Black and White Wednesday: Brief Review of Citizen Kane (1941)

I'm going to do my best to keep this short because one could spend ages discussing the American Film Institute's pick for the #1 greatest American film of all time. Citizen Kane is truly worthy of this high honor. I mean, seriously! You could write an entire book over particular scenes from the film. 

I'll first say that anyone interested in film history or just curious about old films in general should see Citizen Kane. The film was made over 70 years ago, and it still surpasses many of today's best films in its use of camerawork, storytelling and makeup. Also, the film is a fictional tale, but many believe that the movie was inspired by the life of William Randolph Hearst. Although this was probably true, Orson Welles denied this (wikipedia has some good info on the myth and history).

The film is an extreme example of nonlinear storytelling combined with realistic film techniques. It begins with Charles Foster Kane's death. His dying word, "Rosebud." The hidden meaning behind this word pushes the whole story forward. Following his death, a newsreel is shown covering the now deceased Kane's whole life. This practically sums up the movie we are about witness. When the newsreel ends, we are in a dark room with reporters, one of which being Jerry Thompson. I call him the faceless reporter because Welles never quite gives us a good look at him.

Thompson is on a mission to uncover Rosebud's meaning. We follow him as he interviews various people from Kane's past, and with many flashbacks we have our movie. We see Kane young and old and everywhere in between, and thanks to the great make up, Orson Welles, along with many of the other actors, is made to look old and fat when the time is right. 

I don't want to ramble, so I'll just get into the most impressive parts to watch for when viewing this classic. 

The consistent use of long takes and deep focus photography is what makes the film feel realistic. Some of the scenes are breathtaking for a film made in the 40's. Making the background, middle ground and foreground all in focus was something relatively unseen at the time. They would use matte shots, optical printers and other camera techniques to pull of such difficult shots. 

Like I said before, the storytelling methods were ahead of its time. Other than the nonlinear flashbacks, there are many time-lapse techniques used to reveal meaning and push the narrative. I found six instances when Welles uses some form of a time-lapse technique, but the most famous is the one at the dinning room table. Sometimes it is called 'The breakfast scene.' The scene shows the slow demise of Kane's first marriage in the form of various meals at the table. 

If you don't normally watch black and white films, this is probably a good one to get your feet wet with. The story is entertaining, the camera work is sure to impress and Kane's hotshot, cocky attitude is good for more than a few laughs. Give it a shot, and I'm sure you'll find something in it to like. 

-Kyle

Blu-ray Review: The World's End

This is the kind of film that gets more rewarding with each viewing. Subtleties in the character language and environments are lost until a second go 'round. That may be the biggest reason The World's End is deserving of a Blu-ray rent or purchase.

Being a fan of the prior two films in the "Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy" (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) it is quite easy to fall in love with Edgar Wright's final installment in this loosely connected three-peat. 

The film is made up of two parts. Part one starts off with a flash back narrated by Simon Pegg's character, Gary King, telling the tale of five friends attempting a legendary pub crawl consisting of 12 pubs and 12 pints. We then see Gary in the present. He hasn't made anything of his life, stuck living in the past while his friends have moved on to their careers and families. 

In an attempt to recreate the past, Gary "gets the band back together" with a little manipulation upon the friends he hasn't seen in ages. So the first half of the film is basically one man, Gary, attempting a previously failed pub crawl, and four men half heartedly along for the ride. 

But things inevitably take a turn rather quickly from a simple pub crawl to a pub crawl while avoiding and fighting alien robots filled with "blue stuff." This movie is insane (in every good way possible).

There is a level sophistication found in the script that comes full circle the more you watch the film and pay attention to the little details (look for signs around town and foreshadowing in the dialogue, as well as items and themes also present in the earlier films). This is British wit at its best, and Wright's camera work is quick and funny as always.

There are more than three hours of special features to watch; the "making of" and "special effects" additions were entertaining. Also included is a feature called "Signs & Omens" which goes through all the hidden clues in the movie.

My favorite part of the special features is in the "making of" featurette when they show clips from the other films, comparing and contrasting iconic parts with the fences, ice creams and other parts with the actors.

If you're a fan of the work of Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, this is a simple must own Blu-ray. But if you are not familiar with their work, The World's End is still a stand alone, fantastically outrageous, sci-fi comedy.

Movie: 3.5/4   Special Features: 3/4   Overall: Must Own

-Kyle Schwab

Call of Duty: Ghosts Review (Xbox 360)

The Call of Duty franchise hasn’t changed too much over the years, and with its newest annual entry to the series, Ghosts, it’s definitely not a game changer. But, with that being said, don’t fix what isn’t necessarily broken.

