People Before Profit blog

Has “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” suited up for failure?

Mon, 30 Sep 2013 10:50:00 +0000

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which premiered September 24 on ABC, is a show based on a Marvel Comics series, and takes place in the same fictional universe as films like Iron Man and Thor. The series picks up after the events of 2012 summer blockbuster The Avengers, focusing on a team of agents who investigate the fallout from superhero conflicts, alien invasions, and other strange phenomena. Seemingly equal parts espionage, sci-fi, and police procedural, the show is interesting in that it offers a behind-the-curtain look at this fantastical world of heroes. But in many ways, it may have missed its mark.

Lead character Phil Coulson (who has appeared in most of the major in-universe films), played by Clark Gregg, is the focal point of the show. He leads a team of agents from government organization S.H.I.E.L.D. to handle the problems that "major players" like Iron Man and Captain America can't take care of. While investigating an apparent hacktivist group called The Rising Tide, and a mysterious alien-related conspiracy called Project Centipede, the team is pulled into a confrontation with a man whose superhuman abilities are spinning out of control.

As a point of interest, S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division) offered a workingclass, anti-one percenter perspective in its premiere episode. The main plot focused on Mike Peterson (J. August Richards), a laid off African-American factory worker trying to provide for his son. When offered the chance to make a change in his life by Project Centipede, Peterson is implanted with technology giving him powerful - and unstable - abilities. It isn't hard for the audience to empathize with the man when he is later confronted by the Agents.

Those agents, by the way, could easily prove to be a point of contention for viewers, as some of these "suits" are seemingly little more than pseudo-CIA cronies, despite the showrunners' attempts to give them emotion or depth. The only characters who are intriguing are Coulson and sarcastic hacker Skye (Chloe Bennet). The other main characters are boring clichés who don't warrant much attention.

Speaking of clichés, the pilot is full of them. They pockmark an otherwise fairly attractive television concept. It simply doesn't make sense to begin Episode One with the typical "hero pulling a woman out of a burning building" scene, as it's a been there-done that sort of thing, and thus an immediate turnoff.

The other primary issue is that the series seems to haphazardly juggle a number of half-formed (though potentially interesting) concepts, such as alien conspiracies and anti-government hacking agendas (to which character Skye might be linked). It's too soon to predict, but this appears to be a series with an identity crisis. Its weaknesses are alleviated by the snappy dialogue and hole-free plot, both signatures of executive producer Joss Whedon (who directed The Avengers).

But the episode ends on a rather lackluster note after a monotonous showdown between S.H.I.E.L.D. and Mike Peterson in Los Angeles' Union Station. Nothing ever really becomes suspenseful, and anything remotely interesting is only a tease at this point. Given that the comics the show is based on have such a rich legacy of interesting story arcs, I can't help but feel that S.H.I.E.L.D. is squandering its potential. Time will tell, and we have yet to see if more elements will be pulled in from the comics, as has been done with recent popular DC Comics series Arrow.

Meanwhile, at the very least, the show will have the Marvel films both to pull from and fall back on, but it should not use them as a crutch to make up for weak storytelling. Nevertheless, fans may eventually encounter some cameos from big-name actors such as Samuel L. Jackson (as his character Nick Fury) and possibly even Jeremy Renner (as Hawkeye). That being said, don't expect any appearances from Robert Downey Jr. And don't expect the in-film characters to dominate the show. S.H.I.E.L.D. will have to rely solely on the acting chops of its main cast. Let's hope they're up to the task.

"Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."

Clark Gregg, Chloe Bennet, Brett Dalton, Elizabeth Henstridge, Cobie Smulders

Created and executive produced by Joss Whedon

Photo: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Facebook page

"Awake and Sing!": Classic proletarian theater, so timely

Fri, 27 Sep 2013 15:34:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES - Newcomers to the work of Clifford Odets, the Group Theatre's greatest dramatist, as well as longtime fans familiar with this avatar of proletarian theater, are in for a treat at North Hollywood's Lonny Chapman Theatre.

The American classic Awake and Sing! was first presented by the venerable Group Theatre in 1935 on Broadway, directed by Harold Clurman, co-starring Stella Adler and Sanford Meisner, those thespians who, like Clurman, became legendary acting teachers, along with other Group talents.

Awake and Sing! revolves around a hard-pressed Jewish family struggling during the Great Depression in a cramped Bronx apartment. Odets' drama is noteworthy for the realism of its plot and dialogue that naturalistically depict a slice of ethnic New York working class life. There are bills to be paid, dirty diapers to be changed and washed, and the characters' lines are sprinkled with Yiddish and slang words that 1930s theatergoers were unaccustomed to hearing in a legit theater.

Bessie (Michele Bernath) wears the pants in the Berger household, infusing her fatigue with compassionate insight, and holding her tribe together. Patrick Burke convincingly plays Bessie's browbeaten, nebbishy husband Myron, "heartbroken without being aware of it." Their children - tall, lanky Christine Joëlle as Hennie, and the smoldering Troy Whitaker as Ralph - dream of better, freer lives.

The family's most interesting character is the 70-ish Jacob, a barber who hasn't amounted to much in the capitalist sense. Instead of being the Bergers' patriarch, he is "a constant boarder" in the Berger home. Stan Mazin's portrayal embodies the Jewish socialist tradition, but Jacob seems doomed by the capitalist system he has, alas, been unable to overthrow. Jacob longs to transmit his idealism to long-suffering Ralphie, with whom he shares a coveted grandparent/grandchild bond.

In a country where money doesn't just talk, it screams, Uncle Morty is an American success story (translation: he's made a pile of dough by exploiting others). Robert Gallo cunningly captures the essence of this businessman, with hand gestures revealing that the family's rich uncle is a pretentious poseur, who's really nothing but an avaricious if avuncular peddler.

Moe Axelrod is a disabled World War I veteran full of yearning. Every vet should flock to see Daniel Kaemon's depiction of this wounded warrior, one of those tragically displaced males who went and fought their country's battles, then to be neglected, with nothing to show for their sacrifices. Kaemon's passionate outbursts make Moe, who realizes that he has simply been used as cannon fodder and speaks eloquently of the horror of war, this production's most compelling character.

