WCBE 90.5 FM: Oliver Stone Sampler - "Platoon," "Born on the Fourth of July," "JFK," "Nixon"

WCBE 90.5 FM: OLIVER STONE SAMPLER (EVERGREEN FINAL):
“Platoon,” “Born on the Fourth of July,” “JFK,” “Nixon”
It's Movie Time co-hosts, writers, producers:John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, Friday, June 23, 2006
Streaming Live on the web and on-demand at: http://www.wcbe.orgThe Script

Clay

The release of  “World Trade Center” mandates a second look at some of the earlier reality-based films of Oliver Stone . . .

John

“Platoon” marches to a unique drum . . .

Clay

“Born on the Fourth of July” is full of anger red, white, and blue  . . .

John

“JFK” assassinates the lone-assassin theory . . .

Clay

And “Nixon” was, indeed, the one . . .

HIT THEME MUSIC (STAR WARS), THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

"It's Movie Time" in central Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe.''

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando

Clay

And I’m Clay Lowe (102 words)

Folks, Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center is a fact-based story about what happened to two of the Twin Tower survivors on 9/11.  That the movie has a hidden political agenda, Stone could convincingly deny.  [But those familiar with his impassioned style of filmmaking might find that hard to believe.]

So, John, why on earth would a filmmaker NOT want to make a film that expresses his feelings?  Part of the power of Stone’s film “Platoon” comes from the fact that he was a Viet Nam Vet and that he had experienced, first hand, the outrages we saw depicted in that film.

HIT CD: BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY (CUT 9: "PROLOGUE," WRITTEN BY JOHN WILLIAMS,) THEN UNDER FOR

John (“Platoon” 130 words) (1986)

Although I’ve often thought of Oliver Stone as “his highness of histrionics,” I must admit there is less of his egocentric grandstanding in that 1986 Platoon than almost any of his other films. And it won Oscars for Best Director, Best Editing, Best Sound, and Best Picture.

This discursive and uncompromising version of hell stars an effective Charlie Sheen as an upper-middle class soldier who changes from the first minute he meets combat. Besides realism that some may say borders on Stone’s typical hyperbole, there are sequences that hark back to My-Lai and forward to the current investigation into US soldiers vengefully murdering innocent civilians in Iraq.

Apocalypse Now and Deer Hunter are worthy contemporaries of Platoon, but they are not close to its infamous horror.

MUSIC UP AND CROSS FADE TO CD: BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY (CUT: 3 “BROWN EYED GIRL,”) THEN UNDER FOR

Clay (“Born on the Fourth of July” - 129 words)

Oh, the horror, the horror of it all, indeed, John.  But unlike the other
famous Viet Nam films, Stone’s “Born on the Fourth of July” focused in on one of the war’s strongest supporters.   A gung ho U.S. marine by the name of Ron Kovic (played by Tom Cruise) who volunteered for a second tour of duty in Viet Nam because he so loved his country.

That his view changed when he caught a bullet in the spine is not what disillusioned him; it was the way he was treated, or not treated when he found himself confined for life to a wheel chair.  His angry turn about eventually made him a leader of the U.S. Anti-War movement and, even today, fuels his opposition to the war in Iraq.

MUSIC UP, THEN CROSS FADE TO CD: “BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY” (CUT: 14 “BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY,” JOHN WILLIAMS), THEN UNDER FOR

John (“JFK” 1991) (122 words)

Let’s go, then, to POLITICAL combat.

Stone’s 1991 JFK tells us nothing about the glamorous president but everything about his assassination in 1963--except who conspired with Lee Harvey Oswald. Although Kevin Costner’s believable Big Easy prosecutor Jim Garrison makes a convincing case against businessman Clay Shaw (Tommy Lee Jones), Shaw is exonerated not without a subsequent claim by the CIA’s Richard Helms that Shaw perjured himself.

So Stone has an axe to grind against Shaw but can’t make the final statement. What he does do, however, is  advise the world that a conspiracy must have existed, the Warren Report notwithstanding.

