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Howdy, Stew here!


For the past 16 years I'm the weekly movie reviewer for The Independent in Northern California. I also write for Two Rivers Tribune every week now, and Hermiston Herald once a month.


I've written about 38 short stories, novellas, and short novels primarily set in the Goth Hick world of Humbaba County, where levitating Hippies battle the forces of globalization. Have a look on Amazon, and be sure to check out the short video there that gives a sense of my work.


Much obliged!


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"DEAD MAN" CULT CLASSIC

          Killer indie Western.
          Johnny Depp stars in this stylish cinematic journey across the brutal but beautiful landscape of the Wild West.
          Filmed in glorious black and white, Dead Man is the story of Bill Blake (Depp), an accountant from Cleveland newly-arrived in the dismal town of Machine. There he goes to the metal works factory where he expects to find his job. Instead he finds Mr. Dickinson (Mitchum), the kind of a guy who holds a shotgun and smokes a cigar under an oil painting of himself holding a shotgun and smoking a cigar.
          Written and directed by Jim Jarmusch, Dead Man boasts a strong supporting cast of great actors in eccentric roles--Crispin Glover, Billy Bob Thornton, Alfred Molina, John Hurt, Iggy Pop, and Gabriel Byrne all lend their talents in unforgettable portrayals. Although the star of the show is Depp, the scene-stealer is Gary Farmer as Nobody, who quotes the poetry of William Blake borrowed by Jim Morrison of the rock band The Doors and leads Bill Blake on his vision quest: "Some are born to sweet delight, some are born to endless night."
          In some ways the film is open to interpretation, but it is clear that Blake (whose fur coat looks like it came off of Keith Richards' back) leaves the dehumanizing forces of mechanization and gradually joins with the natural processes of the spirit. Nobody takes Blake to "the place where his spirit belongs"--with a bounty on Blake's head, and three hunters on his trail. One of the bounty hunters, played by Lance Henrickson, is so vile and nasty, he would just as soon kill the other killers as walk.
          Alternately violent and comic--Iggy Pop wears a dress and serves beans to shady cohorts while relaying as best he can the tale of Goldilocks moments before arguing with the others over who gets to keep the new guy when Depp wanders in arm's reach--the film moves at its own pace. The pace isn't always fast, but the story is always interesting. As Nobody tells Blake, "You were a poet and painter, but now you are a killer of white men."
          Featuring music by Neil Young, Dead Man is loaded with memorable moments. From Crispin Glover, covered in soot and pointing at buffalo being shot, to Mili Avital as the town prostitute whose humanity is revealed by her hobby of making paper roses, Dead Man showcases unique characters in visually striking settings, including the redwoods.
          The 1995 masterpiece is freely available online.


DEAD MAN
Starring Johnny Depp,
Gary Farmer,
Crispin Glover,
John Hurt,
Robert Mitchum,
Iggy Pop,
Billy Bob Thornton,
Alfred Molina,
Mili Avital,
Lance Henrickson,
Gabriel Byrne
Written and directed by Jim Jarmusch
Runtime 121 minutes
Rated R

Stewart Kirby writes for

         

"POST" THE MOST

          One of the best new movies in a long time.
          Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks star in a true story about the core American value of free speech.
          An old school throwback hearkening to political thrillers such as All the President's Men (1976), The Post details the leaked Department of Defense admission that the Vietnam War was a losing effort carried on through four Presidents, not because it was necessary, but primarily in order to save face.
          Set mostly in 1971, the film hinges on the decision of America's first female newspaper publisher, Kay Graham (Streep), to run the leak for the benefit of the American people--"Our readers are our leaders"--or bury it per the demands of the Nixon Administration.
          It is a story from a time when journalism had the power to hold elected authority accountable. According to Ben Bradlee (Hanks), the editor of The Washington Post, "We can't have an administration dictating our coverage."
          Meanwhile, the paper is in the process of being purchased by new owners, bankers not remotely interested in First Amendment rights, but rather only desirous of profitability.
          For filmgoers accustomed to seemingly endless special effects-saturated superhero movies, The Post may come as a shocking aberration. Surprisingly fast-paced, the film immerses the viewer in a time when reporters were resourceful, newspapers had teeth, and the concept of a vindictive administration terrorizing democracy with an enemies list was repugnant and unacceptable.
          "We have to be the check on their power," Bradlee asserts. "If we don't hold them accountable, who will?"
          At no point in the film will audiences forget the star power of the lead performers. For Streep and Hanks these are terrific roles perfectly suited to their respective professional caliber. What might surprise is to find the director is some new guy named Steven Spielberg. Keep your eye on him. He's going places.
          True, for historical accuracy, the shirt collars could well be bigger, and ditto for the sideburns. Wisely, the filmmakers chose to reduce the jarring impact of these images, and softened the blow by making the collars and the sideburns less gigantic than in reality. But everything else is remarkably authentic.
          A potent reminder of where we've been, The Post is one of those rare movie experiences with the power to entertain us with a story, and also make us think about where we are long after we've left the theater.