What paths will the dramatis personae pursue? That of individual gratification or doing what's best for the collective? The different directions the characters take can be seen in Odets' own divided psyche. He joined the Communist Party, then attained immense success on Broadway and in Hollywood, where his stage hit Golden Boy was adapted for the screen. John Turturro mercilessly parodied the writer of pro-worker and anti-Nazi plays who turned L.A. screenwriter, in the Coen Brothers' 1991 satire Barton Fink.

And "Fink," alas, is right: In 1952, during his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee, the internally split Odets alternately sparred and collaborated with HUAC's grand inquisitors, his capitulation an indelible stain on his record.

Nevertheless, this dialectical division within Odets' soul propels the protagonists in Awake and Sing! How ironic that the impetus Jacob gives mousey Ralphie to assert himself comes not in the form of Marxist consciousness, but rather in that most bourgeois of things: money.

Group Rep's Artistic Director Larry Eisenberg skillfully directs each member of the ensemble on Chris Winfield's set, which has great verisimilitude. Viewers may feel as if they are peering through the fourth wall into a Bronx living room, instead of sitting in a North Hollywood playhouse.

Awake and Sing! is being presented by the Group Repertory Theatre at the Lonny Chapman Theatre, 10900 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood, Calif., on Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and on Sunday at 2 p.m. through Nov. 3. For more info: (818)763-5990; www.theGrouprep.com.

Note: A new book co-authored by this reviewer, "The Hawaii Movie and Television Book," published by Honolulu's Mutual Publishing, drops Nov. 20.

Films depict Palestinians' tragedy, humanity

Fri, 27 Sep 2013 15:17:00 +0000

TORONTO - There's a definite increase of films by and about Palestinians being shown around the world, and several were shown at the Toronto International Film Festival this year. As funding and talent develop, the courage and determination of Palestinians fighting to remain and survive on their rightful land occupied by one of the most persistent and brutal military forces is depicted in stories that reveal the deceitful and inhumane treatment of the occupier.

Quickly gaining world prominence, filmmaker Hany Abu Assad, director of the first Palestinian Academy Award nominee, Paradise Now, brings us Omar, the Jury Prize winner at this year's Cannes Film Festival. It's a moving story of a young Palestinian man co-opted into becoming an informant after he is imprisoned and tortured. By using the insidious method of pauperizing the population and then blackmailing people into informing on each other, Israel has reached the point of desperation in its attempts to maintain control of other people's land, an action almost the entire world has condemned.

Without the occupation, Omar would probably just be a young boy in love with a young girl, working at a bakery, enjoying the love of his family and friends and being free to travel anywhere he wants in his own country. But in reality, Omar is forced to climb a rope 30 feet high over the illegal separation wall just to get to work and sometimes visit his girlfriend. His friends are involved in the killing of an Israeli soldier, and Omar gets arrested first. Adam Bakri debuts in a physically demanding role climbing walls, jumping between rooftops and balancing precariously above the city, all without the assist of a stunt actor. Eventually Omar is confronted with the fact there's a traitor in his group, and betrayal becomes yet another tragic obstacle to deal with in his quest for freedom in his own land. And the way he deals with it makes this one of the most compelling and intense dramas that in addition offers one of the most shocking endings in recent memory.

The Israeli funded film Bethlehem tells a similar story, but from the Israeli point of view. Here the Palestinians are more treacherous, disloyal and inhuman. They betray and hate each other while the disciplined and morally virtuous Israeli military forces do their duty to protect their people from crazed "terrorists." Once again we're dealing with an Israeli Secret Service agent (Razi) and a young Palestinian (Sanfur) who is in their employ as an informant. The film almost appears as a commercial to entice more Palestinians to abandon their struggle and rat against their own people for special favors. Here, the dissension between Palestinian factions is exploited and even satirized at points, as for example when they show opposing groups fighting over a corpse to use as a martyr for their own cause.

Although the director has stated his attempt was to show "the hard reality where innocent people are losing their lives on a daily basis," contempt, ridicule and lack of compassion for the "enemy" lies just below the surface of this supposed intellectual exercise about loyalty and morality.

In a much more accessible and entertaining manner, if that's possible in a land of constant sorrow and grief, Palestine Stereo, directed by the gifted talent Rashid Masharawi (Ticket to Jerusalem, Laila's Birthday), tells a touching story about life after bombardment. Stereo lost his wife and his brother Sami lost his hearing and speech as a result of an Israeli air bombardment. Sami, in his state of confusion and loss, also gives up on his girlfriend. The brothers decide their only hope is to move to Canada, but they need to raise large sums of money. They set up sound systems for protests, weddings, conferences and rallies to raise money to emigrate. A friend even donates an old ambulance for them to carry portable equipment into difficult areas, which often times during conflicts is confused for a real ambulance, much to the dismay of the injured.

The movie addresses many issues, and parodies the hypocrisy and opportunism of political leaders who keep repeating the same speeches but provide no real changes. Stereo says to his brother, "I envy you for not hearing all the bullshit about liberty." But their plan runs into obstacles as friends and family force them to reconsider their decision to leave. Sami's girlfriend laments, "Don't let the occupation ruin everything." They start to feel their job of providing sound systems for rallies and other urgent events is "making money off of tragedies." They question whether they can or want to leave everything behind.

This seemingly lighthearted story reaches deep into the question of national loyalty and ultimately pays tribute to those Palestinians who remain to defend their land under the most challenging conditions.

One of the most heartwarming stories at the Toronto Film Festival this year is Giraffada, which tells the tale of Yacine (Saleh Bakri), the veterinarian of the only zoo remaining in the Palestinian West Bank. He lives alone with his 10-year-old son Ziad, who seems to be training to follow in his father's footsteps.

Because his father is non-religious and his mother is deceased, Ziad is ostracized at school and rejected by his peers, but finds consolation in a pair of giraffes that seem to represent parental love to him. He nurtures and feeds them daily. But during an Israeli bombing near the zoo, the male giraffe is frightened, hits his head on a pipe and dies. The female giraffe stops eating and is nearing death unless they can find another mate for her. This is where the story really begins, as Yacine makes efforts to locate another male giraffe in the region.

