"No war was ever photographed the way Vietnam was, and no war will ever be photographed again the way Vietnam was photographed."
- Hal Buell, former Associated Press photo service chief
Photographer Eddie Adams died in 2004. None of his photographs - some world famous - documenting the Vietnam War have been made available in book form. Until now. NPR did a story on him yesterday.
I viewed the movie at a friend's house last Saturday - brother's in the DGA and had a screener copy. And I will see it again.
You don't need me to write a review - pick up a newspaper or go online. However, I will say this. I've had a keen interest in multiple topics of the 1960's: Nixon, Watergate, Yippies, hippies, SDS, Weatherman, anti-war movement & Vietnam, Abbie Hoffman, protest music, "Steal That Book!", etcetera, so naturally I was attracted to the subject matter. And, in the end, it a great history lesson. Sheen and Langella are formidable - Sheen's Frost impersonation was excellent.
The photo above is from the stage play version - same actors (Frank Langella as Richard Nixon and Michael Sheen as David Frost). The real Frost and Nixon, top.
The effervescent Rebecca Hall plays Caroline Cushing, Frost's love interest at the time of the interview
I didn't plan this on purpose, but this weekend was 1968 all over again. I saw two wonderful theater shows - Chicago Conspiracy, based on the 1969-70 Chicago Seven trial which covered events that took place in the summer of 1968 during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and the smash musical, HAIR, which premiered on Broadway in 1968.
The "Tribe" - and Michael Butler, original producer of HAIR on Broadway.
Lee Ferris (Berger), James Berry (Claude) and Johanna Unger (Sheila).
"Claude" - looking like the torn, confused hippie he is.
If you haven't read this in previous posts, I'm a former Tribe member...Iowa Tribe/1995. Click on these links to read the background story on HAIR and my interviews with producer Michael Butler and co-author James Rado. You can also hear the interviews in my GABCAST audio widget - go to the right panel and scroll down:
http://jeffircink.blogspot.com/2007/09/blog-post.html - The Story Behind HAIR
http://jeffircink.blogspot.com/2007/10/coming-interview-with-hair-producer.html - Interview with Michael Butler, original producer of HAIR
http://jeffircink.blogspot.com/2007/10/coming-interview-with-hair-creator.html - Interview with James Rado, co-author of HAIR
I had never seen HAIR performed - and this was an excellent production. The director had put up previous productions in Moscow, among other places, and Michael Butler again produced this version. I was as emotionally vested in seeing this show, the story and the characters as I was when I performed in it 12 years ago. The staging was beautiful, But the thing I was struck with most is the character Claude and how he wrestled with his emotions and ideals - the ones he held as a hippie and the ones he held as an American when drafted into the Vietnam war. I struggled right along with him, unsure of how I'd react in his position. Powerful stuff - and often lost amongst the pageantry and music that has made HAIR one of the most popular musicals of all time.
I also had the great pleasure of meeting one of the co-founders of The Met - Paul Koslo, who coincidentally, was in the Broadway cast of HAIR in 1968 and has gone on to become a recognized character actor in film and television (do an IMDB.com search and you'll recognize him). Wonderful man. When I told him I was a former Tribe member, he treated me like a brother. Obviously, something you might not understand unless you performed in the show.
Chicago Conspiracy at The Odyssey Theatre in West LA.
"Conspiracy? Hell, we couldn't agree on lunch." - Abbie Hoffman
The Chicago 7: Back row - Weiner, Dellinger, Rubin, Hayden. Front row - Froines, Davis, Hoffman.
George Murdock, a well-known character actor from film and television, played the role of Judge Julius Hoffman. With all due respect to Judge Hoffman and his rope, he was real douche bag. Murdock, on the other hand, had Hoffman down to a tee. (Sorry this particular photo is blurry - no cameras in the courtroom. One of my other "protests".)2.) Abbie Hoffman, then and now: http://youtube.com/watch?v=eTJ6Jw63_hA
3.) Jerry Rubin, then: http://youtube.com/watch?v=FTS-DZ5aSnE
John Pollono as Abbie Hoffman, my friend, Dave Parke as a U.S. Marshall and me.
I'm a historical buff and I LOVE this period in our history - the anti-war protests, the music, the personalities. The acting for the most part was great and the likeness the actors had to their real-life counterparts was uncanny.
This is an excerpt from the essay, "To the Person Sitting in the Darkness", which Mark Twain wrote in 1901 - in response to the U.S. involvement in the Philippine-American War. The "person" was the country, The Phillipines. It was Twain's tongue and cheek way of protesting United States' imperialism and its annextion of the Phillipines. Twain had previously written:
"...I have read carefully the treaty of Paris [which ended the Spanish-American War], and I have seen that we do not intend to free, but to subjugate the people of the Philippines. We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem. It should, it seems to me, be our pleasure and duty to make those people free, and let them deal with their own domestic questions in their own way. And so I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land."
The exact excerpt you're seeing was placed in the programs of the musical HAIR when it was running in New York City in the late 60's...undoubtedly to call attention to the U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
Click on it to enlarge it. Read it. Sound familiar today?
If you're wondering where I stand on the issue - I'm not entirely sure. I believe the U.S. needs to protect its interests overseas and be the "Big Brother", in a way, helping to keep other countries in check, sort of say. I also think that we often stick our nose in places it doesn't belong - for whatever the reason. With all due respect to President Bush and the Office of the Presidnet of the United States, I don't believe he's as effective as a leader as some of his predecessors. We have problems with our country that need dealing with. Yet, we're spending billions of dollars on a war in Iraq that the American people, as a whole, DO NOT WANT; a cause our soldiers are dying for and a cause where a mutual resolution between Iraq and the U.S. seems as far-fetched as my worker's compensation suit getting settled in my lifetime. The U.S. sends millions of dollars to countries overseas who need our help for this disaster and that conflict and whatever else, yet we can't seem to get our own house in order - the city of New Orleans isn't where it should be since Katrina; millions of Americans don't have proper health care; we have an immigration crisis that is not getting fixed - something I blame as much on our politicians and Corporate America as I do on the illegals themselves. And yet illegal aliens come here to have anchor babies and get free healthcare and other benefits and that's allowed by our government because it's the humanitarian thing to do.
This country has problems - and still it's the best country in the world. But this country has serious problems and unless we do something now...unless our politicians (who I believe are a pustule this country can't do without and that's why I believe the party system as we know it is archaic) quit playing party politics and do something that's for the good of the country and not their own legacy, this U.S. will resemble every poor, 3rd world country we're helping or have ever helped - only who will help us when we need it?
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