Guilty by Relation pt.9

 " So. It has been a really long time since we've talked. I had to get out your old writing pages to get myself caught up to speed again. How've you been? Why has it been so long since you called me again?"

" Well, yes, its been a long time. I felt stuck, emotionally. I was trying to get to something and I wasn't sure what. But, you know I'm a Christian, right?"

" I don't think you've mentioned it." The therapist said. "But it seems like a natural thing for you. Well, it's okay that you are. It shouldn't effect your therapy anyway."

"I didn't think it would. But I've been a born-again Christian since 1997, I think. My relationship with God has helped me through dark times when I felt alone, nobody loved me or nobody understood. I knew Jesus understood. I knew He loved me. He told me I wasn't alone. He assures me there is an answer if I  believe in Him. So because I was stuck emotionally somehow, I thought that maybe I needed to go to church. So I did. I went to a church that I like that's in my hometown. They're small and are Bible centered, and don't just talk about 'nice' subjects and speak about all manner of things. Although it helped me to get rid of some negative thoughts and feeling better about myself. It didn't get to the root of the problem. It was a Christian friend that I had online that lives miles and miles away. This friend talked about a church service he went to where the topic was forgiveness. And it struck my friend deeply and the part which got to me was while I must forgive transgressors against me immediately, I  am not expected to trust them immediately, or allow them to continue to hurt me. Because as much as I had been hurt, what hurts the most is not being with my family anytime I wanted to be. And after like 5 years, I'm ready to trust them again."

"Wow." said the therapist. "You do sound better. Have you been walking?" 

 "Yes. I try to go walking everyday. Most days I get to it."

"Good! We have like one more session left I think. Maybe two."

Charlie Wilson's War (2007)

   Charlie Wilson's War is a movie from 2007 that comes from one of my favorite backgrounds in which a film comes from; it's based on a true story. That alone would be enough for me to watch just about any film. However, a great plus is that this film is fun. I mean, most movies about the American federal government you really want to find out more about what they are talking about, Watergate, a particular President, etc. But this film is actually entertaining. Your first clue should be the director, which is Mike Nichols. The same director who did The Birdcage with Robin Williams and Nathan Lane, among other great films. So you know its gonna be worthwhile . . .

    Like most people before seeing this film, I had no idea who Charlie Wilson was either. He was a U. S. Democratic Congressman from Texas who was elected to U. S. Congress a mind-spinning 12 times. But like many career-long U.S. Congressman from the 1980's, he has many character flaws. Charlie employs his office with what looks like last year's centerfolds of Playmate of the Month. Not just one or two, everyone that runs his Washington office looks like a Playboy Playmate. He was called 'Good Time Charlie'. It was reported that he wouldn't go to rehab because they didn't serve whiskey there. He also went to Las Vegas and was at a party in a hot tub, naked, with strippers and cocaine. 

   
         Charlie gets involved in the Soviet-Afghan War through a friend and romantic interest Joanne Herring, played by the stunning Julia Roberts. She encourages Charlie to help the Afghans in defeating the communist Soviets. After visiting Afghanistan and tries to help the American Embassy in Islamabad do this, but they don't seem to want it. When Charlie gets back to Washington he meets with the CIA operative in charge of the Afghan situation Gust Avrakatos, played very well by Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I feel that Hoffman stole every scene he was in. 

 

         The Soviet-Afghan War started in 1979 and went on until 1989. Charlie got involved in 1980 and saw it through to the bitter end. He got the Afghans the weapons they requested. The appropriations from Congress started at $5 million dollars. By the end of the war, it was over $500 million dollars. For Charlie Wilson's efforts, he was presented with the Honored Colleague Award by the CIA. He was the first civilian to receive the award.

Cleopatra(1963)

         When most people think of the last ruling monarch of Egypt, Cleopatra VII, they think of the Twentieth Century Fox film of 1963 that nearly bankrupted the film studio. It had an original budget of 5 million dollars, of which Elizabeth Taylor signed on to play the title role for a record-breaking one million dollars. This deal established the common modern-day term 'movie star'. 

       

     The movie was based on a 1957 book by Carlo Maria Franzero, The Life and Times of Cleopatra, and also from the ancient histories of Plutarch, who was once a priest of Apollo's Temple at Delphi, the Roman historian Suetonius, and the Greek historian Appian. The idea that the exiled Egyptian queen hid herself inside a rug to meet the new ruler of Rome Julius Caesar in Alexandria comes from Plutarch. Cleopatra's death coming from the poisonous bite of an Egyptian cobra or asp also came from the historian Plutarch. Julius Caesar's death by the Roman Senate also comes from Plutarch and Suetonius. Appian's contributions were most likely to tell the tale of the conquests of Rome, as he was a Greek historian with Roman citizenship coming from some wealth, yet he was born in Alexandria about thirty years after Cleopatra's death. He wrote many books about Roman conquests that happened during Cleopatra's reign.

     They started shooting the film in England at Pinewood Studios. However, after two bouts of pneumonia followed by a tracheotomy and a 103 degree fever for Elizabeth Taylor , production in England formally stopped in March 1961. Filming resumed in September of 1961 in Rome with a few scenes shot in Egypt and California. The production team wanted Marlon Brando to play Mark Antony, but Elizabeth suggested Richard Burton for Antony after seeing him in Camelot. In January of 1962 Elizabeth and Richard filmed their first scene together. The director Joseph Mankiewicz writes in his journal that "you could almost feel the electricity in the air between Liz and Burton." By February it was reported in several tabloids that they were having a romantic love affair despite they were both married to other people.

     The production of Cleopatra which started out with a budget of $5 million dollars, eventually grew into $35 million, which included the tearing down of the set in England and restarting in Rome and the exorbitant amount of money expelled to put on Cleopatra's entrance into Rome and a few scenes had to be re-shot in Spain. Financially in 1963, it was considered a flop and a failure. But when you take into consideration what it has come to mean to American and worldwide modern culture today, the ends justify the means.