Damn, but you're article snapped me back to 1979. I was a theatre major attending a small Midwestern college. Intrigued by the "armies of the night" TV trailer, I talked a group of my fellow theatre students into seeing the film. Now, this was clique that considered "All That Jazz," "The Rose," and "The Electric Horseman" to be the epitome of film for that year.

But when the lights went down, and I saw the first rush of the subway car down the tunnel, accompanied by Andrew Laszlo's day-glo cinematography, I was nailed to the seat.

God, but the absolute heat that burned on the screen! The death of Fox under the train wheels. Ajax; first a hero in the Furies fight, then a nascent rapist. The erotic smolder between Swan and Mercy. And David Patrick Kelley, forever Prince of Sociopaths. The movie played for keeps

Afterwards, we adjourned to our local watering hole for a few beers. I couldn't wait discuss this film. I was so jacked up on adrenaline that my hands were shaking. Of course, my comrades thought "The Warriors" to be stupid, violent, and immoral. Usually, I'm not one to stand up to a group of elitist bucketheads, even for a fiercely held conviction. But these bastards were messing with MY movie! Well, it ended with me storming out of the tavern amid much laughter, but 26 years later and "The Warriors" has a new edition and is still beloved, and who gives a fuck about "Electric Horseman?"

I've never been a great reader of Ms. Dowd, but taking a woman to task, not for her ideas, but for her breeding capacity strikes me as over the top. Come on, gentlemen; act as the honorific (gentlemen) is given to you.

As Tom Leher once said, "There are those who DON'T love their brothers and sisters, and I HATE people like that!"

A tendency to read vast and sweeping symbolism into the most innocent of plot devices is a most unfortunate byproduct of the pomo deconstructionsist movement. Like most academic exercises, it is a tempest in a teapot (TEAPOT!!--omigoddess! A bubbling, frothing dark interior, obviously a symbol of seething Africa, replete with a phallic nozzle disgorging its steaming fecundity into the welcoming recesses of the "teacup").

Granted, the original "King Kong" is a product of its racial period; however, I am curious about ABB's take on Jackson's remake: has she viewed a print of the film? If not, she seems to ask us to take quite a bit on faith. Having had a look at the trailers, the Skull Island folk seem to be a racially mixed lot. If Mr. Jackson does present us with a racially insensitive portrayal of evil, dark natives lusting after blonde, white flesh, he should be called on it. But do you see Peter Jackson doing something as willfully stupid and ignorant as that?

Why don't we wait to see what's on the screen?

Just when you thought these louts couldn't sink lower, they tie another piece of lead to the sinker.

If you disagree with the power structure, you're incompetent or insane. As I recall, this was a frequent tactic to quash dissidents in Soviet Russia. Is is my imagination, or does Cheney resemble Khrushchev in the right light?

My outrage meter is done worn out.

Stephanie Zacharek remains one of the best reasons to subscribe to Salon. Her bold, witty, and intelligent reviews (not to mention her never-fail bullshit detector) are the highlight of the week.

It's a pleasure to read criticism that says the emperor is buck nekkid, or bravely praises a film that has escaped the radar of less perceptive writers. I was greatly cheered when she flayed the more than craptacular lump that was "Rent," or exposed Sam Mendes for the fraud he is. She has championed the less well-reviewed "Serenity," "Oliver Twist," and saw the satire of "Lord of War." You see, this is a critic who actually LIKES movies and enjoys watching and writing about them.

There have been dark accusations that Ms. Zacharek has been dipping into the deep pool that is Pauline Kael. She has never made a secret of her admiration of Kael and is as honest and unflinching as her mentor.

Stay the path, lady.

CNN has just lost whatever credibility it had with the hiring of this bonehead. I guess all the right-wing lickspittle slots at Fox have been filled.

What a goddamn tragedy. I admired her not only as a talented writer and critic, but also as an intelligent, committed, sweet, and caring human being. She probably helped race relations advance more than a thousand marching activists.

Matthews and his ilk were the same purveyors of gentility and courtesy when they were using words like "scumbag" and "rapist" when referring to President Clinton.

It's OK to send thousands of troops to their death on a lie, but don't get caught with someone's consensual head in your lap.

http://thepipebomb.com/archives/000244.php

The above link explains quite a bit with regard to Piper's incarceration.