I started to write the TV and film update on Monday 16th September 2013 just before I set off to my GP Health Practice for a cardio vascular check up having by coincidence (I am sure) just received in the post an invitation to a scan check up £40 for one and £150 for four separate scan checks. Interesting,
The weather on Sunday was awful so I did not go out to cheer on David Weir, Mo Farah and the up to 50000 others who braved blustery cool to cold and wet conditions for the Great North Run. The level of spectators which has reduced over the years was also significantly down not surprisingly. In the event the race between David Weir and his Canadian rival ended when the latter had mechanical problems and dropped out. And Mo was beaten as much by the condition as the current Olympic and World Marathon champion with the one of the great of all time also from Ethiopia also participating thus three generations of great runners were present.
I enjoyed watching the Newcastle victory at Aston Villa by 2 goals to 1 ( Ben Arfa and Gouffron scoring) so that they are now equal second on points and eight in terms of goal difference. Newcastle should consolidate with a home win against Hull at home Saturday, a game which I may have gone to see had I not decided to attend the 40 40 final at Lords on the same day. Sunderland will struggle to gain a point at West Brom on the same day. How true this was leading to the sacking of De Canio and Newcastle lost as well, Oh Dear me.
I also watched the first part of the Chicago Bears game in the NFL which I now know they won 31 30 having previously won their first game of the regular season at home 24 to 21 two tight finishers. The other team I have supported being given a shirt one Christmas is the San Francisco 49ers who won their first game 34 to 28 against the Green Bay Packers while yesterday they were trounced at Seatle 29 to 3.Not good Seatle also won their first game away 12.3 so they have started the season looking good,
Yesterday evening I spent five hours looking at the programmes on the ITV channel commencing with Prince William demonstrating his concern and commitment to wild life conservation, primarily in Africa in recorded programme from Kensington Palace in the week when he formally left his role in the military after seven years and becomes a full time Royal devoting himself to official duties, supporting causes and being a good father. Late in the evening he was attending an event where one of five nominated wild life conservationists was to receive the first award he has set with the organisation Tusk and where he was accompanied by the Duchess on her first public function since the birth of Prince George.
This was followed by the gooee Surprise Surprise where the major story ending the programme was of a boy who survived two leukaemia outbreak where his life hung in the balance before a bone marrow donor was found and where the parent and the donor were not aware of identities for the period of two years. The man had offered to help someone he knew but did not match but was a 10/10 for the boy so went ahead. The programme was designed to encourage new donors to come forward and amen to that. It is difficult to watch ed the excruciating goeeyness at times but there are some good and moving stories in what will be a ten week series. As reported yesterday, the second episode was so much better/
Following Surprise Surprise is the penultimate double audition for the X Factor where first there are studio auditions followed by presentation to the public. A sixteen year old boy from Scotland performed better before the audience and was the headline act getting TV interviews the following morning. A group of three brothers follow in Beejee footsteps and there was also a Take That type boy band of band but no female caught my eye.
It was then time for the last in the short series of Vera Northumbria Police Detective series which included a shot of South Shields beach walking and Newcastle club land stairways different levels from the key side. The story concerns a man ex police man stabbed just before he was due to meet a young woman he had picked up in a bar although why the two did not immediately leave together is nonsense although without the follow there would have been no story. The young was as nasty piece of work so no tears over his demise however the law is the law and various people all came into the frame although the young he had met was quickly ruled out.
There was a female corporate lawyer with the additional motive of wanting him to find info which would help the take over of a local brewery by an interested company. The brewery was owned by his brother in law where later in the two hour programme she admits she also had an affair with the man. He had been investigating her father and discovered that he had served in Ireland and subsequently changed his name. The father the daughter and the sister had all been to a function at Newcastle race course at the time when the murder occurred. Photos taken at the time confirm that the daughter was present throughout but the father appeared to be missing for about half an hour. Fortunately he had gone for a smoke with the manager of the course.
The brother had also made contact with his former girl friend who had since married with two children to a nasty bit of work. A record for violence he was found to have beaten up the former boyfriend when he came a calling and had also attacked his wife. However there is no evidence although charges are brought regarding the violence and the girl is provided with witness protection although it is not needed when it is found that the young man purchased a flat for them in the girl’s name in London. She now denied the husband was home and he admitted to the theft of lad from a church.
A petty thief was found to have used the credit card of the dead man and the thief admits to stealing and using the card but to murder. The man late also admits he broke into the property of man sister looking for documents he had not been paid because he not found what was required and had stolen the credit card as a consequence.
The sister and her husband lived at a farm which had been left to the sister alone because she had looked after the parents until their death while son had been doing his thing away from the area. It is then established that the girl had made or was giving over half the value of the property but why when there was no legal need to do so,
It the emerges that the brother had wanted the total value of the farm having discovered that her husband was wanted in Ireland for the murder of his own father It was also established that the sister had gone to lie down in a room for an hour claiming a headache. She admits to killing her brother and the husband is also arrested admitting to manslaughter.
