DennisMansfield.com

Valkyrie - No Nazi apologia from Tom Cruise

Critics have already begun attacking Tom Cruises' film Valkyrie as some sort of apology for Nazi behavior by the film's producers and stars.

Not so. The film is a masterpiece of raw fact and pure heroism. The cast is tremendous, the cinematography superb.

We saw the film this morning (11:00 showing) and found it to be accurate, focused on what counts, expressive about the loss of respect for Hitler in 1944 Germany and one of Tom Cruises' finest performances.

As a student of WWII, the assasination plots against Hitler have always intrigued me. More than that, the failure of Hollywood to capture any of the 15 plots always seemed to beg the question: "why not?"

Critics do not have the creative ability to build up, only to destroy. The sheer weight of the film is remarkable. An apology is needed...but by the critics.

See it, by all means....

Den

An American Carol.... Add one part "Airplane", two parts "Bill O'Reilly" and mix vigorously

Saw "An Amercian Carol" today and blushingly laughed out loud.

No kidding....it was awkwardly funny and poorly in good taste. It was like watching your worst college professor burp and pass gas at the same time....in front of every student he/she ever mocked and you get to videotape it and post it for all time on YouTube.

Was it great? No, of course not. Was it funny? Oh, my gosh...some parts of it were...well...you almost can't believe you are wartching it on the movie screen, it's that funny.

Not knowing ANYTHING about it before going in, I felt like I was about to re-experience my initial take with "Napolean Dynamite" (before it became a hit). In a weird sort of way, I suppose I did exactly that.

I think I'm going to go see it again....almost lke returning to the scene of an accident that you just passed. "Am I really seeing this?" you might think....I sure am!

For those who worship your politics (and are therefore liberal) stay away from it. You will die...not from laughter...but from a stroke caused by anger.

George W would love it.....in fact he did love it and starred in it.

Not that George W, but this one:

Kevin Farley is wonderful. Jon Voight looks like ANYTHING but his daughter's father. And George S. Patton has a certain "Fraser" quality about himself.

Lelsie Neilson puts it on the "Airplane", baby...

Go see it and don't worry about willingly suspending your disbelief.

The only disbelief you will have is that it is on the Big Screen and Bill O'Reilly is in it!!

Den

The audience decided...

A  couple months ago you may remember my dad, Dennis,  promoting a short film I was in called "The Baseball." More recently, you may remember him re-promoting it for the Idaho International Film Festival - Short Film section. Well, the results are in and posted (below) exactly as they look on the site. I was honored to work with David Lamar Wheeler and his fine crew. George Lucas started out with THX-1138. This is hardly that, but it is a start.

If you haven't seen it take a little over 9min to check it out. It's an Idaho flick. I guess its now an award winning Idaho flick. You be the judge.

Colin Mansfield

 
The Baseball on Vimeo.

 

Couric + Palin interview? How about Pacino + Deniro interview?

The Katie Couric/Sarah Palin interview grows more tiresome with every new re-view.

I mean really....stop it, please.

Couric's TV 2-shots seem always to have her grimacing (artfully, I suppose). Or the b-roll shows her body awkwardly angled away from Palin...(Kinda like: "Get me the heck out of this blind date!") Sarah Palin was "taken to the movies", but boy did that little Katie leave her eating popcorn kernels, alone....

What a mis-casting, from the get-go.

Given that, I decided to hit the movies myself and see if there were any other co-star mis-casting in a current movie that could lead me out of the blues and purge my feelings against the widow-woman, Katie. No, not really, but I found some terrific co-casting.

I found it in A Righteous Kill.....and then I found somethig even better! I found the key(s) to unlock the painful mystery of the Curic-Palin pain-fest:

Robert Deniro and Al Pacino.

What?

Yeah, listen up.....they should have been interviewed by "Katie the Knife". Cause, they're the only ones who can get away with saying the "F-word" and not make it sound like they're swearing....(keep reading for the "script")

Best of: A new type of Idaho Filmmaker....

Check this out: The Baseball
It's a beautiful brief video done by a talented young Idaho filmmaker named Brandon Freeman. It's a brief one with a timeless message about the value of living, every day.

Of interest is the young man in this upcoming film festival entry (in the photograph) - his name is Colin Mansfield.( I suggested a balding, middle-aged fat white guy...but you know those creative types...) I've had more comments on this wonderfully fresh brief film.

Watch it and let me know what you think.

Den

In between Michael Phelps' 7th and 8th Gold Medal: Henry Poole is Here.

Two pool(e)s  - two continents apart - same result: faith, hope and big time reward.

Thanks to all who visited the blog yesterday from all over the world. Great to have you join us.

In between Michael Phelps' Utterly Amazing 7th Gold Medal and the Probably Never to be Repeated 8th Gold Medal, we took a MUCH NEEDED rest by heading to the flicks to catch a film.

