In this video, I will examine the 1st episode of 'Band of Brothers: Currahee'

Utah Beach--code name of the German occupied beachhead on France's northwest coastline; Camp Toccoa, Georgia--home of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division
Utah Beach--June 6, 1944; Camp Toccoa--June 4, 1942

Between Utah Beach and Camp Toccoa, June 4, 1942 and June 6, 1944 , the US Army will train men to jump out of C-47s into hostile territory. But before these recruits can call themselves Easy Company they must conquer 2 great foes: a steep hill called Currahee in 15 minutes, 3 miles up and 3 miles down; and they must also conquer a steep hill of ego in an extremely detailed, overly ambitious drill sergeant named Sobel, who himself finds out that there's a huge difference between having rank and being a leader!

This outstanding 2001 American war drama miniseries is widely considered THE greatest miniseries ever (along with Mad Men) based on Stephen E. Ambrose's 1992 non-fiction book of the same name. Executive Produced by Tom Hanks and Stephen Spielberg on the heels of 1998's 'Saving Private Ryan', Band Of Brothers follows the soldiers of Easy Company, then an experimental regiment of the Armed Forces, and their battles throughout France against German forces. Each of the 10 episodes focus on a member of the unit which gives the series an advantage over other war films in terms of character development. At the time, the series was the most expensive and given that there are 10 episodes, each 1 could hold up to any single war feature in any area of production, nominated for 20 Emmy's and walking away with 7 and numerous other awards. There are war films, but this is the grand-daddy of them all! 

Video analysis of the 1st episode of 'Mad Men'

Some thoughts on Mad Men: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

Don Draper is a product of his time: he is sexist; he is racist; and he smokes! But he is also discreet, professional, and principled. Don Draper is the top ad man at Sterling Cooper because he can sell anything, even a lie, even death--the trick is to make it seem like happiness. Everything and everybody stays in their place, but, like the Dylan song goes, "times are a changin'" and Draper's changing, too, whether he wants to or not!

This period drama that looks at the world of advertising as a metaphor for the 60's-the most turbulent decade of the 20th century-is the history of America in a nutshell. What makes Don Draper appealing to me as a Black man is that despite the fact that he's racist, sexist, and steeped in the mindset of the establishment, he is conflicted as all of us are--if we are willing to admit it! He has secrets and isn't what or who he pretends to be. But, above anything else, he's principled. Don Draper is a microcosm of a nation at the epicenter of changes and revelations. This is 1 of the best written and directed series ever (created by Matthew Weiner), on par with Dallas of the 80's, a truly iconic, larger-than-life-flawed-everyman whom you can't help but like and respect even against your will. 

My thoughts on 'Easy Rider'

Some perspectives on Dennis Hopper's 'Easy Rider'

After scoring a drug deal in Los Angeles, 2 hippie bikers with a gas-tank full of money travel cross-country to Mardi Gras. Their ride starts in the Southwest where they see the American Dream in a man and his family living off the land and a weed-smoking commune, disconnected from modern civilization. Their ride, the American Dream, and the hippie movement ends violently in the Deep South: 

"They talk to you about individual freedom, if they see a free individual, it's gonna scare 'em."
"Well, I don't make them runnin' scared."
"No, it makes 'em dangerous!"

This low-budget 1969 road film written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Terry Southern won "Best Film By A New Director" at Cannes for Dennis Hopper, a film based on 60's counterculture that attained cult status by defining its period in the same way that Saturday Night Fever defined Disco in the 70's. This is a deceptively intelligent and well-thought out film that Peter Fonda imagined as an American Western with motorcycles, shot on a budget of $360,000.00 and going on to earn over $60,000,000.00! 

My thoughts on Ingmar Bergman's 'The Seventh Seal'

Some thoughts on Ingmar Bergman's 'The Seventh Seal'

In this video, I offer my perspectives of Ingmar Bergman's 'The Seventh Seal', a story set in medieval Europe that follows a Knight who returns from the Crusades to find his homeland of Sweden ravaged by the Black Plague. Antonius Block challenges Death to a game of chess to buy time to get the answers to existential questions pertaining to the meaning of life and the existence of God. A truly great film from a true master. 

