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Thursday, January 1, 2015




Unbroken: The Movie that transformed Actress Angelina Jolie into a Full Fledge Director.
  Once again I am entering the bantam weight ring of film criticism,  awaiting your collective derision, mixed in with some hosannas. I found the 2 hour plus film quite long and somewhat tedious. The story involves an American Olympic runner, Louis Zamperini, who becomes a bombardier during WWII and is tortured in different Japanese prison camps until he and others are liberated by Allied forces. Usually a film like this would have been cut down by half of the amount with sharper editing and more tension points.

However, having said all that, I am still impressed that Angelina Jolie was able to undertake such a huge enterprise wherein combat action, personal reflection are interspersed with scenes of horrific Japanese torture by one, historical well-known Japanese War Criminal: Watanabe-The Bird.  A significant portion of the latter part of the film depicts in graphic detail the horrendous tortures that Louie had to endure under the sadistic, homosexual Watanabe. What is exceedingly important about these scenes is that fact that many Americans were not aware that our soldiers, along with their counterparts in their respective armies-- British, Canadian, New Zealanders, Aussies, Dutch, Chinese, Russian—were all subjected to war crimes committed knowingly and intentionally by the Japanese Military under the direct command of Tojo who received orders from Emperor Hirohito.

Emperor Hirohito, like many of our own leaders, should have been subject to the International War Crimes Tribunal.  However, thanks to the intervention of General Douglas MacArthur and Alfred Sloan [General Motors], Hirohito and various senior Japanese war criminals were never prosecuted for the atrocities they had committed during WWII. Clearly, I know about our saturation bombing of 60% of Japan and the eventual dropping of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki; however, those actions did not mitigate in any way the Japanese refusal to admit the atrocities that they had committed in the Rape of Nanjing and the Bataan Death March; along with the relentless biological [bubonic, anthrax] attacks against innocent Chinese in Manchuria and Russians. 
The film has appropriated a Christian narrative towards the end of the scene where Louie holds up a wooden beam in homage to the image of Christ. However, the movie really does not address the personal and national consequences of such barbaric activities committed by the Japanese High Military and Senior Political officials.
Why do I harp back again to this bete-noire?

When I wrote Blood Heat, some thirty years ago as a fictional account of the torture of our prisoners of war during the Japanese Occupation of South East Asia, my Japanese publishers who had included the editor of the infamous Mishima, the Japanese writer who committed Hara-Kari, refused to allow the book into Japan.  The Japanese also banned me from coming to do a book tour. In turn, the Brits, Aussies and Dutch took my book around Asia and allowed everyone from the Vietnamese to the Chinese read about some of the atrocities that Emperor Hirohito had personally ordered against the ‘gaijin’—foreigners.
Now,  Angelina Jolie has addressed a new generation of Japanese youth with a truthful, restrained portrayal of those atrocities. I commend her and her team, including Clayton Townsend [producer] as well as the actors who had to re-enact the barbarism of Japan that has been edited out of the official history of Japan. Unlike Germany, Japan has refused to confront their own history and their collective inhumane brutality under Hirohito.  Thank you Universal Pictures for keeping this picture in development for fifty years. Thank you Angelina Jolie for once again, taking on a brave subject about the horrors of wars.

To Ms Jolie: Your first film, The Land of Blood and Honey, brilliantly depicting the Balkan Wars was the first hint of a prodigious directorial talent which feared nothing---not a contemptible subject matter rife with death, torture and sadism.  Nor were you afraid to undertake a production that would have daunted even the best of our directors in terms of complexity of shots and subject matters. May you find satisfaction in your remarkable achievement.  Hollywood may be jealous of a woman of your beauty and eccentricity [real or not] and might deny you a deserved reward. So keep on directing….


35 comments:

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    2. I hope she sees this review. I just love her. I go see it soon with my older Boomer Italian friend who had never seen Fight Club. Angie makes us Gen X'er women proud. I want her to direct my movie.

      http://www.vanityfair.com/vf-hollywood/2014/12/angelina-jolie-remembers-louie-zamperini-watching-unbroken

      Zamperini’s two children, Luke Zamperini and Cynthia Garris, say their father was smitten by Jolie.“It was a very close and very affectionate relationship built on so much admiration and respect,” Luke says. He adds that Jolie’s husband, Brad Pitt, was also a fan. “When Brad was shooting ‘Fury,’ he was so excited to tell Louis he could drive a tank,” Luke laughs. Adds Garris, “The night our father passed away, she and Brad came to our home and took such beautiful care of us. They cried with us, they held us, they made a soft place for us to fall. At one point I told her, ‘My father was really in love with you.’ And she said, ‘I was in love with him!’”

