No salt in Salt (2010)

The White House has unimaginable layers of security with Secret Service personnel trained for nothing short of a war guarding it from both within and outside. Yet, “rogue” CIA agent Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie), disguised as a male Russian army captain, walks into the world’s most famous residence like she was walking into her own house, shoots her way through the seemingly impregnable fortress, and manages to go down to the bunker where agents are guarding the President. In the bunker, her boss Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber), who is the real spy, knocks the President unconscious and uses his hand to try and activate the codes that will launch nuclear missiles in the Middle East. Jolie and Schreiber spend several minutes having a tête-à-tête and fighting and shooting each other, even as the President lies comatose on the floor and elite commandos try to blast their way into the bunker. All this happens in the bowels of the White House.

I thought the entire scene, in fact the entire film, in spite of the slick production and death-defying action, was silly and over the top and not even remotely realistic. Besides, I couldn't figure out whether Jolie’s character was a good guy or a bad guy. Nonetheless, with women like Salt, you don't need superheroes.

Salt reminded me of another technically-brilliant film with a more or less similar theme: the Mission: Impossible series, especially Ghost Protocol (2011), which I saw with some disbelief last week.

I have seen only three films of Angelina Jolie including the equally silly Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) and The Tourist (2010), the latter mainly for Johnny Depp, and heard her voice in two others, Shark Tale (2004) and the Kung Fu Panda films. I watched Salt on cable because nothing worthwhile was going on. I didn’t realise it would be as insipid as the rest of the fare going on at the time.

The temptations of an e-reader

I finally succumbed to the temptation of buying an e-reader. I didn’t buy a Kindle or a Nook as neither is sold in a big way in Mumbai. I have seen just one Kindle model in retail stores and not a single Nook tablet anywhere. Amazon has now formally entered India and it remains to be seen what the world’s largest online retailer has to offer to probably the world’s most e-gadget obsessed nation.

At first, I thought I’d buy an inexpensive tablet without a “phone” or “calling” option because all I wanted was to read ebooks. I went through the lineup of tablets like iball, Dell, Sony, and Acer with 10-inch screens, selling for anywhere between Rs.5,000 and Rs.10,000 ($83 to $166). The dollar recently bummed Rs.11 ($.50) off the rupee.

Unsure of just how good these tablets were, my son convinced me into buying the popular Samsung Galaxy Tab2 with 7.1-inch screen, 16-GB built-in memory, and a calling option. He said it cost more (Rs.16,000 or $320) but it was more reliable than any other tablet on the Indian market with excellent after-sales service. I’m glad I heeded his advice. 

An illustrative picture of an
Aldiko book shelf

The tablet, backed by lots of free and exciting stuff from Android, has plenty of features that I haven’t explored yet. The first thing I asked my son to do was to download a simple but efficient ebook reader from Android and he showed no hesitation in choosing Aldiko for my proposed ebook library. It’s a terrific application and I couldn’t have asked for a more uncomplicated reader. I have now stacked up the “book shelf” with lots of copyright-free ebooks across categories I like reading, including non-fiction.

I also downloaded a couple of apps for my trivial pursuits like chess and scrabble. I haven’t played either of the two yet and I still have to get around to films and music.

An e-reader has lots of advantages and almost no disadvantages that I can think of. If there is one, then it is choosing between a real book and an ebook to read. I often find myself putting away a torn and tattered book midway for the pleasure of reading an ebook on a sophisticated device. My books in the real world are crying out to be read.

Peace amidst pandemonium

Photo courtesy: www.ibnlive.com

When it rains, it really pours. Flash floods caused by unprecedented rainfall at this time of the year have taken a heavy toll on god and man alike.

Hundreds have died, thousands are homeless and missing, and an equal number, mostly pilgrims, are stranded in the North Indian states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, geographically, located at the foothills of the mighty Himalayas. Hundreds of houses, schools, hospitals, temples and shrines, and entire infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, and railway tracks, have been destroyed or washed away by the monsoon fury. The destruction of over two-dozen bridges has cut off access to hundreds of villages across the two states.

