John Wick [2014)

The Equalizer September 26, 2014.

John Wick  October 24, 2014.

Practically the same story.

Industrial espionage.

Equalizer Rotten Tomatoes 61%.

John Wick Rotten Tomatoes 86%.

Gimme a fuckin’ break.

While I really enjoyed Wick, Keanu can’t act (compared to the all-world talents of Denzel).

And Chad Stahelski can’t direct (compared to the all-world talents of Antoine Fuqua).

Thunder Road Films would follow up the next year with Sicario (a truly excellent bit of cinema).

Don’t get me wrong.

I’m not trashing Wick.

But those Tomatoes scores need some correction.

Equalizer is the better movie.

I will give credit to Wick:  better action sequences.

Wick is entertainment.

Equalizer is cinema.

Sicario is good cinema.

Equalizer is great cinema.

Economic espionage.

Summit Entertainment.

Subsidiary of Lionsgate Films.

Giustra.

Colombia Pictures.

December 14, 2014.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/dec/14/james-bond-spectre-film-script-leaked-sony

Corporate spying.

-PD

Is QAnon Related to The Equalizer Movies?

  • Barack Obama is inaugurated for a second term as President of the United States of America:  January 20, 2013
  • The Equalizer is released September 7, 2014.
  • Donald Trump is inaugurated as President of the United States of America:  January 20, 2017
  • First Q post:  October 28, 2017.
  • The Equalizer 2 is released July 20, 2018.

The 2nd Q post asks the question, “What is military intelligence?”

In The Equalizer movies, we do not have any solid connection between Denzel Washington’s character Robert McCall and military intelligence (Defense Intelligence Agency) until the second movie.

In other words, Robert McCall was a generic (possibly CIA) covert asset [hitman] in the 2014 film.

Q brought military intelligence into the limelight in 2017.

All of a sudden, Robert McCall (the protagonist of The Equalizer movies) becomes SPECIFICALLY a MILITARY covert asset (Defense Clandestine Service [DIA]) in 2018.

  • Joe Biden is inaugurated as President of the United States of America:  January 20, 2021.
  • Last (most recent) Q post:  November 27, 2022.
  • The Equalizer 3 is released September 1, 2023
  • U.S. Presidential election:  November 5, 2024.

Selected Q posts containing the word “movie”:

  • 461 “What makes a movie GOOD?  GREAT actors?” January 4, 2018
  • 813 “You are watching a movie.”  February 22, 2018
  • 1191 “What makes a good movie?” April 19, 2018
  • 1262 “Think movie.”  April 25, 2018
  • 1450 “You are watching a ‘scripted’ movie.” June 11, 2018
  • [The Equalizer 2 is released July 20, 2018]
  • 1928 “…[MOVIES 1-3 FULL LIST].  Coming SOON to a theater near you.  MOVIE 2:  Coming this FALL.  MOVIE 3:  TBA  Enjoy the show.”  August 20, 2018
  • 2663 “Something out of a movie?”  January 7, 2019
  • 3635 “Sometimes a good ‘movie’ can provide a lot of truth and/or background.”  November 25, 2019
  • 4904 “All [3] movies playing simultaneously?”  October 21, 2020

Which Q posts featured a(n IWC) watch?

IMG_8821

The time is 4:19.  The date is the 19th.

IMG_8822

The time is 3:05?  The date is the 27th.

Which times on Robert McCall’s Suunto wristwatch (stopwatch function) are clearly readable in The Equalizer movies?

Let’s start with the first movie.

IMG_0931

The stopwatch reads 3:22’14.

Could this be read as 3/22/14?

Keep in mind The Equalizer came out in 2014.

322 is also the mysterious number associated with the Skull and Bones fraternity at Yale University (a college famed for its many CIA alumni).

IMG_0933

The stopwatch reads 5:17’44.

Would there be any significance if parsed as 5/17/44?

The final readable watch image (chronologically) from The Equalizer (2014) follows:

IMG_0936

The stopwatch reads 0:28’24.

If parsed as 2/8/24, does this foretell an event which will happen on February 8, 2024?

More to follow??

-PD

The Equalizer 2 [2018)

If Q was real, the operation probably emanated from the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Year one of Trump’s Presidency.

Year two.

IMG_0660

Susan’s address book.

Proof that McCall was DIA Defense Clandestine Service?

IMG_0661

It definitely says “Defense Intelligence Agency” (although the logo is not quite right).

IMG_0663

Here’s the real one.

No extraneous fighter jet (different from previous).

IMG_0662

Dave at the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Proof that McCall was military intelligence?

Establishing that he was USMC is much easier and obvious.

But something seems to have happened with this movie.

And Robert (Roberto?) McCall is suddenly DCS.

Suddenly a MILITARY covert operative.

HUMINT.

But mainly a hitman.

If Q was real, the operation probably emanated from within the Defense Intelligence Agency.

And it was possibly based in Brussels, Belgium.

Which would seem to suggest a NATO connection.

But not necessarily.

Perhaps NATO was a cover.

The Q posts started in Oct. of 2017.

The Equalizer 2 (in which the protagonist is suddenly not just a government hitman, but specifically a MILITARY “high-level paid government assassin” [outtake]) dropped less than a year later.

July of 2018.

I can think of only one well-known movie in which the hero or heroes are with the DIA.

And it’s a comedy (Spies Like Us).

EVERY movie is about the CIA.

Every spy movie.

The most obvious provenance of a “government hitman” would be the CIA.

CIA plots to assassinate world leaders have leaked over the years.

