The Founding Fathers also admitted slavery

The church of the absurd in Kentuckey, USA. The BBC reports that, 

[a] pastor in the US state of Kentucky told his flock to bring handguns to church in what he said was an effort to promote safe gun ownership.

Pastor Ken Pagano told parishioners to bring their unloaded guns to New Bethel Church in Louisville for a service celebrating the right to bear arms.

He said he acted after church members voiced fears the Obama administration could tighten gun control laws.

Shame on them, shame on them.

Looking for Eric - dir. Ken Loach

Hurray! Yesterday afternoon, I finally got to see Looking for Eric.

The Eric of the title could refer to Eric Cantona, the former footballer who plays an imaginary version of himself, but is more relevant to Eric Bishop, a Manchester United obsessed postman but seeming Failure, played really well by Steve Evets.

At the start of the film, Eric (Bishop) crashes his car. After a short stay in hospital, he gets home where he finds his feckless stepson, Ryan, who gives such little respect to his stepfather, that we realise that he is one of life's losers. Things do not improve. Eric is a postman and he is soon discovered to be hoarding letters at his house. Luckily, the discovery is made by his best friends in the post office. Not only do they not shop him but commit to deliver the post themselves. The idea of friendship is very strong in this film.

Looking for Eric contains two narrative strands. The first concerns Ryan who has managed to get himself mixed up with the local psychopath and is hiding a gun for him. A gun that is then used in the shooting of a night clubber who insulted the said psychopath. The police storm the house but fail to find the gun. What will they do with it? Seemingly nothing because the psychopath has intimidated both Ryan and Eric into keeping it. But nothing is not an option...

The second narrative strand concerns the resurrection of Eric's relationship with his ex-wife, Lily, who he walked out on thirty or so years previously. Just after, that is, the birth of their son. Naturally, their second meeting is a tense one (the first, aborted, leads directly to the car crash). But when we learn why Eric walked out on her - because he suffered panic attacks over the commitment he had taken on - we get to understand his motivation better and perhaps, while not condoning what he did, sympathise a little with him. 

The glue that binds both strands together is Eric Cantona. When Eric takes to smoking dope, Cantona appears as if in a vision to offer sage advice in both French and English. When Cantona appears, Looking for Eric ceases to be a story in the social realism genre and becomes a modern fairy tale. This is emphasised by the film's denouement when Eric and about thirty Manchester United supporting friends deal with the issue of the gun by taking the fight to the psychopath in a thoroughly entertaining and unrealistic fashion. Actually, it is believable. At the conclusion, however, Eric Cantona appears not just to Eric but to one of his friends. How does that happen? Only in a fairy tale could it do so.

Ken Loach's Manchester is a city that is divided between the working class daily lives of the principle characters and Old Trafford or the away coach on Saturdays. It is a place where your friends go the extra two miles for you and where aphorisms become guides to living. It is a place, simultaneously, of fear, violence, hope and triumph. 

The acting performances are all great. Steve Evets leads the cast really well. Gerard Kearns as the witless Ryan is super. For a long while, his character is a real challenge to one's compassion. Perhaps in keeping with the film's sense of hope, perhaps, he comes good at the end, though, in a very excellent way. Stephanie Bishop as Lily is also very good. Her terrified reaction when armed police break into Eric's house is brilliant. I must also commend John Henshaw as Meatballs and Justin Moorhouse as Spleen, Eric's postal colleagues and fellow Manchester United fans. They brought a really needed layer of humour to the film.

And what of Eric Cantona? He does not have a great deal to do, other than act cool and say the right things. He does them well, though! The last time I saw Eric Cantona on the big screen was in Elizabeth. Then, his performance was wooden and hardly worth the effort. While I can't say that he is a very expressive actor, he certainly did inhabit his space well. His delivery of the line "I am not a man... I am Cantona." was worth the price of admission alone. And for the record, it is ironically meant.

Due to its football background, Looking for Eric might not be everyone's cup of tea, but no one should think that it is a football film. It isn't. Football, or more specifically, Eric Cantona, is the inspiration for the film, but while admitting the importance of Manchester United to the picture, one can say that it goes beyond the football pitch. Looking for Eric is a heart warming film. Very enjoyable indeed. 

