Who Decides What Good Music Is? -or- The Arrogance of Musical Taste

Studio 54, in New York

Decades ago I was in a packed car on my way to a baseball game. The other passengers and I were all in our twenties. Young and hip, leaning into the counter culture. College students or recent grads. The car radio was on as it would always be back then. A Jackson Five song came on, sung in falsetto. One chap made fun of the singing, others laughed. I said: “ahh yes, making fun of Black singers, the new racism.”

Of course there were howls of protest. No such thing was intended, I was told.

No, I responded, of course, but it’s part of an on-going theme among young white people of our generation convinced that particular kinds of music are superior and other kinds are subject to mockery. Especially the very different sounds of African American singers. Mockery can draw upon racial stereotypes even when the person doing the mocking has no conscious racial intent.

Again there was insistence that this did not equate to racism. “No, nothing does,” I said sadly. “All you have to do while making fun of people of color is say that it’s all innocent fun and you can get away with anything, including evoking the most demeaning of stereotypes.

There were a lot of issues involved. One of which was that white people of a certain stripe couldn’t accept that something was simply different and not to their taste, they had to mock it. It’s like how so damn many Americans who don’t like soccer have to tell you in detail why they find it boring instead of simply saying they weren’t raised with the game and don’t understand it so it’s not for them. One Yank — and this is just a few years ago — said to me that soccer is a sport for people who don’t like sports. Can you imagine the ignorance and arrogance of such a statement? It was also — I hate to say — representative of a very common American (usually white, male) attitude. 

Sidenote: once in college a friend of a roommate was at our house. He looked through my record albums (ask your parents) then told me: “you have terrible taste in music.” (I don’t remember exactly what albums I had at the time but I’m sure they included The Beatles, The Who, Rod Stewart and Stevie Wonder). What did he imagine my response would be? “By golly, you’re right. I’ll sell these and buy some new ones. Please tell me what music to like.” It was a strangely rude comment and purposeless, betraying the white boy arrogance of the time (what do I mean “of the time”? It still exists!).  In mock seriousness I told him that I was sorry that my albums weren’t good enough and begged his forgiveness. Then I put one of them on the turntable (ask your parents).

It’s a weird thing about musical tastes. I recall being at our principal’s house for a large gathering of some sort back in my middle school teaching days. Someone was talking to the assemblage so the rest of us were dutifully quiet. A colleague and I were sitting near the boss’s records. He pointed to them and frowned, even pulling a few out and shaking his head disagreeably. I didn’t recognize the artists so could only assume his message was that this was inferior music. I shrugged. To me this brief interaction indicated that he was of the sort who classed popular music into categories such as: classic, good and beneath contempt. As opposed to: this is to my taste, this isn’t.

I don’t get it. Who set the standard for what is “good” music and what isn’t? What happens if we don’t subscribe to it? I had people look at me askance because, for a time, I mostly listened to jazz. I could never understand why people care what music someone else listens to.

I’m a regular listener of a podcast that’s about my favorite English football (that’s soccer to you Yanks) team. I very much enjoy the host who is wise, witty and insightful. But on occasion he’ll make known his contempt for the musician Phil Collins. I can never understand why. Okay, you don’t like the guy’s music, why the hell should the rest of us care? How do people who like Collins feel when you speak contemptuously of him? Were it a right wing politician you were lambasting I’d say: go for it. But this serves no purpose. I don’t get it. People treat musicians they don’t like as if they’re war criminals. Bizarre.

Before wrapping this up I’ll return to my original point with this observation: I’m not the first to point out that the hatred (and it was hatred) that emerged in the Seventies towards disco was beyond strange. There is good scholarship and contemporary commentary arguing that portions of the disco backlash were entangled with racism and homophobia, particularly because disco culture was strongly associated with Black, Latino and gay communities. 

Full disclosure: I loved disco. Going to a club and dancing to music that was — imagine the concept — perfectly suited to dancing, was one helluva lot of fun.

A successful white artist of the time named Bob Seger had a popular song which included the following lyrics: 

I like that old time rock 'n' roll

Don't try to take me to a disco

You'll never even get me out on the floor

Guess what, Bob, no one wants your grouchy old white ass on this floor.

Imagine having to express your disdain for a highly popular and totally harmless musical form in a damn song. Imagine that so many people liked it.

Was it racist? Not liking the same music that our African American brothers and sisters is not racist, it’s a matter of different tastes from different cultures. Ridiculing it? Looking down your nose at people who like it? When the thing you're ridiculing is a sound, voice or style closely identified with people unlike yourself, are you quite sure you're only making fun of the music?