We know that the CIA has assassinated “unfortunates” (or sought to assassinate them) around the world.

We know this through declassified documents.

But very, very little is known about the DIA.

There are endless stacks of books on the CIA.

And several on the NSA.

But, as far as I know, NOT A SINGLE BOOK on the DIA.

That is remarkable.

It bears mentioning that a TS/SCI clearance at DIA is only good for DIA intelligence products.

Same for a TS/SCI clearance at the CIA (only clears a person to see CIA intelligence products of such a level).

And the same applies to a TS/SCI clearance at NSA (it is only good for accessing top secret/sensitive compartmented information intelligence products which emerge from the NSA itself).

These three agencies (DIA, CIA, and NSA) are seemingly compartmented from one another at least so far as civilian security clearances go.

Which means the CIA could be cooking up anything…and the DIA and NSA might not necessarily know about it.

It means that there is much about the NSA about which the CIA and DIA are ignorant.

And it means that an operation like Q might have been possible…and might have emanated from within the DIA.

[N.B.  military top-secret level is known as TS/SAP:  are DIA and NSA employees (both military) potentially holding civilian and military security clearances?]

The timing is interesting.

Q’s first post was Oct. 28, 2017.

The Equalizer suddenly became military intelligence on July 20, 2018.

He could have as easily been CIA.

It would have been the norm in Hollywood to make him CIA.

So how on earth did he become DIA?!?

If my research is correct, the CIA plays a much bigger role in Hollywood than does the Department of Defense.

And of all Defense Department entities to highlight in a film, DIA (Defense Clandestine Service) is a notably-odd choice.

Perhaps it was the zeitgeist.

Perhaps Q had soured the American public (and much of the world) to the idea of CIA.

So Antoine Fuqua and company decided to distance themselves from The Company and make the agency in question the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Perhaps.

No coincidences, right?

Which brings us to the DIA.

An agency started by JFK.

Go back and read the Q posts.

There are a few where the authors seem to be writing glowingly about JFK.

Make sense if their agency was formed by him (1961)?

We always figured INSCOM.  NSA.

But no one ever focused on DIA.

And they are the only military entity with covert operatives (as far as we know).

As for declassified records, we have no indication that the DIA has ever assassinated (or even sought to assassinate) anyone.

The same cannot be said for the CIA.

They sought to assassinate Castro (for starters).

We have declassified documents about poisoned scuba suits and exploding cigars.

Documents about the CIA recruiting mafia hitmen to whack Castro.

It’s pretty safe to say the CIA has assassinated quite a few people worldwide (including some world leaders).

But what about the DIA?

We don’t have the evidence to assume the same.

Operation Northwoods is very damning.

It indicts the Joint Chiefs of Staff for planning terror attacks (real or simulated) on Americans as a casus belli to invade Cuba.

False-flags.

JFK rejected these options which CJCS Lemnitzer (Lyman L. Lemnitzer) presented to him.

So we can say that the Joint Chiefs of Staff of Kennedy’s era had few qualms about conducting REAL terror attacks (such as mass shootings) on the American mainland (in places such as Florida…blaming “Cubans”…and thus giving the USA a green light to take out Cuban missile sites, etc.).

Very, very little is known about the DIA.

Sure, they have a Twitter account (last time I checked), but nothing they post is substantive.

Well, then:  what DO we know about the Defense Intelligence Agency?

What little we know might be gleaned mainly from the biographies of current and former DIA Directors.

Beyond that, there isn’t much.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Director_of_the_Defense_Intelligence_Agency

Practice your analysis skills.

Find a way.

Break a code.

Know the most commonly-used English letters.

And the % of time they occur.

Same for every other language on earth.

It was an Arab who realized this.

1000 years ago?

U.S. Army X I 11

USAF V I 6

U.S. Navy I I I 3

USMC I 1

CIA I 1

The Defense Intelligence Agency is primarily a U.S. Army institution (judging by the preponderance of leaders from that service branch).

With quite a bit of Air Force influence (at times).

Occasional Navy leadership.

And extremely rare Marine leadership.

The DIA also briefly had a former CIA operative for a Director.

[we are not going to get out of this morass until everyone reads The Secret Team by L. Fletcher Prouty]

From Prouty, we know that even the CJCS can be a CIA operative (as in Maxwell Taylor).

Who else has recently acted more like woke CIA operatives than patriotic military men?

Mark Milley?

Lloyd Austin?

Michael Gilday?

Next we want to find nodes.

Nexuses.

Choke points.

If we want to understand.

My gut tells me QAnon is bullshit cooked up by Russian intelligence or (more likely) the FBI.

But it could just as well have been a CIA operation.

Indeed, that is what the most famous DIA Director (Michael Flynn) intimated in this article:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10252807/Lin-Wood-Releases-Michael-Flynn-audio-calling-QAnon-CIA-disinformation-plot-total-nonsense.html

The problem with intelligence work is that you would say the same thing (for different reasons) whether you were lying, or telling the truth.

Flynn:  “I think it’s a disinformation campaign. I think it’s a disinformation campaign that the CIA created. That’s what I believe. Now, I don’t know that for a fact, but that’s what I think it is.”

Is that the truth?  Or does he know that Lin Wood is recording him?

I think it’s the truth (i.e. Q is bullshit).

But it would make a nice cover.

What connects the current and former Directors of the DIA?

Two institutions:  the Command and General Staff College in Kansas.

And the National War College at Fort McNair in D.C.

And who taught at those two institutions?

When did they teach there?

Maybe it’s just a coincidence.

Hijack the hijackers.