At times fantastic and often comical, the story involves a local food vendor who is a sort of grandfatherly figure to Ziad, in a highly convincing manner, not surprisingly since the role is played by the legendary Palestinian actor Mohammad Bakri (K, Jenin, Jenin,) himself the real father of the actor who plays Yacine. It's a touching role, perfect for the well-loved artist who has given so much to his people and the struggle for his homeland. This is a touching family drama with great acting and a wonderful ending.

Photo: A scene from Giraffada. Toronto International Film Festival website

Must-see film “Inequality For All” opens Sept. 27

Thu, 26 Sep 2013 15:07:00 +0000

(ILCA) - Robert Reich, the economist, professor of Public Policy at University of California Berkeley, and former labor secretary during the Clinton administration, has teamed up with filmmaker Jacob Kornbluth to make the new documentary, Inequality for All, which opens this Friday. Reich narrates the film, which uses footage from his classes at Berkeley, as well as some of his personal history. The focus though, is on the facts, such as the U.S. being the nearly most wealth-unequal country in the world, and how the top 400 have more wealth than that bottom 150 million - or half of the country.

He also notes how the average male worker makes less today than he did in 1978 (adjusted for inflation), as well as the relationship between strong unions and a strong middle class. He ends the film with a reminder of how the situation, while dire, is one that we can change, and then calls on the audience to do just that. The accompanying website offers facts and a call to action, including one to strengthen worker's voices by allowing workers to form a union. You can watch the trailer here as well as the Inequality for All website.

From Mandela to Philomena at Chicago Film Festival

Tue, 24 Sep 2013 12:23:00 +0000

Heading into its 49^th season, the Chicago International Film Festival is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America. With over 150 titles from over 50 countries, there is a wealth of films to choose from for any progressive viewer.

Last year's festival presented many provocative films including As Goes Janesville, one of the many great films chronicling the assault on working people in Wisconsin, in the league with We Are Wisconsin, Citizen Koch and Michael Moore's powerful filmed speech, America is NOT Broke.

One of the most creative films shown last year reveals the relationship between art and social activism: Art of Conflict shows the many political murals in Northern Ireland depicting the struggle for independence. Fascinating interviews with the muralists and activists from both sides creates amazing dialectics that give life to the murals as they change daily during the struggle.

Ken Burns' Central Park Five had its U.S. premiere in Chicago and has gone on to be one of the top documentaries touring the festival circuit. It reveals the injustice suffered by the young men who were unjustly arrested for the tragic 1989 jogger rape case, and who spent many years in prison.

Anand Patwardhan's Jai Bhim Comrade is a lengthy in-depth study of the Indian caste system and the injustice endured for centuries by the Dalits, or "Untouchables." Priceless footage of people rarely filmed, let alone considered, is carefully selected by the progressive director Patwardhan who challenges the masters of Indian cinema with his own probing 14-year project.

A provocative reenactment of the 2001 G8 Summit protests in Genoa that resulted in a bloody response from the police, Diaz Don't Clean Up This Blood depicts the violence of the state apparatus so accurately that the film couldn't get funding in Italy, and had to be shot in neighboring Romania. It's a remarkable artistic achievement that is an absolute must-see for activists.

A comedy from Iran at first would appear oxymoronic, but Adel Yaraghi's Meeting Leila provides yet another example of the deeply humanistic cinema that pours from filmmakers in that threatened country. An advertising agent needs to quit smoking in order to marry the woman he loves, who is played by the great Iranian actress Leila Hatami. But smoking is part of his creative process and the challenge provides many humorous and poignant episodes in this totally charming battle of the spouses. In the process, the viewer is treated to the realities of life in a country Westerners know little about, and yet another fine reason to attend great Film Festivals in order to see rare and important films that would otherwise be difficult to view.

This year's Chicago International Film Festival will run Oct 10-24 and once again will offer the chance to see the world seldom seen elsewhere. Several of the best films from Toronto will also be shown in Chicago. Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave, winner of Toronto's Audience Award and reviewed here previously, offers a fresh and chilling view of American slavery. Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom sold out every screening in Toronto. British actor Idris Elba (Stringer in The Wire) plays the revolutionary icon in an award-winning performance. Philomena stars Judi Dench in a wrenching performance as an unwed mother in search of the child she was forced to give up for adoption in Catholic Ireland. It's directed by master filmmaker Stephen Frears, who's given us over 50 great films in his career, including Dangerous Liaisons, Dirty Pretty Things, The Queen and My Beautiful Launderette.

Several highly revered documentarists have their latest films premiering in Toronto and now in Chicago.

Famed documentary-maker Errol Morris provided us with an in-depth view of a former U.S. secretary of defense in The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (see this commentary). Now Morris felt compelled to cover the other major defense secretary in his life, Donald Rumsfeld. The Unknown Known focuses on Rumsfeld, and for most of our readers who've had enough of him, here's a chance to rejoice in seeing Morris quickly reveal Rumsfeld's shallowness and vanity. Morris will also be at the Chicago festival to be honored for his creative filmmaking, which includes such classics as Brief History of Time, Fast, Cheap & Out of Control, Standard Operating Procedure and The Thin Blue Line.

French documentarian Claude Lanzmann, famous for his 1975 Holocaust epic Shoah, revisits one of the interviewees from that film in The Last of the Unjust, Viennese rabbi Benjamin Murmelstein, who worked with Nazi Adolf Eichmann to help emigrate 120,000 Jews from war-ravaged Germany.

The other legendary American documentarist represented here, Frederick Wiseman (Hospital, Titicut Follies, Public Housing, Welfare) has spent his life documenting people working inside institutions. Here he goes for the college setting. At Berkeley probes the educational environment, academically, financially and politically, as it ponders the future of American education.

This year the Chicago International Film Festival will offer several free panel discussions including Documentary: Ethics and Aesthetics, Spotlight on African Filmmakers, The Political and The Personal and Meet the Critics (not yours truly unfortunately). CIFF celebrates Italian comedies this year including Nanni Moretti's The Mass Is Ended and Fellini's Amorcord, both relevant to progressive viewers.

The entire list of films can be downloaded at the f estival website, where you can also get tickets and schedules for America's oldest international film festival.

