From There to Kaneohe

Some time ago, we watched a real classic: From Here to Eternity (1953). This is just one of those movies that you just have to see, right? It's on those list of best movies, has big stars, won lots of Oscars, etc. While we'd seen stills of the iconic rolling-around-in-the-surf scene, neither of us had ever seen the actual movie. But the movie's local-ness intrigued us and it finally drifted to the top of the queue.

And all those lists and awards seem to have it right. It's quite a film. All those doomed romances, the troubled souls, individuals caught in events larger than them, joined with great cinematography and scenery -- hard to go wrong. Not to mention all the fabulously attractive actors -- Lancaster, Kerr, Clift, Reed.

For us, much of the enjoyment of it came from the setting. We loved that it was set and much of it filmed in Hawaii. It was fun to see Honolulu depicted with the Asian-Polynesian kitsch of it all right alongside the inescapable seediness. Watching the movie, we realized we only vaguely knew where these bases are, and afterwards, we promptly got out the map. (Okay, so if Karen Holmes and Sgt Warden are going to Kaneohe to meet, how far out of their way are they really going...?)

I'm intrigued by what I read about the original novel by James Jones (although some of what has recently been discussed is about what got cut from Jones's original manuscript). It's on the Modern Library's list of 100 best novels and was the winner of the National Book Award in 1952.
Have any of you read it?

....since 2006.

I was thinking it's due time to switch out our photo and "....since 2006" statement, and it just occurred to me tonight that I wish I'd been collecting these all along.

Ah well. No time like the present to start, I suppose. So I'll start archiving them from here on out, starting with the one I've just replaced.


Giving bad directions since 2006.

Good Night, and Good Luck: Good movie.

This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise, it is merely wires and lights in a box.
- Edward R. Murrow, on television, in his 1958 speech to the Radio and Television News Directors Association (RTNDA)



Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), about broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow and the CBS news room, and their decision to take sides about Senator Joseph McCarthy's tactics, is a mighty good movie.

Of course this is a simplified view of Murrow, a small part of his career, and the role he and his news team played in the reaction against McCarthy. All movies about historical events or figures, because of the constraints of effective storytelling and of cinema, are simplified. But taking it just as a movie, I had no complaints.

You see that? Yup, I said "no complaints."

The performances were great, I loved the black and white, and I was completely into the story and characters. And using existing footage of McCarthy to play himself was brilliant -- to have an actor play him, no matter how faithfully, would never have created the same visceral response in viewers who recognize or remember the actual footage.

Whether this movie is a realistic representation of events is not my topic here. Good Night, and Good Luck is a great story, well packaged. Additionally, any movie that might inspire people to look more closely at history, and as a result critically consider the present and future, more than deserves it's space on the shelf.