What else connects the Directors of the DIA?

Army G-2.

What aforementioned erstwhile teacher connects to that entity?

Probably just a coincidence, right?

Of the 20 historical Directors of the DIA, only one was black:  Vincent R. Stewart.

He also happened to be a U.S. Marine (like Robert McCall).

He’s also dead.

Or is he?

He was appointed by the only black President in U.S. history.

Why is it significant that he is dead?

Because he was only 64 when he died.

How did he die?

I don’t know.

When did he die?

A few months ago.

April 28, 2023.

The Equalizer 3 came out on September 1, 2023.

Did General Stewart die suddenly because he had taken one of the three COVID vaccines which were rushed through testing and given Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA?

Why did the Commandant of the USMC (Eric Smith) have a heart attack and go into cardiac arrest on October 29, 2023 at the age of 58 or 59?

Was he too vaccinated with one of the Operation Warp Speed vaccines??

Eric Smith is still alive.

General Stewart is dead.

Why is it notable that he is dead?

When was the last time a Director of the DIA died (prior to Stewart)?

Funny you should ask.

Stewart was the first Director of the DIA to die so far THIS YEAR.

The second was Dennis M. Nagy (who was briefly with the Air Force before a long career with DIA).

Nagy died on August 5, 2023.

He was 80.

Here’s the problem.

Half of the Directors of the DIA are still alive.

Each and every one that surrounds General Stewart.

Of the 10 most-recent Directors of the Defense Intelligence Agency, only General Stewart is deceased.

Most DIA Directors die in their 80s.

Some die in their 90s.

A couple died in their 70s.

General Stewart was the youngest Director of the DIA to ever die.

The current DIA Director and his predecessor are both from Army G-2 (Army intelligence).

The most recent DIA Director to be educated at the CGSC (Fort Leavenworth) is General Flynn.

His predecessor was also educated there.

The DIA also has quite a connection to Texas.

General Maples was from Texas.

Back to the CGSC, General Hughes was an alumnus (that’s 3).

Hughes also connects to NGA and NRO.

General Minihan is from Pampa, Texas (that’s 2).

[Clapper]

General Soyster is an alumnus of both CGSC (4) and the National War College.

It should be noted that multiple DIA Directors went to work for L-3 Communications after retiring.

Soyster’s predecessor’s predecessor (General Williams) was also an alumnus of CGSC (5) and the National War College (2).

Not long before, General Wilson had headed the DIA.

He too was an alumnus of CGSC (6) and the National War College (3).

His predecessor was an alumnus of CGSC (7).

Admiral de Poix (who is a bit further back on the roll of former Directors) was a National War College alumnus (4).

General Bennett, the 2nd Director of DIA, was an alumnus of CGSC (8).

Bias check:  Texas does not play that big of a role in the DIA.

Confirmed:  almost half of the DIA Directors graduated from the CGSC.

In recent times, there appears to be a shift towards the USAWC in Carlisle Barracks, PA being the premier educational institution for DIA Directors.

So The Equalizer series can be seen as a gigantic recruitment commercial for the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Or as an adjunct to Q.

Q hasn’t posted in 11 months.

McCall posted 2 months ago.

Interesting.

Maybe we are “literally” watching a movie?

The Equalizer series can also be seen as a gigantic Suunto watch commercial.

Which could be Finnish propaganda.

If that Finnish company weren’t owned by a Chinese company (it is).

Which brings us back to NATO.

Did Sam Rubinstein teach at the CGSC?

Good military vs. evil military.

Good guys (like L. Fletcher Prouty [Colonel X]) vs. private contractors within government.

The “private contractors” trope can also be read as CIA infiltration of the Pentagon.

This is PRECISELY what Prouty was writing about in 1973.

And perhaps the mechanism by which the CIA used DoD materiel to stage the 9/11 false-flag.

And then there is the overarching theme.

The storm.

Antoine Fuqua lets it bubble and simmer like a cauldron for much of this film.

Building background tension.

America needs hope.

America needs to reexamine itself.

Nothing shameful about that.

I find myself relating to thinkers I previously found revolting.

We get caught up in things.

PSYOPs.

But America is special.

It is worth saving.

But its survival is not guaranteed.

Rethink your assumptions.

About everything.

Body, mind, spirit.

The storm is here.

–PD

The Equalizer [2014)

Transmission received.

Obama Presidency.

Half mark.

Rumblings of military coup.

Possible Defense Intelligence Agency PSYOP.

Prefiguring QAnon.

A continuation.

Provenance not revealed till 2018.

Those most responsible for the fall of America.

  1. Mark Zuckerberg
  2. Sundar Pichai
  3. Susan Wojcicki
  4. Zuckerberg
  5. Liang Rubo
  6. Xi Jinping
  7. Zuckerberg
  8. Wu Hai
  9. Liu Yunli
  10. Pony Ma
  11. Steven Newhouse
  12. Donald Newhouse
  13. Elon Musk
  14. Bill Gates
  15. Robin Li
  16. Jeff Bezos
  17. Narendra Modi
  18. Vladimir Kiriyenko
  19. Vladimir Putin
  20. Zuckerberg
  21. Donald Trump

Denzel Washington is the best male actor to ever set foot in front of a motion picture camera.

Harvard and MIT.

Heroes:

John Grayken?

Follow the money.

Steve Tisch?

Todd Black?

Find Boston.

Find Dallas twice.

Clapper thrice.

DIA.

Trump massive failure on COVID vaccines.

Trump massive failure on Gaza/Israel.