THE POST
Starring Meryl Streep,
Tom Hanks,
Bob Odenkirk,
Sarah Paulson,
Bruce Greenwood,
Matthew Rhys,
Carrie Coon
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Written by Liz Hannah, Josh Singer
Runtime 116 minutes
Rated PG-13

Stewart Kirby writes for

MOUND-BUILDER DOCS RAISE AWARENESS

          "In 1991, while serving as the director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, historian Roger Kennedy was shocked to learn for the first time that massive ancient city remains existed in North America."

          So opens "Ancient Voices - Cahokia: America's Lost City," one of several fascinating documentaries freely available online.

          "Cahokia Mound is bigger in its footprint than the Great Pyramid of Giza," says Kennedy. "We didn't know that."

          Didn't know it, and in a big way.

          These ingenious and indigenous constructions once dotted the ancient North American landscape. And most Americans have no idea.

          Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, and more US states hold, beneath their cities, the staggering magnitude of one of early humankind's greatest accomplishments.

          No one knows exactly why they were made, and no one knows at all what happened to the people who, like the cliff-dwelling Anasazi, vanished from history. But we know they had trade routes stretching across North America for thousands of years.

          Mounds appear to have been built in stages and added onto over time. At its height, Cahokia held more people than there were in Medieval London or Rome.

          "The Lost Civilizations of North America" and "Ancient America Mounds" (featuring actor Wes Studi) round out the mound-builders search.

          Settlers 200 years ago knew of the Mississippian mound-builders. Indeed, St. Louis used to be known as Mound City. Over time, however, this knowledge was forgotten because the fact of vast ancient North American cities flew inconveniently in the face of the Doctrine of Manifest Destiny. It conflicted with the supposition of American character and uniqueness.

          According to Kennedy, there are "tens of thousands of architectural consequences that are now hidden behind our junk."

          Hardly the first time that the truth was buried to protect political and scientific agendas. Witness, for example, the case of the Piltdown Man hoax, which resulted from someone's attempt to make the world believe that the first human being was an Englishman.

          Keep in mind, these are not major motion pictures. No major motion pictures on Cahokia exist. Yet the information they contain staggers the imagination.

          Because the discovery of antiquities conflicted with the sense of European immigrant importance, and the desire to view Native Americans as savages while shoving and shooting across the West, these ancient cities of an advanced people which undermined wrongly established view were ignored for as long as possible.

          But not anymore.

Stewart Kirby writes for

BEST "BOUNTY" OF THE BUNCH

         
          Talk about Island Power.
          It's been made at least three times, and all three times well done. Because of Charles Laughton's unique performance as the savage Captain William Bligh, the 1935 version of Mutiny On the Bounty set the standard for all future adaptations.
          Based on the real events of the 1789 mutiny, Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall, both volunteer WWI pilots serving in France, wrote a trilogy beginning with the publication of Mutiny On the Bounty in 1932. By '35 for the Laughton film (with Clark Gable as a virile Depression-era hero standing up to authoritarian abuse of privilege) both Men Against the Sea (1933) and Pitcairn's Island (1934) had already been published.
          Together Nordhoff and Hall were great, but their collaboration did eventually end and neither prospered the better for it.
          Authoritative though the condensed adaptation by the screenwriters was, and precisely because a generation later the story still resonated as a tale of rebellion with something akin to Biblical heft, the next big version (the first one in color) starred Marlon Brando as Fletcher Christian.
          Supposedly Brando almost sank MGM by--allegedly--taking command of the film's director's chair, embodying the role of one of the world's most famous rebels, and thereby causing director Carol Reed (of The Third Man fame and more) to be replaced by Lewis Milestone. And this one was that guy's last picture.
          Interestingly, an actress named Movita played the Tahitian love interest opposite Clark Gable...and then years later became Marlon Brando's 2nd wife. She lived to be 98.
          Further, Brando bought a French-Polynesian island because of his experiences filming (and conducting) Mutiny, Tetiaroa. Today a millionaire's playground.
          The 1984 version certainly favored millionaires. Anthony Hopkins has all the eccentric verisimilitude and power of Laughton as Bligh, to be sure, but the production unwisely favors Bligh's perspective. There is a moment when Mel Gibson as Fletcher Christian cries out, hand on forehead, "I am in hell!" in a way that just makes ya wanna take over the remote, but otherwise the quality production value and atmospheric music by Vangelis, plus memorable performances by not only Hopkins but also young Daniel Day-Lewis and young Liam Neeson, keep the third take on the story always at least entertaining.
          The 1935 version is eclipsed, however, by the superlative 1962 film. Lavish in every respect--it has an Overture and an Interlude--Mutiny on the Bounty, starring Tarita as Maimiti, plus Marlon Brando, is the classic account of trying to get bread-fruit gone awry like no other.

Stewart Kirby writes for