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Life imitates literature: "Star Trek" Ultimate Computer (1968) Kirk tests M5, AI system which backfires

CDR Wesley : Have you heard of the M-5 multitronic unit? Mr. Spock : The most ambitious computer complex ever created. Its purpose is to correlate all computer activity aboard a starship, to provide the ultimate in vessel operation and control.

STAR TREK was addressing automation. Artificial Intelligence was over the horizon when Dr Draystom boarded the enterprise to put his computor in charge. The computor malfunctioning takes out a freighter then takes on another starship. A fleet is sent to take down the Enterprise.

Will Kirk wrest control of the ship away from this machine which is seemingly invincible? How can human control be reasserted?

There are shades of the angst of the Uboat commander's lament in THE ENEMY BENEATH: They've taken MAN out of war.

In this episode, Mr Spock delivers the last word: Mr. Spock: P... Computers make excellent and efficient servants; but I have no wish to serve under them. ...

That was 1968 and now in Mata v. Avianca, Inc. 22-cv-1461 (PKC) (S. D. N. Y. Jun. 22, 2023) a malfunctioning computor delivered a fake brief with made-up precedents.

Jeffry Hunter starred in this intended pilot for Star Trek. While in command of The Enterprise he was kidnapped and held for mating with Vina (Susan Oliver) on a planet of incredibly brainy humanoids who are so smart they can't figure out how to be fruitful and multiply.

Rescue efforts by Science Officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and The First Officer called Number One (Majel Barrett) fail.

There is a twist in the ending. Does CPT Pike outsmart his brainy captors or do they realize humans don't take to captivity, even a pleasant one.

This is one of those could - have beens. THE CAGE was far superior to THE MAN TRAP selected as the pilot to be released which was a space farce on the level with GALAXY QUEST.

Only a couple of other episodes like Charle X. Miri, What Little Girls Are Made From, Balance of Terror, City on the Edge of Forever come close enough to rank with the CAGE.

What civilization under stress does not find solace in an earlier time. The success of HAPPY DAYS portraying the social unity of the 1950s in the turbulence of the 1970s tells it all. The search for a glorious past crops up in STAR TREK several times, most notably in L'Andrew.

In ALL OUR YESTERDAYS Kirk Spock and McCoy visit a planet about ready to explode in a supernova in search of its inhabitants. All are gone. The only person they find is a librarian who sets them up with disks projecting images of a past.

Attracted by a woman screaming, Kirk departs the library to find himself in a late middle ages witch hunt. Kirk is locked up as a witch. Also attracted by the screams, McCoy and Spock find themselves in the ice age where they're rescued by a political prisoner from freezing to death.

A sympathetic time traveller inquiring into the accusation of witchcraft lodged against Kirk sends Kirk back to the library where he manages to rescue Spock and McCoy before the world explodes.

The interesting part is the theme of seeking a refuge in the past to avoid the problems of the present. To borrow Spock's favorite word: It was fascinating.

MARCH OR DIE emerged in the prevailing anti - heroism of the moment. It's appropriately set in the post WWI era when european colonialism reached its furthest extent.

The war is won at a horrific cost. "There are no heroes in this war. Only survivors," says Major. Forster (Gene Hackman). "I left Morocco with 8000 men and came back with 200."

His mission is to return to Morocco to protect archeologists digging in a sacred site to uncover the tomb of 'The Angel of the Desert.' Prior to WWI, Maj Forster was among a delegation of French officers who assured El Krim, the Arab leader that the dig would not resume without El Krim's permission.

France has already gone back on its word to the restive Arabs resulting in a disastrous massacre.

"We can afford to sacrifice a few legionaires for the benefit of France. After all they are foreignors," boasts the minister to an official of the Louvre.

The dig resumes under the watchful eye of Maj Forster and his Arab rival. When the sarcophagus of the Angle of the Desert is recovered, Maj Forster offers it to El Krim as a token of peace.

"What is glorious in the French 20th century? The 20th century is not 20 years old and look at what it brought to your world: devastation."

El Krim attacks anyway. Maj Forster tells the Louvre official, "You will be famous, not for recovering the Angel of the Desert but for unifying the Arab tribes, unable to act together for 11 centuries.

