Still Standing
Certain movies make me feel like a voyeur deriving entertainment watching a horrific event that actually took place. Titanic (1997), Schindler’s List (1993) and 12 Years a Slave (2013) are three that immediately come to mind. Hotel Mumbai (2018) is another. I watched it last night courtesy of Netflix. The infamous attack on India’s second largest city by Islamic terrorists slaughtered more than 150 people guilty of nothing more than going to work or enjoying a vacation. Nine of the ten slimes were killed by special forces. The narrative concentrates chiefly on the events at the world famous venue. It is excellent film-making. The two hours glide by. The gripping suspense arises from who will survive. The motivation of the murderers is explained through dialogue. I don’t care what it is or the fact they may have been brainwashed by their elders. I want such types dead. They are not fit to live in this world. The cast is excellent. I recognized only three of the actors: Dev Patel, the star of the rousing Slumdog Millionaire (2008); Armie Hammer, who was the lead in the universally panned The Lone Ranger (2013); and Britain’s Jason Isaacs, who has quite a resume as a supporting player. This was Australia’s Anthony Maras’ first full length feature after three shorts, an impressive debut. He co-wrote the screenplay with John Collee, who also lives down under and has written three novels. The action was shot in Sydney but includes archival footage. Maras admits to creative license. For instance, the characters played by the actors I mentioned are composites. Does that matter? It’s perhaps the best argument that material such as this is more suited to a documentary. 35,000+ users at IMDb have rated Hotel Mumbai, forging to a consensus of 7.6 on a scale of ten. It brought in only $20+ million at the box office worldwide. I’d bet DVD rentals and streaming have made up considerably for that disappointment. Two years after the heinous assault, the hotel reopened, despite the extensive damage it suffered. Here’s a montage of the players:
And here’s a picture of the hotel today:
From nypost.com, a term I’ve come across for the first time: “Groyper” — A right winger who trolls mainstream conservatives in an attempt to reclaim the movement from subversion. They are anti-Trump, anti-immigrant, anti-Israel. It somehow originates from a comic, Pepe the Frog, created by Matt Furie, who recently put the character in a coffin, trying to kill it rather than be co-opted by hate mongers. It’s probably too late.
It was a glorious day weather-wise, the calm before the storm. My thanks to the young woman who purchased two books on spirituality, and to the middle age one who selected a cook book in Russian; and to the elderly one who did her weekly swap of books in that language; and to the two gentlemen who bought wares available for the first. Here they are:
My Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Vic-Fortezza/e/B002M4NLJE
FB: https://www.facebook.com/Vic-Fortezza-Author-118397641564801/?fref=ts
Read Vic’s Stories, free: http://fictionaut.com/users/vic-fortezza
