A Movie Plus

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Activism, All Is True, Ann Atwater, Awkwafina, China, culture, Family, movie review, movies, Sam Rockwell, Shakespeare, Tara P. Henson, Terrorist, The Best of Enemies, The Farewell, theater

The Farewell

A diet of the superficial can lead to a want of substance. Feeling that lack in the present run of blah movies, I ran to catch The Farewell before it left theaters. So glad I did. With all the talk of diversity and inclusiveness, this is a story about how we are the same. When it comes to family, there are few cultural differences. Familial problems, foibles, and ongoing issues are personified in this touching story about a grandmother in the last stages of cancer. This is only part of the inciting incident. The real issue is that in China, the desperately ill are not told they are dying until the very end. This secret creates a painful wedge in the family—tell grandmother or not. What is fair, what is culture?

Awkwafina is brilliant as Billi. The close connection with her beloved grandmother shines throughout. She grieves the imminent loss of her grandmother and the childhood home taken from her when her parents immigrated to the States.

Tzi Ma, as Billi’s father, subtly merges angst and tenderness with his painful struggle. He yearns to tell his mother the truth about her condition as he mourns for her loss while she yet lives. All this sounds grim and depressing, but most often, there is a lot of humor. The only downer is the dismal, prison-style high-rise housing, contrasted to the richness of the lives within. Everyone’s work in this film is perfection under the superb direction of Lulu Wang.

The thief of the entire film is Nai Nai, impish, tough, bossy and adorable Shuzhen Zhou. I want this woman for my grandmother. I’m teary-eyed thinking about her, especially how she stood in an alleyway, her figure diminishing as seen through a car’s back window. And because of Nai Nai, her wisdom and love, Billi finds her way to empowerment.

This film made up for every junky, waste-of-time flick I’ve seen this year.

On DVD:

All Is True (alternate title to Henry VIII)

I don’t think so. I’m not a fan of revisionism and not usually of the speculative. Based on a few established facts, the rest of this film is speculation, most of it extrapolated from Kenneth Branagh’s interpretation and study of Shakespeare’s plays.

The interiors are quite dark because only candle and firelight were used. The settings are gorgeous. Due to constant tourism, Stratford-on-Avon couldn’t be managed but the house and countryside selected are lovely. All of the cast members are formidable actors. Dench is her usual brilliant self, and there is a vibrancy to the action, probably due to Branagh’s preference for single shot scenes and a shooting schedule of thirty days.

I find the use of the title All Is True off-putting because little of the content is factual. The most standout performance is that of Ian McKellen as the Earl of Southampton, brief it is. His recitation of Sonnet 29, even though he uses the old-style lifting of the last word in the final line, is exquisite and worth seeing the film just for that. McKellen’s brilliance and perfection held me suspended.

The Best of Enemies

And now we go for the truth.  I was disappointed to have missed this when it was playing in theaters and anxiously waited for the DVD. Although she did her best—I love her and never miss her movies—it was difficult to accept Taraji P. Henson as the burly and ferociously intimidating activist Ann Atwater. Her most remarkable scene was when she adjusted the KKK hood, the expression on her face, seen almost in profile, the terror and bone-deep shock of her own actions, was amazing.

I am and have always been a die-hard fan of Sam Rockwell. His portrayal of KKK Cyclops leader C.P. Ellis did not disappoint. Anne Heche is stand-out as Mary Ellis, a strong woman of character and acerbic insights. It isn’t until the end of the picture that it comes clear why she married C.P. Ellis.

The fault of the plodding pace must be laid on the door of the writer/director, Robin Bissel. Perhaps that problem stemmed from years of searching for funding, accurate historical facts, and footage. And this is vexing.

This is a hugely important story about two extraordinary people who brought about culture-rending change.  Ellis provides us with one of the reasons KKK still exists: the clan targets and recruits the disenfranchised, the broken, the rejected, the ignorant, and the lonely. The clan makes them feel important, entitled, and empowered. Through indoctrination and weapons training, they become the embodiment of collective cowardice, bullying, and terrorizing, typified in an early scene of a row of clansmen shooting out the windows of a white woman rumored to have dated a black man.