The great battle breaks out. El Krim drives the tenacious legionaire back to the wall. After Maj Forster is killed, the final assault is called off. El Krim delivers the eulogy to Maj Forster. "I am sorry old friend, but now the Arab tribes, Rif, Bedouin and Berber are united."

The picture brings up several trends relevant to the post Vietnam era in which the film appeared, decolonialization, anti-heroism and decline of european empires.

A brilliant general and strategist, a great leader, Shaka (the beetle) is able to outwit the imperial delegation sent to confuse him with duplicity. "Francis," says Dr. Henry Fynn, "Shaka is eons ahead of you."

What I found interesting was the South African perspective with other nations with whom it shares the English language. The English are imperious like Victoria, desolate like George IV, arrogant like Lord Charles or flighty like LT Francis Farrell. Americans are described by the prod British merchant Zacharias Abrahams as "go ahead" ie overly eager.

The Irish represented by Dr Fynn get off easy. He is pleasantly amused at the British when in the middle of nowhere they raise the cross of St George and sing God Save the King. Fynn refuses to doff his hat for the occasion.

First time before the camera, Henry Cele a soccer goalie rendered a bravura performance embodying the character of the South African Hero Shaka. Regrettably he died young at age 61.

This is three stories in one focused on the character of Lord Nelson: Nelson as seen through the adoring eyes of his nephew George Machin Jr who idolizes him ("Don't make fun of your honor!"); Nelson as seen by his subordinate Captain Hardy ("I know the man asea; the man ashore that's a different matter."); Nelson as seen by his lover Lady Hamilton ("I love him more than I love life itself.") All see what England needs in Nelson differently. Could Nelson live up to any of their expectations? "Maybe," Nephew Machin observes, "we expect a perfect hero to be a perfect saint."

I disagree with many who did not see the portrayal of the three faces of Nelson as less than magnificent.

In many respects what you see here is a clash between californian and southern attitudes. LT Robinson a baseball star at UCLA, after receiving a commission through the influence of Joe L. Lewis and political intervention of FDR, ended up at Ft Hood Texas, a post dedicated to the cavalry tactics of a Confederate General.

On an installation bus, he refused an order to go to the back of the bus prefaced by a ~ Naughty Name ~. This lead to a court martial for insubordination.

In what available writing I have found about the court martial, the defence afforded by his appointed counsel was token. Political intervention and some semantics enabled an acquittal by a divided vote of the Court martial panel. Did the right answer come for the wrong reasons?

My question with this compelling story is why did it take so long to become public? Any Ideas?

Sisters Christine and Betty run off to London; Christine intends to pursue a career in modelling; Betty is just tagging along. Christine makes her connection to a renowned agent Sybil Waite, but the Quid Pro Quo of the glitter world is entrance into a coven which includes well - heeled members of the haut monde, particularly country squires.

Sybil, the High Priestess may reek with devilishness, but her decision to bring Christine into the coven is her undoing. In short order Christine displaces her as head of the coven.

I was surprised to see so many criticisms of this film. It would seem recent events have shown the film was brazenly candid, perhaps too much so.

This is a Chinese made for TV historical romance plotting the career of Ying Si, Lord Huiwen of Qin (Ch'in) who with the help of Premier Khang Hi transformed Qin (Ch'in) from a marginal state on the fringe of the Chinese world into a superpower which would eventually unify China and put an end to the Era of the Warring States, a period of endless war between the Chinese states. How Premier Zhang accomplished Qin's rise to power and Lord Huiwen ascension to the title King was his advocacy of "horizontal alliances," a system of checks and balances, a structure for moderating the conflict between the contending Chinese states. Qin's rivals following unstable vertical alliance that invariably unraveled in the midst of military operations.

Perpetual war has its costs. Eventually King Huiwen loses a brother in combat and falls into a deep depression leading to his demise. The state King Huiwen forged would give China its name.

While the production is magnificent and the music is awe inspiring, it would help if there were more background notes on Chinese history for the benefit of those unfamiliar with Chinese history.

Turn the clock back to the wee hours of June 12, 1963. President Kennedy has just delivered a Civil Rights Address. Medgar Evers, a civil rights activist, was shot and killed in front of the door to his house.

Though regularly tailed by FBI and local police car, Evers arrived home ominously without the usual escort. Arrested in connection with the murder, Byron De La Beckwith faced two all - white juries which deadlocked. The case went fallow for three decades.

