Saving Private Ryan - Directed by Stephen Spielberg - 1998 - Starring Edward Burns, Tom Sizemore, Barry Pepper, Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Adam Goldberg and Jeremy Davies.

 Saving Private Ryan - Directed by Stephen Spielberg - 1998 - Starring Edward Burns, Tom Sizemore, Barry Pepper, Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Adam Goldberg and Jeremy Davies.

Available on Amazon Prime Video on Max Channel 

Academy Award Winner for Best Director 

Saving Private Ryan is set in 1944 during World War II in France. The film follows a group of American soldiers dispatched to locate Pvt. James Ryan so he can return home after his three brothers have been killed in combat.

In a flashback, the film portrays the first wave of Allied troops landing on Omaha Beach in Nazi-occupied Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944, in a 24-minute scene that has been described as one of the most brutal film depictions of war. The invaders incur heavy losses, with soldiers dying onscreen in a variety of grisly and unpredictable ways. As the battle progresses, cameras follow Capt. John Miller (Tom Hanks) as he pushes dazedly through the confusion of battle. Miller and a few survivors are eventually able to breach the German fortifications, clearing the way for subsequent waves of Allied attackers.

In a U.S. War Department office, as secretaries type out a tremendous quantity of condolence letters to the families of those killed in combat, officials become aware that one family in particular, the Ryans of Iowa, are poised to experience an extraordinary loss: three of the family’s four sons have died in combat, with the last remaining son, James, currently in an unknown location behind enemy lines in France. The army officials determine that the sole surviving son must be rescued and shipped home.

Back in France, Miller receives orders to find and rescue Ryan and assembles a group of soldiers to accompany him: Mike Horvath (Tom Sizemore), Richard Reiben (Edward Burns), Adrian Caparzo (Vin Diesel), Stanley Mellish (Adam Goldberg), Daniel Jackson (Barry Pepper), Irwin Wade (Giovanni Ribisi), and Timothy Upham (Jeremy Davies), the last of whom lacks any combat experience.

The film follows the efforts lead by Captain Miller to find Private Ryan.

"Family Secrets" - A Short Sfory by Carol Shields - 15 Pages - included in The Short Stories of Carol Shields- 2002,

 This year, Buried in Print, a marvelous blog I have followed for over ten years,is doing a read through of the short stories of Carol Shields. I hope to participate fully in this event.

The more I read in the stories of Carol Shields the more grateful I am to Buried in Print for turning me on to her work. There are sixty some stories in the collection, it is my hope to read and post on them all.

"Family Secrets" is the 33rd Short Story by Carol Shields upon which I have posted.  It in just 15 pages it follows the lives of a woman  from childhood to late middle ages.  It is narrated through remembrance of conversations. A central issue is why her mother took a year of sick from work prior to marriage.

"I’ve thought lately about that time of sickness; what kind of sickness is it that makes a young woman leave a job and go home to her parents for a whole year? The last time I saw Barclay I said to him, “I think Mom must have got pregnant that year she had to quit her first job.” It took him a minute to figure out what I was talking about. For a man so intelligent he has a poor memory for the details of our childhood. Once I tested him on the color of the garage doors we had at home in Maywood. “Blue,” he said. “No,” I shot back, “brown.”"

"The Balcony" - A Short Story by Felisberto Hernández - Copyright 1993, 2014 by the Heirs of Felisberto Hernández Translation copyright 1993 by Luis Harss Preface copyright 1974 by Italo Calvino Copyright © 1993, 2014 by the Heirs of Felisberto Hernández Translation copyright 1993 by Luis Harss Preface copyright 1974 by Italo Calvino, Introduction by Francine Prose 2014 - Piano Stories published in 2014 by New Directions Press

"The Balcony" - A Short Story by Felisberto Hernández - Copyright 1993, 2014 by the Heirs of Felisberto Hernández Translation copyright 1993 by Luis Harss Preface copyright 1974 by Italo Calvino Copyright © 1993, 2014 by the Heirs of Felisberto Hernández Translation copyright 1993 by Luis Harss Preface copyright 1974 by Italo Calvino, Introduction by Francine Prose 2014 - Piano Stories published in 2014 by New Directions Press

Available at the New York City Public Library 

Felisberto Hernandez

Born: October 20, 1902, Montevideo, Uruguay

Died: January 13, 1964 (age 61 years), Montevideo, Uruguay

Nationality: Uruguayan

 "Afterward I went out to buy a book suitable for reading in an abandoned house among weeds, on a still night and a full stomach."

I am very glad to be able to start 2025 with a new to me writer I wish to read in full, Felisberto Hernández,  

As detailed in the introduction Hernández made his living giving piano concerts, traveling about with no fixed home.  The leaders character and speaker in "The Balcony" after a concert is approached by an old man who invites him home to have dinner with his daughter, who has a fear of going outside.

"“She has her own way of keeping entertained. I bought an old house, too big for just the two of us, but it’s in good shape. It has a garden with a fountain and in her bedroom there’s a door that opens onto a winter balcony. It’s a corner room, facing the street, and you could almost say she lives in that balcony. Or sometimes she goes for a walk in the garden and on some nights she plays the piano. You can come and have dinner with us whenever you want and I’ll be grateful to you.” I understood at once. So we agreed on a day when I would go for dinner and play the piano."