Katyn - dir. Andrzej Wajda

On Thursday, L. and I visited what must be our favourite arthouse cinema, the Mayfair Curzon, in London's West End to see Katyn, a Polish film about the massacre of over 20,000 Polish officers and intellectuals in 1940.

The massacre was carried out by the Red Army. As the saying goes, history is written by the winners, so, after the war was over, the Soviet Union spent the next forty five years blaming the Nazis for the atrocity. Only in 1989 did the then Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, admit his country's responsibility. 

Katyn looks at the massacre through the eyes of Anna (Maja Ostaszewska) and Agnieszka (Magdalena Cielecka), wives of two Polish offiers killed at Katyn. At the beginning of the film, Anna actually finds her husband, Andrzej (Artur Zimjewski) in the loosely guarded prisoner of war camp and begs him to leave with her. But his loyalty to the army is absolute and won't be persuaded.

Subsequently, Anna narrowly escapes deportation to a concentration camp thanks to a kindly Soviet officer. She and her daughter, Nika, depart for Krakow, where they await a knock on the door that will never come.

As the film progresses, other characters flit past us. I'm afraid I don't remember all the names, but we see Andrzej's comrade Jerzy, who due to mistaken identity with Andrzej escaped being sent to Katyn, and who ends up a drunk officer on the Red Army. Despite this, he is never portrayed as a bad man. His sad end makes him a tragic one. There is also Andrzej's blonde sister whose attempt to place a gravestone marking her brother's death in a graveyard ends with it being smashed and her being interrogated by the secret police. Her defiance in the face of their threats is both cool and remarkable. Then there is also Andrzej's other sister, brunette, who has compromised with the Soviet regime, by joining the staff of Krakow university. 

Katyn is not an action film. It had the air of a dramatic reconstruction such as you might see in a television documentary. It could also be called a meditation on the consequences of the massacre, and more broadly, the war in general, on the people of Krakow. 

That the Soviet Union (through Stalin, Beria and the Politburo) was responsible for the Katyn massacre is without doubt, but how accurate Katyn is in its particulars, I don't know. One thing that is certain, though, is that in parts, the film is very graphic. At the end of the film, we see a number of Polish officers being executed - always with a bullet in the back of the head. While this scene could be justified on the grounds of enabling the viewer to see what really happened, I personally felt that we saw a few more shootings than was really necessary. But by far the worse scene was actual footage that was shot by the Nazis when they discovered and opened the graves in 1943. They hold up to the camera one body and its lolling head, or rather, what was left of it, as it had severely decomposed. A horrible sight.

Given its subject matter, Katyn could have been a very visually very grim film, but it steers a middle road in that respect. This allows the human story to breath. Unfortunately, the story did jump about a fair bit, meaning that I was occasionally rather confused as to where in the timeline of events we were. But this criticism should not deflect from the very obvious quality of the film, in terms of its production values, acting performances and narrative intensity, all of which were very high.

Katyn is a very good antidote to the more unrealistic war films, showing as it does, what really happens in wars and what they do to people - from the Nazi officer who shouts his condolences to Agnieska to the young boy on the eve of a possible university career who is run over and killed as he tries to escape from Red Army officers after tearing down a pro-Soviet poster and, of course, the Polish officers at the heart of the film. I thoroughly recommend it to you.

Private Eye on J.R.R. Tolkien

This week's Literary Review in Private Eye contains a review of The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun J.R.R. Tolkien's translation of the Nordic poem as edited by his son, Christopher. 

The review took me aback because not only was it not negative - Private Eye's literary reviewer nearly always takes a perverse pleasure in putting down the books that he is reviewing - but makes a very useful suggestion, namely, that a life and times of J.R.R. Tolkien be published. 

As the reviewer says, although Tolkien died nearly forty years ago, there are still many people alive who knew him who could contribute to such a work. The reviewer (who is anonymous) refers to Humphrey Carpenter's biography which, though written in the late 70s is still the best on the bookshelves, but refers to the fact that Carpenter admitted it was 'derailed' by Christopher Tolkien's 'blue pencilling' of certain parts of it. I don't really understand the analogy. I assume it means that Christopher Tolkien interfered editorially with the book. The reviewer, therefore, suggests that no definitive biography will be written while Christopher is alive. 