I encourage everyone to see this important film and especially the amazing actual footage at the end. Atwater and Ellis changed everything when they did the improbable.

 

(Fantasy snippet tomorrow with pre-sale release date.)

 

M.L Rigdon (aka Julia Donner)

Follow on Twitter @RigdonML

Blog: https://historyfanforever.wordpress.com/

Website http://www.MLRigdon.com

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Dedicated to Marlane Sturm

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culture, customs, doctrine, dogma, Indian, Lakotah, Little Big Horn, Ministry, Missionary, Missions, Music, Muslim, Native American, religion, Sioux, spirituality

For almost twenty-six years, Marlane Sturm directed Music Ministry at Aldersgate UMC in Fort Wayne, IN. Music was not her only calling. She nurtured a fierce interest and commitment to Native Americans, especially the Sioux, and created the Bear Creek Mission. Her aim was to help. She understood their beliefs and culture. She never went to the reservation to preach, only to help, and in time, was given their trust and respect—not an easy achievement.

I only know bits and pieces of the indigenous peoples of the costal and southern US. Due to a character in one of my works, Jacob Sampson Williams, I had to research the plains tribes. Since there is so much written, and I wasn’t a scholar, I chose to use the perspective of the Northern Cheyenne.

John Stands in Timber, the late tribal historian for the Northern Cheyenne wrote Cheyenne Memories. His book became my source material for Jake, half Indian, whose mother was a German immigrant. In 1860, she travels west to help a relative and is nearly killed when pitched from a carriage during a prairie fire. She would have died, if not for Jake’s father, who finds her wandering in shock.

The Northern Cheyenne, at that time, had a different viewpoint when it came to crazy. We lock up, drug up, or shun people with mental issues. They considered them somewhat blessed, touched in the head by spirits, and therefore, were carefully treated. The camp accepted the woman who would become Jake’s mother as Human, one of the People.

Another profound difference between our belief systems is the Native American respect for Nature, their understanding that all things relate to all things. The world, its peoples, the stars and moon, everything is interconnected. Some plains tribes thought of farming the land as “cutting the Mother’s breast,” while Eastern tribes were wonderful farmers.

Two hundred years ago, our expansionism refused to accept that Indians had nations, spoke and believed differently, until they realized tribal feuds could be a useful tool. The battle at Greasy Grass (Little Big Horn) is quite different in Cheyenne Memories from the deification of Custer’s role. Industry and railroads owned the politicians and newspapers. It was essential to vilify anyone and anything seen as a barrier to expansion. The mutilations to dead soldiers at Greasy Grass was exploited in the press. The mutilations and horror of Sand Creek, where Black Kettle had been told to safely camp, then ruthlessly massacred, were far worse than Creasy Grass and included the women and children. Warriors had no respect for anyone who hurt the innocent and had long memories.

Unlike our culture, tribal leaders were chosen for their generosity, (often the poorest in camp due to giving away everything they owned), or for their spirituality and wisdom. All males fought, while the women and children hid. Some women stayed behind to fight, but children were cherished. To bombard a peaceful village was incomprehensible and profoundly evil to the People.

Why all the sad parts of history? The point is to illustrate the differences in cultures and how Marlane understood and demonstrated her awareness. We live in a world where strict adherence to religious dogma has created chaos and violence. I knew nothing about Muslims until one married into our family. He explained the kindness inherent in those who practice the Muslin faith with true dedication. I felt shame and despair that doctrine is used as a justification for hatred. I learned from his patience with my ignorance, discovered a need to study other religions, and have had my own faith enriched by the differences.

Marlane was graced with an understanding—the heart to know and live it. There are Lakotah who will never think of her as a waśicun but as wicaśa okinihan.

Enjoy your well-deserved retirement, Marlanie, but we will miss you.