Why 'Citizen Kane' is still the greatest film ever made!

My perspectives on Orson Welles' 'Citizen Kane'

He took a fledgling newspaper and transformed it into the most powerful newspaper in the world; Xanadu, his luxury palace, was half the size of Rhode Island and housed more priceless works of art than any museum in the world; he bought his own opera house and from nothing--like his paper, The New York Inquirer-- took Susan Alexander, his mistress, and willed her from nothing into an opera star; when he needed writers for his paper, he went across the street to his rival's paper, pulled a wad of cash out of his pocket, and bought his rival's entire staff. Charles Foster Kane had everything and lacked nothing, nothing except 1 thing: Rosebud!

Based on the life of newspaper titan William Randolph Hearst, Citizen Kane was a film ahead of its time, so good that it literally destroyed Director Orson Welles's career. Considered the greatest film ever made, Citizen Kane--released in '41--received 9 Academy Award nominations and won only 1 for the script, which Orson co-wrote with Herman J. Mankiewicz. But there is no denying the sheer greatness of this film, told in a series of flashbacks similar to Kurosawa's Rashomon.

My honest impression of Christopher Nolan's 'Dunkirk': a review

An Honest Review of Christopher Nolan's 'Dunkirk' 

Saw Christopher Nolan's World War II film Dunkirk Saturday and it is the lamest of all of his films, surprisingly. Very safe. More of a fall or winter movie. Great cinematography. Heavy British accents alienated me. Should have included subtitles. 90% of my collection of almost 2500 movies are subtitled so I don't have a problem with foreign films whatsoever. Dunkirk seemed very dull and kept me waiting for "the moment" up until the anticlimactic ending. Very little action. Actually, what you see in the movie's trailer concentrates all of the action in the entire film. Like I said, the acting was very good, the cinematography as well, just don't go in with any expectations along the magnitude of Saving Private Ryan as far as characters that are memorable and an engaging plot which I found as flat as a warm beer that's been left out overnight.

Now, I know there are those who are going to have a bias for anything with Nolan's name on it, and believe me, I wanted to leave the theater as giddy as I was going in; actually, I went because Nolan directed it and I respected his talent way before most of his current fans, all the way back to 'Following', his 1st film which came out in '98 (I saw the film in '00) and have been among his most devoted fans since. But Dunkirk is a dud and this will bear itself out in the next 2 weeks as you will see my claim reflected in its free fall in the box office. The film is better suited for fall or winter than it is for the summer because of its pace. It is definitely not a war movie in the sense of what I am accustomed to seeing in a war movie, particularly because there is very little war rather than suspense. I didn't want to go into the plot here as there are places you can go such as Wikipedia or Rotten Tomatoes to get this info plus I wanted to enjoy the film without my pen and notepad. As it turned out for Dunkirk, neither were needed. Look forward to his next film.

An examination of the 1st episode of Mad Men: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

Here are some of the sociological perspectives I got from watching the 1st episode of Mad Men: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

Discontentment

Don Draper is the top ad man at Sterling Cooper. In this episode, he needs to come up with a way to pitch a cigarette brand called Lucky Strike despite the fact that the government says that smoking causes cancer. Today, he’s meeting with the owner of Lucky Strike and if he doesn't come up with an angle around the FTCs findings, the agency will lose the account.

Don trying to figure out an angle to justify smoking is metaphor for him trying to justify maintaining a relationship and a life that he is not happy with; this is why he has a mistress which is just another dead-end relationship. At the meeting with Lucky Strike’s owner and son, Don’s pitch is not to disprove the FTCs findings that cigarettes are poisonous—all cigarettes are poisonous. What sets Lucky Strike apart from its competitors is that they are “roasted.” Just as he dances around the dangers of smoking, Don uses the temporary pleasure he gets from having a mistress to dance around the fact that he is not happy with his marriage. 

