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liliebud
Reviews
Bitter Harvest (1981)
My reaction was a surprise to me!
This is a gentle, even sweet, movie of honest folks, farmers and dairymen. Watching the young couple struggle to live up to their ideals of running a dairy, honestly, gave me an entry into a world this city gal could never know. In this rural Americana film, neighbors actually help one another. So, I was devastated when the character played by Art Carney becomes so ill; I was heart broken. But more was in store for me. I was stunned to find myself weeping when the diary cows were driven into the pit! I had never thought of dairy cows as being gentle, and sweet, and doe eyed! And so now, Ron is insulting my religion with the da Vinci code crap. Why, Ron? You were nicer to cattle than to my whole Church: Mother Theresa, JP II, et alia. Mother and JP don't deserve this.
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Murder and Euthanasia in Hellywood
This propaganda extols murder and euthanasia as entertainment, love, and brilliant. Despite all the botox in his forehead, Eastwood looks old and tired; Swank is still ugly with lips bigger than Angelina (on whom they look good) and I can never forgive Morgan for lending any of his supposed Black dignity to this swill. Even St. Patrick knew how to talk about the Trinity -- and no one knew how to speak English then -- thus presenting a stupid priest is yet more slander against the Church which is standard Hellywood treacle. I am sad for Black people that they've been exploited for the purpose of extolling the killing a defenseless, bedridden women and of trying to trick the American public into a $10 viewing of this cheap claptrap.
Luther (2003)
A little bit pregnant?
The famed psychiatrist, Erik H. Erikson (of CHILDHOOD AND SOCIETY) a devout Lutheran, wrote that Luther was "sometimes alcoholic". Actually, Luther talks a lot about drinking: "If I have a mug of beer, I want a barrel as well." Erikson further states Luther was a manic-depressive; this in l960's. Nowadays we'd call it Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. He was beaten to the point of drawing blood by his mother, and he ran away from his father. Both drinking and beatings were not uncommon in northern Germany at that time. His father wanted him to become a lawyer to further his (the father's) financial and political ambitions, and to marry a rich girl, to compete with the mother's family. Martin snapped. He called himself a 'coward' as he was probably unable to adjust to the change from blue collar copper-miner to white-collar lawyer, and was a social retard all his life. He later claimed, 'they' made him enter the seminary. Who? The Augustinians running down the road, demanding he become a monk? He refused to eat and sleep for days, while his fellow monks begged he desist. Luther stated that for his entire life whenever he heard to voice of his father, he heard the voice of God. Gadzooks. Luther was never able to grow up, to individuate, to see that his father and mother actually tortured him. PTSS. So....blame another authority figure a thousand miles away .... blame the Pope. Of course. A temper tantrum. Luther's father-God believed in witches and 'nixies', thus seeing a devil while on the toidy was to be expected. His grandiose sola scriptura dictum is based on faulty translation; he translated the Latin into good German with a 'nicht', but retained the 'not' when reversing back into Latin: nicht gut at all. A quirk of syntax. Actually, the Roman Catholic church had begun translating the Bible into all vernaculars before any of this had occurred. As anyone who has ever been to an AA meeting knows, a person can never be a 'little bit alcoholic'. Finally, alas, Hitler mentions gratitude to Luther in his grandiose tome since according to Luther "the Prophets also sinned grievously." And "drive the Jews out of the country." Syntax, nixies, booze, sex. Luther was a patsy for the German nobles who were only too happy to confiscate Church property, i.e., the buildings since the Church owned no land in Germany from ll00A.D. They set a good example for their cousins in England, too.
Chocolat (2000)
Embarrassing!
Chubby Juliette, who must have been dipping into the chocolate herself, and scroungy Johnny, in need of a good scrub, having sex! I didn't believe it for a minute! The stories were all let's-trash-the-Church standard variety. The only one to not get a break was Serge, who tried the hardest to win his wife back and learn to use the right spoon. Poor guy. Eeek. Watching Juliette roll around in the mud looks just silly after all her scrubbing. Due to all the hype I had been looking forward to seeing this flic only to be truly disappointed. And I love chocolate, but this bilge is enough to put me off my feed for good. Some one is in need of a good emetic, or cathartic.
Portrait: A Man Whose Name Was John (1973)
Blessed Papacy
Aside from Roncalli, who was the dearest, so many priests and bishops scarified to help oppose the Nazi. We must remember that to defeat them the entire world was required to do battle: USA, GB, Australia, Canada, France, and even, yes, Russia. Why, then, and how could one lone little Italian, Pope Pius XII, in a sane mind have been 'braver' than he was? His l937 ex cathedra, Mit Brennender Sorge, explicitly states that what was going on in Germany was "pagan cult". Pius XII knew that to 'cop an attitude' with Hitler would have resulted in extreme reprisals against German and all other Catholics; he could offer his life, but what of the guy in the street? He was not cowardly.