      Though critics and audiences will soon pass judgement on “Unbroken,” Jolie has already received a rave review from the one person who matters. The day before Zamperini went into ICU for the last time, Jolie brought her computer to the hospital, climbed onto his bed and screened a rough cut of the film. “We were able to show him his life just in time to let him see all that he had accomplished and reflect on all the people he’s loved and was about to reunite with in heaven.”Jolie begins to tear up again. “It’s not about ego, he didn’t want to be famous. He wanted to make sure his message was clear. It’s why he did speaking engagements, it’s why he did his book. It’s why he tried to get a movie made for 57 years. Everybody who reads this book and knows his life feels very connected to this man.”

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    3. Dr. P - you're a good man and teacher. I enjoy learning through your writings and interviews. Thank you for never buckling to the weight of those who wish to transform our great Republic.

      I wish you and yours great health, excellent prosperity, and the blessings of peace for 2015.

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  2. It's difficult for me not to speculate that Jolie's facination with explicit, prolonged torture on-screen might reflect her own goolish pathologies. She is an unrepentant "cutter" who advocates for young girls to explore the excitment and exhileration of "cutting myself" as she so fondly says of her slicing and blood-letting of own flesh.

    When she was dating the weirdo and creep Billy Bob Thornton they used to wear mutual viles of each others' blood on necklesses.....woah how romantic!

    As a teen Angelina was a "goth" who was uncomfortable unless she was wearing funeral garb and make-up so she would be perceived by others as a vampire or worse....

    And of course when a year or so ago she was told by her medical doctors that she was at a somewhat higher risk for contracting breast cancer what was her delightful answer......?

    CUT THEM OFF !! SLICE AND DICE ME NOW !! LOP OFF THOSE BREASTS TODAY.....YES I LOVE IT !!

    Like so many really sick and pathologically evil people Angelina loves to be seen doing good works. She likes to go to shitty countries and root out orphans with no chance for anything and bring them to her Hollywood mansion to share her lavish life of opulance and....well, emaciation....I think she's clearly anorexic as well.

    Pathological nutballs like Angelina are always the ones seeking the spotlight advocating for UNICEF or aid and charity for the masses of poor in Africa or wherever. It's a well-understood diversion and compensation "mechanism."

    Funny how she never is cast as a sweet person too? She's always the violent type, the scarry sick type, etc.... She likes to think of herself as one who likes to be in control.

    So a torture film with a "veneer" of morality is just what I would expect from this sick bitch. The managers at Sony were so right when their emails recently hacked revealed their consideration of her as "marginally talented" and a "spoiled bitch."

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    1. "Like so many really sick and pathologically evil people Angelina loves to be seen doing good works."

      Angele Jolie is a creepy hybristophiliac.
      You would not want to be near her.
      Why subject yourself to her directed predilections?

      Reminds me of, Vlad the Impaler,
      who mellowed out, at the end of his life.




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  3. As for the Japanese torturing prisoners and others I think that's pretty clear and no surprise to anyone.

    My own window into the Emperor had to do with the tasks he gave other members of his royal family when it came to the looting and plunder of Asia......

    In over twenty countries the Japanese plundered not only gold reserves from banks, but they plundered colossal gold treasures such as relecs, Buhdas, and personal gold collections from the wealthy.

    Asia held far more gold than Europe ever did, and the tasks of collecting all this gold was given only to the cousins of the Emperor because it was he who was the new owner of the plunder!

    Hirohito was a greedy little asshole, and he wanted all the gold of Asia to be his personal booty.

    Now as for what happened to the gold....well....unlike Europe where all the gold taken by Germans was returned or otherwise accounted for.....

    IN ASIA NOT A SINGLE OUNCE OF GOLD WAS RETURNED TO ANYONE.....NOT A SINGLE OUNCE.

    Now don't you think that's a little strange given that the opposite happened in Europe?