Postscript: As I was writing this post I was listening to The Isley Brothers. I can picture some of the people I've known in my life who would make a snide comment about them. Their loss.

The Good Old Days Are Looking Better -- Though Far From Perfect

When I was a kid presidents tried to advance Civil Right

The world should be a much better place to live in today than it is. In so many ways it's worse than I was a kid. Climate change is the best example. In days of yore you’d get blizzards, heat waves, hurricanes and occasionally an abnormally warm spell in winter and a cold one in summer. Back then it was news. Something different. Now we’re living with so many weather anomalies that they’ve become the norm. Especially the blistering heat of summer all across the globe (not so much here in the Bay Area — thankfully). It’s getting worse too. People are worried about the threat to the planet. The planet will be fine, it’s the people on the planet who are fucked. Indeed, people are dying because of the extreme weather — in large numbers. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be spending summers where it’s broiling hot all day everyday. Even London has had eighty degree weather most days for the past couple of months. That’s frickin’ crazy. 

Another thing we didn’t have to deal with when I was growing up was having a total moron as the leader of the free world. We had presidents who lied, cheated, ignored the needs of the people and started wars but nothing as bad as what Trumpy has been doing. No one who shattered the political norms. Presidents didn’t used to call reporters stupid or horrible people or accuse them of fabricating “fake news.” Nor did presidents shamelessly self-promote and weren’t so blatantly corrupt. They didn’t call into question the integrity of our elections. When I was a kid we were trying to guarantee civil rights not take them away. The lies weren’t so plentiful or obvious. The loyal opposition was shown respect. Even Nixon wouldn’t have dreamed of calling the people across the aisle, “dumbocrats.” The rich have been getting much, much, much richer these days while the social safety net for the less fortunate is being shredded. The imbalance in our country’s wealth distribution is ridiculous.

There were still small businesses when I was a kid. Mom & Pop grocery stores were ubiquitous. In fact there were all kinds of independent businesses. We had places that weren’t part of a multi-national chain where you could get a burger. You might even know the guy that ran the place. There was Johnny’s down the street and we knew who Johnny was. 

I don’t know if things were better because we had milkmen, but they weren’t worse for them.

People didn’t stare at their phones all the time nor for that matter leave the house with their phones — not that they could. Kids used to go outside an use their imaginations to play games or organize ball games and they didn’t have “play dates.” We roamed the streets and did fine. You didn’t have a phone to look at but you could pick up a stick and make a game with it. People were a couple of million times less paranoid.

True, we didn’t have all the safety features with cars, bikes, playgrounds and toys so today’s kids are safer. But they’re also more pampered and made the center of attention from birth. Children aren’t integrated into families in the same way, they are the center of the universe for their parents. 

(It just occurred to me that when I was a kid if someone wore a bicycle helmet they’d be teased mercilessly.)

We didn’t have streaming services or cable so if you wanted to see a movie you had to wait until it was on TV where it was butchered by commercials and sometimes edited (censored). If you wanted to hear a song and didn’t have the record then you had to wait for it to be played on the radio. 

There were no computers for googling so if you needed the answer to something you bugged your parents, or a teacher or you looked in an encyclopedia if you had one or went to the library. You had to be resourceful. 

People had record players, sometimes stereos. Not everyone had color TVs, I didn’t until my senior year of high school back when we had six channels on TV and I think that sixth had just been added.

There were a lot fewer sports events on TV. But I liked sports from that era a lot better. It was before there were a millions teams in each sport (although the fact that there were only six ice hockey teams was ridiculous). There weren’t dozens of rounds of playoffs in pro sports. College football had conferences that were regional and practically-sized. There were no stupid playoffs for a national championship. Bowl games were still a big deal. College basketball didn’t have half the schools in the post season tournament. There were no “wildcards” making the playoffs. Best of all a stupid kid like me could afford to go to a game. A family could have season tickets for an NFL team without taking out a second mortgage.

Concerts were also affordable back then. For ten bucks you could see the biggest names in rock n’ roll. No one was getting away with selling tickets for thousands of dollars.

We still had movie theaters. Lots of them and I’m not talking about heartless cineplexes but actual theaters. Ticket prices were not just reasonable but cheap.

