Letters to the Editor
Norfolk1a
Published Letters: 3 Editor's Choice: 1
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Paint by Numbers With Limited Paint
[Read the article: "Freedomland"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think one of the problems with this film is that every element of it could support its own movie. Unlike the novel Bonfire of the Vanities,(which takes as its center a similar racially charged crime,) Freedomland isn't sure what it is after. It spreads a blank, sprawling canvas of racial tension, politics, police procedural, mother/children connections, family connections. However, sadly, it runs out of paint very early on and it starts to spread the paint way to thin to even warrant our attention. It is like a paint by numbers kit that didn't come with enough paint, or with the right colors.
The towering titular metaphor of the state orphanage is forced on us suddenly in the middle of the film and so the power of it is completley lost on the audience. Almost every person I overheard while leaving the theatre asked some sort of variation of:
"What the hell did the hospital have to do with anything?"
It is easy to see that Samuel Jackson's character set up this trip to Freedomland, but the movie keeps his motivations for doing so to himself. We, as the audience, are not privy to a conversation Edie Falco and Samuel Jackson apparently have concerning the details of this set up. This oversight is an inexcusable departure from the narrative structure which has had us following Jackson's character every step of the way. The result is not mystery, but rather anger. The only consolation is that this move by the filmmakers completely backfires in their faces. They lose the power of the metaphor and confuse the audience so much so that even a late, valiant attempt by Falco, (in the film's only truly dramatic moment,) can't rescue this failed chapter of the film.
The characters have plenty of backstory and the actors seem to have imbued them with even more. However, the problem is that the film doesn't make WHO these people are have anything to do with WHAT THEY DO or the choices the make. (Once again, except in the case of Falco's character.)
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Just Ridiculous
[Read the article: Good Manly America]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The very fact that this book is even starting a debate is ridiculous. Mansfield was interviewed by Tom Ashbrook on our local NPR affiliate last night.
Mansfield can barely even articulate his thesis without long pauses and stuttering. He cannot even answer basic questions that would be thrown to any grad student who had to defend a dissertation.
He slipped twice during the interview and once he said something along the lines of it should be fine for a man to say to woman that she is "inferior."
The feminsit writer from the Nation, who was on to counter Mansfield, seemed to be laughing through most of the segment.
By the way, Mansfield went on to describe in great detail one of the epitomes of manliness: John Wayne. He waxed poetically about Wayne's decisiveness, etc. Well, you'll be happy to know that the other guest, the host and even a caller all pointed out to Mansfield that John Wayne is a commercial and artistically manufactured icon who bears no resemblance to an actual person. One Ex-Marine even called in to remind Mansfield and the listening audience that Wayne ducked out of actual military service during a time of conflict in which most men volunteered.
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Oh God No
[Read the article: The Hillary juggernaut]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It is actually happening. Please, no.
I know way too many Republicans who are very unhappy with the Bush Presidency right now....But they hate, hate, hate Hilary Clinton.
Oh, boy.