Living a double life

Greta Guttman from the agency’s Research Department enters the office and warns Don that they should police themselves to offset government regulations on their cigarette ads. Cigarettes are part of American life, she says, citing Freud’s theory that some people have a death wish. Sal quips “So we’re supposed to believe that people are living one way and secretly thinking the exact opposite? Ridiculous!”(this statement sums up the entire series as everyone is living some kind of double life starting with Don Draper who is actually a deserter named Richard Whitman who has stolen his identity off of a fellow soldier killed in action. Sal, who comes out as gay in a later episode, is pretending to be straight in a sexist, ultra-masculine culture.)

Sexism

In Mad men, women are exposed to sexism at work, in business and at home. 

• On Peggy Olsen’s 1st day at the agency, ad men make sexist remarks about her in an elevator
• The ad men place bets on who will have sex with Peggy 1st
• Don Draper walks out of a meeting with a female client for being ‘out of line’ by disagreeing with him and voicing her opinion
• Don Draper meets with a female client but assumes that the guy with her is the owner until she tells him that she’s the boss
• The doctor at the clinic asks Peggy, who’s getting a pap smear, if she’s married; warning her that “easy women” don’t get married and telling her not to become the “town pump” because his is  writing her prescription for birth control pills

Racism

There are many examples of racism in this episode. For instance, 

• The manager of a restaurant reprimands a male middle-aged waiter, who is Black, not to be too “chatty” with the customers when he sees the waiter speaking with Don Draper
• Except for Salvatore Romano who works in the agency’s Art Dept. and a young Jewish man who works in the mail room, there are no other ethnic groups represented at the agency
• Before finding a Jewish employee to represent the agency at a meeting with a potential Jewish client, Don makes a racist joke when Roger Sterling asks where they can to dig up a Jew for the meeting, asking Roger “Want me to run down to the deli and get someone?”
• Don recommends to Ms. Menken, who is Jewish, that her store offer coupons to increase business. Ms. Menken insists on raising prices to compete with her competitors who don’t offer coupons which angers Don because the coupons, on a deeper level, suggests that she, a Jew, is a 2nd class citizen and is, therefore, of lesser value than her White competitors 

Conforming to norms

Joan Holloway offers advice to Peggy Olsen, the new girl, on how she should accommodate her male superiors like keeping a bottle of Rye in her drawer for Don Draper to wearing shorter dresses to get her ankles to “sing.” Peggy is portrayed as a fish out of water. In the later episodes, her backstory reveals her as being raised by women and not exposed to the overt sexism she is exposed to at the agency. Joan is portrayed as the native who has shaped herself to survive in a world dominated by White males. As lead Secretary, her function is to teach Peggy how to conform.

Off the chain

At the striptease club, the ad men are at a table drinking and smoking and making passes at waitresses. Some girls arrive and sit with everyone except Sal. One of the girls makes a comment about the place: “It’s hot, it’s loud, and it’s filled with men!” Like alcohol, this environment frees the men of the civil restrictions imposed on them by society. (the striptease is a metaphor of the systematic liberation of the ad men’s egos, particularly, Pete’s who is about to be married and, in a sense, restricted from openly expressing himself). As the stripper on the stage peels off her clothes, Pete’s inhibitions fall away and he molests his date. Afterwards, he stops by Peggy’s apartment because, with her, he can privately express himself as Don Draper expresses his true self with his own mistress. When Peggy takes Pete into her place despite knowing that he is getting married in a few days, she is also agreeing to be a 2nd class citizen in his life as women are 2nd class citizens at Sterling Cooper.

Conclusion

Ultimately, this episode lays the groundwork for the changes that will take place in the agency but, most importantly, the changes that will impose themselves on society and the orderly world of Don Draper. The 1st seismic event marking the end of his world is Ms. Menken, the Jewish owner of the department store who embodies 2 oppressed groups challenging him and his world. Don Draper is an amalgam of the 60s, from the civil rights movement to the public’s disillusionment with the war in Vietnam.