But back then gay people had to remain very much in the closet and could be arrested and jailed for the act of love. There was nothing approaching Pride Month or a Pride Parade. Women were still way, way behind men in terms of equal pay and just generally being treated like something other than sex objects. It still ain’t great today but it’s far better. Progress for African-Americans and other people of color was being made. Today there are forces trying to reverse those advances.

One of the biggest differences between then and now was that there was a much greater sense of hope. Like I said, progress was being made and there was the belief that improvements in society and politics were going to be permanent and added to. Today there is one helluva lot more cynicism and one can see why. The powerful have become more powerful and infinitely more heartless. Pushing them out of the way seems a mammoth task. Global warming is draining people physically and emotionally. It feels like a big defeat — likely because it is.

I still hold out hope because not doing so seems such a final loss and violates the best of the human spirit. Gotta keep the faith, baby.

I Hate Los Angeles But There Are Some Great Films Set There, Here's Ten of Them

Sterling Hayden and Elliot Gould at the beach in The Long Goodbye

I do not like Los Angeles. Never have. Never will. It’s a place where people drive their cars to visit a next door neighbor. There is no charm. No downtown. Nothing but schlock and gloss and edifice. There are beautiful neighborhoods but they have no soul. It is an endless sea of people, cars, streets, freeways and parking lots. There are many malls. You can find anything you need in L.A, but nothing you’d want. So much of everything is nothing.

New York — a million times the city L.A. is — has been the setting for countless classic films and hundreds of good ones and of course quite a few mediocre and bad ones. L.A. cannot compare — even though it is where many films are made — but it has been the setting for some of American cinemas greatest films. In other words for New York I could probably list fifty great films. For other cities, five would be a stretch, for L.A. I managed a top ten. 

Here it is.

Chinatown (1974) Polanski. One of the ten greatest films of all time and the one that is the classic expression of what the L.A. area is all about: greed, corruption and water rights. L.A. between the wars was not a boomtown but a boommetropolis. Polanski, brilliant set and costume designers and a cast led by Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway made it all look luscious. L.A. was certainly more habitable then and maybe had a bit of charm. Maybe not in Chinatown though.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) Tarantino. This the L.A. of fifty areas ago. It’s  good in in depicting that time that you can’t believe it’s time-stamped 2019. The sights the sound (it’s the car radios in the background that clinch the deal) and you’d swear the smell of L.A. in 1969. A masterpiece of design and mood and of capturing a place and time.

Sunset Blvd.(195) Wilder. Here we go back to the L.A. of 1950 when the boom was cresting and Hollywood and the studio system were still riding high. The decadence is on full display via the home of aging silent star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson in almost a case of it takes one to know one), the desperate wannabe, Joe Gillis is captured perfectly by William Holden. It’s sad, creepy but magnificent. 

The Big Sleep (1946) Hawks. This is noir L.A. at its best, which can be quite entertaining though generally not comparable to noir New York or San Francisco. L.A. actually looks interesting here. Neighborhoods, cafes and that bohemian house where the initial murder takes place.

Double Indemnity (1944) Wilder. Here again L.A. looks tolerable. The Dietrichson home and neighborhood are pleasant enough. Downtown L.A. is a wonderfully noir-like as is Walter Neff’s apartment. Overall it feels less L.A. than the other films here listed. That’s a good thing.

Pulp Fiction (1994) Tarantino. Nineties L.A. Get your kahuna burger. There’s nothing pretty about this L.A. and we see plenty of it. It is the functional L.A. with places to hang your hat, eateries, clubs and — if you’re into it —drug dealers. Nobody stops to look at what’s around them. There’s too much going on for that. A great place to be famous or anonymous.

Shampoo (1975) Ashby. It was set in November 1968 and filmed in ’74-75 so it captures a bit of both eras. This is a hip L.A. with Warren Beatty playing the classic Southern Californian — totally vacuous and yet desired. Riding his chopper from one sexual assignation to the next, he’s totally oblivious to any “real world” problems. He’s all in that empty head — ya know, just like L.A. itself. That party in the hills is L.A. at its hippest.

Rebel Without a Cause (195 5) Ray. High school L.A. the Griffith observatory and some of the homes seem pleasant enough. This is L.A. as an over-populated suburb. Gum-snapping, hot rods and the sense that there’s gotta be a malt shop around the corner. It’s teen land.

Boyz N the Hood (1991) Singleton. Not the L.A. we’re used to seeing in films. This is heavily African-American and say, where have Black people been in other L.A. films? Except for the maids and valet parking attendants they’ve been tucked away. This is a very real L.A. with starkly human stories and tragedies. A rare but important glimpse into the L.A. that their police forces tried to beat into submission.