Toronto Festival: New films feature Wikileaks, American slavery, Bolivar

Fri, 20 Sep 2013 11:52:00 +0000

TORONTO - The Toronto International Film Festival kicked off another 10 day-run of amazing cinema Sept 5-15. Long acclaimed the greatest film festival in the Western Hemisphere, second only to Cannes in the world, TIFF offers over 350 films of such breadth and variety that a diehard progressive could easily find dozens of films worthy of attention. Although 93 percent are world premieres from over 70 countries, sadly many will never hit the big screen in the U.S. except at film festivals, but hopefully you'll be able to find them on cable TV or Netflix.

Biopics were abundant this year with an atypical opening night featuring a non-Canadian film, The Fifth Estate by U.S. director Bill Condon (Kinsey, Dreamgirls). Attempting to capitalize on the success of The Social Network, the story covers the beginning days of WikiLeaks and the eventual fallout between Julian Assange and his short-lived co-partner, Daniel Berg. With the script based on Berg's tell-all book, Inside WikiLeaks, it's not surprising who looks good and who is treated as an egotistical dictator, even though well-played by Benedict Cumberbatch, an uncanny look-alike for Assange. The film sides with Berg, and Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning surprisingly, but fails to praise the courageous Assange, who started as a young hacker in Australia and has gone on to become a hero for activists around the world.

This film follows on the heels of another anti-Assange diatribe, Alex Gibney's We Steal Secrets, denounced by WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange. A much better film about his early years in Australia, Underground: The Julian Assange Story, was released last year featuring Alex Williams in a wonderful performance as the young hacker. Also, Assange has been hosting a TV series on RT called The World Tomorrow, where you can get an upfront sense of his style and personality as he interviews world leaders - the real personality that does not match the maniacal portrayal in Fifth Estate.

A powerful film that also includes a great performance by British actor Cumberbatch, is Steve McQueen's (Hunger, Shame) brilliant recreation of American slavery, 12 Years a Slave. A free black musician in 1841 New York is kidnapped while on a business trip to Washington and finds himself chained and sold into slavery in Georgia. Based on a true story, the film will easily be compared to the Tarantino's Django Unchained, primarily because there are just too few films dealing with the realities of America's shameful past. But this film is much more accurate and serious, and the unbelievable portrayal of musician/slave Solomon Northrup by sure-to-be Academy Award nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor, is focused and committed. Without blinking an eye, he is determined to return to freedom someday despite some of the most cruel and inhuman treatment ever depicted on screen. It might be that it takes a non-American, in this case a British director, to help shed new light on our own sordid past.

12 Years a Slave won top honors, earning the prestigious People's Choice Award as Best Film of the Festival. This film will be talked about for a long time, and ranks up there with the great TV series Roots.

Also at TIFF and similar in many ways - from the UK and based on a true story about slavery - is the magnificently acted period piece Belle. A young mulatto girl is adopted into a family of class and wealth during the slave trade in the 1700s. Issues of race, class and gender are addressed in the household of the highest judge in the country. It is a powerful story that eventually forced the British to change their laws on slavery.

An epic treatment of the life of the great Latin American hero, Venezuelan General Simon Bolivar, premiered in the Special Presentation section of the Toronto festival. The Liberator is reportedly the most massive and expensive film in Latin American history, with a cast of thousands, and many years in the making.

It covers the period from Bolivar's first marriage to his death in 1830 and features a rising star, the Venezuelan actor Édgar Ramírez, who starred recently in Carlos and Soderbergh's Che. This time he gets to play his country's national hero, and it's unfortunate that the late President Hugo Chavez died before seeing this monumental depiction of the great fighter for Latin American unity that shaped Chavez' entire political career.

Photo: A scene from 12 Years a Slave. Fox Searchlight

Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine” is Oscar material

Fri, 20 Sep 2013 11:19:00 +0000

After recent excursions in Europe, Woody Allen has brought his filmmaking back home, with excellent results. Blue Jasmine, the latest entry in the prolific writer/director's career, firmly establishes itself among his more serious works. This time, San Francisco is the setting (along with many flashback scenes shot in his familiar New York City.) While the Bay Area is always a visual delight, it serves mainly as a backdrop in this intense study of two polar opposite sisters. The contemporary drama is relevant to the times at hand, and pulls no punches exposing upper-class attitudes. Nevertheless, sweeping views of the Golden Gate Bridge will occasionally remind moviegoers how Allen uses urban landscapes to perfection in his films.

Cate Blanchett stars as Jasmine, an elite Wall Street wife who finds her world crumbling after the loss of her marriage and all monetary assets. The talented actress thrives in this role, as moviegoers witness Jasmine's failed attempts to rebound, coupled with her steady mental deterioration. Viewers may feel slight pity for a soul that willingly pursued a soulless path in life. Otherwise, there isn't much sympathy for this character beyond the reality of her psychological disintegration. The elitist world of her rich friends (shown through flashbacks) is even less attractive. They speak of chic events and exotic locales, with absolutely no substance. Allen does a brilliant job of showcasing how fascinating subjects can become meaningless chat when discussed nonchalantly by wealthy socialites.

Sally Hawkins does a stellar job portraying Ginger, Jasmine's sister. It is interesting to note the sisters had the same adoptive parents, but are not blood siblings. Ginger is the complete antithesis of Jasmine, living a very modest life as a grocery store bagger in the Bay Area. Andrew Dice Clay (playing Ginger's ex-husband, Augie) and Bobby Cannavale (as Ginger's new fiancé, Chili) shine in supporting roles. They both portray blue collar workers trying their best to survive, among their own personal shortcomings. This is a cinematic study of lifestyle clash: an elite, wealthy sister losing everything, and a working class sister maintaining the only life she knows. Although the film reveals serious flaws in both lifestyles, it is clear Woody Allen's intent is exposing the emptiness of a wealth-based existence.

Appropriately, Allen starkly reflects on the human condition. While the infidelity of Jasmine's husband Hal (confidently played by Alec Baldwin) is the initial reason for her decline, Jasmine appears sexually indifferent throughout the story. Her only goal is to maintain her upper crust life at all costs, including making up lies along the way. Jasmine is capable of being monogamous (in a cold, businesslike fashion) if prosperity is part of the package. The one authentically passionate moment Jasmine reveals is not about sex, but revenge. This, tragically, ignites a series of events which not only ends her wealth, but a life.

Ultimately, it is Ginger's personality which may be more interesting. Although her character is likable, she ends up cheating on her fiancé. Like Jasmine, she also has motives beyond sex, weighing her options for the best "catch." Ginger's fiancé Chili, charmingly portrayed by Cannavale, is the only one who actually seems truly in love. In the end, viewers might ponder the fate of these two more than Jasmine's.