For conspiracy theorists JFK is history at its best; for cinephiles it is
Stone working at his best looking at history through his very personal lens.

MUSIC UP, THEN UNDER AGAIN FOR:

Clay (“Nixon” - 133 words)

Aye, John, and that’s the rub that angers Oliver Stone’s critics.  Should
filmmakers hedge on how they see the truth simply because the people are so easily “taken in” by a filmmaker’s manipulations?

There is no doubt that Olive Stone’s vision of Richard Nixon is as dark  as  Orson Welles’ vision of Charles Foster Kane.  And there’s little doubt that parallels exist between Stone’s life and that of Nixon.  [Just as parallels existed between the lives of Welles and Kane.]
Though not as brilliant as Citizen Kane, Stone does borrow many of its
devices.  The camera moving through the gates of the White House, the
newsreels advancing the story, and the shots of the estranged husband and a wife at the opposite ends of the dinner table.

Two tragic men, two tragic women, and two tragic films.

MUSIC UP, THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John (47 words)

Oliver Stone is a certifiable auteur: His stamp is on every film he makes.

Although he may bend history for his own agenda, few can deny he provokes debate and creates lasting images.

Stone the artist teaches and delights, accomplishments any other director should envy.

John (Continues)

Clay, Oliver Stone exhausts me. I’m going to talk myself to sleep about wars and presidents with my Russian interpreter.

I'm outta here.

Clay

Well, John, if you’ll tape that sleep-talk, I’ll see that it gets archived,
with no missing gaps, on WCBE.org.

I’m outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CD: “BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY,” (CUT 6: “SOLDIER BOY,”) THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle

The award winning "It's Movie Time" is co-hosted, written, and now produced by John DeSando
and Clay for WCBE 90.5. FM

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright 2006 by John DeSando & Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM: "An Inconvenient Truth," "Over the Hedge," "L'Enfant"

WCBE 90.5 FM: An Inconvenient Truth, Over the Hedge, LEnfant
It's Movie Time co-hosts, writers, producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: 3:01 pm & 8:01 pm, June 16, 2006
Streaming Live on the web and on-demand at: http://www.wcbe.org

The Script

John

An Inconvenient Truth CONVENIENTLY reminds us that Al Gore is warming along with the globe . . .

Clay

Over the Hedge is where the wild things are people . . .

John

LEnfant is TERRIBLE MAIS BON . . .

HIT MUSIC THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

"It's Movie Time" in central Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe.''

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando

and Im Clay Lowe

John (An Inconvenient Truth 126 words)

Al Gore is not waffling these days: He believes deeply in humanitys acceleration of global warming through harmful practices known well around the world. His documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, is also 100 minutes of mildly engaging Gore, not the failed campaigner for president in 2000.

The waffling comes now from the general population divided on the causes and remedies. But photos of earth before and after showing retreating shorelines and shrinking glaciers are convincing.

A subtext of this smartly-crafted doc is whether or not Al Gore can be a viable candidate in 2008. Yet the more salient question is whether the planet can SURVIVE long enough to let him do what he couldnt in eight years as vice president: Halt the inescapable warming of the earth.

Clay (Over the Hedge 130 words)

Well, folks, in Over the Hedge you may only partially warm up to the noisy little creatures who wake up one morning and discover their woodlands have been edged in by a huge hedge. That will teach them to sleep all winter.

But RJ the Raccoon (voiced by Bruce Willis) has already been over on the other side exploring the endless expanse of suburban homes whose cupboards are chocked full of fast food.
So, in the best heist tradition, RJ gathers together his forest friends and persuades them to joinhim in a quest to liberate that food.

On the human side is the Home Owners President who screams she will do whatever it takes to drive out her woodland invaders, even if she has to violate the Geneva Conventions.

And so it goes.

John (L Enfant 130 words)

This next film may drive them right back into hibernation.

The most exhilaratingly depressing movie in years is L Enfant, a winner at Cannes about street-gang Bruno and girlfriend Sonias out of wedlock baby. The central incident is his selling the baby and his attempt to get it back when she is hospitalized upon learning about his irresponsibility.