Personally, I don’t play COD single player campaigns, so this review will be all about multiplayer. Although, I did hear mixed reviews concerning the campaign, but I’m sure its worth a play-through. I just like to dive straight into online play.

The game looks and feels exactly like you would expect. There have been a few minor changes, including new in-game animations when knifing, sliding, and hopping over obstacles. These do look cool but I found them slowing me down. It is easier to get shot or killed when you’re stuck staring a stab victim in the face. But you can shoot from the hip while pulling yourself over an object. The sliding is fun and helpful at times, and now you can look around corners, which does come in handy. Also, your kill/death ratio is always in the corner of the screen.

All the maps are fluid and fast paced, but some are too big and none stand out as series bests. The weapons feel more evenly powered. For instance, the pistols and submachine guns are no longer overwhelmingly strong. The new scopes are a nice touch, and there are so much more customizing options.

The new game modes are fun. My favorite is Blitz. It feels like capture the flag but when you reach the enemy’s base you teleport immediately back to your base. My only problems are that the game mode Grind isn’t available in the Xbox Live matchmaking and Ground War isn’t available on the 360 or PS3 versions. Ground War would make the bigger maps better.

This is a fun addition to the series but it isn’t flawless. Playing Team Deathmatch or Free-For-All on the bigger maps can get annoying. Unless you’re playing an objective based game mode, you can find yourself running around aimlessly sometimes. Also, the personal attack dog perk is great, if the dog is yours. 

If you are a fan of the Call of Duty franchise this is an easy buy to try out new perks, kill streaks and game modes. 8/10

-Kyle

The Neverending War: The Forever War Book Review

 
"Tonight we're going to show you eight silent ways to kill a man." 

This is the opening line to Joe Haldeman's Sci-Fi novel The Forever War, and if you had picked up this book in a bookstore, read that first line, and it didn't entice you to read further, I'd be willing to wager that no book on this planet would interest you; not to mention you most likely have the attention span of a ferret and the intelligence of one. Okay, okay, I'm kidding ... but only slightly. 

The Forever War is a book that won a triple crown; it won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award for best Science Fiction Novel in 1975 and 1976. So this book is clearly no slouch when it comes to a trophy collection and garnering some respect. 

The Forever War is about mankind engaging in an interstellar war with aliens. While this might at first sound like a trite concept, Haldeman turns the story on its head by applying Einstein's Theory of Relativity. In the Forever War, mankind has unlocked the ability to travel near the speed of light by using black holes (called “collapsers” in the book) in a wormhole-like phenomena. So, while our protagonist might spend two years aboard a space ship traveling to a remote corner of the universe to take down aliens, he is not two years older when he reaches his destination; in fact, he's barely aged at all, but everything outside of the spaceship, from his perspective, has aged rapidly. You see, the war begins in the year 2007 and the protagonist, Joe Mandella, is drafted in his early twenties. But because time has progressed slowly for Mandella traveling near the speed of light, Mandella is still in his early to mid twenties when he is fighting the war in the 2100s-2400s. Hence the title of the novel, because due to relativity mankind has been fighting a war for so long that in makes the 100 years war look like nothing. Other implications of this idea include possible mismatches in technology between the humans and the aliens. For instance, Mandella and his crew might take off from Earth in the year 2100 and thus have a ship that has the year 2100's technology. But the trouble is that they might encounter an alien ship that is equipped with the 2200's technology, and thus be royally boned. This could also happen vice versa.

There are several other cool, speculative ideas featured in the novel. For example, when Mandella earns his leave from the military he returns back to Earth in the year 2070 only to find that the world is a very different place from when he left it. Haldeman takes on a Thomas Malthian view of the future where Earth is massively overpopulated and has exceeded its food supply, which has lead to several famines and for calories become the new form of currency. This has also led to political unrest, high unemployment, and rapid, uncontrollable amounts of crime. Those who can afford it must have bodyguards with them at all times lest they get mugged and/or murdered. Those without bodyguards are very much in danger, unless you happen to be like Joe Mandella and have quality combat training, but even then your experience with gang members can be harrowing. The world has become a place of deep despair, and Haldeman truly constructs a horrifying place to live. Because the world has grown more hellish than war, Mandella is forced to reenlist in the military.  

Further into the future, Mandella discovers that one of the ways mankind attempts to handle Earth's overpopulation is by making homosexuality the social norm. Even farther into the future, governments genetically construct their citizen's Brave New World style to grow up to be homosexuals. There's even an instance of the novel where Mandella finds himself to be the only heterosexual amongst a platoon of both homosexual men and women, leaving Mandella to be the odd man out and the one to be considered "abnormal, unnatural, weird, unusual" or what have you.


