battle between her and Elle (as played Daryl Hannah), and be breathless with disbelief when you see the Bride being buried alive.

Hardly a man of peace, Tarantino's "Kill Bill," should take home some of the Oscar gold this year. But the real life events of 2004 will take home the gold for being the bloodiest year we’ve known since the late 1970s.

MUSIC UP, THEN CROSS FADE TO
MUSIC #10 (CD)
"MY ARCHITECT: A SON'S JOURNEY"
(CUT 1: “ADAGIO” OPENING TITLES)
THEN UNDER FOR

John ("My Architect: A Son's Journey")

Clay, the man of peace in my life was my dad. I remember him through the countless hours I spent quietly riding with him as he made his house calls. He was a traveling buddy, not a physician.

Nathaniel Kahn's documentary about this father, Louis Kahn, called "My Architect: A Son's Journey," stands in line this year with fiction films like "Big Fish" and "Barbarian Invasions" as sons search for their fathers, always finding them and themselves at the same time. In "Architect," however, son Nathaniel is different because he loves his roguish father from the start.

The film is Hollywood liberalism that exalts the humanistic search for self through parents and allows art to surpass the confines of ordinary
existence.

It is one of the best documentaries this Oscar year and an unforgettable journey.

MUSIC UP, CROSS FADE TO
MUSIC #11 (CD)
“YOUNG AMERICANS”
(CUT 1: “YOUNG AMERICANS” - DAVID BOWIE VOCALS)
THEN UNDER FOR:

Clay (Lead into Break One)

Unforgettable journey, John. You want an unforgettable journey?

Imagine, when we come back, that our cars break down and we find ourselves having to spend the night in places like “Dogville,” “The Village,” or, the horror of it all, Crawford, Texas.

John

The horror, the horror.

Clay

Stay tuned, folks, there’s more fun and adventure yet ahead.

MUSIC UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT, OR PLAY THROUGH THE BREAK (PRODUCER’S CHOICE)

Break One