gmr-4

I do not like this rank voting because so much can go into a film that to "average out" the features would possibly be unfair. For instance -- and very briefly -- I rated the new THE WAR OF THE WORLDS "spectacular" in recent conversation. But that would be about . . . it.

GLORY ENOUGH FOR ALL actually brought that lump in the throat at one point when I first saw it on MASTERPIECE THEATRE, when they finally knew they Had It. Cooke introduced the movie as a rare departure from British offerings, this Commonwealth, and frankly much more Canadian offerings should find their way to American television. GLORY ENOUGH is an excellent example.

(Sir) Frederick is shown with all his warts. The academic politics involving MacLeod was completely unknown to me, as was the amazing intersection with the famous Hughes family in the United States. I am fascinated with -- or a sucker for -- stories of human creativity, and biomedical research is as dramatic as anything we do. Throw in the elements of the young underdogs struggling with questions abandoned by better-equipped researchers, then the rivalries that can plague academic inquiry (they are personally no better than the rest of us), and you have a story of epic proportions.

Unlike the story of the Dion "quints," you will not see this on gringo prime time television. No use losing your audience with their remote changers during the brief exposition on endocrinology. Warning: there is no gun play or a car chase, and no smash-bang scene cuts. FOR MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY.

Yes, MOTORCYCLE DIARIES is a right good film (reserving judgment about "superb) but it is more than a "road movie" as fascinating as it is, filmed "on location(s)" most of which I have never visited. The film is a decent attempt to relate an important episode in the young lives of both Granado and Guevara destined for important historical roles.

A few years ago I read the new door-stopper of the latter's biography. All the incidents/ places were in it, although I cannot recall the night time incident in the Amazon. There were so many witnesses that it must be true. The book was also "shy" on Guevara's insecurity with the opposite sex while young, that part no doubt coming from the more wild Granado. A coupe of pretty amusing incidents were left out, one in particular about their accidentally voiding from a second storey window on a farmer's peach drying platform. They bloody well had to run for it!

In any case, this is a fine picture and not just for those consumed with the cult of "Che" or those of tender years who wonder about the man behind the famous revolutionary portrait. They were odd, crazy lads and those males of us far into middle age are bound to be a mite humbled by their adventures and big dreams.

Well it seems THE NEW PEOPLE is back in another, more contemporary, guise. Not by that title, of course, but the young-and-telegenic-people-stranded-on-an-island series which just hit the airwaves is smack dab of that theme, but with to-day's twist: SURVIVOR with monsters.

I do not know the name of this programme which I certainly will never see, but instead of the social commentary ca. 1970 we get "reality t.v." plus PREDATOR or ALIEN. Instead of tabula raza for a speck of mankind (St. Thomas's UTOPIA?), we get sacrifice of the attractive to the evil gods, the Minotaur and all that.

Bring back the old series. I saw so few episodes maybe it will do me good.