VIDEO: Mark Steyn & Tucker Carlson on the Oscars' diversity quotas

In "A 'Publicity Stunt' or a 'Huge Step'? Hollywood Is Divided on the Oscars' New Diversity Rules"Time reports on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts' latest ploy in the SJW struggle to diversify (read: dewhiten/emasculate) "the white- and male-dominated film industry." This week the Academy released its new "inclusion standards" (read: rules) for films seeking a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards. 

Starting in 2024, if you hope to win the Biggest Oscar, your film will have to meet the standards of two out of four broad groups of criteria laid out in a 1000-word memo: representation onscreen (addressed in Standard A), behind the camera (B) and in audience development (D); and pipelines for young, marginalized talent (C). The new guidelines (read:rules) are supposed to correct the "underrepresentation of people of color, women, LGBTQ+ and people with disabilities." 

Time goes on to say that "the announcement received backlash on social media, particularly from right-wing circles." The new rules, these horrible racists and Republicans say, will stifle creativity and/or promote "tokenization". As if we don't already see that in all the meeja, for example Hockey Night in Canada's sudden hiring of Anthony Stewart, who joined former NHL stars Kelly Hrudey and Kevin Bieksa on its panel of studio analysts, just in time for the NHL playoffs and the surge of tokenism in response to the BLM protests. Follow the link to his bio to see why he's obviously a diversity hire. [This example contributed by Poor Len Canayen. Ed.]

Time quotes actor and director Justine Bateman as saying "Honestly, I never want to be hired for these reasons. Ever!" And Kirstie Alley, who called the new rules "disgrace to artists everywhere". In this conversation with Fox News' Tucker Carlson, Mark Steyn points out that under these "guidelines", you could make a film about the "New Black Panthers", because they are almost 100% white (!) yet you'd have to cast black people in something like 30% of the secondary roles. You couldn't make this stuff up!

 

A sad commentary on American arts and entertainment

My grandkids, or the younger ones anyway, were been bugging their parents to see Dumbo, the latest Hollywood remake. My recent illness gave me an excuse not to be part of a family outing, but when they descended on the ole homestead and mentioned that the movie was playing in nearby Fort Mudge, and they thought I needed to get out of the house, I was trapped. Trapped like a rat. So I went. Great modern animation and special effects, kind of a lame, PC (pro animal rights and "inclusivity") version of the original story. Harmless, gormless entertainment.

When I see movies like this and the remake of Alice in Wonderland, well done though they may be, I can't help but wonder if no-one in Hollywood has any new ideas. It seems today that all we see is remakes in movies and remakes on TV. And some of them, extensions of franchises that are well past their best-before dates (Hello Star Wars!) are truly dreadful. Where's the creative talent, the imagination that begat the original movies, which were themselves adapted from stories that some truly talented writers devised a hundred years ago?

This is hardly a new thought. Here's what Brooks Atkinson, one of America's leading drama critics, had to say, nearly seven decades ago.

Something elusive and intangible seems to have drained the vitality out of the theatre and perhaps out of American arts as well. No one knows the reason exactly. But could it be that the spiritual climate in which we are now living smothers art that is really creative, and that the emphasis on public expression of all kinds is toward meekness and conformity? [My emphasis. Walt]

People are playing safe. They hesitate to say what they think. The intellectual and artistic life of the country has been flattened out. ...ignorant heresy-hunting and...bigoted character-assassination are succeeding. The hoodlums are in control here as well as in Russia, and the theatre begins to look as insipid in the one place as in the other.... We cannot expect to have vital art in our theatre if we emulate totalitarian countries and yield the control of cultural life to the Yahoos and hoodlums.

Quoted in William Shirer's Midcentury Journey, 1955. That was well before Mr Atkinson or Mr Shirer had heard the expression "political correctness", but political correctness is what is described in the emphasized words. Political correctness is killing not only political thought but also our collective imagination. We have become a society where original, non-conforming thought is the greatest of all sins. Sad.