    Where did all this gold go?

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    1. To; MITmichael
      Re;"Where did all this gold go?"

      "Ben Fulford - 911 Cantor Fitzgerald and Gold - YouTube"
      Likely controlled by the City of London, some to be brought out of hiding, when necessary, to wage war against those why try to be independent of Global Governance.

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  4. Well boys and girls I'm going to reveal that what happened to the plundered gold was a long-term assignment of myself by private clients and I will say two things about it as I'm rather an expert on the topic.

    1.There's an attorney in LA named DAN CATHCART who is knowledgable about this matter and anyone who wishes information regarding the plunder and so forth might contact him. He's the best source and there's a lot of phony information and scams surrounding this issue.

    And secondly...

    It's true that a huge amount of the gold was collected by the Marcos family over the years as Ferdinand Marcos obtained some of the plunder which couldn't safely be moved to Japan.

    Most of that gold was in Swiss banks until 2005 when a program by the National Security Council under George W. Bush moved the gold elsewhere....though I don't know what it was used for....

    I only know none of it was repatriated to the Phillipines or anywhere else. Those in the loop where Andy Card, Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld.

    In order to execute the plan a new Secretary of the Treasury was brought in, and that's one reason why the first Secretary O'Neil was kicked out. The new one from the railroad company was more compliant.

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    1. MIT Mike - I'm entertained by your accounts of company matters where you obviously have some historical perspectives to recant. It gets a little hairy at times, but your character is never expected to hold back, therefore please never do. You seem passed the point of caring what anybody thinks, and while that may be a dangerous place for someone with your pedigree, I admire your IDGAF attitude when spilling the beans.

      On the movie and Angelina I may have some perspective to share. As you've so eloquently pointed out, it is a known fact that the power elite will often perform public displays of goodness to mask the darkness which purveyes their souls. I don't think this is the case today with Angelina. It may have been in her past, but a man like Zamperini would have smelled that darkness on her a mile away. He had surrendered himself to the light a long time ago, and thus was under executive protection.

      I assume from your writings that you believe in God and also know there is the other. Interpretations vary, but we can agree good and evil spirits abound. One of the amazing things that happen to pagan oriented people is they grow older and start to see the end. Some who danced on the fence will indeed repent early and work hard to repair the damage so to speak. Others go hell bent to the end.

      I've heard it said that a man can spend his whole life sinning against his fellow man (and God) and repent at the end of his life and be saved from infinite torment in hell. If you believe in the hereafter and eternal judgement that is a dangerous game to play. I don't think anybody will outsmart God. Those you mentioned as Satan worshippers play God, therefore after this short life, they will undoubtedly become eternal toast.

      As for the rest of us lower level people not living in the capstone with the all seeing eye bunch (Angelina included), we still have a choice. Why do you think the execs were trashing her? It's obvious that like her father, she's growing up and not playing their game. Their game is the same game your black robe bunch plays - dominate the hearts and minds of John Q Public with fear, filth, hatred, contempt, disdain for one another and corruption beyond any level imaginable.

      On the 'missing' gold... funny thing about gold, it never really goes missing does it? Given that US forces reoccupied all territory conquered by Japan, it's no stretch to conclude the gold found its way to North America. Most of what was looted by Japan was taken from the same bloodlines which controlled Asia for much of the last millenia.

      Here's an idea: Hey China (aka Dragon), you know all that gold we took across the Pacific for 'safe keeping'? How about we open up trade between our two countries and you can hold the paper value of it in our debt? Don't worry, our citizens will invent more shit for your to manufacture and they'll be too busy spending their own paper we give em to even notice that were making them pay for your missing gold.

      Brilliant plan ain't it? It's what I'd do if I sold my soul to Satan.

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    2. A very thoughtful post roger dat!

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    3. I think the myths and legends of God in the Judeo-Christian tradition are an apt metaphor for the simple truth of each being on this planet.

      The simple truth is that the variation between individuals here is so wide...so huge...that it's as though they belonged to different species.

      Human beings are not that complex, but they are fundamentally different from each other, and their ranges of characteristics are emense.

      But put simply I've concluded that most humans are very venal and possessed of very primitive natures. Very few humans possess any real kind of refinement.

