I am not American, nor unlike many of my countrymen, plan to be one. However, as the United States is the sole superpower, and its politics ultimately affect many people in different countries, its electoral process is watched by a lot of people, including me.
As a Filipino, I find it curious that candidates would concede the moment that the vote count indicated that they lost. In the Philippines, this would be followed by indignant protests by the losing candidate(s), which would include electoral protests that would be resolved long after the contested term is over (if ever). But I’ll set electoral fraud aside for another day.
I’m pleased at the results of the New Hampshire primary. No, I don’t like Hillary. No, I don’t like Bill. Definitely, I don’t like Chelsea, but I like seeing John McCain bounce back into fighting form. I may disagree with the man, but he’s a straight-talker, someone that I can trust to stick to his guns even when the Indians are circling the wagons and about to scalp him. I don’t agree with everything he says, but he has something rare in politics: candor. He supported the Iraq War when it was unpopular to do so. He was consistent in his stands, even when polls showed that those stands are costing him votes.
Fine, if I were American, I’d vote Republican. But that doesn’t mean that I didn’t look at the candidates from the other party. While everyone else was trading charges of inconsistency, McCain was above the fray. Fine, below it as his campaign was imploding at the time. Good guys may not always finish first, but sometimes they do. I want to see how the electorate would decide later this November, if they would choose the man over the issues.
John McCain may look like something from a golden age in the past, when people were honorable, took responsibility for their actions, and hanged rapists from lamp posts, but human nature being what it is, I don’t think that there was such an age. The title of this post refers rather to a film, a Russian film.
War and Peace was first adapted to the silver screen by Hollywood in 1956, with a cast that included Peter Fonda and Audrey Hepburn, and was directed by King Vidor. Unfortunately, it was a boring film, and I regret buying it. I’ve never read it, but it lacked the powerful images and scenes I was looking for. Of course, Audrey Hepburn was her usual charming self, blending with the character so much that Wikipedia mentioned that Sergey Bondarchuk (the director of the Soviet version) had to find an actress that resembled Hepburn.
Perhaps motivated by nationalist considerations, the Soviet Union decided to produce its own version, an effort spearheaded by Mosfilm. In an age without CGI, they needed thousands of extras, and the Soviet government generously lent them 150,000 men from the Soviet Army. Along with the costs of dressing them in period pieces, the film was rumored to have cost more than US$100,000,000. Adjusted for inflation, it would cost somewhere around a billion dollars today, which would make it the most expensive film ever. That’s one of the advantages of being a filmmaker in a totalitarian state, I guess.
I’ve seen only one other film by Bondarchuk, the movie Waterloo. While the visuals were stunning, the movie was a bit silly. They repeated the formula from War and Peace, and conscripted the Soviet Army for the task of recreating the Battle of Waterlo, as shown at the end of the credits of the film. I bought the VCD solely for the scene where they panned the camera showing the French and British armies stretched in a field, facing each other. Christopher Plummer played the part of the aristocratic Duke of Wellington, and he excelled with his imperious manner and witty repartees demonstrating the famous unflappability of this English aristocrat. But Rod Steiger was silly in his acting, and the camera’s focus on him made it pathetic. Napoleon seemed like a neurotic brat on steroids, an unlikely trait for the man who was the master of Europe for two decades. There was also a moronic footage of a British soldier breaking formation while spouting hippie slogans from the 1960s. If I were his sergeant, I’d have shot him for breaking formation while they were under attack by the French cavalry. Anyway, I digress.
Researching using the Internet, all reviews I’ve read have critiqued War and Peace favorably. I intend to watch this eight-hour film in one sitting, and take in the sights and sounds of the one-hour long reconstruction of the Battle of Borodino. I bought a widescreen monitor for my PC and spanking new speakers for movies like this.
I’ve been looking in video shops here in vain for this masterpiece. So far, I’ve only found it in Amazon, and I hope I’ll be able to get it sometime soon, despite the steep price. For generous souls out there, this item is on the top of my birthday wishlist, and if you get it for me, you will have my undying gratitude.
No Comments Yet
No comments yet.
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
Leave a comment