He becomes very involved with the man and the daughter.

"There was sorrow in the girl’s laughter, but she begged me to go on telling my stories. Her mouth had stretched at the edges, into a painful gash. Her eyes, caught in their web of “crow’s feet,” were full of tears, and she was pressing her clasped hands between her knees. The old man was coughing so hard he had to put down the pitcher before filling his glass. The dwarf laughed, bending over as if to bow. We had all been miraculously united and I felt not the least regret."

Who is the dwarf you ask, read this so magical story to find out.

There are 10 other works in Piano Stories,  we will return to it. 

 

Close Encounters of the Third Kind - directed by Stephen Spielberg - 1977- Starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, Cary Guffey, and François

Close Encounters of the Third Kind - directed by Stephen Spielberg - 1977-  Starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, Cary Guffey, and François Truffaut.

Winner of Academy Award  for Best Cinematography 

Available for Free on YouTube and on Amazon Prime Video- 2 Hours- 17 minutes 

Wikipedia has a thorough article on the movie so I shall just share here a few of my reactions.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a master work, truly beautiful and thought provoking.  In addition to issues related to the appearance of aliens on earth it depicts the break up of a marriage, of Terri Garr and Richard Dreyfuss, in a fashion most married individuals can understand and accept.  The opening sequences where once thought lost decades ago planes are discovered perfectly sets the tone of things to come.  The use of French throughout adds to the other world feel.

The Alien ships are as good as I have ever seen.  The close stunned me.

I hope to post on a number of films Directed by Stephen Spielberg in January. 

Please share with me your favourites and least liked of his films 

E T - The Extra Terrestrial- Directed by Steven Spielberg- 1983 - The film stars Dee Wallace, Henry Thomas, Peter Coyote, Robert MacNaughton and Drew Barrymore

 E T - The Extra Terrestrial- Directed by Steven Spielberg- 1983 - The film stars Dee Wallace, Henry Thomas, Peter Coyote, Robert MacNaughton and Drew Barrymore

Available on Amazon Prime Video 

1983 Academy Award for Best Original Sound and Best Visual Effects

Wikipedia has a comprehensive article on the film.  I will just post a bit on my reactions.

I really enjoyed the movie.  The relationship of the young boy Elliott and the Alien, who he calls E T was very gratifying. The panic created among government law enforcement and military was such a contrast.  How E T comes to find a way to use 1983 technology to contact his home planet was wonderful.

Any body with some imagination and a heart will love the ending.

The Grand Budapest Hotel - Directed by Wes Anderson - 2014 - Starring Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolari, and Saorise Ronan

 The Grand Budapest Hotel - Directed by Wes Anderson - 2014 - Starring Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolari, and Saorise Ronan

Available on Amazon Prime 

Academy Awards for Best Original Score, Best Makeup and Hair Design, and Best Costume Design

"Young Writer - is it simply your last connection to that banished world - his world, if you will?

Mr. Moustafa: His world? No, I don't think so. You see, we shared a vocation, it wouldn't have been necessary. No, the hotel I keep for Agatha. We were happy here, for a little while.

Mr. Moustafa: To be frank, I think his world had vanished long before he ever entered it. But I will say, he certainly sustained the illusion with a marvelous grace."

"M, Gustave: You see, there are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity. Indeed, that’s what we provide in our own modest, humble, insignificant … Oh, f*ck it."

I first saw The Grand Budapest Hotel on television in 2014.  It was shown several times and I totally loved the movie. I was very happy to find it available via Amazon Prime Video. 

Wikipedia has a very comprehensive article on the movie so I will just briefly talk about what The Grand Budapest Hotel means to me now ten years on.

Now I see the movie as an exploration of profound loneliness and grieve.  Like the aged Mr. Moustafa staying in the way past it's glory days Grand Budapest Hotel I have suffered a terrible loss of a beloved wife, gone way before her time.  I have a  very supportive family but I never expected to face old age  I am 78, without her.  The movie also is an exposure of Fascism and anti-immigrant attitudes, both very strong in America and else where now.  I liked the depiction of the relationship of Agatha and Zero so much.  

The Swamp The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise By Michael Grunwald

 

In January 2019, in consultation with Max u, it was decided every January there would be a post about a book in tribute to our Mother. Our mother was born in a very small town in northern Florida, High Springs, on January 3, 1921. 

Florida Timeline

8000 BC - First Native American settlement, near Sarasota

1000 AD - there are nine distinct tribes 

1500 - estimated population of the state was 375,000- 150,000 speak Timuca

April 2, 1513 - Ponce de Leon lands somewhere between Melbourne and Jacksonville. In time the indigenous population will be reduced to near zero, from disease and warfare. 

