MOVIE NIGHT AT HOME

Summary of COVID-19:

• The world today hit 100 million COVID-19 cases.  It appears that the peak has not yet been reached.
• The U.S. now seems to be on the decline, but only barely.  
• While the World is only at 12,824 cases/million people and 275 deaths/mp, our country has had 77,716 c/mp and 1,298 d/mp.  
• Our death rate is nearly 5 times that of the World average.
• The worst state is North Dakota with 127,046 c/mp and New Jersey with 2,359 d/mp.   
• Lowest is Hawaii with 17,766 c/mp and 242 d/mp.  Yet, our state economy is #40 of the 50 states.
• The USA has the highest number of cases/mp, but that is probably because we test more, at 901,072 tests/mp.  
• On the other hand, Slovenia has 76,057 c/mp with "only" 373,821 t/mp.
• Israel tests more, at 1,094,314 t/mp, and is at 65,351 c/mp and 482 d/mp.
• China:  62 c/mp, 3 d/mp and 111,163 t/mp.

Before the pandemic, I saw two films/weekend quite regularly.  I  haven't been to a movie theater in almost a year.  Netflix and Prime have served me well, being more convenient and cheaper, with good variety.

My weekend report:

                                                         Rotten Tomatoes      My Grade

                                                     Reviewers  Audiences  

The White Tiger (Netflix)                 90              83                  B

One Night in Miami (Prime)            98              83                  B+

Rumours (Prime)                                                                       B+

The White Tiger is called an American-Indian film, but that is because the production was controlled in America, with roots in India.  Otherwise, it is all Indian, from the cast to the location to the culture.  I found this to be an uncomfortable product, with an unexpected murder, cockroaches, poverty, more cockroaches, the caste system and a shaky ending.  

A white tiger is supposedly a once in a generation event, but in reality, there are around 100 in India and hundreds world-wide.  All the eyes of the ones I've seen have been blue.  It occurs once every 10,000 natural births, and easily through social engineering.  Remember Siegfried and Roy?  The tiny Hilo Zoo had Namaste, who reigned for 15 years, but passed away in 2014.  The lead character was supposedly a white tiger.  I won't say much more except to quote some reviewers:

     It's oddly inspiring stuff, if also uncomfortably grim.

     The White Tiger may lack a truly ferocious roar, but that does not make its political claws any less sharp.

One Night in Miami reminded me of the Million Dollar Quartet, that memorable accidental jam session with Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis.  Saw the musical in Las Vegas.  

But this quartet of legends was something else, entirely.  The gathering was organized by Malcolm X, and the early scenes showed how all of them, including Cassius Clay (boxer), Sam Cooke (You Send Me) and Jim Brown (football) were humiliated in various ways, mostly because they were black.

It was on 25 February 1964 when Clay upset Sonny Liston in a heavyweight boxing match.  Frankly, I thought this portion was badly made, for it showed how confident the 7-1 underdog was, when the reality was Clay frightened of Liston.

This was a period of transition for the boxer and Malcolm X, as the former was on the verge of turning Muslim, and his mentor, the latter, leaving the Nation of Islam.  Malcolm invites the three to his motel room just to talk.  He wanted to discuss how they could play a role in the civil rights movement, while the other three wanted to party.  You can watch the film, but it won't give away anything to indicate that just about exactly a year later Malcolm X was assassinated.  Kingsley Ben-Adir stood out in his portrayal of X.  Beau Bridges had a nice cameo as a rich white rat.  

Rumours is a 1 hr 17 min documentary about the eleventh studio album of British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac in 1976/77.  Mick Fleetwood, Christine and John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.  No Rotten Tomatoes rating.  Producers Ken Calliat and Richard Dashut are why the album got finished, for the group created (they wrote all the songs) a masterpiece even though they were at war with each other and cocaine was prominent.  They mostly recorded tracks when they were wiped out.  All this, which took almost a year, occurred in  a small Sausalito studio.  Reached #1 on Billboard and eventually sold more than 40 million albums. This was the time of the hippie movement.  The relationships were bitter and, years later, forgotten.

I identified with the songs because I too was in transition, and not living that far from them.  From Hawaii to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on fusion to the NASA Ames Research Center on SETI to DC with the U.S. Senate.  However, I had no idea what they were going through to create Rumours (this is the entire album) featuring Dreams, Don't Stop, You Make Loving Fun, Gold Dust Woman and six more.

-