On June 6 in 1944, during World War II, around 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces crossed the English Channel and landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of Normandy, France. The deadly fight of D-Day thus began the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi dominance. By late August of that year, northern France would be liberated and the Allies would defeat the Germans the following spring.
One of the most famous depictions of D-Day occurred in Saving Private Ryan (1998), when the movie opened as the Allies arrive and land on Omaha Beach. The movie tries to capture the horrific and deadly chaos that the soldiers experienced as they made the historic landing.
Recently, CBS Sunday Morning featured a story about the Normandy invasion and some of its dark sides. The piece discusses the destruction of France and, as in almost any endeavor involving a large number of people, notes that some of the soldiers did not act honorably. [2016 Update: Unfortunately, the video is no longer available.]
Of course, the bad acts do not diminish the importance of the victory over the Nazis or the heroism of many others, but we should remember all aspects of the story to understand history. As Rick Atkinson, author of The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945, notes near the end of the video, “war really flays open the soul.”
Many brave souls rose to the occasion after being thrust in a dangerous situation, but some later showed they were not perfect. So on this anniversary of D-Day, we celebrate the victories but also remember the many types of losses that are inevitable when humans go to war.
What will you do to remember D-Day? Leave your two cents in the comments.
In an upcoming short film, Continuum, Planetery Collective interviews former astronauts who reflect on their unique experiences traveling to space and returning to earth. Check out this overview of the film.
What do you think of the video? Leave your two cents in the comments.
If you grew up in the 1970s, you could not have missed singer-songwriter-actor-showman Paul Williams. He was everywhere. Williams wrote songs like “We’ve Only Just Begun,” the Oscar-winning “Evergreen” (co-written with Barbra Streisand), the theme to Love Boat, and the Muppet classic “Rainbow Connection.” He also wrote one of the first 45 rpm singles I bought as a kid, Three Dog Night’s “Just an Old Fashioned Love Song.” He appeared in movies like Smokey and The Bandit (1977) and Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973).
Additionally, Paul Williams was a regular on Johnny Carson’s late night show and appeared on many other TV shows like The Muppets. And, just as suddenly as he came into our lives and dominated TV, movies, and radio, he disappeared.
Director Stephen Kessler was a big fan of Williams as a child, and like many of us decades later, wondered what had happened to Williams and assumed he was dead. So he tracked down the singer, who was still touring in small venues, and began a documentary, Paul Williams Still Alive (2011).
The movie is not a straight-up documentary about the career of Paul Williams, as Kessler ends up being a part of the story of the film. Surprisingly for someone who was everywhere in popular culture at one time, Williams does not seem to embrace being in what is in some ways a modern reality show, with cameras following him every place he goes.
Williams is also somewhat resistant to analyzing his own life in front of the camera, putting off Kessler’s attempts to get Williams to discuss his feelings about how drugs affected his career. So we have lots of shots of Williams being slightly annoyed at the camera and Kessler’s digging.
Instead of deep introspection from Willimas, Kessler shows his own feelings about traveling with Williams in the Philippines (Kessler is scared, while Williams seems to soldier through every adversity). And Kessler tries to provoke a response from Williams by getting him to watch a talk show where Williams was obviously high.
How much you enjoy the film may depend on how you appreciate the focus on the director-subject relationship. It makes the movie a little less traditional and might engage some viewers more than a straight-up documentary. I appreciated the other part of the film that told us more about Paul Williams, his career, and his current life. But I must admit that it was the combination of the two film styles that told me other things about Paul Williams, such as the way he still perseveres and his refreshing desire to avoid revealing everything about himself.
While Williams rejects the opportunity for self-analysis, you still get to see what happened to one of the big icons of the 1970s and learn a little about the man indirectly. If you ever wondered what happened to Paul Williams, Paul Williams Still Alive is worth your time.
Other Reviews Because Why Should You Trust Me?Rotten Tomatoes reveals that critics liked Paul Williams Still Alive more than general audience members, giving the film a 97% critics rating and a 79% audience rating. Donald Liebenson at the Chicago Sun-Timesfound the movie interesting but was annoyed by the way the director inserted himself into the story. Meanwhile, Sodajerker has an audio interview with Paul Williams where Williams discusses his career and the documentary.
On a recent episode of Parks & Recreation, Patton Oswalt described his funny vision for the next Star Wars film as Amy Poehler listened. A creative person named Isaac Moores, who goes by Izac Less on YouTube, rose to the occasion and made a video illustrating Oswalt’s description of Star Wars VII, which adds some characters such as Iron Man Tony Stark. Check it out.
What is your favorite part of Patton Oswalt’s vision? Leave your two cents in the comments.
One of my favorite movies of all time is Hoosiers (1986), so I really liked this Hoosiers Revisited video by Michael Watson that tracks down the location of many scenes from the movie to show what the locales look like today. The video does a cool job of blending movie scenes with the new shots. And every time I hear the theme music by Jerry Goldsmith it makes me want to run home and put in my Hoosiers DVD.
Hoosiers, which starred Gene Hackman and was directed by David Anspaugh, is set in the fictional town of Hickory, Indiana. While the story is based on the Milan High School basketball team that won the 1954 state championship, the filmmakers used the town of New Richmond, Indiana for many of the scenes in the movie. But some of the scenes are from other towns, such as the white barn at the beginning of the film, which is in Sheridan, Indiana.
If you want to test how much you know about Hoosiers, check out our Hoosiers trivia quiz.
What is your favorite scene in Hoosiers? Leave your two cents in the comments.
