Key Largo Movie Review.

Title: Key Largo.

 Starring: Humphrey Bogart {Frank McCloud}, Lauren Bacall {Nora Temple}, Lionel Barrymore {James Temple}, Edward G. Robinson {Johnny Rocco}, Claire Trevor {Gaye Dawn}, Thomas Gomez {Richard "Curly" Hoff}, Harry Lewis {Edward "Toots" Bass}, and John Rodney {Deputy Clyde Sawyer}.

 Gene: Black-and-White, Action/Adventure, Classic.

 Year of Release: 1948.

 Plot: Frank McCloud is returning from the Second World War and has come to Key Largo {of the coast of Florida} to visit the father and widow of his dead comrade. When he arrives at Mr. Temple's inn, he meets a questionable group of people hanging at the bar who snare at him and tell him to beat it, thinking he's planning on staying at the inn. When he tells them he simply wants to see Mr. Temple they brighten up and send him out to the dock where he finds the crippled old man sunning himself and meets the lovely Nora Temple who, after the twosome have heard the story of how their beloved husband and son died, shows him around the inn. A storm is expected so McCloud willingly helps Nora tie the boat down and get the shutters all closed up in preparation for it.

 The pace really picks up when the other guests of the inn start acting very suspicious and get the Temples and McCloud thoroughly alarmed. When they protest against their behavior, the now confirmed villains march them up to meet the reclusive boss of the gang who turns out to be the deported gangster Johnny Rocco. Having lost his will to fight, McCloud seems cold and distant as Rocco interrogates his new prisoners and tests McCloud by handing him a gun and telling the former soldier to shoot him. McCloud refuses which disappoints the Temples and the kidnapped sheriff's deputy, but when the deputy grabs the gun and turns it on Rocco, it is discovered in a tragic manner that the gun was never loaded.

 Now fully under the control of the gangsters, the prisoners are forced to hang out in the bar downstairs where they listen to the hurricane outside blow and rage, unnerving Rocco and finally sending a tree crashing through the window. McCloud begins to lose his callous exterior and regain his will to fight as he is witness to Rocco's brutality. When it comes time for the gangsters to leave the island, they enlist McCloud to pilot the getaway boat, the stage for the final showdown between good and bad.

 Likes/Dislikes: Rocco first comes into the film in a bathtub but nothing graphic is shown thankfully. Several men, including two innocent Indians and the deputy, lose their lives off camera to the hardened gangsters, but other than that this is a pretty good movie and is recommended for all viewers save the very young.

 Rating: Most black-and-whites aren't rated; my rating is PG.

 Date Report Written: February 15, 2011.

A Glimpse of History.

Despite having a liking for history and learning all I can about it, I have never had a very keen desire to learn anything too detailed about World War II though I have over the years picked up odd bits of information here and there such as who Rommel was. It wasn't until a week or two ago when my mother, my youngest brother and I were flipping channels on our television one night after dinner and stumbled upon an engaging and very interesting film based upon a true story. The movie had been made around 2002 and starred Adrien Brody: it was called The Pianist. The next day after watching the majority of this gripping movie, I reserved from our local library the movie on DVD to watch again and the original story written by Wladyslaw Szpilman. I started reading the book when my parents brought it home on Tuesday and read the majority of it yesterday afternoon, concluding the day by watching the movie with my whole family in the evening. I've never read anything quite like it before and it sure as heck beat Anne Frank's diary to dust! At the back of the book were included excerpts from the diary of Captain Wilm Hosenfeld, the German officer who saved the Jewish pianist's life toward the end of the war and the German occupation of Poland. One of the entries stood out to me more than the others and I decided to post it here for your enjoyment and perhaps enlightenment also. I give it as it was printed in the book and trust you to draw your own conclusions from it.
"1 September 1942
Why did this war have to happen at all? Because humanity had to be shown where its godlessness was taking it. First of all Bolshevism killed millions, saying it was done to introduce a new world order. But the Bolshevists could act as they did only because they had turned away from God and Christian teaching. Now National Socialism is doing the same in Germany. It forbids people to practice their religion, the young are brought up godless, the Church is opposed and its property appropriated, anyone who thinks differently is terrorized, the free human nature of the German people is debased and they are turned into terrified slaves. The truth is kept from them. They can play no part in the fate of their nation.
There are no commandments now against stealing, killing or lying, not if they go against people's personal interest. This denial of God's commandments leads to all the other immoral manifestations of greed – unjust self-enrichment, hatred, deceit, sexual license resulting in infertility and the downfall of the German people. God allows all this to happen, lets these forces have power and allows so many innocent people to perish to show mankind that without him we are only animals in conflict, who believe we have to destroy each other. We will not listen to the divine commandment: 'Love one another.' Very well, then, says God, try the Devil's commandment, the opposite: 'Hate one another.' We know the story of the Deluge from Holy Scripture. Why did the first race of men come to such a tragic end? Because they had abandoned God and must die, guilty and innocent alike. They had only themselves to blame for their punishment. And it is the same today."

Treasure of the Sierra Madre Movie Review.

Title: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
Starring: Humphrey Bogart {Fred C. Dobbs}, Tim Holt {Bob Curtain}, Walter Huston {Howard}, and Bruce Bennett {Cody}.

 Gene: Black-and-White, Classic, Adventure, Mexican Western.

 Year of Release: 1948.