Oh and the Forever War is something of a love story, though it doesn’t start that way. Haldeman incorporates a pervasive “free love” policy amongst the men and women of the military. It practically seems like everyone has a different partner for each day of the week. While Mandella partakes in these activities for a while, he eventually meets someone very special, and enters into a monogamous relationship with her. I find the idea that in a society where it is the social norm to have polygamous relationships, but two people only want each other anyway, to be simultaneously interesting and enduring. 

This is not a pro war novel. Joe Haldeman is a Vietnam veteran and it's abundantly clear that in many ways the Forever War is a metaphor for the Vietnam War. Haldeman has some harsh criticism for the Vietnam War, the military, and the U.S. government. Mandella undergoes periods of self reflection through the novel, particularly when he kills an alien for the first time and ponders whether the alien's life and circumstances was really so different from his own. One imagines that Haldeman had similar thoughts as Mandella while in Vietnam. 

 “Once they had talked, the first question was ‘Why did you start this thing?’ And the answer was, ‘Me?” 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

-Byron

Life, love and aviation

Photo by Jim Beckel; The Oklahoman

On Monday, October 28, 2013, I met with Rita Eaves at her home in Moore. As we talked, her home was active with the sounds of chirping birds, a scampering dog, and a constantly ringing telephone. We spoke for three hours about her life in aviation and how flying brought her and her husband, Leonard, closer together. This story was written for The Oklahoman newspaper. The version below is the full, unabridged version. The concise, published version can be found on newsok.com. All photos were done by Jim Beckel except the one found on eaa.org.

By Kyle Schwab

MOORE — In February of 1946, Rita Eaves received a phone call, “I need two girls to go on a picnic,” her friend Billy Jean said. Rita immediately countered saying, “Count me out.” She was not in the mood for another blind date.

“During the war, after the war, there were a lot of blind dates because the guys were coming home and they didn’t know anybody,” Rita said, now 93 years old living in Moore.

Rita finally budged, dragging along her engaged roommate giving her the ability to at least select which date she wanted. This would work to Rita’s advantage seeing as how she would be picking her future husband of 65 years.

“Leonard was smoking a pipe when he walked in,” Rita said — her weakness.

Rita and her roommate went to the back bedroom. “I’ll take the pipe smoker,” Rita said.

The picnic went well, and Rita and her roommate even had everyone over to their apartment after to attempt dancing in the kitchen. But that initial vision of attraction toward Leonard was nothing near love at first sight for Rita.

“I didn’t really like Leonard, but he asked me for another date,” she said. “I thought, ‘Well, I might as well go with him. I may meet somebody else.’”

Rita said that at this time she had been performing a juggling act, dating a total of three guys at once. After three months of Leonard’s persistence, Rita fell for him. The two would marry on Dec. 21 that same year.

Rita and Leonard “got along beautifully,” but there was a major dissimilarity they shared at first — Rita had a supersized interest in aviation contrasted with Leonard’s extreme fear of airplanes.

“He had been bombed so many times in World War II that he was afraid of airplanes,” Rita said. “Every time one came over (his auto repair) shop, he would run and take cover.”

Leonard’s fear of flying didn’t alter the dream she had had since the age of ten. Rita wanted nothing more than to get her husband comfortable with flying.

After a couple years of easing him into the idea, Rita teamed up with a friend of Leonard’s to get him inside the cockpit.

“Leonard took his first ride in an airplane and he crawled out of the airplane and he said, ‘Let’s learn to fly,’” she said, imitating Leonard’s excitement by throwing her arms up.

Only a month later, Rita and Leonard purchased their first plane, an Aeronca Chief for $650.

Photo by Jim Beckel; The Oklahoman

“We started our aviation career,” she corrected herself, “not career but fun, in March of 1949.” From then on, aviation was their life.

Leonard was so enthusiastic about this newfound passion that he earned his pilot’s license first in Aug. of 1949. Rita earned her license Dec. 1951.

They spent the next year soaring the blue skies of Oklahoma with the Aeronca till they decided to trade up for a four-place Stinson Voyager. After six years of taking friends airborne, jetting over to relatives and scooting across the state for breakfast and dinner, the Eaves’ sold the Stinson in 1956; the constant cost simply became too great.

But the couple’s love for the wild blue yonder was too strong to end there.

When they sold the Stinson they were familiar with the Experimental Aircraft Association, an organization for aviation enthusiasts. They joined the EAA and realized their dream could continue being a reality by building their own plane.

