jamesashford Reviews

Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years (1960–1963)

All Regions DVD Now Available

[10/10 · 6 September 2017]

I have been searching for a home viewing copy of this magnificent series since the advent of Betamax/VHS. This month, approaching my 77th year, I finally scored.

A web search for the title will bring up the site from which I ordered the series. IMDb Guidelines prohibit more specificity.

I'm watching the episodes now. The quality and sound are quite adequate, given the unknown source of transfer. Remember that this was done on film in the early 1960s. Let me put it this way: viewing this DVD is like sitting in front of your black and white RCA 24" TV in 1961. Good enough for me just to have it.

A Town Like Alice (1981)

Joe Harman was based on a real Australian POW

[27 November 2008]

The character of Joe Harman was based on an Australian soldier who was a POW held by the Japanese and slaved on the infamous Burma-Thailand railroad project along the Kwai river. James "Ringer" Edwards was in fact crucified and left to die by the Japanese for the offense of scrounging food for his fellow prisoners. After some days, still alive, he was taken down, and lived to see the end of the war. He returned to Australia and married a nurse he met in a Queensland hospital in 1947. They eventually settled in Western Australia near Mount Edgar where Edwards purchased a cattle station.

The Australian writer Nevil Shute was made aware of Edwards by a British officer who had known Edwards, and who advised Shute to contact the veteran to talk to him about his wartime experiences. The two men became friends, and just prior to the Australian publication of "A Town Like Alice" Shute sent Edwards a first edition inscribed "With thanks for so much information which made this book possible, and apologies for mistakes in it . . .."

Shute in turn put the author Hammond Innes in touch with Ringer Edwards and that author's visits to the cattle station at Mount Edgar formed a background for Innes' 1973 novel "The Golden Soak."

Edwards died in 2001. Much of the information here is drawn from a report in a March 2002 publication by the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame in Longreach, Queensland (see www.outbackheritage.com.au) and generously provided to me by the staff of the organization. However, on a personal note, I first became aware of the story of Ringer Edwards from my wife, Helen, who as an adventurous young American in 1969 spent some months working on the Edwards cattle station there in the Outback.

She saw the nail scars on Ringer Edwards' hands.

Truman (1995 TV Movie)

A Little Touch of Harry . . .

[9/10 · 14 August 2008]

In 1963 I was about to leave a graduate program in political science at Cornell to return to California and enter law school. In an attempt to get me to come back to Ithaca, my faculty adviser, Clinton Rossiter, suggested that on the way home I pass through Independence, Missouri, and spend some time at the Truman Library, on Cornell's dime. "Why don't you write the President?" said Rossiter. I did, and by return mail got a letter from Mr.Truman, inviting me to come on down. I ended up spending a couple of weeks, and aside from some formal interviews with the man, I saw and talked to him every day---it was his custom to wander through the research stacks and sit down with anyone there, to suggest what materials might be most helpful, and generally to shoot the breeze. He was in his element as a former President, and extremely generous and kind to this then 22 year old "scholar."

Gary Sinise appeared this summer at a symposium at California State University Fresno and, I am told, said that he considered "Truman" to be his best work. Based on my experience years ago, I'd say that Sinise was at the top of his game in his portrayal. He captured the man absolutely; looks, speech, mannerisms. The film is ambitious in historical scope, perhaps too much so, but for anyone who wants to experience what Truman was like in person, this is a film to watch.

The Snow Goose (1971 TV Movie)

How sad that this film cannot be seen again

[10/10 · 19 November 2004]

This 1971 Hallmark Hall of Fame television production was a priceless gift to those viewers lucky enough to have seen it. The program was run at least twice in the '70s but is now "lost" to the public --- no VHS, no DVD. What a shame. The values that Gallico's story presents are timeless, and Richard Harris and Jenny Agutter were never better. And wrenching? I remember well a room full of adults, men and women alike, sobbing at the conclusion of the program. Folks, THAT"S what a great film is all about.

Other Hallmark productions can be seen on VHS or DVD, but not "The Snow Goose." If only Hallmark would "care enough to send the very best" back to us.

Unknown Island (1948)

You can't go home again, or to a Saturday matinee for twenty-five cents either.

[6 March 2004]

I saw Unknown Island when I was eight years old, packed into a Saturday matinee in a tiny theater in a little California town with a bunch of my buddies. The movie didn't drive us from the theater in fear, but it was scary enough, and fun enough, that its plot devices became themes for a summer of children's pretend games of dinosaur hunts and battles against giant sloths. The sexual undercurrents of the film were lost on us: bring on the prehistoric beasts!

I never expected to see it again, but a browse through the Netflix library turned it up, and I couldn't wait to be disappointed! Of course I was, but so what? It was worth the repeat viewing just to be reminded that there was a time when my imagination could overcome cheesy production values, silly dialogue, and incoherent plotting. Movies are magic, especially for the young. Unknown Island made me long again, if only briefly, for a bag of stale popcorn, a Big Hunk candy bar, and a Captain Marvel serial.

And for another summer of games in the woods, running after, or away from, those pesky dinosaurs.

Life as a House (2001)

Does the sun ever rise in the west?

[12 November 2001]

I enjoyed it, but, gosh, the house-as-metaphor in question is sited on a bluff in southern California overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Much is made of sunsets. In one scene, however, specifically set in early morning, Kevin Kline is sitting facing the ocean and the sun is on his face. Shades of John Wayne's "Green Berets," in which the sun was depicted as setting in the South China Sea.