      People used to ask me about "the causes of war" because it appears that the "best and the brightest" are not able to keep wars from happening....

      If you study them and know them you know they are not the "best and brightest" of anything...

      All governments and corporations and churches and human groups and institutions are filled with DUMBASSES.

      A dumbass is someone who has no evidence for their opinions though they sell them and hold them with great zeal...and when their ideas fail completely showing there assumptions were all wrong then they never admit it.....

      They're just stupid.

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    4. On a personal note....

      I lived for many years in physical danger and I was really afraid all the time, and then I started doing stupid things to seek to "innoculate" myself of this....and was taking really stupid chances taking on dangerous assignments...

      But after so many years what happened is that I for whatever reason came to believe that nothing was going to happen. I feel now the same way Castro always felt when he said, "No one can kill me." Hitler felt the same way. I don't know how to explain it. It's just there. You know nothing will happen.

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    5. On the "DUMBASSES..."

      Very few humans have minds which are able to perceive reality. That's the heart of it. The vast majority of humans have minds that are so cut off from the ability to perceive anything that's real....

      It's limitations in their minds, although they might be able to solve math problems, or like to mess around with puzzels or music...

      Just because someone's mind is going at a manic pace and their brain can access all kinds of connections of things they've witnessed doesn't mean they are able to rise above their emotions ruling their opinions.

      The vast majority of people have no empathy for anyone, and their emotions rule their opinions and they are not even aware of their limitations.

      There's a new article about the "Body Mind Problem" or "Why the Mind is not located only inisde the Brain" by a scholar named Schwartz....can't remember his first name.

      Some people can be hypnotized and others cannot...some people can remember things with total accuracy while others only think they are remembering and are really making up fantasies....

      Psychology is in a dark age because they think all people have similar minds when they don't.....



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    6. The ability to perceive reality is totally subjective, and so are the falloucies which bedevil lesser men.

      Only the individual knows the difference, and when you see the fruits of what they're doing you wonder how they pull that rabbit out of the hat.

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    7. Stalin was always paranoid and believed that someone would succeed in assassinating him...

      And someone did.

      Castro and Hitler knew no one would succeed in killing them...and no one did.

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    8. Most people know the future, and that's why they have the beliefs they have about themselves and their fate...although they're not aware of why...

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    9. That kind of most fundamental self-awareness, the clairvoyance of knowing what will happen to the self, is so fundamental and unescapable that even stupid ordinary people have at least that much ability to perceive reality.

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    10. You boys were rough oh Angelina. I think for the era and locale she was born into she has done well to own her past errors and try to do something positive in this earth. The link I posted shows her and Mr. Zamperini together and he loved her and she him. That photo speaks that. Powerful image. It ain't easy being as beautiful as she is. I had a friend in Texas who couldn't run errands without being propositioned by men or stared down in visceral hatred by bitch women. I would accompany her some days as the problems were decreased when she had another with her.

      And MIT, you ain't no Atticus Finch yourself now.

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    11. What past errors did she "own?" She's the only woman I've ever seen anywhere who admits to enjoying slicing herself with razors.

      And the "locale she was born into" was the most lavish and priviledged in America.

      She's just a spoiled Hollywood sick bitch like most of the idiot kids of rich people.

      Oh it's so aweful being beautiful??

      WTF?

      Oh is that why girls spend all their time seeking to be beautiful and worry about not being beautiful?

      Society dictates that only looks matter when it comes to women, and it's the women themselves who propell that.

      As for Angelina she's so boney and anorexic I wouldn't touch her.

      Like all the female stars in Hollywood none of them can hold a candle to any of the girls in porn in porn valley.

      All these "actresses" if that's what they are, would not even be able to get a job having sex on camera or posing for FTV girls on the internet.

      These "actresses" are a joke.

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    13. Alana Davis 
      32 Flavors

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEfbL53jhN4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

      "God help you if you are an ugly girl
      Or if too pretty is also your doom..."

      The children of the families I attended church with in DFW, I referred to this church in a recent blog post, these children were born and raised in the most privileged place and are now thriving as adults. Most of their fathers were moral and not serial philanderers in LA like Angelina was born into.

      Zamperini clearly loved and respected her. I respect that.