Photo courtesy: AFP

Some of the worst-hit areas were the revered temple towns of Kedarnath and Rishikesh in Uttarakhand where most of the pilgrims are stranded. Mud and slush, caused by overflowing rivers, submerged several temples and shrines and the deities they adorned. The pictures show a submerged statue of Lord Shiva, one of the Hindu Trinity, in Rishikesh, which bore the brunt of River Ganga’s fury.

The central (federal) government has ordered its disaster management authority to carry out relief and rescue operations on a war footing. The army and air force and paramilitary forces are already assisting the respective state administrations in conducting search and rescue missions. Whatever they do, it'll never be enough.

In decades at least, neither has India’s annual monsoon struck with such ferocity nor has it rained so terribly in the month of June. With the rains usually stretching to September, people living in rural areas and along the cyclone-prone coastlines are joining their palms in silent prayer.

Will Lord Shiva open his third eye (or inner eye) located in the centre of his forehead and bring succour to the hopeless millions?

MUSIC & LYRICS

Believe by Cher (1998)

A musical treat this Tuesday for Overlooked Films, Audio and Video over at Todd Mason's blog Sweet Freedom.

“Do you believe in life after love

I can feel something inside me say

I really don't think you're strong enough, now”

Did you know that Cher released three films in 1987? They were The Witches of Eastwick, based on the novel by John Updike, Suspect, and Moonstruck. Did you also know that the American pop diva has acted in more than a dozen films and television series? I didn’t.

I haven’t seen Suspect which sounds like a good crime thriller with Cher playing a lawyer. Dennis Quaid and Liam Neeson are in the film too.

I liked The Witches of Eastwick mainly on account of Jack Nicholson and Susan Sarandon. The latter with Cher and Michelle Pfeiffer made three fine witches. Moonstruck almost put me to sleep. I prefer Nicholas Cage as a much older actor in his latter films. 

This post is not about Cher the actor but Cher the singer, and that is primarily what she is. A couple of months ago, we were at a mall when her hit single, Believe, played. The song sounded terrific on the hidden loudspeaker system. I wondered where I’d heard it before and then I remembered that I listened to it occasionally on my cellphone. What a difference it made! 

I cannot analyse the music behind Cher’s powerful, manly voice. But, according to Wikimedia, “Believe is a dance-pop song that incorporates elements of techno, Eurodance, and house music. It also uses heavy amounts of Auto-Tune, which has since become one of the song's most notable features.” 

Released in October 1998, Believe is the lead single from Cher’s twenty-third album of the same name and it has become one of the best-selling singles of all time.

For previous Music & Lyrics, see under Labels.

BOOK PREVIEW

A Moment on the Edge: 100 Years of Crime Stories by Women edited by Elizabeth George (2005)

The only books I’m tempted to buy are books that are out of print or hard to find. I usually buy them in secondhand bookshops and on the footpaths of Bombay (now Mumbai). I rarely purchase new books from new bookstores though I have bought a few ebooks from Amazon. I think the last two new books I bought were The Complete Prose of Woody Allen and Flint by Louis L'Amour.

Woody Allen is one of the finest humour writers I've read. I equate his sardonic wit with that of Groucho Marx and Kurt Vonnegut. I discovered Woody Allen the writer after I read his brilliant short story ‘The Kugelmass Episode’ in Present Laughter: An Anthology of Modern Comic Fiction edited by English author Malcolm Bradbury. I purchased this hardback for Rs.100 (a little over $2) from a used bookstore.

Flint is one of my favourite western novels by Louis L'Amour. I always wanted to own a brand new copy of this book.

Last week, I visited a new bookstore and nearly bought A Moment on the Edge: 100 Years of Crime Stories by Women by American writer Elizabeth George. The 560-page book published by HarperCollins in 2005 is a collection of stories by some of the best-known women writers, past and present. I’m familiar with most of the 26 authors though I haven't read every one of them. There are stories by Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Shirley Jackson, Dorothy Salisbury Davis, Margery Allingham, Nadine Gordimer, Ruth Rendell, and Joyce Carol Oates.

