Remembering the USS Indianapolis, Robert Shaw and The Scene
Sean MurphyOn July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis, which had just delivered key components of the Hiroshima atomic bomb to the Pacific island of Tinian, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine.…
James Garner, R.I.P.
James Garner has died. So too has a tiny part of my childhood. What an American icon. A real hero, on many levels. I don't have anything to add. If…
A Week of Americana. Part Five: Chinatown
Chinatown does not usually make the short list of best American films. In fairness, it probably shouldn’t. It will have to settle for merely being the only perfect American film…
3.14 and Interfacing with the Infinite
If you've never seen Pi, Darren Aronofsky's first (and best) movie, I strongly encourage you to check it out. (Hint: it's not just a number; it's a concept of existence.…
Harold Ramis: Empathy for the Rebel
Consider this: a world without Animal House. Or Caddyshack, Stripes, Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day. I can’t fathom how much less happy my childhood would have been without any one of…
Marlon Brando, Pocahontas and Me (Revisited)
And the Oscar goes to... Who cares? Okay, okay: I'll resist the urge to be a sourpuss and let it suffice that I express my indifference to the pompous and…
Being the Ball: What We Talk about When We Talk about ‘Caddyshack’ (Revisited for Ramis)
Well…we’re waiting! Actually, you already read this review. You already wrote this review. You can easily recall, now, when it occurred to you, sometime between the fifth or fifteenth (or…
Bill Hicks: Twenty Years On
2/26/94. A world pretty much pre-Internet, seven years before 9/11, six years before the two-terms Bush experiment. A kinder, gentler time? Maybe. It was certainly a less chaotic and busy…
Ralph Waite, RIP
This one hurts. You can have Cliff Huxtable. I was already too old to see him as a father figure by the time The Cosby Show rolled around. Plus, he…
We’ve Seen This Movie Before: Trying to Make Sense of Philip Seymour Hoffman
This isn't quite in the day John Lennon died territory, but I'll never forget where I was and what I was doing. Sitting at home, Super Bowl shopping complete, biding…