It pains me to include Putin, Xi, and Modi on that list.

Far from exhaustive.

Not airtight.

58% America was its own undoing.

25% a Chinese operation.

17% shared by the rest of the world (with Russian and Indian contributions being notably egregious).

Who curtailed CIA hegemony in Hollywood after Safe House (2012)?

https://youtu.be/KKn_ucvHoRM?si=2UowycccscWbOnb_

Home Depot.

Progress, not perfection.

Normcore.

Insomnia.

24 hours.

Nighthawks (Hopper).

Closest thing he had to a friend.

RFK Jr.–massive success on vaccines, massive failure on Israel

Michael Flynn–massive success on vaccines, massive failure on Israel (took six figures to consult for which company?)

Cornel West–massive success on Israel, massive failure on vaccines

Joe Biden–massive failure on vaccines, massive failure on Israel

Donald Trump–massive failure on vaccines, massive failure on Israel

So why doesn’t Biden make the list at the top?

Because he’s inconsequential.

A puppet.

But there’s more.

He only coerced.

Those on the list made decisions.

They all had a choice.

They all made essentially the same decision.

The wrong decision.

For America.

For Americans.

All on that list consigned America to failure.

In a very specific way.

Not too hard to figure out.

Some brought America to its knees more than did others 

Some did it in other ways.

Biden did it in other ways.

He can be on another list.

A worthless President.

All things considered, RFK Jr. is the best option for U.S. President in 2024.

Cornel West is the second-best option.

All things considered, Michael Flynn is a good man.

Trump has done immense good.

But the sobering fact is that the harm he has done (do no harm) has outweighed that good.

Do the right thing.

Do something about it, Trump.

You have a choice.

Apologize regarding the vaccines.

Tell the truth.

And stop being a moron on Israel.

Moron on vaccines–moron on Israel.

In such situation, give me RFK Jr.

Or even Cornel West.

But give me Trump before you give me Biden.

Nothing worse than Biden.

No redeeming qualities.

Old man gotta be the old man.

Fish gotta be the fish.

Special talent for reading license plates.

Khartoum.

Connect Cofer Black (CIA) to Mitt Romney.

Now connect to Burisma.

https://open.spotify.com/album/11Wzm0XHozgjD5Zfz45Sv7?si=R5rcNVsRS-iz2D55NcNxjw

Putin has done immense good…and very little harm.

I think more at fault is Vladimir Kiriyenko or his predecessor.

In spite of everything, I believe Xi Jinping to be a truly honorable man.

Like Putin, he has done immense good…much more good than bad.

The real problem, then, is Liang Rubo.

Likewise, I believe Narendra Modi to be a truly honorable man.

More likely at fault is Virendra Gupta and/or Umang Bedi.

And don’t forget about fake fuck Chris Pavlovski and shitnose Devin Nunes.

They deserve to be on that list more than Trump does.

But no one has done worse on vaccines and Israel than Trump.

Then again, perhaps the first list need not even exist.

It could just be replaced with the name Joe Biden.

But Trump has not done the right thing.

His window in which to change course is closing.

Trump loves his COVID vaccines.

Trump loves the IDF and Netanyahu (who fucked him over at least as fast as did Boris Johnson).

Stay cool.

Be a cucumber.

In a factory of pickles.

Do not become.

Stay cucumber.

16 seconds.  4 seconds per man.

So-called men.

LINE.

Surprise.  Kill.  Vanish.

A bit rusty.

Minus 9.

Still 3 slow.

Marker A:  3:22’08

The absolutely indispensable acting performance of Marton Csokas.

We who?

We who?

Investigate Tony Schaffer for being a good person.

Suspected of being on the side of good and right.

Yet still so much bullshit about 9/11.

Hijack the hijackers.

Investigate Ezra Cohen.

AKA Ezra Cohen-Watnick.

[intern for Joe Biden in high school]

Minimum age for Defense Clandestine Service?

JBAB.

Squelched to save.

You don’t know your own power.

We saved your life.

Know your enemy.

Know yourself.

Home field advantage.

Weapons of opportunity.

Antoine Fuqua best director working–tied with Edgar Wright.

It’s even.

Fuqua more damage with less punches.

But a bit of a moron when it comes to voting in Georgia.

JFK 1961.

Yes.

-PD

 

Kill Me Three Times [2014)

Mediocre film.

For those keeping score at home, let me fill you in.

Simon Pegg is perhaps the most talented actor working these days.

Here’s the films of his which I know to be masterpieces:

Shaun of the Dead

Hot Fuzz

The World’s End

Yes, that’s right:  the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy.

It really is that good.

One might not think such possible.

But it is the case.

Close, but not quite up to that level is:

Paul

Another notch down (though it is very inventive):

A Fantastic Fear of Everything

In some ways, I want to put those last two I mentioned on the same level, but Paul features Nick Frost as well.  It’s just too hard to beat.

All said, that’s FIVE essential films starring one actor.

Granted, Frost is in four of those.

Which brings us to this “other” part of Pegg’s oeuvre.

A Fantastic Fear of Everything proves that Pegg can do it without Frost, but there are some bone fide clunkers in Pegg’s oeuvre as well.

Terminal is mediocre.

Worth watching, but mediocre.

And, sadly, I would say the same about Kill Me Three Times.

On a positive note, Pegg is MUCH better in this film than he is in Terminal.

Mostly it’s because he’s allowed to act.

Allowed to bask in the spotlight.

But Kill Me Three Times has many problems (which take away from Pegg’s performance).

Let’s break it down.

The Oldsmobile Toronado with Western Australia plates is a nice touch.