Postscript: I can't get over how, the older Danny DeVito gets, the more he looks like me!

VIDEO: "Catholic Church corrupt from top to bottom!" sez Michael Matt

It's been awhile since we reposted a video featuring Michael J. Matt, the editor of The Remnant Newspaper. In this video, Mr Matt wishes all Catholics a "miserable Lent", because that's what Lent is all about -- sorrow and repentance -- and in this year of Our Lord 2019 we have a lot to be miserable about!

Mr Matt goes through a long an dirty laundry list of the sins of "modern Catholics", including many leaders of the Church, and points out how far the Church has fallen, in public opinion and in fact, since the Second Vatican Council, which some now call an "anti-council". Some of the worst pro-abort politicians in the world are Vatican II Catholics. And now that the neo-Catholic compromise has failed to appease the world -- with Cardinal Pell and other shepherds off to jail -- Mr Matt contends that we are in the last days of the Modernist Revolution in the Church, and that the only hope of the world is the traditional Catholic restoration.

But wait, there's more. Addressing the revisionist historians who say that the priesthood has always been corrupt, Mr Matt takes a walk down movie memory lane to put the lie the Catholic-bashing claim that "it's always been this way." And, finally, he points out how the Modernist regime is intentionally destroying the old Catholic Church -- the Church that built the greatest civilization in history -- on purpose in order to make room for the New World Order. Agent 17, this is for you!



Michael Matt and his helpers post these talks on YouTube to encourage you to visit and subscribe to their excellent newspaper. Click here to take a look at The Remnant Newspaper. If, as Walt recommends, you subscribe to the newspaper and/or the Remnant TV YouTube channel, be sure to tell them Walt sent you. God bless you, and have a miserable Lent!

VIDEOS (2): How leftie political correctness ruined "Star Wars"

Dave Sussman and Bill Whittle discuss how Hollywood has rewritten crucial scenes in Star Wars to accommodate a new politically correct, inclusive, diverse, yada yada yada view of heroes and society, and how it enrages a large swath of millennials. Mr Whittle explains the "walk away" strategy, and how it can be used to weaken the Democratic Party and win the culture war.

Don't miss Bill's riff, around the 17 minute mark, on how Star Wars is (and was intended to be) a religion for a post-Christian world.



As someone who liked the first three Star Wars movies (Parts IV, V and VI), disliked the next three and was so put off by the trailers for those that followed that I didn't even see them, I give this two thumbs up.

Footnote (Footvideo?): Did Han Solo shoot first? Ed. found Bill Whittle's earlier (2012) video in which he discusses the issue. Here it is.



Now I understand -- thanks Bill! -- why there hasn't been a movie made in the last five years that I've found worth seeing. American movies stink! Hollywood stinks! Political correctness and leftist ideology stink! A pox on the lot of them!

Another footnote: If you enjoyed listening to Bill Whittle demolish Star Wars and American cinema, you'll surely get a chuckle out of "Story Time: Bill Reads a Hillary Clinton Children's Book!" Posted in February 2016, it wasn't the only reason why Hellery lost the election, but I'm sure it helped! LMAO!

Canucks erect statue honouring That Guy from That Show

Walt is occasionally accused of making fun of Canadians, those adorable frost-backed creatures from north of the World's Longest (and Most Porous) Border. But trust me, just as fish feel no pain when you take the hook out of their mouths, Canucks don't mind being the butt of jokes about how they speak or how naïve they are. One of the nice things about them, compared with their "cousins" to the south is that they don't take themselves seriously. If you don't believe me, follow the antics of Prime Minister Dress-up for a few months, and you'll see.

As proof, we offer the following article, written by Meg MacKay, which appeared recently on the "Comedy" page of the Canadian Broadcorping Castration website, under the headline: "Statue erected for beloved Canadian actor 'that guy from that show'".

To honour 20 years of That Actor Guy appearing in Canadian Entertainment, a statue has been erected in downtown Toronto.

