actmohr Reviews

The Blackwater Lightship (2004 TV Movie)

A poignant story of a young gay AIDS patient and his relatives.

[10/10 · 5 February 2004]

As the father of young man who died of AIDS before we really knew much about this disease, I was deeply moved by this touching story of a young man and his sister and their relationship to their mother and grandmother. This is the kind of story for which Hallmark Hall of Fame is noted and they did not fail again to bring us some of best of TV drama available.

DreamKeeper (2003)

Finally a movie about Native-Americans by Native-Americans

[10/10 · 29 December 2003]

Finally a movie about Native-Americans by Native-Americans. Okay, so some of them are Canadian, so perhaps we should add "Aboriginal." Many of the actors have appeared in other U.S. as well as Canadian films of and about Aboriginal peoples but I'm sure I have never seen a film so dominated by them. And one of them has the courage to say it is not the current generations of "white eyes" who stole their lands, but our forefathers, Gen. Custer, President Grant, John Wayne, etc. This should be required showing in every U.S. and Canadian history class but of course the fundies would most certainly object because of the mysticism.

The Man Who Might Have Been: An Inquiry Into the Life and Death of Herbert Norman (1999)

Good analysis of effects of McCarthyism even beyond the U.S.

[10/10 · 2 July 2000]

This film has done a marvelous job of analyzing the insidious effects of McCarthyism on the American scene and in this case spilling over into Canada. Of course you could not expect much from the movie system of the U.S. since most of the producers were in lock-step with the political and economic leaders of the country in their effort to do whatever possible to stop working people the world over from achieving their liberation from capitalism. Another good example was the story of John Henry Faulk and the classic and probably only truly pro-labor film ever produced in the USA: "Salt of the Earth," produced, written and performed by black-listed members of the Hollywood community, Herbert Biberman, Michael Wilson, Will Geer, and others. The TV movie "Tail-Gunner Joe" did a fairly good analysis of McCarthy, the opportunistic politician as an individual but didn't go into the politics of what was behind the red-baiting.

On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970)

Streisand is great!

[17 May 2000]

As a Streisand fan of course I'm prejudiced, but even if I weren't I feel I would have loved this one. Along with Shirley MacLaine I have experience out-of-body experiences and while I haven't had a past-life experience so far I do not disparage that such events can happen. I've known other people who have been there and I trust that their integrity is without question. If you are interested in these subjects you will most certainly enjoy this well done interpretation.