Swampfox

This is one of those excellent short subject films that doesn't seem like either TV episode or someone attempting to get investors to expand it to feature length. It's a very simple, straightforward narrative brought to soul-stirring life by the gifted director. Ignore comments from those who seem too jaded to appreciate this little gem of a film. And at less than 30 minutes what do you have to loose just to check it out.

In fact the reason I am writing this at all is because I wondered what he had done since (I saw this years ago) and found to my shock and dismay no one has given him a project.

It is included on the DVD for the now defunct Film-Fest DVD series, Issue 3 (along with some other good shorts)

(...Is Available For Closed-Minded, Know-Nothing, Proudly Ignorant Types. Feel free to watch it if a fresh prospective on history will challenge your world-view too much).

Above all, GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK, is a very well made film that shows the skill with which George Clooney brought CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND to the screen was not a fluke. It is not a bio pic or a broad message film. Instead, it concentrates its attentions on what happens when one man decides to exercise his constitutional rights to challenge a public servant whose actions are causing real pain to American citizens in the name of "national security." The story stays laser-focused on Edward Morrow and his team as they grapple with the impact this servant is having on their beliefs in what America stands for and their personal lives. It is done with style, class and gripping actual drama. To paraphrase the usual definition: melodrama concerns how the plot pushes the characters forward, drama shows it is the characters who push the plot along.

GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK is about an issue that could not be more relevant today: the issue of destroying individual rights in the name of protecting them. Anyone who trots out the hoary claim that this film is about attacking communist-hunters has either not seen it or cannot grasp the difference between questioning methods versus questioning goals. Several times it shows Morrow telling his television audience that he finds communism to be against his beliefs and rightfully has no place in the US.

What he objects to is the way Sen. McCarthy used methods better suited to the Soviet Union to search it out, not caring if such methods would destroy innocent American lives. Milo Radulovich was not the only US citizen who was shown at the time and history has confirmed was guilty only of being yet more meat for the grinder of McCarthy's tactics. The fact that he was a man serving his country and tried (contrary to our laws) entirely on the basis of "sealed" very questionable evidence is what makes his inclusion the heart of Morrow's reason to attack McCarthy's methods.

Yes, this is a film about ideas. If that makes it "preachy" to you and you like your movies to simply entertain you, then the other 99% of what gets released each year is probably more your speed. Because at the end of the night, the only two valid sides in discussing this film are pretty simple: you either believe believe that destroying even thousands of innocent, loyal American lives is justified to protecting us when some elected officials claim it is; or you think that to do so pretty much invalidates the principles the country were founded upon.

GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK says it believes the latter and could have easily closed with this, my favorite quote about real patriotism: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

• Benjamin Franklin

I am a very late comer to the whole "Firefly" universe. How late? Try last week.

I had the same reaction I am sure most will when they hear that it is "a western in space." I also watched 5 mins. of it when it was actually broadcast 3 years ago and thought it indeed looked as dumb as it sounded. I then forgot all about Joss Whedon's stab at taking his "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" style into space.

Now, with the movie coming out and only 14 episodes to plow through, I decided the interesting trailer warranted a second look at at least the first couple of shows. It was one of the better entertainment choices I made this summer to say the least. The show is, as the characters might say, a hoot! The movie, SERENTITY, is very good. Can't call it excellent (unless you want to compare it to REVENGE OF THE SITH, then it's a damn masterpiece), but it's better than every other popcorn flick I saw this summer.

Whedon has smartly done what Nicholas Myer did with Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan: put less emphasis on some of the characters and more on the plot and action. With nine main characters and two hours of time, it's a wise decision to make this more about the one character with biggest secret past. He also manages to keep several steps ahead of audience expectations, so much so that when it gets down to the final act I really had no idea how it was going to end. The usual happy ending ain't something you should be expecting in these parts folks.

I think what I like most is that even though the film and TV show are meant to be escapist entertainment, it's meant to be adult escapist entertainment. Unlike other space set things, this is not a big happy family and sex as a topic crops up frequently. You have to love a show where the most respectable character is the 25th Century's version of a courtesan, called "A Companion." That's right, the one with all the class is culturally-trained, high priced call girl who belongs to union/guild for such.

Even without the show, the film is certainly more fun than FANTASTIC FOUR or WAR OF THE WORLDS.