I enjoyed watching again the Freshman with Marlon Brando playing his Godfather role, sitting in a corner of New York bar but this time behind a racket to serve endangered species to those willing to pay for the experience with charges from a quarter of million to half a million dollars a plate depending on the scarcity of the creature.
The Freshman is a naive to city life young man who on arrival is hoodwinked to being given a taxi lift for $10 only for the vehicle to go off with his trunk and which amazingly also included his money. He has come to the City for University Course in media studies, cinema orientated and where the professor is singularly unimpressed by the predicament of the young man an his inability to acquire the Professors book for the course.
When the young man sees and tracks down the petty villain he finds that everything worthwhile has been sold and the money used for a bet which failed. In order to make up for his crime the thief introduces him to Brando who offers him an well paid assignment to collect something from the airport and take it to an address. This turns out to be a giant lizard taken to a restaurant. The thief explains that the Brando character in the Godfather was based on the Brando lookalike in this film The young man is introduced to Brando’s daughter who immediately wants the young man and before he knows he is engaged to be married.
The university professor is mightily impressed when the girl visits the Freshman at a lecture because she announces who her father is and that her father expects her fiancée to get top grades. The Professor assures the Freshman is his best student and asks if he could meet Brando which is declined.
The girl has called to take the young man off to attend the high society final gourmet dinner of an endangered species.
Meanwhile the young man has been picked up by two federal men who explain the racket of his employer and expect the young man to cooperate. They raid the event insisting on taking the proceeds ( which they do not know is only half ) and where the young man with the agreement of Marlon Brando has advised the employers of the behaviour of the two agents who are arrested for attempted hijacking of the funds. Moreover although the creature is shown to the guest they are provided with in effect a chicken dish and the creature is made over to the local zoo as others have been in the past. It is a great con.
The reason the Feds had become involved is because his step father had heard a telephone conversation between the young man and his mother when the Komodo Dragon creature is mentioned and he had revealed the conversation to the Justice Department. The film closes with Brando offering to help the Freshman through his contacts in Hollywood. The young man declines the offer.
A very different kind of film is The Gallant Hours which was released in 1960 and which I viewed on TV in May of this year. It purports to tell the life of Fleet Admiral William Halsey and has James Cagney playing the part of the Admiral. The film centres on the battle with the sea forces of Japan around Guadalcanal during World War II. The story of those five weeks is told in flashback as part of his retirement ceremony in 1947.
There are no battle scenes with emphasis on the battle oif wits between the two men in charge of the opposing forces. The scenes involving the Japanese are not translated with only brief notes rather than sub titles of what is being said. The film pretends that the subsequent attempt to take the life of Admiral Yamamoto takes place during the period.
Halsay 1882 to 1959 was the son of a Naval Captain who entered a med school while waiting for a place at the Navy Academy where he graduated in 1904. He served in the First World War commanding one ship and gaining the Naval Cross. He became the Naval attaché in Berlin in 1922 and various other Embassies in Northern Europe and in this respect it is interesting that “hero “ in the books and Films of the Winds of War by Herman Wouk features as the Navel attaché in Berlin in the late 1930’s.
When in 1934 he was assigned to command an aircraft carrier he elected to take the full 12 week aviator course which he successfully completed at the age of 52, the oldest individual to ever do so. By 1940 he had become a Vice Admiral and in charge of the Navy’s aircraft battle fleet. He argued that the aircraft carrier had to be used as an offensive weapon and just not as sea base for planes and he ordered the command to sink any ship they encountered and knock out any plane within range. Hit hard , hit fast and hit often became the standard for entire Navy after Pearl Harbour.
At one point he needed hospital care and missed the Battle for Midway but vowed to return even more determined that before and immediately found himself appointed the Commander of South pacific areas and its forces. In 1943 he became commander of the Third Fleet with his field operations the Central Pacific. In 1944 h provided cover for the landings of General Mac Arthur. He claimed to have worked well MacArthur. He was made Fleet Admiral after being assigned to office of the Secretary of State and this enable him to make a goodwill trip in central and south America visiting 11 nations and covering 28000 miles. After retirement he said there were no great men just great challenges which ordinary men out of necessity are forced by circumstances to meet.
A third kind of film of contrast was St Georges Day 2012 in which three cousins operate London based crime gang and lose a shipment of drugs belonging to the Russian mafia. They plan a major bank raid in Berlin coinciding with the visit of the British Football tem on St Georges Day and despite the alertness of Interpol and the local police they manage to send the forces of law order on the wrong track having worked out that one their number had become informer. The film has appeal for gangsters, men fo violence and those who wish they were criminals and men of violence. Charles Dance is among a huge cast.
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