Official Secrets

Back to Coventry again and the question of whether or not there are instances where it's in a government's bests interest to mislead the public, in order to cut down on panic and/or mass hysteria.

Letting the Nazis know their enigma codes had been compromised would have likely delayed the end of World War II significantly, but it was still known that Coventry was to be bombed, and with that information hundreds of lives could have been saved.

Seems like you could have kept the information on the down low and simultaneously achieved both objectives, the only serious hindrance being spies, or a lack of knowledge of whom to trust.

Why the ambitious stubbornly think the freewheeling are prone to mass hysterics as opposed to order and discipline (when kept fully informed) is a most unfortunate prejudice, and even though twitter and social media quickly shoot down clandestine pretensions, such pretensions still calculate with austere breadth, exposed hypocrisy notwithstanding.

This period of time has become frighteningly ludicrous inasmuch as clearly exposed political plots move forward regardless of blatant corruption, the character of the people who expose them awaiting ruin, large portions of the public choosing to applaud the plots regardless.

It's like we live in the age where the public is incredibly well informed but large swaths prefer non-traditional sources to orthodox journalism, and as the postmodernists continue to deconstruct sincerity and truth, the charlatans amass fortunes adhering to Bacon's negative instance, and the left's doctrinal relative truth.

An age of sensation, where anyone can run a story online, the irony, and many don't critically evaluate what they're reading, or even care when it's obviously false.

Fake news is like alcoholism, actual fake news, not The New York Times or The Globe and Mail or The Guardian.

You know you shouldn't have another drink, you know the same misfortunes await if you do, but after you have that drink, and deal with those very same misfortunes the next day, the only way to make the repercussions go away is to believe that one more drink won't hurt, or if I keep reading this yahoo some day his or her lies will make sense.

I still spend a lot of time reading traditional news outlets who hire people who function according to a code that upholds honesty and integrity.

Sometimes I think I'm out of touch.

Until I see Sanders beat Trump in the latest poll!

And the Brits stickin' it to Boris Johnson.

I actually saw the poll on Instagram, posted by Team Sanders. The mainstream news isn't that hip to Sanders yet.

Sanders!

If aliens existed and we had definitive proof I'd let the public know. I prefer to see what happens and trust in general reasonability.

If all the data demonstrated that the Earth is warming at an alarming rate, as it does, and something needs to be done to cool things down, I'd let people know and implement policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, even if it would take 200 years to feel their effects.

In Official Secrets, true story, Katharine Gun (Keira Knightley) discovers that government officials in Britain are intentionally misleading the public to gain support for the Second Iraq War, and she boldly lets the people know.

Takes a lot of flack in the aftermath.

But totally does what needs to be done.

The film's direct, factually predisposed, but still presents a tale of heroism as noteworthy as it is endearing.

Characters are criticized within for being anti-war, as if such a viewpoint is undesirable.

I always thought it was the other way around.

But I'll never work for the secret service.

Phew.

Could you imagine?

American Sniper

Clint Eastwood's American Sniper is about soldiers.

It's not about politics or asking questions, it's about the people who risked their lives fighting for a cause they believed in, incendiary polemics aside, they were on the ground, fighting an enemy intent on killing them, living through events that would haunt the survivors for the rest of their lives, experiential extracurricular extents, forging bonds through action, teams, through combat.

It's focused on one sniper in particular, Navy SEAL Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper), with a gift for precision, an eye for detail.

He becomes a legend.

A part of a team, embracing his role as protector, he saves the lives of his fellow recruits time and time again, through vigilance and dedication, making decisions no one should have to make, accepting the consequences, psychologically covering up the outcomes.

Civilian life becomes difficult.

He leaves unfinished business in Iraq, a nemesis at large, who continues to hunt his compatriots, this unnerves him as he tries to live with his family, überconscious conscience, the fall out of his exceptional track record.

Which leads to an exciting Young Guns sequence.

A compelling cinematic interpretation of levelheaded battlegrounded hysteria.

Direct, straightforward, and to the point, while mixing in enough trauma to unsettlingly exfoliate, American Sniper brings together eclectic teams, unified through bitter shattering circumstances.

What actually took place is fictionalized to the point where it makes a strong war film, however, this aspect of its creation makes what actually took place seem fictional, which takes away from its realistic impacts.

But it still salutes the life of a great Navy SEAL who went beyond the call of duty and risked everything to do what he believed was right, individuality within the collective, cohesively functioning as one.

Made the most of the worst possible situation.

Persevered.

The Lucky One

Don't really know what to say about The Lucky One.

Lead character Logan (Zac Effron) certainly is lucky.

While fighting in Iraq, he discovers the picture of an enticing woman lying in the wreckage and keeps it close to his heart thereafter. Having safely returned to Colorado, he then decides to find her and sets out on foot, showing her picture to people he meets. He eventually finds her (Taylor Schilling as Beth Clayton) in a small town in Louisiana and she gives him a job working in her kennel.

Against her better judgement.

Her jealous manipulative ex-husband (Jay R. Ferguson as Keith Clayton) is a smug policeperson, the son of a wealthy mayoral candidate, and a secure member of the local petty bourgeoise.