As only Europeans would dare to do, most of the shots are close-ups and glacial next to quick-cut American films. L Enfant miraculously keeps our sympathy for Bruno while he commits numerous antisocial acts.

Making him sympathetic is a marvelous feat given his slacker, emotionless persona.
Although Bruno has been damaged in his childhood, he shows an ability to be kind that partially redeems him in our eyes while never demanding we forgive him or predicting his success in life.

He is an enfant.

Clay (L Enfant 130 words)

An enfant, indeed John, as are we all in our most helpless moments. And thats where we find our characters when this story begins. Set in a bleak industrial town in eastern Belgium, its no wonder that these young people reflect the despair of the landscape around them.

Sure, they start out happy just to be together. They laugh, romp, roll, and playfully kiss but Brunos inner demons (or emptiness or lack of purpose) will not let him be. But its not until we witness his complete disregard for the feelings of others that we become convinced he is un-redeemable.

Dont give up too soon, however, or you'll miss the films astonishing
close. For during that last scene youll finally come to understand why despair can sometimes leadto catharsis.

But enough of global warming, urban sprawl, and blighted industrial landscapes, John, because
its grading time.

John

Holy HOTTIE Gore, Hooray!

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

John

An Inconvenient Truth earns a B for making Al Gore a man less than BORING . . . .

Clay

Over the Hedge gets a C because the CAUSE is right, but the movies CUTE little CREATURES are far too hyper . . .

John

L Enfant earns an A because ADOPTION is NOT an OPTION . . .

Clay

L Enfant gets a B because its a BIT unfair to wait until a movies last scene before your characters finally connect with their audience . . .

John

Clay, Im wondering why its so easy NOW to warm up to Al Gore. Maybe I should ask Karl Rove how THIS global warming could happen.

I'm outta here.

Clay

Well, John, Karl Rove probably couldnt care less about global warming, but he may still be worried about all that gore in Iraq . . .

Im outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT MUSIC, THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle

The award winning "It's Movie Time" is co-hosted, written, and now produced by John

DeSando and Clay for WCBE 90.5. FM

MUSIC DOWN AND OUT

Copyright 2006 by John DeSando & Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM: "A Prairie Home Companion," "Cars"

WCBE 90.5 FM: “A Prairie Home Companion,” “Cars”
It's Movie Time co-hosts, writers, producers:
John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: 3:01 pm & 8:01 pm, June 9, 2006

Streaming Live on the web and on-demand at: http://www.wcbe.org

The Script

Clay

“A Prairie Home Companion” is as warm as the sun and as dry as the dust . . .

John

“Cars” races to  a box office victory . . .

HIT MUSIC (“STAR WARS THEME”), THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

"It's Movie Time" in central Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe.''

MUSIC UP, THEN SEQUE TO (CD: “A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION,” CUT 3: MUDSLIDE), THEN UNDER FOR

John

I'm John DeSando,

And I’m Clay Lowe.

MUSIC UP, THEN UNDER AGAIN FOR:

John (“A Prairie Home Companion”  130 words)

Clay: If there is anyone more laid back or brighter than Garrison Keillor in show business, let me know, because Robert Altman’s A Prairie Home Companion, based on Keillor’s long-running Minnesota Public Radio success, shows Keillor as an audience sees him each week—like a god gently guiding an eccentric ensemble through excellent performances made to look as easy as his demeanor.  

Clay

An easy demeanor indeed, John.

John

This film stands near Altman’s Nashville as a testimony to the director’s gift for sustaining strong characters in layers of dialogue approximating overlapping conversations at an interesting party.

So enjoyable are Altman, his ubiquitous HD camera, and his busy dialogue that you feel a part of the proceedings, catching the sweet smell of success for everyone attached to this thoroughly realized song of love to radio, music, and creativity.

Clay (“A Prairie Home Companion”)

Well, folks, you’ve got to love a movie that has my co-host waxing poetic. Especially over an old radio show that’s chock full of wisdom and nostalgia that’s homespun. But, in this case, he’s dead-on.