I would hope that this is not the case because I can't imagine what the Tolkien Estate would have to lose by authorising such a biography. JRRT did not lead a controversial life. He is responsible for a fabulous corpus of literature. He knew some very important people and lived in a great period of history. Private Eye have to be commended, on this occasion, for a far sighted and important suggestion.

BBC article on Alexander

Reading the BBC website this evening, I noticed in the H2G2 box a reference to an article entitled 'Alexander: The Tireless Conqueror'. The article is a very critical one, highlighting the number of people killed in the course of Alexander's march across Persia and the east. 

Its value as an article on Alexander, however, is extremely debatable. The first three paragraphs must rate as three of the worst that I have read in an essay in a long time. They are the kind that look good in the first draft but inevitably must be deleted of when you realise that your space would be better used discussing the actual issue that you have committed to write about.

The rest of the article is only a little better if you like making assumptions about people based on figures alone and without regard for something that this author clearly has no time for, or perhaps hasn't heard of, namely, historical context. Nowhere is this made more clear than in his comparison of Alexander with Hitler. The only difference between the two, he says, is that we like Alexander because he won his wars whereas Hitler didn't. 

Hm. If we leave aside the fact that the two are hardly comparable because one was a political leader while the other a military one, it is undeniable that Alexander was a successful general and he is admired for that. Why shouldn't he be? Rommel has a good reputation because he too was a good soldier. The ability to win battles and win them well is surely to be respected even if grudgingly, but that aside, there was more to Alexander than his pure combat role. For example, his commitment to the Homeric ideal, his love of his men, his respect for women, his interest in the natural sciences, his desire to draw Persian and Hellenic culture together and so forth. For all his wickedness, I am sure that Hitler had positive attributes - no man is fully evil - but I would suggest that they played a far less important role in his life than did Alexander's.

Unfortunately, this article is devoid of any such sense and appears to think that Alexander can be understand by reference only to the bodycount between Pella, the Hyphasis River and Babylon. Such a view is tiresomely simplistic and would not be deserving of a place in a student's essay let alone on the BBC website.

The Jive Talker - book and talk

Last summer, I read the excellent autobiography of artist Samson Kambalu (and reviewed it here). Now, his wife, Susan, leaves a comment to let us know that Samson is talking about his book, The Jive Talker, at Edinburgh's International Book. She writes,

[M]ay I be so bold as to ask if you or your readers will be in Edinburgh on 25 August 2009? If so, may I recommend the Edinburgh International Book Festival - Samson will be speaking about his book at 7.30pm, and the bookings open tomorrow (22 June)! Would be nice to see you there!

Most excellent. I thoroughly recommend both The Jive Talker and 25th August to you.

Speaker Bercow

Congratulations go to John Bercow, the Conservative MP who has been elected speaker to the House of Commons. Looking at his election from the outside, his appointment does seem rather incredible. On Radio 5 Live this morning, he was described as being the most divisive of the ten candidates for the job and was said to be disliked on both a political and personal level by many within his own party. 

So how did he become speaker? Well, it appears that he won through the votes of Labour MPs. Why would they vote for a Tory? The most dominant suggestion that I have heard is that they did so out of spite towards the Conservative Party, which they blame for the downfall of Michael Martin, the previous speaker. In short, at a time when they should have been looking for a consensus candidate who has the ability to pull Parliament out of the mire it has put itself in, Labour MPs have decided to play party politics. I hope they are pleased with themselves.

As for Bercow, he has a lot to do to prove to his detractors that he is worthy of his office. He gave a good victory speech. If he is as good a speaker, I am sure he will do well. For Parliament's sake, I hope so.

Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh!

Technology is great. As I write, me and SisterEvs are sitting at the opposite ends of the couch in the living room armed with our macbooks. And naturally it is that we are only communicating via the medium of iChat. Great! One of our occasional past times is to play Bruce Springsteen's Froggy Went A Courtin' and iChat (or in the past, back when we were sad PC owners, Windows Messenger) each other uh huh over and over again in accordance with the lyric's appearance in the Boss's song. The person at the back of the room who called us sad can leave now.

Anyway, once we established iChat contact with each other this morning, I checked up on YouTube to see if Bruce's version of the song was there. It is, but on someone's camera. Here is a much nicer version by one man and his ukulele

British Grand Prix - Q3

The good news is that when interviewed by the Beeb earlier, Bernie Ecclestone said that if Donnington Park was not ready to host next year's British Grand Prix, Silverstone would take its place. Hurrah!