The publisher has put out the following description for the book:

“New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth George serves up a century's worth of superb crime fiction penned by women. This veritable all-star team delivers tales of dark deeds that will keep you reading long into the night… A Moment on the Edge is a rare treat not only for fans of crime fiction but also for anyone who appreciates a skillfully written, deftly told story.”

I read a part of the introduction by Elizabeth George. It’s a superb piece of writing on crime literature and its domination by women writers.

Although I was tempted to buy this book, I did not because it would have been criminal to do so at a time when I have more than fifty used books to read. This is not counting the dozens of copyright-free ebooks, fiction and nonfiction, I have downloaded. And then there are the vintage comics and comic strips.

Multiplicity, I wish.

BOOKS

No Comebacks by Frederick Forsyth (1982)

If you like short stories, then I recommend this fine collection by Frederick Forsyth for Friday’s Forgotten Books at Patti Abbott’s blog Pattinase.

My copy of the book.

I thought I had a clear memory of authors whose novels I read in my youth. Frederick Forsyth proved me wrong. Rather my wife did when she picked up No Comebacks, a collection of ten delightful short stories. Until then, I didn't know the septuagenarian British author had written short stories. In fact, he has written two more short story collections vis-à-vis The Deceiver (1991), chronicling the career of British secret agent Sam McCready, and The Veteran (2001), an assortment of crime stories.

At least I have read most of his best-known thrillers including The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, and The Fourth Protocol. Some of these novels have been made into successful films. Admittedly, I haven't read any of his novels published in the past two decades, a disservice to a very fine writer.

Mark Sanderson liked women. For that matter he also liked Aberdeen Angus fillet steaks, medium-rare with tossed heart-of-lettuce salad, and he consumed both with equal if passing enjoyment.

This is the opening line of the first story, No Comebacks, after the title of the 332-page book. It tells us the story of Mark Sanderson, a 39-year old English magnate and philanderer who is used to having his way and getting what he wants. “Whatever Mark wants Mark gets” is his self-styled credo. He leads three lives—public, professional, and secret—without scruples. This story concerns his third life, of boredom and of his desperate need to cherish and possess the woman of his dreams. He meets her in the form of Mrs. Angela Summers, a tall and handsome woman who lives with her husband on the Mediterranean coastline in Spain. She has a brief non-sexual affair with Mark. When Angela refuses to leave her husband because he needs her, Mark plots to kill him. So he hires a Corsican assassin to get him out of the way.

‘Is youse the darkie McQueen has put on the job?’ he demanded.
Ram Lal stopped in his tracks. ‘Harkishan Ram Lal,’ he said. ‘Yes.’
‘Well get in the fecking truck,’ he said.

Surprisingly, the protagonist in the second story, There Are No Snakes in Ireland, set in Northern Ireland, is a young Indian medical student called Harkishan Ram Lal who desperately needs money to complete his education. He takes up a job with a demolition contractor in Bangor and is assigned to a wrecking crew whose foreman, Big Billie Cameron, is a 6-feet and 4-inch racist brute. He hates Ram Lal on first sight and calls him a “darkie” and a “black bastard.” Ram Lal swallows the insults and the humiliation because he needs the money to complete med school. He works with quiet resentment but he doesn’t keep still. He plots revenge. He returns to India for a week, buys a venomous viper, and takes it back to England. At the demolition site, he drops it into the right-hand pocket of Cameron’s jacket where he keeps his pipe and tobacco pouch.

You might guess how both these suspense stories end. Frederick Forsyth ensures that your guess is all wrong. He is the master of the proverbial twist in the tale. He takes you by surprise in each of the ten stories in No Comebacks that are entertaining and narrated with chilling effect. I selected these two stories because I liked them the most. I'm not surprised that There Are No Snakes in Ireland won Forsyth the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best short story. The author's telling of the sinister antics of Harkishan Ram Lal and Big Billie Cameron deserved the honour.

