Tag Archives: history

Classic Film Review: MGM’s Blunt, if Belated Warning about Fascism — “The Mortal Storm”

Posted on May 17, 2025 by Roger Moore

The first time I pondered the “coincidence” of a classic film turning up on my TV at a particular moment in history was coming home from school in the ’70s and seeing the Cold War era gem “Seven Days in … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: “The Return of Martin Guerre,” the Original “Deep Fake”(1982)

Posted on May 1, 2025 by Roger Moore

Before he became the French poster boy for “sexual predator,” Gerard Depardieu was the unlikeliest screen sex symbol of his era. Burly to the point of huge, played a soulful “Cyrano” and took on Jean Valjean in a TV version … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? A mad bomber plots a “Bullet Train Explosion”

Posted on April 29, 2025 by Roger Moore

A 1975 Japanese thriller titled “Bullet Train,” about a high-speed passenger train with a bomb on board, one that will explode if the train slows beyond a triggered speed, inspired the bomb-on-a-bus thriller “Speed,” its sequel and lots of imitators. … Continue reading →

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Documentary Review: Central and South Americans find they must fight for “Water for Life”

Posted on April 10, 2025 by Roger Moore

We’ve been warned for decades that the next “war” between the world’s haves and have-nots is going to be over water. From hydroelectric dams pushed by outside profiteers to mineral interests that need water for mining to just plain “let’s … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? Master Documentarian Errol Morris takes on Manson’s Motives and MO — “Chaos: The Manson Murders”

Posted on March 12, 2025 by Roger Moore

Over fifty years after the Charles Manson/Tate-LaBianca murders, the “Helter Skelter” slaughter continues to entice and challenge the American psyche. With all the books, all the films and TV miniseries about it, with even Quentin Tarantino weighing in with a … Continue reading →

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Documentary Review: An Oscar nominated jazz memoir of Cold War Colonialism and Civil Rights — “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” in Congo

Posted on February 13, 2025 by Roger Moore

Johan Grimonprez’s “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” swirls by — a sea of famous and infamous faces, a parade of voices and a catalog of unpleasant history served up on a bed of bebop, cool jazz and free jazz. The … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? WWII Underground Agent “Number 24 (Nr. 24)” tells kids what’s called for when you Fight Fascism

Posted on January 11, 2025 by Roger Moore

One of the smartest places Netflix has put its international production money is Scandivanian World War II films. A collection of true or “inspired by” true stories have shown us forgotten heroics, sacrifice, treachery and air raids that went wrong. … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: A Scottish Bay, a Burt and a Baby-Faced Peter Capaldi — “Local Hero” (1983)

Posted on December 31, 2024 by Roger Moore

Oh to make the pilgrimage to Pennan, flying in to Aberdeen, recreating the journey a “Local Hero” makes in perhaps the quaintest, cutest film of that golden age of excess, the ’80s. Scottish writer-director Bill Forsyth’s “Gregory’s Girl” announced to … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? Black Women serve in WWII — “The Six Triple Eight”

Posted on December 21, 2024 by Roger Moore

The only all-Black Women’s Army Corps united to serve in World War II n Europe is fondly remembered in Tyler Perry’s “The Six Triple Eight,” a polished, sentimental and old fashioned picture that points out to the culture at large … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: A Spanish feminist fights sexism and fascism — “The Red Virgin (La virgen roja)”

Posted on December 15, 2024 by Roger Moore

Groomed for greatness, a writing, philosophizing prodigy by her teens and a young woman nearly 100 years ahead of her time, Hildegart Rodríguez Carballeira was long a forgotten heroine of the Spanish Civil War. That’s how “history” is erased by … Continue reading →

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