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"Shaft", from Tuna
Tuna's comments: The
original Shaft was, for me, the worst of the
three. It had the period right (love beads, mod
colors, etc.), and established Shaft as big,
smart, independent, and mean. The Isaac Hays
music won an Oscar. To me, the plot was not
strong enough to hold my interest, and there was
less nudity than in either sequel. A Harlem crime
lord's daughter is kidnapped by a group of
Italian Businessmen, who want to negotiate a
business merger in Harlem. Meanwhile, the police
are concerned about a radical group of black
militants. Lots of action, and not much sex.
Roundtree was much more of a stone-faced stoic in
this first film, which is part of the reason it
is my least favorite of the three.
thumbnails Margaret Warncke (1,
2,
3,
4)
"The
People vs. Larry Flynt ", from Tuna
Tuna's comments: I have resisted watching this
film, because I thought Hustler, and its
publisher, Larry Flynt were vulgar and
disgusting. People I trust convinced me to see
it. I still think Hustler and Flynt are vulgar
and disgusting, but I will now do anything I can
to defend his right to be that way as he did. The
first reason that I recommend this film is the
story. The Supreme Court climax is the perfect
resolution, and spells out the real message of
the film, in case someone missed it along the
way. Freedom of speech must extend to even
unpopular speech, or it is a total sham.
The acting ranged from excellent (Woody
Harrelson as Flynt, Courtney Love as his wife and
Edward Norton as his lawyer) to very good. It
wasn't until today when I watched it for the
first time on DVD that I realized how beautifully
it is photographed. Director Milos Forman has
given us many masterpieces including Amadeus,
Hair and One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, but for
me, this is his best film to date. The other two
women in the bath images are Meresa T. Ferguson
and Andrena Fisher, but I have no idea which is
which. Neither has any other credits at
IMDB".
It was actually helpful
to the story that Flynt was vulgar and
disgusting. It tests the principle of free
speech. Any one of us who says he believes in
freedom will step forward for the right of
Churchill to speak for the minority against the
British government's appeasement of Hitler.
That's easy. The hard part is to stand up for the
rights of the despicable, like Flynt. Because of
Flynt can lose his rights because you don't like
him, then you can lose your rights if someone
doesn't like you. Edward Norton's summation to
the Supreme Court made this very point, and the
movie never tries to cover up the fact that Flynt
and his cronies were somewhat lower on the
evolutionary scale than Churchill. It must drive
the ACLU people crazy when they have to intercede
on behalf of neo-nazis and such types, but they
do it, because freedom is freedom. And speaking
as a distinguished senior member of the scumbag
community, I'm sure glad someone believes in the
rights of scumbags.
I was surprised to see
Courtney Love wear panties when she was doing the
Althea Flynt Hustler pictorial. Why didn't they
just shoot the scene correctly, but position the
camera to avoid any unnecessary gynecology? I
sure don't know. But by leaving her panties on,
the movie incorrectly made the thing seem almost
tasteful. Many adjectives have been used to refer
to Larry Flynt, but I doubt if tasteful has ever
been one of them. I'm sure Larry doesn't know the
meaning of the word or, for that matter, any
other words with more than four letters.
thumbnails
Courtney Love (1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10,
11,
12,
13,
14,
15)
Bath Babes (1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6)
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