Blue Jasmine reveals much about society's class-based attitudes. Jasmine carelessly calls Ginger's fiancé "a loser" with no real evidence to back that statement. Yet, when Ginger's friends ask Jasmine what she actually did for a living, or what her plans are, she is at a loss. Jasmine is more appalled at a phone being ripped from a wall than at the fact her husband's financial schemes were illegal and ruined many lives. The film does a good job showcasing an emotional "train wreck" while asking very little compassion from its viewers.

Woody Allen tends to reach only a very specific audience. This has always been a point of debate among his admirers and critics. Periodically, a number of his films, including Midnight in Paris (which won the Best Writing - Original Screenplay Oscar in 2012,) have been able to break through to a broader audience on the strength of their cinematic excellence. Blue Jasmine appears firmly in that category.

In the current Hollywood era of computer-generated effects and dismal screenwriting, it is refreshing to witness authentic streets and locations, coupled with believable characters and situations. Blue Jasmine is gathering well deserved praise, and is sure to be around when Academy Awards speculation begins once again.

"Blue Jasmine"
Directed by Woody Allen
Starring Cate Blanchett, Sally Hawkins, Alec Baldwin, Bobby Cannavale, Peter Saarsgard and more
2013, PG-13, 98 min.

Photo: Blue Jasmine official site

Video: Springsteen sings “Nueva Canción” as tribute to people of Argentina, Chile

Wed, 18 Sep 2013 12:03:00 +0000

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) - Bruce Springsteen has mustered his best Spanish in a tribute to the people of Argentina, posting an internet version of the song "I only ask of God" (Solo le pido a Dios) that he said he learned from the late Argentine folk singer Mercedes Sosa. [Also see, "A U.S. musician pays tribute to Mercedes Sosa"; Nueva Canción is the Spanish name for "new song" movement inspired by Latin American folk music and revolutionary movements of the 1960s, 70s and 80s.]

Exhausted at the end of a 3-hour, 20-minute marathon concert in Buenos Aires Saturday night, he told the crowd that he was too tired to sing it then without botching it, and invited fans to look on his website in the coming days.

By Tuesday, he had made good on his promise, posting on http://brucespringsteen.net a soulful bilingual version of the Leon Gieco song that became an anthem for Argentines recovering from the 1976-1983 dictatorship.

Introducing it in Spanish, he recalled his last visit to Argentina in 1988, as part of Amnesty International's "Human Rights Now!" tour.

"My memories of that time are still very much alive. We came to Argentina when the country was going through a difficult time, and fighting for its future. For a foreigner, Argentina was very much alive, promising," he said. "So it's a huge inspiration for me to return here, and I want to leave this song to the people of Argentina."

Springsteen's latest "Wrecking Ball" album is very much in keeping Latin American protest music, with songs such as "Shackled and Drawn" blaming bankers and corporate executives for ruining the U.S. economy, and he's been summoning kindred spirits during his tour of Chile, Argentina, and Brazil.

In Santiago, he eulogized folk singer Victor Jara, who was killed during the 1973 coup there, and sang Jara's "Manifesto." Springsteen next performs in Sao Paulo on Wednesday and Rio de Janeiro on Saturday.

Zap! Pow! Liberator Comics takes up animal rights

Mon, 16 Sep 2013 15:42:00 +0000

A new comic book mini-series hit the shelves recently with an important message for readers of all ages: Liberator Comics. It is a bold new voice speaking out against animal mistreatment and abuse. The first two issues have been a hot title not only for collectors, but for everyone who supports humane treatment of all animal species.

The comic book presents a stunningly powerful storyline involving animal rescuers. It also provides valuable information concerning the plight of animals involved in laboratory research and corporate farms.

The publisher of Liberator Comics, Black Mask Studios, has quite an interesting history. The company was originally formed as a new independent distributor when Matt Pizzolo, Steve Niles, and Brett Gurewitz wanted to chronicle the Occupy Wall Street movement, while donating profits to the cause (Occupy Comics). Black Mask is now an outlet for artists who seek greater creative freedom, while boldly confronting relevant, political issues. Kickstarter, an online source that provides funds for projects through individual donations, was instrumental in helping Liberator Comics become a reality.

The comic series confronts animal abuse in all forms, including by individuals, corporations, and alarmingly, public universities, and research facilities. One common denominator definitely perpetuates the harmful and painful treatment of these unfortunate creatures: money. The series help bring to light the reality of taxpayer money contributing to the senseless torture of helpless animals in university laboratories.

Readers will learn that much research data obtained through harmful animal experiments ultimately has minimal or no value. The sad fact is, the main reason these abuses continue is the steady flow of grant money. Institutions do not want to lose public funds they have already budgeted, so they continue using live animals in many non-essential tests.

The continuing storyline chronicles the efforts of two liberators who take drastic measures to rescue creatures suffering in various facilities under cruel conditions. Although the graphic story is fictional, it is intended to echo actual events. The protagonists in Liberator Comics are determined never to harm any human beings on their quest to free abused animals. However, the comic book portrays tactics used by animal liberators over the years that have not always been legal. It is up to individual readers to ponder when or if a line should be crossed to stop the unnecessary suffering of animals. Regardless, some new light is being shed on a moral issue that is too often swept far away from the spotlight.

One of the variant artwork covers featured on Liberator Comics #1 depicts the "Ag-Gag" laws that have been enacted in various states. These are laws that make it a crime for whistleblowers to obtain photographic evidence of cruel animal treatment at agricultural or research facilities without the permission of the operators. In essence, these laws make criminals of concerned citizens who seek to gather evidence of substandard conditions in facilities such as large corporate factory farms. The public often receives little or no information about closed-door abusive practices. The old saying "out of sight, out of mind" certainly applies here, as many of these creatures suffer without ever seeing the light of day.

The publication also features informative articles designed to educate readers. "Life in The Lab: What's The Cost?" by Shannon Keith in Liberator Comics #2 explains how an endless array of animals are forced to ingest, or are exposed to, countless toxins. Although animal testing is often unreliable, their lives are continually sacrificed for the sake of testing cosmetics, beverages, pharmaceuticals, and household cleaners. The facts are shocking. According to 2010 U.S. government statistics, approximately 65,000 dogs alone are being used in tests. These dogs are bred by large commercial breeders for use in labs, and many spend their entire lives in isolated concrete enclosures. The Animal Welfare Act only provides very limited protective standards for experiments.