The Long Goodbye (1973) Altman. Seventies noir L.A. with an updated version of the same Philip Marlowe Bogie played in the Big Sleep. This time it's an uber cool Elliot Gould doing the honors. Altman-style L.A. is voguish noir, with naked girls next door and angry mobsters showing up unexpectedly. There’s also the big beach house and parties. Looks like fun.

Films to Inspire You in the Coming Revolution

Battle of Algiers

These are dark times for American Democracy. The country is teetering toward fascism. We have a president who has no regard for political norms, cares not for social justice and is trying to bring on a second Gilded Age. The moneyed class — the very top of it — are prospering. The current prospects for the poor and marginalized are bleak. 

In response could there be revolution in the air? It’s difficult to imagine pitched battles in the streets of U.S. cities; then again it is no longer impossible to envisage something akin to Civil War. After all, Trumpy is sending troops into major cities. Troops, mind you, that locals did not request and do not want. Representatives of ICE are making a mockery of due process, arresting the innocent with the supposedly guilty. Americans are being held in detention centers without due process, some are shipped to foreign prisons.

There have been and will continue to be large protests that may get bigger. There could well eventually be repressive measures enacted against marchers. It behooves good citizens to be diligent. It may already be that we are beyond the point when writing one’s congressperson is sufficient.

There are films that can inspire us as we struggle to regain and hold our basic rights as citizens. Many movies have had powerful messages about resistance and fighting the good fight against authoritarianism. They are scattered throughout the history of cinema. I present to you ten such films. I hope they will give you hope and inspiration. Power to the people!

Battle of Algiers (1966) Pontecorvo. One of the greatest political films of all time. This faux documentary tells the story of the Algerians fight for independence against the French in the 1950s. Filmed to look like actual news footage, it makes the struggles of revolutionaries seem real, important, necessary and desperate. By giving voice to the French army it broadens the scope of the story and puts it into greater historical context. Insurgency, occupation and resistance have never been more compelling on the big screen.

Reds (1981) Beatty. The epic story of John Reed, Louise Bryant and the revolutionaries — American and Russian — who helped make the first quarter of the 20th century such a hopeful time for the far left. Sadly we know that the Russian Revolution fell into a reign of terror and murder under Lenin and only got worse under Stalin. However they were times of great promise to the left. Reed and Bryant were revolutionaries and journalists and as the movie shows they numbered among their associates the likes of Emma Goldman (anarchist played by Maureen Stapleton), Big Bill Haywood (IWW leader played by Dolph Sweet), Eugene O’Neill (playwright played by Jack Nicholson). Reds is a love story and it’s a history lesson and it's about the passion and idealism of people who believe power should be vested in the people and not oligarchs.

One Battle After Another (2025) PT Anderson.In theaters now. I quote from my blog post on the film from last month: Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, One Battle After Another is a movie movie. It is a cornucopia for film goers. Rich with character, incidents, conflicts, themes, history and messages. It clocks in at two hours and fifty minutes and there’s not a yawn in it. There’s not a wasted second. It’s a nearly three hour film that’s tight and compact. It’s a wonder.One Battle is the story of an ex-revolutionary (Leonardo DiCaprio) who has to rescue his daughter (Chase Infiniti in her film debut) from a corrupt military officer (Sean Penn). That’s your over simplified plot summary. There is so much else going on. Relationships, plots, betrayals, deception and a fair bit of comedy along with something of a history lesson. No, One Battle is not based on a true story (its origins are Thomas Pynchon’s novel, Vineland) but it gives you a sense of the spirit of the Sixties among those who, like the Weather Underground, believed in using violence as a response to a regressive and repressive U.S.government.

The Strawberry Statement (1970) Hagmann. Not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination more like a prolonged music video with some of the greatest hits of the Sixties. But it for all its flaws, Strawberry Statement captures the mood of the Sixties, particularly among those college students dedicated to ending the war, the draft and social injustice. For many in the Sixties, the “revolution” was something of a lark but one that they discovered had real life impact that would resonate down the years.

Medium Cool (1969) Wexler. Cinéma vérité–style documentary filmmaking used in telling a fictional story set in Chicago in 1968 during the infamous Democratic National Convention. Actual footage of protests is used which helps show the chaotic nature of police riots. Medium Cool tackles a number of issues including the failure of whites to understand the black experience. Shot when and where it was by the great Haskell Wexler, it couldn’t help but give a real sense of the late Sixties in general and the events in Chicago in particular.

