THE WIND AND THE LION

                         JACK'S BACK, and this time it's personal
DATE AND STATUS:   Sunday, October 21st, 2012, and I'm exhausted

QUOTE OF THE DAY comes from Margaret Addison:

"I have always rebelled against the unadorned, the unbefitting, the unawakened, the unresisting, the undesirable, the unplanned, the unshapely, the uncommitted, the untempered, all leading to the unintended.  I believe in the unsubmissive, the unfaltering, the unassailable, the irresistible, the unbelievable, in other words, in an art of life."

I love my quote of the day, it describes perfectly how I feel towards everything in life.  I am an idealist, I'm optimistic, and, like Anne Frank, I believe that people are inherently good, (sometimes it just takes a little longer than others to find it.)

First off, I shall like to apologize for not getting this post out to you sooner.  I really am justified in my delay, but, still I feel badly.

We are finally back home in Guelph after quite an exhausting day closing the cottage last Tuesday, but, at least we got everything done.  Mac and I were quite thorough in cleaning everything up, and we are confident that we managed to get everything done, not omitting one item, except of course, to say good-bye to all our friends that we leave up there for the Winter.  Oh well, I can always call them or send them an email.

My first day back home in Guelph and I got a surprise.  While still at the lake, I decided to try one of those promotions that are always offered over the television.  I have been watching the ads for that WEN shampoo/conditioner (have you heard of it? or seen the ads yourself?) for awhile, and based on their promotion, I decided I have nothing to lose to give their product a try.  Well, that product was delivered to me today.

If you don't like the product for any reason, you just have to return the empty bottles (that's right, you can use up all the shampoo/conditioner) and return it for a full refund, no questions asked.  We'll see, that is, if I decide to return it.

The shampoo/conditioner came with free gifts, a rather large comb, I've never seen one so big except of course at hair salons, and some kind of skin moisturizer, and even if you decide to return the product, the free gifts are yours to keep.  Yeah sure, nothing is free in this life.

I have been racing around, doing, and accomplishing many tasks.  For starters, I composed, edited, finalized and mailed seven letters of complaints regarding the very bad treatment I received from a doctor at The North Bay Regional Hospital where I was there for a very bad knee infection, and rather large wound to my knee. 

I don't know if anything will come of those letters, but, if you don't try and do something about a bad situation, then definitely nothing will come of that, so at least, I tried to make a difference, and in that area, I have already won.

Speaking of injury, somehow or other, I recently broke the ribs on the left side of my chest.  It is believed that the ribs broke because I was coughing quite hard thanks to a cold I recently had.  The pain is quite severe, and there really is nothing but time that will heal my ribs.

I was also busy researching many hotels, motels, and bed and breakfasts in Florida, and finally Mac and I chose a two-bedroom condominium situated in Ft. Lauderdale where we will vacation for the months of December and January. I can't wait to go, it's already getting too cold for me.  Wanna come?

I know what you're thinking--what about those kids in Gainesville? that you love so much!  Well, yes, I do love them, quite a lot, but the fact is, the kids are growing up, and have rather full lives. 

Even when we are in Gainesville, we really don't get to participate with the kids that much, they are always going off to swimming practice, swim meets, soccer, basketball practices, Cubs, Choir, church activities, garage sales (the kids hold these to raise money so that they can pay their own way for summer camp; that's right, the kids pay for this themselves, their parents may contribute a little, but it is entirely the children's responsibility, how about that!)

 I get such a charge out of watching my nieces and nephew working each day to raise money, that is, when the kids have free time.  If they do have some spare time, the kids set up a stand and sell lemonade, coca-cola, ice tea, and if they've made it, they will also offer cookies and/or other pastries.  They do very well.

I may have told you before, but, Mac and I, and other people as well, we are not allowed to give Savannah, Bryton, and Camden money for doing nothing, except on their birthdays and Christmas.  The kids have to earn all money given them.  "Nobody hands us free money" is their parents attitude.

I think this practice of not giving them money will serve the children well in their future.  It already is, and the children do not know anything different, this is something they have always done.  Consistency is the key when raising children, or so I think!

When the children do get money, they can only spend half of what they receive, they have to bank the other half, and are not allowed to touch it for anything.  If they need to buy anything, it has to come out of their allowance, and from presents of money, under no circumstance are they allowed to touch their money in the bank.  That is for their future and for their security.

I'm very happy that my brother and Allison curtail the children's spending of money, it will teach the children that, when eventually they go to work, they will know that they cannot spend all of their salary, they will save some of it, and this can only benefit them in the long run.

Gosh, how did my brother Gregg, and his beautiful wife get so smart.  I wonder if I've had anything to do with this; actually, there is no wonder involved, I know I influence my brother and his wife, just not in areas here that we can talk about, he he.

Mac, Angel and I will see the kids, (and my brother and his lovely wife, who I think of as a sister, not a sister-in-law,)  on our way to Ft. Lauderdale.  We will stop in at Gainesville on November 21st, just in time for the American Thanksgiving, (where I predict I shall eat too much,) and stay with them for about three or four days. 

