How to make a decent movie. Some thing Hollywood has forgotten.

A movie needs a protagonist (protagonist, $2 word meaning hero or heroine).  Female or male protagonists work just fine.  The protagonist must be likeable; we viewers cannot get excited about a scumbag protagonist.  The protagonist needs to accomplish something and the movie needs to show him working on it, what ever it is.  We viewers need to know just what it is that the protagonist is trying to do.  Best literary example I can think of is Tolkien.  Right in chapter 2 Gandalf tells Frodo (and us) about the ring, its deadly power, the dark lord searching for it, and the need to destroy it.  From then on for the rest of the three book trilogy we know what is going on.  The protagonist has to do things; we cannot care much about a protagonist who merely serves as a punching bag thru out the movie. 

   Then the movie needs a background, Narnia, Middlearth, the Wild West, gangland Chicago, the Washington DC swamp, Sherwood Forest, the Western Front, Imperial Rome, and the Crusades, somewhere. The background needs to be convincing, with few noticeable anachronisms.  I an a history major and long time history buff and I am OK with some bending of the history to make a better movie.

    The movie should build to a climax, where the protagonist goes up against his opposing forces and/or the villain and either wins or looses.  Speaking as a viewer, I like protagonists that win, defeating their enemy. I can tolerate a protagonist who looses if I see him/her put forth truly heroic effort in the final battle. 

   Then the movie needs good actors who speak up clearly, and a good sound man, one who makes the entire dialog audible.  I am getting old, but I have no trouble hearing the TV newsies, and the entire dialog in my old favorites.  Somewhere around Charlie Wilson’s War the sound man lost it and much of the amusing dialog was inaudible.  That sound man has been messing up movies ever since.  One thing a sound man needs to know.   He must mute the score and the sound track when the actors are speaking.

   And a movie needs a good camera man.  One who puts the camera on a tripod and doesn’t wave it around in the air.  And one who turns the lights on before filming.  Black on black scenes are simply annoying to the audience.   

I posted too soon. TV still talking George Floyd trial.

 We have the Feds declaring an investigation of the Minneapolis police department.  That's a new one on me.  I thought city police were the city's responsibility, but never mind.  We have BLM people threatening more riots. We have Alan Dershowitz calling for the George Floyd trial to be appealed/overturned/Supremecourted/something.  And we have a another terrible incident, teen aged black girl with a knife shot dead by police.  

George Floyd trial is over, Thank Goodness

We have a verdict (guilty) and everything.   We have a lot of odd remarks by national pols.  Nancy Pelosi said the the Floyd family ought to proud of George.  I don't understand that.  George got himself in trouble with the cops and wound up dead.  Nancy is trying to say that the publicity brought on by George's death is a good thing and worth George's life.  That's a horrible thing to say.  Publicity that advances your narrative is never worth a person's life.  And then we had Biden come on TV and say a few words, actually quite a few words.  I didn't bother to listen.  And then we had Maxine Waters calling for more rioting unless the verdict comes out guilty.  It did come out guilty, and I like to think that happened because of testimony in court, not fear of Maxine.   

Anyone know who is running the United States??

 Joe Biden probably is not.  I think he signs the papers put in front of him and reads the speeches someone writes off the teleprompter.  Who is writing the papers for signature and the speeches for delivery?  Jill Biden?  Kamala Harris?  Some congresscritter?  nameless White House staffers?  Who ever it is, they are really left wing. 

Vote for HB 544. Critical Race Theory is evil

Critical Race Theory says "race" is the same as skin color, white, brown, black, yellow, polka dot, whatever.  I don't believe that, I believe that all men are created equal, no matter what the color of their skin.   Critical Race Theory blames all the inequities of modern life upon racism.  And it blames whitey for all the badness in the world.  I don't believe that either.  We fought the civil war, we did the emancipation proclamation, we did the civil rights movement of the 1960s.  We probably have more things to do, but we have made a good start. We should not be teaching Critical Race Theory in the NH public schools and HB 544 will prevent that.  Vote for it. This is not censorship, it is selecting the curriculum to be taught in our schools. 

Night Line Legal

Great name that.  As good as Midnight Auto.  They are still around, running ads on Fox News.  This ad was urging people to step up and sue over Round Up weed killer.  

Let's not give Biden four new Supreme Court appointments

The Democrats are pushing "court reform" by which they mean adding four more justices to the Supreme court, and incidentally allowing Biden to appoint those four new justices.  Biden will of course appoint lefty judges who believe in a "living constitution", the notion that times change, and the court ought to change the Constitution to keep up.  I abhor this view point.  If change in the law of the land is needed, it is the duty of the popularly elected legislature, not the courts, to change it.  The three justices that Trump appointed hold the proper viewpoint that they should enforce existing law, not make new law from the bench.