"We really want to celebrate That Guy's contribution to Canadian culture," a spokesperson said. "He was great on that show that was probably about cops, the High School one, that TV movie about World War One or Two, and also that American movie where he played an Irish dude for like, seven seconds."

"We don't think he was in the High School one," said another spokesperson. "We think that was That Other Guy who is in a Band Now."

Other notable credits for That Guy include "A Cop Movie Where It's Supposed to be in New York but the CN Tower is Clearly Visible in Every Exterior Shot", "That Horse Show That's Set in Nebraska but is Obviously Sudbury", and most famously, "A Sci-Fi Reboot that is Meant to be Future Detroit but All the Cars Have Nova Scotia License Plates."

The statue depicts the man in his signature role, "Loveable Man in Rural Town That's Either in Saskatchewan or Newfoundland", where he played a hard-done-by dad and/or son and/or police officer. It will broadcast a Wifi signal, so passersby can Google whether or not he's the guy they were thinking of.

"I've been a huge fan of this guy for a long time," said a man who was either on a CBC show in the '90s, or is a Former Politician. "Although honestly, I saw him on the street one time and I couldn't remember if he was a famous Canadian actor or someone I lost touch with from college."

"We are all so proud of what he's done for the visibility and notoriety of Canadian artists," said an actress who might be the guy's wife or possibly his sister. The actress also might have co-featured with him in a recent Christmas movie starring a disgraced member of the band 98 Degrees.

A ribbon-cutting and statue unveiling event is scheduled for later this month. The event boasts live musical performances from A Band You Really Liked in High School, as well as That Band Who Does that Song Your Mom Always Sings Wrong. Featured speakers are An Olympian From the 90s, a Well-Respected 30- or 40- year Veteran Stand-Up Comic, and Don Cherry.

"It feels great to be recognized for all the work I've done," said John or Don or whatever his name is. "I look forward to using this credit to get my visa so I can move to the States."

Walt commends Meg MacKay (is that a Canuck name or what?!) for a fine piece, and recommends that she submit something to The Onion, where more than a dozen people might read it.

Simple math quiz reveals your favourite movie... every time!

Walt doesn't hear all that often from Agent 5, but the messages we get are always interesting. This one is no exception. It's a simple math exercise -- it only takes about ten seconds -- which is guaranteed to reveal your all-time favourite movie. Amazingly, it really works! Walt and Poor Len Canayen [and Ed.! Ed.] have tried it, and we all got the right answer, the first time!

Do not cheat. Do your math, then scroll down to the list of movies below to see if the math wizard has correctly read your mind.


1. Pick a number from 1 to 9.

2. Multiply that number by 3.

3. Add 3.

4. Multiply by 3 again.

5. Your total will be a two-digit number. Add the first and second digits together to find your favorite movie of all time in the list of 17 movies below.


Scroll down for your movie


Movie List


1. Gone With the Wind
2. E.T.
3. Blazing Saddles
4. Star Wars
5. Forrest Gump
6. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
7. Jaws
8. Grease
9. Hillary Clinton's Farewell Speech
10. Casablanca
11. Jurassic Park
12. Shrek
13. Pirates of the Caribbean
14. Titanic
15. Raiders of the Lost Ark
16. Home Alone
17. Mrs. Doubtfire


Now, isn't that something? Велике дякую, 5!

VIDEO: Gavin McInnes previews upcoming movies releases

Spoiler alert: The YouTube title for Brother Gavin's latest video is "Stop Making Our Movies Politically Correct". Watch his mini-previews and find out why Walt hasn't been to the cineman (= movie theater, for Americans) since 2014.



I'm planning on going to see Dunkirk, though. I can't believe there's finally going to be a WWII movie in which the Allies do something great without the leadership of John Wayne.

"Plan 9 from Outer Space" actor dies

Troy McClure died yesterday. You may remember him... [Wrong actor. Start again. Ed.] Gregory Walcott died yesterday. You may remember him for his role as Jeff Trent in Plan 9 from Outer Space, long revered as "the worst movie ever made". (Sources for this quote are too numerous to list.) IMDb gives it two stars; Rotten Tomatoes gives it 3.5, largely for its high comedic value.