Because just as Jonathn Demme made Nashville’s old Ryman Auditorium glow in his film “Neil Young: Heart of Gold,” so too does Altman bring to glowing life the old Fitzgerald Theatre in St. Paul, which is of course, the home of the real “Prairie Home Companion.”

Credit Keiller for keeping his script as easy going as his persona, and credit Altman for discovering a kindred spirit in this man who has managed to keep “A Prairie Home Companion” on the air for thirty-two years.

And don’t forget the musicians and cast. They are marvellous too.

MUSIC UP, THEN SLOWLY UNDER AND OUT

John (“Cars” 121 words)

In Cars,  the creators of Toy Story take us to an imaginative world with just autos grooving to the sounds of competition, love, and family values.

The heart of Cars rests on heart:  preserving the past of small town values with big heart.  Because Cars is red-state red meat, Hollywood may be pandering to its neocon critics. But the film delivers sentiment closer to reality than toys or bugs or closet bugaboos could ever do. It’s about love in all its forms as the source of happiness.

However, J.D. Salinger keeps us grounded when he says, “I don’t even like old cars . . . .  I’d rather have a goddam horse. A horse is at least human, for God’s sake.” 

Clay (“Cars” 130 words)

Well, folks, Salinger may have never watched a race horse break a leg, but lots of people have watched race cars slam into walls, crash into crowds, and of course, smash into each other. And that’s no doubt, part of the draw of this Pixar-animated, fast-paced, G-rated film.

But “Cars” delivers more than thrills and chills. Because, despite the arrogance of Lightining McQueen, this red-hot rookie race car (voiced by Owen Wilson) is forced to learn some lessons in humility when he dead-ends in Radiator Springs, somewhere along Route Sixty-Six.

But that’s not all, he also learns to have fun . . . And, yep, he even falls in love. So send the boys out for popcorn when that happens, so they can get back in time for the big race.

But enough of Robert Altman, Garrison Keillor, and Rusty old diners, John, because it’s grading time.

John

Holy  , Hooray!

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

John

“A Prairie Home Companion” earns an “A” for ARTFULLY ACCEPTING death within life . . .

Clay

“A Prairie Home Companion” gets an “A” because its “AW-Shucks” cast is both AWKWARD and ADORABLE  . . .

John

“Cars”  earns an “A” for ANIMATION that goes beyond ANIMATION. . .

Clay

“Cars” gets an “A” because it’s lots of fun even though it’s ALSO very noisy.

HIT MUSIC (CD: A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION, CUT 25: GUY NOIR), THEN UNDER FOR

John

Clay, here’s how I first became interested in radio. It was Marilyn Monroe speaking about posing nude on her famous calendar:

“It’s not true that I had nothing on. I had the radio on.” 

What got you interested?

Clay

Well, John, because I was only five when I began to listen to the radio, my first hero was Orson Welles, who was the original voice of The Shadow . . . and that’s the naked truth.

I’m outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT MUSIC (CD: “A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION,” CUT 5: GUY NOIR), THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle

The award winning "It's Movie Time" is co-hosted, written, and now produced by John DeSando and Clay for WCBE 90.5. FM

SEQGUE TO CUT 15: “FRANKIE & JOHNNY, MUSIC UP THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright 2006 by John DeSando & Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM: "The Break-Up," "Water," "Keeping Up With the Steins"

WCBE 90.5 FM: The Break-Up Water, Keeping Up With The Steins
It's Movie Time co-hosts, writers, producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: 3:01 pm & 8:01 pm, June 2, 2006
Streaming Live on the web and on-demand at: http://www.wcbe.org

The Script

Clay

The Break-Up is another break-out comedy for Vince Vaughn and his real-life honey . . .

John

Water SWIMS in social protest and sentimentality . . . .

And Keeping Up With The Steins barely keeps up with the satire . . .

HIT MUSIC THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

"It's Movie Time" in central Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe.''