He takes none to kindly to Logan.

But Logan isn't afraid, and boldly refuses to play ball, trusting instead in the power of love and the genuine incorruptibility of his good intentions.

And the fact that lonely Beth starts wanting a piece.

The film would have been stronger had Logan encountered other labourers who had run afoul of Mr. Clayton's coercive tendencies and formed a resistance of sorts to counteract his abusive privilege.

Old Testament justice is thunderously administered, but a different solution, one galvanizing the resolve of mistreated workers, would have provided The Lucky One with a collective edge, thereby intensifying the fluidity of its amour.

The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker's script (written by Mark Boal) skillfully brings the Iraq war to life. Somehow, it manages to calmly present snapshots of 39 days of a bomb squad's Iraq rotation. We aren't bombarded with left-wing or right-wing propaganda regarding whether or not the war is justified. Instead, we simply observe a group of soldiers as they go about their business of warring, doing their best to pacify the country. In fact, in one scene two soldiers (Jeremy Renner as SSG William James and Anthony Mackie as Sgt. JT Sanborn) discuss why they're fighting and neither of them can come up with an answer. And no direct answers are provided, although at least two collaborating viewpoints are established, one suggesting that war is a drug and participants are addicted, another, that soldiers defuse bombs to save children. Altruism or expediency?, probably a combination of both considering how psychologically complicated things must become after you've been fighting for awhile. Answers: there are no answers but there is a war and there are people fighting it. Director Kathryn Bigelow (Point Break) objectively displays this fact and gives us enough credit to come to personnel conclusions of our own.

Kabluey

Scott Prendergast's Kabluey argues that a down-on-their-luck can't-find-their-way brother-in-law can produce long-lasting ethical reverberations if given the opportunity to succeed. Salman (Prendergast) has no cash, no car, no charisma. He moves in with sister-in-law Leslie (Lisa Kudrow) to babysit her two children (his brother off fighting in Iraq). Shortly thereafter, he lands a job handing out fliers advertising office space on a lonely country road in a giant blue suit with an enormous blue head (the Kabluey Suit). Associated weirdoes drive by every day and engage in a variety of different gesticulations as they approach his absurd presence. He eventually discovers that Leslie is having an affair with her boss (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and about to leave his brother in order to secure more financial resources. But through an act of trickery most sneaky and diabolical he is able to catch her lecherous employer out and about with another fling, thereby saving his brother's marriage (all the while dressed in the giant blue suit).

Kabluey's form is absurdist: it doesn't make much sense, just a number of odd scenes with colourful characters making one bizarre decision after another with little rhyme nor reason. Hence, it's structure is situated within a comedic void whose characteristics are troubled and tragic. Within this void, Salman wonders to and fro listening to everything he hears. The surrounding people don't seem to notice him even though he stands out like a piece of chalk on a paper clip. Hence, he's able to compile a great deal of information in the short time he spends in his new town, information that he can then disseminate since he has nothing to lose. Hence, he uses global universal ideals to moderately transform his local community who were blinded by his ludicrous omnipresence and thought he didn't notice, thereby demonstrating that the not-so-well-off members of a community are indeed capable of instigating positive change.

Kabluey's content is hit or miss; you'll like Prendergast's scenes and situations or you won't, but, either way, he does unleash a remarkable degree of creativity within which demonstrates that he may craft an exceptional comedic piece or two in the years to come. A great date flick or solid holiday rental, Kabluey illustrates that heart within happenstance can equal serenity and solidarity; all it takes is something different to docilely stir things up.

No End in Sight

Charles Ferguson's new documentary No End in Sight presents a coherent explanation for the chaotic situation in Iraq. Ferguson explores how bureaucratic incompetence, managerial inexperience, naive idealism, and short-sighted decision making have turned Iraq into a bloody, vicious war zone. With an estimated 600, 000 Iraqi citizens dead, the future of the Iraq conflict looks grim, and Ferguson places the blame on a relatively small number of high ranking members of the Bush administration who theorized a strategy to maintain order in Iraq without reference to any sense of practical detail. The most notable mistakes were the dismissal of the Iraqi army, taking away the jobs of 500, 000 skilled military personnel and replacing them with rhetoric, the disbanding of the government, taking away another 50, 000 jobs from people well versed in the intricate details of governing the Iraqi people (replacing them with recently graduated students with no knowledge of Arabic), and the fact that the American Army permitted the citizen's of Baghdad to loot the city from top to bottom, leaving the American occupational bureaucracy with little to no infrastructure to begin the extremely complicated business of administering a foreign country. Ferguson's interview's skillfully illustrate the disastrous consequences of acting before planning, of making split-second decisions affecting millions of lives without forethought. It's as if a small proportion of the Bush Administration decided to invade a country over breakfast, made up their plan for the invasion over lunch, stopped for a quick nap, and then executed their plan over dinner. The future for Iraq looks interminably grim, and, according to Ferguson’s presentation, it seems as if stability is something generations of innocent Iraqis will never have the pleasure of experiencing.