Another actor familiar to fans of classic ’60s television has passed away: Leon Askin, the squatty man with the bulldog face who constantly threatened to send Col. Klink to the Russian Front on Hogan’s Heroes, died recently in his hometown of Vienna. He was 97 years old.
For the record, my favorite scene in all six Star Wars films is also perhaps the most iconic one, the moment in the very first movie when Luke Skywalker watches two suns sink toward the barren horizon of Tatooine. It’s a beautiful scene no matter how you examine it: visually, thematically, musically, emotionally. It’s a powerful evocation of youthful restlessness, both melancholy and hopeful. And it’s magical because it takes something that is mundane, if beautiful — a simple sunset — and transforms it into a novelty, the double sunset of another world. We identify with the image because we see something similar all the time, but we thrill at its strangeness. It is simultaneously familiar and unearthly.
How’d you like to see something like that scene, only for real? Something as close to standing in Luke Skywalker’s boots as we’re likely to get any time soon? My friends, please click “Continue Reading” to experience the unspeakably cool…
There’s a new meme floating around LiveJournal country, about books. I just did a book meme not too long ago, but the questions on this one are a little different, and it’s short enough that neither writer nor reader will lose much time over it. If this is your sort of thing, read on and enjoy. If not, I’ll catch you later…
Way back in February, I commented on rumors that the public would soon learn the identity of “Deep Throat,” the legendary anonymous source that led investigative journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein to the truth behind the Watergate scandal. Today the rumors came true.
According to an article in the new issue of Vanity Fair, Deep Throat is a man named Mark Felt, who was Deputy Director of the FBI at the time of the scandal. These days, Felt is a frail 91 years old and lives with his daughter in California. Woodward and Bernstein have issued a statement confirming the magazine’s claims, and their former editor, Ben Bradlee — who also knew Deep Throat’s identity — was quoted as saying, “The thing that stuns me is that the goddamn secret has lasted this long.”
So it looks like another big historical mystery is solved. Kind of anticlimatic, really, and regrettable, too. Like I said the other day in regards to Blackbeard’s lost pirate ship being found, it’s more fun to have some things remain unknown.
One interesting note (well, interesting to people who live in Salt Lake, anyhow): the local TV news says that Felt ran the Salt Lake office of the FBI for two years in the 1950s. Strange how often these big stories have some kind of Utah connection. Sometimes I think my home state truly is the nexus of the universe… and that scares me on many, many levels.
If you’re still hanging around the computer on this beautiful, sunny, pre-MemDayWeekend afternoon, you’re more than likely looking out the window and longing for anything other than work to occupy your attention. Allow me to help by tossing out a few links I’ve been meaning to post for a while…
While I’ve had my head off in the galaxy far, far away, a couple of real-life dramas have developed much closer to home.
First of all, I’ve recently learned that a good friend from my high school and college years who is now in the military has been posted to Iraq. He’ll be serving as an operations officer at a supply depot somewhere north of Baghdad, which sounds to my admittedly non-military ear like a prime target for insurgent attacks. Needless to say, I am worried for my friend’s safety, and I’m having a hard time imagining that the gentle boy with whom I used to talk about Star Trek and Dr. Who is now walking around a desert war-zone in a suit of body armor. Especially since he’s actually in the Navy and has spent most of the last fifteen years on nuclear submarines a mile underwater. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me that he’d end up on the ground somewhere, but apparently the Joint Chiefs operate by a logic I don’t understand.
For the record, I am politically opposed to the war for reasons I don’t wish to go into right now. But that doesn’t stop me from hoping for the best possible outcome over there and that all the men and women who are far from home will soon be back with their friends and families, alive and intact.
My best wishes also go out to another old friend, a wonderful woman who has spent years trying to make a difficult relationship work and who has now decided that it’s time for her and her daughter to find a better way to live. I haven’t heard from her in a while, and I want to let her know, if she’s reading this, that I hope she’s okay.
So are we all sick of talking about Star Wars yet? I’m not, myself — I have a whole list of possible SW-themed entries that I wanted to write before Opening Day and didn’t get around to — but I can see how the topic may be getting a little old for my three loyal readers. Therefore I’m going to move on to other subjects, for your sakes. Because that’s the kind of guy I am. I care. Well, and also because I worry that I’m driving everyone away with my monomaniacal fanboyism.
Anyhow, I’m going to let Star Wars rest for a bit (although I may still work up some of those ideas I mentioned and post them from time to time). I’ll be back later today with my first post-Sith, non-Star Warsy entry. Also, I’m thinking about making a few changes to the site. Nothing major, just a couple of things to freshen the place up, so be watching for those in the next few days/weeks. I may even add some items to my long-neglected photo gallery…
[Ed. note: Sorry it’s taken me so long to post my thoughts on ROTS, but like I said in a comment for an earlier entry, this movie is a big deal for me and it’s taken a while to absorb and process it. Given that it’s been out for a week and the box office returns for last weekend were flat-out astounding, I’m going to assume that half the planet’s population has already seen it. If, however, you are one of the handful of folks who didn’t come down with “Jedi flu” last week, be warned that this entry contains more spoilers than my usual movie reviews. Sorry for the inconvenience, but it can’t be helped in this particular case.]
I finally got to see my long-imagined lava-pit duel as well as the planet of the Wookiees (although the latter amounted to little more than a teasing glimpse). By themselves, these bits of fanboy wish fulfilment would probably be enough to earn Revenge of the Sith my personal thumbs-up. But as it turns out, the sixth and final Star Wars movie gave me a lot of other reasons to like it, too. It was, in fact, everything I was hoping for, a redemptive finish to the generally lackluster prequel trilogy and a successful, plausible bridge into the “next generation story” told in the original trilogy.
That’s not to say that Sith was a perfect movie, or even a perfect Star Wars movie. But I thought it was a surprisingly good movie, and, for me at least, a completely satisfying one.
I just got home from the theater. It’s late, and I’ve got a heavy day of work tomorrow, so any kind of detailed review will have to wait. But I will say this much:
Twenty-two years ago, I cried at the death of Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi.
Tonight, I cried at his birth in Revenge of the Sith.
This movie is everything I hoped for, and probably not at all what most of the people going to see it are expecting. It’s not heroic summertime derring-do, as all the other Star Wars films have been. This one is nothing short of a Greek tragedy.
As far as I’m concerned, Uncle George has redeemed himself, at least as far as the prequel trilogy goes. As for the Not-So-Special Editions of the original trilogy, well, that’s another case entirely…
Just a quick note to let you all know I’m heading off the theater to line up for my 8 PM screening… because advance tickets may guarantee a seat, but they don’t guarantee a good one!
See you all on the other side of the galaxy!