The bad news is that a big crash by Adrian Sutil (Force India) in Quali1 caused the session to be red flagged - immediately stopped. Unlucky Lewis Hamilton was on his flying lap at the time so it was over and he will start tomorrow's race in 19th.

It is looking good for Red Bull right now, with Webber and Vettel trading first place between each other. Although as I write, Webber is only seventh fastest in Q3.

It looking bad for Brawn. Button only scraped into Quali3. Barrichello was doing a bit better although, just as I write, has gone first - only to be overtaken by Webber!

Murray Walker was interviewed earlier. What a legend. I miss his predictions and the inevitable disaster that met the driver who he said would win the race. Ah, I also miss James Hunt's sardonic punditry. Brundle is a worthy successor to him though.

I mentioned Williams doing well next year. They are impatient - both have made it into Q3. Great stuff. I saw the Williams CEO being interviewed earlier. He assured the interviewer that Williams would indeed be in the FIA championship next year.

Time's up and the front runners are on their last flying laps. It's over. Vettel has kept pole. Barrichello has come in second. Mark Webber will start third. And Button? He is sixth. I blinked and missed him during this session. I wonder why he didn't do more laps.

One more word - Nakajima of Williams came in fifth. With Rosberg seventh that has got to represent a good day's work for Frank Williams's team.

Formula One Shenanigans

So here I am watching the qualifying session for tomorrow's British Grand Prix, which will be the last to be held at Silverstone. Unless, of course, the FOTA teams launch their breakaway league, in which case, while the FIA round will be at Donnington Park (assuming it is ready), the splitters could be in Northampton.

The BBC have just shown an interview they did with Max Mosley, the FIA President. No chance of peace breaking out - Moseley has just called the FOTA eight 'loonies'.

Christian Horner and Eddie Jordan both say that Bernie Ecclestone, the commerical rights supremo for the FIA Formula One circus, is the one man who can broker a solution between the  FOTA and the FIA. Hmm.  He hasn't excelled himself so far.

And there is Nigel Mansell! Now, that's better. The 1987 British Grand Prix made him a household name when he overtook Nelson Piquet to win the race. It is amazing to see how different the cars are now compared to then. Whereas you could see Mansell's shoulders, the protection offered to the drivers in the cockpit is much greater with the side of the cockpit being higher.

Mansell won the 1987 Grand Prix for Williams. Williams have committed themselves to the FIA Formula One World Championship next year. If FOTA found a breakaway championship, with Force India being the only other established team to stay with the FIA, you can pretty much guarantee that the 2010 World Champion will be Nico Rosberg or Kazuki Nakajima.

Finally, although the Formula One world is rapidly changing, some things are remaining the same. The world's most fed up man, Fernando Alonso, is annoyed again.

Cameron on ID Cards

Well, talk about a fuss over nothing. David Cameron puts an a German accent to illustrate the kind of society we would be living in if we were forced to carry ID cards:

Has no one who has criticised Cameron heard of the art of hyperbole? It means exaggerating for effect. I daresay Britain would not actually become a Nazi state if we became obliged to carry ID cards but our society would be a lot less free and the state a lot stronger as a result. That is what Cameron is getting at. And to make his point he is using a particular rhetorical trick, one that actually does have relevance to the argument. Instead of bleating on about how Cameron's bad behaviour, his critics ought to remember that. Get thee to thy book of grammar, opponent! 

20-20 Cricket and Rugby sans Referees

As is well known, Twenty-Twenty cricket is an abomination. However, as this year's 20-20 world cup is playing in England at the moment, it is a little hard to avoid it, and, quite frankly, enjoy it on the radio. I did not enjoy, of course, England losing to the 'mighty' Dutch last week, but hearing about Ireland's progress has been enjoyable. I heard the closing stages of their Super8 game against Sri Lanka earlier today; they lost, but only by a handful of runs. And now, as I write, England are in action against India. At Lords. There is contemporary music on the speakers, Indian drums in the crowd and a lot more Indian fans present than English. I reiterate that we are at Lords! Whether it is football, rugby or cricket, one is used to hearing of a sizable English support at any given game, so it is good to hear that the Indian fans are getting behind their team.