The 1959 movie was a low-budget oddity written, produced and directed by the idiosyncratic Edward D. Wood Jr., himself the subject of an excellent biopic with Johnny Depp starring in the title role. Plan 9 from Outer Space slowly developed a cult following for its cheap effects and a ragtag cast that included the one-name TV personalities Vampira and Criswell as well as Bela Lugosi, in footage shot shortly before his death in 1956. And Greg Walcott.

To Mr. Walcott’s embarrassment, Plan 9 became a staple at bad-film festivals and the movie with which he was most often associated. The actor had already been in the hit Henry Fonda Navy comedy Mister Roberts (1955) and other movies. He said in a 1998 interview that the Plan 9 script "made no sense," but he took the job because one of the producers was a friend of his. "I thought maybe my name could give the show some credibility," he said.

Here's the trailer for Ed Wood.



And here -- I know you've been waiting for it -- is the link for Plan 9 from Outer Space -- the whole rotten tomato. According to the biopic, Ed Wood said, "This is the one I'll be remembered for." He was right!

Dinner and a show

Last night Mrs. Walt and I hied ourselves down the road to the new Cineplex in Fort Dreary to see Saint Vincent, the latest Bill Murray movie. More about that in a few minutes. First, an observation about our changing society. We are evolving, and not, as Mark Steyn details in After America, for the better.

Walt remembers going to the cinema -- or "theater"/"theatre" if you prefer, although to me that term refers only to live or "legitimate" theatre -- for the Saturday matinee. 25 cents (made of silver back then) got you into the show, with enough left over for a small box of popcorn, minuscule by today's standards. The popcorn came with salt, but no "golden topping".

Nowadays the popcorn counter in the lobby has lengthened to almost a block -- well, let's say 20 or 30 feet -- and offers an amazing array of junk food and fizzy drinks. Popcorn comes in a number of sizes, except for small or medium. You can get XL, XXL, XXXL and American. The bucket that I saw a fat lady buying reminded me of the feedbag that the milkman used to hang on old Dobbin's head about halfway through his round.

Speaking of feedbags, I observed that in addition to the long, long popcorn counter, the cinema now boasts a mini food court! Yep, there's a snack counter where you can get 1000s of calories in a clamshell -- burgers, fries, and assorted other starches and carbs.

There were a few chairs and tables, but no-one sat at them. Instead, they took their supersized portions of lard (referring to the alleged food, not their butts) into the auditorium, the better to gorge themselves while watching whatever was on the silver screen. The young lady sitting beside me ate her way through the entire feature singlehandedly. By that I mean she dug whatever she was eating out of the container with one hand, while texting (surprised?) with the other.

Time was, when a young swain invited his girl out for dinner and a show, it was understood to be dinner first, then the show. Now, it seems, we can do both at the same time. Modern life is just one big bouffe, with a bit of entertainment on the side. And here (pictured) is the result.

VIDEO: Building a railroad from scratch for "The Lone Ranger"

OK, let's forget about the never-ending cares of the world for ten minutes. Here's a great video on the making of The Lone Ranger. To make the railroad scenes look real, they built a real, full-sized, 19th-century railroad, including the locomotives and rolling stock, from the ground up. Here you'll see why and how it was done.



Too bad, though, that The Lone Ranger turned out to be something of a rotten tomato. Johnny Depp is one of Walt's favourite actors, but (as mentioned in my review of The Rum Diary), his presence alone cannot overcome a bad script and/or bad directing and/or...

Thanks and a tip of the Stetson to Agent 6 -- a big fan of machines that move -- for sending this to us.

Footnote: If the opening shot in this video reminds me of the opening shot in Blazing Saddles... great minds think alike.

"Noah" theologically unsound, "vaguely New Age... strange..."

I'm not going to see Noah. Why would I? I know the story. I was there! See pic below. I was younger then.

