November 4, 2019

Fighting the (good?) fight in recent movies

Since the early days of cinema, a climactic fistic battle between the hero and villain has been expected to affirm the ultimate victory of good over evil.  By the 1950s, with movies like Giant, the hero could be battered a bit, but the...

July 14, 2019

Protest Demonstrations in Recent TV and Film

Two recent productions -- a TV miniseries and a movie -- point to issues in the depiction of social protest and civil disobedience in the entertainment media.  CBS pushed hard to launch a future series with its pre-summer mini-fare, The ...

June 21, 2019

Filmmakers Foiled in Making Terrorists’ Grievances Seem Reasonable

Some of the best films about the evils of Islamic terrorism attempt to attribute reasonable motivations to terrorists but fail because their depiction of terrorism is so powerful and even devastating. Hotel Mumbai is a taut, suspenseful reena...

December 28, 2018

Law and Order: Special Victims Unit’s Un-kosher Exploitation of Politically-charged Headlines

NBC’s Law and Order: Special Victims Unit wasted no time this TV season in spinning a yarn (November 8, 2018) that exploited the headlines about a candidate for the Supreme Court being accused of committing rape during high schoo...

February 6, 2016

The Case for Kasich

The establishment leaders of both major political parties are being unseated, or at least knocked down several pegs, by anger and frustration with Washington business as usual. Voters are sick and tired of a massive and seemingly insurmountable gridl...

October 16, 2004

Why this rabbi will vote for Bush

With pride and gladness and optimism, I shall vote again for George W. Bush. I admit that I voted for him the first time out of gut reactions. I sensed an integrity and decency in him and in Mrs. Bush. That seemed to be just what we needed at a time ...