 Plot: Out of work south of the border, Fred C. Dobbs and his newfound friend Bob Curtain take a construction job, working hard in the hot sun for a week only to be cheated out of their pay by their boss who has a reputation for not paying his employees around town. Out of money, hungry and tired, the twosome crash at a men's boarding house and overhear a rather crazy old man named Howard talking about gold mining. The next day they catch their cheating boss and get their money after a fist fight breaks out; with money in their pockets and food in their stomachs, the men decide to try their hand at gold mining and hunt up the old man who has the experience and knowledge they lack. The three partners purchase the necessary supplies and head off into the mountains, the two inexperienced men quickly becoming exhausted as they cross the hot wasteland trying to keep up with the old man's surprisingly brisk pace.

 Once they find a suitable place to make camp and set up their mining operation, Dobbs and Curtain find renewed strength to carry out the grueling task of searching for gold. They agree to tell anyone they meet that their hunters, not miners, because they didn't bother to file a claim on the site. Under the old man's direction they work a prosperous vein of gold dust and agree to divide up the findings each night. Slowly, as the piles of gold increase, so does the tension in the camp between Curtain and Dobbs, the latter of whom becomes increasingly suspicious of his partners trying to "bump him off" and "take his goods." Several times the old man tactfully prevents a fight from breaking out between the two but Dobbs continues his downward spiral and Curtain bounces between defensiveness and confusion.

 The climax comes when local Indians ask Howard to help one of their boys who was unconscious after being pulled out of a river, and Howard uneasily leaves the two younger men together alone with all of the gold dust they'd dug up. Dobbs' suspicions finally disappear to show the greedy insanity they gave birth to and the situation in camp becomes dangerous. Curtain gets the jump on Dobbs and takes his gun from him but Dobbs relates by betting that he'll fall asleep before Curtain will, which leaves Curtain very weary the next day and unable to resist when Dobbs turns the tables on him and finds himself at the wrong end of his own gun.

 Likes/Dislikes: This isn't a fast moving movie but it's engrossing and action packed enough to make up for the speed at which it travels. All three men in the story are tempted by the lure of gold and while two {one with experience in these matters} hold up under the strain, one breaks and fails to pass the test. It's a very good movie, well shot and classic, even if the fight scene at the beginning moves terribly slowly. J Highly recommended for its study of human nature.

 Rating: It being a black-and-white, I don't think it's officially rated but my own rating is a G.

 Date Report Written: February 15, 2011.

Jack Frost.

"The door was shut, as doors should be,
  Before you went to bed last night;
Yet Jack Frost has got in, you see,
  And left your window silver white.

He must have waited till you slept;
  And not a single word he spoke,
But penciled o'er the panes and crept
  Away again before you woke.

And now you cannot see the hills
  Nor fields that stretch beyond the lane;
But there are fairer things than these
  His fingers traced on every pane.

Rocks and castles towering high;
  Hills and dales, and streams and fields;
And knights in armor riding by,
  With nodding plumes and shining shields.

And here are little boats, and there
  Big ships with sails spread to the breeze;
And yonder, palm trees waving fair
  On islands set in silver seas,

And butterflies with gauzy wings;
  And herds of cows and flocks of sheep;
And fruit and flowers and all the things
  You see when you are sound asleep.

For, creeping softly underneath
  The door when all the lights are out,
Jack Frost takes every breath you breathe,
  And knows the things you think about.

He paints them on the window-pane
  In fairy lines with frozen steam;
And when you wake you see again
  The lovely things you saw in dream."

                                               ~ Gabriel Setoun.

Triumphant!

That's right; I did it! I really did it with God's help and plenty of encouragement {and technical assisstance at one point} from my best friends and family members.

I'm published!!!!!! :)

Check out my book at this site {it should be up at Amazon in about a week}: https://www.createspace.com/3563293

Thank You Jesus!! Praise God!! I'm a published author now. :) Yahoo!!!!

Flight of Shadows Book Review.

Title: Flight of Shadows.
Author: Sigmund Brouwer.
Gene: Futuristic, Sci-Fi Thriller, Action/Adventure.
Plot: In this sequel to Broken Angel by the same author {didn't read it}, Caitlyn Brown has managed to go nearly two months since escaping her former life but when she's suddenly threatened by her not-very-bright-or-gentlemanly boss, Caitlyn plunges back into a situation she thought she'd left behind. Tracked by a ruthless bounty hunter and the authorities, Caitlyn teams up with a shady illusionist who she doesn't fully trust named Razor; he in his turn puts all his skills to work to uncover the mystery of who Caitlyn is and why the government wants her found at all costs. The end takes them by surprise.
Likes/Dislikes: The plot, while interesting once or twice, is lame and so unbelievable that it's not even worth getting into, all of the characters save for Theo, Billy, and Pierce, have crude, disgusting minds and dirty thought-trains {especially the bounty hunter, it so would have been nice not to have had any part of the story told from his gross viewpoint!}, and the vocabulary of the book is almost worse than watching an R rated porn movie, even if it isn't graphic, it's still there and the reader's imagination can follow the hint. Granted, Theo was very funny, and Pierce and Billy were the most gentlemanly and honest characters but other than that this book wasn't worth reading. You'd think that a book about someone with wings and healing blood would be interesting but when it's written like this one is; it's destined for the fireplace. The cover of the book says it's set in an "all-too-plausible future," I disagree however because the future {to me} doesn't look like it'll decay into a Mad Max world any time soon. Still, if you'd like a sample of the book, here's a link to read the first chapter: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Flight-of-Shadows/Sigmund-Brouwer/e/9781400070336/?itm=1&USRI=flight+of+shadows#CHP
Rating: R, and it is not recommended at all.
Date Report Written: February 19, 2011.
This book was a review copy courtesy of WaterBrook Publications; I was not required to write a positive review.