Guilty by Relation pt. 11

     "Welcome back" said the therapist. "Its been a while." 

    "Yes, well I have had a lot going on. I was considering divorcing my husband and am still considering it." 

    "I am sorry to hear it. I know it's difficult whether you're the one instigating it or not. I've been thru a divorce myself. Why have you not gone thru with it?"

    "He was unemployed for a while, which was leading to a lot of other problems as well, financial, mental and emotional. I was encouraged to seek family counseling with my daughter and husband and we have. Its still ongoing. I was amazed that he actually went. He also agreed to marriage counseling. We've had one appointment with that. I am keeping the filing of the divorce papers on hold for this reason. I've also thought for a very long time that my husband needs individual counseling to deal with the residual feelings of his problematic childhood when he was 5 or 6 and there maybe some other natural mental issues unrelated to his childhood going on. He said he would try and I gave him the phone number but I haven't heard anything about that since. I told him this individual counseling for him is a deal breaker for me. So I  am still skeptical."

    "Wow, you have had a lot going on. As long as you're still keeping up with your writing. It'll help to get everything out."

    "I know. And it does help. But so does meeting and talking with you. Let's keep doing this."

\    "Absolutely." said the therapist.  

The Quick and the Dead 1995

    In honor of Mr. Gene Hackman passing away recently, I thought I'd review one of my favorites where he plays the bad guy. It didn't have great reviews at the time of its release. But it has gained some praise in later years. The first film I ever saw withe Gene Hackman in it was Superman where he played a lovable version of Lex Luthor. In this film he plays the villain John Herod properly, a man the audience is supposed to hate. 

         I enjoy the parallels in this film to Christianity; John Herod, and a town named Redemption. Sharon Stone plays a female gunslinger riding into an Arizona town called Redemption, which is run by a man that used to be a ruthless outlaw and is more or less trying to retire. Herod is holding a quick draw contest and Sharon's character that is only known as "The Lady" wants to join.  

     As audience members, we can sense that The Lady has some kind of history with the cocky Herod. In flashbacks, we find out that her father was the town sheriff of Redemption and Herod and gang killed him with his little girl who is named Ellen and is now "The Lady" all grown up, watching. A former member of Herod's gang is Cort, now a preacher from a nearby town who is said to be extremely good at shooting, is played very well by Russell Crowe. 

    Sharon was fresh off the success of Basic Instinct when she signed on as co-producer and to play the lead role. Sony, as the production company, was hesitant about Crowe and a young, inexperienced Leonardo DiCaprio to play "The Kid" a cocky, young gunslinger that is supposed to be Herod's unclaimed son. But Stone was confident in the choices and even agreed to pay for DiCaprio's salary.   

Bombshell 2019

                 I enjoyed this idea of this film the moment I heard about it. Bombshell from 2019 is about the true story of the scandal that erupted in 2016 concerning FOX News CEO Roger Ailes and the women that accused him of sexual harassment, one of whom is popular anchorwoman and lawyer Megyn Kelly. 

                The film starts out as a tour and introduction with the character of Megyn Kelly played by Charlize Theron taking us through the New York offices of FOX News and explaining about "The Second Floor" being Roger Ailes' office and "The Eighth Floor" belonging to FOX News owner Rupert Murdoch and his sons, who ultimately have power over even Roger. 

                Almost better than the film, Megyn Kelly herself presented a 30 minute discussion response on her podcast with some of the people represented in the film like Rudi Bakhtiar and Juliet Huddy who also experienced sexual harassment from others at FOX News at the same time.

                Largely, this is Megyn Kelly's story. However, Gretchen Carlson, played in the film by Nicole Kidman, was the one who initially start suing Roger, as it was explained that she couldn't sue FOX News as written in her contract.

                Margot Robbie plays Kayla Pospisil, a mostly fictional character that is a basically young attractive female up-and-comer ambitious starlet that puts herself in Roger Ailes' den to try to get an anchor job at FOX News.  

                On Megyn's show after watching the film, a panel of other female ex-FOX employees and Megyn's husband weigh in on the facts and fiction of the film after watching the film together. Mostly, the response was good, and seen to be truthful. Obviously, a few liberties were taken. But not enough to take away from the main story points of the film. 

                My favorite part of the film deals with how Gretchen Carlson's lawsuit comes to a conclusion. While Roger Ailes denies all of Grechen's claims, it is revealed that she recorded her conversations with Roger to back up her quotes in the lawsuit and to undermine Ailes' credibility when he denies the claims. As such, Roger Ailes settles Carlson's lawsuit for $20 million as well as being fired by Rupert Murdoch. FOX has to pay the victims of the sexual harassment suit $50 million. HOWEVER, FOX pays both Roger Ailes and Bill O'Reilly $65 million in severance. Was it worth it? Was justice served?