Howard Shanker Movies

Wow, writing is really easy when you have a system like mine. Give me a topic, any topic, and I’ll write about movies. Not even particularly high-quality and/or relevant movies, just the basic mainstream pop culture crap that every junior high school student and midwestern soccer mom knows.

Oh, it’s politics? Then I’ll look up some political-type movies and regurgitate other, smarter people’s opinions about them. There’s nothing like the freedom that comes from a lack of standards, a lack of skills, and the ability to relate just about anything to my own narrow and shallow field of incredibly mediocre expertise.

Here’s yet another page of pointless chatter about movies. The kicker is that I needed all the resources of the web just to do this much!

James Cameron’s latest epic opus is set in the year 2154, at a time that humans are mining a precious mineral called unobtanium on Pandora, a moon planet in the Alpha Centauri star system. The mining colony’s expansion threatens the very existence of a local Na’vi tribe, a sentient humanoid species indigenous to Pandora. The film’s themes are certainly environmentally-friendly, carrying with it a faint whiff of a statement against the notion of US personnel infiltrating a new country / culture, in order to gain a foothold to impose their rule. Hmmmmm – that sound’s vaguely familiar…

Born on the Fourth of July, directed by Oliver Stone, tells the story of Ron Kovic, who joined the United States Marine Corps out of high school, went to Vietnam for two tours of duty, got wounded, then – as a paraplegic – became a vocal anti-war / peace activist.

Starring Denzel Washington and directed by Nick Cassevetes, this film centers around a father and husband, John Quincy Archibald, whose son is diagnosed with an enlarged heart who then finds out he cannot receive a transplant because HMO insurance won’t cover it. John Q therefore takes a hospital full of patients hostage unless and until the hospital places his son’s name on the recipient’s list. This film is a bit heavy-handed, but definitely makes a strong case in favor of the recent major US healthcare overhaul.

This film, based on the non-fiction book by journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward and directed by Alan J. Pakula, chronicles the Watergate break-in and ensuing The Washington Post scandal, which led to the resignations of H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, not to mention the revelation of the Nixon tapes. It’s knee-deep in governmental conspiracy, all the way to the top.

Does Howard Shanker play slots? Your guess is as good as mine, but if he did, he’d be able to find a small handful of US player friend casinos.