OK, it's not me. It's Russell Crowe in Noah, the latest Hollywood blockbuster to sully the silver screen. It was released on March 29th, in an obvious bid to attract Christians [and Jews? Ed.] who feel vaguely guilty about not going to church and not knowing their Bible history. You may be tempted to go see it. Don't bother.

The lamestream media are amused by a report that Russell Crowe (himself) invited Francis the Party Pope (himself) to go to a special screening. The Holy Father is said to have declined. Now the semi-official Catholic newspaper L'Avvenire has criticized the film as "ecologically and vaguely New Age", a "missed opportunity" that ignores God.

This is the first (somewhat) official comment from the Church since Noah was released. The movie is very loosely based on the Genesis account of the great flood, but director Darren Aronofsky has described his adaptation as "the least-biblical biblical film ever made". When the... errr... creator says it's not Biblical, I think we can believe him.

In the Excited States of America, as you might expect, Noah topped the weekend box office, with opening sales of $44 million. It's not so popular in the rest of the world though, especially Muslim countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, where it's been banned outright. The Christian Post quotes Muchlis Paen, the head of Indonesia's censor board, as saying the film contradicts the flood stories in both the Koran and Bible.

Meanwhile, a screening of Noah in an Exeter cinema was cancelled due to flooding. That should be all the warning ye need.

Back on the silver screens of NYC: "Rochelle, Rochelle"

Did you miss it the first time around? This weekend could be your big chance to see Rochelle, Rochelle, "the story of a young girl’s strange, erotic journey from Milan to Minsk".

Posters for the "movie" have appeared in several locations around New York City, evidently the work of a local artist who would appear to be a big fan of the late lamented TV series, Seinfeld.

We know that because Rochelle, Rochelle doesn't really exist. It's a trope, a totally bogus title referred to in a number of Seinfeld episodes, beginning in Season 3 when Jerry, Elaine and George go to see it because they missed another movie they wanted to see.

We get to hear Bette Midler sing the "title song" from the equally bogus Broadway adaptation in Season 6. Here's a video clip from "The Understudy".

"The Rum Diary" called one of this year's top turkeys

Johnny Depp's pisspoor movie The Rum Diary has been found wanting by several reviewers other than Walt. But it has succeeded in winning one back-handed accolade, having been chosen by TheWrap as one of this year's Top Ten Turkeys -- 2011's biggest critical and box-office duds.

One -- or rather, the producers -- might have expected more. Johnny Depp is a Name, a Hollywood star you can count on to make a profit. His movies have brought in an astronomical $7.67 billion across the globe over the course of his career. But not this one.

Costing $45 million to make [How could you spend $45 million Puerto Rico? Ed.], The Rum Diary grossed just $19.1 million so far. That makes it Depp's least successful film since Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which, coincidentally, wasl also based on the actor's close friend, the late Hunter S. Thompson, the father of Gonzo Journalism.

It was perhaps an even greater disappointment for director Bruce Robinson, who hadn't directed a film since 1992 (Jennifer 8). The Wrap tells us he was battling with alcohol and writer's block while penning the screenplay. So that explains at least part of the problem.

Walt wonders what Depp was struggling with. Was it vile substances like ibogaine? Or was it the hubris of thinking that he -- or anyone -- could portray HST on the silver screen?

Click here to read The Wrap's review, "Johnny Depp phones it in".

Why should you care what I think of a movie?

My brief and negative review of The Rum Diary led to a conversation with an acolyte who asked if it was really all that bad. I told him I thought so, but allowed that perhaps he should see it for himself and form his own opinion.

That got me thinking. Why should he or anyone else care if Walt Whiteman gives a movie zero stars, out of a possible five (and a huge moon)? Why did I use a rating "system" at all? Answer: because everyone else does. Critics of the arts -- literature, music, movies, whatever -- have become so lazy that they give someone's oeuvre a star rating, print it at the top of the piece, and then write a short and snide justification. And consumers of the arts have become so lazy that the rating at the top is about all they read.