Metallic puke green.

And Pegg with a nice Grinderman ‘stache.

You might be ahead of me.

Indeed, one of the problems from which Kill Me Three Times suffers is an over-adoration of Quentin Tarantino.

The mustachioed hitman is by now a trite trope.

There can be only one Pulp Fiction.

[itself merely a good (not great) movie]

While the story is not entirely original, I would like to congratulate writer James McFarland for doing what director Kriv Stenders did not:

create art.

There is some art (not much) in McFarland’s script.

Conversely, there is no art in Stender’s film.

No thought.

No inspiration.

[and, one would think by looking at it, no cinematographer]

A very uninspired directorial effort.

Now.

You might be wondering why I am so bitter.

BECAUSE I BOUGHT THIS MOVIE!

I don’t have the money to throw away on such a piece of shit.

That, and it’s an affront to those of us who create in spite of severe monetary limitations.

Perhaps the only inspired shots involve the security camera footage in the microwave on the pizza setting.

A good bit, that.

Good special effects here.

Realistic-looking deaths abound.

The ending is good.

Kinda funny.

In an Aussie way.

It’s a shame this film couldn’t have been made better.

The script was fine.

The actors were plenty talented.

It is just such a BLAND mise-en-scène.

Luke Hemsworth is pretty good here.

But the only thing that kept this watchable (aside from Pegg) is Teresa Palmer.

I thought director Stenders might deliver a truly-artful moment…finally…at the end…in the shower scene.

I was wrong.

 

-PD

El Dorado [1966)

Funny thing about Westerns…

Sometimes you seen ’em, but you done FORGET you seen ’em.

And this one is that type of affair.

Except that it’s a masterpiece.

This here film takes multiple viewings to fully appreciate the craftsmanship at work.

Because back in those heady nouvelle vague days, it seems that the Cahiers crowd were known as the Hitchcocko-Hawksians.

I may be borrowing a term from Richard Brody’s book on Godard.

But he may have been borrowing it from elsewheres.

I don’t rightly know.

But El Dorado is certainly the spitting image of another film…by the same auteur.

Yes, Rio Bravo was the first incarnation.

1959.

It’s the one that gets all the praise.

But if my eyes and heart don’t deceive me, Robert Mitchum is a better actor than Dean Martin.

[as much as I love Dino]

And James Caan bests Ricky Nelson as well.

But it’s hard to replace Walter Brennan.

Damn near impossible.

That said, Arthur Hunnicutt is pretty darn fabulous in El Dorado.

But let’s get back to those Hitchcocko-Hawksians.

The first part is probably pretty self-explanatory.

These Cahiers du cinéma film critics revered Alfred Hitchcock.

Above all else.

Hell!

Before Truffaut did his book of interviews with Hitch (1967), Chabrol had written a monograph on the master (1957).

To be more exact, Chabrol cowrote the book with Rohmer.

Might as well say Rivette (“Rivette!”) just to round out les cinq.

Like the Mighty Handful (Balakirev, Cui, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Borodin), and one short of les six (Auric, Durey, Honegger, Milhaud, Poulenc, and Tailleferre), the Cahiers crew were the Hitchcocko-Hawksians.

But what of that second seme?

Indeed, it was Howard Hawks.

The director of our film.

And an auteur which Jean-Luc Godard has gone on about at length…in a profusion of praise.

But why are we even talking about these Westerns?

What do El Dorado and Rio Bravo have in common besides diagesis and director?

Ah yes:  John Wayne!

In El Dorado, our villain is Ed Asner.

Quite rich when considering that he was one of the very few to be a true hero in America after 9/11.

That’s right.

Ed Asner was on the front lines of getting the truth.

And we never got the truth.

Not from any official source.

But that’s ok.

Because we have gathered the general gist of the situation.

And so Ed Asner’s most important performance was what he did in real life.

To try and honor those 3000 souls who perished and were draped in a lie.

But we’re in Texas.

And Texas is a lonesome land.

Inhospitable.

And we aim here to mainly talk about the examples of the silver screen.

In Technicolor.

“details…deliberately left out” says Wikipedia…

Ah yes…something David Ray Griffin spotted with his razor-sharp mind.

“Omissions and distortions”, he called it.

That is the beauty of film.

It gets deep.

It burrows.

And it fuses to what we have experienced as visceral verities.

Charlene Holt was actually from Texas.

And she is every bit the female lead here.

Charming.  Strong.  Sexy.

I won’t go comparing her to Angie Dickinson, but let’s just say that Ms. Holt fit the bill.

To a T.

T for Texas.

And Ms. Holt passed on (God rest her soul) in Tennessee.

We get horses and streams.

Rifles and pistols.

And a lot of earthy talk.

As you can tell.

Gets under your skin.

Your tongue.

Burrows.

Say, was you ever bit by a dead bee?

[Oops, wrong funnyman.  And Hemingway.]

Pound born in Idaho.  And Papa H died there.

Because the pain was too much.

Gut shot.

You can’t turn your back in these parts.

Gotta waddle out backwards.

On yer horse.

In high heels.

And keep your peripheral sharp.

Cardsharp, not shark.

Tiburon country.

Anyone missing Angie Dickinson likely ogled Michele Carey for the better part of El Dorado.

Though the appearances were brief.

John Wayne turns the other cheek.

Smears blood on the cowhide.

Get outta here.

Tough guy gets back on his horse.

Always guns in the river.

But you gotta retrieve it.

Dr. Fix (Paul Fix) isn’t up to the procedure.