***

Speaking of rugby, I read recently that in its early days, there were no referees at Rugby Union games. The games were refereed instead by the two captains. Imagine if we did that now. Leicester Tigers under Martin Johnson and Wasps under Lawrence Dallaglio would never get a decision against them! Back in the Victorian age, the book explained, a newspaper reported that the best captains to have were those with broad shoulders and a good oratorical ability. It also mentioned how the captains' teams might make themselves useful by 'interviewing' witnesses to the alleged offence. One can only imagine what being interviewed by a rugby team would have been like!

At the Cathedral and in the parish

Westminster Cathedral has lost its 'forward' altar. At Mass, this morning, the priest digressed in his homily to explain that it had originally been placed in the middle of the sanctuary for the visit of Pope John Paul II to Britain and Ireland in 1982. After he left, it remained. But now, no longer; I noticed that it had gone on my last visit to the cathedral a week or so ago. I wondered then if it had been removed to allow for more space for the co-celebrants at our new Archbishop's installation Mass two or three weeks ago. But it looks like Archbishop Nicols has done away with it altogether. Physically, it would not have been a difficult job as the altar had always been a temporary construction. Unlike, that is, the original altar, which we were told is made of several tonnes of Cornish granite! 

So, it is that altar, at the top of the sanctuary, which is now to be used for Mass. There is a problem with it, though. Not so much for the congregation but the priest. The high altar (if one may call it that), is, as I mentioned, at the top of the sanctuary. When the Cathedral was built, of course, the priest celebrating Mass did so facing east - towards Jerusalem and the rising Sun (or, if you are liberal, with his back to the people). Space was allowed for the priest to walk round the altar (e.g. while incensing it), but his celebrating Mass while facing the congregation was not really envisaged. As a result of this, it seems that the celebrating priest only has a few feet to move in. 

While I am sure that one or two priests will be able to suffer the limited space, I wonder what will happen at future big Masses where there will be lots of celebrants? Perhaps the forward altar will be brought out and dusted down. Or maybe Archbishop Nicols will simply tell the celebrants to do what was previously done - turn east!

***

After leaving the Cathedral, I popped into my parish church to pick up a copy of this week's newsletter. While taking a look at the Catholic papers in the porch, I noticed that one had drawn on. On taking a closer look, I found that a photograph of the Holy Father had been defaced in a nasty fashion. Informing the parish sister, I disposed of the paper in the nearest bin outside. I can't remember where I read it, but I once read a quotation from Pope Benedict where he said something along the lines of if something he had said or written had not offended anyone at least once a week, he had to search his conscience. Well, if this grafitto was anything to go by, the Pope certainly said something good this week!  

Eat your heart out, Bruce Lee.

Tomorrow sees the release of Looking for Eric, Ken Loach's film about one man's search for football legend Eric Cantona. As part of this blog's celebration of Manchester United's great No. 7, here he is in, well, slightly more controversial circumstances. The game is Crystal Palace vs. Manchester United. It is 25th January 1995. Cantona has just been sent off for an ugly foul. But a foul mouthed Crystal Palace fan is about to get more than he bargained for and something new to eat when Cantona hears what he has been shouting at him. The action begins at about a minute in.

While I am at it, I should thank The Hermeneutic of Continuity and Mulier Fortis who have got into the spirit of things by renaming their entry for Cantona's Kitchen. Perhaps this is done automatically by Blogger, but in case not, it is nice that they made they effort. Thank you!

Madam Butterfly - dir. Caroline Choa after Anthony Minghella

In 2005, Anthony Minghella directed Madam Butterfly for the English National Opera (ENO) at the Coliseum in London's West End. Following Minghella's death last year, his widow, Caroline Choa has directed a revival of his production. The first night was yesterday and, despite the tube strike that closed most of London's underground, I was fortunate enough to be able to go and see it.

Madam Butterfly is a young geisha who marries Pinkerton, an American naval officer. She is in love with him, but as far as he is concerned, the marriage exists only to legitimise his sexual relationship with her before he heads off on his warship again. Under Japanese law, men could marry women (specifically geishas? I am not sure) for one month at a time. All that can be said of this is that it was, if nothing else, one way of dealing with prostitution.