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando

And Im Clay Lowe (The Break-UP 130 words)

Folks, it wasnt long ago that when I heard a new Vince Vaughn movie was coming to town, Id deliberately miss the screening. Think of him trying to play Tony Perkins in Gus Van Sants Psycho, for instance.

But ever since Wedding Crashers Ive begun to like the guy. Nevertheless it was with an ever vigilant attitude of hope that I attended an early screening of The Break-Up.

The good news? Its not bad. The bad news? Its not Annie Hall. But give Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston credit, their rapid fire attacks on each other are charmingly delightful even though what they say is nasty and mean.

Forget the rest of the cast, these two are the perfect failed couple.

Maybe thats because shes a woman and hes a man.

John (Water 128 words)

She IS a woman!

Clay

Indeed.

John

Bollywood and Hollywood with a dash of serious cinema: Thats Deepa Mehtas Water. In 1930s India, widows are an oppressed class, relegated to an existence without meaning because their usually older husbands had the temerity to die while some of the girls were too young to have even seen the old men.

Clay

Shame on them . . .

John

I know you feel their pain.

Water is Mehtas statement about the crushing power of tradition and the sacrifices necessary to stop corrupt caste and custom. The upbeat music and scenes with two unearthly beautiful lovers remind me of the glossy feel-good sequences endemic to Bollywood musicals and Harlequin novels.

Mehta saves the film from the maudlin with a denouement reflecting the exhilaration of idealism over pragmatism and the reality of payments due for each humanistic advance.

Clay (Water 130 words)

Folks, its is easy to be a bit flippant about this movie because the filmmakers send us mixed signals.

When the young 8 year old widow is shorn of her hair and sent to a convent-like retreat full of lifelong grieving widows, it looks like a scene from Oliver Twist or The Sisters Magdeleine.
But when the young girl finds a beautiful new friend among the widows, new life comes to them all. The films colors become more lush, the music richer, and even the mean old head of the widows asylum warms up to her charges.

That some religious sects oppress women is serious business. But that the film Water states the problem, then paints rosy hues around its edges, does damage to its pleading call for reform.

John (Keeping Up With the Steins 125 words)

And the law is now on their side, but tradition is the tyrant, such as in Keeping Up with the Steins, a comedy about Benjamin Fiedlers competitive bar mitzvah. That 13 year old jumps into the backyard pool to avoid his dysfunctional family.

Benjamin Braddock of The Graduate he is not, nor does director Scott Marshall have even an iota of Mike Nichols ability to draw a witty comedy from a scathing satire of ambitious Southern California parents and their clueless sons.

Adam Fiedler (Jeremy Pevin) wants to best neighbor Arnie Steins outlandish bar mitzvah for his son, which included a Titanic theme that almost outdoes the disaster film in theatricality and expense. But Benjamin is not with the program, having far less ambition, really just wanting to get through the ceremony.

The film sinks after that humorous, skewering Titanic sequence.

Clay

Well, enough of sinking ships, John, quarreling couples, and waterlogged widows, because its grading time.

John

Holy Harlequins, Hooray!

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

Clay

The Break-Up gets a B because its good summer fun that's BOUND to make you laugh and cry . . .

John

Water earns a B for its BREATHTAKING cinematography and tradition-BENDING tale .. .

Clay

Water gets a C because its CAUSE is good, but its look is far too pretty . . .

John

Keeping Up With The Steins earns a D for DAMAGING the DELICATE art of satire. . .

Clay, with 30 million widows in India alone, Im sure theres an older one out there who would put up with a contrarian, celibate critic such as you . . . I'm outta here.

Clay

Put up with, put out with? Come on, John--

Neither rain, nor snow, nor gloom of night shall keep this celibate from continuing to make his solitary rounds.

Im outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT MUSIC (BRENDA LEE), THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle

The award winning "It's Movie Time" is co-hosted, written, and now produced by John

DeSando and Clay for WCBE 90.5. FM

MUSIC DOWN AND OUT

Copyright 2006 by John DeSando & Clay Lowe