And yet another movie review

One of the nice things about being "at leisure" is the movies I get to see on TCM. They did an Andy Hardy festival last week and this week it was Dr. Kildare. But what I want to write about is a small western that you might not know, or if you know the name and not the flick, you might think it's cheesy.

This 1951 film was co-written by Frank Capra and directed by William Wellman and if you ignore Robert Taylor's conventional macho hero (fairly easy to do), you will find a very moving story about mail order brides. It is by turns tragic, funny and poetic. I was greatly moved by two scenes. In the first, after an attack, the survivors call out the names of the dead, just as soldiers would do after battle. And in the second, a woman gives birth in a wagon moving through the blistering desert when one of the wheels falls off. The women move as one to lift the wagon and hold it in place until the baby is born. It's a moment of joy and much needed hope for them and the audience. And finally, women are women, regardless of their long grueling trek from Chicago to California across the desert, and they demand new clothes and time to prepare before meeting the men. This is really a remarkable movie, featuring wonderful performances by an International cast, some of whom you might recognize. It's very real and human. There are moments of beauty and sadness in this poetic story of woman walking toward an unknown future.

Westward the Women is now available on DVD and I highly recommend it. It's a little known western that is unfortunately forgotten and it deserves your attention.

And I also have a bridge in Brooklyn you might want to buy

Karl Rove told Charlie Rose (Nov 21) that George W. Bush was pushed into Iraq by the Congress. I will wait a moment as you read that a second time. Maybe a third. I don't believe he said it either. But he did and he said it on TV. And here all along I thought I heard Bush ask Congress to authorize the use of the US military in Iraq--what could I have been smoking.

I've been thinking about this interview for a few days now and trying to assemble my thoughts without using expletives that need deleting. Both of them make me so angry.

Had he not been pushed into invading Iraq, Rove maintains, Bush would have done what he really wanted to do in the first place: Provide more time for inspectors. What Bush wanted was a peaceful alternative but was thwarted by Congress. When I heard that I looked out the window to make sure there were no pigs roosting in my trees. I assume that Congress also forced the preemptive strike on the peace loving president. However, it should be noted that in this interview Rove admitted that the United States rushed into war ill-prepared.

This is historic revision on a monumental scale. In fact, it more closely resembles convenient fiction and it makes clear why his dear friend George Bush calls Karl Rove "turd blossom." Rove and Bush are the kind of people who allow other people to go to war for them, they did it in Vietnam and they are doing it now. They do pretty much what they want with human lives and never let it be said that either is concerned about trampling on the Constitution in the bargain.

Karl Rove, and by extension George Bush, succeed because they think Americans are stupid--and they are right. Their sole purpose, as far as I can see it, is to put everything in this country into the hands of a few wealthy friends. They call this privatization. I used to think the whole Iraqi mess was for oil, but I slowly came to realize that these guys mean business. Today, Iraq, tomorrow the whole world. Right now, it's blood for oil, as long as the blood is not Rove's or Bush's. Rove is a traitor to his country, he gave up a CIA agent for political reasons. But I don't see anyone rushing to put the guy behind bars where he belongs.

But this is what comes of Republicans, who have rewritten history to the point that we forget that it was Ronald Reagan who armed and funded all of the "terrorists" we are now fighting. Before this is done, the Republicans will have rewritten history making George W. Bush the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln. When you tell a lie, make it a big one, Adolph Hitler said, knowing that the bigger the lie, the easier it is for people to believe.

When the interview ended I didn't know whether to laugh, cry or slit my wrist. But one word reverberated in my fevered brain: Contemptible. The whole lot is contemptible, as are the people who voted for them, the people who continue to support them, and the weak livered Congress that allowed this to happen.

No rest for the wicked

So, no, there were no left overs, unless you count the raviolis, which I don't, although I took some. So I made a turkey breast but it came without skin, this defeating my purpose. I think turkey skin should be sold separately in little carry out containers for those of us who smoke and eat bad things. Anyway, now I have cold turkey sandwiches. The secret to a really great cold turkey or chicken sandwich is to butter one slice of bread and than use mayo on the other. Really adds depth to a sandwich; try it.

I was planning to use today to write about Iraq--but I can't work up the energy. So, instead, I'll talk about No Country for Old Men, a magnificent film I saw over the weekend. There may be no such thing as a perfect movie, but this comes as close to perfect as any film can be. The film is as flat and bleak at Tommy Lee Jone's narration. Set in 1980, this is essentially a chase film centered on a drug deal gone bad and missing money. Three men are after each other for various reasons and what humor there is, is the nervous gallows humor kind. Jones is the ready-to-retire Texas lawman who has seen more than he needs to, Josh Brolin, in a surprisingly terrific performance, is the nice guy who finds the money, and Javier Bardem is the scary, robotic killer (armed with a nasty compressed-air gun). The movie begins with the aftermath of a massacre in the desert and ends...well, I won't tell you that. But I will tell you that this is a very satisfying journey that is filled with real horror. Of all the stellar performances (yes, Josh Brolin turns in a stellar performance), Bardem's ultimate bad guy is the best. On the surface, he seems fairly bland and nondescript but then the beast within him rises. No Country for Old Men is dark, bloody and fatalistic and as true a masterpiece as any film I have ever seen.

As a rule I love the Coen brothers' efforts. There have been a very few missteps along the way (The Ladykillers), but the journey through their films is usually satisfying. But this movie is a standout and it will stay with you long after you leave the theater.