Reviews

My wife had just signed up for Netflix a few days earlier and while she was visiting her sister one weekend, I decided to have a look through the various listings. I recognized the name "Lilihammer" from the Olympics about twenty years back and decided to take a quick peak. The moment I saw Steven Van Zandt, I knew this was something I was going to have to watch. I was caught up in the story immediately. Initially, the series has a "Sopranos" flavour, but as it unwinds, you realize that's partly because of the mob presence, and partly because everyone remembers Steven as "Silvio", the Soprano's consigliere. The appearance of Tony Sirico, "Pauly Walnuts Gualtieri" in later episodes, reinforces the "Sopranos" undercurrent. That said, the series does not have the savage feel that the "Sopranos" has. Lilyhammer is a dark comedy. You often find yourself laughing in the face of a murderously menacing situation. Whoever came up with the premise of the series was a genius. You take an outcast mob turncoat, with a price on his head, place him in a quiet Norwegian town that once hosted the Olympics. The moment he arrives in this quiet little town, he decides to do something other than waste away and, using all of his mob learned skills, becomes the owner of a successful nightclub. He surrounds himself with oddball Norwegians and becomes something of a "Don" who endears himself to many who know him by doing almost as much good as bad. Many of the situations in which he and his "crew" find themselves, are hilarious, while others are menacing and deadly. I watched the entire 24 episodes over the weekend. Such a wonderful series only comes along once every decade. Congratulations to Steven Van Zandt.

This was the most unsettling movie I have seen in many years. Throughout the showing I found myself wandering back and forth between condemnation of the Priest's behaviour, the Principal's behaviour and the behaviour of the young black student's Mother. The part of the traditional nun who is principal of a Catholic School is played perfectly by Meryl Streep. She's unhappy with change and views it almost as a loss of the comfort and peace of mind that comes with tradition. The part of the new Priest is played just as perfectly by Phillip Seymour Hoffman. He views change in the way religion is practiced as absolutely essential and wants to see the iron fisted traditional rule of the principal disappear into the dark, inflexible past where it belongs. Thus, from the beginning of the movie there is a silent war between the two main characters. If you are a trusting and positive person, you may find yourself believing that the new priest is a wonderful man who cares about nothing more than the religious health and happiness of the parishioners and young students of his church. The affection that he displays for the troubled young black student at the centre of the controversy is touching and absolutely appropriate. On the other hand, if you are a more cynical person, likely to be suspicious of any behaviour that strays from the reserved understanding that a priest traditionally expresses in a more sombre way to his parishioners and students, then you may quickly decide that he is all of the things that the principal suspects him to be. In the end, the principal wins out and succeeds in driving the new priest out of the parish. He moves on to another parish where he has greater responsibilities and enjoys a higher level of professional respect. But I, the viewer, am left wondering if the principal is a paranoid cast back to 17th century religious practices, who victimizes a new priest simply because he represented change that she wasn't prepared to accept, or if the new Priest actually is an abuser who took advantage of a young vulnerable boy who had no one to turn to for comfort, but was ferreted out by a wise, no nonsense adherent to purity in religion.

I'm blown away by this series. I love all of the Roloffs and believe that they're about as typical an American family as you're likely to find. Both Matt and Amy love their four children and don't hesitate to show that love on a regular basis. The kids are very typical in their tendency to be rebellious and sloppy and often talk back to their parents in a disrespectful manner. Notwithstanding, Matt and Amy endure and capably walk the thin line between being too controlling or too lenient. No question, Matt tries to micromanage everything that happens from the start to the finish of each episode, but he's usually thwarted in his efforts to completely take over by both Amy and his Father. Their counterbalance tends to keep everyone relatively happy with no noses being seriously out of joint. Matt is the ultimate mover and shaker. He is a dreamer of magnificent vision, but as is often the case with such individuals, he usually has far more on his plate than he can realistically hope to deal with. The farm is a strewn with half finished projects that Matt has started but in which he's lost interest because several newly conceived projects have taken priority and are now occupying all of his time. Having said that, look at all the family has been able to accomplish because of Matt's bold approach to life and his entrepreneurial flair. He managed to turn a simple pumpkin patch into a major money maker, while many farms across the country watch their pumpkins rot in the fields every year. Matt knows how to make things happen! I wouldn't be surprised if it was his idea to put the family's life on tape and show the rest of the world how his world turns.

I don't normally award such high praise, but this is the Duke at his finest. The Quiet Man is one of those fantastic movies that you have to watch every time it comes on TV. Duke is at his best in this movie and looks the part of the young boxer he plays with an iron jaw and rugged good looks. Maureen O'Hara, his love interest, is also at her best in this offering. She's a wonderful looking Irish red head who plays the hot tempered sister of local squire and land baron, Will Danaher, very convincingly. Danaher is played by the inimitable Victor McLaglen, a thespian seldom accorded the credit he deserves. Duke's character is Sean Thornton, an Irish American prize fighter who accidentally killed a man in the ring and retired from boxing. He moved to his family's old neighborhood in Ireland to escape the memory of the accident. Eventually he marries Mary Kate Danaher, Maureen O'Hara's character and the two settle into married life. Unfortunately, Squire Danaher does not pay the anticipated dowry to Thornton and, as a result, Mary Kate is absolutely humiliated. Sean chooses to ignore the insult rather than get into a physical battle with Danaher. His wife sees this refusal as cowardice (Sean won't tell anyone of the dead boxer in his past) and does not react in a loving and wifely way to her new spouse. To keep her, Sean approaches Will Danaher and demand payment of the dowry. A fight ensues between Danaher and Thornton and it no doubt qualifies as one of the finest and also longest battle sequences in film history, with the entire town, including resident and visiting clergy attending the spectacle. The film ends on a positive note with Sean, Mary Kate and Danaher having dinner together. John Wayne (The Duke) is an American icon. We won't see his likes again. Looking about, I don't see another actor with the stage presence and body of work to which Duke lays claim. I've watched him from his early work in Stagecoach all the way through to his final movies and believe that he is a uniquely American icon. He had to wait virtually all of the way through a fantastic career before he finally won a long overdue best actor Oscar. I don't think we'll ever get over this man. He represented the very best qualities that we expect of American heroes.

This isn't my kind of movie, simply because it's too depressing and dark. I go to movies to be entertained without being exposed to unhappy real life situations. I gather that this movie was based on a true incident where 2 lovers, who are also scuba enthusiasts, go deep sea diving with a large group of people on a professional diving boat. The boat leaves while they're still submerged because an erroneous head count does not reveal that they're not aboard. They finally surface to find themselves surrounded by nothing but open water, miles from shore. They endure many hours of drifting helplessly while waiting for the boat to return. In the end, they are attacked by sharks and the male is pulled under and disappears. The female simply gives up, takes off her air tanks and slips slowly beneath the waves in an apparent suicide. The fact that they're missing eventually becomes known and several rescuers race to their aid, only to find open water when they arrive. I'm not saying this is not an entertaining movie. In fact it's quite entertaining, but it's simply too dark and depressing for my personal taste. Subsequent to seeing the movie, I saw a television program on one of the documentary channels. The program dealt with this incident and I learned that there is some suspicion that the two actually survived and were simply attempting to disappear for any of a variety of speculative reasons. For me, the movie would have been so much more enjoyable had the couple actually survived, even if only on a clandestine level where only we the viewers knew. I'm sure many adventuresome scuba types will view my lack of enthusiasm with this movie in a negative light but like it or not, this movie is downer that leaves you standing under a dark cloud when it ends.