*Blog post started on August 5, 2020.
Well,
I have gotten through the initial lab work, handled my finances at
least for a couple of weeks, and made sure that everyone can watch their
appropriate media in Morton, for the most part. My older sister does
not own any foreign stuff, but she sees potential in the region-free DVD
player. Christmas for my folks will probably be a HDMI enabled
region-free DVD player because I do not want my niece and nephew to ruin
the DVD/VCR combo in their room. Tape decks are such a rare commodity.
Damn
the hour lunch schedule. How much can you do with a free hour after
sustaining one's energy on Jolly Ranchers? You cannot spend it eating.
With that time, you can get damn near anywhere in Champaign/Urbana and
be back to work on time. I suppose it is the bank just encourage
commerce (Or is it for easier scheduling construction since Illinois
only requires a half hour lunch.).
I
hope all of you respect my decision to be sucking the life out of
Hershey's non-chocolate option. If I was not doing that, the bank could
not offer Dum Dums to the customers. They are a little more hesitant to
ask in these unprecedented times, but most are still using drive up
banking.
My
worries also include just being bored. I will not kick the cats out of
my video game chair, so yes, I have an excuse to be bored. The ex's cat
seems to be the feline equivalent to me, which means (She was hedging
her bets about a break up two-years prior.) I am constantly reminded of
my loneliness. Talking to myself is something I do enough of. Now it
feels like I am doing it in stereo.
Who
knows? Skimble might be inadvertently doubling my angst. This is what I
will blame for extra nervousness/reluctance to please my parents.
Perhaps that may have skewed my perception of a Mom movie suggestion,
"The Second Civil War".
The Second Civil War (1997; 1 hour 36 minutes)
The
chaos throughout the world has become too much for most Americans to
handle. For example, war in China lead to a refugee population becoming
the majority in Rhode Island. When it comes to Asia, there are never an
abundance of events to create asylum seekers, the most recent being an
Indian nuclear assault on Pakistan.
There
are now planes full of orphans who need hope and a new home. The
Federal response is to ship them to Idaho. As these future Americans
load their flights, the state's governor, Jim Farley, decides to close
their borders. With the shelters already built, Idaho is the only place
they can go, so armed forces are deployed. After this escalation, Farley
lays down the gauntlet. If the feds do not withdraw their demands,
Idaho will secede from the Union.
"The
Second Civil War" is a poignant TV movie 23 years after its release. It
is a satire about identity politics when they were just becoming a post
civil rights issue (i.e. Fear of White America being lost to the values
of minorities). If the film would have tried to make a statement or
solely focus on hilarity, it would be worth suggesting.
This
is essentially a TV movie despite its R-rating. The feature has a
strong cast and a great director in Joe Dante, but aside from the
performances of the adversaries (Beau Bridges and Gov. Farley and Phil
Hartman as the President), no one is given a chance to shine. When
Dennis Leary shows up as a reporter with Dick Miller as his cameraman,
you hope for a madcap Dante film like a "Gremlins" or "Matinee". Miller
turns out to be a neutral character, so his talents are wasted while
Dante's chaotic touch is no where to be seen.
Without
providing a challenge to the director, perennial TV-movie writer Martyn
Burke's script could have been directed by anyone. This script could
work very well as a play if it only focused on the goings on between the
adversaries and their respective cabinets and influencers. These are
the only scenarios where the satire works. The interactions amongst
parties allows for blatant impolitical correctness that serves to
highlight the failures of state and federal governments. Unfortunately,
Burke wants you to see the events through the eyes of a news network
that is only motivated by ratings.
Fox
News and MSNBC had not found their footing by playing to one side of
the political aisle or the other. The news network in this feature is
out to please everyone which fails to work when the two important angles
focus on selfishness. It ends up failing to fit between or unite the
two other stories. When most of the cast that lead me to the title are
part of this angle, my disappointment was massive.
I
guess you might say it is Kubrickian, but you need something wild to
occur to leave us comfortable with a sad perception of the finale.
Stanley Kubrick wisely gave us Slim Pickens riding a bomb and Peter
Cushing announcing, "Mein Fuhrer! I can walk!"
Is
there anything more disappointing that a great concept for a movie
falling totally flat? I cannot say that identity politics is a great
concept. Anyone who preaches that is an asshole. The idea of going to
war with Idaho is.
"The
Second Civil War" focuses too much on the negative effects of how
politics would evolve, and its failure as a satire essentially tells us
to just accept that we are going to hate those who are different than
us. This feature was a waste of talent and lacks the nerve to be a
worthwhile viewing experience. I guess there is nothing worse than
dropping the ball. This is something I should have known being a
lifelong Cubs fan, but thanks HBO Films for the reinforcement of that.
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