In honor of swimming, water and "story", we chose Henry Poole is Here. I had NEVER heard anything about the film. I walked in the waters....and they were quirky and they were not shallow.

What an amazing story....of faith, wrapped around a blanket of hope, resulting in a big-time reward. Luke Wilson's work was tremendous - just as inspiring as Michael Phelps' victory for all of us.

When Phelps gained his 8th Gold Medal, in his own quirky way he himself said he was "speechless". We all were.

The film, Henry Poole is Here, left me speechless. In an intimate, quiet and powerful way the film equalled my sense of "should I be watching this ?"  - as I felt when we all saw Michael Phelps wade up into the stands after his 8th medal to kiss his Mom and sisters....wow, what a deep and sensitive feeling - in the Cinema and at the Cube.

Am I crazy connecting two odd and separate ends of "stories"?

Nope, not at all.

Michael Phelps and Luke Wilson delivered performances that will enoble and encourage many, many people. I am one of them.

Jump into the "Poole". The water's fine!

Den

Confessions of a Mama Mia Watcher

It was the best of times...it was the best of times.

Yep, no worst of times this weekend.

After reading the FireBird Raceway posting, you must now strap on your glitter shoes to relate...

I went to the movies on Friday and saw Mama Mia with my bride....

And laughed out loud too many times. I should have been ushered out of the theater, but my sweet bride's common sense balanced out my guffawing: Regal Managment passed...

I simply loved the flick...ABBA music and all. I found myslef singing and loving the characters.

Went out afterwards and bought myself a blue sparkly jump suit, platform stilleto concert shoes (yep, they made me 8 feet tall) and started singing just like Pierce Brosnan....(eeech...), OK, like ABBA.

The film was fun.

Den

Capturing Beautiful Idaho....Cameron Ventura, filmmaker

I appreciate Idaho's beauty.

I appreciate even more when I see AMAZING work by creative folks in this state.

Cameron Ventura is just such a talent - director, producer, filmmaker.

Take a mini Idaho "stay-cation" and watch his brief piece. No commentary. The images say it all.

Den

What does "it" matter? - 50,000 page views later

Get this, on September 2nd of 2006 we launched this blog with the following text:

What is "it"? There have been a lot of "its" in the past and many quotes like "it's the economy stupid" and many others. For this website the "it" for now is an attempt in fusing politics, culture, business, personality, religion, you and me.

No longer will there be a perceived hidden agenda - you'll get the straight scoop right here. There has never been a hidden agenda in my life; I like to lay myself right out there. Along with some friends there is a plan to bring many thoughts and plans to help businesses succeed, to help people reach their true potential and see a fusion of different perspectives become a stronger entity.

You'll see video, documents to download, links to other sites and people that speak into this dream - hang on & hope you like "it"!

Well....it's been 23 months since that first post (and 50,000 pageviews later as well - we hit that today.)


I'm sure that's not a big deal for some folks, but on this blog, it's fun to see us tip the scales at 50,000. ( I think that's more than the total number of election votes I've ever received - tee hee)


We've had a bunch of posts and we'll have a bunch more....

Keep hangin' on...and thanks for joining us, lo these many , many days/weeks/months and now years.

Den

 PS: Let me know which ones may have been "favorites", ok?
I just may sprinkle this month of August with a few "Best Of's"

Jesus as The Batman? C'mon...religious boy, what are you THINKING?

In this nano-second world of beyond-real-time, July 19th is ancient and the newest Batman is OLD news, I know. But bear with me for just a second.

Saw The Dark Knight the day after it came out. Waited on my son, who was returning from Guatemala. Enjoyed the film. It's in the top five category for me.

Saw it again tonight ( I loved contributing to the film's immense treasury...)

Tonight, though, gave me a chance to screen the film through some different lenses: the ancient story lense, the parable story lense, the successful Hollywood story lense...and then the Jesus story lense. Say what? Yeah, yeah, just listen up for a tiny bit before dismissing the thought...

I could lay out what I saw, this second time around, but here's a clearer presentation that Christopher Lyon at PlanetWisdom posted:

"We could spend way too many words talking about all the worldview issues skimmed and explored in "Dark Knight." Nolan and co. intend to provoke viewers to wrestle with big ideas during and after this film. We'll tackle a couple of them.

The Joker is often identified as a terrorist, a madman and, eventually, almost a kind of devil. His only identifiable objective is to bring confusion, destruction, and fear. In short, he is evil. And I like that Nolan's story takes that evil seriously enough to keep it from being a joke or containing a spark of nobility.

As with all irrational evil, the Joker serves as a test of the goodness of "good men." Harvey Dent's heroic goodness, when tested by evil, snaps. He becomes consumed with bitterness and enraged with the unfairness of it all. He commits himself to fate. "In a cruel world, the only morality is chance," he says before flipping his coin to decide whether or not to kill his victims.