Mac Arthur Versus the Emperor

Posted on 10/04/2013 by Grumpa Joe
MacArthur signs Japanese surrender instrument ...

MacArthur signs Japanese surrender instrument aboard USS Missouri. Generals Wainwright and Percival stand behind him. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“The Emperor” turned into a surprisingly good historical story. I know that today’s youth hate anything historical, but for an old guy like myself it is entertaining because I lived through the period. Tommy Lee Jones plays General Douglas Mac Arthur as Mac begins to rebuild Japan after the atomic-bombs forced Japan to surrender. Before Mac Arthur can do any positive rebuilding, he must first bring Japan’s war criminals to justice. One of his big concerns is whether the Emperor, who is god to his subjects,  started, or made decisions in the conduct of the war.

Mac Arthur relies on General Bonner Fellers, an officer who is expert on Japan affairs and who speaks the language, and knows the culture. General Fellers, played very well by Matthew Fox, went to school with a Japanese girl in the States and then followed her back to Japan before the war began. Therein lies a sub-plot between the girl and the officer.

The story gets into the culture of Japan and the blind loyalty of the people to the Emperor. It is this loyalty that makes Fellers job to discern the truth about the emperor impossible. General Fellers finally submits a report which Mac Arthur finds useless. Mac must decide the Emperors guilt based an Fellers’ opinion, and not on the facts of the case.

Tommy Lee plays a great MacArthur, and Matthew Fox portrays General Fellers well.

The film went  by so fast I felt we were in the theater for only fifteen minutes.

This is a great story with good acting, and direction. There is a glimpse of the destruction brought on by the atomic bomb, but nothing unbearable. The sub-story of the love affair between the officer and his Japanese girlfriend made the story that  much more interesting.

What disappointed me was the lack of people who attended this showing. I guess this story appealed to an old fart like me because it occurred when I was seven years old.

I found this film well worth the time spent from those precious minutes I still have remaining on this earth.

English: Emperor Hirohito and General MacArthu...

English: Emperor Hirohito and General MacArthur, at their first meeting, at the U.S. Embassy, Tokyo, 27 September, 1945 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Four Hearts ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
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Another Transformation Clue

Posted on 10/04/2013 by Grumpa Joe

The real Transformation agenda is now glaringly obvious. The Left wing, led by our President is in a full court attack against Capitalism, and leading us toward Communism. The recent news flash by Melissa Harris-Perry gives us a bit straight from her lesson plan at Tulane University. If this was her original thought maybe it would be revolutionary, but she stole it from the playbook of Carl Marx. The Communist Party of America has had a long-standing goal to infiltrate the schools and to take over the minds of our kids. It looks like they are succeeding.  Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao used this same strategy, and now Harris-Perry proposes Obama adopt state-owned kids also. Another tired old idea with a socialist spin.

Listen carefully to what this supposedly learned person is proposing for your kids. Everyday, I hear my wife ask me “how could so many smart, educated people be so stupid as to have voted for this guy twice.”  My only answer is that the youth of America has been dumbed down in schools for the past forty years, and they are now riding a giant wave of political disaster.

It took America seventy years to defeat communism, and we lie on the brink of transforming into a communist state. Who will help us as we helped the oppressed? We have to stop this transformation ourselves, from within. There is precious little time left for us to make the miracle happen.

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Are Five Hearts Better than Five Stars?

Posted on 09/04/2013 by Grumpa Joe

Yesterday, it occurred to me as I wrote a scathing movie review that I had not commented on some of the good ones we saw. Today, I will make an effort to make amends and write about an outstanding film which is highly under rated.

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About two months ago, Peggy and I saw “Silver Linings Playbook.”  This film is the opposite of  “Tyler Perry’s Temptation, Confessions of a Marriage Counselor.” Maybe I liked Silver Linings because I know people who suffer from bi-polar disease and saw the disease portrayed accurately in the character Pat, played by Bradley Cooper (nominated for best actor).

