georgegolembiewski

I loved watching this period piece about the great Seabiscuit. The

opening scene at the railroad station was shockingly racist. This clumsy attempt at humor was offensive to me as an American, but I must remember this was 1949. After this the movie shows some beautiful scenes of Kentucky horse country. The actor Lon MCallister seems awfully big for a jockey, but is a perfect love interest for young Shirley Temple who does a nice job in the role. The scene stealer is of course the inimitable Barry Fitzgerald who gives a predictably colorful performance as the oh so wise horse trainer. All in all a sanitized version of the real Seabiscuit story.

This film is a disappointment though it is worth seeing. The white Police are always the oppressors of the noble black community. They refer to a large street crowd of black people as "pickaninies". When black people use dope it the fault of the white power structure. Never is individual responsibility expressed as a reason for failure. The history of these troubled times is not portrayed with a sense of balance you might see in a Spike Lee film. The research is as bad as Oliver Stone's JFK. If you see this film don't take it as an accurate representation of the subject matter.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Uprising despite its obvious flaws. A good story is told how Warsaw Jews defy the Natzis, but it is all too simplistic and frought with inaccuracies. All the Jews are young and handsome while Poles are plain looking middle aged people with tattered clothing ,unwashed,and with bad teeth. They also are all indiifferent to the plight of the Jews , and will only help if given money or threatened by the courageous and noble Jews. Poles on thother hand are just voka swilling mercenaries. In truth the Warsaw Ghetto uprising could never got off the ground without the assisrance of the Polish underground. Nowhere in this movie are Poles given credit for their contributions to this effort. Like the Jews they too were victims of the Natzi atrocities, but you'd never know that from wathing this film. Uprising is a great story with some serious deficiencies. A more balnced portrayal of the plight of Polish Jews , and Polish Catholics would have really educated the public about this moment in history. Unfortunately this did not happen.