Doesn’t wanna bungle a good man.

Tells him take care uh that whens you get tuh proper chirurgien.

Christopher George looks spitting Willem Dafoe.

Ping!

But the real story is Diamond Joe.

Or so.

It seems under the bridge.

Natchez.  Matches.

Jarmusch maybe…

Always.

Revenge.

Gotta git your own justice.

Around these skillet lickers.

Like the freaks from Octopussy, knife to a gunfight.

Had to saw off a holstered piece at the Swede.

Following me?

If the top is a high hat, Mississippi’s is low.

I think Tom Petty adopted one.

Mine never fit quite right.

From crown to gun butt…soft wobble with every bump.

But enough phrenology.

Only love can break your heart.  Neil Young said that.

And I know all too well.

Stuck behind an 18-wheeler from Dallas.

And the rains set in.

And Górecki just makes you cry even more.

Feels like an addiction.

And sometimes you substitute one addiction for another.

Because you got an empty place there in your ribcage.

Friendship rides in least expected.

Crusty.

Professional killer don’t have no friends.

A liability.

Can’t get too connected.

Go soft./

Stayed in Mississippi a day too long.  Bob Dylan said that.

And I think maybe he meant Robert Johnson.

When the poison of whisky ain’t enough.  I said that.

Not enough holes in the world get a rise outta me at Royal Albert.

But I’m not too worried about it.

Just modulating grammar.

Because El Dorado is filled with sine qua non dialogue.

Seeming hapex legomenon with every breath.

Latin/Greek shift.

Cipher.

A lot of soap.

Running joke.

The others’ll come to me.

Maybe.

High low, do-si-do.

My uncle died with a stack of VHS Westerns on his TV set.

That smoking’ll kill you.

Two uncles.

But only one owned a square dance barn.

So that no matter how Cahiers I get, I’ll always be from Texas.

City boy.

Country heart.

Not even aware how much of a rube I really am.

It’s a concoction you gotta pinch the nose to force down.

A medicine resembling asphalt.

Alcohol, 4 days

No punctuation.

I’m just lucky to never have done more’n cowboy tobacco.

But Texas is lonesome.

Unless you’re riding with John Bell Hood.

In which case you’re shitting yourself with fear.

Itch on the back of your neck.

But learn to play a good bugle.

Close quarters combat.

Urban warfare.

In the Wild West.

Two walk forward, two reverse.

To slap a RICO charge on a greasy bastard.

Like the goddamned Great Gate of Kiev.

And back to the five.

A gamelan of adobe marksmanship.

Distraction.

Diversion.

Deputy was just the courage.  Pin on “I do”.

We think Pecos.

Information travels.

And to have a leg up.

[no pun]

Old wounds and creaky bones.

Been knocked down too many times.

Fallen off my horse.

[shift]

We don’t negotiate with terrorists.

But do we terrorize negotiators?

Turns out the whole thing was about water.

When it’s dry.

And you gotta wake up.

And you didn’t just win the Super Bowl.

Why you can’t take a giant leap in chess.

Giant steps.

Because your plan sucks.

Just showing up is pretty damned brave.

Every day.

Fight.

[And I didn’t even get to Edith Head and Nelson Riddle]

-PD

Kingpin [1996)

The concept of the “family” movie has changed since The Sound of Music in 1965.

Wikipedia, that grand arbiter of officiality, does not primarily recognize “family” as a genre.

They opt for “children’s film”.

Nonetheless, the Wiki article lists “family film” as an alternative name for this nebulous genre.

In 1965, The Beatles were still releasing albums like Rubber Soul.

1966 saw these same alchemists get a bit edgier with Revolver.

By 1967, the whole world was tripping balls to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

It’s important to document this sea change in pop culture by way of the personages pictured on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s:

-Aleister Crowley

-Lenny Bruce

-William S. Burroughs

-Karl Marx

-and many others.

Just these four personalities alone made for a shocking collection on the cover of what was sonically a hippy-dippy platter.

But maketh thou no mistake:  The Beatles were self-consciously out to SHOCK!

1971.

By then, The Beatles were no more.

1968 had come and gone (violently).  And The Beatles had reached their zenith (or nadir) of angst with songs like “Helter Skelter” (from “The White Album“).

There were no new Beatles albums in 1971.

Indeed, there was never again a “new” Beatles album

But 1971 gave us Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.

And so, about four years late, Hollywood managed to weave the psychedelia of Sgt. Pepper’s into a bona fide family classic.

It took a while longer before Hollywood had another idea with legs (other than just borrowing from the great minds in rock music).

Aliens!

It is worth noting that the three original Star Wars films (1977, 1980, and 1983) were interpolated in 1982 by a cute alien named E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

Sure, there were classic superheroes (like Superman in 1978), but the next real wave was another coup of futuristic thinking.

Time machines.

The Back to the Future franchise raked in whopping revenue of nearly a billion dollars at the box office over the release years of 1985, 1989, and 1990.

But still, no major taboos had been broken in this fragile genre.

There was no auteur conversant in James Monaco’s theories on “exploding genres”.

Yet, two films from this same period stick out as family-proto (not proto-family).

1988:  Who Framed Roger Rabbit?  [ooh la la…stretching the genre like Jessica Rabbit stretched her red sequin gown]

-1989:  National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation [a real benchmark or signpost…perhaps not as racy a National Lampoon’s Vacation, but still edgy enough to elicit laughter during “the decline of the West” (as Oswald Spengler put it)]

Which almost brings us to the unlikely masterpiece that is Kingpin.