In the first act of the opera, Butterfly and Pinkerton marry. There is much celebrating by the geisha and her family and friends before the former drops a bombshell - out of devotion to her new husband, she has converted to his religion: Christianity. She has done so quietly, but at the end of the act, a malevolent priest turns up to reveal all. Butterfly's family and friends immediately disown her. Celebration turns to revulsion.

The second act of the play takes place three years later. And it has been three years since Pinkerton left on his warship. And it has been three years since Madam Pinkerton, as she likes to be called, has waited for him, confident that he will return. At the end of the first part of the act, she is still waiting.

At the beginning of the second part of act two, Pinkerton finally does return - but with his new (American) wife in tow. Butterfly is distraught. However, she has a trump card: Pinkerton's son. But no, the child is no trump card at all because upon finding out about his existence Mr and Mrs Pinkerton simply ask to take the young boy away with them.

Madam Butterfly has been deserted by her husband. For her that can mean only one thing - suicide. At the end of the opera, she kills herself.

The Minghella-Choa production is a colourful rendition of Madam Butterfly. The costumes, especially those of Butterfly's family at the wedding are a riot of colour. The backdrop of the stage changes colour according to the time of day and, perhaps the dominant emotion of the scene. Props are used only spartanly but one piece is quite literally overarching. That is a huge mirror that curves over the stage. It allows the audience to see what is happening behind the paper screens that are shifted back and forth so as to signify different rooms. The mirror is a simple but clever trick.

I suppose there are many ways that one could direct Madam Butterfly. Minghella and Choa have decided to focus on the contrast between the values of the American Pinkerton and Japanese Butterfly. The former seem to come in for explicit criticism, for example, when Butterfly's son salutes her with an American flag in hand during a traumatic scene for his mother. The latter is really implied by the awfullnes of Butterfly's predicament. What kind of society permits geishas to exist (dressed up they may be but prostitutes they remain)? Or women to kill themselves for the foolishness of their husbands?

This Madam Butterfly is a very stylised production - even more so than an opera might ordinarily be. For example, a child singer does not play the part of Butterfly's son. A life sized (though deliberately not anatomically correct) doll is used, being controlled by three dancers dressed in dark robes. This is not a whimsy of the directors but an involvement of the Japanese art of bunraku - Japanese puppet theatre. 

Given that Madam Butterfly is not a particularly realistic opera (a real geisha would never have fallen in love with her husband; she would have known from the start for what purpose she was marrying him) the presence of the bunraku puppet could be seen as a welcome insertion of a genuinely Japanese art form but, of course, Madam Butterfly, while being rooted in the society which made the eponymous character, also transcends it - just like all great narratives. 

For my part, while it was interesting seeing the puppet, I would not have missed it if it had not been there. Seeing it being manipulated by the dancers foregrounded too clearly its lack of reality. This is not a criticism of the opera, however, more an indication that I am too unused to the bunraku art to be yet able to relate to it.

I mentioned above the Madam Butterfly commits suicide at the end of the opera. The ending really is most unoperatic. We see Butterfly draw her dagger and cut her throat. Long red ribbons, signifying her blood, are unravelled. The American consul appears but is too late to save her. The opera ends. Yet, I was under the impression that characters in operas only died after a ten minute long aria. It is clearly not so! I was bowled over by the ending. So much so that even now, twenty four hours later, I can't but help feel amazed by it.

Where Anthony Minghella and Caroline Choa's Madam Butterfly stands in the operatic pantheon, I am not in a position to say. What I can say, however, is that I enjoyed what I saw and - thanks to the ending - will remember it for a long time to come. I hope, though, that it is not long before I get to see another opera. Thus, I thank Minghella and Choa for not only putting on a fine production but inspiring me to see more. 

Before I finish, I must also acknowledge the singers in Madam Butterfly. They all sang marvelously well. It must take an awful lot of work to be able to get onto that stage. Well done to them.     

Electoral Reform

I have just been reading Nick Robinson's latest blog post on how the Prime Minister wants there to be a debate on the reform of the British voting system at general elections. 

Now that Gordon Brown is set to remain in situ at 10 Downing Street for a while longer, I am going to try and be as fair minded as possible towards him and his attempts to restore his reputation as Prime Minister. 