The Grapes of Wrath (1940) Ford. Based on John Steinbeck’s novel of the same name it is surely one of the greatest films ever made. It tells the story of the Joad family which has been dispossessed from its Oklahoma farm by the combined horrors of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. They head to California in the poor person’s eternal search for greener pastures. They find thousands of others on the same quest and they find land and farm owners who are only to happy to exploit the poor and brutally suppress any efforts for fair pay and decent treatment. Tom Joad (Henry Fonda) becomes an unwitting revolutionary. He muses: “I been thinking about us, too, about our people living like pigs and good rich land layin' fallow. Or maybe one guy with a million acres and a hundred thousand farmers starvin'. And I been wonderin' if all our folks got together and yelled….”

Malcolm X (1992) S. Lee. What could be more revolutionary than the story of Malcolm X? The rise from common criminal to inspirational leader to the burgeoning black power movement. There was the long stopover with the Nation of Islam before his Hajj led him to understand that Islam was not exclusive to one race. His split from Elijah Muhammad was yet another of courage and ultimately led or contributed to his assassination. Malcolm was the white establishment’s greatest fear, an inspirational Black leader who spoke eloquently of the corruption and racism in white society. His story still resonates. 

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) Capra. The classic story of one man standing up to a powerful political machine that seeks to crush him while continuing to control the press and muzzle dissent. Jimmy Stewart gave his greatest performance in the title role as a naive new senator pitted against powers that seem impregnable. Senator Smith uses the fillibuster to rally support to his cause. Mr. Smith shows both the worst and the best in U.S. democracy. It has been criticized by people on the left, the right and in the middle. Perhaps because it so effectively hits home.

Z (1969) Costa-Gravas. The Best of Costa-Gavras’ many politically-charged films that include Stage of Siege, Missing and the Confession. Z is the story of the 1963 assassination by right wing zealots of a Greek liberal politician and the ensuing investigation which uncovers a web of corruption involving the military, police, and right-wing extremists, revealing the state's complicity in silencing political dissent. Z is aptly labeled a political thriller but it is also an unflinching look at the terrible damage a right wing regime can bring to a democratic society. I hope that doesn’t sound too familiar.

Sorry to Bother You (2018) Riley.  Sorry to Bother You"is a surreal satirical comedy that follows a young African-American telemarketer who discovers that using a polished, exaggerated “white voice” catapults him to success in a dystopian version of corporate America. As he rises through the ranks, he uncovers a disturbing conspiracy and is ultimately forced to choose between personal wealth and power, or standing in solidarity with his activist friends fighting to unionize and reclaim their humanity. The film exposes the big-money people behind the curtain and how they manipulate our culture and transform people into corporate slaves. It’s a movie to enjoy maybe mostly because it will piss you off.

Also recommended: Battleship Potemkin, State of Siege, Missing, Matewan, Our Daily Bread, Meet John Doe, Judas and the Black Messiah, Born on the Fourth of July and Running on Empty.

It's Time for Another Installment of Films I've Watched Lately Some of Which I Loved Greatly

From Starlet directed by Sean Baker

Midnight in Paris (20110 Allen. It’s not easy to make a movie that feels truly “magical.” This is evidenced by how bad most films are that try to delve in the supernatural in any way shape or form. Woody Allen as writer and director pulled it off with Midnight in Paris. There has be to be a dash of believability to the story’s conceit. Normal conventions need to be followed within the fantasy world. The story has to be compelling enough to make its total implausibility forgotten. The actors have to buy into the story and play it straight, not with a wink and a nod to the audience whether literal or figurative. Lastly it needs to move the audience either through its action, love story or message. With Midnight in Paris Allen made one of the best movies ever of any kind. The missus and I watched it Saturday night for the perhaps the fifth, sixth or seventh time. Hard to keep track. I could watch it again tonight. The story of a man who is able to travel from the 21st century to 1920s Paris every night is perfect for someone like me who is fascinated by certain eras of the past — including Paris in the twenties. I’m also fascinated by the notion of time travel which is why all of the books I’ve written have been set in the past. Imagine a film with characters that include F Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, Luis Buñuel, Josephine Baker, Cole Porter, Zelda Fitzgerald, Salvador Dali and TS Eliot, to name a few. You get that in Midnight in Paris. You get a lot and it’s all wonderful….and magical.