Silver Linings touches on a disease which many people have a hard time understanding. How can someone so gentle and kind turn into a bitching monster within so short a time? The disease is more common than we would like to believe, but it is real and the people affected by it suffer in silence. The person affected does not realize what is happening to them nor do they believe they are acting any different.

I particularly enjoyed the scene where Pat who lives in the attic bedroom of his parent’s home stays up late to read Hemingway’s “Farewell to Arms,” a book his ex-wife has accused him of not being intellectually capable of understanding. Pat reads the book hoping he can impress her into believing he has changed and he is desperately seeking her affection.  He comes to the end and shouts “what the f___”  and violently tosses the book through a closed window to the front lawn.  He then proceeds to barge into his parent’s bedroom at four a.m. to talk about how stupid Hemingway’s ending is.

The characters in this movie are very believable, the story is real, The actors are outstanding. I can’t understand why Hollywood didn’t recognize Silver Linings as the best of the year, it is certainly a better film than Argo, but that will be another review. At least Jennifer Lawrence of Hunger Games gave a Best Actress performance as the troubled young woman opposite Cooper’s bi-polar character. I thought Cooper should also have received the Oscar for his performance.

If you haven’t seen this movie, see it, this one is worth the money.

Five Hearts ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

If I knew how to make stars I would, but really, hearts are better than stars for this film.

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Save Your Money

Posted on 08/04/2013 by Grumpa Joe

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This is a true confession. Today, I went to see a movie. Peggy and I have a goal to see twelve movies in twelve weeks, and today we saw number ten. The first nine films we saw  were very good;  the stories seemed plausible, the action looked real although contrived, and the characters were believable. I wrote about “Olympus Has Fallen” on this blog not long ago.

The film we saw today is a giant pile of dog turd. I was praying for my bladder overload to kick in so I would have an excuse to leave. As luck had it, my bladder behaved.

The movie is ” Tyler Perry‘s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor.”

When I first read the title I was stupid enough to believe that Tyler Perry was part of the film. It turns out that he is the author, and it surprised me to know who the hell Tyler Perry is. Looking back at it, I now realize that “Tyler Perry” is code for “all black story, and actors.” Call me a racist if you like, but this film left me wishing I had chosen to see “the Croods” instead.

Where do I begin? Portions of the story are completely unbelievable, the characters are not real, the plot is worse than some of the fairytale action films, and the actors performed like rejects from a third-rate school of drama.

Ask me if I liked it? NO!

I give this film five dog turds.

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Please Help Isabella

Posted on 07/04/2013 by Grumpa Joe

Some days, I get up with aches and pains and feel sorry for myself. Then, I begin to remember the many causes I support as a member of the Frankfort Lions Club. One of our most recent projects is to find a meaningful way to help the Brya family survive. Read the story of their kids at the website linked below, but what the family doesn’t talk about is their personal hardship. They have coped with raising two severely handicapped children for five years when another hardship struck, i.e. loss of income. Now they really hurt, but their mission to save their kids and to give them a life lives on and they cope. Don’t you wish we had the same courage and fortitude to deal with our petty problems?

Soon after I think of these kids and their parents all my aches and pains dissolve.

Help Grumpa Joe’s Place and the Frankfort Lions celebrate National Mobility Awareness month (May). One minute of your time will help Isabella Brya of Frankfort win one of three handicapped vans.

Isabella Brya
Isabella Brya

Vote for our local hero, Isabella Brya in the 2013 National Mobility Awareness Month Local Hero contest daily from March 11 – May 10 at

http://www.mobilityawarenessmonth.com/local-heroes/

This link will take you to the voting page.

Please search for: Isabella, Brya, Illinois and cast your vote.

Because you may vote daily, you will have to register so the website can keep things honest.

Remember…vote daily

To learn Isabella’s story, or to make a donation toward her care, visit the website  www.forbella.org

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