Art, like life, is more complex than that. Maybe with something like a hotel you can develop a set of criteria, a checklist you can use to assign a star rating. (Did you know that five-star hotels must, among other things, have the toilet paper pointed every time the bathroom is cleaned?) However, using such a checklist is possible only when you're checking tangible things that you can see, touch, taste, smell and so on. So you could rate a restaurant's food and perhaps its décor, but how about ambience? Tough one.

Maybe critics shouldn't try to apply a star or any other rating system to works of art. Whether something is "good" or not has to be highly subjective. Getting back to The Rum Diary, how can one evaluate Johnny Depp's performance without having a yardstick of some kind with which to measure?

I happen to be a big fan of Johnny Depp. I thought his best performance was as the title character in Ed Wood. [Five stars!!! Ed.] Yet when I say he was terrible as the "hero" of The Rum Diary, I am merely comparing my opinion of his performance in that movie with his performance in the previous movie. Someone else might think he stank in both of them. Or that he was great in both of them. Someone else is entitled to his opinion, even if he's wrong!

Maybe all one can say about a piece of art is that it's there: on the wall, on the screen, coming out of the speakers or whatever. It attracted my attention. I looked at it. I felt something or perhaps I felt nothing. So what. Don't let me or anyone else tell you how you should feel about something. Check it out for yourself. Whether you're delighted or revolted, at least you've had the experience.

Note from Ed.: No, my last name is not Wood.

Movie review: "The Rum Diary"

The Rum Diary, starring Johnny Depp, with Hector Novice and Loretta Nobody. And did we mention Johnny Depp?

When the opening credits showed three (count `em, three) production companies, that should have been the tipoff.

Terrible screenplay, worse acting -- Depp looks frankly embarrassed much of the time -- and a pace slower than the diamond-encrusted tortoise seen in the bad guy's house.

Zero stars (out of a possible five), but one huge moon. Save your money.

Footnote: We're told at the end that the movie is dedicated to the memory of Hunter S. Thompson, who wrote the novel. Thank the deity that the father of Gonzo journalism isn't here to see this travesty.

"Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress"

Walt is a big movie fan, but subscribes to the belief that they don't make movies like they used to. At least Hollywood doesn't. If Avatar is the best available example of a good movie (defined as one with a good plot, good script, good acting and good cinematography) then I'm C.B. DeMille!

Now that I've got that off my chest, let me get to a movie review. Knowing that I don't get out much, Agent 78 occasionally sends me a DVD from her country on the other side of the world. The latest to arrive is Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (巴尔扎克与小裁缝)

Released in 2005, it won a Golden Globe as Best Foreign Picture, but never made much of a splash otherwise. Being in the Sichuan dialect of Chinese probably didn't help, despite the accurate and grammatical English subtitles.

The movie was directed by Dai Sijie, who wrote the semi-autobiographical novel on which it's based. It stars Zhou Xun, Chen Kun and Liu Ye. These aren't household names, even in China, just three young actors who turn in totally credible performances as two young Chinese boys of bourgeois backgrounds and a peasant girl, at the height of the Cultural Revolution.

Sent to a remote Sichuan village for "re-education", the boys fall in love (each in his own way) with the granddaughter of an old tailor. The three find comfort and enlightenment in a stolen collection of classic Western novels, banned by the communists, which they read to each other in a hidden "book grotto".

Among their favourite authors were Dumas, Flaubert and especially Balzac. The girl, thirsting for knowledge of the world outside, learns first to read, and then to think about what her grandfather calls dangerous ideas that have no place in China in these dark times.

Eventually, one of the boys, Luo, and the seamstress become lovers, but their romance comes to an abrupt end when he is recalled to his home in the big city and she finds herself pregnant. Changed by her "sentimental education," the Little Seamstress ultimately finds the courage to leave her village for wider horizons.

It's a poignant tale, and the movie is a small and unpretentious gem, well worth hunting up in your library or on the Internet.

Footnote: The movie's conclusion makes a powerful visual statement about the Three Gorges dam, which flooded and obliterated some of China's most beautiful scenery along with hundreds of villages like that of the Little Seamstress.