With nothing but a set of old automobile tools, a backyard garage and a history of working on cars, Leonard was determined to construct a flying machine. He purchased plans and parts, and Rita and Leonard were on a journey back to the sky.

“It was a novelty,” Rita said. Everyday after work they would spend hours in that garage, getting visits from neighbors and people all over curious for a peek.

2,300 hours and 19 months later, the Eaves’ had their first home-built airplane. It was a small, red Cougar they called The Chigger. They would later crash this plane due to power failure, but the plane, as well as Rita and Leonard, could be repaired.

The two flew the Cougar till the completion of their second home-built plane in 1966. They sold the Cougar making Skeeter their new toy in the sky.

The building process for Skeeter was a much more adventurous endeavor. Leonard wanted to build a plane of his own design, and that’s what he did.

For six years Leonard slaved over his creation, Rita beside him every step of the way providing assistance. Skeeter’s design received much praise landing Leonard many honors, along with design imitation from some friends.

eaa.org

For the next thirty plus years the Eaves’ participated in everything they could aviation — the two being heavily active in the EAA and Oshkosh, Rita being a member of The Ninety-Nines women pilots, both receiving various awards for competitions and contributions in aviation and Leonard even designing three more planes.

In 1999 a tornado ripped through Newcastle, damaging their hanger. The fifth and final plane Leonard had been working on was destroyed, along with Skeeter.

Devastated mostly by the loss of Skeeter, Leonard immediately looked for a way to reincarnate his flying friend.

After some hunting, he found an identical framework from the past and bought it.

Leonard made sure to utilize every part he could salvage from the original Skeeter. The result was a new and improved Skeeter replica.

March 3, 2012

The Eaves’ were up bright and early. Leonard was heading out the door to the monthly fly-in breakfast in Ponca City. Like tradition, the first Saturday of the month Leonard and his flying buddies were off to eat.

At this point, Rita had been grounded for more than 10 years. She can’t exactly remember the last time she took flight, but medical problems, including headaches, prevented her from stepping foot in an airplane. Leonard though was still actively flying, even at 92.

After a goodbye kiss in the house, Rita walked outside to see him off. Leonard was packing the car.

“I walked through the laundry room and opened the door as he was getting in the car, and I said, ‘Leonard,’” she put her hand to her lips, blowing a kiss. “I threw him a kiss and he threw one back.

“And that’s the last time I saw him.”

Later that morning as Skeeter 2.0 traveled over Yukon, Leonard noticed his canopy was loose. In an attempt to land at Clarence E. Page Municipal Airport to tighten the problem, he lost control, crashing the airplane.

According to an aircraft accident report provided by the National Transportation Safety Board, as Leonard proceeded to land, another airplane was on the runway.

Leonard “likely saw the other airplane on the runway, and, not knowing its intention, he attempted to add more space between his airplane and the other airplane,” the report said.

Back at home, Rita got a knock at the door. A neighbor from the airstrip stood in front of her.

“When I opened the door, I knew without a doubt,” Rita said. “I said, ‘Leonard?’ and he said, ‘Yes.’ ‘Is it fatal?’ and he said, ‘Yes.’”

When Rita made it to the airfield the Federal Aviation Administration wouldn’t let her see the plane, but she wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

“I don’t care whether you like it or not, I’m going to see that airplane,” she said. They let her through, and she instantly recognized the plane.

Finding peace

“The good Lord took him the way he wanted to go,” Rita said. “For the last ten years he said, ‘If I have to go, I want to go in the airplane.’ And that wasn’t his decision, but he got his wish.”

Being able to see the plane, as well as knowing Leonard died the way he would have wanted, gave Rita some closure. But she still wishes she could have seen him one last time.

“The only peace that I have not had, I did not get to see him,” she said. “They wouldn’t let me see him at the airport, (or) when he was taken to the funeral home.”

Photo by Jim Beckel; The Oklahoman

Due to Leonard’s severe injuries, the funeral home director advised Rita against seeing him.

But Rita is never far from a memory of Leonard — walls, shelves and drawers overflowing with old photos, articles and scrapbooks.

“I think Leonard and I probably had one of the most exciting lives in aviation,” she said. “It bonded us closer. We both loved the flying and we loved the association with friends that flew.”

Rita is still active in aviation, attending Ninety-Nines meetings and staying in touch with friends across the globe.

Update
Rita said Leonard would have to update his pilot's medical certificate each year, as well as perform check rides every two years. He had all his proper certifications at the time of the crash. Advanced age alone doesn't exclude a person from maintaining a private pilot's license.