Flash ahead to 1994 a new prosecutor and changed social circumstances ushered in a third re - trial. The movie postulates prosecutor's Bobby De Laughter's sudden conversion to the cause. In the movie version Myrlie Evers, Medgar Evers' widow, (Whoppi Goldberg) and Martin Dees make a persuasive case for re - examining the case that impels De Laughter to conclude that justice should be done.

Whoopi Goldberg portrays Medgar's widow with a natural dignity. A touch of humor conceals any lingering sadness. "I gave up hating De La Beckwith because it made no sense. The hate would eat me out and he wouldn't care." Charged up with a quest for justice De Laughter (Alec Baldwin) sallies forth. In an alliance with Myrlie Evers, De Laughter resumes prosecution of De La Beckwith with vigor.

Alec Baldwin's performance as the prosecutor won over to the cause of righteousness captures the elegance of Bobby DeLaughter's style as a trial attorney. The grand - eloquent, magnificent closing argument in the movie catches the gist of the one delivered in the real - life case.

The closing argument De Laughter delivered is regarded as a work of art. "The legal case is simple. A man was shot in the back on his doorstep." The master of understatement, De Laughter relying heavily on evidence coming on De La Beckwith's "big mouth," argued, "The other issues are more complex..." The closing argument won a place in the text Ladies and Gentleman of the Jury: Greatest Closing Arguments in Modern Law.

In the movie version, the prosecution of De Beckwith in 1994 sends De Laughter's marriage into Mississippi's white elite into a tailspin.

The trial recounted in Ghosts is remarkable for its demonstration of the unexpected professionalism of the Jackson police in collecting and preserving forensic evidence. In spite of whispers and speculation of an official hand in the tragedy, the police did their job well in making a case against the arch - villain De La Beckwith.

The culprit De La Beckwith was played by James Woods who excels at portraying excitable individuals. Capturing the imperviousness who without remorse shot a man in the back, De La Beckwith boasted in the movie version that he would have had remorse over killing a deer.

The stage is set for the verdict which rights the wrong as far as that is possible.

The death of Edgar Ray Killen in prison in 2018 has renewed interest in the Mississippi Burning case.

Lets turn the clock back half a century It's 1964. Three civil rights workers, a black man James Chaney from Meridian, Mississippi, and two whites Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner said to be from New York City disappear after being briefly detained by local police in Philadelphia Mississippi. Enraged, President Johnson ordered the Navy to drain the alligator - infested swamps of Mississippi in search of the three. Freedom Riders

In Mississippi Burning (1988) the story of the investigation is brought to the silver screen. While the Navy up to its hips in sludge has been unable to locate the missing Freedom Riders, Johnson dispatches FBI agents, Alan Ward (Willem Dafoe) and Rupert Anderson (Gene Hackman), a local Mississippian and former sheriff to investigate. Chafing under Ward's micromanagement in insisting upon a futile by - the - book approach, Anderson through seductive down - home charm, develops an informant in Mrs Pell (Frances McDormand), the battered wife of Deputy Sheriff Clinton Pell (Brad Dourif).

Discovery of the bodies leads to a turning point in which Ward, acknowledging that the book has no answer, accedes to Anderson's irregular tactics: kidnapping glib and unbelievably cute Mayor Tilman and forcing him to describe the killings and reveal the culprits, assaulting Deputy Pell in reprisal for beating Mrs Pell, luring the cluprits to a bogus meeting and rescuing Lester Cowen from a faked attempt by the co-conspirators to hang him. Under the erroneous belief that his fellow bad guys intend to kill him, Lester spills the beans.

Charged with civil rights violations, many conspirators including Deputy Pell are found guilty. Sheriff Stuckey is acquitted. Mayor Tilman commits suicide. Gene Hackman plays the two - fisted Rebel Sherriff Anderson turned FBI agent with great aplomb. Sweet as sugar and mean as dog dung, Anderson can molt from as gentle as a new - born calf to as aggressive as a charging bull. Hackman's Pennsylvania accent does not creep into his Southron expressions or speech as it did in his depiction of a New York City Detective in the movie version of French Connection.