Randy Quaid had been counted on by the National Lampoon franchise for his peerless role of Cousin Eddie.

By 1996, he would become a priceless asset for the makers of Kingpin.

It is hard to chart how we went from The Sound of Music to Kingpin…even with the help of the inestimable Beatles.

If we are to really reach our goal (an explanation), we must follow the followers–the children of The Beatles.

-1970:  Syd Barrett was still bloody mad (and brilliant) on The Madcap Laughs [especially the song “No Good Trying”]

-The Mothers of Invention released albums titled Burnt Weeny Sandwich and Weasels Ripped My Flesh [pretty odd, edgy stuff]

-and international artists like Amon Düül II (from Germany) gave the world a whole new organic, electro-bombastic sound to attempt to decode

-1971:  The Krautrock invasion continued with CAN’s Tago Mago

-Tribal hippies Comus found the perfect sound with First Utterance

-1972:  Hawkwind released their cosmic, perpetual-motion masterpiece Doremi Fasol Latido

-1973:  Pink Floyd changed the cultural landscape with Dark Side of the Moon (perhaps presaging the space/aliens films which would preoccupy family film makers in the coming years)

-Brian Eno melted many minds with his masterpiece Here Come the Warm Jets (complete with the balding artist on the cover in drag)

But we missed something significant:

Led Zeppelin.

If the 1970s belonged to any one band, it was this one.

-their first two albums were released in 1969

-by the time of Led Zeppelin III (1970), they were competing against overt (though clownish) occultists like Black Sabbath [Jimmy Page of Zeppelin being a more covert, zealous admirer of Aleister Crowley]

Led Zeppelin IV was released in 1971

Houses of the Holy saw the light of day in 1973

Physical Graffiti dropped in 1975

But as Led Zeppelin began to peter out, another group picked up the slack and streamlined the music.  Their message was as tough as their humor was bawdy.

AC/DC slapped the world with High Voltage (1976), Let There Be Rock (1977), and other masterpieces which made for a loud world.

But music was just getting started in asserting its agenda for Hollywood.

Iggy Pop dropped two masterpieces in 1977.  One light and tough (Lust for Life), and the other a much darker affair (The Idiot).

But the real earthquake…the real force which rent the curtain in the temple was Nevermind the Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols.

From this album in 1977, nothing was ever the same again.

And so the film under consideration, Kingpin, was born from many decades of broken taboos.

Some would call this “progressive” (and then proceed to solicit a donation).

Oswald Spengler might rightly have called it The Decline of the West.

But in the case of Kingpin, I can only call it funny.

I can’t pass judgement on film since 1965.

As to whether it is fit for families to view together.

But I can pass judgement on this film insofar as its most important merit.

It’s damned funny!

I was Munsoned by Cinema Paradiso.  Long ago.

I thought I had a chance.  But I was Amish.  I just didn’t know it yet.

But let’s first start by talking about the dirtbags who frame this film.

#1 is Woody Harrelson (though he starts as just a protégé).

Woody has had an interesting life.

When I was growing up in San Antonio, one of our family shows to watch after the 10 p.m. news was Cheers.  This gave us great comfort.  Great laughs.  And Woody played the character Woody Boyd.  One of the bright spots of a great television cast.

But Woody Harrelson’s dad was a hitman (in real life).  And he killed (in 1979) U.S. federal judge John H. Wood Jr. right here in my hometown:  San Antonio.

It was a drug hit.  Harrelson’s father hired for $250,000 to shoot and kill this judge outside of his home.  The drug dealer who hired Harrelson got 30 years.  Harrelson got life in jail.

Harrelson denied in court that he killed Judge Wood.  He claimed he just took credit for it so he could collect the money.

Well, all of this backstory fits quite nicely into the dirtbag saint Woody Harrelson plays in Kingpin.

#2 is Bill Murray.  Bill is an old hand (no pun intended).  Bill’s character teaches Woody a lot, but Bill’s a real bastard in this film.  Of course, this is a comedy.  So his ostentatious cruelty is worth a few snickers here and there.

At this point it is worth mentioning the twisted (gifted) minds which brought us this film: the Farrelly brothers.

Peter Farrelly (whose birthday is two day away) and his slightly-younger brother Bobby Farrelly.

You might know them from their work such as Dumb and Dumber and the Jonathan-Richman-chalked There’s Something About Mary.

[N.B.  Richman makes a great cameo in Kingpin.  We may not have Lou Reed anymore, but thank God for Jonathan!]

The action of our film shifts from Ocelot, Iowa (“Instead of a dentured ocelot on a leash…”) to hard-scrabble Scranton, Pennsylvania.

[home of “Creepy” Joe Biden]

Randy Quaid (#MAGA) is fantastic as an Amish rube with a promising set of bowling skills.

Somewhere along the way, the opportunistic Harrelson becomes Quaid’s manager.

I got great joy out of seeing this.

Because there are few more difficult things than managing “personalities”.

I’ve done it.

Now I have an advanced degree in management.

And still, I know…it’s hard!

But back to family films.

This IS a family film.

But it is also an example of what the family film has become.

In general, this picture would not be suitable for young children to view.

That’s just my opinion.

But perhaps it’s a subgenre of family film.

It’s something which parents with high-school-aged kids MIGHT be able to enjoy with their children.

But I leave that discretion up to the parents.

Because the Farrelly brothers like to SHOCK!

It’s funny.  They’re good at it.  It has a point.  But it might be too lewd for some families.

Speaking of which, it is a quite interesting device with which the Farrellys chose to frame their film:  the Amish.