The subject matter of Liberator Comics is extreme and intense for a very good reason. It seeks to inform readers in a graphic manner about a subject that is often relegated to the back pages of the news. Corporate profits and university grant money are the main reasons why these animals continue to suffer, and thankfully Liberator Comics helps to expose this appalling fact.

The creator and writer of Liberator Comics, Matt Miner, is a longtime crusader against animal cruelty. This is his initial venture into the world of comic books, and he says 30 percent of profits will go to animal rescue initiatives. Pencils and inks are by Javier Sanchez Aranda. Colors are by Joaquin Pereyra. The books are lettered and edited by Vito Delsante.

Photo: Liberator official site

Che Guevara of antiquity on stage in "Prometheus Bound"

Tue, 10 Sep 2013 15:01:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES -- Audiences have but rare opportunities to experience profoundly sublime works that dare to express "the big idea." The Getty Museum, CalArts Center for New Performance, and Trans Arts' co-production of Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound is this southern California theater season's exceptional undertaking of transcendent artistry with insight into and about the human condition and spirit.

This team has transposed a classic written at the dawn of drama into a 21^st century context, rendering the ancient avant-garde with some high-tech stagecraft that Aeschylus - and even Zeus himself - would have marveled at. The production loses none of the flavor and potency of Aeschylus' tragedy, first performed around 450 B.C., but rather makes it a modern masterpiece to resonate for contemporary (amphi)theatergoers.

The title character, Prometheus, is one of the godlike Titans overthrown by the Olympian gods, led by their king, omnipotent Zeus. But Prometheus (meaning "foresight") is a trickster. Furthermore, he is exceedingly fond of us mere mortals, and through some sleight of hand bamboozles Zeus into accepting a sacrifice that favors the humans, whom Zeus contemptuously derides as "day-flies."

To make matters worse, Prometheus steals fire from the gods and gives it to humanity, therefore making civilization (not to mention haute cuisine) possible. As our hero says: "I knew when I transgressed nor will deny it/In helping Man, I brought my troubles on me." These "troubles" consist of being impaled by Zeus upon a faraway mountaintop as punishment.

Enter the aforementioned technical wizardry, with Prometheus being shackled to an ingeniously wrought 23-foot-high, 5-ton revolving wheel, the handiwork of scenic designer Efren Delgadillo, Jr.

This wheel of misfortune literally moves the drama forward. The protagonist's onstage movement is essential static. To be sure, the playwright's dialogue (newly translated by Joel Agee) remains among theater's most powerful, but how to deliver these lines without boring the audience to tears in a motionless drama? The wheel brilliantly solves that problem, by allowing the hero, tethered as he is to a rock face, to nevertheless move.

The Greek chorus, comprising 12 multicultural Amazonian dancing actresses, also help to dispel the stasis, using mountain climbing gear to scale and straddle the wheel.

A sort of Che Guevara of antiquity, Prometheus personifies eternal resistance to tyranny, the noble hero fighting racism, oppression, and injustice for the "beloved community" of liberation. In a canny bit of casting, our Getty Prometheus is the Black New York-based actor Ron Cephas Jones. With a strong background in the Shakespearian stage, Jones has also appeared in the new AMC cable TV series Low Winter Sun and the TV movie version of A Raisin in the Sun.

The righteous rage Jones roars as champion of downtrodden humanity rings true in our own age of mass global uprisings. He doesn't merely speak truth to power: He thunders it.

There was a direct connection between Greek theater and democracy. Of course, like our own blemished version of it, Greek democracy also included slavery, so it's no wonder that the theme of revolution rears up in Greek plays. Indeed, Aristophanes' Ecclesiazusae (Women in Parliament) is a comedy about a communist revolution led by women and written in 392 B.C. - a mere 2,240 years before The Communist Manifesto.

Space does not permit adequate acknowledgment of the rest of the 18-strong ensemble. The great circular contraption is, to be sure, a co-star, as is the Getty Villa's Greco-Roman architecture. Perched upon Malibu bluffs above the Pacific Ocean, the glorious 500-seat amphitheater is an ideal place to see Greek tragedy - under the stars, just as Grecian audiences did.

How did antiquity's audiences react to a drama, which daringly took their paramount god to task? Those interested in finding out more about Athenians' response to Aeschylus' "blasphemy" should attend classicist Mark Griffith's free lecture, "Defying Zeus to Help Humans: What Was Prometheus Thinking?" at 2 p.m., Sept. 21, at the Getty Villa's Auditorium.

But before doing so, have the foresight not to miss Prometheus Bound, a challenge to authority that remains as revolutionary today as it was almost 2,500 years ago. In the meantime, mark my words: The Promethean spirit of revolt is coming soon to a theater near you!

Prometheus Bound plays through Sept. 28 on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. at the Getty Villa, 17985 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu. For more info: (310) 440-7300; www.getty.edu.

(Ed Rampell's interview with legendary Greek film director Costa-Gavras is in the September issue of The Progressive magazine.)

Photo: Actor Ron Cephas Jones stars in "Prometheus Bound." The Getty Trust

"All of life": Roque Dalton, poet and revolutionary

Tue, 10 Sep 2013 14:28:00 +0000

"The poet - above all the communist poet - will have to articulate all of life: the proletarian struggle, the beauty of the cathedrals left us by the Spanish Colony, the wonder of the sexual act, the prophecies of the fruitful future that the great signs of the day proclaim to us."

- Roque Dalton

Earlier this year, El Salvador declared May 14, 2013, "National Poetry Day" in honor of Roque Dalton. Dalton has long been recognized as one of the finest poets of the 20th century in Latin America, and the government's recognition of him validates his importance. But Dalton - as shown by the quote above - was not just a poet: he was a revolutionary poet.

Born in 1935, the illegitimate son of a wealthy American landowner and a Salvadoran nurse, Dalton had felt like an outsider from his childhood because of the circumstances of his birth. His treatment by the other students at the Jesuit school he attended reinforced this, and he grew to resent the class-based prejudices of his teachers.