William Defoe plays the stamp pressed FBI agent, with the pressed dark suit and homburg in the sweltering heat of the deep South. True to his character, he'll get nowhere in the cozy world of the deep south.

Great film.

A Case of Deadly Force is the story of a civil rights case brought by a former Boston police officer turned lawyer against his department. The movie is based upon a book by Lawrence O'Donnell, a Boston PO turned attorney, Regrettably comments on it were space.

One commentator, critical of the film, correctly observed that in a civil rights case, Attorney Lawrence O' Donnell (Richard Crenna) stood alone as a beacon of integrity in the courtroom against notorious liars and hypocrites when the former police officer daringly turned on his department in a wrongful death suit brought against former fellow officers on behalf of a bereaved black mother.

The critic is correct in saying that the Made For TV movie A Case of Deadly Force is a bit one sided in that the saintly innocence of the injured party might have been somewhat inflated. Many people involved with violent encounters with police have less than pristine backgrounds. Whether that justifies police action is another question.

My evaluation is that A Case of Deadly Force is favorable. Where the movie attains a degree of excellency, it lies in the deadly accuracy of the dilemma and heart ache faced by a lawyer in a civil suit against the police. Often advocating the rights of clients often with a checkered past, the lawyer stands alone facing a violent system with a united unprincipled opposition: The Blue Wall.

This made for TV movie vividly exemplifies the mischief a determined police department is capable of: violent beatings and arrests of members of Mr O'Donnell's family. All it takes is a wink and nod to bring the entire department down on a civil rights lawyer. And many judges go along with this.

This no feel - good Perry Mason story.

Richard Crenna delivers a bravura performance. If there is a short coming in the film, it is given Mr O'Donnell's experience as a police officer he did not anticipate the violence of the reprisal that his former friends were capable of.

Meet Oleg Mironov (Aleksandr Yatsenko). He's a dedicated emergency services doctor. In US we call them EMTs. He and his wife Katya. (Irina Gorbacheva) a nurse, are deeply in love, although Katya is at an end with Oleg's drinking, a professional hazard here in the US. After a drunken scene at Katya's father's birthday party, Katya wants a divorce. At home Oleg sleeps on the kitchen floor.

Oleg has problems at work too. A new boss imposes a 20 -20 - 20 rule: 20 minutes to reach a call, 20 minutes to stabilize the patient, 20 missions per shift. All the docs/EMTs protest the change which runs contrary to individualized needs in the care of the particular patient. The boss is nonplussed.

When Oleg violates the rule, he fails to respond to a heart seizure and causes a death.

Well the crew drowns their sorrows at Oleg's apartment. Though there's friction in the house, Katya joins the party singing a teenage love song about love running hot in the summer at Yalta but growing cold in the autumn.

After the party Oleg and Katya in drunken bliss get it on. Afterwards responding to Oleg's suggestion that he might have gotten Katya pregnant, Katya tells Oleg she has had an IUD installed and can't get pregnant.

A pout follows. Oleg runs off but he comes back to reconcile.

Arrhythmia (Russian letters may differ) is Russian drama at its finest . Many commentators have said that it accurately depicts daily life of nurses and doctors struggling against the bureaucrat - ism of Eastern European Socialized medicine. The conflict between one - size - fits - all of mass produced medicine and the need for individual attention even permeates free market medicine. See the film.

Meet Gina Ginzburg, a professor at University of Kazan. Happily married to a Red Party official, Ginzburg has it all in the Communist World: a spacious apartment, fashionable clothing, two children, a comfortable position in the Communist hierarchy. Her passion is Pushkin; She is entranced by the cadence of Pushkin's Nationalist poetry dedicated to celebrating Russia.

It's 1934; all that will change.

Kirov Red Party Boss in Leningrad (often mentioned as a potential successor to Joe Stalin) is assassinated, (likely on orders of Stalin). A purge of the party is in order to rid it of "Trotsky-ite and resurgent nationalist elements." Apparently the authors of the purge do not see the inherent contradiction between "Trotsky - ism" and "nationalism.."

Yet to deflect the purge away from themselves the party faithful, other than Ms Ginzburg, line up to confess "unsavory bourgeois tendencies." Locked up in the dragnet, Ms Ginzburg refuses to confess, even when she is harassed by Boykin, a notorious and vicious police official. Many of the people she knew and worked confessed under pressure. Their reward was the death penalty, but Ms Ginzburg who reiterates her innocence before a kangaroo court gets 10 years in Siberia.

