Reviews

"The Butler" is just a good movie when they had the opportunity to tell a Great Story if they told the actual true story of Maître d'hôtel, Eugene Allen. Lee Daniels' version is just an interesting fictional story with a leftist slant, and good, but not great acting. The Butler is a story that tries to tug at you emotionally, depicting racial atrocities that actually occurred during the civil rights movement. It is a shame Mr. Daniels' wasted his opportunity to portray Eugene Allen, who experienced real discrimination, and rose above every problem he faced by hard work, intelligence and perseverance. Eugene Allen was the actual Butler (Maître d'hôtel) who served honorably under 8 Presidents. He was not the stoic butler portrayed, and in private, presidents asked his opinion, and respected his answers. His father wasn't killed, his mother wasn't raped, nor did he have a son who died in Vietnam, or one who fought in the Civil Rights Movement. Daniels' plays loose with historical facts, especially those regarding the presidents. The actual Butler's only son (only 1) was a decorated soldier in Vietnam and now works as an Investigator for the Federal Government. Allen struggled from racism during a time in America's history when life for non-whites was extremely difficult. He Loved America, and by working in the White House, was very well informed. Allen was known for saying "I Love America and there is no perfect country". And he personally knew the leaders of the world's most powerful nations. I give the Butler 2 ½ stars, & 6 out of 10.

I saw this movie when it came out, (as a teenager) and "Silent Running" has stuck in my mind for over 40+ years. I thought I might be one of the few who enjoyed this movie, so I'm happy to see many fans as well as Mr. Ebert and other top critics also appreciated it. George Lucas is another fan who's creation of R2-D2 is highly influenced by Silent Running's 3 robots, Huey, Dewey, and Louis.

Silent Running has its flaws, but is a worthwhile SF social-political drama. Bruce Dern gives one of his finest performances. Please don't expect high action or T & A. Expect a movie that if you watch it, you will probably enjoy it, but please remember to place it in it's own time, the turbulent early 1970s. Also don't be surprised if after watching Silent Running, you remember it throughout your lifetime.

A Good documentary with more audio information than video presentation. I learned a lot about Theodor Hertzl, his life and personal issues from his upbringing & childhood to his death at age 44. He was a very interesting man, a journalist and playwright as well as the founder of the Zionist Movement. A problem with this documentary is that there isn't that much of a photo record of his life, (1860-1904) so they reused the same stills multiple times and inserted lots of old stock pictures of important individuals & footage from turn-of-the-century Vienna and Paris, interspersed with more modern stock footage and street frontage shots of important places in Hertzl's life. Again, Lots of great info about Hertzl's life and struggles, but dry and slow if the viewer has a short attention span and needs lots of video to support the audio data.

"Blood In The Face" is a documentary that takes you "inside the KKK and the American Nazi Party. It is almost unbelievable to realize the amount of hate practiced by these groups. Even scarier is the knowledge that the number of participants in these groups grows yearly. Worthwhile watching for parents and their children, In hopes that they teach them about tolerance toward others regardless of their races and nationalities. After seeing this movie I realized that there is a segment of American society as intolerant as Fundamental Islam. What a sad statement on a segment of American society, but one that must be heard so that as a country we will never let these people have any political power. Although this movie is somewhat dated (1991), the beliefs expressed by the Aryan culture and churches are still being practiced and preached today. As they pray for harm and death to befall those who are not of pure white race, they pray to Jesus to help them in attaining these pursuits