1521 - first colony, from Spain, near St. Augustine

1579 - The cultivation of oranges, introduced from Spain begins. By 1835 millions of oranges were being shipped north and to Europe, for the next hundred years oranges, cattle and timber were the major sources of cash

1624 - First African American born in Florida, in St. Augustine

1763 to 1765- England Owns west Florida panhandle area

Based on research my research as well as by others in the family and history, I conjecture my maternal ancestors first entered Florida, coming from. Georgia where they arrived around 1650

1808 - importation of slaves into USA is banned, a very large trade in slaves smuggled in from Cuba begins 

1821 - USA acquired Florida from Spain.  

1822 - Tallahassee is chosen as the territory capital, being half way between the then major population centers of St. Augustine and Pensacola

1835 Second Seminole War begins, by 1842 most Seminoles were shipped west but some escaped into the Everglades.  

The make up of the Seminoles was largely not Native originally to Florida but a mixture of escaped slaves and Creeks from Georgia and South Carolina.

March 3, 1845 - Florida becomes a state, slavery legal.

1859 - by the end of the third Seminole War the around four hundred survivors retreat to the Everglades

Population of Florida 1861. - 154,494 - 92,741 Free, 61,75 enslaved

January 10, 1861 Florida suceeds from The Union. Per capita, Florida sent The most men into war, 15000. It was then the least populated southern state.

An ancestor started the first public library in the central Florida era in 1820.. I speculate our ancestors probably entered Florida about 1790.A knowledge of history indicates our prior maternal ancestors came to the USA from the UK in the 1600s,possibly in part as bound servants. Somehow they wound up in South Georgia. After the American Revolution people from that area began to enter then Spanish Florida, which the USA acquired on February 22, 1819 from Spain.

The colonies of East Florida and West Florida remained loyal to the British during the war for American independence, but by the Treaty of Paris in 1783 they returned to Spanish control. After 1783, Americans immigrants moved into West Florida.

In 1810 American settlers in West Florida rebelled, declaring independence from Spain. President James Madison and Congress used the incident to claim the region, knowing full well that the Spanish government was seriously weakened by Napoleon’s invasion of Spain. The United States asserted that the portion of West Florida from the Mississippi to the Perdido rivers was part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Negotiations over Florida began in earnest with the mission of Don Luis de Onís to Washington in 1815 to meet Secretary of State James Monroe. The issue was not resolved until Monroe was president and John Quincy Adams his Secretary of State. Although U.S. Spanish relations were strained over suspicions of American support for the independence struggles of Spanish-American colonies, the situation became critical when General Andrew Jackson seized the Spanish forts at Pensacola and St. Marks in his 1818 authorized raid against Seminoles and escaped slaves who were viewed as a threat to Georgia. Jackson executed two British citizens on charges of inciting the Indians and runaways. Monroe’s government seriously considered denouncing Jackson’s actions, but Adams defended the Jackson citing the necessity to restrain the Indians and escaped slaves since the Spanish failed to do so. Adams also sensed that Jackson’s Seminole campaign was popular with Americans and it strengthened his diplomatic hand with Spain.

Adams used the Jackson’s military action to present Spain with a demand to either control the inhabitants of East Florida or cede it to the United States. Minister Onís and Secretary Adams reached an agreement whereby Spain ceded East Florida to the United States and renounced all claim to West Florida. Spain received no compensation, but the United States agreed to assume liability for $5 million in damage done by American citizens who rebelled against Spain. Under the Onís-Adams Treaty of 1819 (also called the Transcontinental Treaty and ratified in 1821) the United States and Spain defined the western limits of the Louisiana Purchase and Spain surrendered its claim.s to the Pacific Northwest. In return, the United States recognized Spanish sovereignty over Texas.

This post is a continuous tradition began in January of 2019 when, in consultation with Max u, it was decided every January there would be a post in her honor.

This year I am featuring The Swamp The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise By Michael Grunwald.    

The Everglades in southern Florida were once reviled as a liquid wasteland, and Americans dreamed of draining it. Now it is revered as a national treasure, and Americans have launched the largest environmental project in history to try to save it.

The Swamp is the stunning story of the destruction and possible resurrection of the Everglades, the saga of man's abuse of nature in southern Florida and his unprecedented efforts to make amends. Michael Grunwald, a prize-winning national reporter for The Washington Post, takes readers on a riveting journey from the Ice Ages to the present, illuminating the natural, social and political history of one of America's most beguiling but least understood patches of land.

The Everglades was America's last frontier, a wild country long after the West was won. Grunwald chronicles how a series of visionaries tried to drain and “reclaim” it, and how Mother Nature refused to bend to their will; in the most harrowing tale, a 1928 hurricane drowned 2,500 people in the Everglades. But the Army Corps of Engineers finally tamed the beast with levees and canals, converting half the Everglades into sprawling suburbs and sugar plantations. And though the southern Everglades was preserved as a national park, it soon deteriorated into an ecological mess. The River of Grass stopped flowing, and 90 percent of its wading birds vanished.

Now America wants its swamp back. Grunwald shows how a new breed of visionaries transformed Everglades politics, producing the $8 billion rescue plan. That plan is already the blueprint for a new worldwide era of ecosystem restoration. And this book is a cautionary tale for that era. Through gripping narrative and dogged reporting, Grunwald shows how the Everglades is still threatened by the same hubris, greed and well-intentioned folly that led to its decline.