Heroes
I’ve loved war movies since I was a kid, especially those about WWII. Battleground (1949), directed by William Wellman, centered around the Nazis last gasp to turn the tide, is one of my favorites. Last night, courtesy of Netflix, I watched Battle of the Bulge: Wunderland (2018). Its focus is a group of young men who have the bad luck of being stationed at a critical juncture they are told to hold at all costs. “Those poor kids,” says the commanding officer, played by screen vet Tom Berrenger, the “villain” in Platoon (1986). The action is crisp. It is always viscerally satisfying to see members of the Third Reich get their due. My one quibble is that the Lieutenant and Sergeant, played by Steven Luke and Mikeal Burgin, kill tons of the enemy. Is that cinematic license or realistic depiction? How would I know? The characters are portrayed as heroic, ready to do their duty. There is no moral ambiguity, refreshing in this age. Of course, they gripe, as humans always do. Given the circumstances, it is understandable. These men were willing to give their lives to stop evil. They were heroes. So where does the film stand in the pantheon of such fare? Somewhere in the middle. It runs an economical 85 minutes, a plus. Character development is minimal, which I didn’t have a problem with. The question is: why was it made, since it doesn’t bring anything new to the story? My guess is that it’s another step in the career of Luke, who wrote the screenplay and directed under a pseudonym, Luke Schuetzle. Made on a modest budget of $3.5 million, I was unable to find any stats on how it fared at the box office, although I suspect it tanked. 586 users at IMDb have rated it, forging to a woeful consensus of 3.7 on a scale of ten. I say five. I wasn’t bored. I liked the characters. There was plenty of action. And I liked the ending. Despite the violence, it isn’t at all graphic. Its appeal is probably restricted to fans of the genre. Here’s a still of Burgin and Luke in character:
RIP 1960 Heisman Trophy winner Joe Bellino, 81, who led Navy to a 9–2 record as a running back. He averaged five yards per carry and scored 22 TD’s rushing and receiving that season. To this then ten-year-old Italian-American, he was a hero. Well done, sir.
According to an article at Yahoo Sports, opening day MLB payrolls were down eight million from last season, despite the enormous contracts the Phillies’ Bryce Harper and the Padres’ Manny Machado received. Will that lead to a reduction in ticket, parking and concession pricing? Nah. Fans will have to fork over big bucks to watch their heroes.
And from a blurb in today’s NY Post: Rhode Island lost $900,000 on sports betting in February. So far it has earned $150,000 since it became legal in late November. The state projected an $11.5 million windfall for the fiscal year, which ends on June 30th. It will require a heroic effort from residents to reach that figure.
Since I operate the floating book shop every day the weather allows, I frequently have to think hard about what day it is, as there is such a similarity to them all. Today was different. Present and past merged at Bay Parkway and 85th. I hadn’t seen Peggy since 1991, I believe. We were teachers’ aides at John Dewey H.S. in the late ‘70’s. At first I wasn’t sure it was her. We are now in our late sixties. Oddly, there is something about her teeth that I recognized. I loved her madly. Although I never got close to her, she was my muse during the writing of Close to the Edge and Inside Out. In fact, she is mentioned many times in the latter, and is also a large part of the main female character, Karen. Chaos in Alphabet City, a story in Billionths of a Lifetime, uses a piece she once sent me. She will also be mentioned many times in my final novel, referred to bitterly as Miss Piggy by the protagonist. Although she is now married, I did not hesitate to give her a hug — three times. The last aroused the emotion I’d thought I’d learned to curb, that caused me public embarrassment many times through the years. She bought Inside Out, which is dedicated to her, and Five Cents, with which I tried to win her when it was a 600+ page manuscript, not the thin novel it eventually became. She said she felt as if she should pay me for having used her story. I’ve always felt indebted to her. I don’t know how good any of my work is, but I know it would be so much less without her having touched my life.
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