Clint Eastwood Movie Review: **** Where Eagles Dare (1968)

A very good war and espionage movie as the British are trying to ferret out some spies in their midst.  John Smith (Richard Burton) heads a team to rescue a captured general, Carnaby (Robert Beatty) who is being held at the Eagles's Nest, high in the mountains.  Schaffer (Clint Eastwood) is Smith's inside man as he cannot be a British spy as his character is American and from the outside.  Mary Ellison (Mary Ure) is the girl friend of John Smith and an inside person helping him.  She was helped by Heidi (Ingrid Schmidt) who is an undercover agent.  The commander of the operation, Colonel Wyatt Turner (Patrick Wymarck) has a great interest in the operation as he turns out to be a double agent.  

Lots of action.  Cliff climbing and a gandola in the mountains, and lots of shooting.  I remember this movie from many years ago and wanted to make sure I understood the end, and why the commander jumped from the plain.  He was found as as being the lead spy for the Germans in Britain.  

Best Picture Movie Review: **** From Here to Eternity (1953)

 A Movie at the beginning of WWII.  This movie won the Oscar for best picture.  This movie is about the lead up to Pearl Harbor for troops station in Hawaii.  Sergeant Milton Warden (Burt Lancaster) welcomes Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) to the unit and Hawaii.  Captain Holmes (Philip Ober) has requested him due to his skill at boxing.  However Prewitt refuses to box, having put a friend into a coma when they were sparring.  Holmes insists, and Prewitt refuses.  So Holmes sets up a system of torture for him which is pretty consistent, less leaves, always being held back for physical duty, digging holes, and being confronted over and over.  Warden watches it happen but does not like to participate.  Angelo Maggio (Frank Sinatra) is best friend of Prewitt, but Maggio runs afoul of Sergeant Fatso (Ernest Borgnine) who is over the guard house, and when Maggio is there he slowly beats hime to death.  So Prewitt extracts his revenge.

This movie is a true tragedy as both Warden and Prewitt have girls, Karen Holmes (Deborah Kerr) and Alma (Donna Reed) but the relationships are doomed to failure--especially when the bombs start to fly.  They are both married to the Army.

I enjoyed this movie.  It was fun.  I really liked the character created by Frank Sinatra, the feisty Italian.

John Wayne Movie Review: ***^ She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)

Directed by John Ford.  John Wayne as a Calvary officer, Captain Nathan Brittles, on the frontier shortly after Custer's defeat in the north.  This has lead the young Indians to be more looking for a fight.  In this scenario Brittles is commanded to evacuate the women, Olivia Dandridge (Joanne Dru) and Abby Allshard (Mildred Natwick) at camp--but in that he fails as the Indians beat him to the stage coach station and destroyed it.  They have to fight off the Indians.  Brittles is about to retire, as is Sargeant Tyree (Ben Johnson).  Two lieutenants vie for the young woman, Dandridge, Lt Flint Cohill (John Agar) and 2nd Lt Ross Pennel (Harry Carey Jr.). They only escape certain death as Brittles talks to his old friends among the Native Americans and learns it is the young warriors who are feisty.   He comes up with a strategy to clip their wings, and save his troop.  And Dandridge makes her choice of the more senior Lieutenant.  

Clint Eastwood Movie: ***^ Joe Kidd (1972)

 Joe Kidd (Clint Eastwood) is in jail based on some trivial crimes, but he is recruited by Frank Harlan (Robert Duvall) to go after Luis Chama (John Saxon) who is challenging Harlan's title to the property his people have had since the area was part of Mexico.  At first he refuses to go but changes his mind when he discovers Chama has attacked his ranch and taken a worker hostage.  However he is still hesitant; Harlan is out to kill, especially Chama.  He threatens the towns people if Chuma does not give up, but Kidd outsmarts him, and convinces Chuma to go with him to see the sheriff.  Helen Sanchez (Stella Garcia) is Chama's girl and Kidd's ally in getting away from Harlan and his men.

Very good gun play throughout this movie.  Eastwood reprises his old west4r roles which made him so famous and it is a fun movie.  Eastwood runs a train past the end of the line and into a hotel so he can get the drop on the people guarding the hotel.  

Music Review: The Essential John Denver

 The Essential John Denver, Sony BMG (2007)

This album was released ten years after John Denver's death.  It includes most of his standards.  One of my favorites is not there, "For Babe." most of the others are.  It has "Annie's Song" which is so beautiful, "Sunshine on my Shoulder," "Take Me Home, Country Roads," "Rocky Mountain High," "Fly Away" and "Some Days are Diamonds (Some days are Stone)."  The duet with Plácido Domingo is there, "Perhaps Love."  I grew up with Denver.  His first songs started to hit the airways when I was in junior high school.  I heard him sing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for a hunger symposium.  He sand "I Want to Live" which is also included.  Denver was a treasure and we can still listen to his music.

Movie Review: ***^ The Lost Weekend (1945)

 A movie about the effects of alcoholism.  This movie won the Oscar for best picture.  It is amazing what efforts Don Birman (Ray Milland) will go to to continue his drinking over the objections of his brother, Wick Birman (Phillip Terry) and his girlfriend Helen St. James (Jane Wyman).  Don will buy two bottles of cheap liquor and hide one where his brother will find it, and the other he keeps for himself.  It takes Don a while to hit bottom, but he finally does.  He has been on a downward spiral for many years.  It is also very incredible the length Helen St. James will go to rescue her boyfriend.

Book Review: Lana's Lakota Moons

Lana's Lakota Moons by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Nebraska, 2007.

This is a very good story about Lana and Lori, cousins.  Lori is about six months older.  It is Lana who illustrates the moons.  Lakota measure by moons instead of months, and they describe the moons to fit the time of year.  There are also the parents of both and grandparents.  Sneve slips into the story Lakota legend stories and customs.  A third friend joins them during the school year, Shoua from Laos, who they made a blood sister.  Lana also has a boyfriend, Andy; and a little brother.  The story is well told as they attend the buffalo roundup in the fall, and the pow wow with jingle dresses.  

Very well done and highly recommended.