Calling for a debate on electoral reform, however, is not something that endears me towards him. 'First Past the Post' may not be perfect but it seems to do the job. 

Nick Robinson says that the call for a debate is 'part of a package of proposals to reform Britain's political system'. As far as I am concerned, the only part of Britain's political system that needs reforming is MPs pay and expenses. That's all. Anything else comes across to me as simply an attempt to deflect from that vexed issue.

Commemorating Alexander the Great

With all the things going on in the world it is, of course, important to get our priorities right. Rather than being concerned with ephemeral things, we need to turn our minds and hearts towards that which is eternal. 

For example, the achievements of Alexander the Great. And tomorrow, Wednesday 11th June, is a wonderful opportunity to remember all that Alexander achieved because it is the 2332nd anniversary of his death in Babylon.

At the time of his death, Alexander was planning the conquest of Arabia. He had already subdued the known world as far as the modern day border between Pakistan and India. He was undefeated in battle, honourable in victory (mostly) and inspirational in his farsighted determination to fuse Macedonian and Persian cultures. 

Alexander slept with a copy of the Iliad under his pillow. He was dedicated to living out in his own life the heroic code found in Homer's work. It is true that as the years wore on he drank rather a lot and, perhaps, by the end was starting to become more than a little tyrannical (ahem), but unless we are to lose our reason and turn him into a monster, we need to remember the frought position that the king of Macedonia held and, indeed, the very frought age in which he lived. Alexander's excesses should bring into sharp focus, not obscure, the good things he did: the way he treated the wife and family of Darius III when they fell into his hands, the credit he gave to Porus, his religious devotion, the cities he built etc etc.

Where is the great Alexander?

Great Alexander lives and reigns!

Eric does it again

Cantona's Kitchen

As you may have noticed this blog has undergone a slight name change - all to celebrate the legend that is Eric Cantona in the run up to the release, on the 12th, of his new film Looking for Eric. Expect to see a review of it soon! In the meantime, let's enjoy some examples of a legend in the making.

Terminator Salvation - dir. McG

Terminator Salvation is a film of missed opportunities. On Thursday, Our Man of the Antonii, 5MinJim and the Talented Mr Akhtar went to see it with, it has to be admitted, a fair degree of trepidation due to the poor reviews that the film has been getting.

Our fears were proved right. As an action film, Terminator Salvation works fine. The good guys and villains are clearly delineated (when your enemy is called terminator it would be hard for them not to be), there were some great action sequences and special effects and a good amount of tension.

Unfortunately, we are not talking about any old action film but the Terminator franchise. As befitting its status, every film has to give more than other action films. The narrative of the first film and special effects of the second did that, but this one doesn't. I can't speak of the third, by the way, because I haven't seen it.

What Terminator Salvation does give are references to the previous films. For example, all those Terminator turns of phrase that we have come to know and love from the first two - and probably third - films. I'll be back... Come with me if you want to live... There's no fate but what we make... 

There is also the famous photograph of Sarah Connor, taken at the end of the first film. Linda Hamilton reprises her role as John Connor's mother in a series of tape recordings - made at the end of that film. 

This is all very well and good, but does the film offer anything new? Well, in a character named Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) we meet the missing link between man and terminator. If we could see Terminator Salvation as being about him rather than John Connor, I think it would quickly become a better film.

Apart from Marcus Wright, however, there is not much else that is new and good. In my opinion, the big problem is with John Connor (Christian Bale) and how his role has been written. He is portrayed as any old resistance commander. But he is supposed to be a semi-messianic figure. How he achieves this status is not explored. Perhaps it was in Rise of the Machines? One gets very little impression that Bale's Connor is anything more than a good commander. 

With that said, there is lots else that is left unexplained by this film. Connor has a pregnant wife. What is the story there? If Skynet's headquarters are destroyed, how is it able to operate?

Ultimately, Terminator Salvation is definitely strongest when looking to its past. Thus, it is good to see a young Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin). He is given a good amount of screen time which does allow him to develop his character. What really makes him special to watch, though, is the knowledge of the central role he will play in John Connor's life. Arnold Schwarzenegger's appearance towards the end of the picture is also a treat - if a cheesy one.

Terminator Salvation falls short of the standards set by T1 and T2. However, it is worth watching for the gritty camera and effects, Marcus Wright and the quite literally smashing action sequences.