The movie shows that some women en route in unheated cattle cars are singing songs to Stalin. Jailed with the real criminals, Ms Ginzburg wants to die and rebuffs the attention of the camp doctor until he gives her a book of Pushkin's poems.

Emily Watson renders a spectacular performance as Genia Ginzburg who is reduced from the splendor of the inner = party ranks to the squalor of the Soviet prison system.

Ms Ginzburg does get a joyous moment when her oppressor Boykin ends up in the gulag crying that he's innocent. Richard Wurmbrand and many other people imprisoned by the communists noted that often the police end up in jail with the people they've accused.

There is a Hollywood ending when Ms Ginzburg marries the camp doctor in a type of mismatched marriage that almost seems stamped made in America. Oh well as different as the US was from Russia of his time de Tocqueville saw many congruences.

Meet LT Andrev Kanayev (Oskar Kuchera). He's in a bind. The USSR is dissolving and with it,Russia's strangehold over Eastern Europe. Says Kanayev's superior, 25 years of work in building the Warsaw Pact went down the drain.

Kanayev's unit is being withdrawn to what's left of Mother Russia. "I have no job, no house, no car," he laments to his friend Marek over a tankard of beer. Though Marek suggests the French foreign legion, LT Kanatev does not immediately tumble to the idea. He has to be prodded by being set up in an apparent homicide.

Smuggled into France, Kanayev attemts to enlist in French Foreign Legion. After rigorous basic training, Kanayev is recruited by French intelligence. Returned to Russia as a French operative, Kanayev produces impressive results but as Russia recovers, Kanayev's former comrades are hot on his tail.

Will he get caught? What are the consequences? Will he return to France and live in a Chateau in the country like a madman living in a home created by his imagination?

Excellent film! Little the US produces can compare to its scope and insight.

NYPD officer, Steven A Collura (Grant Show), is sent on a mission: infiltrate the Mob family led by Carlo Gambino (Robert Loggia). The Made-for-TV movie probes the inner workings f an undercover operation: On one hand, the operative projects a fantasy on the other hand his act creates a reality of its own.

To insert Officer Collura into the mob, he's teamed up with a former Mafia couple working off a case. Taking up residence with them as his "son", Collura lays down the rules: he's the boss he does what he wants; they're the help and that's it. The ex-Mafia couple have no choice but to grin and bear Collura's laws. As time progresses, they begin acting like a family so much so Collura's parents start berating Collura for his personal shortcomings, late hours, bad company and drinking.

Collura is so successful in inserting himself into the web of the mob that he strikes up a relationship with Carlo Gambino's beloved goddaughter Maria Caprefoli (Maria Pitillo), whom Carlo cautions Collura is a gentle but fragile flower.

Taken home to meet 'Mom' and 'Dad,' in their apartment in an old frame house on Pitkin Avenue in the mob strong hold of South Ozone Park, Maria asks the most telling question in the family oriented Italian - American world. Surprisingly, this obvious question was overlooked by all the mobsters right up to Carlo. "Oh, it's nice to meet your Mob and Dad, where does the rest of your family, your uncles and aunts and cousins live?" Mom, Dad and Junior all look at each other in fright and on a flimsy excuse leave the room.

Well an engagement is announced and Maria offers Collura a short preview of bliss, but forbids physical contact.

Meanwhile, Collura is advanced in the mob to the point he is trusted with a small role in the execution of Mob rogue and existentialist philosopher Joey Gallo. Handed a weapon, but advised that he'll only be part of the back - up, Collura panics and runs back to the police.

The story like The Impossible Spy and Scarlet Coat catch the very nature of an undercover operative. He projects a fantasy as reality. How far can the spy be drawn into the charade that he has created.

Contrary to other reviewers I found The Day of The Siege to be an excellent film well grounded in history. The Mouslem Turks in 1683 advanced from Constantinople to Vienna for a second attempt at unlocking the door to Western Europe. The push on Vienna led a century earlier by the intrepid Turkish Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent had been repulsed.

The Mouslem general The Vizier Mustafa leads a mighty horde of Turks and their allies and invests the City. True to Mouslem principles, Mustafa offers the inhabitants an opportunity to surrender peacefully. Though abandoned by the Emperor, the scratch force making up the garrison agrees to fight on.