      Ani Difranco
      32 Flavors
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEfbL53jhN4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

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    14. Calm down. I didn't refer to HP being the best spot, but the one we were at for over a decade out in the burbs.

      Things in Big D were very sketchy and we regretted relocating there.

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  5. Long ago and oh so far away...

    I fell in love with you, before the second show....

    Your guitar; it was really clear...

    But you're not really here...

    It's just the radio....

    Loneliness is such a sad affair,

    And I can hardley wait to be with you again...

    What to say..to make you come again...

    Come back to me again...

    And play your sad guitar.

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  6. "Japanese refusal to admit the atrocities that they had committed"

    Peddling collective guilt is a psychological operation.
    Individuals were caught in geopolitical plots.

    Historical Japanese policy is well known, so is the constriction
    of Germany and the Japanese Empire, before WW II.
    Anglo-American-Israeli Empire atrocities, are not emphasized

    Similar is happening to Russia and those who
    do not worship City of London controlled currencies.

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  7. Looks a good film so until I've watched it I can't comment but what got me thinking was the stories I heard from old soldiers or rather the lack of stories!! About the torture and abuse they suffered off the Japanese and I think the very fact they spoke so little actually spoke volumes! Today's portraits of soldiers seem very different and MIT has nailed that so many times on this board and I'd tend to agree with him! I'm not a great fan of Miss Jolie and I'm not against her either so I'll await viewing with trepidation but for me the greatest film was Tora! Tora!Tora! Loved how it shown both perspectives which is a rare occurrence! Happy new year to everybody and all the very best

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    1. In early 30s some strange group of not so much human genetics invested in to Japanese aircraft carriers production for them to become 1st naval power of world before war, that was so strange because it was huge money, and it was so strange, because that group specifically had to be targeted by two nukes later on in war to be burned properly. Luckily Jews invested heavily in to Manhattan project.

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  8. I think the behaviour of the Japanese as described in this film and that of Unit 731 is the result of militaristic schooling/brainwashing and belief in divinity of the Emperor and that other races were inferior, so fit to rape, torture and experiment on. Few people realise that teaching of Japanese Martial traditions in the West with a central figure bellowing commands and students responding in unison are not about combat effectiveness, but rather blind robotic obedience. That required for 'good' unquestioning soldiers. I do not believe any of it was 'personal' as they were pretty cruel to each other, even in the modern setting they had a Gameshow called Endurance, which would have passed as fringe torture in many countries, and they did that for fun! I guess they had no War crimes trials as their Chemical and Bio WMD research would have been useful to the US. In fact I believe it was the US very generously rebuilding them after the War and instigating TQM into their factories which helped build them into a financial powerhouse.

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    1. Great points bill and with Japan being one of the most homogeneous countries in the world probably has a lot to do with it as well

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  9. Hollywood distortions, for psychological operation purposes.
    So was The Interview, in addition to Gay booger and dick jokes.

    Abu Ghraib is not glorified, as testimony to American
    greatness. Neither are all Americans responsible.

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  10. I saw the movie. The movie mostly covered lost at sea for over 45 days and prisoner of war in a Japanese prison camp; and the said Japanese prison camp was being run by a fanatic.

    The book is far more complex and covers all the major issues, such as, being a drunk after the war (W.W. II) and the eventual redemption. Of course, this is Angelina Jolie first time as a film director.

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    1. Did you sneak into the theater, and where did you leave your shopping cart? At least I hope you brought your plastic bag with you.

      I know I always do.

      =o)

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    2. The shopping cart is stored somewhere. As for the plastic bag, I brought into the theater.

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  11. Patriarch you really ought to get your life story down (if you have not already) for your descendents sake and for interested and lucky folk who did not have to fight that war, as we wern't born, but enjoy the freedoms you fought for. All of the 'modern' Japanese folk I have met have been very pleasant, but I know their forefathers were monsters. I hope the War bastards did not give you too many nightmares.

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    1. Done.
      The Jewish War Veterans has my manifesto.
      The Amercan Legion made a video interview, years back.
      The Witness to War foundation also made a video interview at my home last year.

      I made 12 hours of tape of my life for my progeny &

      For many years have added to our Family Tree dating back to the early 1700's in Vilna, Russia, in a tiny village at the time ("Fiddler on the Roof").

      Kudos to Dragon & iPad dictation!

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