We like to do "Black Friday" in Gainesville, one of the kids usually likes to go out shopping with their uncles, it is a time for them, and us, to do some bonding.

Speaking of Black Friday, this year, Mac and I are hoping to find a good deal on lap top computers so that we can give Bryton one for Christmas.  It's one of the few Christmas gifts that Bryton really wants, and Mac and I would like it to come from us.  If you hear of any really good deals on lap top computers, please let me know, I'm not Rockefeller you know!

I am getting very excited about seeing Barbra Streisand at the Air Canada Centre on October 23rd, 2012.  Barbra just finished concerts in Brooklyn, and to all accounts, and reviews, it was a tremendous success, hope it keeps up for her concerts in Canada.

After we see the Streisand concert, we will be going to New York City, where I will not only reunite with an old high-school-girlfriend, (strictly platonic, you understand) but I will also be attending four theatre events.  They are:  "Evita" starring Ricky Martin, "The Anarchist," starring Three-time academy award nominated, Debra Winger, Broadway's own, legendary Patti Lupone, the revival of  "Annie," which is a huge hit, and the box office hit, "The Book of Mormon."

 Out of all these theatre events, the one I'm most looking forwards to seeing is "The Book Of Mormon."  For any of you who watch the television show, "The New Normal," created by Ryan Murphy, Andrew Rannells, who plays Brian on the show, is in this musical, and I can't wait to see it.  I've listed to the Broadway cast recording about five hundred times, and I never tire of listening to it.  I think it will be a lot of fun.

 Also, when were in New York, we will do the usual outings to Bloomingdale's, The Empire State Building, Ground Zero,  (I hope I don't cry; I get very emotional around things like this exhibit,) hopefully we'll have time to take the Staten Island ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, plus dine out at the plethora of restaurants and nightclubs.

 I am also trying to get tickets to go to a taping of "The Anderson Cooper show."  WHEW, I'm tired just writing about these events, what am I going to be like when I do them?  The theatre isn't stopping in New York, because when we get home we are going to see the musical "La Cage,"starring George Hamilton at the Royal Alexandra Theatre.  Mac and I have quite alot of theatre in store for us.

Next year, I'm off to a bang with theatre and concerts, yet again.  I'm going to see Sarah Brightman (Andrew Lloyd Webber's ex-wife, and for whom he wrote "The Phantom of the Opera,) in January (end of the month), "The Wizard of Oz" and "Lady Gaga" in February.

I haven't even heard any of "Lady Gaga's" music, I just know of her because I read a great deal about her, she sounds like she may be a kindred spirit of mine.  Oh, I do know of one of her songs, it is "I Was Born This Way!  For the life of me I can't explain why I remember this song, he he!

"Also, George's niece, and Goddaughter recently had a birthday and is very fond of Lady Gaga, so to celebrate Christina's birthday, we are taking her to this concert.  Going to a rock concert, especially one as big as this magnitude, shall be a very first experience for me.

We are going to see Barbra Streisand in concert at the Air Canada Centre, this Tuesday night, and I am very excited about it.  Of course I shall tell you all about it, but right now, I want to share with you my thoughts on the movie "The Wind and the Lion!"

In the 1975 film "The Wind and the Lion", President Teddy Roosevelt (Brian Keith), gets a chance to establish his big-stick leadership credentials when Mulay el Raisuli (Sean Connery), a defiant Arab ruler, kidnaps an American woman named Eden Pedecaris (Candice Bergen) and her young children.

 

Roosevelt considers sending in the Marines to rescue the woman.  Meanwhile, German troops land in North Africa, hoping to gain a foothold during the coming skirmish.  The situation quickly turns into an international incident, (doesn't it always?) but Eden and her hero-worshipping son grow close to Raisuli (naturally, remember folks, there always has to be conflict.)

 

The spirited American and her captor share intellectual discussions that reveal Raisuli to be more than a simple warlord.  This leads to romance, imprisonment, and a bloody, Sam Peckinpah-inspired shootout, whom I kind of wish had made this film.  But no, that honour went to writer/director, John Milius.

John Milius leaves authenticity in the dust with The Wind and the Lion, turning a rather mundane real-life storyline into something that plays like a boy’s adventure novel.  In actuality, the beautiful woman embodied by Bergen was a balding, overweight American businessman who Raisuli kidnapped to humiliate the Sultan of Morocco.  No United States (U.S.)  troops were ever sent in, and nary a person was killed.

 

 However, the Republican Party shrewdly announced that a telegram had been sent to Raisuli demanding that he free the businessman or face a U.S. attack, a tricky move,  and an ideal scenario for a big-screen adventure.

 

Milius, it should be noted, isn't completely adverse to accurately documenting history:  he wrote Robert Shaw's memorably horrifying speech about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in Jaws (1975).

The Wind and the Lion was shot in Almeria, Spain, a site that filmmakers often substitute for the Arabian desert and the American West.  In her autobiography, Knock Wood,  Candice Bergen wrote:  "The area was littered with primitive facsimiles.  You could crest a sand dune and find cartridges spent on Lawrence of Arabia, arrows from 100 Rifles, tombstones from A Fistful of Dollars, and water gourds from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly."  Bergen greatly enjoyed both the countryside and working with Connery.  Miss Bergen was actually sorry when the filming ended.

