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I found this short film fascinating. It very clearly lays out to the "common man" the argument in favor of getting involved in WW II. Yes, the animation is crude by today's standards and the voice-over is melodramatic, but considering most people of fifty-odd years ago never got anywhere near a college campus and their lives stopped at the city limits of their hometowns, this film does a good job of spelling out what was going on around the world and what was at stake. The earnestness with which it is presented may be seen as campy today, but just imagine what it must have been like, trying to understand it all and trying to guess what it would mean to you and your family.

This was a brilliant documentary series that analyzed a particular genre of film or a particular performer's career each week. Made by and for people who love the movies and want to know more, it's fascinating and great fun. I've been waiting for this great series to be available on tape; I'd snap it up in a minute.

This movie starts out as a serious movie about the proud man of accomplishment with one heart-wrenching problem: trying to hang on to his wife and daughter. His wife at some point decided she hated the West and the uncouth yokels there and took their daughter away to be educated in the East, and is trying to make the daughter into a woman after her own views, while McLintock is trying to make sure that she can appreciate the beauty of the West and the glory of living there.

Then there's a second-string romance between the daughter and a college-educated ranch hand (which I didn't buy for a minute because the daughter is just so unappealing -- that nice young man deserves better), and finally there's a slapstick ending with Mrs. McLintock getting a public spanking.

It's not that I expect older movies or movies that take place in an earlier time period to conform to modern ideas of political correctness, but I guess I just didn't buy that Mrs. McLintock really DIDN'T want to leave her husband. She seemed an awful shrew to me, and her husband seemed better off without her. I don't find people constantly squabbling to be amusing. It seemed to me the plot had to find excuses for her to be there and to be angry -- the whole "fiery Irish redhead" thing.