After two years at universities in Chile and El Salvador, Dalton attended the Moscow Youth Festival and soon joined the Salvadoran Communist Party. His political activity attracted the attention of the government and he was arrested numerous times, just barely escaping a firing squad when a coup d'état occurred the night before. Dalton fled to Mexico where he lived until 1961. In 1961 he went to Cuba, where he wrote poetry and where most of his collections were eventually published. The next several years were spent in Prague working as a writer for the journal of the international Communist movement, The International Review: Problems of Peace and Socialism.

Returning to Cuba in 1967, Dalton worked for Radio Havana and Prensa Latina, all the while writing and publishing his poetry. But he longed to return to his native country, and in 1973 he entered El Salvador in disguise, and having had plastic surgery to change his appearance so that he could join the armed struggle there. Tragically, in 1975 he was executed by an ultra-left faction of his fellow guerrillas who mistakenly believed he was working for the CIA.

His legacy is his poetry, which ranges from anger at capitalist oppression and the struggle for a better world to the most tender love lyrics. In "You and Gold and What Awaits You," Dalton contrasts the current reality of life under capitalism with the promise of a communist future:

In capitalism it's a lie to say:
"Take care, you're worth your weight in gold."
Because in capitalism only the owners
of gold are worth their weight in gold.

In the construction of socialism
one no longer lies and it can be said:
"You're worth more than gold, but
it's necessary to take care of
the gold of social property,
Foreign exchange is important."

Only in communism can it be said:
"You're worth what you're worth.
Gold has nothing to do with what you're worth."

In communism gold only has value
through the use workers and citizens
give it,
for example in dentistry
in decoration
or in adorning the necks
or ears of girls.

(From "Poemas Clandestinos/Clandestine Poems," Solidarity Publications, 1984, translated by Jack Hirschman)

Dalton also writes about the pain of human love and longing in a number of poems, including "Hating Love":

I don't believe in angels
but the moon is now dead for me.
The last glass of wine is gone
before the thirst I'm suffering from.
The blue grass lost its way
running away from your sails.

The butterfly setting her color
on fire was made of ashes.
The morning fires off
dewdrops and silent birds.
I feel ashamed of being naked
and as vulnerable as a child.

Without your hands my heart
is the enemy in my chest.

(From "Small Hours of the Night: Selected Poems of Roque Dalton," edited and translated by Hardie St. Martin, Curbstone Press, 1996)

But love of all humanity is his greater love, and this is exemplified in what is perhaps Roque Dalton's greatest poem, "Like You":

I, like you,
love love, life, the sweet delight
of things, the blue
landscape of January days.

Also my blood bubbles over
laughing through my eyes
which have known the rush of tears.

I believe the world is beautiful,
that poetry is, like bread, for everyone.

And that my veins don't end in me
but in the unanimous blood
of those who struggle for life,
love,
things,
countryside and bread,
poetry for everyone.

(From "Poems," Curbstone Press, 1984, translated by Richard Schaaf)

Photo: Roque Dalton, 1966, in Prague. Roque Dalton Family Archive/Wikimedia Commons

Prolific science fiction writer Frederik Pohl dead at 93

Wed, 04 Sep 2013 17:09:00 +0000

CHICAGO (Associated Press) - Author Frederik Pohl, who over decades gained a reputation of being a literate and sophisticated writer of science fiction and a supporter of progressive causes, has died at age 93.

His wife, Elizabeth Hull, said Tuesday that Pohl died Monday at a hospital after experiencing respiratory problems at his home in the Chicago suburb of Palatine. News of his death was first announced by his granddaughter, Emily Pohl-Weary, in a tweet.

Pohl wrote more than 40 novels. Two of his better-known works were "The Space Merchants," written in the early 1950s with Cyril M. Kornbluth, and 1978's "Gateway," a winner of the Hugo Award for science fiction writing. Pohl was a literary agent and editor before getting his own work published in science fiction magazines of the 1930s. He's credited with launching the careers of James Blish and Larry Niven.

"It is difficult to sum up the significance of Frederik Pohl to the science fiction field in few words," Pohl's editor James Frenkel said in an obituary released by the family. "He was instrumental to the flowering of the field in the mid-to-late 20^th century, and it is hard to dispute that the field would be much the poorer without his talent and remarkable body of work as a magazine and book editor, a collaborator and a solo author."

Pohl's career began in 1937 with the sale of a poem, "Elegy to a Dead Satellite: Luna," to Amazing Stories magazine. He went on to edit Astonishing Stories, Super Science Stories, Galaxy and If magazines, as well as an original anthology series, Star Science Fiction. As a book editor, he worked on Samuel R. Delaney's "Dhalgren" and Joanna Russ's "The Female Man." As a literary agent, Pohl represented Isaac Asimov, Algis Budrys, Hal Clement, Fritz Leiber and John Wyndham.

Pohl was born in New York City in 1919. Despite dropping out of high school, his ambition was to be a professional writer. Friends described him as an avid reader, who read the works of Tolstoy in addition to science fiction magazines.

He served in the U.S. Army during World War II and was stationed in Italy, and after his discharge wrote advertising copy for a mail order publisher. After becoming a literary agent again, Pohl helped Asimov publish his first novel "Pebble in the Sky" in 1950. Although he devoted much of his time to writing in the 1970s, he also was science fiction editor at Bantam Books.

In 2009, Pohl launched "The Way the Future Blogs," in which he wrote about his life, the science-fiction community, science and championed progressive politics. Recent posts include "Stop Fracking" and "Stop the Koch Brothers."

Elizabeth Hull, English professor emerita of William Rainey Harper College and his wife of 29 years, said his remains will be cremated and a memorial service will be held at a future date.

Along with his wife, Pohl is survived by a son, three daughters and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

NFL escapes "judicial nets" with concussion deal

Wed, 04 Sep 2013 13:17:00 +0000

"There is something wrong in this country; the judicial nets are so adjusted as to catch the minnows and let the whales slip through."

-Eugene V. Debs

The most recent "whale" to escape meaningful legal accountability was the National Football League (NFL) who settled over 4,000 lawsuits from former players and families. The plaintiffs alleged that the NFL either ignored or did not inform players of long term medical risks stemming from concussion spectrum injuries suffered by playing football. To settle these suits, the league has agreed to pay $765 million.