Critics, for the most part, gave The Wind and the Lion a split decision.  While many praised Milius' macho flamboyance, others felt the film was jingoistic, as do I,  and far too sentimental.   But the action sequences, featuring an array of stunts involving camels, swords and firepower, are spectacular and the music score by Jerry Goldsmith won an Oscar nomination. It has been called  "the most sappy movie ever made, as well as one of the shrewdest." by New York Times, columnist/critic, Vincent Canby.  That's overstating it quite a bit, but he got the tongue-in-cheek gist of it.

"The Wind and The Lion" is in some ways the apotheosis of Milius' testosterone-drenched he-man sensibility, perhaps his one directorial effort in which his Hemingway-esque sentiments and political views not only meshed perfectly with his   By turns amusing, compelling, and utterly preposterous, "The Wind and the Lion" certainly is not the masterpiece Milius intended.

Working with a limited budget, Milius manages to capture a story of epic scope, replete with all the sweeping, panoramic views and swashbuckling action you'd expect.  There are scenes involving armies of men on horseback clashing in clouds of dust and the clatter of swords that lose none of their power even compared to today's CGI-generated mega-battles.

This is old-school action at its finest.  Visual style aside, it's the performances that carry the day. While Sean Connery isn't exactly the first actor I'd envision in the role of an Moroccan chieftain, and I'm still wondering if there's actually a tribe of lost Scotsmen wandering the deserts of Northern Africa, Connery as an Arab isn't nearly as ridiculous as, say, John Wayne as Genghis Khan in The Conqueror.  

Sean Connery's mushy brogue is so ingrained in the cinematic collective consciousness that it transcends nationalities; after a few minutes, you forget that he's playing an Arab and enjoy Connery playing Connery.

As the "Wind" to Connery's "Lion," Brian Keith delivers a brilliant, complex performance as Theodore Roosevelt, conveying not only Roosevelt's out sized manly-man ruggedness but also his bemused, almost rueful awareness of his own bluster.

Teddy Roosevelt is too often portrayed as little more than a swaggering buffoon;  Keith gets the swagger down pat, and also portrays the rough rider President as a man who relishes his image and knows how to play it to maximum effect, but is too smart not to realize that it's a caricature.

As Raisuli points out late in the film, he and Roosevelt are both forces of nature, but Raisuli knows his place in the world where Roosevelt does not; as dangerous a man as Raisuli is, Roosevelt, with his unfocused appetites, is far more dangerous.  It's a fascinating and multi-layered piece of acting, and stands out in a cast of otherwise fairly one-note characters.

It is impossible to view a film like "The Wind and the Lion" today without relating its central conflict between the Arab world, and the West to the current situation in the Middle East. 

Those mystified by the hostility displayed by Arab peoples toward the U.S. and Europe can find part of the answer in this film's portrayal of the breezy arrogance of the Americans and other Western players, who barely disguise their contempt for the people of a region that, to them, signifies little more than another savage land to be conquered.

It's not difficult to see the inspiration for the current administration's Middle East policy in "The Wind and the Lion", although, strangely, both proponents and opponents of that policy can find their positions supported by this film.  It manages to be both pro-imperialist and a brutal satire of imperialism in the same breath.

Writer/Director, Milius has a sharp ear for dialogue and a knack for memorable characterizations, but he's not an especially gifted storyteller; as a result, the film lacks narrative cohesion, often meandering into irrelevancies and getting mired in talky expository scenes that go on far too long.

Too often the film comes across more like a tribute to old-fashioned swashbuckling epics than a solid story in its own right, and the result is diverting enough but lacks dramatic heft.

John Huston has a prominently credited but largely irrelevant role in the film; it's a glorified, phoned-in cameo, (I wonder how much actors get paid for these type of cameo's, or do they do it just for fun?) 

Another of the film's weak spots is Milius' treatment of the film's female and child characters.  As strong as Milius is with his macho leading men, he's a fish out of water when it comes to women and children.

Mrs. Pedecaris is the kind of character that would have been tailor made for a Katharine Hepburn; Candice Bergen, a last-minute replacement for Faye Dunaway (who had to decline the Eden Pedecaris role due to illness), emotes gamely as the proper-but-tough high society lady, but she's out of her depth in the role, and Milius fails to draw a truly strong performance out of her.

 Likewise, Pedecaris' two children, played by Simon Harrison and Polly Gottesmann, put a lot of enthusiasm into their characters, and they're clearly meant to be a significant part of the action, but Milius doesn't seem to know what to do with them; ultimately, they're inert figures, put through their paces,  but nonexistent in terms of their presence in the story.

As flawed as "The Wind and the Lion" may be, it doesn't lack for sheer entertainment value.  It's the kind of film that thrives on late-night TV, when you're looking for something consistently engaging without necessarily being strikingly original or deep.

Seen on that level, "The Wind and the Lion" is a solid adventure with some fine performances that verges on something more ambitious.  That it doesn't succeed in those ambitions is disappointing, but hardly tragic; it's good enough on enough levels to please its audience.