January 3, 2010
When I saw The Big Lebowski in 1998, I loved it. But I had no idea it would become a cultural icon that would spawn its own subculture of devotees. I just thought it was…
November 13, 2009
The new big Hollywood film, The Men Who Stare at Goats , has a minor Vietnam War theme. The movie spin out a based-on-a-true (if extremely odd) story of military intelligence gone two steps over…
October 15, 2009
Oliver (Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, et al .) Stone is at work on his latest film, a sequel to his first post-Platoon movie, Wall Street , which came out late in 1987.…
July 16, 2009
When the prime-time Emmy award nominations were announced this morning, HBO led the league, with 99. No. 2 NBC had 67. Among the 99 are ten nominations for the sterling original film, Taking Chance, which…
April 24, 2009
The highly praised HBO film Taking Chance, which was first aired on February 19, will be released on DVD on May 12. If you didn't catch this beautifully made, powerfully acted film about a 19-year-old…
March 30, 2009
The University of Iowa's College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, in conjunction with the University's Veterans Center, is offering Identity and Social Issues: Wounded Warriors: Veterans in Literature and Film, a class this summer taught…
March 24, 2009
When a big Hollywood movie with big Hollywood stars goes straight to video, it usually is a sign that something has gone terribly wrong. That's what I thought when I heard that the new Tommy…
March 5, 2009
HBO, whose Chairman and CEO Bill Nelson served a tour of duty as an infantryman in Vietnam (and is a member of Vietnam Veterans of America), has long had a special affinity for America's veterans.…
March 4, 2009
The novelist James Lee Burke introduced his troubled Cajun detective Dave Robicheaux in In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead (1993), a terrific novel in which Dave's horrendous experiences in the Vietnam War revisit him…
February 20, 2009
The moving HBO film Taking Chance , which will debut on Saturday, February 19, is a beautifully made, powerfully acted story about a 19-year-old Marine’s final journey home from the war in Iraq. With this…