While this may seem like a victory for the affected players and their families, the devil is truly in the details. The amount of money may seem staggering at first glance, but context is important. The NFL is a $9 billion a year industry and the settlement payout is over the next 20 years. Assuming no revenue growth (a laughable assertion), the league will produce $180 billion over the same duration; it must pay out a comparative pittance to settle the claims against them.

The league also continues to deny that football played a contributing factor in the long-term brain trauma suffered by the players. The NFL stated that the settlement "cannot be considered an admission by the NFL of liability, or an admission that plaintiffs' injuries were caused by football." This is not too surprising, as the league has denied the connection between football and concussion spectrum injuries/brain trauma for many years even as research proved otherwise.

The settlement has the added benefit of keeping possible uncomfortable facts from being unearthed during discovery phase and a subsequent trial. Yet, what has been disclosed is incredibly unsettling.

Dr. Elliot Pellman was the head of the NFL's Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee from the 1990s to the early 2000s. This is especially notable because Pellman specialized as a rheumatologist and had no specific expertise in brain research. Pellman's reign as chair of the committee was rife with denial of football being connected to brain trauma. When the NFL dumped results of players from a study on brain trauma, the Sports Medicine Research Laboratory noted, "The data that hasn't shown up makes their work questionable industry-funded research." While other independent studies linked concussions to problems like depression and cognitive damage, the NFL's committee issued "research" declaring that there were no long term adverse health effects of concussions. Pellman was the lead author on nine of 16 studies that posited there was no risk from concussions nor were there many concussions caused from football.

While the NFL's retirement board quietly paid out disability benefits to the family on players like former Pittsburgh Steelers C Mike Webster due to brain damaged suffered from playing in the league, Pellman and other committee members attempted, ultimately unsuccessfully, to prevent committee approval of research arguing that fact.

During his tenure as co-chair of the committee, Pellman was also the team doctor for the New York Jets. Multiple players have stated the team joked about the lack of seriousness given to concussion injuries by Pellman and that Pellman set a wide receiver back into a game after he had been knocked out on the field.

Dr. Ira Casson, the other co-chair of the Mild Brain Trauma Injury Committee, was another rheumatologist assigned to this neurologically focused group by the league and has long denied a relationship between football, concussions and long term trauma. In 2007, he told HBO's Real Sports, "There is no connection between concussion spectrum injuries and any long term health problems." He continued to be the head of the committee until he resigned after embarrassing himself in front of Congress by arguing this exact, long-discredited point.

As more information about the danger of concussion spectrum injuries comes to light and as the league begins to do more to provide basic protections for players' long-term brain safety, the long history of the NFL's refusal to acknowledge facts publicly in order to protect its brand must be faced. Even as a new PBS documentary and book on the subject is set to go into excruciating detail on this subject, reports have surfaced that the NFL pressured ESPN to drop out of the documentary.

The players are definitely going to be on my mind this week as the season begins. While I wonder if Matt Forte, Brandon Marshall and Jay Cutler will lead the Bears to success and which players I should start for the week in my Fantasy Football League, I'll also be thinking about the Mike Websters, the Dave Duersons, the Junior Seaus, the Andre Waters, the Justin Strzelczyks, the Ray Easterlings, the Tom McHales and how we can protect players to prevent any further tragedies.

Photo: Bears Quarterback Jay Cutler warms up before a 2009 game (Wikipedia/Mike Shadle/CC)

Book review: Moshe Lewin's "The Soviet Century"

Tue, 03 Sep 2013 18:10:00 +0000

I would like to recommend to people's attention the book "The Soviet Century" by the late Russian-speaking historian, Moshe Lewin.

Mr. Lewin was a professor of history in the U.S. but he had grown up in the Soviet Union, actually serving as a soldier in WWII, and later spent some time in Israel.

His facility with Russian gave him the ability to access primary sources. For instance, he was able to read the memoirs of V. Molotov in the original Russian, (I don't even know if this book was ever translated to English) and reported Molotov's astonishing comment that the protagonists of the great purge trials of the 1930's, including Bukharin, Rykov and, as Molotov puts it, "even Trotsky" were innocent of the crimes for which they were condemned, (although Molotov, evidently, did approve of this method of dealing with political opponents).

Lewin's abilities with the Russian language, along with his professional inclinations, allowed him to avoid the typical Cold War style propagandistic distortion of the historiography of the Soviet Union. I would like to focus a little on a particular aspect of this distortion.

Lewin's book contains a lot of material about the phenomena of Stalinism. Lewin strongly makes the point that while Stalin's 30-year tenure, from the mid 1920s to the early 1950s, represented a significant portion of Soviet history it did not represent all of it.

The Soviet Union existed both before and after Stalin. Before Stalin's hegemony and after his departure from the scene the Soviet Union was a very different place, although the country may never have been fully able to escape from his shadow. Lewin makes the point that after Stalin departed from the scene, the country changed rapidly and profoundly. However, Stalin was a useful boogeyman, and the fact that Stalin did not define the entire Soviet experience does not neatly fit the Cold War narrative.

Lewin addresses the common Cold War, (and post cold war) practice of greatly exaggerating Stalin's ghastly record. According to comprehensive data reported by Lewin there were somewhat less then 800,000 people directly put to death during the Stalin period. This is almost an order of magnitude less then the commonly accepted number of Stalin's putative victims. It is also an order of magnitude less the commonly accepted figure for those directly killed by the Hitler regime, (not counting all the war dead). Exaggeration of Stalin's victims by an order of magnitude, why? Why the great need to make Stalin seem as bad as Hitler?

After all his real record is bad enough, why distort it? Lewin raises this as a rhetorical question without providing an answer. However, I recall that during the Cold War, and even in the post cold war period, a common propaganda line was to compare Stalin to Hitler, to denounce them both together. The real record, however, indicates that as bad as Stalin may have been, Hitler and the Nazis were far worse, not only quantitatively but also qualitatively - Stalin cast a wide net but also never were you condemned by conditions of birth completely outside of your control.

The People's World published a review of "The Soviet Century" in 2005 by Erwin Marquit and the late John Pappademos. You can read it here.

"The Soviet Century"

By Moshe Lewin

Verso, 2005, hardcover, 407 pages