Saturday afternoon at the Movies and a not-so brief commentary

My internet friends CJ and Kathy are part of this meme where you post your all time favorite films.   I'm not sure I have more than about FOUR favorite films, but I have films I have seen that I can share.  However, unlike CJ, who says there is no need to explain why you like the film, I prefer the way my internet friend Birgit reviews films (often hilarious, occasionally irreverent).  Her synopses are not to be missed.

As I've explained the other times I've shared a film, one thing you should know about is my choice of films.  You won't find any "chick flicks" here and any romance is simply a side effect of the major overall film.

However, today, before we get to the film, I have a commentary I want to share.  There is nothing subtle about this, and there are definite political overtones.  Sadly, it's due to the times in which we live.  If I've struck a nerve, I apologize.

Last week FLOTUS (First Lady of the United States) Melania Trump went on a three state tour,  unveiling her "Be Best" campaign which addressed social media and the opioid crisis.   Sadly, her campaign comes a bit late, because the mid-term elections have already come and gone.  Granted, she did get ill right before she was to unveil her program last year.  Add to that the government shutdown, and she finally had her say, both answering questions to small children and blaming the media for offering "fake news."  In Las Vegas, she took time to chide the news media for dedicating time to other coverage besides the opioid crisis:

I challenge the press to devote as much time to the lives lost and the potential lives that could be saved, by dedicating the same amount of coverage that you do to idle gossip or trivial stories.

This is a woman who wore stilettos when planning to tour the hurricane relief zone two years ago in Texas.

Images found on the internet

I fear it shows how disconnected she is with the real world in which she lives.

According to the New York Times, FLOTUS:

said she would focus her official effort as first lady on teaching children to put kindness first in their lives, particularly on social media. 

Not too long after Reagan became president, his wife Nancy brought out her "Just say no" campaign to saturate our drug addled minds with ideas we could easily give up drugs, especially the new (at that time) drug crack and alcohol by saying yes to life and no to crack and alcohol.

Image from Wikipedia

According to Wikipedia, reading and literacy were Barbara Bush's causes:

Family literacy was Barbara Bush's cause as First Lady, and she called it "the most important issue we have".

Further:

Eventually, she helped develop the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy.

Image from Wikipedia

I looked long and hard to find Hilary's causes.  I finally discovered she was into health care and pushing health care reform.

Image from Wikipedia.com

Laura Bush's first cause was literacy, since she had been a teacher, then a librarian after she received a Master's in Library Science.  After 9/11, she became involved in helping Afghanistan women who were brutalized by the Taliban.

Image from Townhall.com

Michelle Obama's cause was childhood hunger, obesity, and poor diets.  She championed the "Let's Move" movement.

Now that we've seen some recent FLOTUSes, let's check out this week's movie.

This week, I am honoring All the President's Men.  It is the story of the Watergate incident that eventually took down President Nixon. 

Both Woodward and Bernstein were local news desk reporters at The Washington Post.  They covered the break-in at the Democratic National Headquarters in one of the Watergate buildings, which was minor news at the time.  When the story reached national attention, Woodward and Bernstein refused to turn it over to the national news desk.  Executive editor Ben Bradlee insisted on collaboration of at least two sources before anything would or could be printed in the paper.

It was as authentic as possible, right down to trash provided by real Washington Post staffers and copies of old telephone books, with the exception of one comment uttered by Deep Throat: "follow the money."  That line never appeared in the original book and it apparently was never uttered by Deep Throat.

The film was released in 1976, and I saw it on TV several years ago.  Roger Ebert gave it a very thorough review, which included his belief that it was a great story about real reporters reporting real incidents, but was boring in the fact it was all about facts, dates, etc.  Robert Redford bought the rights to the book and helped turn it into the award winning film that was nominated for eight Academy Awards which won for Best Sound, Best Art Direction, Best Adapted Screenplay (for William Goldman's screenplay), and Best Supporting Actor (for Jason Robards' performance as Bradlee).

There are a TON of free places you can see it on the net, and if you have an Amazon Prime account, you can see it there, too.

One of the questions probed by various reviewers of the film asked if it could happen again.   Given our current climate in the States, I want to offer my opinion.  First, from everything I've read, Nixon was devious, cunning, and deceptive right up to the very end.  BUT, he was only a player on the NATIONAL stage.  This was a U.S. incident and had no INTERNATIONAL ramifications, like we could be faced with today.

If you lasted this long, I thank you for sticking around.  I promise to not share so much commentary next Saturday afternoon at the movies.