It is at this juncture that Mustafa makes the critical mistake. An ally suggests a cover force to protect the besieging forces from an attack from the North. Convinced that the terrain is too difficult, Mustafa ignores the recommendation and concentrates his forces on the siege with a great deal of initial success: The Turks break the wall. Fatefully Mustafa hesitates. Historians speculate that he wanted to swallow the city whole so that marauding Jannisaries didn't loot and destroy an important commercial center and base of operations for a further push into Germany badly divided by civil war between Christian factions.

Mustafa's delay gives the Polish King Jan III just enough time to drag his canon through hostile terrain to attack the Turks and relieve the outnumbered garrison.

I think the film was an excellent portrayal of Mustafa as an honorable warrior who made two strategic blunders, of Jan III who appreciated the first rule of strategy: attack where the enemy never expects to find you and of the Holy Roman Emperor who prefigured The Bush's flight on a different 9-11 when he abandoned his wife, his capital and his country to run away.

The Eagle is an impressive vista on Roman Briton. It gives fair airing to Roman and Brythonic points of view.

Like Gaul, Eagle can be neatly divided into three parts: garrison life, life in the Roman colony and adventure north of the wall.

As the curtain opens we meet Marcus Flavius Aquilla (Channing Tatum) a newly minted commander on his way to a frontier outpost where Druids are rousing the restive Celts to action against the occupying Roman Army. Seasoned veterans at the officer's mess are skeptical of the new commander. "He's probably unpacking his rule-book," quips Galba (Paul Ritter).

Marcus surprises the officers and men with detecting an attack on the fort early enough to interdict it. There is quite a long wait in the dark of damp northern England during which Galba's stare tells it all. However Lutorious (Denis O'Hare) stands by the commander seemingly with bemused detachment. To the experienced legionnaire's surprise, Marcus was right. The Keltoi attack just as Marcus appears ready to call off the alert. New to the post, he isn't used to all the nocturnal noise that conceals the approach of Celtic warriors.

Injured in combat Marcus is sent to his uncle's villa in Southern Britain where Lutorious delivers news of the battle streamer awarded the unit, Marcus' medal and an honorable discharge.

Donald Sutherland plays Uncle Aurelius to perfection. As the most experienced actor in the cast he refrains from overpowering the stars Jaime Bell and Channing Tatum. But I think that Sutherland's genius in this film was that he was playing himself: the elderly urbane white liberal, a man of bearing, sophistication, distinction, culture and refinement.

Inviting a notable to the dinner table, Uncle Aurelius chides the guests about his vegetarian fare: "fish and eggs; lets not all rush at once."

Uncle believes that slaves should serve voluntarily or be left to their own devices. Uncle buys Esca (Jaime Bell) a slave to tend to Marcus but doesn't care if the slave runs away.

This Keltoi slave had been rescued by Marcus from a blood thirsty crowd in the arena because Esca had faced death unafraid. Reduced to personal servitude, Esca tells Marcus he hates everything Roman but will serve out of personal obligation, gratitude for being spared.

When the fully recovered Marcus decides on the adventure north of the wall to recover the lost Eagle of the 9th Legion Uncle with utter hypocrisy bluntly tells Marcus that one can not trust the word of a slave. "He says what he says and does what he does because he has to."

This sets the scene for the third act, the adventure north of the wall.

North of the wall there's a roll reversal, Marcus becomes Esca's slave. Yet true to his word, Esca helps Marcus recover the Eagle and defend it from re-capture.

The film is exceptional, partially because the lines of the Keltoi are scripted in the once outlawed Gaelic language with subtitles. When the Romans speak, they speak in English.

Meet the Battons, living comfortably in an upper middle class lifestyle in suburban Boston. The truth is Bobby Batton (Tom Sizemore) is a mobster. Unbeknownst to him, Batton's boss has decided to terminate Bobby. Batton is tipped to the plot against him when he foils a kidnap attempt on Batton's daughter Suzie.

His only way out is Witness Protection and a new identity. We see the pressure cooker turned up when Bratton and his family confronts the limitations of the work-a-day world and have to learn their cover stories. Bob Batton is particularly peeved that he must get a job. He holds the working class in especial contempt.