Prince of Broadway (2008) Baker. Watching this film and Starlet means I’ve know seen all of Sean Baker’s film. There’s not a lemon in the bunch. It’s a film that feels at times like a documentary. Baker’s films often feel like they’re shot from the real lives of people. In this case we have a West African immigrant in New York making a decent living as a hustler selling knock off clothes and shoes. He’s got a business owner as frontman supporting him. It’s all good until his ex brings by what she says is his son for him to raise for awhile. He is not prepared for this. It’s supposed to be for two weeks but we just now it’s not going to be anywhere near that neat and tidy. It’s a story that draws upon so much of what is challenging about being a father, about making it in the world, about small children, about dancing around the law, about survival in the city and how close we often are to slipping off an edge. Excellent stuff.

Starlet (2012) Baker. I knew nothing about the movie when I pressed play other than it appeared to feature a young, white female in the lead role. An hour and forty minutes I was left to wonder why I hadn’t been directed towards this film before. Brilliant. Bree Hemingway stars as Jane, a young porn actress who discovers wads of cash in a thermos she bought at a yard sale. She befriends the elderly woman who sold it to her, much to the dismay of the elderly woman who’d prefer to be left alone. As in all Baker films there are arguments, fights, emotional outbursts, resolutions and issues left hanging. Much of the trouble has to do with Jane’s housemate who’s also in the porn business, she’s something of a train wreck and her all-over-the-map boyfriend is Ward Cleaver in comparison. There’s a lot to unpack in this story of a bizarre but meaningful friendship and the side issues that complicate matters. The unpacking is well worth it as much as revealed and much is left for us to contemplate. Sean Baker is now one of my favorite directors.

The Flim Flam Man (1967) Kershner. Sometimes the story around the movie or the circumstances of seeing it or what you’ve heard or seen about it can alter the way you watch a film. This is often a problem as it skews the way you perceive it, but other times it adds an element to the viewing experience. With Flim Flam Man I couldn’t help thinking that I hadn’t seen it since it first came to theaters fifty-eight years ago. All I remembered about it was that began with the two main characters by a train track. I also had a strong mental image of a very cute young woman in a nighty which revealed luscious legs. Oh yes, I remembered that it co-starred George C Scott and Michael Sarazin. I really liked Sarazin as a kid, he seemed like a cool guy, the type I’d like to grow up to be. Sure Steve McQueen was my hero, but he existed in another stratosphere. Being a Sarazin seemed possible. So I watched the movie lo these many years later continually wondering what the young teenaged me thought of this, that or the other. I had no memory of whether I liked it at the time but having finally seen it again I’m sure that I did. It’s one of those fun, charming movies with ridiculous chase scenes, two mismatched buddies and a love interest. A story in which are rebellious outside-the-law hucksters continually outwit the cops. It was a pleasure to watch and fun to think about the lens I saw it through during my first viewing. It was also nice to see the young beauty who I'd remembered, she was played by Sue Lyons.

Intruder in the Dust (1949) C. Brown. One of those films that is all the more remarkable given the context of when it was made. A story about racism, Jim Crow and a near lynching set in Oxford, Mississippi is not something you’d expect to have been made way back in 1949 when Jim Crow still reigned in the American South and near lynchings were less frequent than actual ones. A black man is accused of murder and the evidence all points to his guilt. Even the well-meaning white lawyer is sure of the man’s guilt. But mostly through the help of a teenaged boy who was once saved from drowning by the accused, the truth seems that it will out. It’s a good story from any time but coming out when it did is amazing.

Hearts and Minds (1974) P. Davis. My favorite documentary of all time. It’s a searing indictment of U.S. participation in the Vietnam War. It has been criticized for its bias. That’s like criticizing a Holocaust documentary for only showing the Jewish side of the story. Any portrayal of U.S. incursion into Vietnam needs to focus on American arrogance, ignorance, cruelty, barbarity and incompetence. It needs to expose the lies, the hypocrisy and the racism at the core of U.S. policies and actions. As Daniel Ellsberg says during the film: "The question used to be: might it be possible that we were on the wrong side in the Vietnamese War? But, we weren't on the wrong side. We are the wrong side.” If you’d like to understand the American position in the war here’s a quote from the film by General Westmoreland: “The Oriental doesn't put the same high price on life as does the Westerner. Life is plentiful, life is cheap in the Orient. And that's the philosophy of the Orient. Expresses it - life is not important.” Or how about this from Lt. George Coker a former POW who said this: “What did Vietnam look like? Well, if it wasn't for the people, it was very pretty. The people over there are very backward and very primitive and they just make a mess out of everything.” There’s another side to this story?