FILMS

The Dirty Dozen (1967) and 

The Devil's Brigade (1968)

This week, The Devil’s Brigade plays catch-up with Robert Aldrich’s masterpiece for Overlooked Films, Audio and Video over at Todd Mason’s blog Sweet Freedom.

Lt. Col. Robert T. Frederick (William Holden) to Major Cliff Bricker (Vince Edwards) in The Devil’s Brigade: “Major, when you address me, take that cigar out of your mouth.”

Comparisons between The Dirty Dozen (1967) and The Devil's Brigade (1968) are inevitable. Both the WWII films have much in common, in the main, the theme and a multi star cast, and both are based on books.

The Dirty Dozen tells the story of a secret plan to infiltrate a chateau in France and wipe out a cluster of high-ranking German officers.

The Devil's Brigade revolves around a secret plot to end German occupation of a strategic mountain in Italy.

A victory in both military campaigns will give the Allied Forces a huge advantage in the war.

While The Dirty Dozen is made up of twelve battle-hardened convicts who storm the Nazi party at the chateau, The Devil’s Brigade comprises a ragtag bunch of misfits who take over the mountain.

Both the secret missions are led by formidable and respected commanding officers played by two popular actors, Lt. Col. Robert T. Frederick (William Holden) in The Devil’s Brigade and Major John Reisman (Lee Marvin) in The Dirty Dozen. Both men must overcome all kinds of odds, including rank indiscipline and rowdy behaviour, to turn the men under their command into precision-guided fighting outfits.

However, in the course of training, both the Lieutenant-Colonel and the Major are soldiers first and officers second, as they treat their men as humans rather than as machines. There is also many a hilarious moment during the training process or at least until the men embark on their dangerous mission.

Where The Devil’s Brigade lacks is in the glamour quotient and dramatic pace of The Dirty Dozen.

The Dirty Dozen, directed by Robert Aldrich, is overwhelmed by a long line of famous actors that include the likes of John Cassavetes, Telly Savalas, and Donald Sutherland whose animated characters bring the film more alive than it already is. It’s the kind of film that would do well at the box office on the sheer strength of its cast. And I believe it did.

The Devil’s Brigade fails to match up in the celebrity stakes though William Holden holds up his end well with some fine performances by Major Cliff Bricker (Vince Edwards), assistant to the CO, Major Alan Crown (Cliff Robertson) of the Canadian contingent, and Privates Omar Greco (Richard Jaeckel), Theodore Ransom (Andrew Prine), Rocky Rockman (Claude Akins), and Hugh MacDonald (Richard Dawson).

The only common actor in both the movies is Richard Jaeckel who is point man to Lee Marvin’s character in The Dirty Dozen. He impresses in both the films.

Interestingly, The Devil’s Brigade provides a piece of history. The US army misfits team up with an elite Canadian military unit and train—and entertain—together for a mission that is originally planned in Norway but is later diverted to Italy.

According to internet sources, the story is based on a book of the same name by American novelist and historian Robert H. Adleman and Col. George Walton, a member of the brigade. It is a fictionalised account of the First Special Service Force, the joint Canada-US World War II commando group under Col. Robert T. Frederick.

The film was shot with the 3rd United States Army Special Forces Group at Camp Williams, 20 miles south of Salt Lake City, and battle locations on Mount Jordan, both in Utah, and on location in Italy. Apparently, producer David L. Wolper found it cheaper to film in an Italian village rather than build an Italian set in America. The US Department of Defence is also believed to have provided 300 members of the Utah National Guard to play soldiers in the battle scenes.

Andrew V. McLaglen, who directed The Devil’s Brigade, appears to have a liking for multi star cast films as evident in at least two other war films The Wild Geese (1978) and The Sea Wolves (1980), the latter shot in my backyard in Goa where I spent my childhood, and two westerns, The Way West (1967) and Bondolero! (1968). I have yet to see the last mentioned.

The Devil’s Brigade is a fairly entertaining film in spite of its striking resemblance to The Dirty Dozen in more ways than one.


In case you missed — War movies worthy of World War II (December 13, 2011).