Forest Whitaker plays Steve Beck the FBI coach with great aplumb when he must tell Batton how to get a job. Why do you care? Batton exasperated with Beck's tenacity asks . Because it's my job, comes the smug reply.

Cindy Batton is played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Agent Beck tells her she's worth maybe $35 G on the labor market if she finishes her paralegal degree and returns to work in a law firm. How are we going to live on that?

I won't agree that Witness Protection really does all that this US government propaganda movie says it does to trap real criminals. I do find the concept of adjusting to a completely new life interesting.

Recent history has produced several made-for-TV movies which have glorified the southron cause of slavery and secession even more than DW Griffith's film Birth of A Nation. In this film Slaves obey their masters in conformance with Holy Writ (Colossians 3:22) and regard the plantation as home.

This is a generous reading of the sands of time. Even as early as the 1950s with a real right wing star John Wayne in HORSE SOLDIERS, Hollywood showed how Black Southerners warmly greeted US Army troops. The answer to the writers of this film comes from Mr Lincoln himself: "Anyone who thinks slavery is a good idea ought to try it out." On the other hand the costuming was excellent and the scenery was well done.

I saw the film 633 squadron when it was first released in '64. The film follows in the tradition of many great Air War Stories including DAWN PATROL. The score for the film is the finest musical adaptation or imitation of the revving aircraft engine.

Cliff Robertson who was a good American actor played a credible leading role as wing commander. We did deem it odd that the British would make an American a Major in the Royal Air Force and appoint him wing commander. That could be the work of studios trying to sell the story here in the US.

The perception of the colonial audience was that the mission portrayed was an attack on German Heavy Water experiments and that the attack took place earlier in the war.

The scene of bombing the GESTAPO HQs came right out of an earlier film, 13 Rue Madeleine (1947)starring Jimmy Carney.

Pre-Star Wars films like the live stage required a measure of "willing suspension of disbelief." I try to adjust myself to that before watching old films.

This film is based loosely on (a) US sponsored psychological experiment in which a prominent psychiatrist ran amok creating a prison in the basement of a noted liberal University. It follows in the steps of a German film Das Experiment (2001), highlighting lack of originality in the US theatre.

Very different from from the real life experiment in which the participants, recruited from students between semesters received rather chincy emoluments, the movie version claims that the test subjects, were offered stupendous incentives for their collaboration.

The film correctly states that volunteers were assigned roles and that as the experiment went on the participants fell into the roles that were given them. Like the German film, the experiment devolves into ever increasing dosages of violence.

In the US version, the feel good ending is even better than the German version. Travis (Adrien Brody) one of the prisoners has such a will to resist the torture and degradation that he busts out. Everyone follows him and they all receive their handsome checks.

In real life, there was no busting out but there was some busting back in. Some who had under intimidation quit the experiment returned and applied to be re-instated. They had formed a camaraderie with the others in the project and wanted to see it through.

In the film version the consequences for the authors of this fiendish experiment was severe. In an investigation that follows, the mad scientist, a rather small and squat gnomish sort behind the experiment, is indicted.

In real life nothing of the kind occurred. Jocularly speaking of the escapade a quarter century later, the real life psychiatrist hosted a US sponsored college course on psychology.

I was impressed with this German made film which I found to be superior to its American copy starring Sean Penn later produced.

This film is based loosely on a US sponsored experiment in which a prominent psychiatrist ran amok creating a prison in the basement of a noted liberal University. However differing from the real life experiment in which the participants, recruited from students between semesters received rather small emoluments, the movie version claims that the test subjects, recruited from newspaper ads were offered stupendous incentives for their collaboration.

The film correctly states that volunteers were assigned roles and that as the experiment went on the participants fell into the roles that were given them. Indeed at one point the 'guards' kidnap one of the staff and throw her behind bars.

In this version, a MI undercover agent has been inserted in the scenario in the role of a prisoner to act as a controller. He knows an escape route and can break up the experiment if he has to.

There is a feel-good ending in which the mad scientist behind the experiment comes down on charges.

In real life that never happened. Jocularly speaking of it a quarter century later, the real life psychiatrist hosted a US sponsored college course on psychology.