It borders on surreal, but this bawdy comedy always has the temperate presence of the Amish throughout.

In a certain way, I think it does great honor to the Amish.

From an entertainment perspective, it’s genius.

But this is also a road movie.

And we know strange things happen on the road.

I was just so impressed by Woody Harrelson’s acting.  It’s effortless.  Flawless.

And I was equally impressed by Randy Quaid’s naïveté.  Truly an acting coup!

But the film gets REALLY interesting when Vanessa Angel hops on the bandwagon!!

Remember her from Spies Like Us, emerging from that snow-covered tent in her underwear?

Yeah, that’s her.

And it turns out that she’s a very good actress!

Ah, but thank God for condoms!!!

At the end, you will feel proud of your efforts.

To walk out the door everyday into a corrupt world.

We are all sinners.

But music saves us.

“Bad Reputation” by Freedy Johnston is a revelation.

And makes me wistfully recall my last days as a professional musician.

“I Want Candy” is such a tough beat!  The Strangeloves!!!

“I Saw the Light” by Todd Rundgren is magical music at a magical moment in this film.

“Showdown” by Electric Light Orchestra is the perfect tune to pit Murray against Harrelson.

But the real eyeopener was hearing “Something in the Air” by Thunderclap Newman.

Such a magical song!

Great movie.  Great acting.  Comes from a place of reality.

-PD

Secret Agent [1936)

If this is propaganda, it is among the most artful of all time.  For it seems to emanate from the mind of an individualist and patriot.  Alfred Hitchcock.

We get our subject material from Somerset Maugham.  Ashenden.

“The wrong man!  Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.”  Thus laughs “the General” Peter Lorre…a sort of lovable psychopath (if such a thing is possible).  Yes, the wrong man.  It is to Hitchcock’s oeuvre what prostitution is to Jean-Luc Godard’s.  But it is a grotesque moment.  The wrong man.  In this case, it went all the way:  they killed the wrong man.  Just an innocent old man with a wife and a dog.  All in a day’s work for a covert operative…Lorre’s laughter seems to tell us.

No.  Lorre is no typical agent.  He’s a hitman.  He doesn’t mind killing.  In fact, he kind-of enjoys it.  Takes pride in his craft (as it were).  Very clean, he says…strangling, a knife…no guns…too noisy.

But let’s back up to John Gielgud.  To make a spy, you kill the man.  It is quasi-Christian.  The old is gone.  Behold, the new has come.

The perfect spy has no past.  This sort of agent wakes up to read his own obituary.  Before long, he has a new identity.

Though this film predates WWII, its subject matter of WWI is certainly infused with the building tension of a second continent-wide conflagration.

And again we witness James Bond far before Ian Fleming birthed him.  The milieu is the same.  Gielgud reports to “R”…like the “M” we would all come to know and love.  And of course Lorre…himself an M of another type (see Fritz Lang).

Trouble in the Middle East.  Why can’t it be Tahiti?  Where’s Leonard Bernstein when you need him???

“The Hairless Mexican” a.k.a. “The General” Peter Lorre…kinda like the Federal Reserve:  not Federal and no reserves.  Yes, Lorre is quite hirsute.  As for his rank, it is as dubious as his other winning personality traits.

Gielgud’s not very careful…right from the start.  I suppose they should have trained the chap in the dark arts before sending him out into the field.  At least the field is Switzerland (Allen Dulles’ future stomping grounds).

Back to our Bond parallels…the gorgeous Madeleine Carroll, like Eva Green in Casino Royale, stipulates a separate-bed rule as part of her cover (Gielgud’s “wife”).  We wonder whether her character, like Hitchcock and Green’s Vesper Lynd, is of Catholic upbringing.

But for the main course…we get some rather convincing ethics from Hitchcock–a morality which we would scarcely see again in the future of film through to the 21st century.  To wit, espionage is the dirtiest of jobs.  Never mind the old trick of digging though a rubbish bin:  the whole operation is filthy and loused up with sickening concessions.  Hitchcock gets right to the point quite forthright:  murder.  Many of the darkest jobs are just that!  One can spin it anyway one wants, but it is still cold-blooded.

It’s not all fun and games, Gielgud tries to convey to Madeleine.  If you’re here for a thrill, you’d best recalibrate your perspective:  things are about to get real ugly!

It is some scary shit.  Imagine Olivier Messiaen and Giacinto Scelsi collaborating with Morton Feldman for a 45 second piece.  It’s called Sonata for Corpse and Organ.  Their contact has been murdered.  The assassin pulled out all the stops.  Just after the prelude, a fugue of struggle ensued which left a button from the killer’s garments clutched in the dead organist’s hand.  We get a rich, chromatic chord until Gielgud and Lorre realize there’s far too little harmonic rhythm to this chorale.  The bloke’s been whacked (slumped upon the keys).

This button, a single-use MacGuffin, leads them to offing the wrong man.  Poor old Percy Marmont…

At this, Gielgud is ready to quit…sickened by the thought of having innocent blood on his hands.  Credit Madeleine Carroll with a nice performance…especially when she plays the straight (horrified) woman to Lorre’s laughter.

And so, again like Casino Royale, Gielgud and Carroll (madly in love) decide to dispense with the whole mission and pack it in (complete with a resignation letter to “R” from Gielgud).

I won’t give away too much.  Lorre is fantastic:  both ridiculously awkward in his humor and deft in his acting.

Unfortunately, the artfulness of the film which Hitchcock had lovingly built up is marred by a somewhat daft, abrupt ending.

Like this.

-PD