Horse Soldiers ranks with Major Dundee and Twelve O'Clock High in its study of the personality of command. Colonel John Marlowe is the man with the mission: break rebel supply lines supporting besieged Vicksburgh. On one hand he must deal with a meddlesome Regular Army Surgeon Major Henry Kendall (William Holden) and on the other an ambitious, backbiting subordinate Colonel Phil Secord who expects the campaign to launch him into politics. Along the way, the raiding force is constrained to internee Miss Hannah Hunter, (Constance Towers) a Southern Belle laced with a poisonous, duplicit charm.

Miss Hannah Hunter: (bending over with a plate of chicken, revealing ample cleavage) Do you prefer the leg... or the breast? Col. John Marlowe: I've had quite enough of both, thank you.

The raid must proceed with stealth and speed until it reaches it's target. Any man who can't continue must be left to the clemency of the enemy. Deep in rebel held territory, quarter is not to be expected. With such parameters, there is a constant clash between Dr Kendall and Colonel Marlowe. Behind his back, Kendall calls Colonel Marlowe 'Old Iron Head.' To his face Kendall is generally glib but subtle:

Major Kendall: That's a pretty primitive outlook; medically speaking, that is. Col. John Marlowe: Well, doctor, war isn't exactly a civilized business.

*********

Col. John Marlowe: (during firefight) I didn't want this. I tried to avoid a fight! Major Kendall: That's why I took up medicine.

The US Army takes the rebel supply depot at Newton Station and routs a rebel attempt to retake it. The grim work is about to be done:

Miss Hannah Hunter: You're not going to burn the town down Major? Maj. Richard Gray: No ma'am just war supplies; cotton, railroad equipment, contraband ma'am.

But Marlowe a Railroad Engineer in civilian life does not revel in the task as does the would-be politician Phil Secord. The plan is to skedaddle South to US held Baton Rouge. Along the way PVT Dunker develops an infection which Dr Kendall treats with tree moss. The photography of the scene is incredibly well done with John Wayne's standing in the shadows looking on in horror. "You're putting dirt on a wound?"

There's a powerful ending. A dramatic Cavalry charge breaks through rebel lines and brings the US Cavalry across a creek and back into US held territory.

The skill with which the movie was done cannot be under-stressed. The film accurately shows the terrifying impact of the war on the civilian population and the enthusiastic greeting US forces received from the Black Southerners.

The film deserved all the commentary it received both pro and con. I was surprised and gratified that a film which deals with tragedy and the tragic attracted this much attention in a country which is dedicated to the patented formula Hollywood ending.

Meet Rhoda Williams (Brit Marling) she's got everything, pretty, a brilliant astronomy affectionado and on her way to MIT. Like most teens, she went out to celebrate and drove home drunk. On her way home, distracted by a strange phenomena in the sky, another earth which has come into view, she slams into John Burroughs' (William Mapother) car which was stopped at a light. John Burroughs' pregnant wife and son are killed in the collision. Burroughs goes into a coma.

Rhoda draws a four year stretch. Flash ahead 4 years, Rhoda is out of jail and Burroughs is out of a coma. Returning home to her room which was left as it was when she prepared to go out on the night of the collision, a sullen, morose Rhoda dismantles the room and sleeps on the floor. While her parole officer encourages her to return to school, she opts for a job cleaning the local high school so that she can avoid contact with other people. Wandering around in a fog, she gives up her flashy clothes and dresses as unattractively as possible, like a bum.

She has an important need to apologize to Burrows for his loss but ends up cleaning his house. Burrows might have remained in the alcohol numbed stupor into which he slid after recovering from the coma but Rhoda never cashed his checks. He therefore seeks her out and their relationship blossoms into a love interest. Burroughs returns to pursue the music he had laid aside, advising Rhoda that right before the tragic accident he had reached a state of contentment.

The implication is clear and Rhoda uses it to justify her actions to herself by believing she is making Mr Burrow's life a bit better every day. Even the distant, morose Rhoda seems to become more lively.

But Rhoda's past catches up with her when her essay wins a seat on the privately funded expedition to the alternate earth. Will her path cross over Mr Burroughs or will they collide once again? The photography nicely complements the script and imparts that distant or disconnected feeling to which a morose Rhoda is subject.

The ending has a powerful message on that subject, but see the film and come to your own conclusion.